Life with Jack & Zach: 24 Hours

Greetings! We have definitely been MIA that is for sure. There has been so much happening between work and home that it just has been non-stop. This past week I have to admit that I didn't care to do much of anything since this expansion I have been working on is slowing down; only 5 more positions to fill out of 35. This past week I just enjoyed sitting down to relax once the boys went to bed and boy did it feel good. The bad thing is now I have so much to catch-up on, but Cest La Vie!

Last Sunday marked an eventful day in the Helland House, and we literally crashed and burned that evening. It started wtih nap time, or should I say, "what nap"? The boys decided they were going to climb out of their bed and then it became a game. Jack in one of his many attempts and successful getaways did fall. He is okay; did not get hurt, but man that scared the poopie out me. I think it did for him too. Nonetheless Steve made his way to Lowes and got the parts needed to turn their cribs into a toddler beds. The boys were excited and so were we BUT I was SO dreading bedtime because I just knew what was going to happen. Since they did not nap I thought it would be best to tuck them in early. The tucking in part did not go so smoothly. Here is what an hour looked liked before Steve put back together their cribs:

"Up and down, go get a book, climb into the bed, put the book down, run over to see brother, climb in his bed, run into the playroom, grab 25 books, shut the door, run into bed, put books down, jump out of bed, run to playroom find another 25 books, turn on the light"

They repeated every single step about 50 times and here we are as calmly as can be, "boys time to go nighty night, let's put our head down on the pillow". Um so the quiet, your good boys voice did not work and they simply could care less that we were even talking. MAN! What did I say happened to us that night, oh---crashed and burned! Before we put their cribs back together, Jack was in sleep mode but Zach all of sudden got 5 more firecrackers up his little butt and decided to repeat the whole routine I outlined above again and again. Trust when I said we tried almost anything. At 8:30 there went the toddler beds, back to the cribs. The boys clearly cannot handle being in a toddler bed right now and I will say an AMEN!

I decided to sleep on the floor next to them to ensure they would not climb back out. It never happened because as soon as their head hit the pillow; good night. So the million dollar question is why could that not happen when they were in the toddler bed; no answers. We know the transition from crib to toddler bed will take some patience, but how the boys feed off each other is a whole other story. If we just had the one then I think we would have weathered the storm and allowed ourselves to adapt, but what we experienced in just a matter of an hour and a half...I have no words. I read that maturity and age plays a big part and so all we want is for us to get by using the cribs until they are 3. I think by then they will be more inclined to listen, hopefully over the "let me see how much more I can get Mommy and Daddy in a tizzy" stage, and adapt to the changing environment. I know wishful thinking. The two feeding off each other DOES not help at all and I think this is what led to the circus of the night we had. All I can say is this is yet another stage we can work through.

Since I was not about to invest in the crib tent, the next day Steve went and bought lumber to extend the crib, keeping them from climibing and/or falling. Not too shabby! Although kids are determined and they have tried to hike their leg over. This version is much better than what we had before so we will just continue to keep our eye on them as they grow.

This is what the boys' beds looked like in a course of 24 hours...literrally 24 hours!