Out and In and Back Out again

Remember just last weekend when Sweet Pea rejected her toddler bed and we ended up putting the full crib back together again?  Remember when I called it a draw?  Well, score one for Sweet Pea because the count is now Sweet Pea 1, Mama and Papa 0. 

Yesterday all of the kids had a birthday party to attend that fell right in the middle of nap time.  It was the party of a really good friend so missing it was just not an option, sometimes naps just have to be skipped or manipulated.  We tried manipulated.  We put Sweet Pea in her crib an hour earlier than usual.  She had started to fall asleep in the car during errands so we felt like it just might work.  A few minutes later we find Sweet Pea walking down the hall.  Papa Bear and I both thought the other one had gotten her out of her crib for some reason until we put her back in and a few minutes later she reappeared in the hallway.  The third time, Papa Bear spied from a slightly cracked doorway and saw her ingenious way of climbing out of her crib.  Needless to say, she didn't nap.  We were hoping it was a one time thing and when we put her to bed for the night she stayed put.  That is, she stayed put until 6:45 this morning when she appeared next to my side of the bed yelling good morning.  So she wants her crib and to be able to get out of it too. 

Oh my darling girl, what are we going to do with you??  I don't know what our next move will be...keep the crib and hope she stops her midnight escapes, go ahead with the toddler bed even though it made her cry or just move to a regular bed because if we are going to have to go with a transition we might as well just get it all over and done with. 

I am going to try and get a video of her escape because Papa Bear says it is worth watching!

King Bee Day

Peanut's King Bee Day

I don't really know how to explain King Bee Day.  Peanut's teacher didn't want to celebrate birthday's in the classroom so instead she created something called King and Queen Bee Day where that child gets to show share something important to them and gets to feel special all day.  Peanut decided that he wanted to play his guitar and show off his Papa's construction stuff.  Papa Bear took a long lunch break and came to share Peanut's King Bee day and then he took all of out to lunch.  Peanut was thrilled to be the center of attention and get some special Papa time.  And I have to say that his spontaneous talking and singing is something that I am so very proud of, I just couldn't ask for more from my Peanut.

A Valentine's Preschool Party

I will admit that I was a bit grumpy this morning.  Having to coordinate corn-free cookies and candy around different holidays can be exhausting.  So yes, I was a bit grumpy trying to get Little Man off to school with the party supplies I provided for his Valentine's Party, pack up cookie dough and all natural sprinkles for Peanut to take to his school, all of the homemade valentine's cards and the regular morning activities of breakfast, packed lunches and school bags etc.

But at 11:30 when I watched Sweet Pea go and sit down with Peanut at circle time in his classroom like she belonged there and then watched Peanut instruct Sweet Pea on where and how to sit my grumpiness started to melt away.  Then my littles got to sit down and eat the cookies that Peanut had made with our corn-free cookie dough.  They were in heaven, granted it was a very sugar-rush induced heaven, but it worked.  It was chaos in his classroom and the adults did not look like they were having fun.  But this smile, made it all worth it.  And Sweet Pea, well she finally got to "have a school day" and joined right in like it was her class all along. 

Play Dough - A Comparision of Children

Monday afternoon's are challenging because all 3 kids are home and these days usually awake by 2:00.  I am supposed to work from 1-4; so you see the challenge.  Yesterday I whipped up some homemade play dough and pulled out all of the accessories, rolling pins, safety scissors, cookie cutters and some pretend play food like ice cream cones and pizza cutters.  I got myself another hour of work time as all 3 kids played nicely with their play dough stash.  (Tip: only make one color so no on is fighting over colors and have at least 3 scissors and 2 rollers because they are highly coveted items) 

After a while I started watching them play in their individual ways.  It was so interesting to see their personalities in their play dough play. 

Sweet Pea makes a big pile of play dough and meticulously starts to cut away at it.  For an hour.  She is focused and determined.  She doesn't need variety and doesn't vie for my attention or approval. She claps for herself and cheers herself on.  She eventually switches to making shapes and letters in the dough and calling out the names.

Peanut makes food.  Yup, he makes ice cream, pizza and pancakes.  He hordes the food he makes and then smooches it all back into a ball and starts over again. 

Little Man is all over the place in what he makes but what is consistant is that he is constantly trying to sell his objects to his brother and sister or make something for them to use.  He doesn't want to play alone, he would prefer that they all work together to make a giant pizza or a pretend ice cream shop (as long as they make it his way).

I say it all the time, I am a mom of 3 and have experienced most motherhood dilemma's and childhood personalities at least once so far, I thought I would be more prepared but each kid is so different....that it doesn't make me feel prepared at all but it sure is fun!

Red-Headed Chicken Theory

Every wondered why some eggs at the store are brown and some are white?  Well this week, the brown, free-range organic eggs were the same price as the white regular eggs we normally buy so, after conferring with me to make sure that the color change in the eggs wouldn't freak out Little Man, Papa Bear bought them.  Little Man eats hard boiled eggs like they are going out of style and we were worried that the change in appearance would put him off his game.  When he got home from school today he was so excited to try an "orange" egg and then he asked me why some eggs are white and some eggs are brown and I told him that we would have to look it up together because I wasn't sure.  Of course, being Little Man, he had a theory of his own that he wanted to share first.  His hypothesis is that the orange eggs came from red-headed chickens.  That made me laugh and we looked it up.  I told him that it turns out that brown eggs come from chickens with brown feathers and white eggs come from chickens with white feathers.  (Ok to be precise, it is actually the color of the chicken's earlobes, but the color of the earlobes are closely correlated to feather color and I did not have time for an earlobe debate with Little Man)  When I told him what I had found on the computer, he said "That is sort of close to what I said, red-head chicken - brown feathered chicken.  Same thing". 

From now on, brown eggs come from red-headed chicken.  It's a good theory.

Out and In - A Bedtime Tale

This morning, while I entertained the Little Man and Sweet Pea with arts and crafts, Papa Bear assembled Sweet Pea's toddler bed.  We really thought she was ready to move to a bed that she could get in and out of especially since we moved Peanut to his big boy bed around this same age and Little Man was far younger.  Peanut came and got Sweet Pea when it was ready and exclaimed "Ta Da!" as he showed her the change to her bed.  She immediately claimed that the bed was broken because the front rail has an opening.  So we explained it to her and she seemed ok but not overly impressed.  When it came time for nap she adamantly refused to sleep in it.  She cried, yelled, got out of it, tried to sleep in her glider chair and eventually we just gave up on making her nap.  Papa Bear and I discussed all the pro's and con's of pushing through this and realized that this just wasn't a fight worth fighting.  She is potty trained day and night, we don't need the crib for anything else and if she wants to sleep in a crib for a while longer yet we are ok with that.  So after dinner Papa Bear put the front rail back on the crib.  Sweet Pea was so happy to have her bed back that we skipped her 4 book, 2 song bed routine and she snuggled into her bed wrapping herself in her blankets and saying "no more big girl bed".  You win some and you lose some.  I think for now we will call this a draw - we don't really care what kind of bed she sleeps in as long as she is sleeping soundly in a bed in her room and we aren't in that much of a hurry to see our baby grow up. 

Does This Have Corn In It?

Recently I have been worried that Peanut is too concerned about food that has corn in it.  He has asked me if the pretend food he was playing with had corn in it, he asks me at random times if a certain food has corn in it, usually something he considers a treat, donuts, cakes and when I confirm that some of those foods do have corn he asks me if I can make him some that don't have corn.  Two to three times a day, he asks about it.  He asks me in the mornings before preschool if he can have the snack that day and if all valentines candy has corn in it.  Admittedly, I constantly think about the contents of the food he is eating but that's my job as his mom and I don't want him to have to worry.  Vigilant yes, worried, no.  So I started to ask myself if I was talking about it too much, putting too much emphasis on it in front of him.  I paid more attention to what triggered him asking about it and cut way back in referring to corn-free anything to see if he relaxed too.  And then I realized that Peanut isn't overly concerned about corn-free food.  He is just constantly think about food.  All food.  Any food.  What is he going to have for dinner?  For snack?  Is there food in the car for him?  Then at random times he must be thinking about cupcakes, cookies, candy canes and then remembers that in order to have them they can't have corn so he asks and then goes on daydreaming of his favorite sweets.  I am relieved that he isn't stressed about corn-free foods and find it hysterical how often my growing boy is thinking about food. 

Chicken...Farm Animal or Dinner

We are not vegetarians in this house, not by a long shot.  And Little Man proved it this weekend.  Papa Bear had the kids at a community center open play time and the activities were mostly too young for Little Man.  To keep him engaged Papa Bear asked him to draw some animals for him.  The first picture he asked him to draw was a groundhog and Little Man drew it with fur, and big front teeth.  The second picture he was asked to draw was a chicken.  Papa Bear was thinking farm animal. 

Little Man was thinking dinner.