Growing Up

Our boys are getting bigger and bigger by the day. *Sniff* Especially James, he seems to grow more and more independent by the day. That is saying something, considering how independent he has always been! I've also come to realize that I've allowed James more independence to do things himself purely by necessity since Rett came along. Things like climbing into his car seat by himself, opening doors for me, fetching things, etc... We have taken down the baby gates that were for the non-baby proof areas of the house since James figured out not only how to open them, but how to pull the second childproof lock we put on top. So in the past 3 months, we have potty trained, moved to a big boy bed, and taken baby gates down. Craziness! (Of course the gates are going back up for Rett once he is mobile, but James knows how to open the one with the door so we should be good)

James is getting really good at riding his bike. He has gotten the hang of steering, looking where he is going, and slowing down before turning around. All of those lessons came from falling, but he never got scared or upset, he just got back up and kept going. Such a trooper! The hardest part about him riding his bike is that we don't have any sidewalks on our street and so many cars go by at such a high speed. They zoom down the street at 30 or 40 mph (the speed limit is 25 in our neighborhood), a lot of the times not even slowing down a little bit. So it feels like every few seconds we are moving over to the side of the road to wait for cars to go by. We have decided that when we eventually buy a house, it absolutely must have sidewalks and not a lot of traffic.

We are on our second night of James being out of the crib. Rett is still in a bassinet, but very soon I want to start transitioning him to the crib...which means moving James on up! I wanted to skip a toddler bed and have James sleep on a twin mattress on the floor and then eventually move the mattress up higher onto an actual bed. This way I don't have to have multiple kid beds and crib mattresses to store, just one crib and then the mattress that will grow with them. (Once again, I got this sage advice from my go-to mommy guru Leah. Thanks Leah!)

Pretending to be asleep:

Sneak attack by Bitsy now that she can reach him:

The problem was mattress shopping. What a pain! The only places I knew of that you could go and try out the mattress were mattress stores with huge mark-ups and pushy salesmen. Anthony stopped by one of them after work one day just to check out the prices and the guy basically told him that if we didn't get an expensive mattress for James, then we would be ruining his spine. Baloney. I wanted something comfortable and quality, and that doesn't necessarily mean expensive. I finally decided the best option would be to get one online from amazon. I read all the reviews and got an 8 inch memory foam mattress for $150 shipped. Oh my word. It is the most comfortable mattress ever!!! Anthony and I wished we bought one of these for ourselves instead of the super expensive one we bought last year. It is so thick and soft and comfortable, yet still supportive. Even if we have to replace it down the road if it doesn't hold up to the little boy abuse, at that price who cares?

So far James is doing really well staying in his bed (our big concern about moving him out of the crib). We moved the crib to the other side of the room and we told him that if he gets out of the bed to do anything but ask to go to the bathroom, then we will put him back into his crib. We have never had any toys in his room, so there really isn't anything to play with in there. The main concern was naptime. He already fights taking naps so much and half of the time just jumps around in his crib, I wasn't sure how naptimes were going to go. Today was our first naptime in the big bed and he definitely tested the rules. I watched him on the monitor and after a few different times of him getting out and trying to find something to play with, I went in and gave him a warning. He got out a few minutes later and I went in and put him straight in the crib. He was not happy!! After a few minutes of crying, I went back in there and talked to him about staying in his big boy bed and let him try again. He did so great after that!! I watched him on the monitor for another 45 minutes and he was awake, but he stayed on the bed. He tried every which way to find different positions where he was off the bed, but still technically "on" the bed. It was pretty funny! Eventually he fell asleep, which was great!

Of course, Rett is growing up too, just luckily not as fast as James (or so it seems to me). It is so nice to still have a little baby while James is doing all of this big boy stuff. It makes it a little easier for me to handle I think :) He is still such a happy, easy going baby. Seriously, he is baby gold. I wish I could clone him, or at least his temperament for all future babies. I used to envy women who had babies like Rett, just happy and content unless he is tired or hungry. We went to a toddler class and indoor playground yesterday and Rett bounced happily on my knee while I talked with a friend for an hour and a half. Then he cat napped in the car on the way home and after we got home and I fed him, he was as happy as could be until naptime. I finally got a video of one of his smiles. I live for those smiles!! You can see in the video how he will be as serious as can be and then all of a sudden he can't hold the joy back. I love it! It is a fun surprise every time:

Anthony rarely gets up at night with Rett anymore, but he did last night and it was bad. Rett just cried and cried and cried until I got up to hold him. He quieted down almost immediately after I picked him up, so I don't know if he is going through a stage where he prefers me or if it just because he has gotten so used to me that having someone else feed him and rock him wasn't acceptable. His sleep has kept getting better and better as his naps have become more consolidated and predictable during the day. Now it is more normal for him to wake up around 3 or 4am after having gone to bed for the night around 7:30pm. Progress! I definitely feel more well rested during the day. This little boy is such a gift to our family, I can't believe how much joy he has brought to us. Before having him, we already felt so happy and content that it is amazing that we can feel anymore, but we do. We are so blessed!