Big Boy Bed!

About a month ago, William had fallen out of his crib. I know most kids climb out of their cribs, but he actually fell. He was upset about taking a nap, I was outside his door listening to him scream, and he leaned over the bar of his crib and flipped out of it. Scared the hell out of me.

I watched him closer after that. Any time he was upset about going to bed (usually naptime), I would stand outside his door and peek inside to watch him. He never did it again. I figured it had scared him too badly.

Then on Tuesday I was putting him down for a nap again. I put him in his crib, then walked across his room to hit the button on his sound machine. And BOOM--he had flipped out of his crib again. I screamed, and Stephen was up the stairs in about 2 seconds (he was working from home because his car was in the shop--turned out to just be a really dead battery). William was fine again, thank goodness. After he had calmed down, I tried putting him back in his crib. He again started trying to lean over the bar. So I took him out. And he skipped his nap that day.

That night, we bought him a toddler bed. His adorable little head is just too precious to risk him falling on it again.

We opted for just doing a toddler bed at this point mainly because they're super-cheap and you just use the regular crib mattress rather than buying a new mattress. I figure in about a year we'll buy him a real bed and a whole bedroom set (something a bit more boyish that his current ivory nursery furniture).

William quickly grasped that he was getting a "big boy bed" and new "Cars" sheets. We all helped Daddy put the bed together. William was so excited. Here's a picture of the assembly--one hour before bedtime (yikes!):Thankfully, the bed went together quickly. William was so happy to sit on it and try it out. He kept saying "woo hoo!".

Stephen went on to quickly dismantle the crib before I had a total freak-out "where's my baby?!?" moment. How well he knows me...

Okay, prepare yourself for some major cuteness overload here... I was sitting on the floor of William's bedroom watching him play on his new bed. He climbed out, walked behind me, and wrapped his arms around my neck in a hug and said, "tanks!" (thanks). Come one--how sweet is this boy?!?

At bedtime, Daddy and I tucked him into his new bed and kissed him goodnight. I had a few tears in my eyes at the sight of my baby boy all tucked into his big boy bed. We left the room...and he went to sleep until morning. Never got out of his bed.

He's been doing great so far. Only last night did he try to get out of his room at bedtime. I had to close his bedroom door while he was trying to escape. After a few minutes he gave up and went back to his bed and fell asleep.

Preschool days

Yesterday was my turn as the "parent volunteer" at Jocelyn's school. Basically, they call the school a "co-op" and one parent is assigned to help out the teacher on that day. With 14 kids in the class, and class 3 days a week, that breaks down to "working" about once every month and a half or so. Stephen went last time because it was the day before my sister's wedding, so this was my first time.

There's definitely a good reason I'm not a preschool teacher. You've got to really love kids to put up with that craziness day after day.

Anyhow, part of my job is to help clean up after the kids. So when her teacher took the kids out to the playground at the end of the day, I was in the classroom vacuuming and wiping down tables and all that fun stuff. Once all the kids were picked up, the teacher brings Jocelyn back to the classroom. This is the first chance I've had to talk with her teacher one-on-one.

And she totally gushes over Jocelyn. Feel free to read no further if you don't want to hear how "perfect" my daughter is...but since I don't keep a baby book (I know, I'm a horrible mother) and this is my blog, I feel justified to put it here so I've got some record of it.

She tells me how polite and well-mannered she is. She tells me what a good listener she is. She tells me how sweet she is. She proceeds to tell me how if she had "13 more Jocelyn's in class, then my class would be perfect!".

I know--gag me, right?

It's not the first time I've heard this before. Her preschool teacher last year thought she was wonderful too.

I'm so proud of her. Though I do wish some of that wonderful school behavior would happen at home too. I guess that's not really fair. Generally speaking she's very well behaved at home, but she definitely has her moments of yelling, stomping, door-slamming defiance. Oh well, I guess you can't be perfect all the time.

My Little Trick-or-Treaters

It was kind of nice that Halloween was on a Saturday this year. It made for an enjoyable, peaceful day rather than trying to cram dinner and trick-or-treating in after work hours.

Stephen carved two of our pumpkins that afternoon, while watching football:
Jocelyn and William supervised the pumpkin carving operation:
And I stayed out of the whole pumpkin carving business, because I lack the patience to actually carve one. Instead, I just watched and made some chili for dinner.

Stephen's masterpieces:
It was a pretty chilly Halloween, so we had to bundle up a bit. My mom and I took the kids around the neighborhood, while Stephen and Pawpaw stayed home to give out candy.

My "good" witch:
My little dinosaur, who enjoyed stomping around and saying "Rawr! Rawr!":
Things were a lot different in our new neighborhood compared to our old one. Last year, we gave out candy to about 300 kids (I counted). This year, Stephen said maybe 40 kids. Needless to say, I've got a lot of leftover candy.

And then they were sick...

We spent about two weeks in October trying to get healthy. First William was sick, which is unusual because normally Jocelyn brings the illnesses into the house and William gets sick from her. Anyhow, he started with a fever and cold that pretty much knocked him out. He was so miserable for a few days...
Then it was Jocelyn's turn to get sick. Same thing, a fever and a cold. These are her sick eyes:
But she started getting better before William, despite the fact that she started four days after him. I kept thinking he was pulling out of it, and then at night he'd start running a fever again.(and no, he's not falling asleep in this picture--he really looked that pathetic)

So, it was off to the pediatrician for him. And it turned out he had an ear infection--his first. So he got a round of Amoxicillin, which turned into a twice-a-day event of holding him down and trying to squirt a dose down his throat. Loads of fun all around.

But after a couple weeks (and two parents who felt pretty crappy for a couple of days), everyone was back to normal. Now if we can keep that nasty H1N1 out of the house, we'll be in good shape.

Zoo visit

These pictures are actually almost a month old, but they were taken on our "real" camera and were finally uploaded on our computer. I actually have pictures from the Indianapolis Children's Museum that we visited the next day too...but those were taken on the "small" camera and I still haven't located the cable for that one since the move. Wow, I fail!

Anyhow, a trip to the Cincinnati Zoo during Stephen's vacation week at the beginning of October:
A picture of me that I don't hate! Kind of wish I wasn't wearing sunglasses though...
They were hoping to see some swimming polar bears and were looking through the window into the water. Instead they saw 3 sleeping polar bears:
Seems like every time we go we see the male white lions. This time we got to see the females:

I get it...I suck!

I have been told by five people in this past week that I need to get writing on my blog again.

I don't know why I haven't been blogging lately. Just haven't been in a bloggy mood for whatever reason. Yes, life was pretty insane for a while during the move into the new house in August. And then there was my sister's wedding in September and all the showers/bachelorette parties that went along with that. But things have settled down now. Just haven't been feeling the whole blog thing lately.

The move went very well. We're all settled in and very happy. I didn't feel like posting pictures of the house post-move. It just feels like I'm fishing for compliments or something if I do that. I could take pictures during the building of the house, but for some reason if I take pictures of the house with all the furniture and stuff in it, it just feels weird. So if you want to see it, you'll have to visit. Or try to see it in the background of pictures of the kids I guess. But, like I said, we love the house and are very, very happy.

Jocelyn started at her new preschool in September. It's a lot different from her school last year. She loves it, of course (like there was ever any doubt that my little goody-two-shoes know-it-all would love school). She's doing fantastic there. She also started her dance classes again. She has a different teacher this year who I really like, and she's really enjoying class.
William is still my funny, adorable little man. He's hit the "terrible-two's", but thankfully his cuteness makes up for it most of the time. His talking has come a long way these last few months and he's started talking in short sentences.
My sister had a beautiful wedding in September. Here are some pics:
So now we're in the middle of Autumn, my favorite season. Our weekends are full of football and other fun Fall activities. Stephen and I just celebrated out 6th anniversary this past weekend. We took a very last minute weekend trip to Indianapolis while my parents watched the kids. That's the first time we've ever done that. It was so nice to get away for a little while and just enjoy being a couple for a bit. Going out to eat without the kids is so pleasant!

Some more random pictures:
And that's pretty much the very inadequate summary of the last two months. The weather is beautiful and we're enjoying it very much. And the Bengals are in 1st place after beating all their division rivals these past few weeks (Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Baltimore). Who Dey?!?

Life is good.

William's "18-month" checkup

(That is not a black eye in the picture. That is a picture of my little boy playing in dirt, hence the dirt around his eye and on his hands. Gotta love boys.)

Recently William had his 18-month checkup. He was actually 19 months old, but we had to push his regularly scheduled checkup due to his broken leg. And, now that I just wrote that, I just realized that I never posted an update about that. On his follow-up visit to the ortho clinic at Children's Hospital, we came to realize that he actually had a "toddler fracture" on his tibia (one of the two leg bones below the knee). They originally thought the problem was in the foot, but the new x-rays revealed evidence of healing bone on his tibia. We assume this happened due to the awkward way his foot got caught underneath him when he fell, which twisted his leg. He's fine now, and will have no problems with his leg in the future since he was so young when it happened. Though he still walks a little funny, which we were told is normal.

Anyhow--onto his checkup. He's perfectly healthy. The doctor told us he will be tall (duh). I guess when boys turn two you're supposed to double their height to get their approximate adult height. We'll have to wait a few months to try that out.

His stats:
Height: 35" (95th percentile)
Weight: 28lbs, 8oz (75%)
Head: 19.5" (does anyone really ever care about that?)

Two days before his appointment, Jocelyn started complaining about her ear. So the doctor checked her out too. Sure enough, she has an ear infection. She spent 8 days on amoxicillin, but then her ear started hurting again, so we headed back to the doctor. Still has an ear infection. She's about 6 days into a 10-day course of a stronger antibiotic now, which will hopefully do the trick. It's odd for her to have such a persistant ear infection, since this is only her second ear infection in her life (her first one being last August--we have been very lucky with both our kids!).