Silly Goose

Bear is styling with his 3D glasses that came with some sidewalk chalk. I think he wore these for at least a week. My favorite term to call them when they do something silly is to say, "You goose!" Cooper will correct me and say, "No Bear's a silly goose!"

Good ol Gold's

When we moved to Raleigh a new Gold's Gym opened up just 2 miles from where we lived. I started taking classes there and they were the first place that I was able to leave my boys and get any time to myself. At a certain point another mom pointed out that if I worked a few hours at the day care I could get my gym membership for free. So that began our time working at the day care. Then we moved out to Apex and our schedule just could not quite recover. We had to leave to go to work right in the middle of Bear's nap times. It took about 25 minutes to get there. Can't say those were good times :-) We started to leave early so they'd nap in the car ride over and we'd sit for an hour in the parking lot while they slept and I read. That was not fun once it started getting hot. Sometimes I could transfer Bear to the movie room to continue his nap.





Poor guy this one little girl tortured him with the drum over his head while he was trying to sleep. At a certain point I began to think that it might be worth it to just go back to paying for a membership. Just as I started to think about that I saw a commercial for Military One Source. They mentioned that we could get a free membership at the YMCA. We just had one open less than 2 miles away! We went and did a tour and fell in LOVE with it. I just loved the kids everywhere and it was so much more family oriented. They do activities with the kids and don't just put them in front of the tv- it was really a nice place. So I quit Gold's that night we've been at the Y ever since. The boys are funny- if I say we are going to the "gym" they think it's Gold's. I have to tell them we are going to the Y or they are not happy campers!

Say Cheese

Nap Update

Not sure who Bear thought he was fooling all the times he's told me he's not tired and then falls asleep sitting up! He had given up his nap for a little while but he's now pretty content to take a nap most days. On the rare day he doesn't take a nap he is pretty much nothing but a fussy boy so we don't do that often.

One day last week on the way home from school he told me he wanted to eat. I told him that we would take a nap first and then when he woke up he could eat. So he closed his eyes let out 2 fake snores and said, "Ok I'm awake now let's eat!"

Bear's 3rd Birthday

May 27th was Bear's 3rd Birthday!!!! This is the first "real" birthday cake we attempted!!! The crust is pecans & raisins. The icing is fresh dates and lemon blended till creamy and then topped with fresh raspberries! It took the boys a full week to recover from eating this cake :-)



Bear really enjoyed eating all of the raspberries off the cake first! I think if I had it all to do over again I would have just given him a huge bowl of berries!

The present aftermath......



While Bear took his nap Cooper was such the helper as we put together a little party for Bear. We went into the crawl space and pulled out all of the decorations and blew up balloons together. I tell this story because now EVERY time we are near the crawl space door Coop wants to put together a birthday party! This video is when Bear has just woken up from his nap and we are surprising him with his party.




This video is me horribly singing Happy Birthday BUT I posted it because it's of Bear making a wish and blowing out his candle!



This video is of Jim calling in to sing happy birthday to Bear!

I think all in all it was a great day for Bear and now they want to have birthday's pretty often. We took our leftover cake to the neighbors across the street (Jim & Kelly) and they gave the boys some more. Then we took it to Edna & Doug's and they gave the boys some more. Needless to say the boys ask for "birfday" cake often!!

Dern Jack in the Box

Inspector Sullivan

I Wanna Be Like Daddy

I Want You!

Come on throw a flag around him and he's Uncle Sam!!

Bear In The Legos..... Oh My

Hanging Out

How To Eat A Banana

This is a long video (2:46) but I couldn't resist posting it.

More Headgear

Sweet Bliss

You know it's a good meal when.......

Quotables

I'm out in the living room doing some work while Jim is giving the boys a bath. I hear Jim in a very stern voice say, "Bear Monihan! Stop throwing things!"
Bear with all the joy of a toddler replies, "Yeaaaahhhhhhhh!"

More Sleep Saga.........

I just had to share. Last night I was rocking Bear to sleep and we got to the song where he's usually either snoring or on his way out and he was still wide awake. I decide to go with it and put him in the bed. As I stand up he flings himself back and starts giggling. I wrap him up in his blanket (he likes to pull it up to his chin and his feet have to be covered) and wait for the inevitable screaming or clutching at me to not go. Instead I hear him say in the most pleasant tone, "Byeeeeee!" I walked out and we heard not a single fuss out of him!

We had made it 6 nights in a row with Bear not waking up at all during the night. Two nights ago at 3:38 am he woke up screaming. I shot out of bed forgetting I was blind with my eye mask on but my heart was racing. I was sure he'd fallen off the bed or something. I caught myself as I tripped over Jim's side of the air mattress and as I took off my mask was actually standing there wondering what in the world I was doing. It took a few seconds to hear the scream again and then just a few more minutes before he was back asleep. Jim didn't even stir.

So last night at right about the same time Bear wakes up again with a scream. This time I am jostled awake by the feeling of going airborne as Jim jumps off the air mattress and goes running for the bedroom door. I tried several times to whisper to him not to go in there but I'm not sure if it was in my mind or he didn't hear me. I had to shout for him not to go in there. He stopped in his tracks and very irritably said, "but he's crying!" I said, "I know hon he did it last night too he'll be fine." Jim got back in bed and maybe 30 seconds later both he and Bear were back asleep.

I have to say it's been wonderful to get this sleep routine established. I know it was mostly my fault and just not letting go of the baby phase. I feel silly for it to have taken this long but it's always harder when it's your own. If I was babysitting it would be so different. I hate to hear them cry even though sometimes I know it's ok.

Mr. Adventure

I know- Mr. Adventure??? Bear usually sits in his booster seat to eat. But lately he's taken to climbing up a chair, crawling on the table, backing himself onto his high chair and sliding in. Basically he's saying I'm hungry feed me now!

Do You Think...

Do you think Daddy would notice the extra weight?

Sleep Saga Continued..........

So much to tell. The last month we've made significant progress in our goal to get everyone a full night sleep without the drama! It was about two weeks ago that it really started to shift. We'd had a busy morning and Bear was exhausted. He fell asleep in the high chair and I picked him up put him in his crib gave him a kiss and off I went. He cried for a while and then there was silence. It was the first time he'd put himself back to sleep alone. You know that little light bulb that goes off and you realize you've been a sucker? I had a very and I mean very bright light bulb go off.That night I started a new routine for bed. He gets a story then I rock him and then he goes in the crib. He inevitably wakes up and screams bloody murder but it has not lasted longer than 10 minutes. Karen (our babysitter) did the same thing and he fussed about 10 or so minutes and then he's out. I think my exact words to her were something to the effect of, "He goes in the crib for his nap. I don't care how you do it but I'm outta here!" I have to admit that it's been a little bit, okay a lot, freeing. Jamie kept telling me it I would know when it it was time. She was right. (As usual.)

So we are able to get him down to sleep and his naps without being hijacked any more. So then we realized we had to work on his 5:30 am wake-up. He would wake up and crawl out of the crib and sometimes go to sleep until 6:30 or 7 am. We would get two good mornings and then we have the "I want to nurse battle". He has enough stubbornness from me, Jim and GiGi. He's incredible. Just to give you some perspective on his stubborn streak. It's been almost a year now that I've been complaining about his habit of sticking his hand down my shirt and pinching me HARD. I have yet to ever give in and let him do it. I woke up a few times with him pinching me and stopped him. Yet he still continues to reach down all the time. It amazes me, just amazes me.

So last week as I'm debating what to do (put his crib with Cooper or switch them) Jamie says that until he has his own room he will keep waking up and needing us. (Did I mention she's always right?) So much to Jim's chagrin I pull out the air mattress and make up our bed in the living room. The first night he woke up at 12:48. I had on my eye mask and was completely disoriented. Jim had to remind me where I was and what was happening. He cried for a little while and lo and behold he went back to sleep. Jim left for the weekend and I'm thrilled to say Bear has slept through the night both nights!

They both got me this morning though. I woke up and heard Coop talking and giggling. Then a few minutes later I heard Bear starting to fuss. I peeked out my eye mask and saw it was 6:38. I couldn't believe how tired I was though. I got them and they were thrilled. They both crawled into bed with me and I tried to go back to sleep as they played over me. I looked again and it was not even 6 am yet! I guess it was 5:38 and I was too groggy to realize it. I can assure you that won't happen again.

But out of this whole saga here's what has had us in stitches cracking up. Bear just hates being in the crib. Every night we find him in our bed with his blanket or our blanket over him. This took the cake though when we went in and he was in the middle of our bed and under our covers.The next month should be even more fun as we transition him to just his crib and then into Cooper's room. (Not sure if our backs can survive an air mattress for that long.) This way when we get to our new home by the end of summer they will be used to sharing a room and will hopefully transition well. We'll keep you posted.

Hurry Get Bear!