"How am I supposed to sleep with a crying child?"

So Cinderella and Guy share a bedroom.  They have bunk beds.  Cinderella is on the top, Guy is on the bottom.  Cinderella knows that because she has school in the morning, that she needs sleep, and most nights wants to sleep.  Guy, however has an aversion to sleep.  Every night, it is a battle to get him to go to bed.  He will play with toys, he will read books, he will follow you around the house, he will keep getting out of bed and turning on the light, etc.  As you may imagine, this makes it difficult for Cinderella to sleep, and as an end result causes conflict.

The other night, after my husband put them to bed, I heard Guy crying.  I asked my husband if he knew what the matter was, and he told me it was that Guy didn't want to go to bed.  No surprise there.  Shortly there after, Cinderella came and found us, and asked Daddy if he could keep Guy up for a while so she could get to sleep.  Daddy then responded that he had tried.  Guy had asked for his horse, Daddy had given it to him, and then Guy went back down stairs crying.   I told Cinderella to just ignore him and try to go to sleep.  She then turned to us and simply asked, "How am I supposed to sleep with a crying child?"

Happy Holidays (a little late)

Welcome Little Buddy

We would like to announce that our Little Buddy joined our family this last week on Wednesday December 15th.  He weighed 7 lbs 3 oz, and was 18 in long.

A bumpy tummy

A few months ago, while shopping at Costco, Aurora and Guy were riding in the seats on the shopping cart.  Guy reached out and touched my tummy, and said, "I touched the baby."  Then he asked me, "Does Aurora have a baby in her tummy?"  I replied with a no, and then he said, "But she has a bumpy tummy." 
"Yes she does," I said, "But that is because she is still a baby, and babies lots of times have bumpy tummies."

A few weeks ago, while Aurora and Guy were playing on the floor, I overheard Guy asking Aurora, "Are you putting a baby in your tummy?"

I asked him what he was talking about, and he said, "But she has a bumpy tummy."  I thought, didn't we go through this already?  Well a while later, I noticed that Aurora's shirt had a bunch of lumps in it.  She had been shoving blocks down the front of her shirt.  She did have a bumpy tummy. 

Cinderella's first heartbreak

So today when I went to get Cinderella from Kindergarten, she was walking slowly, with her head down.  I knew something was wrong.  I then asked how she was.  She replied, "I'm not feeling very good."

"Why not?"  I asked.
"One of my friends sent me an elf note today,  (An elf note is a way that the teacher is having the kids practice writing, they take turns sending kind notes to other kids in the class.) and he also gave one to the girl who sits next to me.  Mine said, 'I like you.'  But hers said 'I love you', then he told everyone that she is his girlfriend.

I then asked her if she "loved" him.  She said "no"  So I asked her why it bothered her that someone else was his girlfriend.  Her reply was, "because it's not me.  There are 15 girls who have boyfriends, but I don't have one."

There you have it, from the mouth of a five year old.  I thought we had a few more years before this started.

My Rings

So I'm not a big jewelry person.  It has kind of been that way ever since I became a mom.  I sometimes wear earrings, but rarely.  I sometimes wear necklaces, but that doesn't happen much either.  However there are 3 pieces of jewelry that I try to wear everyday.  My watch, and my 2 rings.  One of those rings is my wedding ring, the other is a sapphire ring that my mom got me for my birthday one year.

Well right now I am pregnant, but unlike in all of the other pregnancies I have had, in this one, I am actually slimming down.  I have only gained about 8 lbs in this pregnancy.  However the baby seems to be growing correctly, and my doctor isn't worried, so I'm not either.  I have been eating healthier foods, and eating minimal amounts of sugar, and that is what I contribute my lack of weight gain to.

Anyway, back to my jewelry.  Well a week or so ago, I was getting ready to put Aurora in the tub, and I noticed that my sapphire ring was missing.  This was really odd to me, because the only time I take my rings off, I also take my watch off.  I have a habit of then sliding my rings onto my watch band, so that they are easier to find when I go to put them back on.  So it was odd to me to just be missing one ring.  I hadn't noticed it fitting loosely, and I have no clue as to what happened to it.  I checked all of the places that I had been that day that I could think of where it could be.  Coat pocket, on my bed under the pillow (possibly lost when I was taking a nap), pants pockets, counters in kitchen and bathroom.  No luck.  My husband and I rearranged our bedroom this last weekend, and did some deep cleaning in other parts of the house, but never saw it.  It has just plain disappeared.

Well today, the same thing happened with my wedding ring.  I know I put it on this morning, and this evening when I was getting ready to put Aurora in the tub, it was gone.  I have been watching ever since I lost my other ring, and it didn't seem to be fitting loosely, but it must have been.  The only thing I can come up with is that I must have slimmed down enough that slipped off my finger.  I know the rings are just material things, and my husband still loves me without my wedding ring.  But it just bothers me that I have lost both of them, and I have no clue how, or were to look.

"I'll be a big boy when I'm in Kindergarten"

So I have been working on potty training Guy for almost a year now, off and on.  I started putting more effort into it once I found out I was expecting but have really not gotten the kind of results I have been hoping for.

At first, he just didn't get it.  He didn't understand what his body's cues were.  We would sit him on the potty, and if he went he went if he didn't he didn't.  I know that is a normal starting place, but for him it seemed to last a really long time.  He finally got to the point where I think he knows the cues, and he can hold it, but he just doesn't care.  If I put him on the potty, he can and does usually go.  But if I don't make the effort to put him on the potty, he doesn't care to use the potty.  He will just go where ever he is, what ever he is doing, what ever he is wearing.  It is so frustrating at times.

I don't know how to make him care.  I know it needs to be his choice, but I don't know how to incorporate it.  I have tried giving him a treat if he puts something in the potty.  He likes the treat, he likes to get it, but not enough for him to go to get the treat.  I've tried reading books to him on the potty.  All that seems to do however if make it so that when we are in the bathroom we are in there for a really long time, even if he goes right up front.  He won't ask to use the potty so that he can read the book.  I have tried giving him stickers for every time he sits on the potty.  Just like the treat, he likes the stickers, but not enough to go to the potty on his own initiative.

I have tried giving him rewards for staying clean and dry for a predetermined amount of time.  It worked for a little while, but then lost it's intrinsic value.  I have tried having him wear a pull-up, I have tried having him wear underwear, I have tried having him wear nothing.  He just doesn't care.  He doesn't care if he is a mess, he doesn't care if he makes a mess.  I'm kind of at a loss as what to try.

A few weeks ago when we were dropping Cinderella off at her school for Kindergarten, he told me he wanted to go to preschool.  I told him he can go when he can stay clean and dry, because they don't let kids who still make messes in their pants go.  Later that same day we needed to go to Cinderella's school and visit her class.  As we were walking up to the school, Guy told me that they didn't like him at this school, because he still makes messes in his pants.  I told him that they would let him come in the school, but he can't go to school, like a big boy, until he doesn't make messes in his pants.

Then a few days ago, he told me he will be a big boy when he is in Kindergarten.  I asked what he meant.  He told me, that he won't make messes in his pants anymore when he is in Kindergarten.  I asked him if he could be a big boy before he goes to Kindergarten, to which he said "no".  I told him he had to learn how to be a big boy so they would let him go to Kindergarten.  He said, that he would.  I asked him if he could be a big boy that day and keep his pants clean and dry.  He said, "No, I already put stinks in my pants."

On the other hand, Aurora loves to use the potty.  She will grab onto her diaper and if I ask her if she wants to sit on the potty, she will nod her head.  She is still in the stage, where she doesn't actually put anything in the potty, but she loves to sit on it.  I keep telling myself that I should just forget about trying to get Guy to use the potty and work on Aurora, but I have been trying to get Guy to use the bathroom for so long, it has become a habit, and one that is dying hard, while trying to get Aurora to use the potty, and I find that I still put most of the effort into Guy.

Oh well, I guess we will see what happens in 2 months when the baby comes.  I might have 3 in diapers, 2 in diapers, or just 1 in diapers.  But as to who, other than the baby, that will be still waits to be seen.