We've had a long few days around here. Last weekend, Ashton decided that he would start to climb out of his crib, oh, pretty much constantly. I would put him down for bed or a nap and before I could even leave the room, he had scrambled up and over the rail. This became a great game for him. If I ignored him and shut the door, he would wail at the top of his lungs. But when I went back in or attempted to put him back, he thought it was funny and time to play. It got really annoying, really quick. Sunday night was the worst, he climbed out at 1:30 am and never went back to sleep. At all. Jason and I took turns trying to get him back down but it was the longest night I can remember as a parent. Ever. Between Ashton and Alex I think there were a couple nights I averaged 2 hours of sleep total.
Over the past week, we tried to put Ashton's mattress on the floor. Didn't work. We tried to take a side off his crib so when he climbed out, at least he could get back to bed. Nope. We put the side back on and took the bottom off, so his mattress was on the floor but still contained. We thought surely he would not be able to climb out. He did. This is all accompanied by the sudden total fear of going to bed and of the dark. He now cries when I even mention naptime or bedtime might be approaching. I put him in his crib and he wants me to stay in the chair until he falls asleep. Lots of protesting "Mommy don't go! Mommy stay in the chair!" and crying in general. What happened to my perfect 8 pm - 7:30 am sleeper with a 2-4 pm naptime??
It's obvious there is a lot of acting out behavior going on with Alex's arrival. But also, this new obsession with the dark definitely plays a role. Last night as dinnertime approached and the daylight faded, he kept pointing outside and telling me that it was getting dark. He also needs to see the crack of light from the hallway underneath his door, which has resulted in us keeping that on all night long. If we shut it off and he wakes up, he will cry, "I can't see the light! I can't see the light!" until we soothe him and turn it back on. He does have a nightlight too but I'm thinking I need to get a brighter bulb.
Anyway, we've had some long nights. Two nights ago he finally slept all the way through without climbing out, probably out of sheer exhaustion. Last night, he slept through again but at 7:08 am this morning, after hearing the telltale THUMP, the monitor revealed he had climbed out again. A few seconds later, "DADDYYYYYYY!!!" and wailing at the door.
The thing with parenthood? Always a new challenge. A friend of mine said that the hardest part about having two kids is not the baby, it's the older one. SO TRUE.
Ashton is otherwise great, although we said goodbye to Fran this morning at our last Early Intervention session :( We will really miss her, she has helped Ashton come so far in the past year and tomorrow we will say goodbye to Allison when she comes for our final speech session. But while sad I know Ashton is ready to move on. He's not perfect and we still have things to work on but Fran said she really thinks she has done all she can. I agree :-/ And speech wise, he is finally saying all those funny things that only toddlers say and it's really been a joy to hear him learn to speak better and more effectively - I feel like it happened in a flash! The other night in the tub, he said, "I need my circles so I can see far away" and proceeded to make fists, put them above his eyes and crane his neck. I laughed so hard and said, "You mean you need your binoculars?" and he said, quite seriously, "Yes." Not that I could blame him for not being able to say that word, but seeing him pretend with his fists on his forehead was pretty funny.
Anyway, because he has not re-qualified for EI and speech, we will likely not be going to Watertown Public Preschool which has a phenomenal integrated classroom program. He is enrolled at Belmont Nursery School and their summer camp weeks start in June (they do "water week", "dinosaur week", etc etc) and I might start him there before he goes full time in September. We all agree that while he is wild at home sometimes, he usually does well in structured settings and I think he will really like going to school. So that's the latest with Ashton :)
The latest with Alex - he went to his 2 week pediatrician appointment yesterday and is up to 8 lbs 3 oz. A growing boy for sure! Jason took him and I had asked him to please mention Alex's shoulders, which seem to me to be "loose" - when I pick him up they sort of feel like they shift or dislocate and I just wanted to make sure that was ok. Well Jason called me after and said, "His weight is great and everything looks perfect, except..." and I said, "What??" and he goes, "They put him in a tiny double baby arm sling! For his shoulders!"
"WHAT? Oh my god! What did they say about it?!"
[Cackling on the other end]: "April Fool's! His joints are all still limber due to birth and are fine." I couldn't decide whether to laugh or murder him. I chose the former :) But still. My husband thinks he's so funny sometimes.
These boys are keeping me so busy I haven't actually been taking many pictures! But here are a couple of the latest.
I did my first solo trip to the park with both of them yesterday. Alex slept in his car seat the whole time (thankfully) and Ashton of course immediately got to work on perfecting his scootering:
It's all in the lean :)
That's all from the Nills for now! xox
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