First Trick-or-Treat

Ben isn't into smiling for pictures any more. 

This pumpkin ended up with about 8 more eyes.

Thomas trick-or-treating

Trick-or-treating with five toddlers is a cluster-f*ck.

But it was really fun!

Playgroup Halloween Party

Ben as Thomas the Tank Engine. 

Despite his face, he loves the costume!

Ben as Thomas and Isaac as Gordon.

That's what Ben does now when I say, "Smile!"

The best picture of the most kids.

It's tough to get a good picture of 10 babies and toddlers

L-R: Alyssa (fairy), John-James (Woody from Toy Story), 

Amelia (Rams cheerleader), Ben, Isaac, Eliot (bee)

It's all about perspective

This actually happened months ago, but I forgot to post about it until now.

We attended a playgroup birthday party. I don't know if you've ever been to a party with 8-10 toddlers present, but it's chaos. Not even controlled chaos. You were lucky if you didn't have a truck rammed into your ankles. At the party the following happened:

Alyssa, the birthday girl, had a toy which the kids could sit on and spin (called, amazingly enough, a Sit 'n Spin), but it wasn't obvious to them how to work it. Isaac was trying to use it but failing, so his mother grabbed a life size (to a toddler) Elmo doll to demonstrate how it worked. As an aside, Elmo is a beloved character for almost all the kids. Well, Isaac got mad because Elmo was using his toy, so he tackled Elmo and started choking him. Seriously. This caused Lily to start wailing because Isaac was attacking Elmo.

I'm sure it was traumatic for Lily, but to the adults watching it was quite funny.

That'll come in handy

It took a few weeks, but Ben's finally crawling like a normal child. I think he had to do a cost-benefit analysis before he really took off. "Crawling takes a lot of energy, but it does allow me to get to those drawers, open them up and pull out all the video games."

So this morning when I was using the Swiffer, Ben decided it was very interesting and started crawling after it. He followed the Swiffer through three rooms before it got boring. I think this is an interest I'll encourage. My friend Irene likes to tell about her son Isaac and his love of the Swiffer. He pushes it around the house and eventually she decided to put a dusting cloth on the bottom. Hey, if he's having fun what's the harm if a little cleaning happens along the way? People used to have children so they'd have more fieldhands. Quibbles about child labor be damned! Once Ben's old enough, he'll join the Swiffer army. It's not like I'm asking him to pick crops.

I sleep like a baby... Sleep for 2 hours and then wake up and cry

A couple months ago Ben and I paid a visit to my friend Irene and her son Isaac, who just turned 1. We arrived around Issac's nap time and I witnessed something that as a new mom completely amazed me.

Let me preface this by saying that at that time Ben and I were having Nap Issues. He didn't want to take them and I had no idea how to persuade him that, yes, he really did, lest his mother melt into a puddle of sleep deprivation and spit up stained clothes.

So when Irene took Isaac upstairs for his nap I was expecting to wait a while for her return. To my surprise, she was back downstairs within 2 minutes. Even more surprising was that I didn't hear any crying. It didn't take 45 minutes of rocking and singing to get him to precariously fall asleep in her lap, only to wake up if she made any small movement. I couldn't imagine a time when that would be my life. Having Ben take actual naps during which I was free to do whatever I wanted?! It was a pipe dream up there with wishing they'd put Weird Al songs on Rock Band.

Then we started sleep training in earnest. No more sleeping in bed with us. No more bassinet in our room. No more naps on Daddy's chest or Mommy's lap.

The first night he cried for an hour before falling asleep. He did better with naps during the day, but there was still some fussing. However, gradually he caught on and now we can (almost always) put him to bed or down for a nap with a minimum of protest. He's still not sleeping through the night because of that rolling problem I mentioned, but I'm now part of Irene's club. I can put Ben down for a nap and walk away. And then the world is my oyster... At least until he wakes up.