Bedtime Routines

Today was the day of epic tired-cranky, post-Christmas meltdowns and made me re-think the kids' bedtimes routines. Maybe plying them with bon-bons and hot cocoa before throwing a crazy-dance party is not the best way to settle them for bed.

Well, obviously. But I thought the bath-book-bed trio was brilliantly efficient and effective when applied consistently. After all, kids are creatures of habit, so I'm told, and function best when they know what to expect which is why we have a picture-calendar for Henry detailing if he'll be at school or home that day and try to stick to consistent mealtimes, snack, naptime (for Kat) and bedtime for both of them.

Kat perked up well before sunrise today (thank you Dada for handling that this morning) so logically I thought she would crash early for her nap. Nooo...I missed that hairline perfect time to put her down and she was way overtired. She took 1 1/2 hours to finally fall asleep, just a few minutes before I was going to suck it up and admit today would be a no-nap day (ah!).

Then tonight, she had her bath, put her own PJs on and settled down for her night-night book, all right on schedule until I turned on her lullaby music and cracked the door so her moon/stars nightlight would show up on the ceiling.

Cue the drama and we had close to 2 hours of overwrought distressed Kat where I see-sawed between "she's just overtired" to "what's WRONG??" It was time for Henry to go to bed so we just laid down in their room all together so I could keep tabs on the babe.

I stopped thinking she was sick when she started demanding "Rees DEES!" (read, please) and reached through her crib-bars for 5 board books and a big picture book. After energetically turning the pages, she carefully arranged them on her pillow....and laid down.

OK, I love that she loves her books, but this is a bit extreme even for me.

Is that a Lightbulb around your neck?

Henry noticed the pearl necklace I was wearing today. And by "noticed," I mean grabbed it and pulled it closer for a better look, nearly strangling me in the process.

Henry: Is this a LIGHTBULB?
Mama: No, it's a pearl.
Henry (face lights up): I know what PEARLS are! They live in CLAMS!

Kid knows what a pearl IS but not what it LOOKS like?

Grab the Bull by the Horns

Henry's noisily stomping around the living room on hands & knees.

Henry: I'm a triceratops!
Mama: Where's your horn?
Henry (pause): No! No! I'm a BULL!

Yeah, okay. Horn question avoided?

Mama: So where's your horns?
Henry (not to be outdone): I'm a CALF bull!

Toesies and Owies

I was watching my 2 yr old change her own Pull-Up and get dressed this morning, quite the independent little girl who's even telling her body parts what to do.

 Kat: Me! On! Ahm IN! Owie IN!

She stubbed her toe months ago and ever since she thinks her toes are called "Owie."

Halloween 2.0

Since we're well into November, seems like a good idea to catch up and write about the kids' Halloween before Christmas is upon us.
Usually Jim takes the kids around our neighborhood and I stay behind to dole out the candy. This year I insisted on a trade since I usually don't get to see their happy little faces as they gleefully accept their treats. I learned soon enough why Jim was so quick to take me up on that offer.
(On a side note, I get that parents with small kids want to start before it's pitch black outside, but we aren't trick-or-treat ready before 6:30 and even that is pushing it with our schedules).
So we had the lights off and ignored the doorbell which still chimed (lights OFF, people!) until it was time to wrangle Henry and Kat into their Superman and Dragon costumes, respectively. Naturally, Henry's Superman costume which he has worn a couple of times before the 31st was suddenly unacceptable and chafed his neck. Kat's dragon hood kept falling over her face, so that wasn't going to work either. Changed into Storm trooper and Pumpkin and headed out only to discover it had started raining somewhere between putting on Henry's Storm trooper mask and plopping on Kat's pumpkin hat. Perfect.
My brother and I headed out with the kids while Jim stayed behind in the nice warm house. It was cute at first to see them trot up and ring the doorbell, delighted with the people's responses to their costumes, but quickly became a tiresome routine of helping Kathryn up and down precarious porch steps, without tripping over my Renaissance dress, and keeping track of an increasingly hyper-Henry scampering around in the chilly rain. But they had fun and I loved how Kat would hold out her little hand, get two pieces of candy, then chase after Henry yelling "Ree-Ree!" to give him the other piece. She was so concerned that she was getting a treat and he wasn't. Love that.

Shadow

This totally made my night. I was putting the lid on Kathryn's cup of berry lemonade when it slipped out of my hand and tipped over, spilling the contents directly into the open silverware drawer. That sucked.
Then I was bustling around cleaning up the kitchen with Kat following me around (of course) occasionally tugging on the back of my pants. Turns out she was blowing her nose on tissue after tissue and jamming them, dripping snot, into my back pocket. Awesome.

Famous

Henry was running around tonight, swinging his foam sword yelling, "You're fired!"
Mama: Who are you? Donald Trump?
Henry: Who's Donald TRUNK?

So he's not as well-known as he thinks.