A Little Catch Up

Daily my boys grow and change, and I just try to keep up with the beautiful chaos. I find less and less time for my own interests, including blogging, but don't want to let our family blog slide too much.

Alden Bear
Alden is anxious to be four and start preschool in the fall. He loves playing on the computer and watching shows on TiVo, both of which he can run completely on his own. He always shows our babysitters how to work the tv. We're trying to establish some better routines with him, including some chores. He wipes the table for me and helps unload the dishwasher. He's getting into a pretty independent phase though, and we have problems with disobedience, talking back, and some dishonesty. Just normal three year old stuff though. When he gets angry and frustrated he hits the couch, table, or wall and says, "I'm just gonna break our house!" I try not to laugh and only discipline him when he says he's going to break me or Emmett. Alden doesn't pay a lot of attention to Roland, but enough to show his brotherly love. Most people think Roley looks like Alden - we'll see as the baby grows up. Alden loves to take pictures with my "real camera" and I sometimes find some suprise shots when I go through them. The other day he was left alone while I took a shower and when I came back he told me he took some pictures of Calliou. When I checked the camera, there were about 30 shots of our tv, progressing from far away, showing the entertainment center, to closer up of just the tv, to bunches of screen shots of one of our favorite shows. They turned out suprisingly well, good to know for the future.

Change of Room Situations
As I've listed before, Emmett is our wild child. He can tear a room apart faster than a tornado. After months of anticipating moving Roley into the boys' room, we realized that we can't trust Emmett and finally moved the crib into our office, along with a spare dresser. Which means that Emmett sleeps in a big boy bed now - he started right at his birthday, motivated by the new sports ball sheets that Ma'am (my mom) got him. He didn't really have any transition issues, but he does sleep all over the place and has fallen out once. It's low though. We also took the bunkbeds apart, after the boys fell off a couple times during their jumping and wrestling sessions up there. Then, last Saturday I pulled the closet doors down from the attic. We had taken them off as soon as we moved back from Florida, to avoid pinched fingers. But Emmett's favorite thing to do is pull ALL the clothes from the hangers and scatter them, along with all the dirty clothes, hangers, shoes, toys, and anything else he could reach. So, tired of picking up everything three times a day, we put the closet doors back up and found a lock for them. Very inconvenient for us, but worth it for now. We also bought two big MDF boards and covered the windows in the boys' room. Aaron was tired of getting up at 5am with them because the sun shines in (he is so sweet and let's me sleep in the majority of the time). All sunblocking items we have installed, drapes, blinds, and shades, have been destroyed by the boys in record time. So it pretty much looks like a prison in there, and it echoes a lot. We have plans to disguise and decorate the boards, but I'm sure it will take some time. First we have to find some kind of moveable brackets that would let an adult move the boards fairly quickly in case of a fire or something. I know the boys couldn't do it, but not like they can get out the windows on their own anyway.

Our Ro-Ro
Roland is getting big - he will be four months this Friday and seems to be progressing well. He has a well visit on Friday and I will list his stats. He still eats several times in the night, but is only up for about 15 minutes at a time and goes to bed around 5:30 or 6. Naps are getting longer and more consistent. He smiles and laughs a lot and seems happy to be around his family. Roley loves to be held though and doesn't last very long on his own. He still spends some time in his bouncer, and does lots of short stints in the red chair we got from Candice, and now his walker. Turns out his feet actually touch the ground and he is able to move himself around a bit in it. I have to keep a close watch because Emmett loves to climb in the walker on top of him, but Ro Ro is sure cute in there. He usually lasts about 5 minutes. But it gives me a little break. I still have to carry him in the Baby Bjorn while we are out at the store or zoo, and occasionally at home. He breaks my back but stays quiet and his soft little head is right at kissing level.