Knock, Knock

After the kids were all snugged in their beds I went about my nightly routine of cleaning up downstairs and ending with a nice relaxing shower before settling in for some mindless TV and blogging.  This evening had a slight hitch in the routine.  As I was showering I heard a knock...somewhere close.  I did a mental checklist.  Kids in bed?  Check.  Doors locked downstairs?  Check.  Brett at work.  Check.  Knock.  Who is knocking? I get out of the shower.  Knock.  Wait?  Why is that coming from the closet?  Oh, because Emmett still sleeps in our extra roomy (EXTRA ROOMY...as in the size of our old bedroom...put down the phone to CPS) closet and is not sleeping, he is out of his bed knocking on the door.  I open the door and there he is, binky in, blankie in hand, waving.  His face reads, "What, did you want me to be in my bed?"  I scold him with a firm, "No Emmett."  Pick him up, put him in his bed.  One minute later, knock.  He is out again.  Hmmm, how to solve this issue.  We tried having him sharing a room with Brooklyn but not only did he party way past his bedtime but he would wake up in the wee hours of the morning and share his wake time with everyone else in the house.  Ugh.  He left me no choice after the fifth breakout from his bed.  I took him in to Brooklyn's room where they partied for an hour and a half before passing out.  I guess I can't complain since he finally did go to sleep.

He is 17 months old and climbing out of bed already.  Lucky us.  He loved his nest, i.e. former bed.  We just commented on how cute he was all snuggled up in his bed.  When you would lay him down he would circle his cute little feet, snug his blankie and close his eyes.  Pure comfort.  Now he hates it.  Now he wants to be free, knocking on doors an hour past his bedtime.  But, man, he was so cute waving at me each time I'd open the door.  I have a feeling those blue eyes and dimple will be getting him out of lots of trouble. 

Red Light

Monday was a rough day for Brooklyn.  Her Pre-K class operates on a green, yellow and red light system.  As in, if you are good, you stay on green.  Make a bad choice, move to yellow.  Choose to not correct that bad choice, move to red.  Red = timeout.  You have to earn your way back to green.  Well, on Monday Bink went from green to yellow to red, back to green, back to yellow, back to red.  This will happen if you punch a boy and kiss a boy all in one three hour day.

Yep, our little sweeties first bad choice was to punch one of her male classmates.  Punch.  We tried so hard to get her to tell us why she made that choice.  It is still a mystery and it appears that it will stay that way.  And, yes, the boy retaliated with a punch to Brooklyn's gut.  I guess I can write down her first fist fight in her baby book at age five.  Way dramatic, but don't you worry we had a serious talk about fighting/punching with her on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, you get the point.

As for the kissing, her teacher said that Brooklyn wanted to play "wedding" with her male classmate.  The teacher said she tried to get Brooklyn to stop kissing her classmate and Bink refused so, back to red, back in timeout.  Her teacher summed it up by saying that Brooklyn had a somewhat rebellious day.

Geez.  After pulling myself up from feeling like a complete failure in the parenting department it became a little bit funny.  Just a little bit.  I unpacked Brooklyn's bag to boarding school and decided that it isn't that bad.  Her behavior slightly mirrors my older sister Melissa as a child (don't deny it...you know it's true!) and, well, Melissa rocks.  

Talk about a rough day.  For her and for us, the parents.  I have said it before but this parenting business is not easy.

Crickets

Today I bought crickets.  Twelve small, live crickets.  In a bag.  As I walked in to Petco with Emmett in the front of the cart and Jameson in the back  I couldn't help but chuckle.  Brooklyn was at school so it was just the boys and me.  Why was I chuckling?  Because I never imagined I would have boys, let alone be buying live crickets with my boys.  Oh, are you wondering why we were buying crickets?  Well, a few weeks ago we decided to add to our family.  We increased by three.  Three lovely fire-bellied toads.

Blaze, Fireball and Truckie.  Yes, the kids have been seriously brainwashed...those are all firefighting related terms.  The kids were really in to the frogs initially and still like to watch them eat but, well, the frogs are lazy.  So lazy.  Jameson still likes to tell his frog, Truckie, good night which I find adorable.  I hope our next addition will be a little more furry.  And cuddly.  And fuzzy.

Spring at the Zoo

It was a surprisingly warm Spring day today so we headed to the zoo!  We love the Woodland Park Zoo just as much as the kiddos so it always makes for a fun day.

E chillin' in the stroller.

Blue Eyed Cutie.

Too bright!

The "big" kids.

Eatin' Lunch.

Jameson's "Happy" Face.

Trying to Get Them to Hold Still.

Not working.

Mid-Sandwich Bite.

Extreme Smiling.