Will

Trapped

We've been having a difficult time with Jack and sleep the past few weeks. I know back when I wrote about moving Jack to the big boy bed I said we had to sit in the room with him until he fell asleep. Well we had broken that habit for about a month or so but then recently we somehow got sucked back into the routine of sitting there with him until he fell asleep. The primary reason was the fact that he figured out how to climb over the gate that we put in his door. So if we left before he was asleep, he would crawl out of bed, open the door and then proceed to either push the gate until he knocked it over, or would just climb over it like a monkey.

I snapped one night after having been in his room for a half an hour trying to get him to sleep. I marched downstairs and went on the internet to find the biggest, strongest gate I could find. Money was no object at that point and I was willing to spend as much as was needed to find something that would keep him in his room. So $60 later here is our new baby gate......

I will say that this thing does it's job and was WELL worth the $60. Jack can't push it over or climb over it. The first night he was not a happy camper but it worked! Now we are back to Jack staying in his bed when we put him there and I am a much happier mama!

Update: The gate DOESN'T work. Back to square on. :-(

Footloose and Kid-Free

A few weeks back Eric and I had our first kid-free vacation since before Will was born. Yes...it has been almost 4 years since we have gotten away without the boys. We have definitely had plenty of weekends where the kids were off with my parents or Eric's parents. But this time we actually got on a plane and flew to a destination sans kids and it was wonderful! We went to Florida for a family friend's wedding along with Eric's parents and brother and wife.

I actually left my camera at home. Not only was I on vacation from my kids but I was on vacation from my camera. Luckily Martha brought hers and snapped a few from the wedding. I think this is the first time I have actually been in more than one photo in a long time!

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Happy Birthday Jack!

Happy Birthday to our big two year old! It feels like just yesterday we were anxiously waiting your arrival into our family. You decided you had your own plans in mind and arrived two days early. Not much has changed since then as you still like to have your own plans relative to most things. We have enjoyed every minute we get to spend watching you grow into our handsome little guy. And we are so proud of everything about you - your loving and sharing personality, your strong will and determination, and your funny personality and infectious giggles.

We love you! Daddy, Mommy and Will

Trick or Treat

Did anyone notice that Halloween now starts in August.....Christmas starts at what used to be Halloween....Thanksgiving should be renamed "Pre-New Years Eve".....I think you get where I am going with this! The holiday's seem to go by way to fast! We can't even enjoy the first holiday before we are already thinking about the next one.

I'm a little late with this post because I have been panicking about my Christmas shopping so I have been scouring the internet every night trying to put together a Christmas gift list. See, I'm not even thinking about Thanksgiving so I know I will blink and Thanksgiving will be over with.

But anyways, going back to Halloween, we had a minor change of plans due to the surprise snow storm. Our town was pretty much entirely out of power so the town decided to postpone Halloween until that Friday. Since were going to be away on the "new" Halloween day, we didn't want the boys to miss out on their trick or treating experience so we went to my parents house since they were fortunate enough to still have power.

Will's new interest is good guys and bad guys and somewhere along the way he learned about Spiderman. So that set the theme for this year's Halloween costumes. Both Will and Jack have very strong opinions about what clothing they put on their body (and they will not be persuaded, trust me, I try everyday) so I had to tread lightly to make sure I found costumes that both boys were going to be happy with. Fortunately both boys wore their costumes on Halloween and there was no crying and trying to rip the costume off. Despite the last minute refusal to wear the spiderman mask, I think they made pretty darn cute super heros if I say so myself!!

Both boys had fun going from house to house. Will was an old pro and Jack picked it up very quickly when he realized he was getting something every time he went to someone's door.