Tuesday we celebrated President Lincoln's birthday with a visit from our friend Heidi and her one year old twins, Aidan and Lyla. Auntie Tara (expecting her own baby this summer!) came over to partake in the baby fun.

Anticipating vacation

We are lucky enough to join Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Stu in Florida again this spring. Having two months to anticipate the trip is lots of fun and allows for fashion shows of potential vacation gear. Here are some hats, shoes, a pair of shorts, and some new baby headphones which we hope will allow them to watch a movie on the flight.

Sharing fun with recycling

The boys have been enjoying playing in the recycling bins recently. Often they take our recycling bins (really baskets) and transport them all over the house, then take turns emptying and filling them.

Goofballs at night

Note Theo's sticker. He wanted to stick it on himself and I thought, well, that's apropos.

Cabin fever

Riding the Y bikes, playing soccer with Daddy, eating leftover freezer Christmas cookies. Trudging around in the snow while Mama shovels the sidewalk and driveway. Pushing each other and friend Toby around on the vroom (to Toby: "beep-beep"). This is how we entertain ourselves on these long cold days inside.

Major transitions

One, the boys have stopped nursing. For several months now the boys have only been nursing once a day, at bedtime. They haven't asked for num-nums any other time but then. There have been two or three nights in there when I haven't been home for bedtime, and Jeff has given them milk. Reports from those nights is that the boys have happily drunk their milk, handed their cups back to Daddy, and then gone to sleep. Tuesday night as I was taking the boys upstairs for bed, I asked them whether they'd like to have milk. They were excited and said yes (uh-YESTH), so I tried it. They drank the milk while I read stories, and then they helped me turn on the noise machine, pull down the shade, and turn out the light. They let me tuck them in just like normal, and after snuggles and squeezes and kisses, I turned on the humidifier and blew kisses and closed the door. Remarkable in its un-remarkableness. Wednesday night I went to a neighborhood meeting so I wasn't around for bedtime, but Jeff gave the boys milk and reported that they were mostly fine but called for Mama a few times. They slept terribly that night, which may have also been because I was at work all day and then home for only about an hour and a half before I left for the meeting, so they may have just been operating at a mama deficit. Last night I put them to bed with cups of milk, which they drank while we read stories. Then they both asked for num-nums right before I put them down. I felt conflicted because I never wanted to make an arbitrary cut-off after which I wouldn't nurse them anymore. I thought that this was the natural ending time because they weren't asking for it and have been gradually, on their own, replacing nursing with food and milk. I almost nursed them last night, but they were so easily redirected to helping pull down the shade and get ready for bed that I interpreted it more as a request for Mama cuddles. I'm still not sure if what I'm doing is right (that statement right there could be the title of this blog!) but it seems like as natural a transition as it could be. Jeff's putting them to bed tonight by himself so we'll see how it goes. As time goes by I may lose the choice in the matter but I think this is the right time for us to stop. It's been a good run and I'm so grateful I could nurse for as long as I have. Even a week ago in thinking about stopping nursing I was sad, but it's not sad to me if the boys are ready to not nurse. It's only sad to think about stopping before they are ready. And now, I think we're all ready for this big transition.

Two, the boys have started sleeping through the night pretty reliably. Again, I felt pretty strongly that I did not want to force this before the boys were ready. I suspect you can "sleep train" (i.e. actively ignore) a three week old baby and make them sleep 12 hours straight, but that is definitely not my style. I suspected that the boys would start sleeping through the night when they were ready. Beck has been ready for a while but Theo has been waking up once and sometimes more so we've all been getting up. It's only been a couple of weeks so far but I'm starting to count on them going to sleep at 8 and waking up at 6:30. Sometimes the wakeup time is earlier but I think this stoplight clock is helping with that somewhat. When we put them to bed, the red light comes on. We set the green light to come on at 6:30, and we tell the boys that if the light is still red, it's time for sleeping and they need to go back to sleep. The funniest thing happened the first night we used it. Theo woke up at 5:45 or 6 and whined and yelled and cried on and off til 6:30. We were trying to see if he would see the green light and figure out what we had been talking about. The green light must have gone on and all noise stopped for a good five minutes. I couldn't resist peeking my head in. Theo was mesmerized by the light. He started cooing to it. Beck slept through the whole thing. I know that as soon as I get used to this it will probably change but man, sleeping through the night is awesome. I'll take it for as long as I can get it. I feel like a new woman!