That Time We Bought Superheroes with Pacis

If you've been around here for the last 3 years, you know that Griffin was very attached to his paci. I mean, it was attached to him on the beach. For the longest time it was with him at ALL times. He used to sleep with about 10 in his crib because heaven forbid he lose one in the middle of the night.  Just last spring, at over 2.5 years old, we finally cut the habit down to bed & car. Griff was no longer allowed to have a paci in his mouth at all times & even that transition was rough! We heard a lot of "I tired. I wanna get in my bed with my paci!"

Earlier this summer the pacis started dwindling. Sometimes he bit them & they had to be tossed, sometimes I found gross ones & tossed them, and I'm sure we lost some in the move. I knew our stash was shrinking & I was definitely not buying more. We told Griff that when he was ready, we could take all his pacis to Toys R Us and he could use them to buy a new big boy toy. He talked about it some & would tell me what he would pick out......but he wasn't quite ready.

 

Then Thursday night happened. Griffin declared that IT WAS TIME. He told us that on Friday he would go to Toys R Us ad trade in all his pacis for a toy. I was skeptical. But, sure enough, he helped me gather them on Friday morning and before our trip to the dentist, we made a pit stop. Griffin proudly held his pacis in a little bag & carefully walked up and down the aisles. He stopped on the superhero aisle (of course) and picked out a new 3 pack of Iron Man guys. I really thought he would change his mind, but he didn't! He marched up to the counter, handed the guy his pacis, got a fist pump from the nice employee, & was SO SUPER EXCITED about his new superhero guys.

That is, until nap time.

I'll just say that I sent many SOS text messages to my husband that afternoon, my ears were nearly bleeding from the screaming, and I stopped for a bottle of wine on our way home from a fall festival that night.

 

BUT HE DID IT. We made it over the hump of a really hard first day, kind of hard second day, & now I feel like it is smooth sailing. My sweet baby boy who had the signature paci face for so long no longer has any pacis. Griffin is so proud of himself & how big he is.I'm proud too, because honestly? I kinda thought he may go to college with those pacis.

 

and that's the story of how we bought some new superheroes with a Ziploc full of old pacis.



Friday Happies

It's almost the weekend and that always makes us very happy around here! Here are some of the highlights from our week:

 

-Cheney took her first GOOD nap at school yesterday! She usually sleeps less than an hour (which is nuts) but yesterday her nap was an hour and a half...go Cheney girl!

 

-Grayson had his last game on Monday for the season & his team had a pizza party afterwards and he got a new trophy!

-School picture day was yesterday & they did sibling pictures. From what I hear, my 3 took some really cute pictures together! I can't wait to see them!

 

-I am back on My Fitness Pal and am excited to have friends that encourage me to get my booty to the Y more often! I still loathe the step sculpt class while I am doing it, but I love the feeling afterwards. I've got a goal in mind before Christmas so here's to hoping that I can reach it!

 

Happy Friday, everyone!


a little update

Well, somehow it is now October & I am not really sure how that happened. School is zooming by & it is almost fall break even though I feel like we just started! I am loving my new job & feel like it is the perfect fit. I love who I work with and we have 10 sweet little 3 year olds. Some people have told me that I am crazy for wanting to "get out of the house" by spending time with even more preschoolers; all I have to say is that it is completely different when they aren't your kids! I find myself enjoying our non-schools day more now. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

Grayson is really enjoying pre-k & loves his teachers. I am not sure what all they do all day, but he is exhausted when we get home! Grayson just finished up his 4th season of baseball this week. We bumped him up to the 5/6 year old league this fall & he did great! He really does love it! He is also signed up for basketball at our YMCA this winter. He has been begging to play basketball for a year now & was so excited that he is finally old enough!

Griffin is off to a great start at school. He is enjoying his teachers & class! I see him in the hall sometimes and he cracks me up. He refuses to wave to me or say hello...he acts like an embarrassed teenager! His teachers tell me that he makes funny faces all day long. We call him our little cartoon character...he is so expressive & makes the funniest faces! We went to Franklin's Family Fun Day over the weekend at Harlinsdale Farm. As usual, our little animal obsessed boy was SO HAPPY to see all the farm animals. He loved the petting zoo & thought the tiny bantam rooster was the best. I love this age so much! He's getting more independent, but he is still so much of a little boy. 3 is hard but can be so fun.

 
Cheney baby is still our wild one. I used to think Griffin was the wild one.....until she was born. The past couple of weeks she has really started to talk more. She's 14 months old now & saying dada, mama, bub (for the boys), hey, yeah, & bye. She can also nod her head "yes" and "no." She seems to do the "no" nod a little more frequently. No surprise there! She has become quite the climber! She is absolutely fearless and will climb up on anything & likes to stand on her booster seat the second I turn my head. She is also going to be my first child that needs a leash. Cheney disappeared from my side last week while I was at Carter's and scared me half to death. This girl will be the one to give me gray hairs! She is the definition of sugar and spice. Cutest, sassy little thing!

third time around

 

 I have realized how different things get with each baby you have. We're on the third baby, so this certainly isn't our first rodeo. By now, I've learned a lot about which things are really important: a bed for the kid to sleep in, clothes for the kid to wear, some diapers.  I also realized some things that were not really necessary by the time Cheney arrived: little containers for pacis in my diaper bag (forget it. PACIS ARE EVERYWHERE), paci wipes (I promise this is a thing. I let pacis have a general 30 seconds on the floor rule before they get a good ol' wipe on my shirt), pee pee teepees (Cheney didn't need these, obviously. But if we're being honest, neither did the boys. Being peed on is a right of passage for any mom & I guarantee that a little felt teepee wouldn't protect you)

 

It is just so funny now that I think about how I acted when Grayson was a baby to how I act now with Cheney. I was SO SUPER scheduled with G. To a fault. Cheney definitely has a nap schedule and a bedtime but I have realized that she will survive if we get her off of that schedule.

 

I think I let things slide a lot more with Cheney too. As in, don't freak out about much. When Grayson would put anything in his mouth that didn't belong to him it would make me crazy. I just KNEW he would get sick. Cheney found old bubblegum at the splash pad this summer and decided that it looked tasty. Yes, you read that right. SHE PUT SOMEONE ELSE'S CHEWED GUM IN HER MOUTH. Now, I may have gagged a little at the thought, but we threw it in the bushes and that was that. She also frequently eats dog food. Luckily, I think we are at the end of that fascination/obsession....but for awhile, Beneful Fiesta was her favorite snack. Oh well. It has to be safe if the dogs eat it, right?

I'm glad I've loosened up during this parenting thing. Maybe a little too much at times, because we definitely ran completely out of diapers last week. That certainly never happened with the first two.  Oh well. Hopefully Cheney will make it in this life despite me not obsessively wiping pacis off, keeping her away from the dog food, and allowing her to wallow on the floor of Monkey Joe's (see above).  Something tells me she will be just fine.