Blankets, Converse, and a Dress

Jayce got Hannah this little "bear" before she was born. She hasn't really taken to it the way that he did his bears, I think partly because, though it is very snuggly, it lacks that silky fabric that babies love so much. But I'm trying to transition her out of sleeping with her favorite blanket, (more on that in a minute), so I have started giving her this bear every time that I put her down to bed. I walked out the other day and she was snuggling it like this.

It was so sweet! I kind of screamed, (I know, dramatic), and yelled for Chris to come look at Hannah. He came running in, eyes wide. He agreed that she looked super sweet, but asked that I refrain from screaming and yelling for him unless something is wrong. Fair enough.

That blanket I'm trying to break Hannah of? It's this one, which she loves to pull across her face, and hold onto each side until she falls asleep. Can I just tell you how many times I've stopped breathing for a second when I glance at the monitor and see her laying still, her face completely covered by a blanket? It's not good. Now I just keep her door open a little and sneak in a few minutes after she's down and take it away, or pull it far down in the bed so that she is only holding onto a corner. But she often wakes up when I take it off of her face, especially since she's holding onto it with a death grip. I'm still working on this. I got her a new "bear," with a silky side, and she's not loving it. As I said, we're still working on this.

On Saturday afternoon, in one hour, I took this plain onesie and a few old t-shirts and made this adorable dress for Hannah. Isn't it amazing?! I kept showing it to Chris and making him tell me it was cute, so I was obviously really pushing for feedback since he couldn't care less about stuff like that. My friend Tiffany made one for her daughter months ago, I think when I was still pregnant and didn't know the sex of our baby, and it was so cute that I've had it in the back of my mind ever since. I finally got my hands on some plain onesies and that was the end of it. I used this tutorial from KoJo Designs.

I realized the other day that apparently I need some Converse sneakers. Not really. They look cute on other people but ridiculous on me, a bad combination of skinny calves and big feet. It just doesn't work and I prefer either boots or sandals as my shoes of choice. They look amazing on the kids, but Chris got his without my blessing. Oh well.

Linking to the Wiegands and Friday Favorite Things.

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Chatter

Last week, as I was tucking Jayce into bed at nap time, he said, "Mom, I scared of something in my crib."

I paused, because he said it in a kind of playful way, not like he was actually scared but like he was trying to stall going to sleep. But I wasn't going to ignore something like this, so I said, "Well honey, you don't need to be scared of anything in your crib. Mom and Dad are here and we'll protect you."

"No Mom, you and Dad not a-tect me. You and Dad not policeman and not fireman."

I smiled at his solid logic. I wonder which book or tv show taught him that policemen and firemen protect you? But I said, "Well, I know that we're not policemen or firemen, but Moms and Dads protect people too."

This seemed to satisfy him for a minute. And then, "Mom, what's a-tect mean?"

"What does protect mean? It means that we won't let anything happen to you. We keep you nice and safe." It occurred to me as I was saying this how it we can't actually keep everything bad from happening to him, or always keep him safe, and was sad that some day I'll have to talk about that too. But for the purposes of whatever he was scared of in his crib right then, I can protect him from those things.

This answer seemed to satisfy him as well. "Yes Mom. You keep me nice and safe. Nice and cozy. Cozy and warm." Then he derailed a bit. "Cozy and warm. Warm and hot. And cold."

Funny little kid.

Once of Chris and I's favorite parts of the day is after Jayce is in bed and I relay little stories like this to him. We smile over the sweet mistakes, laugh over the little nuances, wonder where he picked up various ideas or phrases, and laugh even more when we realize which ones are from us. It is such a joy to experience the way that he is learning and processing the world around him through these little comments and conversations. It has been one of the most fun things about being a parent.

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Five for Friday: Jayce

It seems that my little family blog has been neglected lately. Sorry!!! It's not for a lack of things to say, I actually have plenty, I've just been busy doing instead of writing lately. But I am attempting to rectify that a bit this week, and for today I'll be turning to Tiffany's tried and true method, 5 for Friday.

1.) I made Jayce this great little desk last week! I love it! I put it on Lemon Tree Creations on Monday, which you can see here if interested. I discovered last week that my mom and sister never check the LTC site because they know that I sometimes refer to a project that I've done over there on here, and they don't want to check both sites. There were a few other times while I was with them when I would refer to something on Lemon Tree and they'd be like, "Wait, is that the Blues and Branches thing?" Apparently a family blog, a creative blog, and an etsy site are just too much to keep track of individually, so I need to pool them all here. :) Love you Mom and Chels.

2.) Jayce has started saying that things are cute, and it is cracking me up because not only does he say it at the at appropriate times, he says it in that kind of high-pitched inflection that you would use if you were calling something cute.

"Momma's beads. Cute!", at my necklace.

"Baby. Cute!"

Also, this week I was trying on a few dresses for an upcoming wedding. Jayce was playing, stopped and looked over at me and said, "Momma's pants. Cute!"

I stared at him for a second, trying to decode what he was talking about, until I realized that the word "dress" probably wasn't a part of his vocabulary yet.

"Oh, Mom's not wearing pants buddy, this is a dress." I said, grabbing at the dress' hem.

"Dress. Cute." and then he went on playing.

I don't know where he learned that! I'm impressed that he seems to get that necklaces, babies and dresses are things that could be classified as cute, but doesn't think that sidewalk chalk or trains fall into that category as well.

3.) Have you ever heard of the book, Let Me Hold You A Little Longer. I haven't read it, but read about it on my friend Page's blog. It is written by a woman who observed how she spent so much time celebrating her children's firsts, and was often unaware of the last time that they would do something in particular. I didn't read the book on purpose, because, well, it sounds adorable but also incredibly sad!! I don't want to think about that!

But I have been, especially these last few weeks. Since we took away Jayce's pacifier, I obviously knew when the last time he was going to use it would be, but I didn't know that it would be the end of many other parts of his bedtime routine. He used to have a whole list of things that he would ask for at bedtime, starting with the 2 most important, bear and paci, and then would run down the list as we were taking him up to bed and putting him down. Bear, paci, 2 bears, blankie, 2 blankies, shoulders (he wanted to be covered by the blankies, not just have them), light, fan. It was almost a little bit of a game to see if we would remember everything before he reminded us about it. But now the whole system has been thrown off, and most of those items, including the bear, are thrown out of the crib in protest when we put him down.

He also won't let Chris sing to him when they rock together. Even if Chris just starts to hum lightly, Jayce will say, "No Dad." It's funny, but sad.

He has stopped saying "Uh-huh," and emphatically bringing his head up and down when he wants to affirm something, and instead sweetly says, "yes" with a very distinct "s" sound. It sounds so formal and cute, we love it, but are sad about the end of "Uh-huh."

4.) Jayce has started thanking me, unprompted, for a little bit of everything. It happens several seconds after I've handed him his drink, or helped him with his train tracks, or put on his shoes. It's almost as though I help him in some way, he thinks about it for a second and then realizes how much he appreciates me and wants to let me know.

Now I know that's not what is really happening, it just seems that way.

"Fanks, Mom." he'll say, looking over at me sweetly or as he walks out of the room. It still surprises me a little bit every time, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

5.) The potty. The one thing that I have been told the most about potty training from my doctor, the parenting classes, and my friends is, "Just wait until they're ready!" I don't want it to become a discipline issue, or a power struggle issue, and if he isn't ready anyway then I'll just make myself miserable and exhausted in the process. So I've been waiting for him to show an interest, as advised, and we haven't talked about the potty in months. Last week, I was surprised when Jayce suddenly announced to me that he needed to do the thing, I put him on his little potty and he did it. The big thing. (Trying to avoid potty talk, even though this is about the potty.) A week later he did it again.

I'm at a bit of a loss here, because I feel like this snuck up on me. Should I reward him? He is doing it by choice now, so if I add an M&M incentive, is that going to throw things off? He also seems a little bit shy/embarrassed about it, which is probably normal. Afterwards, I tried telling him "Thank you for going in the potty" and "Mom is really proud of you" but he was not interested in hearing it at all. He also didn't want to tell dad about what he'd done, even when Chris responded the same way as I had. What gives? What should I do? Leave him alone? Talk to him more about it? Start full speed ahead into training now that he seems to have "shown an interest?" I really don't know, so just tell me. Please.

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Giving Up the Paci

I told you a few weeks ago that the giving up of the paci was imminent. So, almost 2 weeks ago, we did it. I wish I had thought to take a few pictures, but I did not, so you'll have to use your imagination a bit on this one.

When it was getting close to bedtime, I informed Jayce that he wasn't going to be able to take his paci to bed that night, that his paci was broken and we were going to have to throw it away. I had thought that this little preparatory talk might help things, but he also might ignore me and just keep playing, but it actually stopped him in his tracks, his little sad lip came out and he came over to me for a hug.

Since it seemed like he did actually know what I was talking about, I decided to just get rid of it then and get the process going. I went and got his paci, clipped the end off and brought it into the room to show him.

Me: "Look, it's broken."

Jayce: "Mo-om, fix?"

Me: "Nope, I can't fix it, it's broken. We're going to have to throw it away."

Jayce: "Blue paci?" (He had 2 pacis, this was the white one.)

Me: "No, the blue paci is broken too."

Then this happened.

The sad, sad lip and eyes full of tears. Genuine sadness. He came over to me for a hug and buried his head into my shoulder. I snuggled with him and told him that it would be okay, but that the paci was going to have to be thrown away. I tried to get him to throw it away himself, but he refused, only giving it back to me and then keeping his head on my shoulder.

That night, it took him a while to fall asleep, but he never brought up his paci at all. I guess he understood the whole concept of it being broken and gone. But it did take him a while to get himself settled down and to fall asleep. It was much like when we were first doing the sleep training with him, the whole "crying it out" to get him to be able to fall asleep by himself in his crib. Now he just needed to figure out a way to get himself settled enough to fall asleep.

I had not anticipated him responding like this at all! I kind of thought that he would throw a bit of a fit when he couldn't have it, and sit in his bed and call for it, the way he used to when he would accidentally lose his paci when he was still awake. He almost responded as if I had told him that his friend had died or something. Even though that sounds pretty dramatic, I guess that from his perspective it kind of was like that. It was the thing that comforted him when he was sad, and soothed him into sleep every day and night. No wonder he didn't want to throw it away!

But the whole sleep thing is getting better. As we had anticipated, it was better by the end of the week. It's still not great, and the fact that it takes him longer to fall asleep at naptime and bedtime has pushed his time of waking up in the morning forward as well. We're still getting adjusted, but we'll get there eventually.

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