My Kid Circus

This week, we drove past a herd of buffalo.  Really, it was a few cows, but to our 4 year old, it was a herd of buffalo.  He was very excited to see them on our drive up to the mountains. When I think back to when he was first learning to talk, I think we would have been quick to point out his error.  I think, at the time, our parenting role seemed so incredibly important that we would have figured that if we didn’t set him straight right then and there then he would eventually be the laughing stock of his first grade class on a field trip to the dairy farm when he thought the cows were buffalo.

We have loosened up over time.  (I think loosening up naturally happens as your focus expands from 1 to 3 kids).  We just said, “Wow, look at that!” 🙂  This got me thinking about some of the other things that our kids say that have just become a part of our regular vocabulary, that might seem strange to someone else.  Here are some examples:

Uncle Bran Man-  Cracklin Oat Bran Cereal  (our oldest’s favorite)

Papi/ pipi-  Pacifier

Chicken Leg-  Chick-fil-A

Nummies- (Gummies) aka Fruit Snacks

Superfast-  One of the 50 “Little Einsteins” rockets in our house

Sexcicle-  This means a cul-de-sac.  We aren’t really sure where this name came from. Come to think of it, this one we probably SHOULD correct!

Anyway, these are all words that we have just naturally integrated into our own vocabulary.   Words that I already love and cherish as creations of my beautiful children.  I know that the actual time that these words will be commonplace in our home will be short, but in my heart these words will be reminders of this magical time with my young children.

Well, I am “big tired”, as my little guy would say.  I’m off to bed, but I can’t wait to see what these guys are going to say tomorrow. 😉

Well, the little guy can’t get out anymore!!  Here is the contraption that my husband set up, that attaches the doorknob of his room to another room across the hall.  The little guy handled it pretty well, I think.  He tested it, had a few tears, and then went to sleep!  I still feel a little bit sad that he has to be locked in his room like this, but relieved that I can actually sit down and write this while my house is quiet with the wonderful silence of 3 children sleeping. 🙂  On to the next battle?

Sorry this picture is so blurry.  I tried to capture the moment with my phone while not waking them and holding a baby. 🙂  Anyway, they are honestly sound asleep like this.  Even looking at this picture now, I just have to smile.  Watching them love each other is one of the absolute highlights of my life.

It is crazy to me that none of my posts so far have focused on my oldest.  Z is 4 1/2 now, and certainly worthy of some good stories.  Here is one from the other day that follows the “brotherly love” theme…

So, the little guy bit Z.  This is not one of his usual behaviors, but you never can predict with that guy.  At any rate, it hurt, and Z was crying big, pitiful tears.  So, I felt like biting was worthy of a response, and I put him in time out in the pack-n-play in his room.  He then began crying himself.  (He rarely seems to notice when being punished, so I took the tears as a good sign that he was significantly bothered).  I then went back to check on Z.  I began to hug him since his tears were still flowing, but was very surprised when he turned to me with a look of disgust and said, “You made him cry!  You are always doing that!”.  Whoa.  I didn’t know how to respond to this accusation on so many levels.  So, I came back with, “what do you mean?”.  (Since I have trouble even remembering the last time that a punishment caused tears out of him).

He again insisted, “You are always making him cry when you put him in time out!!”  Well, we obviously have to agree to disagree about always making him cry.  So I skip over that part and go back to the mom response, “Biting is not allowed in our family.  He bit you (YOU!), so he therefore is in time out.  It was his decision to bite, and have that consequence.”  This went nowhere with him.  Now we have both boys in tears, and both were directed at Mommy.  Sigh.

I figure this will pass, so I go to let D out of time out and talk to him about what happened.  I then have him apologize to Z about the bite.  Z doesn’t even listen to the apology, but is indignant, saying, “Now  you apologize Mommy.  You APOLOGIZE for making him cry!!”.  Obviously my attempts to empower them with their own behavior leading to consequences has a ways to go.  We all had a group hug, and went on about our day, but he was clearly being more protective of the little guy around me for a while.

In the end, I just had to laugh.  I love that Z takes his role as big brother so seriously, and he loves his brother and sister so much.    When I was pregnant with him,  I hoped so much that he was a boy because I wanted my kids to grow up with a big brother.  He truly is an answer to that prayer. 🙂

So, no new revelations in keeping this guy in bed.  This picture is after a night with Daddy doing bed-time.  As you can see, he is not much more successful than I am, but we decided that if he falls asleep in the hall that is FINE!  At least he is sleeping!! 🙂

One night last week, I stood by his room holding the door closed while I repeatedly told him, “It is night-night time.  Go to bed!”  He was not upset by this at all, but just continued playing.  Apparently he has more endurance than I do, however.  When I finally thought he was asleep, I quietly stepped away, and when I was happily half way down the stairs I see his cute little face popping out of the door.  Arg.

So, the next day I had an inspiration.  I told my husband that if we put a lock on the outside of the door like we have on our pantry, then we can lock and unlock the door from the outside, and he will be locked in.  Not ideal for me, but hey, I am ready to try anything!  So, my husband quickly got the lock and began installing it.  The little guy kept saying, “what you doing Daddy??”, and we told him we were locking the door since he would not stay in his room.

Well, it took probably 10 minutes or so for my husband to take off the doorknob and install the child safety lock.  It took probably 10 seconds for him to  open the door anyway.  He is driven, I have to give him that.

I always thought that parents were joking when they said that they got all of their gray hair from their children.  Now I understand that it is the truth!!  I can no longer yank them out of my head fast enough.  I’m afraid that most of them are coming from this dear little boy. 🙂

p.s.

Okay, I am hesitant to mention it because I’m afraid it takes my parenting skills into question, but I feel like I have to add that my dear sister-in-law put him to bed for the last 2 nights with no problem.  I’m still not sure whether to scream or beg her to move in.  (I’ll go with that one.  PLEASE move in with us??)

I really appreciate the advice that I have been given from people reading this blog.  I have enjoyed hearing from old and new friends, and the help is most welcome!!

Here is the update…

After our glorious night of sleep, we celebrated by taking the family to the zoo.  We strategically planned our outing for the afternoon hours, during nap time.  We had a great time, and the boys were EXHAUSTED on the way home.  We even had to keep giving the 2 year old mints to keep him awake.  I was almost giddy thinking about how easy it was going to be to put them to bed than night, and I was so looking forward to the quiet evening hours.  But I made a huge mistake.  The little guy got the dreaded “second wind”.  He went from completely exhausted to ready to go in the short span of dinner and bath.  I did every part of our nighttime routine in the same way, but as soon as I left, I heard the clunk clunk clunck down the hallway (he doesn’t quite have a pitter patter of his little feet 🙂 ).  So, here we went again.  I continued to put him in bed for an hour an a half.  Finally, I went downstairs and all was quiet.  When I went to check a while later, I found him asleep on the end of the 4 year old’s bed.  His big brother ended up waking up in the middle of the night FURIOUS with his company!  

So, I decided to try skipping the nap one more time, thinking I would then move bedtime even earlier.  Again, we had a full day including playing hard at the pool through nap time.  We came home, showered, and prepared for dinner.  Well,  my little guy fell asleep sitting up, and started SNORING!  Oh no!  A nap at 5:00 was the worst possible situation!  He then woke up at 7:00 p.m., thinking it was morning.  Ahh!

Let’s just say that bedtime last night didn’t go so well.  By 10:00, I had all 3 kids in my bed, if that is any indication.  Oh well.  No one has kids because of the sleep benefits.  At least that is what I will keep telling myself. 🙂