Season of Thanks

We started our Thanksgiving in NWA with my side of the family. We ended the weekend right outside of Jasper at a cabin with Nathan's side of the family. It was a nice place and we had good food. Unfortunately we had to cut our stay there short. Eli was having trouble getting sleep which made him very grumpy and since he knew how to climb out of his pack'n'play it was a struggle to get him to lay still long enough to fall asleep. I'll admit, the day we were there was quite stressful, but there were quite a few moments that were very nice. The place was beautiful and the food was o so yummy. Thank you James family for being so patient with us. Maybe we can try again sometime. Sadly I didn't get hardly any pictures at the cabin :( I did manage to get a picture of Monk, the cabin owner's wolfdog, or maybe he is all wolf............either way, he is HUGE and so friendly.

Just in case you cared to know.....

So we have been talking up the big boy bed around here and showing if off to anyone that comes over. I'm happy to report we have had minimal resistance the last 2 nights and none (that's right, I said none) tonight. Praise Jesus! I was really worried about nap time and my mother in law made a suggestion last night that I tried today and it worked great. We were talking about the bed transition and how nap time was really my main trouble time. I made the comment about how he has laid down on a mat at Mother's Day Out from day one without a problem and took a nap. She suggested that maybe I could give him the choice to sleep on a mat in the floor or in his big boy bed. I gave him those choices and he stopped a thought about it for a minute and chose the mat and sleep there for 2 hours and 30 min. It looks like this hasn't been as long of a week as I had anticipated. Of course I know a few good nights doesn't mean we will never have another rough one, but I'm just happy to be able to report the good right now. Now if we can continue his good sleeping and combine that with Lucy sleeping all night we would be all good. She is soooo close. She wakes up between 2-3ish each night and I have been letting her "cry it out". She goes back to bed and has her first bottle around 5:30 or 6. A full nights sleep is soo very close. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Although that makes me a tad weepy cause that means she is getting bigger and before we know it she won't be a baby anymore...........Being a mom is by far the hardest thing I have ever done and I LOVE every minute of it, although I might not sound that way on certain days. God is continually showing me little pieces of Himself through this journey of being a mom. I think I could ramble on and on, but I feel like that is all it would be, so I will collect my thoughts a little better and let this post come to an end.

Update

tonight, as i write this, Eli is asleep in his big boy bed. He has been asleep for a good hour or more. i felt the need to write a follow up to my earlier post. honestly i wouldn't be writing this except for the fact that bedtime went sooooo much better. i talked it up all evening. i also gave him the choice to either sleep in the big boy bed or crib. of course he chose the bed. after dinner and a bath we read books, we sang and then read another book. i laid with him for a bit and then said good night and got up to leave. remembering our little go around from nap time he smiled and told me to "go in there mommy" and then ran out. in other words, Mommy go in the other room so i can run out and you can put me back in my room. i did it once and asked if he would like the door to be closed. he said no and i told him it would be closed if he got out of bed again. what did he do? laugh and attempt to play the "game" again so i used our love and logic term (that's a whole other post) and said "Oh no, since you got up, mommy is going to shut the door" he cried for maybe 3min and then went silent. Such a sweet sweet sound. So I am heading for bed and went to see if he chose to sleep in the floor or in his bed and he was sound asleep in his bed :) I am so proud. AND, bonus for me, he has MDO tomorrow so I won't have to tackle naptime! I have a feeling naptime might be an issue for at least a few more days if not more. o well. we will take it one day at a time. all is good in the james home this evening. i must go and brush my teeth and go to bed. Good nite everyone................

HELP! Sleep troubles.....

Well, Eli did great his first night in a big boy bed. He got his usual 12hours. So, today would be our first day to nap in the big boy bed. I have been very anxious about this transition because he hates when it is nap time. He fights me a lot of days, but it only lasts like 5min and then he sleeps for 2-4 hours, so I know he is tired. At nap time today we laid down in his new bed, read some books and said good night. Within 5 min he was at the door crying. I decided to try the technique where you gently put him back in bed over and over as many times as it takes. The idea is that you don't look at them or talk to them or scold them you just continue to place them back in their bed over and over. If you continue to talk and explain and plea with them it's as if you are feeding the fire. We did that for about 1hour and 15min. He finally gave up and laid on the floor by the door and went to sleep. Hooray! Not for long, about 15 or 20min later he woke up crying. He was crying in such a way that he wasn't going to just go back to sleep so I decided to call it a day and we'll try again at bed time. I'm at a loss. Does anyone have any helpful tips or ideas or things that have worked for them?? He has always been such a good sleeper :( I would love to know what you think.

bustin out

Well, the day has finally arrived, the dreaded day that Eli learned how to climb out of his bed. AAAGGGHHHH! It started Thanksgiving night at my brother's house. I thought maybe it wouldn't happen again too soon........wrong! From that moment on he climbs out any chance he gets. He would have me put him in his pack'n'play just so he could play a minute and climb out when he chose to get out. So independent. So, I thought "Surely he won't be able to climb out of his crib" and what do ya know, he climbed out twice tonight, our first night home since this all started. I have been so naive in my thinking when it came to crib vs big bed. Even though I knew that I couldn't control when he got the nerve to do it I still would think about the subject as if it were all up to me and when I wanted it to happen and how, etc. It makes me a little bit sad, here is my little boy growing up so fast. Yes I know he is just shy of two, but these 2 years have happened so fast. He seems so big. (tear) So, anyway, back to tonight, Nathan and I were quick to say we didn't want to fight this fight sooooo we decided to put him in the twin bed in his room. He was very excited! He laid down and didn't move while we got him all set up in his new "big boy" bed. I wish I had a night vision camera in there to see what he does with his new found freedom. Here is a picture of Eli for the first time in his big boy bed. Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!

Eli and Buzz, bff

all smiles

To infinity and beyond!

As a posted a day or so ago, we had our friend Cal over to play. When we went out back to slide I noticed that Eli kept standing on the top and raising his arms before he would sit and slide. I had no idea what he was doing. I did get some pictures though. So fast forward to yesterday. I had a job to do yesterday morning so Nathan took off work to stay with the kids. He and Eli went out back and Eli wanted to slide. While sliding he did the whole stand at the top deal and Nathan noticed him saying something. After listening closely he realized he was saying "To infinity and beyond!" Oh..........it all makes sense now. What an imagination he has! This stage in his life has been so entertaining. He is starting to pretend and really play with toys. I mean he has played with toys for a long time, but now he is really playing with toys. For instance, instead of just carrying a car around or throwing it, he will sit and make it drive around. And in the bath he has 3 rubber ducks and they just happen to be 3 different sizes. He will call the biggest one daddy duck, the med mommy duck and the smallest baby duck and then make them walk along the edge of the tub. I am eating this up. It is soooo fun. Now I feel I must say that he is also very much so almost 2 in that he is learning how to throw a good fit and test his limits and see how far he can push you before you will do something about it. All part of growing up I suppose. Okay, so back to the infinity slide thing, if you scroll down you will find a picture of him standing on the slide, that is his Buzz impersonation :)

"It Woody" "It Buzz"

Eli has a new found love for Woody and Buzz from the movie Toy Story. He talks about them quite a bit and will look for them as we drive down the road. It's like he thinks he might see Buzz fly by or something. It's real cute. So, our good friend Wilson has also had such an affection for the characters and has a bit of Toy Story toys. As of last night we have a small set of stuffed characters on loan from Wilson's collection. There's Bullseye the horse, Jessie, Woody and Buzz. I presented them to Eli this morning when he woke up and he has been very cute with them. For the first like 10 or 15 minutes he just studied them and looked through a Toy Story book looking for them on each page. He is currently playing and watching a movie, but still has Woody and Buzz in his arms. Thanks for sharing the love!

These pictures are Eli "showing" the camera Woody and Buzz.

LL Cool E

The other day, somehow Eli's pant leg was pushed up on one leg. It was funny to me cause it reminded me of LL Cool J. I couldn't resist a picture. There is a very good chance that this is only humorous to me, but is that really such a bad thing? Anyway, just thought I would share.

Long time, no see

Yesterday we had a long overdue playdate with our good friend Cal. Due to travel and fevers, etc we haven't had a playdate in a month or so. It was good to see Cal, his momma Victoria and sissy Laney. Thanks for coming to play with us! Come back soon!

Trunk or Treat

We went to Trunk or Treat at our church last night. Eli was observing everything and trying to figure it all out. He wouldn't wear his ears and we barely got his costume on him :) I did manage to get the ears on him and take a blurry picture before he took them off. It was a fun night! Happy Halloween!