The Thatcher Life: Transitions

Sawyer:

We finally got Sawyer's room put together (except for a few odds and ends) and moved him in. It looked really put together for exactly 0.2 seconds and then he basically pulled everything out of its original place. Not to play with any of it, just to make a mess. I thought it would be nice for him to have a space where we could put all of his stuff (and really it is) but now he just makes a mess in his room, makes a mess in Dawson's room, and pulls bits of those messes into various parts of the house. Guys, I'm tired.

As far as sleeping goes, he's done surprisingly well...at least at night. He's been in there a week now and has slept through the night and stayed in his bed except for one night when he creepily stood by the side of our bed until I noticed him. I thought I could hear his breathing but was nonplussed by it because my mom hearing is ridiculously sensitive. I hear it all. But then I heard, "Hhhhhu....Hhhhhu....Hhhhhu," right in my ear. After I flinched away and my heart started beating again, Sawyer still just stood there so I thought maybe he sleepwalked and said, "Are you even awake buddy?" To which he sweetly replied, "Up? Bed?" So he was awake. And had managed to make it from his room to ours in the pitch black without falling, bumping into anything, or crying. He calmly came with me as I walked him back to his room and put him back in his bed. And he stayed there the rest of the night.

Naptime is a whole different ball game. I have to lay him down around a half dozen times and then give him some mean mom threats before he'll stay in his bed and fall asleep. He still needs his nap and turns into a cranky little monster without it so I make sure he gets one.

Other than that, he's basically reached the pinnacle of two-year-oldness. I'm pretty sure I say the phrase, "Why are you crying?" a million times a day because he whine/cries A LOT. He wants to do things himself, but can't. Cries. I put on sneakers, he apparently wanted boots. Cries. I hold his brother and not him, which didn't bother him five seconds ago. Cries.

I love him. I do. And he's a good boy. This phase of life is just testing both of our limits.

Dawson:

Dawson finally got moved to his crib, for the most part. He's done semi-well with the transition. He's mostly just hit and miss with falling asleep initially. Sometimes I can lay him down and turn on his sound machine and he'll drift off on his own. Other times, he'll scream bloody murder until I rock him into drowsiness. Once he is asleep though, he generally stays asleep until his early morning feeding.

After his early morning feeding, he stays awake for awhile and is a loud (but happy!) little human. I tried laying him in his crib and he does fine. But he's wide awake and has found ways to make noise. While he lays on his back, he'll lift his legs so they're perpendicular to his body and then bring them down to thump the mattress...over and over and over. Or he babbles and talks or blows spit bubbles or... So out of desperation, I've been putting him in his bassinet in the family room where he isn't so easily heard. I really need to bite the bullet though and just put the bassinet away. I just really like my sleep.

Dillon:

Dillon has been putting in extra, extra hours at work and putting aside a cash stash for my birthday. My actual birthday fell on a Thursday so we didn't do much that day, but Dillon did re-arrange his work schedule so his early day would be on my birthday. He picked up a coconut cake (which was delicious!) and we grabbed food to eat at home. Then he arranged for the boys to play at my parents on Saturday so we could spend the day in St. George and shop. He was such a good sport as we went from store to store. He always seems genuinely happy to help me shop. I got a good one.

He also went in for a checkup on his shoulder and Dr. Clark was surprised by how well he's recuperating. Dillon has been doing stretches at home, and has been pretty diligent with them, which has paid off because Dr. Clark told him he's doing so well that he shouldn't need to do any in-office physical therapy.

DaNae:

I turned twenty-eight this past week. Twenty-eight. It's such an adult number, but I still get anxiety at the idea of being old enough to be "in charge" of anything major (good thing I'm a parent...). I've noticed crows feet and other skin wrinkles where there weren't any before. All in the name of aging. Bring it on.

Thanks to Dillon (and other family members' birthday gifts) I had a major shopping spree and I loved it. I've never officially looked into the whole "Love Language" business but I'm pretty sure mine is presents/stuff. How shallow. But it seriously lifted my mood to splurge some last week. I hit it all- new clothes, shoes, makeup, accessories...and I still did a little shopping for the boys, because I just can't help it.

Sawyer's room before...