Brandon Winter Fair

Brook thought this was the most fun ever. We took a few trips through the "giant colon".

Brook this week. Oh the mind of a 2 year old.

I Tried to explain to Brook you need pierced ears for earrings. She didn't agree. Check out the video below if you want to see more.

Other "Brook sayings" from this week.

B: Mom, you big?
J: Ya...I guess so. (It's called baby weight, and I'm working on it alright?!)
B: Ya Mom, you big.
J: Thanks Brook.

J: Brook, what is on your face?
B: A burger.
J: A burger??
B: No...A BURGER
J: ???? ..... Oh, a Booger.

Jack started to cry while sitting on the couch
B: Don't cry Jackie, I just playing with you. Jackie, don't cry.
(I never call him Jackie, I guess she thought that one up on her own)

One morning after breakfast:
B: Mom, where's the datar?
J: the datar? What is a datar?
B: (irritated) The DATAR.
J: Show me.
she lead me to the empty guitar stand. which was in the corner of the back room.
B: Where's the datar?
Trev had taken our guitar the night before to use at youth. What an observant kid. Can't sneak anything by her anymore.

March Pictures

March 20, family picture

Brook's St Patricks day hat made at the library on thursday

I have no caption. Can you think of one?

It's blurry, but you get the idea. He's happy.

Brook and Jack hangin' out.

My Sleeping Woes

Thanks for all your advice ladies. I took a break from my "cry it out " experiment because I was loosing my mind. I am realizing as much as I wanted to parent with my brain, my heart couldn't take it. I was a wreck from leaving him to cry. Trev was coming home to an emotionally frazelled woman. (That's right...frazelled)

This week has been much better. The last two days he has had a 2 hour afternoon nap! I took a lot of your ideas and decided to let him cry for 6 minutes (because that seemed to be the point of no return) and then rock him to sooth him, then put him back down awake and repeat. This evening I only had to rock him twice. The 3rd time I layed him down he went "WAAA", and was quiet. I had to check on him because I thought he had died or something. Sure enough, he had decided it wasn't worth the effort and gone to sleep. Yay! Hopefully we will have some long term sucess. Thanks again for all your encouragment.

Funny Things Brook Said or Did Today

Brook "Mom, I watch croutons?"
J: "You want to eat croutons?"
B: "WATCH croutons"
J: "? ... Oh, do you mean cartoons?"
B: "Ya, I watch carntoos!"

I have been bathing the kids together to save time, water, and to provide some bath time entertainment. Brook has been so good with Jack, but for some reason this evening she poured an entire cup of water on his face. She didn't seem to show much remorse even after being told it was wrong. (Jack didn't even cry, I think he may have liked it)

She asked "what are you doing" about 40 times today. Finally I forbid any more rhetorical questions. How do you explain "rhetorical" to a 2 year old?

I was putting Jack down for a nap this afternoon and Brook came into his bedroom.
B: "Mom, whatcha doing?"
J: (whispering) "putting jack to sleep"
B: "Mom, his eyes open."
J: "You go read some books, I'll come in a minute"
B: "Mom, He crying too"
She is always so good at pointing out the obvious.

She called the hockey stick a "Hockey Sticker".

Asked "where's Dad", "Where's Sam", "Where's (fill in the blank)" about 40 times today.

After her bath we always have bedtime snack which lately has been canned fruit. Brook was getting the open can of peaches out of the fridge and just as I walked around the corner I watched the paper label slip off the can and the can of peaches landed, SPLAT, flat on the bottom of the open can. Not one peach spilled, but ALL the sticky syrup popped out of the can and all over the kitchen. It was even on the ceiling. (She needed another bath)

At breakfast she asked for a cup of coffee.

Put her dolls to bed, told them to have a good night, then stood up, wagged her finger at them and told them to "stay in bed or spank you". Wonder where she heard that?

My Napping Woes

So as cute as our little boy is, we have a problem. During the day he won't go to sleep on his own. It is my fault really. I started nursing him to sleep at night and now I have this thirsty little monster to deal with. You would think I would learn. I did the same thing with Brook. It starts as a survival method. It is 3 am and I need to sleep so before I even think about it I just feed the baby to make him quiet. I used to be cute. I would sit and rock him for five minutes and watch him peacefully drift off in my arms. Now he is 2 months old, 15 lbs and screams to be fed or carried every time he gets tired. During the night he is fine. From 9pm to 9am he sleeps 4-5 hours at a time, eats and goes back to sleep no problem.

So this week I decided enough was enough. I wasn't going to be a human soother / swing any longer! I get him all clean, and wrapped and I put him in bed to "learn to fall asleep". Which has turned out to be 4 days of screaming. The boy can scream forever! We did this with Brook at the same age and she gave up after 12 minutes, went to sleep and never turned back. Jack must be setting records. I am not sure I can take much more of this. My nerves are raw from listening to him cry. If he does fall asleep he wakes up 10 minutes later and starts it all over again. I have searched the internet and the library and I am pretty sure I am doing all I can do for him. AAAHHH. Pray that Jack learns to sleep because either my arms are going to fall off from carrying him or I am going to loose my mind from listening to him cry.

Anyone have any advice? I am trying to do the "babywise" method as much as possible, but letting him cry for 1/2 the day for the last 4 days doesn't seem right. What am I missing?