I can't seem to find an hour these days to sit down and blog, which kind of makes me crazy since it has definitely become a mode for me to process over the past months, but things are so hectic. I worked at a sales conference last week: a spattering of hours over several days, checking people in and directing them to break out sessions and bathrooms, answering inane questions over and over again. I've tried to help out my in-laws with a move, major cleaning and a garage sale. Grocery shopping was way overdue! And in the mean time, I was still trying to process all the information that I am both gathering on my own and being bombarded with regarding the education meltdown and multiple issues facing our family at the moment. Add to the mix a sudden influx of hand-me-down furniture that is requiring yet another round of reorganization and the ever constant job of sorting and clipping coupons to keep me below the grocery budget and time is in short supply. And somewhere in all this mess, I actually found time to take the kids to the park and have a very overdue date night with my husband.
Shew! I had the best of intentions this morning to sit down and spend some serious time catching you up on almost everything before munchkins arose, but instead I spent almost an hour shopping for personalized stationery that is on special for FREE, yes free, today and tomorrow. Had to have it as I love that kind of thing and did I mention it was free?
The list is long today - I need to get busy planning Scooter & Tyler's birthday bash for the end of this month and despite getting bathrooms scrubbed yesterday and some very dusty surfaces cleaned, my floors are begging for a mop and hot water. But what I really want to do is just enjoy my kids, because they deserve it. We hit two little, but significant, milestones in the last 12 hours.
First, Scooter. Scooter takes changes very hard. He doesn't transition well in just about any circumstance. About a week and a half ago, we finally got Scooter and Riley their new beds (thanks to absolutely fabulous friend Mandy's help!) which are bunk beds. Originally, we were going to put Tyler up top and have the two younger kids safely on the ground, but Scooter insisted that he really wanted the top bunk. OK. Problem is - every time we switch a sleeping arrangement, Scooter takes a very long time to readjust and get back to wherever he was before on the spectrum of going to bed on his own and falling asleep without assistance. And it was a bunk bed! Riley has had an adjustment period too, but nothing like Scooter. He wanted to wake up in his bed, sleep there overnight, but not fall asleep in the bed. He would start there, make several trips out for kisses and sips of water and eventually would break down crying and end up drifting off in my bed or on the couch. Sigh.
I really estimated it could take a month or two to make this work. But, the night before last he decided to sleep with Riley on the bottom bunk. I had to sit with both of them while they fell asleep, but it was an accomplishment because it was the first time Scooter had fallen asleep in his own room in over a week. It looked like last night was going to be a repeat performance. I got an unexpected boost of help though, from Riley.
Riley loves the top bunk and has even mastered the art of turning around and planting his feet on the ladder without tumbling to the ground. He would play up there all day long if we let him. Since I really don't need to start taking something like Valium every hour to keep me calm though, we insist that someone be in the room with him when he decides to go up top. He knows the rule and obeys it consistently which is keeping me from having to remove the ladder during the day and put it up on the top bunk, thankfully.
He would sleep up there if he could though and on the second night the bed was in his room, he moaned repeatedly to his dad that he 'never ever got to sleep up there' like it was an injustice that had been occurring for all of his 3 short years on this earth. Actually, to save myself the time of explanation to him over and over again, I would probably let it happen if it wasn't for the fact that Riley is a night wanderer. The thought of him trying to find the ladder and get down in the dark of night with no one aware makes me cringe, so he's gonna wait a couple of years for that particular pleasure.
Riley thinks the chance is imminent though and he is also proving to be pretty determined in finding solutions to his ever-present littlest brother challenges. Last night when he was faced with the prospect of his brother cramming into his twin sized bed with him again, it occurred to him that if Scooter slept down, no one would be up. It was a definite 'Aha!' moment for Riley. He announced that he was going to sleep up there. He started climbing the ladder. Of course, Scott and I were not going to actually let this happen, but Scooter forgot that. Scooter thought his little brother was going to take his bed and that was not acceptable to him. Up he went. I offered to lay down with him if he would stay put and sleep there. He agreed. (I had tried this during the first couple of nights, but Scooter would abandon me and I have lost count of the times I hit my head on the ceiling.) I climbed the ladder and lay down. Twenty minutes later, with a few interruptions for potty breaks and searches for just the right stuffed sleeping buddy, Scooter fell asleep. In his new bed. Yay! That might not seem like such a big deal to some of you out there, but for Scooter to make that kind of a transition in under 2 weeks is a real accomplishment around here. Now I can work on him falling asleep without me up there, but this is a HUGE first step.
Our other little milestone was all Riley. After having already left my brood twice to run small errands we discovered just before bedtime that Riley was completely out of pull-ups. Riley is at the stage of potty training that he wears underwear all day, but a pull-up at night. When Scooter was at this stage, we eventually left him in underwear and had him sleep on an under-pad over his sheet so he could learn to get up if he needed, etc. Riley doesn't like to sleep on them and still wakes up with a wet pull-up almost every morning. I have been stalling on finding a solution for this conundrum even though I know I need to take care of it soon. So, pull-ups for the moment. Which we were out of. (I realize, yes, that if I was a bit more organized I would have already bought the things when grocery shopping or on my 2 errands last night. Oops, I'm not that organized.)
Bed time was late last night and I had already been out twice. I wasn't making a diaper run. This has happened before. Usually, we just double up on the underwear, try to slide an under-pad under Riley after he's asleep, and assume we will be changing sheets in the morning. I told Riley it would be really great if he didn't wet the bed. He said okay, but really, I wasn't expecting much. He wouldn't let me double up the underwear. I forgot about the under-pad. Extra laundry here we go.
Riley wandered into my office this morning mid shopping spree and I hugged and kissed him. Told him good morning. I turned back to my computer while he hunkered down with the cube puzzle he has been working relentlessly for the last 2 days. Then I remembered. Oh yeah - the underwear. 'Riley, do we need to change you?' 'No.' 'Are you wet sweetie? Remember, no pull-up?' 'No.' 'You're dry?' 'Yes.' 'Really? Let me see! You're dry!' 'Yes!' I wish you could here how Riley says 'yes' because it adds so much to this moment. He has this almost secretive smile and a proud lilt to his voice and he draws out the 's' like 'Yesssss'. He was dry, dry, dry. He ran off to the bathroom for a morning pee and I sat there beaming.
I beamed for a good 5 minutes. Then I realized that I was now going to have to figure out if he was really ready for the pull-up break or if this was a fluke thing. Time to stop procrastinating and finish this potty training thing once and for all, even if it means washing sheets every day for the next 2 months. Ahhhh, motherhood. Not for the faint of heart, or the squeamish.
Anyway, Riley was inadvertently responsible for 2 really great moments this week. Not to take away from Scooter's accomplishment - that was awesome, but it was spurred forward by Riley's adventurous spirit. Regardless, they both deserve some extra mommy time today and the floors might just have to wait to be mopped until Thursday.
Thanks and God Bless!
No comments:
Post a Comment