Saving

Recently Roy found a castle toy at Wal-Mart that he really wanted. Since we're a family who usually just buys toys for special occasions and his birthday and Christmas aren't in his near future I suggested that he start doing some extra jobs around the house to save up for it. He thought it was a great idea and began earning money by helping with the dishes, laundry, putting away Lilli's dirty diapers, and washing the floors. The beauty of this plan was that his toy cost $15 enough for him to begin learning about saving but not enough for him to get frustrated about not being able to get his toy. Well then a couple of days ago we went to Toys R Us to look at toys and he found this Gorilla Mountain by Imaginext. So he decided he doesn't want the castle anymore he'd rather save for the "waterfall." The problem is that the "waterfall" costs $43 at Toys R Us, quite a stretch from $15. So I drew out a savings plan for each showing him how many dollars he needs for each toy and how many dollars he has. He still chose the Gorilla Mountain. So now he has $8... only $35 more to go. At a rate of about $1.00 a day he'll be able to get his "waterfall" sometime in the end of July. I sure hope they still have it by then!!

And for those of you who think he might change his mind by then... when he was 2 1/2 he saved $25 from going on the potty to buy James (a train) and it took him a month... he was very persistent. He even remembers going to Barnes and Noble to fork over his $25 in ones and quarters :o)

Success!

Last night she went to bed with out a Night-Night and without a peep! When I laid her down she just rolled over and put her little butt up in the air and that was it... she didn't wake up until after 9 this morning!!!

Roy and I checked on her at 9 and he told me "Mom I'm so happy that she did such a good job with no Night-Night." And then when she woke up he told her he was so proud of her. :o)

To celebrate her success I took her to Wal-Mart and she picked a little Ariel doll that she can dress. She was so proud of herself that she told one of the Wal-Mart workers "No Night-Night I a big girl." Unfortunately he didn't understand her but he at least he smiled and waved.

After playing with her new Ariel she brought me some books to read so she could take her nap she didn't cry at all, just talked to herself for a while after I left and then went silently to sleep. I'm hesitant to say it but... I think we have conquered it! Yeah Lillian!!! We are a pacifier free family for the first time in 3 years and 4 months.

Night-Night Update

Take 1:

So day 1 went pretty smoothly...

She took her nap for a couple of hours without it.

She went to bed after crying for about 5 minutes without it but then...

she woke up at 4:00am hysterical, nothing could calm her down not even the extra pacifier we found hiding under the kitchen cabinets. When Lilli's angry she is really, really, really angry and you never know what will be the trick to calm her down everytime it's something different. This time she didn't want her pacifier even though I was weak and eventually offered it to her. When she finally got her self together we watched a bit of Elmo and then I put her back to bed about 5 - with the Night-Night

Take 2:

We resumed with no Night-Night at nap and she did great, then bedtime came along and she cried hard, really hard for 5-10 minutes then stopped. After a while I was nervous she threw-up and aspirated and wasn't alive anymore so I made the mistake of checking on her... She was fine but when I left the room the screaming resumed and was a bit stronger and lasted a bit longer but again after about 10 minutes she stopped. This time I waited a good 45 minutes before I checked on her and guess what... she had cried so hard she made herself throw-up. (not the first time this has happened) So we moved her to her pack n' play (without waking her up) and cleaned up the mess. Amazingly the throw-up was in her bed but not on her. During all this she never asked for her pacifier, I think she just really didn't want to go to bed.

When she woke up at 12:00 I again regressed and gave her the pacifier to get her back to bed... I couldn't stand the chance of her making herself throw-up again.

Take 3:

We're in the middle of day three and again she took her nap no problem, she cried maybe a minute but never asked for her Night-Night. We'll see how tonight goes....

Bye-bye Night-Night!

Both of our children have used pacifiers - they call them "Night-Nights." Once they're over 1 we try to only use them for naps and night time but keep one on hand in the car for emergencies :o) Shortly after Roy turned 2 I began thinking about how I was going to get him to give his Night-Night up and then one day I told him to go put it in his bed and he didn't want to so I said "Well, you can either put it in your bed or put it in the garbage." And miraculously he chose to throw it in the garbage. That afternoon and night he cried a little bit going to bed but didn't ask for it again.

Lillian can get a bit more emotional about things so I have been dreading getting her to give up her pacifier. She'll be 2 in August so I wasn't planning on trying to tackle it until after then but today she found a Night-Night and didn't want to put it back in her bed so I told her "You can either put it in your bed or put it in the garbage." And lo and behold.... she put it in the garbage!!! She is currently taking her nap Night-Night free. There were a few tears shed and then she just went to sleep. I have now confiscated all the Night-Nights I could find and hid them in our closet. I'm not so confident that this will pan out as well as it did with Roy but I am hopeful! We'll see how tonight goes, could I be so lucky that it could be this easy with both kiddos? We'll have to wait and see!!

A Long Day

Most days I try to get out and do something with the kids to help keep us all entertained and break up our day. Today I decided to try staying at home all day and although I enjoyed it I was reminded why we do our outings. :o) Here is a list of what a mom, a 3 year old, and a nearly 2 year old can get done when left alone from 8-5

• make, eat and clean-up breakfast
• watch Shrek 2
  
• play barn
• read books
• make a project with stamps
• play play dough
• play dolls
• eat a snack
  
• read more books
• play dinosaurs
• build a couple houses out of lincoln logs
• fold a load of laundry
• make, eat and clean-up lunch
• watch Lilli put Porky D (her Build A Bear) in a time out
  
• read more books
• put Lilli to bed
• work 11 pages in a Clifford workbook with Roy
  
• vacuum the living room, dining room and all bedrooms
• sweep and mop the kitchen and both bathrooms
• eat another snack
• put Roy to bed
• get Lilli up
  
• play My Little Pony
• wear necklaces
• turn the necklaces into bracelets for Lilli... and her doll
• do another load of laundry
• finish knitting a baby booty
• watch a couple episodes of Glee
• watch Lilli dance along to Glee
• snuggle with Roy when he wakes up
• pack the diaper bag with snacks and drinks
• head out the door to help with the UBC garage sale
  

And that was just until 5:00.

The perfect ending to my day was when Roy told me "I stay up at night mom, I'm nocturnal." I have no idea how he has any energy left in him but the sound of his little feet banging against his wall tells me that he is indeed still up (it's 9:54 pm). Now it's time for me to go to bed so we can do it all over again tomorrow - with an outing to the library thrown in there.

The Circus