Graduation

Avery is no longer a baby in a crib. He is now a man. A man with his own bed, free of bars to keep him down. A bed that allows him to roam freely about the house, to grab toys and pile the bed high with them, and to discover where mom and dad sleep. Last week James decided it was time for graduation. Avery has been sleeping in a crib in the room that adjoins ours, and though we moved a loft bunk bed into Shannon's room with the toddler bed under it back in the summer, I wasn't ready then to move him and have him negotiate stairs in the middle of the night. He can handle the stairs at this point, but now the problem is he doesn't know what to do with his newfound freedom. The first night he finally drifted off to sleep at about 11:45, after 12 or so popping out of bed episodes. James dealt with them calmly but firmly, even though he's pretty darned cute coming in out of the room smiling and saying, "Hey daddy," or "hey mommy," like we asked him to stay awake until almost midnight. The next night James wasn't in and I didn't feel like dealing with it, so when he got up for the 5th time and said, "I want to sleep in Avery's crib," I said SURE! The past two nights he's slept upstairs again, and has gone to sleep a little quicker each time. Now Elizabeth will have her own graduation and then we will be free of the toe-stubbing Pack n Play in our room.

Sunday we did the church thing and that afternoon I had a riding lesson. I am learning a lot, I just wish I was able to practice what I learned between lessons! One day, one day. Monday was spent entirely at home, and the kids made their own fun (with a little help from me dragging some toys off the back porch for them.)

Yee haw, a roller coaster ride! Shannon gets some air.

Going....


...going....

...going...

Wipeout! (Yes, he was fine. Didn't even need a band aid.)











"Mom, does this match?" "No." "Can I wear it anyway?"






















Tuesday morning we headed out to give Mr. Ingles some more of our money, i.e., a trip to the grocery store because we were pretty much out of everything. I was carrying Elizabeth in the front carrier on my chest, Avery was in the buggy seat, and the other two rode on the cart garbage man style. I had no less than four people say, "You've got your hands full!" before we got to ailse five. "It's a good handful," I usually say, as my friend Jenny tells people when she's out with her four. And it is! They really don't give me a hard time, and are fun to take places...usually. The free popcorn they give out at Ingles makes it all worth it to the kids. My friend Alison says they also do free cookies, but so far I've been successful at keeping this a secret. About halfway through shopping I met a lady who had SIX kids with her. Wow.

Tuesday night James and I had the first of what we plan to make weekly date nights. We had a good talk about changing some things in our life to increase it's quality, and one of those is making sure we make time to hang out with each other. Back in the days before kids (when was that again?) we went out every Friday and/or Saturday. Nowadays we've fallen into a habit of doing our own thing every evening after kids are in bed, so we've institued Tuesday date night. Last night I dusted off the Backgammon game, and we played an intense three rounds. (Well, not really intense, I don't think you could make Backgammon intense if you tried, but it was fun!)

This morning was gymnastics. Shannon said he didn't want to go, he would just get put in time out. I tried to explain how he could avoid the time out chair. "I just can't pay attention!," he tried. He went anyway, didn't get put in time out, and had a good time. Meanwhile I took Elizabeth and Avery with me and got the oil changed in the car. I then terrorized Avery with the 1/2 price car wash they offer. Heh, heh, heh, all part of my diabolical plan. (He ended up thinking it was pretty fun after all.) Next time I'll get the vacuum too. Beware little kids everywhere!

Here's what I found after leaving Elizabeth in Amelia's room for a brief moment. She said she did it.


Tonight we had church, and now we're home, and I'm going to bed. Again. Same old thing every night.

PS- A few more photos, just for fun.

Here's Elizabeth coming out of that larval stage where they just sit, eat, and look around. She's starting to play with toys now (3 months). It's our fourth kid, but it's still amazing!



When an almost two-year old doesn't get his way.



Here's James' project, his pride and joy, his baby.


Here's how it got to be two colors. (February 2008)




All done! Now what was hard about that? Cool, huh?