Spider!

That's what we heard at 12:38am last night. Not sure if it was imagined, a nightmare, a wayward fuzz, or the real deal, but Grace Noel was terrified. She keeps finding them all over the house, which is impressive since this isn't really the season. I'm starting to think she has inherited my curse. The curse being my uncanny ability to sense and spot a spider in any given location, any given moment. It truly is a 'spidey sense'! The other day one almost landed on her hand as she hit a light switch. That so would happen to me. She also imagines every black fuzz, crumb, and piece of lint in the house is a spider until proven otherwise and is instantly afraid. I'm the same way! It's pathetic when she calls for help and both of us tip toe around leaning close, but not too close to see if it moves. If I don't have my glasses on, forget it, it's a spider and we yell for daddy. Better be safe than sorry.

I felt for her last night thinking one was in her bed. That's the worst! I have a very vivid memory as a child of one landing on my face in the dark. I was paralyzed for what felt like eons until I ran from my room screaming. Could have been my own hair for all I know, but the alternative was horrifying.

Sean, having spent 7 years calming my spider phobia, was a pro with our little girl last night. He checked every corner and sheet and showed her how every inch was clean. I was glad he took over. I was still glancing nervously around the floor.

Sadly, more sleep was stolen from us about 5-6:30 am because Benny started screaming. Pretty sure he just wanted waffles, though. Sorry buddy, Fear of starvation without breakfast foods is really more daddy's thing.

Brothers

Just some random pics of my little guys, or as Gracie and I call them "The boys".
As in, "What are those boys doing?"
"You better check on the boys, mama! "
"Boys, clean up that mess! You naughty boys!"

Sigh.

We are working with her on not calling them naughty, but mischievous and rambunctious doesn't roll off the tongue as easily when you're two.

Speechless

While riding in the Car

Gracie: You marry mama? (married)
Me: Yep, I married daddy
Gracie: I not marry. I keep my pants and shirt on.
Me: Ummm...
Sean: Uhhh...
Me: Hmmmm...
Sean: Yeeeeeah.

Lockdown

The problem started the day Tate figured out how to unlatch the safety knobs we have on all the door sin the house.

We have had one on the inside of their bedroom door since we put them into toddler beds. The first week was crazy early mornings exploring their new found freedom, but things returned to normal after that. Currently, we go to bed at 6:45 ish and wake up around 7ish. If they wake up too early (they usually being Grace, who then wakes up the rest of us), we leave them in their room to play with stuffed animals or get undressed and sing until it is a decent hour.

Well, now that he could undo the knobs we knew our days were numbered. A few mornings ago he unlocked it and they waltzed right into our bedroom at 7am. They were giddy, it was sort of funny. No big deal. The next night Sean put tape all around it to keep the knob on. The next morning was Saturday and I already posted about the madness that ensued after they slowly peeled off the tape. The next night we put the tape on the knob and the gate on the outside of the door so even if they got it open, they couldn't get out. This worked for one day. But they still were up hollering at 6am. Yesterday morning Tate scaled the gate using all of their pillows as a booster. First order of business was to very slowly close my bedroom door (sneaky little guy!) and run down the hall. Of course I heard them at 5:30 am when they started plotting. See the trend here? Wake up time has gone from 7am to 5:30 am over the last week!

People keep suggesting perhaps they aren't needing that much sleep anymore, but I find it suspicious since the morning escapes have become SO exciting as of late. So last night we did a controversial thing by locking the bedroom door from the outside. We reversed the knob. I have conflicting feelings about this for safety reasons, but they couldn't let themselves out of the room (in theory) with a safety knob anyway, so why is a lock any different? Really, I feel more nervous about them getting out at night and getting into the knife drawer, laundry detergent, or even worse, unlocking the front door and disappearing!

The other piece of the puzzle is Benny. If this was just disrupting my sleep I might suck it up, but all the noise has been jarring Benny awake way too early and creating a cranky, cling monster until nap time. It seems unfair to him too!

So this morning we heard them at 5:30am ignored them until 7am. I think we got maybe 20 minutes of sleep while we just lie in bed listening. It reminded me of the stressful nights 2 years ago letting them cry it out for the first time. It was more about training than sleep at that moment. My hope is that over the next few mornings they see the party is indeed OVER and start sleeping in again. This also involves a lot of negotiation at bed time where we remind Gracie that "yelling in the morning wakes up Benny and makes him SO sad, so will you please, please talk quietly until mommy comes to the door?" She responded with a lispy "Yeth mommy!" We also give Tate a pep talk, "If Gracie wants you to wake up its ok to say no thank you sissy, I'm still sleeping." Heh, It's worth a shot.

You Wouldn't Believe

the sheer insanity that Saturday morning held for us.

It started at 4am with Grace barfing in bed. Turns out that we can clean it up and have a toddler snuggled back in a clean bed in 8 min. Not bad.

6:15 we hear G and T, but is TOO EARLY to get up so we ignore them. Tate has been getting out of their room like Houdini, but Sean taped up the safety lock so we were SURE they couldn't get out on their own.

Fast fwd to 8:15 am. Oh crap. Why are we sleeping? Why is is so quiet??
Open our door to reveal their door is wide open. OOOH crap! I find G and T downstairs. She is drinking a can of my coke from the night before. Tate is putting on a dvd. There is blue sharpie all over the computer monitor. UGH.

(A helpful tidbit-Magic Eraser can clean permanent marker!)

Then we go into Benny's room and the poor guy is covered in barf, just sitting in the corner of his bed. I feel like the worst mom EVER.

We get everyone bathed and cleaned and start breakfast. Benny throws up in his highchair. Clean that up.

30 min later Sean and I are taking down the Christmas tree (finally, don't judge).

As I am holding the tree up Gracie starts SPEWING barf all over the couch. Sean runs her to the bathroom and I can't help because I am holding up the stupid tree! Benny runs after them and crawls through her vomit on the bathroom floor. Sean is trying to convince him to leave while comforting Grace. Meanwhile, Tate gets towels from the kitchen and tried cleaning it off the couch by himself. Aghhh! I am trying to tell him to stop, but little guy is just trying to be helpful.

Let's just say it was another hour before everything and everyone was clean again.

The icing on the cake was believing that we were all over the worst, until I started throwing up last night-until early this morning. On the bright side: I lost 5 lbs.

Hoping for full health tomorrow for all!

Where your Jeans?!

Gracie is obsessed with denim this week. She wants to wear a pair of jeans every day. As soon as I open their door in the morning, she says "Mama change me! Where's my jeans?!" She has also concerned herself with our pants options as well and will often look for jeans for all of us. If I even change out of jeans into pj's or sweats after dinner she scolds me with a pointed finger, " Mama! you put your jeans back on right now!!!"

This girl.

Last night was the best though as she called me at work to say goodnight, but as soon as daddy handed her the phone she said, "You wearin' your jeans right now mama?" Luckily I was. I'd hate hear the tongue lashing that would have ensued.

Perhaps we have a future fashionista on our hands? Or just the usual two-year old flavor of the week. She also slept with her kitty coat on last night. Two nights ago she slept with mismatched mittens on, a wind-up santa and a Little People camel she named Rudolph. There's some battles not worth fighting.

Benny Update

Benny had his well check yesterday and the good news is that his little wang (I can say that on my blog, right?) Has straightened out so we are no longer considering surgery. The thought was he would end up with a side-squirting stream ;)

The not so great news is that he is dropped into the 10th percentile for weight. He is in the 70th for height, but has only gained 5 oz in the last 4 months. Nothing like a big dose of mom guilt to brighten my day. The kids eats! A lot! He had 3 bananas on Sunday for snack alone. ugh. So we are going back in March to see if I am an unfit mother check his weight again. Until then we'll pushing as many high calorie foods as we can. Any healthy/chubby baby making recipes are greatly appreciated!

In other news: he's still pretty cute.