Thursday, April 28, 2011

When a Terrorist Runs Your House...

Zeke moved into a toddler bed one week ago. He's cool with it. The problem remains, however: he can pop in and out of bed as he pleases, he can open all the doors, and climb onto almost anything.
Sleep re-training is in progress. 3/4 ths of us are irritable and tired. Here's the one exception:

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Bite

A little boy at the park took a bite out of Zeke. It was a dispute over a shovel in the sandbox. In that moment, I forgot all about "Scream-Free Parenting."

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

New Skills

I expected that Zeke would wake up from his nap at 4:30pm. I expected that he would do his usual vocal exercises and then count his animals. (One, two, free, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, twenty!) I expected to be able to get Ben comfortably asleep in his bassinet by that time - far away from the projectiles that Zeke normally hurls at us when we go into his room together at the end of nap time.
Instead, at 4:00pm, just as Ben's eyes were drooping and I was getting ready to eat that second pumpkin chocolate chip cookie sitting on a plate next to my rocking chair, a small figure rounded the corner and surprised me.
"Hi..." I said, wondering what had just happened.
"Awake," he told me.
"Yes, you are awake," I said, still hoping it wasn't true.
"Out of crib," he told me, clutching his smurf.
"Yes. How did you get out of your crib?" I asked.
"All by myself."
And then he ate my cookie.

Zeke reports on the cookie.


Addendum: Tonight Mike and Zeke did the normal bedtime routine and Mike finally said goodnight and closed the door behind him. I had just put a sleeping Ben in the corner of the living room couch so I could get started on some dishes. Mike took a moment to visit the necessary. Suddenly, I heard Zeke's bedroom door open and the thud, thud, thud, of my toddler at a dead run. Since Ben was in an exposed position, I dropped everything and ran to protect him. Zeke zoomed right past his usual target and jumped into the (empty) rocking chair.
"Awake, " he told me, loudly.
We're in trouble.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Ben's Baby Blessing at the Beach

Time for another late post.
At the beginning of this month we went through the formal procedures to give Ben a name and a blessing. We were lucky enough to have both sets of grandparents attend our ward that Sunday, along with several aunts, uncles and two cousins. We had a good visit with everyone afterwards back at our ranch, featuring way too much nacho cheese dip.
Unfortunately, I have no pictures from that day, except this one of Zeke in his new Easter clothes.


You'll just have to use your imagination to see that Mike looked distinguished and mysterious in his suit with his goatee, and Ben managed to keep his white vest-suit clean for all of Sacrament Meeting. Hooray!

Monday, April 18, 2011

Happy Birthday Mike!

Although my post is a little late, Happy Birthday to the man who makes it all possible...

Mike!
And even though Grandma and Grandpa made a wonderful, decadent, strawberry shortcake for his birthday, just like Mike likes, Zeke insisted on a real birthday cake - you know, something with sprinkles.
I made it for you, Daah-ee!
We may never recover from the sugar-shock.