Rip Van Novak

Look who just woke up from a three hour nap!

Bye bye crib...hello big boy bed!

I'm so far behind on things this summer that I'll probably be posting in September about Nate's DNA experiment that we did in June...but I had to get this milestone up today.

Novak has a big boy bed!

My new bed!

Checking out the new bed.

Doesn't he look excited?

He slept in this bed all night last night without any trouble.  He didn't get up, didn't wake in the middle of the night crying, and didn't ask for his "binky" (his pacifier, which he has needed almost every night for his entire life).  

I'm a bit sad about this.  My baby is growing up, and although I know it's inevitable (and life continues to be much better the older and more mature he gets), it's still bittersweet.  There was a part of me last night that was hoping he would wake up crying for his binky - so that he wouldn't cross two milestones in the same night.  But this was just my mom instinct kicking in, the one that wants to cuddle my babies until they are 21.

And almost as if he could sense it, Novak just came in and crawled into my lap to give me a huge hug.  

"Mommy, I just need you."  

Okay, so I still have that....

dreams of flight

Tonight, I rocked Novak before bed, as he was looking out the window at the back yard.

"Mommy, can I fly?"

"No, honey, you can't fly."

"Can I have wings?"

"I'm sorry, only birds have wings.  People don't have wings.  Wouldn't it be great if we did?  Would you like to be a bird?"

"Yes."

"What color bird would you be?"

"Blue."

"Oh, I like blue.  You'd be a pretty blue bird."

"Can I be red?"

"Sure, you can be red."

"Can I be a red cardinal?"

"Yes, you can be a red cardinal."

Time to lower the mattress again.

Night owl

It's 6:30 on a Friday night.

Nate could not wait to get home from dinner because we had promised him he could stay up late.

Until 8:00.

And what was he so excited to stay up late doing?

Reading.

In bed.

Alone.

This may be my favorite picture of all time.

Success!

Remember the window issue in Novak's room?

It's fixed. (at least, it's vastly improved)

The solution?

Window darkening film. Less than $20 and it's like putting sunglasses on your windows.  I only put it on the arch top window.  I'm considering getting more for the bottom windows, but we'll see how this does first.

The room is much darker...let me create a "before and after" for you.

Before: (Note the sunlight streaming in the top window)

After: (much improved!)

These two pictures were taken the same time of day, on super sunny evenings.  It may not look like that much of a difference in the photos - but it's an incredible improvement.  Hooray!

And Novak was able to put himself to sleep tonight.

Double Hooray!

It's good to be king...

Let it never be a question who is king of this house...

Being a daddy

Today, at naptime, Nile asked me when he would be "a daddy." Usually, to him, being a daddy means being a grownup.

So I said it would be a long time. And I told him that I didn't want it to come for a while. Of course, he asked why.

"Well, because when you're a daddy, you will be all grown up and you won't live with me any more. You'll have your own house."

"But I want to stay here and live with you!"

I gave him a hug and told him he could stay here with me for a long time. Then came the kicker.

"But who will be my mommy?"

"What, honey?"

"Who will be the mommy for my babies?"

"Oh! Well, when you grow up, you'll meet someone who you really like, and when you decide that you love her and want to marry her, then she will be the mommy and you'll be the daddy."

"What if I don't like her?"

"Then you won't marry her, honey. You only marry someone that you really like."

"Like Emma's mommy?"

"Not quite! You will marry someone who is a kid right now, that will grow up and be your age. I, Emma's mommy, and the other ladies who are mommies today will all be grandmas then."

"Oh, okay."

"All right, honey, have a nice nap. I love you."

"I love you too, Mom."

I love this age so much!

Bedtime questions

Nile: "Mom? If Novi wanted to sleep in my bed I would hold on to him all night."

(holds up arms in circle shape)

Baby Fish's Room

It is starting to come along...

Today is one of those rare days when I actually don't mind doing four loads of laundry. That's primarily because two of those loads are tiny baby clothes, and the third was new baby crib bedding.

Of course I still have to fold and match about a hundred tiny socks when these loads come out of the dryer...so ask me again in a few hours if I still love the tiny baby things (I bet I still will).

Bunk bed update: after the dawn

I woke abruptly this morning, for reasons I couldn't quite determine.
My first thought was to the boys in the bunk bed. Were they up?
Lying in bed, I couldn't hear anything going on. I checked the clock,
it was 6:30 am. Wide awake, I went to the bathroom and climbed back in
bed.

That's when I heard it. The voices of two little boys, from the other
end of the house. I didn't know what they were doing. But they
weren't arguing.

So I went to check out the situation. Nile's bedroom door was open,
and the bathroom light was on. I walked into the bathroom to see...

Nate was helping Nile out of his PJ's. He had already helped Nile get
the potty seat out, helped him climb up on the seat, and clean up
afterward. He had also put a sticker on Nile's new potty chart (which
we made yesterday). It was the cutest, nicest thing I think I have
seen him do ever for Nile.

So I think the first night of sharing the bunk beds was a huge success!

Sent from my iPhone

bunk bed, part 2

A little over a month ago, we got Nile a bunk bed. Nate has been asking to sleep on the top bunk every day since then.

Finally tonight was the night. The requests had turned around: Nile has been asking us for the last few days if Nate could sleep on the top bunk. So we finally gave in and decided to go ahead and let them do it. Don't they look happy? ;)

Funny thing is, Nile has refused to sleep with a blanket or quilt over him for his entire life. The moment he found out Nate was sleeping under his comforter, Nile had to also.

Now all I am hoping is that we don't hear a crash in the middle of the night if Nate decides he needs to go to the bathroom. He has sworn that he knows how to get down, but in a sleepy stupor, I don't know how well that will work... I guess I'm also hoping that they sleep in. I do not want both of them in our room at 6 am (which is when Nate has been getting up). Maybe they will play together in their room. Wishful thinking? Probably.

Bunk Bed Heaven

Nile got a new bed. It's a bunk bed from IKEA. It took the whole family three hours to put together this morning - probably could have been done a bit faster without two "helpers."

I couldn't convince him to sit on it for a picture, but here it is anyway, without him.

He must like it well enough now - although at first he didn't want to nap in it (he wanted to lay on the floor), I was able to convince him that it was better to sleep on a mattress actually IN a frame. (Since we moved in, he has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor.)

Nate, on the other hand, is resting in his room in his new tent, after we had to tell him he couldn't nap on the top bunk today.

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle...Nathan?

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, law, justice, validity, mind, and language.^[1][2] Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions (such as mysticism or mythology) by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned argument.^[3] Philosophy comes from the Greek φιλοσοφία [philosophia], which literally translates to "love of wisdom".

(thank you Wikipedia)

Nathan is definitely the philosopher in the family. Lately, as I tuck him into bed at night, his line of questions has gotten more and more difficult to answer. This is probably compounded by the fact that I have sworn to myself that I will NEVER lie to my children. I'll tell them the truth, and if I don't know the answer, I tell them that too. And I'm not kidding (at least not about the important stuff). This includes the fat man in the red suit - if they ask if he's real, I will have a very hard time not spilling the beans. But I digress.

In the last month, Nate has started to question everything. And this isn't the type of questioning I would expect from a preschooler. He wants to truly understand, and he wants answers. "I don't know" isn't cutting it any more.

So let me illustrate with a few examples.

A month or so ago, back in the farmhouse...
"Mommy, what kind of prayers do you say at night?" Well, I say thank you for my 2 great boys, thank you for daddy, thank you for family...things like that.
"What else?" I might ask for help with a problem I'm having.
"What kind of problem?" Well, maybe I need some help being patient with you. Or maybe I need to remember to not get frustrated with Nile.
"What else?" I ask for blessings, and to keep everyone I love safe. Like you.
"How does God hear prayers?" I don't know exactly, but I know that he must.
"Why?" Well, because when I ask for something, I usually find that it happens.

A few weeks ago, the topic of conversation was heaven.
"What does heaven look like?" Well, I like to imagine it's a very beautiful place.
"Where is heaven?" Nobody really knows, honey. You don't go there until you die.
"I think it's another planet." Okay.
"But it can't be another planet, there is no life on the other planets." Well, honey, there could be life on another planet far away from our solar system.
"You mean like the planet Cybertron?" Perhaps.
"But where is heaven?" I don't know.
"Well, how do you get there?" When you go to heaven, your body stays on Earth. It's just your soul that goes to heaven. Your soul is the part of you that has your thoughts, your feelings, all the important parts of you. But your body stays here. So we don't know how we get there.
"How do you know it's real?" Honey, sometimes we don't know. We just feel it. I really believe that there is something that is out there for us. But I won't ever know for sure.
"Will I go to heaven?" Yes. But not for a very, very, very long time. I want you to stay here with me as long as possible. Okay?
"Okay." Goodnight.
"Goodnight."


A few nights ago...
"What do angels look like?" I don't know, honey, I've never seen one.
"Why do they watch over you at night?" To make sure that you stay safe. But they don't just watch over you at night."
"They look like a glowing light." They do? Have you seen one?
"But I don't see the light at night!" I don't think they glow, honey.
"How can they watch you in your room?" They can see you even though you're in the dark in your room. They have special powers.
"Like Superman's X-ray vision?" Yeah, kind of like that.
"But they live in heaven. How do they travel to Earth?" Well, they don't travel like you and me. They don't have bodies, so they can move around much easier.
"Like through walls and things?" Yes, like that.

And Monday...
"How do babies get in the mommies' tummies?" Hmmmm.... (desperately searching for words to explain this to a 2 year old...) Well, when the mom and the dad decide they want to have a baby, they put a little piece of the mommy with a little piece of the daddy and those two pieces combine to form a little tiny ball. It grows bigger, and bigger, then it grows arms and legs and a head and it turns into a baby. And you know what happens after that, right? When the mommy has the baby?
"Yeah. But how does it get in the mommy?" The most important part is when the baby is here, and we can hold it and love it, just like baby Emily. That's a lot better than when the baby is still in the mommy. You don't have to understand the rest when you're four. When you get older it will make more sense. Okay?
"Okay." (as I breathe a huge sigh of relief!)

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

Well, it's been exactly 7 days since we moved into our new house. Finally I feel like I can sit down and be on the Internet for more than 2 minutes...and finally it is starting to feel like home.

We love the new house. So far there is nothing that I don't like about it. I'm sure I will find something eventually, but in the first 7 days, nothing.

Both boys have settled in very easily to the new routine (or maybe just to any routine, the last few weeks before moving were CRAZY). Nile in particular has really adjusted well. We made the executive decision not to set up the crib in his new room.

Last week, before moving, we thought we might be able to find a twin size bed frame for him. Six, maybe seven, stores later, we did not find one which we liked. It's amazing how many bunk beds these stores sell. I mean, honestly? And to get away from the white "princess" beds to get a brown wood bed frame was pushing $700 or more at most stores.

So, needless to say, we don't have a bed frame for Nile. But, we do have a mattress. So, Nile has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for a week. Without drama. Yes, my child...the overly dramatic one...has been waking up happy! (Flashback to just a few weeks ago) And so far, unlike his brother, he actually STAYS in bed once we put him down. I'm sure this part won't last, but it's wonderful right now.

I've been hoping to get a photo of him in his bed sleeping, but with the room darkening blinds it's just way too dark for a photo. And he has no desire to pose for me right now. So...maybe later.