Paci-less & Another Scare

We survived the night without the paci. Lydia was exhausted and she feel right asleep. The car ride to Grandma and Grandaddy's was a little tedious without paci, but Lydia napped a little, snacked a little, played with Daddy a little, fussed some and then we were there... not too bad.

Here at Grandma and Grandaddy's, Lydia sleeps in the closet:) I think she'd do better to be near Anna since they're used to being together, but it works!! Anyway, for naps today Brian laid on the floor next to the pack-n-play and they fell asleep pretty quickly. This evening, I read silently laying next to her for 30+ minutes with minimal initial fussing.... so far so good with no paci

...we've been really blessed with paci weaning all three kids. Anyway I do have a paci here and a Walmart close by but I haven't even been tempted to use it yet. And she has her "night-night" blanket and a phone, so she's good:)

Christopher had another accidently reaction to milk this afternoon. Brian and i were out at the time which made it scarier for us... Imagine the call, "Chris ate something with milk in it, he's got a rash, his eyes are looking red and he's sneezing. Do you have any Benadryl?"

What made matters even worse was the call that he had thrown up, too! So we headed home to see what we could do... but he was asleep, breathing fine (little raspy b/c of the reaction) and rash going down! He slept from 5pm - almost 9pm.... he woke a had a snack and is acting normal and is going strong at 10:30PM hahahaa... he is sticking close to his "night-night" so I'm hoping he'll be heading to bed after the Clemson game when we'll be heading to bed:)

Well I'm getting off to get my camera ready for tomorrow... we've got another action packed day!! We have a little more shopping and preparations for the wedding on Saturday. Then tomorrow night we have the rehearsal and dinner:) How exciting...

Updates - "mum" and haircut

Well we survived another day!!!

Lydia went the whole day from 6am to 8:45pm without a nap.... it was exhausting... haahhahaa.... anyway, she fell asleep with very little fussing without her "mum"!! I know most of her quick sleep was from exhaustion and Tylenol, for the teething.

So tomorrow we travel and we've already been told by Grandma that there is a "mum" at her house (one we've left). I'm thinking that we've survived one day without it...hmmm maybe it's just time for them to go... I was pretty set on that decision

until I saw her stick two fingers in her mouth and attempt to suck them... it's a lot, lot, lot easier to break a kid from a paci than fingers.... so we'll see what happens. Plus we really have an action packed trip.... I'm not sure how any of us will survive with Lydia NOT napping for days:)


Chris did receive a haircut this evening... at the old salon... in the bathroom tub:) Anyway, he wiggled a little but did a great job holding his head down so the hair wouldn't get on him. And then when we needed to do the back of his head we did some fingerpainting.... Daddy's good 'ole cheapy shaving cream :)

Our distractions and patience worked... he's all trimmed up and ready to be a ringbearer:) Hahha... we've gotten the tux on him a few more times... but I'm not confident he'll do it... he'll be cute no matter what:)

BTW... don't you diggg my pink tiles:)

No Spelling Out, No Haircuts & No "Mums"

Yes, it's been another doozy of a day.... hahaha... Monday I wasn't 100%, Tuesday was grocery shopping and today has been "No" Day!!!

I knew it was going to be tough as I was in bed at 6am trying to get Lydia back to sleep:) Anyway, I heard the paci making a strange noise. Being half awake I figured it was because she was congested...nope....

No "Mums" - About 10am I realized that Lydia had chewwed through her LAST paci.... for the older two we just took their pacis when they chewed through their last. Anna and Chris had both just turned 2 and after a nap and evening of fussing they were fine. But Lydia is younger and I just haven't been as diligent to keep her paci for sleeping and traveling times (maybe that's why she's already busted through this last one soo early).

So now we're planning to travel to Grandma and Grandaddy's to celebrate the wedding of Uncle Scott and Miss Bea and I have a paci-less, teething, sleepy(not napping b/c of the missing paci) 20 month old...hmmm, doesn't sound fun, does it?

No Spelling Out - At lunch Brian and I were talking about our plans for the afternoon. Brian said, "Maybe this afternoon I can take the kids for a W-A-L-K....." It was about that time that Anna piped up and asked, "Can I go for a walk too?" Hahahaa

So just to check to see if she could really "read" he said ," What if I R-U-N?" And we looked at Anna and saw the little wheels turning in her brain. Then she said, "what, run?" Haaa haahaa. Then she got a little smile on her face and said, "Daddy do you know the word S-U-N?"

Looks like we're going to have to figure out a new code language or spell out larger words :)

No Haircuts - The last time we cut Christopher's hair he did a super job. We cut it in the tub so that we could rinse him off quickly since he gets upset when he itches (first we gather the cuttings of hair... no need to clog pipes).

So we decided to bring him to our sweet local beautician, Mandy. I'm not sure I need to continue the story except to say he pitched the biggest fit I've ever seen him pitch...WOW!! I tried talking calmly, offering candy, letting him comb his hair, being stern, "popping" in her back room....nothing worked, so we just left :(

We'll attempt another home haircut this evening. We usually do a good job, so I'm not worried about it but he would have looked soo sharp in his little tux with a super hair cut...hmmm you think he should do the "dinosaur hair"... hahaha.. just kidding:)

OK... it's 3:30pm and Lydia never napped. Christopher is awake because Lydia was loud and playing in his room and he's stinky! Maybe they'll be in bed earlier tonight so I can get the last minute packing and cleaning done....maybe?? No paci?? maybe not :(

Before she LOST her Paci

You'd think bringing 2 pacis would be enough for an 18-month-old.....but not for Lydia. She has lost BOTH already....tonight it disappeared at the SkatePark.....

So we had to finish the evening finding a new paci.... she has a cheapy Parent's Choice....but she took it....so thank goodness she is content again. Grammie was an angel for keeping the screaming child (and the two content ones) in the van whiloe we did the errands.

We have a busy day tomorrow......painting garbage cans (to get a permit to use the public park), then "club" in the afternoon and then the SkatePark in the evening:) We're excited to "finally" get started in the ministry we've been praying about for almost a year now:)

Christopher, My Christopher

Today is just one of those days that just seemed to be FULL of antics. The two younger ones barely napped this morning. I had a major task and some housekeeping that needed to be completed while they slept....ha hahaha!! Lunch was leftovers. Dishwasher, washing machine and dryer all going at the same time as I tried to clean. But I wanted to blog about my Little Man...

He decided that he didn't want to nap, so he played in his crib. (I think he knew he had made the right choice when he heard Lydia wake soon after he was put in his crib.) The girls played quietly in the living room for a bit and then disappeared......yep, right into Christopher's room. Well he had out his Duplos before his nap, so the girls come in and start playing with his favorite toys! I think he just couldn't handle watching them anymore and he climbed out of his crib!!! I walk in hearing Lydia fussing at someone and find Christopher fighting with her over a toy. He must have understood my surprise at seeing him and he said, "I jumped out my bed."

So we'll be in the market this next week for a bed for him!!! I guess I was expecting it would be soon, but I'm not ready for him to have free reign over the house just yet. We were lucky when we moved Anna to a big bed.....she was soo small she didn't realize that she could climb out herself and it took almost 6 months before she figured it out!! There is NOTHING Christopher won't try to climb in or out of.......so we'll have to plan on some "training time" with him :) Although he LOVES sleeping (when he is ready) so maybe it will be uneventful.

Some have asked about he is doing without his paci. He will occasionally ask for it but we'll just tell it broke and we threw it away at Grandma's house. And he'll usually say "Broke" and he's fine.

Paci Update

My Little Man is hanging in there with the no-paci deal. He has fussed for naps more than bedtime. I thought maybe he was over his morning nap but by lunch today he was "too rascally" for my tastes and was in time-out a little more than usual.....so looks like the morning nap will stay for a little longer.

To ease the naptime fussing, I've been letting him bring into bed one of his "Special" books... ones that I knew we would tear-up when he was little!! So he has enjoyed that and it seemed to work a little.

Another new developement is that he has been waking more in the middle of the night. He'd do this when he had his paci and he'd find it and go back to sleep. So now he'll call out for us and then we'll sit with him for a few minutes (until I fall alseep sitting up at the side of his crib).

A Rite of Passage

I'm a Momma who likes pacifiers. I've breastfeed each child and each has wanted to suck WAY beyond "nursing time". And for comfort, especially at bedtime!!! Or those quick trips into the store when you're pretty sure the baby is getting hungry, but you just need a minute!!

After the baby is about 6 months or so I start limiting paci time!! Like only in the car, in a store if they start to fuss and nap/bedtimes. But the big question of when and how to wean them completely off is hard. I would love to spend hours and days solving my "mommy questions" but it's not quite possible right now:)

We were fortunate with Anna because months after her 2nd birthday, she started to chew holes in her pacis. I showed her the problem and we threw them away together. And then one day she go to the last paci and I warned her about chewing holes into it and sent her to bed...... sure enough the next time I check it, it had a hole and so off to the trash it went. We had some crying for the first and second nap/bedtimes, but then the issue was over. SO easy!! No heart break for Momma! And the best thing was that she remembered throwing it in herself :) She asks where her paci is sometimes, I just answer her matter-of-factly, "We threw it in the trash because it was broken, you chewed holes in it, remember? "

Well, a couple of days ago I noticed Christoher's paci was starting a little hole. I warned him about chewing holes and then (bad mommy) let him have it for a few days to decide when to take it. We've been on our Christmas family visit/vacation and I really didn't want it to be an issue then. Anyway, this morning as we were packing up I checked it again and it was really bad...I couldn't give it back to him without worrying about it (choking hazard).

So I went through with the same plan as Anna. I showed Christopher the holes in the paci and said that we needed to "throw it away because it was broken". I was a little surprised with how easily he went along with everything. I gave him the paci and he walked with me to the trash and put it in with out much hesitation. On the way home he didn't even ask for it and took 2 naps. This evening , which I expected to be the "Big Realization", was too easy. We put him in bed and gave him his blanket and he went to sleep. He hasn't been feeling well today, so maybe we just got off easy tonight :) Well see what happens tomorrow!!!

BTW, each time I did have an extra one - just in case. But with Anna, since it was one she wasn't used to she didn't want it. We bought Lydia some new ones this weekend and bought a green one just as a backup.....Christopher wasn't even interested:)

I think this morning's "Paci tossing" was harder on the adults than Little Man. We see it as him growing up:) He saw it was helping Mommy throw away a broken paci :)