Monday, March 19, 2007

Spring Break=Spring Cleaning

Last week, three out of the five of us were on Spring Break. The boys' break at preschool is this week, and if we had had any great plans to go anywhere, we would have just taken them out for a week. Sadly, we had no plans beyond my least favorite pastime...cleaning. So, they went off to school and my mom, husband and I tackled closets, baseboards and dusty ceiling fans (okay...they wouldn't let the pregnant lady on the ladder, so I got out of cleaning the fans). My mom and I washed and sorted every single article of baby/toddler/child clothing that the oldest three have out grown and got all of the little tiny baby things ready for the new baby boy. He even has a bed to sleep in set up in the playroom which will be his room eventually. We took about 4 big bags and bins of toys to the Salvation Army, and there are still too many toys to know what to do with, but we are going to go through and purge again one day this week when all three of them are at school. My hope is to get it all down into about 2 tubs or baskets that can be kept in the baby's room and pulled out to be played with when needed.

Other than the cleaning, it was nice to have a break from my doorbell and cell phone constantly ringing (a necessary evil with my job). It was nice to sit down in front of the tv with my husband (he even watched American Idol with me) on a weeknight. He usually spends his evenings after the kids are in bed doing lesson plans or grading, which is fine because I am usually out in the dorm anyway checking in with the girls about the dramas and traumas of their day, so we don't get much quality time during the week as a rule.

Maybe next year there will be a beach calling our names over spring break, but for this year it was nice just to BE. What 36 year-old, 7 month pregnant lady really needs to be wearing a bathing suit in public anyway? Not this one, that's for sure!

Friday, March 16, 2007

Big Boys in Big Boy Beds

So, we finally took the plunge and moved the boys out of their cribs and into big boy beds. They turned three last November, so I guess it was high time! Plus, we had our spring break this week, so we had time to make the move happen. We took down both cribs and set one of them back up in the playroom (soon to be the nursery). I took the other one to the Salvation Army Thrift Store and had a little tear in my eye as I pulled away.

They are sleeping in twin beds that belonged to my step-father's grandparents, and they are just the perfect height for our little fellas. In fact, they are so low that I can't imagine how two elderly people ever got in and out of them. I will come back and post some pictures soon.

Needless to say, the monkeys came out in full force when the boys saw their new beds. We put baby gates on both doors in their room so that we would not have to constantly chase them back into the room. Still, they can get out of their beds and run around in the dark making mischief of one kind and another. The first night, it took them about an hour and a half to finally fall asleep, and when we finally went into the room to see where they had "crashed" we found W sleeping in his bed and D fast asleep (or "fass asweep" as they like to say) in the rocking chair...with his head on the footstool and feet in the air! We moved him to his bed and there he stayed!

The second night they wound down in about an hour and both fell asleep in their own beds. We were so excited...until 3:30 a.m. when D woke up and got the party started. He finally, through great effort, managed to wake W up, too. After we heard them saying "look brother, it's bright outside" and then heard their bedroom door open and a little voice say "it's dark out here," Daddy got up and informed them that it was NIGHT NIGHT TIME. Needless to say, that did not work, and he ended up taking his pillow into their room and lying down in the floor to keep them quiet so that the remaining members of the family could have some peace and get some sleep. And there he stayed...for the next two hours. W went back to sleep pretty quickly, but D didn't give it up until 6 a.m. Weren't his preschool teachers the lucky ones the next day? (I did call and forewarn them.)

So, we were just sure that they would take naps that afternoon because they would be so exhausted, but we were so wrong. Remember the pajama removal issues we faced with them? And how we "cured" them by putting them in one piece footed pjs backwards? Well, at naptime yesterday, they found out that they could help each other out of this situation...literally. They unsnapped the top snap and unzipped each other and voila...they were free. When Daddy went in to check on the status of their "napping" he found them both in D's bed...naked. D's bed had been peed in and W's bed had been pooped in. However, they had both put their diapers in the trash can! Wasn't that thoughtful and tidy of them? I came home about this time, and it was not a pretty sight. Daddy had dressed them and placed them side by side in the rocking chair where they both sat looking extremely remorseful. Actually, they looked so sad and cute and perfectly identical that I really wanted to take a picture of them, but I didn't think that exactly sent the right message. I got some cute video later that evening of W explaining how it all went down. I wish I knew how to load it here, but I don't. So, oh well. While W was telling the sad tale of their misdemeanors, D was sitting in his Daddy's lap...fass asweep. Clearly, all the partying, peeing and pooping had taken its toll on the little guy.