Happy Birthday!

While we are still in the whirlwind that is our life these days, we tried really hard to take time to really celebrate Sam and Anna's birthdays for what they were and put aside all the other stuff for a little bit.

Our party was the weekend before Sam and Anna's actual birthday. I am glad it worked out that way so we could spend their actual birthday just as the four of us and focus on them rather than party prep or execution.  Party recap coming soon!

The night before their 3rd birthday, we blew up several balloons to have waiting for Sam and Anna when they woke up.  Together we assembled the big presents- balance bikes for the big three year olds.

Thankfully, no vomit or fevers this year for the birthday kids like last year, but poor Anna was sick with a pretty bad cold.  I feel badly for her- out of 3 total birthdays so far, she's been sick for 2 of them.  I'm hoping that we can have a good stretch of healthy birthdays from now on!

We had special pancakes with whipped cream, complete with birthday hats and helium filled balloons for breakfast.

Then it was time to open presents! Some Thomas stuff, puzzles, books, helmets, and of course the balance bikes.  The bikes are something they will grow into, which is just fine because it isn't nice enough to use them outside yet anyway.  I am excited to see Sam and Anna cruise around this summer, and yet I find it so hard to believe that my babies are big enough to have bikes!

I had asked Sam and Anna the day before what special place they wanted to go for their birthday.  The general consensus was that they wanted to go to the history museum to see the lion and dinosaur, so that's what we did.  I was actually pretty excited about that, because they had gone once before with daycare, and I had never been there.  It turned out to be the perfect day to go to the local college's museum of natural history, because they were having  a special event that day that we discovered when we arrived: their 4th annual Collection Crawl, in which the research collections of the natural resources college were on display and presented by faculty and college students- and it was all free!  Not only did we get to check out the cool collections of animals (including a dinosaur that roared when a button was pushed) in the museum of natural history, but we got to explore all sorts of animal stuff up close and even living animals as well.

We checked out the archaeology and paleontology collection first after walking through the museum of natural history.

Next stop was the herpetology exhibition.  This was Sam and Anna's favorite because several students were training an alligator by feeding him marshmallows.  Something they are still talking about.  It was probably my favorite area too because we were able to touch snakes, turtles, bearded dragons and skinks, as well as see toads and salamanders very up close.  There was one student that did an excellent job explaining the animals at exactly the right level for Sam and Anna which was fantastic. I was impressed.

We also checked out the Mammalogy department- looking at dolphin and wolf skulls as well was an extensive collection of mounted animals.

Sam and Anna looked under microscopes at insects in the entomology department.

We saw a huge amount of bird species in the ornithology department.

The Ichthyology department was really neat too.  They had a live shark in a small sized aquarium right next to a lionfish, at Sam and Anna's eye level.  There was hardly anyone else there, so the four of us were able to get right up next to everything.  (We did skip the parasitology area though- I didn't feel a burning need to check out the parasites.)

They even had stickers for kids and face painting too.  So much fun for my animal lovers that it was a perfect way to spend their birthday.

 

 We had cake yet again that evening to cap off a great day!

I'm Probably Jinxing Myself...

I can't help it, I just have to say it- although I am fully aware that putting this is writing will inevitably completely reverse all of it tomorrow and I'll think it was all in my imagination. 

This will come across as a brag post, but all mamas are proud of their kids and everyone has a right to profess how proud they are of their children.  Someday, I want Sam and Anna to read the words I wrote about them growing up and know though my words that I was proud of them.

Simply put, I am really loving this age.  This 2 and a half stuff is awesome.  Sam and Anna are such fantastic kids, I am in awe daily at how well they interact with each other.  They know so much- it astounds me what they retain on a daily basis, especially when I have more than one student in my kindergarten class that knows less colors, less shapes, less numbers, letters, sounds, etc (the list goes on and on) than my two do... and the kids in my class are twice their age.   Their comprehension of stories we read is superior than more than a few kids in my class- I can read the same book in my classroom that I read to Sam and Anna for bedtime, and in my class I get a few blank stares and unrelated answers to questions that do not make sense, while at home Sam and Anna can answer my questions(the same ones!) appropriately.  Keep in mind that they are 2 and a half, and the kindergartners in my room are 5 and 6 years old. It seems like every day I am shocked at what they can do or know when I'm working so hard to get those 5 and 6 year olds to get it.  (For example, Sam was pointing out that I had 3 As on my shirt, and 2 Ms.  He said that big M's are for Mama, and little m is in his name.  Then he said- A is for Anna, but where's S?  Oh there it is... pointing in the correct location.  Or when my FIL was trying to stump Sam and Anna on shapes, and tried asking them to identify a octagon- you bet Sam told him that one too!  Ask them what planet they live on, and they can tell you Earth.  Ask them who the president is, and they say Obama. They can correctly identify their right from their left, etc.)

For the most part, both Sam and Anna listen really well and rarely test their boundaries anymore.  We've got a discipline system that works well for us, and I'm thrilled.  Sam and Anna respond wonderfully to choices and counting- a mere counting to 20 will hold off any impatience for toy sharing, or wanting to do something they can't right then (plus, they've gotten very good at counting to 20!).  It makes things so much easier when you don't have to exert your parental power in a power struggle all day long, and then we have more time for fun things!

I also love that we can take them just about anywhere and they will behave well.  I really cannot remember the last disgruntled child I had in a public place.  I think my children must be extroverts, because it seems like the busier we are, the more places we go, the better and happier they are.  They love going on "adventures" and often ask us, "What are we doing today?  Or "Where are we going?" I took them 7 different places on Saturday by myself, without a fuss.  But yet, they can play for hours at home too, together and on their own without needing much adult attention too.

I adore talking with them, having grand conversations about the world around them- seeing what they know and understand, what they are trying to make sense of, what they want to know more about.  Seeing the world through fresh eyes (like when I told them they were "cracking me up," and they touched my arm and said, "Crack crack!" because they had no idea the meaning behind my words and thought I was telling them they were literally cracking me!).

And how they are together is just icing on the cake.  They play together like pros (of course, they have had their whole lives to practice, haha!).  They say please and thank you to each other unprompted, kiss each other's bumps, help each other other, and selflessly give up their things for the other one most of the time.

This week, my husband went on one of his longest work trips since Sam and Anna were born, and may even possibly his longest work trip since they were born.  Regardless, it has been pretty easy this time around.  I keep flashing back to what it was like to solo parent 7 month olds when he went on his first work trip since they came into our lives- the waking during the night, the baby food feeding, the bathing, and all the other stuff that required toting two not mobile babies everywhere something needed to be done, including to daycare at 7 am.  Now, they go to the bathroom on their own, put their clothes and shoes off and on with minimal assistance, walk where ever we need to go, eat with no extra effort required that what I do for myself, and of course, sleep through the night...  I can see why people often have a second child when the first is 2!  This is so much easier than life with twins before the age of 2.

Mostly though, I just spent time each day feeling so blessed that these two wonderful children are mine and love me almost as much as I love them.

* of course, last night BOTH of them woke up once- Sam hit his head against the wall and woke up crying for a minute, and Anna woke up (I think she was cold) and needed to be recovered by her blanket before quickly falling back asleep.  Oh well, I still think my kids are fabulous!

*They are normal kids though, don't get me wrong- Sam likes to push Anna's buttons sometimes like a typical brother and she'll yell back at him.  Sam still gets up out of bed twice before falling asleep even though our rule is that they stay in bed.  Anna is a picky eater, which can be frustrating because she's the one who could use a little meat on her bones.  Still love 'em to the moon and back though!

Big Bed Business

This big bed business times two is not for the faint hearted.  I had a feeling it wouldn't be easy, but I had hoped that within a few days it would adjust to being better than the crib fiasco we had started having at bedtime before the big beds arrived: the goofing off, climbing in to each other's cribs, pulling on the curtains crap.

One week in, and nighttime isn't any easier.  Anna likes to pull back her curtain and watch the world go by when she's supposed to be sleeping.  That's minor though.  We unfortunately had someone ring our doorbell during the first time we attempted sleep in the new beds, and Sam instantly got up to see who was here.  Now we can't keep him in his bed.  He always gets up.  Putting his crib back up isn't an option though, because he can scale the sides with his sleep sack on now.  Our nights consist of hours of putting him back to bed, and sometimes eventually laying with him or holding him so he will fall asleep.

That means that my so called "free-time" (if you want to refer to my child-less time to get stuff done, like laundry, clean, blog, work, etc. as that) is non-existent.  Last night, for example, I laid with Sam and got up at 10 pm (I had fallen asleep while in his room).  I'm really feeling stretched to my limit in that I don't have time to get anything done now- because I'm either at work or taking care of my awake children or asleep myself every hour of the day. 

The good thing is (since it helps to find something good about crappy situations) that Sam still doesn't get out of bed during nap time at daycare so our bed woes seem limited to home.

Dear universe: How on earth can we get our troublesome twosome to fall asleep in their beds easily without getting up or needing parental intervention???

***Editted to add: 
We did reverse the lock Sam's bedroom door, so we can lock him in (because he can open childproof door locks and unlock the regular lock on the door himself).  A baby gate won't work as he has scaled that thing since he was an itty bitty baby.  This kid was climbing out of pack and plays since 9 months old- the ONLY thing that helped us keep him from doing the same with his crib was wearing a sleep sack so his legs couldn't get separated enough to climb over  and that bought us enough time to make to to 2 1/2 years old.

Also, every night it is something new.  We've tried leaving the door open a bit so he doesn't feel so alone in the dark (as I'm guessing is a big issue for him, because, remember:  up until a week ago he had never slept alone.  I think it is understandable for him to have a little bit of difficulty in this transition to being alone in his bedroom with the door closed at night.  We give him 3 chances to stay in bed  with the door open a crack before locking the door closed, but after locking it, he becomes hysterical, and I can't do "cry-it-out" with a 2 1/2 year old crying at his bedroom door for his mama- I just can't when I can empathize how scary it must feel for him to be alone in the dark with Anna now in her own room.  I give it awhile, then go back in and give him another chance to stay in bed, which usually does it, but he's still so wound up that he moves all over his bed and cannot go to sleep on his own.  I'm sure he would eventually, but we're talking probably 10 pm and he needs to get woken up at 7 am on weekdays.  That just isn't enough sleep.

There was one night of the past week where it was near text book- he went to sleep with minimal fuss.  Tonight he only needed us to go in once.  BUT he's still falling asleep much later than I'd like.  Back to the every time is something new:  one night he said he'd pooped, one night he needed to go potty, one time he decided to poop and then got poop on his comforter (ew).  Or his pillow drops on the floor and he cries for us to pick it up, or he wants to get re-tucked back in, or  ..., or ...., or.....

But one more good thing!: I can say that once asleep, we have no issues with either child- so that's something!  They both sleep through the night just as they did B.B.- Before Beds. :)

Maybe I just need to be more patient and realize that it has only been one week.  I just miss the days when my babes fell asleep quickly at bedtime with no fuss, and took almost 4 hour long naps in the afternoons.  Those were the days....

Big Kids

After several nights in a row of Sam climbing into Anna's crib (while wearing a sleep sack) and tackling her every 2 minutes at bedtime, and several days in a row of reports of good naps in beds at daycare in separate rooms, we decided that it was time to make the switch to beds at home as well.   Oh well- the sleep sack trick to keep them from climbing out bought us over a year longer of crib use and for that I'm thankful. Sam and Anna have been napping at daycare in beds since they turned 2 and when we made the change in daycares in August, they continued napping in beds there as well.    For about 6 months it has worked just fine to nap in beds at daycare in separate rooms, but sleep in cribs in the same room at home.  But not so much anymore.  I was getting weary from the bedtime antics that seemed to be amping up- not decreasing.

All we did this weekend was basically make the transition from one room with two cribs to two rooms with two beds, and boy was it a lot of work.  First, we had to clear out our old guest room.  Then we went shopping for two beds.  We lucked out and bought mattresses and box springs at a local furniture warehouse sale this weekend.  My FIL is making bed frames for Sam and Anna and we should be able to get them in November so for now, they just have simple metal frames underneath.  While Sam and Anna napped Saturday, Daddy painted Anna's new room a not-babyish shade of pink.  Before nap, we had Sam and Anna pick their favorite pink paint chip from the collection of about 50 shades I brought home from the store.  After putting them down for nap, we picked our own favorites, and actually ended up picking the shade Sam selected first.  The rest of Saturday ended up finding new homes for the old guest room stuff once we realized there was no way we'd have enough time to disassemble two cribs and assemble two beds before bedtime.

Sunday we worked on moving around furniture between the two rooms and the cribs got removed before beds were made.  For now, Anna is keeping the white dressers and Sam will eventually get new darker work furniture.  I'm waiting until we have his bed, so that we can select a furniture color that goes with his wood bed frame.  Anna's bed frame will be painted white.

Naps in the new beds in separate rooms on Sunday went.... less than great.  For the first time sleeping in beds at home, we barely got them to fall asleep.  I consider it a minor miracle that both finally did sleep for a little bit.  I am surprised that after napping for so long at daycare without even thinking about getting out of the bed, the very first time we attempted a nap in a bed at home, Sam's feet hit the floor and he decided that it would be a good idea to open the door; repeatedly.  I thought for sure we'd have a while before reaching that point. 

The first night sleeping in their own rooms in beds went better, but only because I laid with Sam until he fell asleep.  I was a little sentimental that it was the first time ever since before they were a speck of dividing cells that they spent the night sleeping alone, apart from each other.  Once they fell asleep, they both slept through the night without waking until they had to get up for daycare the next morning.  Whew!  I was worried that would have gone horribly wrong and I'd be up for hours in the middle of the night.  Thank goodness that wasn't the case!

We still have a lot to do- bed frames probably painted and put together one we get them, new furniture/dressers for Sam, wall hangings/decorations for both rooms, and remove the rest of the storage stuff in the old guest room closet.  For now though, our big boy and girl are sleeping in their own rooms in big kid beds-  the last bit of baby in them: their cribs, are gone.  And this mama is feeling just a wee bit sad that I'm never going to have a little one in a crib ever again.

Sam's bed

 

Anna's bed

 

Anna's room

 

First time sleeping in her big girl bed

 

First time sleeping in his big boy bed