My independence.

Kids moved out!

After being pro co-sleeping for 3 1/2 years… 2 days ago, I moved my kids into their own room! I guess that there were several reasons for the move, mainly because I think that with 3 kids in the room, no one was getting enough sleep.

My eldest son actually wanted his own room! He is so excited about it… he is slightly spooked in the night when we tuck him in, but he sleeps there all night. The toddler is still unsure about the whole situation, at sleepy time he says “my room… mummy bed” So he is falling asleep in our bed and being carried over to his own… and he still ends up in our bed before morning time.

The newborn still shares our room, but now his crib is on the opposite side of the room, as opposed to being jammed up against my side of the bed… I think he might be crying for a bit longer now…

I feel lonely without them in the room… sad that I can’t see them from my bed… scared because I don’t know if they are ok… And they are just down the hall, what happens when they move out of the house?!

Would this new arrangement give us more sleep? After all… that is our main goal!

The best part though, has to be saying “go to your room!”

My toddler.

My ‘almost’ 2 year old is ‘almost’, ‘almost’ 2 years old! He is growing into his own, he is so funny. He totally defies me, telling me ‘NO’ for just about anything, but on the other hand he would surprise me with the occasional “OK, mummy”…

Routines are how I manage 3 kids, and part of my routine is to get them all to nap at the same time. Today, the room was quiet; the newborn was sleeping on my chest, the preschooler on his bed… As I was watching the toddler, he sits up in his bed and starts singing so loud that he wakes up his brothers. He sings for exactly one minute, then goes back to sleep…

Toddler-hood is an interesting time… For both toddler, and mom!

He is the happiest… although he constantly falls and bumps into things, he is the most thoughtful… although his brother is a bit of a bully with him, and he is the most analytical… although he is not even 2 yet! He can take anything apart… investigate it… then put it back together!

Watching kids grow up… one of the joys of parenting…

Pavlov’s kid.

No, this post is not about the child of Pavlov, instead it is about the theory of the scientist named Pavlov and how I am using it to train my son.

My toddler is still having a hard time sleeping in his own bed, every night it seems like he comes into bed with us, he is even in our bed when its time to drink his milk… So, my husband’s bright idea is to hold the milk bottle over his bed! It sort of works… I guess… He comes to his bed, finishes his milk, and then comes back to our bed! I am not sure if that was the desired effect?!

The bottle is already associated with bedtime in his mind, so the plan was to form an association with the bottle and his bed, which would lead to his mind automatically forming the association between bedtime and his bed… or so the theory goes…

I guess that a toddler defies all logic…

Back in our bed last night… having territorial fights with the newborn, who occasionally end up in bed with me. when I forget to put him back in his crib from feedings I am not sure what else to try; I am thinking that its just a phase.

At least no one is fighting to get in bed with my husband!

Kids, do you have enough?

Someone told me recently that she heard that having 3 kids is easier than having 2 kids… and having 2 kids is easier that having just 1…

There is some truth to this… it’s not that its easier, but more likely we’ve gotten used to having kids and have more experience so things seem easier. I think back to when I just had my first son, I was stressed all the time, and I couldn’t wait for my husband to come home from work… (well, that part didn’t really change)

Today, I am managing all 3 kids with my husband out of town on business…

I have figured out that when we have our first child, we don’t want to miss a moment of their lives (I remember even falling asleep over his crib watching him), but now I feel justified in ignoring them sometimes… like when I need to update my blog for example.

So, in conclusion… having 3 is NOT easier! Its just that we are more experienced, don’t feel the need to experience all their “first times” anymore, and we just learn to ignore certain things… and we’re used to having no sleep… like last night when it seemed like the baby wanted to be fed every 2 hours, the toddler was wet every 2 hours, and the preschooler was having a bad dream every 2 hours!!

At least my husband was having a nice, undisturbed night! Anyone needs me to go out of town on business??

Who’s judging you.

Kids eating fries? Not my kids!

I could not believe that people gave their kids burgers and fries, or even ice-cream and cake… or even took them out to restaurants… of course this was before I had kids!

Talk about judgmental… Thinking that I would be so different from all these other moms who obviously didn’t care about the health of their kids. And if I ever saw kids in a restaurant or the mall throwing a tantrum… well, lets just say that ‘my’ kids would never behave like that!

Fast forward to today… feeding my son ice-cream for lunch while at the mall. Although they were pretty well behaved, like every other mom, I have come to realize that to keep your sanity… you just cannot sweat the little things.

In general, my kids eat well at home… they love broccoli (I think that most kids do)… so fries and ice-cream at the mall does not really worry me much any more… right now I am trying to figure out how to get my 3 year old to stop sucking his thumb, and my ‘almost’ 2 year old to stop sucking everyone’s socks!

At least both the newborn and I enjoy when he is sucking his pacifier.