Nightmares

As I watch my kids sleep this afternoon, I started thinking of all the things that can go wrong. I know that this is a dangerous place to go, but they are just so beautiful when they are sleeping that sometimes their waking moments truly give me nightmares. I decided that I needed to put this one event in writing, just as a reminder of what could have been.

We were still living in Woodridge, and Jacob and Kyle were about 17 months old. It was early spring and I was itching to get outside. We had hardly been outside at all last summer because I just didn't know how to do it with 2 babies (8-10) months who didn't want to sit in a stroller all day. Anyway, so this was one of our first trips outside when everyone was walking-the boys had gotten some push toys for Christmas and were dying to actually use them. I got Jacob's shoes and jacket on and was having some trouble getting Kyle to cooperate with the plan. So, I took them both out, but sat down at the edge of the garage to get Kyle's shoes and jacket on. In the meantime, Jacob had grabbed his push toy and had raced down our driveway and over to the driveway next door. We had been over there a few times before and while I was aware of where he was, I wasn't too concerned.

As I was wrestling with Kyle to get his shoes on, I heard a garage door open. I looked out and saw another garage on the court opening, no big deal, it was really far away, so I didn't think anything of it. Next thing I know, I hear a crash and I hear Jacob crying. I jump up and find that the garage door next door had also opened up and the husband was backing up in his great big pink pick-up truck. He had knocked Jacob's push toy over with the back wheel on the passenger's side and Jacob had fallen over. Thank goodness that the man had stopped when he felt the crash or I don't think that I have my Jacob today. I truly believe that was one of the scariest moments in my entire life.

Kyle, on the other hand, just sat and watched me, and as I came over holding Jacob and crying, Kyle began to cry too. He seemed to sense how scary this all was. I decided that I had had enough excitement for the day and we trapsed back indoors for the rest of the afternoon.
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Overheard

This was while I was driving my hubby's car. I had Kyle sitting in the back seat.

Kyle: You can go 45 on this road Mom.
Mom: Thank you.
Kyle: Then why does it say 50?

Ah, my Kyle living in his world of absolutes. I don't know how to explain to him that we all go a little faster than the speed limit says, and the only reason is because we can!
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Irrational Fears

Okay, so after the disaster that happened at bedtime with Kyle a few weeks ago, I think we may have bedtime figured out (again). It seems that Kyle is afraid to be in his room by himself with the door closed. Now, he has been sleeping for the past couple of months with his closet light on. Everyone in my neighborhood knows when Kyle goes to bed because he has a nice walk-in closet with a window right in the middle of the front of our house. Anyway, even that wasn't pacifying him. So after talking with my mom who put him to bed one night, she discovered that he just wanted his bedroom door open. Anyway, we have been leaving it open as he falls asleep and he hasn't gotten out of bed once. Then we close the door and turn his closet light off after he is asleep.

Since he lost his clock in his room (he couldn't get out of bed in the morning until the hour number said 7--and he was pretty good about it), he has been staying in bed at night, but not in the morning. He has been waking up before 7 and coming in our room asking why it is taking so long to get to 7. Finally we have convinced him to stay in bed and if it feels like it is taking a long time to get to 7, then he should probably go back to sleep. He hasn't been out of bed in the morning or evening in 4 days. If he continues this tonight, he can have his clock back tomorrow night.

I have no idea why he is scared, but I know how to fix it, and sometimes, being a parent just means fixing the problem, even if you don't understand it.
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Overheard

This one comes from Jacob. Both Jacob and Kyle are infatuated with speed limit signs. When there is a car on the same road as us going the other way, Jacob has started to say,

"That car is going way too fast. Maybe he didn't see the speed limit sign and said, 'Oh, I guess I'll just make it up!'"

Occupying Time

In this long, long, long winter, we are constantly looking for things that we can do inside that don't involve running. My kids love to run the circle, but with three little ones in the house, it is just asking for trouble. They can occupy themselves for short bursts of time, but they inevitable need an adult to step in and keep the peace for longer periods of time. Jacob and Kyle love to play games, but often Zachary is too small for them and it becomes a balancing act of helping the boys follow the rules and finding Zachary something to do.

This is the new game we have found. I used to play this game at my grandparent's house when I was little. It's obviously been updated since then. It's called Hi Ho Cherry-O, and even though Zachary isn't technically old enough to play it, it's a counting game and Zachary loves to count. He is getting pretty good at it. The highest they have to count is 4, so Zachary does pretty well. We have to basically tell him what to do with the rules of the game, but it occupied time in our house for about 45 minutes. Yea! Something else to do! See you when the weather warms up for sure!

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What? We Can Go Outside?

Yes, that was the question asked by my children last Friday. We had such beautiful weather, warm enough for no coats, yet it has been so long since we were able to be outside for any length of time, my children actually asked why we were going out. For the last couple of months we have gone outside with a specific goal in mind-shovel the driveway, make a snowman, go sledding, that we have forgotten how to just be outside and enjoy it.
Up and down our street people started to venture out. Even though we live within a few doors of each other, we never know what we are doing in the winter and it was nice to get out and chat and find out how everyone survived their lockdown.
Kyle finally got to get out that baseball glove that he has been dying to use. He's pretty good too. He loves to throw the ball up in the air and catch it. Is that how the great players started? He always wants to play catch, and sometimes I am all about doing it, and other times, I feel like the grinch and tell him no. Luckily, there is an 8-year-old boy across the street who loves to play catch with him. There is truly a blessing in that.

Zachary thinks he is all that. He loves his tricycle. We just have to figure out how to teach him how far he is allowed to go on our block. It will come!

Jacob still hasn't quite figured out what he is going to do outside all summer. He loves to ride his bike, but with his limited space, he bores of it easily. He wants to go on bike rides, and I'm sure we will go on many, but he needs to find something to do when we are home as well. We'll find something!

All in all it was a great day. Everyone had fun and slept really well that night!

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Time Change

Although this is definitely the easier of the two time changes for our family, we still had some trouble. I think the picture tells all.

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