Get Out of Those Cribs

Just about a month ago now, we took the mattresses out of the cribs and put them on the floor.
Instant big kid beds. Safe for trialing such vital progress as Staying In Bed All Night Without Mechanical Prevention.
So far, so good. About every 3rd night, Audrey sneaks in to our room between 4 and 6:00. But that isn't unappreciated by Mom and Dad. It's just when Olivia has done the same, it gets a bit crowded, but Dad is usually out by 5:30 at the latest.
Henry sleeps well, once he gets asleep. He has Mommy's circadian rhythm of being alert later and sleeping in. He is also most likely to be found having rolled out of the bed, or to be sleeping feet up on wall, head at foot, on stomach with arm behind back, and other sleep pilates positions.
The three kids all verbalize a desire for bunk beds. We go to furniture stores and "try" each of them on the top bunk. Then they don't want bunk beds. Until the next day, when they say they want bunk beds again. Are they simply misunderstanding what the bunk bed configuration is?
We continue to oscillate between trying all 3 in the same room, girls together, current state, or all three in separate rooms. Will likely continue this debate for the next 15 years.

No More Pleases

This is what Henry and Audrey called their pacifiers, which were sent to the North Pole with Santa on Christmas Eve, for redistribution to the other babies of the world. As Henry and Audrey didn't need them anymore. Maybe one night with a few tears, I think it was the 26th, but they've been great without them since. Great, meaning it takes a lot longer for them to wind themselves down for sleep. More dancing, talking, singing in their cribs. I think the cribs are the next to go, with Audrey becoming toilet-capable soon. Still, lots of change in a month for Audrey especially, though H may have been a bit more pacifier-dependent?
We're very proud of both of them for their maturity and sacrifice.
In their honor, some pictures of Silly Face At The Dinner Table Night.

Audrey in Training!

The biggest news this week is that Audrey has gotten pretty consistent with using the potty at home and at school! She may have accidents, and her diaper is still wet in the morning, but she has had a few days at school with no accidents and multiple #2's on the toilet. We are extremely proud. Last child in diapers, fading fast. Hallelujah. There, I just jinxed her.
Much of this came after a few weekends of letting her walk around the house without pants and with a potty chair always nearby, like this one in the living room. I'll spare her more of those pictures online.
We're very proud of her, as she is of herself.

Playing, Together

Sometimes they play together.

Nicely.


























Sometimes, they have help.

Walden...this is not

We went for a walk in the woods on a nice day.
This was before the injury.
Henry seems to have a premonition in some of these.

Minor Surgery, on a Minor, by a Minor

So last weekend, Audrey helped Henry to trim his fingernails, and got more than either bargained for.

I was cooking and Melissa was changing laundry when I heard a scream from upstairs. When I arrived in their bedroom, Henry was bleeding all over from his right index finger and, as mentioned, screaming in pain. A quick assessment showed a stool pulled up to the basket in their closet where we still had the pediatric nail-trimming scissors available for just such surgery. Audrey was nowhere in the vicinity and Olivia was in her room. We scrambled to try to staunch the bleeding and get Olivia and Audrey someone to watch them while we took Henry to the ER. Our kind neighbors Kasha, Kelly and Keegan could come over quickly on a Labor Day Weekend Sunday, and we ran Henry in. A few hours, 3 xrays and a lidocaine-numbed lavage later, Hank's dominant hand index finger was missing most of the nail and a good hunk of meat but was well dressed and had stopped bleeding. Our clever nurse had placed tube gauze with a disposable speculum! So with no bone involved, topical abx all over it and oral abx in hand, we went home to sort things out. Our friend Shirley had come over to relieve K.,K.and K while we were out, and she had gotten the girls a nap. We returned home with Henry when the "3rd string" of NaNa and Aunt Margo had arrived to help too.
When the girls woke up, we grilled Audrey on the most likely turn of events: "Audrey, did you cut Henry's finger?" Nod yes. Henry confirmed: "Audrey CUT my FINGER!" We didn't remind him that there was no way she could possibly have cut his finger if he had not cooperated by holding still, but why bring that up during his grief. One week later, he's healing nicely, no pain meds at all, and nearly finished with the p.o. abx. Even lets us dress it with bandaids without too much whimpering.

So I mentioned to the ER Attending MD that we had Henry in a couple months prior with Nursemaid's Elbow. Same kid, ER injuries within months, and that I would completely understand and comply if he thought DHS needed to pay us a visit. I was frankly embarrassed that we had allowed this to happen, though less guilty about the elbow. He just looked at me and said: "You've got 3 kids at home. It's a contact sport. Get out of here." I really appreciated that.

I'll include more photos of the gore soon. But here he is, reliving the pain and rocking the aluminum finger splint over a picnic in the backyard AND in the swell voetbal jersey from Cousin Owen and Uncle Joel. Holland Hup Hup!

Henry Speaks Oddly

I wanted to make note of an interesting habit of Henry for future reference.
There are some words that he says by scrambling the rest of the sounds of the word after the initial consonant.
The best example I have is Music.
He says, "Micus", pronouncing it MEE-kooz, so that the phonetic sounds are all there, just mixed.
He does it repeatedly, consistently, and can obviously hear well enough to copy almost every other word he hears anyone say, including their inflection. So it isn't his hearing. And he doesn't seem to grin or look at us when he does it, which might make me think he was intentionally joking or playing a game. I guess I still think he is playing a little game, but I'm not sure.
He does something similar with "butterfly", but I can't place or remember how he jumbles the sounds for that. He also does this sound combination consistently, though.
Interesting.

And tonight, on a walk to our neighborhood Nature Trail, he discovered his shadow. He spent quite a frustrating, if somewhat charming portion of the walk saying hello to his shadow and looking for it in the shade.
Adorable. Looking forward to him understanding Peter Pan.

He and Audrey love a Thomas the Train reader book we got at the library. Mostly for Olivia to sound out the words, but the twins love it so much they want it read every night. After a week, they can both give the last word to every rhyming line in the book. This isn't necessarily that precocious or original, but I was always so tickled when Olivia did this too, that I'm doubly charmed to hear these two bark out the words.

They like peaches, still won't give up their pacifiers at night, and have only used the poddy chairs a couple times each. Their favorite game right now is to tell me, "Go night-night, Daddy!" Then after my head drops onto my chest and I'm instantly snoring, they shout, "Wake up, Daddy!" Then laugh uproariously when I jerk alert. It will break them out of a full cry to join up the call and response. Nice tool to have in the drawer.