Night time update

It's getting better!!  Scotty has only gotten out of bed during the night once in the past few nights.  He still occasionally cries out at night, but it doesn't last too long.  Last night he was calling out for Daddy, but after a few minutes he was quiet- whew!  We are all better rested and happy now!  All we need to work on now is going to bed and staying in bed.  We still have to spend 30-60 minutes at bedtime getting him to stay in bed.  But last night was shorter than the previous nights, so I think he's getting it.  Or it was just a fluke and he'll be messing around tonight for 2 hours!!!  

I miss Scotty's crib!  Bedtime used to be nice.  When I put Grant to bed it's so lovely.  I rock him and sing to him and he lays there sucking on his fingers gazing at me, slowly closing and opening his eyes.  Then I lay him down and rub his belly while he smiles really big at me.  Then I kiss him, leave the room and don't hear from him again until morning- it's so great!  We used to have that with Scotty too, but when he was a little over a year he decided that he didn't want to sit and snuggle- he wanted to stand up and look out the window that was behind the rocking chair!  That was the end of serene, snuggly bedtimes.  I guess they all have to grow up- but I didn't know it would be so hard to let them!

Night time crazy

We don't know why but a few months ago Scotty started waking up at night screaming and calling for us.  We would go in and he would usually turn right over and go right back to sleep.  Sometimes he would ask us to pull his covers up.  We would ask if he needed anything or if he had a bad dream but he always said no and was immediately back to sleep.  Things got worse and he was waking up four or five times a night.  We were so tired and thought it was crazy that we had to worry about our older child waking up our baby!  It was getting really old and ridiculous.  So we decided to tell him not to call out anymore and we weren't going to come in.  So we tried to ignore him but a few nights ago he got out of bed and was standing in the hall screaming, so I got up and put him back in bed without saying anything to him or even looking at him.  We did this over and over for about a half an hour when he finally fell asleep on the floor on top of his stuffed animals.  Last night when Miles got up to put him back in bed he said he needed to use the potty so we told him to go by himself (which he can and does do all the time) but he was freaking out that Miles wasn't staying in there with him.  (He usually prefers Daddy's presence in the middle of the night)  So after a few times of Miles going in and out I got up and put him back in bed with his pull-up down around his ankles.  He got up again so I put him back but this time I pulled his pull-up back up and went back to my room.  As I was going to my bed I heard him come to the door and all of a sudden I was whacked in the back of the head by his pull-up!!  I couldn't believe it.  I giggled to myself, picked him up and put him and the pull-up back in his bed.  He immediately got up, ran to the kitchen and threw his pull-up in the garbage.  Miles and I were dying laughing in the bedroom!  He came back down the hall with only his pj shirt on so I put him back in bed half naked.  I just decided that if he peed all over he would have to face the consequences in the morning of having to take a shower (which he really hates) and clean up the messes.  I wasn't going to let anything break me and give him the attention he wanted.  We went back and forth in and out of bed a few times until he finally fell asleep on the floor in his doorway.  When I woke up this morning he was back in his bed so he obviously decided to get back in bed sometime in the night.  It's totally crazy and frustrating to do all this at 1:30am, but after doing it only one time he sleeps the rest of the night.  Grant sleeps through the whole thing.  He cried out once but only one cry and then was fine.  We don't understand what is going on.  We worked really hard when he was a baby to establish good sleeping habits and he has been great until this started.  Maybe that's why we have all been grumpy lately!  

I'm really hoping he catches on soon and stops getting up.  And hopefully he'll learn that we're not going to engage him no matter what he does- even if he throws his pull-up at me!  I'm just glad it was dry.  :-)

Scotty's pearly whites

I finally got Scotty in for his first trip to the dentist. I took him to a pediatric dentist and we had a great experience. They had a really fun waiting room that he loved and the staff were all so good with him. And he, of course, charmed them with his good manners and sweet face! The did x-rays and for the last one he kept gagging on the thing they had to put in his mouth. I was hoping he didn't throw up all over the girl! They had a flat bed thing for him to lay on for his cleaning and exam and he didn't like it. He was so scared that he was going to fall off. I had to force him to lay down to show him that he would be ok. It was making me laugh that he was scared, so I'm sure the hygienist was thinking I was weird! I think he saw the little part for his head and just didn't think it was big enough to hold him. But after that he did great. He didn't have any cavities and everything looked good in there. After the exam the dentist gave him some tokens that he got to use to get some prizes from these gumball-type machines and he thought that was pretty cool!

Getting his x-rays.

Trying to smile for Mommy while hanging on for dear life on the scary table!

Funny baby!

Grant is a very observant baby. He always looks around and likes to see what is happening. When laying down he lifts his head up and supports himself on his arms to get a better view. It is so funny! He even has to take a break from his bottles every now and then to lift up and check out what is happening in the room!

Yummy!!

We are again in the fun stage of baby food. Miles and I used to love going to the store to pick out food for Scotty and we were excited to get started with Grant. He started with sweet potatoes and loved them. He loved squash next but didn't think too much of the peas we tried after that. He tolerated the green beans a little better, but didn't gobble them up like the orange ones. But after a few tries he now loves the green ones too. He gets really excited when it's time to eat- it's so cute!

First bite!

Yum!

Hmm..what is this green stuff? When you can see the food in his mouth he doesn't like it. When he likes something he swallows it all down right away!

I think I'll just give it all back to them. That will teach them!

Arizona

Grant and I took a weekend trip to Arizona to visit Aimee and her family in early June. We had so much fun. Well, after we rescued a screaming Grant from the backseat of Aimee's car loaded with strangers he had a fun time too! It was so good to hang out with the Yorks. We played lots of games, jumped on the tramp (and helped Aunt Lori realize how old she is!), laughed, visited a fresh & easy store and talked, talked and talked. Grant really loved being held and carried around by everyone. I loved having lots of arms to do the carrying! Scotty and Miles had lots of fun together while we were gone. I missed them and was excited to go home, but it is always sad to leave the Yorks. Aimee is such a great sister. She and I have always been close. Way back to when we used to play hours and hours of Barbies, when I tagged along on her first date with John to the hours we spend talking on the phone now. And her kids are the greatest! They are all growing up so fast. Kaish is a fun teenager always up for a joke (and graciously gave up her room for me and Grant), Keri is a sweetie and so good with my kids, Kam is a great story teller and always makes me laugh, and little Kenners is an energetic cutie pie that I love to snuggle with. Thanks for a great visit guys!!

One of the many games we played. No tears yet..but they did flow!!! They hate it when I always win!

This is how Grant spent his trip to fresh & easy!

Preschool

Even though next week is his last week of preschool, I thought I'd finally post some pictures of Scotty's first day! He loves preschool. His first day he was a little hesitant to go in, but he saw the play doh on the table and was just fine after that. On the 2nd day we were driving home and he said he didn't want to go home and he wanted to stay at preschool all day. On the 3rd day he told Miles that Miss Crystal is his best friend! It has been so fun to see all the things he brings home and to go on little field trips with him. He has never cried when we have dropped him off and that is so great considering how shy he used to be. Summer preschool ends next week, but then we'll be excited to start fall preschool in September. We were totally fine when we took him to school, but after we got home and it was so quiet in the house we looked at each other and we were all "Our baby is all grown up!" Then I had a few tears. He's growing up so fast, but we are trying to cherish every moment.

First day of school picture!

Stomping on the cute dinosaur tracks.

Getting his Scott-asaurus hat.

Concentrating on his masterpiece.

Hot new hairstyle

Scotty and I got our hair cut the other day.  We decided to have Brenda fix Scotty's hair spiky and he loved it.  She put gel in it, spiked it up and he looked so cute.  He kept talking about his spiky hair but would sometimes call it spicy.  I giggled at that.  But when she told him that she was going to put gel in my hair he says to me:  "Mommy, Brenda's going to put jelly in your hair and make it spicy!"  I guess she uses jalapeño jelly!

Treasure hunt

At the reunion they filled a pool with wood shavings and then put some coins in it to have the kids do a digging for treasure activity.  The little kids were first and they were so excited!  It turned out to be hard to find anything so I got in there to help Scotty.  We found a few coins and he was thrilled.  He asked what they were and people were telling him that they were nickels and pennies.  So he holds it up the nickel and shouts "Daddy look!  A pickle!!"  It was a great laugh for everyone!

Getting started Scotty was a little worried that it was making his hands dirty!

He got over that and jumped in there to be able to dig better.

Our sweetie pie

I've mentioned before what a good baby Grant is, but yesterday he really proved it.  We went to a William's family reunion and before we left Grant got two bottles and fell asleep for five minutes.  He woke up just as we put him in the car to leave, played for a little while, made a few fussing sounds then went to sleep for the rest of the drive.  At the reunion I fed him some baby food at 12:30pm and then he spent awhile playing happily in his car seat while we ate.  He had a great time sitting with Uncle Drew and soon-to-be-Aunt Morgan playing, drinking water and spilling it all over Aunt Morgan's lap.  We left the reunion around 2pm-ish and drove to Ikea where we spent 3pm-7pm getting furniture for the playroom.  And then we drove the 45 minutes home.  So (please look past the neglectful mother part of this day to the what a happy, content baby part!) Grant ate at 12:30pm but then did not eat again until 8pm that night!  Except for the water that he got from Aunt Morgan which I think did help him out some.  But did Grant cry and fuss and have to be carried around Ikea?  No!!!  He stayed in his car seat in the stroller the entire time being happy and smiley and oh so cute.  I would hand him a new toy every now and then and he would get so excited and play happily with that for the next 20 minutes.  And did he scream inconsolably on the drive home?  No!!!  He went to sleep peacefully.  Did he cry as soon as we got home demanding some food?  No!!!  He played nicely in his Exersaucer while I unloaded some stuff and got Scotty in bed.  Then he happily ate a huge bowl of oatmeal and then drank a full 7oz bottle right after that.  I couldn't believe it.  I was going to feed him when he got hungry while we were at Ikea, but he never did so I didn't even remember that he hadn't eaten.  So if the saying is true that an easy baby will be a difficult teenager and a hard baby will be an easy teenager --- we'll have it made with Scotty and be in big trouble with Grant!!