accomplishments
What a nice long holiday weekend. We took the kids to a local waterpark resort hotel for the evening. They loved it. Evelyn is like a little fish, she was pretty much non-stop. James was a little scared I think at first, but he also just really enjoyed watching the other kids running about. This particular one had a zero water level splash pad that also had stairs with more toys upstairs of it. But there were sprayers and waterfall type things on the ground too. Evelyn wanted to be up the stairs all the time, we did go a few times, but there was a big bucket which would dump water down the rest of that equipment, so either James & I would get drenched and Evelyn hardly.
James rathered to wander around, splash in a little bit of water or try to go up the slide backwards. They had a pool that wasn’t more than a foot deep, with a mini slide, tones of sprayers and stuff. We spent most the time in there. Just sitting in the water while the kids wandered back and forth, around, over here, over there. We’d just slide along with them.
I think we spent around 5 - 5 1/2 hours in the waterpark.
Bedtime was a bit of a struggle, but we quickly decided to just take them for a drive. We have never used this method at home. We’ve gone on trips around their naptime, knowing they’ll easily fall asleep in the car for the hour, or whatever drive it’ll be. Or our trip to Canada was done overnight. But never to put them to sleep for the night.
We stuck to the routine as best we could, but there was no door to close (except the main door to our room) and the kids likely were very aware we were still in the room, even with the wall between us. They screamed and bellowed. We took them out (we rarely have taken them out of their cribs when they’ve woken thru the night) thinking of our neighbors. We tried to rock them, to rub their head (James likes this lots)… no dice.
James is *SO* friggin smart. James had shown him a few times how to go down the stairs thru the house, he wasn’t quite getting it totally. When Mary, John & Melba got here, we hung out on our deck for awhile with the kids. I’d been showing him on the step of our deck levels. Well I’ll be darned if I didn’t show him 3 times when we first sat there, and he was doing it for the rest of the time.
Later, James showed him how to do it on the stairs in the house. Just like that *snap* he’s doing it all the time now. We obviously are right next to him, as he gets excited at his accomplishment or sometimes when he comes down the one stairs he gets excited to see out the living room window and all the cars passing, but he hasn’t fallen yet.
As of Friday, Evelyn wasn’t do it yet. She wanted to, but wasnt’ understanding the sitting part so much. Tonight she did 3 steps before she forgot 
Evelyn has been quite a crabby little girl lately, here and there. I’m not sure if it’s her tooth that’s coming that she rammed against the crib & I found her after her nap mouth dripping with blood and thusly covered myself in blood when I picked her up. We ended up at the Children’s dentist, $60 later she’s going to be OK. The dentist believes that the ‘flap of gum’ will shrink it’s self down and you’ll never know, if not- later in life if need be, they can move around the gum or something. What upset me was the woman I spoke to said “Come in right NOW!” as if it was a serious thing. James rushes home to watch James, thinking I might be there forever, and what’s happening… I get there, end up SO pleased that she’s OK, talk with the woman at reception (who scheduled me/told me to come in NOW!) while I Pay and she says she had me come in cuz she thought this one thing was wrong. I said, oh, that’ needs stitches then? “No, they just send you on your way then”. I was like, OK. Seriously.
We don’t have to take either baby in now though, until they have all their teeth. The dentist went thru the whole discussion about not letting baby goto bed with a bottle (never did), limit juice, especially apple juice (can count on my one hand how often they’ve had juice), no pacis (didn’t want them to use them, they didn’t like them really, James did for a short time, Evelyn here or there), brush their teeth (check, check), and there was one more thing, I can’t remember but it was something we don’t/didn’t do. Oh I remember, when we do start using toothpaste, be careful with the amount otherwise they might get spots on their permenant teeth from too much flouride (and also did we use city water).
Disaster averted. Evelyn was crabby and pretty much only wanted me the rest of the day though. I knew she was going to be harder with stopping nursing, but was surprised she did/does well unless she’s crabby or hurt, or upset. Which upset happens a lot as she’s started to dislike James from time to time again-though the guy gets so excited (I think that’s the reason) he bites sometimes. 
The kids, though more especially James LOVES Blue’s Clues. He seriously if allowed would watch it all day with little movement. This is nice, to be able to have something that I can put in that they’ll stay by so I can get something done quick if needed, but we really try not to have the TV on. I don’t turn it on for me to watch during the day, though I am on the computer on an off.
Evelyn is such a sweethart, and James is such a ham. He’s a silly goofy and makes you just want to eat him up kinda guy. He gets SO excited, and you can just see his joy on his face. Evelyn is shy, but soft, sweet and gentle. She doesn’t give out smiles as willingly and she’s more likely to hang around mom & dad. James, wanders off and plays without worry.
It’s interesting how you go about your day sometimes, with James home the extra day this weekend and he usually does on weekends regardless, get the kids up and starts the morning process (diapers & clothes) before I get done in the bathroom (yes, I take longer, plus I usually snuggle into his side of the bed when he leaves for a few mins). Anyhow, I realized how the kids know our routine.
We get dressed/diaper change, goto the stairs. James always brings me something. He’s always got a box of wipes, toliet paper roll (he has to go by my bathroom to get to the stairs), something - always. Then now, he sits down and works his way down the stairs. Evelyn either works her way also (tries to) or reaches to be picked up.
Then we hit the bottom of the stairs lock the gate that goes downstiars, then open the patio curtains, then we track back and close the upstairs gate and open the front window curtains. Then it’s to the freezer where momma as quickly as possible gets out their breakfast, because if you aren’t quick, two babies will be assisting… pulling out the green beans and veggie burgers. They are good though, backing up as I close the door and then James usually snaps it closed (safety device).
James has recently begun doing this wonderful thing-it started around when Mary, JOhn & Melba came. Need to get it on camera. My friend Jennie, has labeled it “Strength” for her two kids. It’s so friggin cute whatever you call it
I hate how I froget what I want to say in here, there is more. But this has been in draft for a week + now, so I’ll leave you with shots of the kiddos.
Add comment September 6th, 2008