The Battle Over Sleep Continues

Caleb officially won the Nap War. While he does still take a nap, he now naps in Mommy's bed. He screams and throws a fit if we even walk toward his bedroom when it's naptime. So in order to avoid as much screaming in our day as possible, he naps in Mommy's bed with Mommy. It still takes a while for him to fall asleep, but at least he's calm about it.


Bedtime has become a whole other issue. He hates his bed. He hates his room. He just wants to sleep with Mommy. But that leaves no room in the bed for Daddy, so we keep insisting he sleep in his own bed.

It takes hours to put him to sleep at night. The worst night was three hours long. He typically goes to bed close to midnight. He's in a twin bed and will just get up and follow us out if we try to leave him in there alone before he's completely asleep.

He used to be such an easy child to put to sleep. Hand him a bottle and he was out. Since weaning him from the bottle, it's been torturous (not to mention he refuses to drink milk now). Now that he's potty trained, he adds this as an excuse to get up out of bed, and since I don't want him to wet the bed, I let him up every time. Though he's getting better with that one. Our biggest issue is that he wants to sleep with Mommy and he usually wants to do so in Mommy's bed (but even when we can get him to stay in his bed, he'll only stay there if I lay in bed with him).


When he's asleep, he's just so precious. Every time I see those asleep little eyelids, the stress just washes right out of me.

{Pictures taken 5/11, before naptime got moved to Mommy's bed.}

Caleb and Mommy

For Mother's Day, we went back to the Nature Center after church to take pictures. I really wanted a picture of Caleb and me together, since I'm typically the one behind the camera instead of in front of it.

It took much convincing for Caleb to take a picture with me since all he really wanted to do is play on the toys.

Together in the tunnel:


Blowing dandelions:


Walking down the trail as far away from toys as possible:


Making "fire" with our sticks:


I convinced him to come sit on a log with me so Brandon could take our picture. Caleb couldn't sit still long, so I had to resort to tickling him to get him to stay with me. There was also a lot of jumping on the log involved in these:



Playing peek-a-boo around a tree:




He was one tired little boy by the time we went home.

Nap Wars

I miss the good old days when Caleb used to take a bottle and fall asleep as soon as he finished it.

These days it takes me an hour to get him to take a nap. A very frustrating hour.

Though sometimes it's interesting to see how he can avoid taking a nap.


Yes, he pulled his pillow and Yertle into the cupboard with him.

Then he moved onto the floor.


And Yertle got a timeout for hitting Mommy.

Flat Rock Brook Nature Center

Brandon has had the car most of the time that we've been in New Jersey, so when Caleb and I get to have it, we have to make the most of it. The best place we've discovered so far is the Flat Rock Brook Nature Center. It has tons of trails that you can walk on through the trees and even alongside the river. I heard someone say there was a waterfall somewhere, but we've yet to discover it.

On the other side of the bridge is a playground. Which is why we've yet to find the waterfall. It's hard to get Caleb to want to leave the playground once he sees it and it's at the beginning of the trail.




I love the faces this kid makes!




Caleb surprised me when he climbed to the top of the playground equipment where the big swirly slide was and then went down without any prodding from me. It wasn't that long ago that he was afraid to go down a slide by himself (i.e. a month ago) and the only ones he normally tries is the straight down, softly sloped, not scary slides.




What neither of us had realized was that at the bottom of the swirly slide was a huge puddle of who knows what. Caleb was soaked through. Since we didn't have a change of clothes with us, I took him over to the bathroom and wiped him down with toilet paper, then stuck him under the electric hand dryer. He actually thought the dryer was pretty funny. The whole time we were walking to the bathroom, he walked with his legs spread as far apart as possible. It was hilarious (to me, not him).



After getting cleaned up, Caleb refused to go down the swirly slide again, even after I cleaned up the puddle of water/gunk. He thought the tube looked like a safer slide, especially since he didn't really slide much in it.





He also liked the little slide. Then again, a guy had come by after the swirly slide incident and had blown the leaves and water off this little slide. (But then Caleb scared him away with his death looks and the rest of the slides didn't get cleaned. So little slide was the only clean slide.)




Before we could go home, Caleb found a tiny puddle that just HAD to be jumped in.

(Pictures from 5/2/09)

Poxsiborn

Caleb loves otter pops. LOVES them. He could eat otter pops all day long every day. Unfortunately, in our apartment, the freezer is on the bottom, so Caleb can easily open it and pull out an otter pop whenever he wants one. Which is often.

On the upside, he can't open them without assistance (or access to the scissors). This leaves him constantly asking for help (or scissors). He's mastered the art of the word please, stretching it out in his cutest voice so that he's almost impossible to resist. Never fear, when it comes to popsicles, I'm excellent at saying no.



One day, I let Caleb have a popsicle while I went and took a shower. Halfway through my shower, he walks in holding two more popsicles, having easily finished the first. I didn't think much of it since he can't get them open without help. Ha. Little did I know, Caleb had pulled a chair across the apartment, then climbed up, grabbed the scissors from the counter, and cut open both otter pops. The scissors were moved after that.



On the day these pictures were taken (4/27), Caleb went and grabbed himself an otter pop even after I told him no. He then begged and pleaded for me to open it for him (since the scissors are typically kept hidden from him). I thought it was so funny the way that he was crying for a popsicle that I went and got the camera. That only upset Caleb more. The harder he cried, the harder it was for me to not laugh.



It wasn't as if I didn't try to cut a deal with him (i.e. let me have one good picture and I'll get the scissors for you), but he wouldn't have any of it. Eventually, on this day, the crying won out over Mommy's no. Though by the time I finally got the scissors, there wasn't much left to his otter pop.




Aren't you happy at all kid? You finally got your way. You should be happy. Where are your smiles?




Apparently the happiness was only meant for the otter pop. Mommy still got the look of death.

Strangely enough, despite his great love for them, popsicle is the only word Caleb says wrong. There are words that he gets confused and lots of words he doesn't know and okay, plenty that perhaps only I can understand. But popsicle is said wrong each and every time. It used to always be POX-si-born. Often times now he'll skip the middle syllable and just say poxborn. Either way, he's a silly boy.