We've Come a Long Way, Babies

Tyson was gone Friday night, leaving me to these two little buggers.

And...it was easy.  Sure, I'd already been with them all day.  And that is exhausting.  But a year ago-heck, even a few months ago-I would have been cringing and dreading all day (all week) the fact that I was going to be flying solo for the evening.

Now?

(Wut?  You used to dread being with us?  Us?!?)

Plunk 'em in a tub after dinner (which, okay, was pizza) (DELICIOUS pizza) (they mostly ate fruit WHO ARE THESE KIDS), let 'em run around for a little bit wearing only their diapers, toss 'em in a crib with a pacifier and a story, annnnnddddd done.  Now that they go to sleep on their own (and more or less stay that way), it's almost too easy.  I mean, not too easy (hahaha, like I got anything done while they were awake!  The kitchen, high chairs, bathroom, and living room were all waiting for a good cleaning/pick-up/hose down after I put them in bed), but, y'know.  Relatively speaking, it was easy.

I can't emphasize enough how much I used to dread going it alone in the evening after already being with them all the livelong day.  And now I meet it with a shrug and a life-as-usual grin.  (Good thing, too, since Tyson will be working Wednesday and Thursday evenings all summer.)

(Caden I'm CRYING I'm laughing so hard!)

I would also like to point out the SPANKING CLEANESS of the bathtub.  I wore actual rubber gloves and cleaned it with actual bathroom scrubbing soap and I even actually scoured down the little ledges and shelves and everything on Friday.  I think the only other time this bathtub has been cleaned since we moved in (oh...almost four years ago) was February 2014, after these two were born and my parents and Tyson's parents cleaned everything before we came home from the hospital.  I'm not quite sure where this fit of housewifely cleanliness came from.  You can be assured that it won't happen again until at least 2018.

Toddlers. At the Park. (Insert Creative Title Here)

Sometimes a girl's gotta post cute photos of her kids, for no other reason than that they're cute.  

Also, it's my blog, so there's nothing you can do about it.

Too cool for school.

Were we at the park for over an hour?  Yes.  Did we only go on the swings?  Pretty much.

No more words are needed here.  Carry on.

Nebulizer Q & A

Q: How do you get an active toddler to sit still while using a nebulizer?

A: TV.  The only answer is TV.  We've been rocking a lot of Daniel Tiger around here.

And that's all you need to know.

(P,s.  Caden is fine.  He has a slight cough with no other symptoms, hence the nebulizer.)

(P.p.s.  He actually does amazingly well with it.  Sometimes he whines and squirms a little bit, but otherwise makes no attempts to get down or away from the mask.  He knows exactly what to do when he sees the mask come out, and leans his face foward into it every time. And then, of course, it's fun to play with when we're done.)

Post (Memorial Day) Weekend

Caden says: let's do this.

Holiday weekends are always a bit weird now.  Weird in the sense that, since I stay home, every day is more or less the same.  "Days off", sleeping in, and, well, generally doing what I want to do when I want to do it-hallmarks of a holiday weekend-are basically unheard of now.  Sure, there's a rhythm to our weeks (church on Sunday, life group Tuesday nights, class on Wednesday mornings, etc.) but generally each day bleeds into the next.  Now that Tyson is (somewhat) officially graduated, though, we at least had him around for the weekend.  (And now that thesis and paper-writing is done, he should be able to take weekends more or less "off" for the foreseeable future...just like a normal person!)

So, I guess, in the end, it did actually feel like a special, holiday-ish weekend.

We got to spend lots of time outside.  Sunday was kind of rainy, but Saturday...

 

Saturday was perfect.  

Monday, we took Caden and Brooklyn for an inaugural dip in our complex's pool.  (Hey, let's take them out to the "free" pool!  That will only cost us $129.34 in swimsuits, swim diapers, and floaty toys.)

(It was totally worth it.)

Fifteen Months

 

(Wait for me!)

Eat.  Three meals a day (7 am, 1:00ish pm, 5 pm) and 1-2 snacks (9:30 am and maybe 3 pm).  I shifted their lunch this month to after their nap.  Previously I was trying to give them lunch before they napped, around 10:30-11, but they would either A) fall asleep in their chairs or B) be super crabby and not eat very much anyway.  They are just more than ready to go to sleep by late morning.  I give them a bigger morning snack and they eat lunch when they wake up, which means sometimes they eat lunch at 12:30 and other days at 2:00.  It's kind of a weird schedule, but it works.  They are eating pretty well, too.  Caden has gotten only slightly more particular (i.e. he doesn't always automatically scarf down everything in sight), and Brooklyn is actually eating quite a bit more consistently.

Sleep.  Bedtime at 7 pm, sleep for 11-12 hours.  Nap at 11 am for 1 1/2-3 hours.  The biggest sleep transition this month has been letting them fall asleep on their own.  After a couple nights of having to go back and rock them to sleep after they fussed for 10 minutes or so, they now put themselves to sleep on their own, no problem.  Tyson and I both bring them upstairs to tuck them in their sleep sacks (which Brooklyn has become quite attached to), and then I leave while Tyson reads them some books.  They don't even cry when he leaves the room (and only did for a couple of nights anyway).  Tyson and I are both amazed at how smooth the transition was.  I think it just goes to show that they are old enough and ready to go to sleep on their own, and I'm glad we didn't force them to before now.

Play.  Not much new on this front.  They like playing with most of their toys...building with blocks and Legos, cuddling baby dolls, going in and out of their toy house, playing peek-a-boo in their fort, watching for birds out the window, playing outside as much as possible...

Caden has been driving me slightly crazy because he wants to be held a lot and carried over to point at something that he wants but can't have (usually something in the kitchen).  He really needs a lot of direction in his play, or at least someone near him.  I've noticed that he plays a lot better on his own when I'm sitting in the living room, even if I don't interact with him.  He's very curious, and wants to get into everything he can get his hands on.  This means that nothing holds his attention for very long, and he bounces from one thing to the next.

Brooklyn has gotten more interested in her baby dolls this month (we have these twin ones) and likes to cuddle one while Tyson or I cuddle the other, and then she will trade for more cuddles.  She's generally pretty happy, and will often follow me around while I do things, content to walk around smiling and babbling as we go from one room to another.  She babbles a LOT...things that sound almost like words, like maybe she's speaking a different language or something, and she's pretty good at copying sounds.

One thing that is new is their interaction with each other.  If you tell them "Go get Brooklyn/Caden!" they chase the other one down to give them hugs and kisses, or grab each others hands in what looks like the most awkward and adorable slow dance ever.  These frequently end with one accidentally tackling the other, though they think that is pretty hilarious.  Brooklyn will squeal with laughter as Caden chases her around, and sometimes all it takes is her seeing him to make her run away, whether he's actually chasing her or not.  Since they can sometimes get pretty aggressive, I've taught them "nice touches", and if we tell them to use "nice touches" they start patting each other (or sometimes themselves!) on the head like a petting a dog.

(The Dictator.)

(P.s.  Caden 20 pounds 12.5 ounces, 30.2 inches, and added two teeth (for a grand total of eight).  Brooklyn 20 pounds 7 ounces, 30.94 inches, and holding steady at eight teeth.)