Tuesday, August 2, 2011

My kids = freedom, unstoppable, and French

Caroline is growing so stinking fast! Not only did she learn to crawl this week, she also learned how to pull herself to standing on a vertical surface! She's great at getting onto her feet on short things, like my back while I am laying face-first in a messy living room trying to pretend I'm not alive, but she's not exactly "up" - she's leaned over me on her feet. But today I came to collect her from her nap and she was standing at the crib rails! I am not prepared for this girl, she's advancing much too quickly for my taste. Not only that, yesterday she got not one but TWO teeth! In a single day! They must be coming in somewhat crooked because although they're the two bottom middle teeth they appear sharp and pointy. If she truly has sharp, pointy bottom teeth I think she might secretly be a vampire. Due to her two new teeth and, primarily, her horrible nursing habits like biting, jumping/kicking, and doing anything BUT nursing while nursing, she is also newly weaned. Hooray! For the first time in (wait for it).... FOUR AND A HALF YEARS I have my body all to myself. I'm not nursing and I'm not pregnant and I LIKE IT. Eli is also giving me a serious run for my money. While on the reunion in Estes he discovered he could escape the pack-n-play. While he had the escape figured out, he couldn't seem to figure out how to STAY IN bed - he was ridiculously tired and WANTED to go to sleep, but it's like the pack-n-play wouldn't LET him go to sleep because it LET him escape! Trauma, trauma. Fortunately this happened the last night or so we were there, and we were relieved to get back home to his crib. Well, there actually wasn't a crib waiting here for him because we stole it for Caroline, but that's another story... but anyway, we had a crib for him by Monday night and he slept like a charm. I think the escape bug bit him, though, and by the end of the week he figured out how to escape his crib and would waltz down the stairs any time of day or night. We were back to the trouble of not sleeping because "escape" was such an allure. So we headed to Lowe's. He has a sleigh-style crib with the headboard and foot board taller than the sides, so I got two 1x2's the length of the crib and screwed them in place to the height of the headboard. It added about 10 extra inches to the sides (I split the difference with the rails so there's no way to get his hear stuck or anything), a seemingly inescapable fortress of a crib! It held him for exactly one nap and one bedtime, but this morning he waltzed down the stairs while I was getting Caroline her breakfast. To sum Eli up in one word: UNSTOPPABLE. Patrick is good, as always, and verbally keeps me on my toes (thank goodness not physically because I'm worn out by the other two). While making French toast for breakfast on Sunday I was explaining that people live in lots of places and speak lots of languages. It was a little hard to explain without a map handy, but I did my best. Anyway, people who live across the ocean in a place called France are known as French people, they speak a language called French, and they make this special kind of breakfast that we like so we call it "French toast." Me: "Patrick, did you know I can speak French?" Patrick: "Sure, mom. Me, too! See.... FRENCH."

5 comments:

Elsha said...

Sounds like Eli needs one of those crib tents like Amber has for her kids! And how can you not love Patrick?

Kari and Jonathan said...

I know everyone says this but I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW FAST TIME GOES! Caroline is going to be running around so soon.

DANG about Eli! That's frustrating.

Things Patrick says never get old!

Schmidt Family said...

Put a gate on the door and switch from a crib to a big boy bed. Then hopefully he will just learn to stay in the room! Good luck, my kids were not very big climbers!

hibiscusgirl said...

gate on the door & a mattress on the floor. can't lock them in their beds forever (<:

Eric and Amy said...

Ha ha ha! Great stories! Thank goodness you can blog about it and review it later because it sounds like a whirlwind.