Bay and I like to take a good half hour after Auggie goes to bed and snuggle. We like to watch Gilmore Girls because it makes us think of Mamie and because Baylor has always loved the opening song.
She remarked the other night “look! My legs are almost as long as yours! My feet are almost as long as yours!”. I realized how long her legs really were and how big those feet were getting.
Don’t grow up too fast little lady. I need my snuggle buddy to fit on my lap a bit longer.
Sometimes you just need a friend who will sit under and umbrella and watch a movie with you. We’re grateful that M is that buddy to Baylor.
Just try and not smile while watching this
We’ve been had. Swindled. Conned. Tricked. Duped.
And all by a four year old.
It all started a few weeks ago. Baylor started getting up 2-3 times a night to go to the bathroom. She would come into our room and go into our bathroom. I didn’t think anything of it until the number started growing to 6-7 times a night. And then requiring a tuck in. Or a glass of water. Or to sleep in our bed. It was clustered over about 2 hours each night. Just as soon as I would decide that something had to be done, she would sleep through the night. She’s always been a sleep terrorist, but at this age, it’s unacceptable.
During a particularly ugly argument, B broke down crying and said “Mommy please. I just have to go to the bathroom”. It’s not the crying that gets me, it’s the good manners. I decided to take her to the doctor, convinced that there was something physically wrong.
After an examination, the doctor asked Baylor to describe what she does at night. Bay went into great detail about how she gets out of bed, walks by the kitchen, across the carpet in our room into our bathroom, turns on the light, closes the door….all the while the doctor is looking at me with a face that says “yeah, you’re kid’s fine. She’s just trouble”. His suggestion was to tell her that she was not to use our bathroom but rather she needed to use her own bathroom. And she did just that – six times in one night. And left the light on and the door open causing her brother to wake up at 4:45am confused about what he was supposed to be doing. Awake? Asleep? Hungry? He didn’t know. He just knew he was pissed that he was awake and everyone else would be awake too, except B who slept through it all.
After a subsequent conversation with our doctor family friend, I finally agreed that it was behavioral and not physical. But no amount of threats, attention or conversations was stopping the behavior. And my overall appearance is sketchy at best, let alone with little sleep. I was getting desperate.
While at the mall shopping for a birthday gift, Baylor fell in love with everything at the Disney store. And that’s when I settled on bribery. I told her that if she could go four nights without getting up more than once and without waking anyone up, she could pick out anything in the Disney store. She agreed and was excited. We drew out four Mickey Mouse heads on the chalkboard for her to circle each morning that she did what she was asked.
The first night went horribly. She was up multiple times and a fight broke out at 1am trying to get her back to her own bed. But the next three nights went swimmingly. Which is when it dawned on me – we’ve been had. We just bribed a kid to do what she has been doing for years and is perfectly capable of doing. We’re rewarding her for sleeping like she has always done.
And to her, I say well played Baylor. Well played.
The big man is once again off the charts for height and weight at 31 inches and 25 pounds. He is getting very skilled at “hands up stand up!!” and has even taken a few unassisted steps – yeah for my aching back! Can’t believe it’s almost time to start planning this little stinker’s birthday party.
So long!
Standing! Walking!
Last week marked the first day of prekindergarten for Ms.B. PRE. KINDERGARTEN. I actually didn’t realize that her preschool considered her room pre-k until I read the classroom notes and about had a heart attack. Where did the last 4 years go?! When did she get so big?! Thankfully we are going to wait until she is 6 to pack her off to real kindergarten. Thank goodness. I don’t think my heart could take it yet.
Braided pigtails are her new favorite because that’s how Cinderella wears her hair to bed.
Ms. B has been dying to ride horse since taking the Mini Horse Hands class last summer at the zoo. When we went down to feed the horses some carrots, she began begging us to let her ride. Thankfully, Uncle Mike agreed to take both B and cousin Zoe for a spin around the corral.
The Barn Bar
Big man trying out a saddle
Star, Cahl and Seabass (my favorite)
Auggie was unexpectedly not a fan of the horses. He literally shuddered when he pet them. Hopefully it’s only a temporary reaction.
Ready to ride!
Can’t stand the cuteness
As long as he was not actually touching the horse, he was happy
Ring Around the Rosie
This picture summarizes the whole trip for Baylor. She was loving her independence and cousins to pal around with!
This is the face of a kid that is only satisfied eating his dinner if his mother is making a fool of herself by singing to him while he eats. His favorites are The Wheels on the Bus, Old MacDonald had a Farm and Holla Back Girl (for when he’s eating bananas). He also enjoys when his mother is getting really frustrated but trying to stay calm by singing a new verse of The Wheels on the Bus about how the mommies are getting off the bus to go have margaritas.
I always worry that I’m not doing enough for the kids. Not reading enough. Not playing enough. Not being patient enough. And that I’m going to give them permanent issues because they are sharing a room. Worry worry worry. You want the best for your kids so you work to give them the moon…but sometimes the moon isn’t totally necessary.
When my sister was in kindergarten, she was sent to the nurse for a bump or bruise. She came home from school that day enamored by the fact that the nurse had “made” ice. She begged my mom to ask the nurse for the recipe. Perplexed, my mom agreed. She realized later that the nurse used ice-cube trays – we had an ice maker so Ali had never seen a tray before.
My niece Madi used to beg my step sister to please turn on the “normal” radio in the car coming home from school. Her friends didn’t have satellite radio so she wanted to listen to the free radio that her friends were listening to.
The other night while getting Baylor out of the tub, she told me how she had been in the bathroom at a friend’s house recently and how she thought they had a HUGE window in the bathroom. But when she pulled back the curtain, she found it was actually the bathtub. Better yet, the bathtub HAD A SHOWER IN IT!! The look of pure joy on her face over the idea of a bathtub and shower together was priceless. This as I’m pulling her out of the claw foot tub that took weeks to get, was installed incorrectly, had to be removed and then put back into place and cost a small fortune…if I had only known she would have been more impressed by a tub shower.
The moral that I need to remember is this: no matter what the gift is, the box is most likely going to be more fun. And that’s a good thing. They are going to enjoy the fact that Baylor used to climb into Auggie’s crib in the morning to play and that they used to wake each other up in the middle of the night. They will laugh about how they put stickers all over each other behind me as I scrambled to get a few things done in the office (hell, they do that now).
At the very least, this will all be good things to talk about at therapy some day. So I’ve got that going for me. Which is nice.
Baylor has been in swim lessons year round since she was about 10 months old. Lately I have been getting the business from a few parents as to why I would do that. I questioned it a little myself until Baylor jumped into the club pool before PW was near her. If you’ve ever watched a kid panic in the water, seconds seem like hours. I saw the flash of panic on her face when she came up for air as the pool was deeper than she thought. As Peter made his way to her, I saw the panic quickly be taken over by muscle memory. Her head went back and her chest came up – she back floated for a second to catch her breath, get oriented and then calmly rolled herself over and kicked to the wall. I realized then and there that the last 156 swim lessons have been worth every penny.
Fast forward a few weeks and we’re in our lovely neighbor Melissa’s pool. Baylor was splashing on the steps and then decided she would swim to me – she swam half way across the pool with “scoops” (arms) and side breaths. I. Was. Amazed. I have been in the baby pool with Auggie during lessons for the last 6 weeks while Bay was in the big pool. I had no idea her strokes had gotten so good. When Peter joined us later, I thought his jaw was going to hit the cool deck as he watched her swim so well.
Want to go where we go? Check out Hubbard’s Family Swim School. Indoors (no sunscreen, no sun, no bugs, no chlorine), year round in a heated pool. What’s not to love?
The Goon Room 