Overheard last night before bed:
Sarah: “No, I can’t clean your sword right now. It’s past your bedtime.”
Maggie: “Ok, we’ll clean my sword in the morning.”
(The sword is drying in the dish rack as I write this.)
Young Knight?
My Superhero
This morning, after Griffin returned from working out with Sarah, I mentioned that I was going to mow the lawn. It took me a while to get Oliver up and settled, but eventually I made it to the garage to get the mower. As I opened the door, Griffin said that he had already pulled it out to the front yard. I thanked him for helping me get started. Then I came ’round the corner of the house and discovered that he had not only pulled the mower out, but had mowed the entire front lawn by himself. Note that this is a manual mower, so it takes real effort to move the thing around, especially when the grass is long and still moist from yesterday’s rain.
Pretty proud of this guy!
PS: Yes, we have discussed the potential consequences of spinning blades encountering bare toes.
Bedtime Routine
Sarah wrote this up for our first non-family babysitter for Oliver. It sums up where our bedtime routine stands now. We’re loving it–short, simply, and successful.
Oliver
Oliver’s bedtime is anywhere between 6-7:30pm, depending on how tired he seems. Signs that he’s ready for bed include crankiness, rubbing his eyes, heavy eyelids, general discontent, arching his back, etc. Once it’s clear he’s ready for bed, here’s what we do:
- Make a bottle to take upstairs. We usually make a 6 oz bottle, which is 6 oz of water mixed with 3 scoops of formula.
- Change diaper
- Get into PJs (we’ve left some out for you)
- Read him a book (I Like It When is my standby) and give him the bottle, if he’ll take it. We usually lay together on our big bed. If he’s really eating a lot, you can read him more stories. I’m sure Griffin and Maggie can find some to read. Sometimes we skip this part if it’s clear he’s ready and doesn’t need any milk.
- Once he’s done eating and you’re done reading a story, we say goodnight to Maggie and Griffin, and enter their room. We say goodnight to objects in the room (“Night night, clock! Night night closet! Night night, alphabet! Night night, Maggie’s bed! Night night, Griffin’s bed!”)
- Lay him down and give him his lovie.
- Say, “Night night, sleep tight! I’m right outside! I love you!”
- Leave the room, closing the door.
- If he cries, please set a timer for 5 minutes. Crying is continuous crying, not whimpers, moments of silence, whimper for a bit, silence for a bit. If he cries hard for 5 minutes, enter the room again, give him his lovie if it’s out of reach, and repeat, “Night night, sleep tight! I’m right outside! I love you!” Please don’t pick him up. He’s used to this routine now, and we’ve only had one or two times of really hard crying. He’s learning to soothe himself to sleep, and he’s gotten very good at it!
Maggie & Griffin
Bedtime for these guys is 7:30pm, unless Oliver is still falling asleep. We try to put Oliver down before they’re ready for bed, but sometimes it doesn’t work that way. We start them getting ready for bed around 7 or 7:15pm. Their jobs are:
- Get into PJs
- Put dirty clothes down the chute
- Brush teeth for 2 minutes
- Go to bed
Their routine sometimes includes time for read aloud, but if you are busy putting Oliver to bed, I would encourage them to get into their PJs, brush their teeth, and take a little quiet reading time on our bed, if it’s available, or the back bedroom. They are sometimes really amped before bed and goof off in their beds, which sometimes wakes Oliver. Please remind them that it’s silent time once they’re in their room!
Memorial Day at the Cabin
We enjoyed a few days with away from the end-of-school rush at the cabin over Memorial Day weekend. Our friends Jess, Murray, and Olive joined us. (Sadly, Kevin couldn’t make it this year.)
The trip included a number of notable events:
- Oliver’s first trip to the cabin, including relatively long drives, unfamiliar sleeping arrangements, and a wacky schedule. He was quite flexible, though he did complain that we were letting him freeze during the first night (temps dropped steeply after dark). We nailed it on the second night.
- Oliver’s first kayak trip.
- Maggie’s first time paddling the canoe and sitting on a proper bench.
- Griffin and Murray’s first time being largely independent in the kayaks. This was not exactly our intent, but they got them in the water before the rest of us were ready and before we knew it they were across the lake, exploring the island. (Definitely wearing life jackets!)
- Griffin caught a frog.
- Relatively close encounter with a pileated woodpecker on a birch by the cabin. The photos, at the end of the set below, are blurry phone pics, but this sucker was huge.
- Two new eggs in the loon nest. We weren’t sure if they would use the same nest site for a second year running. Last year one egg did not hatch. We’ll be checking back on the nest at our next visit.
- Thunderstorms and hail kept us inside on Sunday afternoon, which allowed for a smashing D&D game. (Griffin’s elf wizard was nearly killed by an evil skeleton, but Maggie gave him one of her healing potions.)
Oliver enjoying the view from the porch.
Oliver’s first time out in a kayak.
Maggie’s first time paddling (occasionally) the canoe.
Griffin and Murray zipped all over the lake.
Two fresh loon eggs in the same nest that we found last summer.
Oliver working on some teething issues (and boosting his immune system).
Bedtime reading with Jess.
Pileated woodpecker is on the trunk of the tree above the cluster of green leaves. (This was the maximum zoom with my phone… alas I didn’t have time to get the telephoto on my camera.)
Profile of the pileated woodpecker on the large branch to the left.
That was so last week…
Oliver must have read last week’s post about how we would just put him in his crib and he would magically sleep through the night.
Boring!
This week he’s trying out a new thing: having a harder time falling asleep and waking up crying every 30-minutes or so starting at 3-ish. Fun times.
Beds, Bikes, & Bottles
Change is afoot in Oliver’s world.
Beds
First, as mentioned on Monday, Oliver is now sleeping in his new crib in the kids’ bedroom. We were planning on a more gradual transition, but Griffin and Maggie were so excited to have him move in that we went for it. It’s been pretty miraculous so far. Every night this week, they’ve all gone to bed at the same time, with no special rituals for Oliver. We generally hang out near the crib for a little bit while he falls asleep, but it’s pretty quick. Honestly, the whole thing is a bit spooky; he just lies down and falls asleep. Crazy!
Bikes
Oliver has been out on a couple of bike rides now in the iBert seat on Sarah’s bike. He loves it, and we love the fact that we have a new way of getting around town with him. The older kids enjoy riding their bikes, too, so this increases the whole family’s range of car-free transit. It’s hard to believe that this little guy will be riding his own bike in a few years.
Bottles
This one might be better titled “Grasping” or “Manual Dexterity,” but they don’t have the same alliterative pizazz. Oliver has been getting better at using his little hands over the past month. He reaches for things intentionally, grasps objects we put in his hands, and likes to touch things within reach. (I like to walk around with him and let him touch different things—the bark of a tree, a smooth stone, a fuzzy towel—and watch him react to the different textures. On a more practical note, he can hold his bottle when he’s in his bouncy chair. He drops it frequently, but he loves trying to hold it and it gives us just a bit more leeway when we’re prepping a meal or trying to accomplish other tasks that require our hands.
Bedtime Blackbelt
So I know that I’m probably cursing myself by writing this down on FB, but I’m dancing around my house because I just put ALL THREE of our children to bed AT THE SAME TIME in the SAME ROOM. BOOM.
Young Theologian
I was helping settle Oliver into his crib when Maggie got up to get a drink of water. She got back into bed, then sat up and stated, matter-of-factly, “I don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead.”
“Um… what?”
She repeated herself, enunciating carefully, “I don’t believe that Jesus rose from the dead.”
“Ok honey. Goodnight.”
Vocabulary Lesson
Andrew and I were talking after dinner about my experience with why girls or young women might be sitting on the sidelines of pick-up sports games, and Maggie was seemingly not listening, singing *loudly*, next to us. She kept getting louder, so my voice kept getting louder as we talked. I said, “You know? I just didn’t want to play with guys who were being all macho and major douchebags!”
Without skipping a beat, Maggie yells out, “DOUCHEBAGS! Yeah, they’re douchebags! D O U C H E B A G S!”
Thus we added another word to the, “don’t call anyone this” and “don’t say this outside our house” list.
Good Morning
I live for these moments of Zen: I overslept (because baby wakes up a lot still, and apparently when I get a chance, I am a log) and walked downstairs to my two oldest reading, one on the couch, one on a chair, baby bouncing in the bouncer, Regina Spektor on the stereo, and greeted with “Good morning Mama!” 