Locking Him In

I think that I need to start from somewhere and I will start with the latest episode of trauma. Captain (he needs a new name, or maybe not) recently upgraded from crib to big-boy-bed. This was all a result of his learning to climb out of the crib and then a week after that, learning to open the door. This past week he has started writing the book that every little kid reads: "1001 Excuses on Why I HAVE To Get Out of Bed". He tries each and every one out at least once per evening. Last night, his biggest excuse was that "I just need to cry, Mommy." It breaks my heart, but it irritates me as well. Add to that, I was suffering from a partial migraine and Fundi was at a banquet. It was not a pretty night... So, after discussing the situation with Fundi, this afternoon I decided to take the kids to town and buy those door knob child proofers. Now, I'm not all for locking kids in rooms, but I have seen Super Nanny recommend putting a child in a room and letting him or her fall asleep wherever they are just so long as they did not come out of the room. So, in hopes of making my life a little more sane and allowing everyone a peaceful evening, I put those knobers on tonight. I explained how they worked and let him know that he would NOT be coming upstairs once he was put in bed. He screamed and cried. After about 15 minutes, I checked on him and put him back in bed. He screamed and cried. After about 15 minutes, I checked on him and put him back in bed. He screamed and cried, and then it was quiet. About 45 minutes later, he screamed and cried again. I went down to check on him and he must have fallen asleep by the door and woke up there. I put him back down and he gladly stayed in bed.
Now, the other part of the problem occurs in the morning: Captain wakes up before the sun even comes up. He is up sometimes as early as 5:45, but definitely by 6. This irritates me as well. Now, people have told me to just put the kids to bed later (their normal bedtime is 7pm) and they will wake up later, but in my experience (and we have tried quite a few times, as the 7pm bedtime is flexible from fun extracurricular events) this is definitely NOT true. What really happens (at least with my kids) is that they wake up at the same times and they are short on sleep and terribly cranky. Then, they do not take naps that are longer than normal either. This all adds up to unhappy kids and unhappy Mom.
We'll see how things go. My plan for the morning is to go down and check on him when he wakes up and change his pull-up. Then, I will put him back in his room. He can play or do whatever he wants, but I will only be going to get him at 7am. I'll keep you posted.
As far as the rest of life goes, things are busy. You probably guessed from the lack of posts. I miss blogging. I really enjoy it, but once you stop, it is hard to get back in to because of all the things that have been missed.
A little update on each of the kids:
Captain is now 30 months. He is a big boy and he is basically potty trained during the day. I am thankful for this. He tells us when he needs to go. We have allowed him to experiment with going in different places (off the deck, in a hole, over the ledge of our retaining wall, etc) in hopes that he will be comfortable enough to pee in less than perfect circumstances. It has worked so far and even though he is nowhere close to being trained through the night, we only use one pull-up a day during his nap and it is almost always dry.
Burbles is now 18 months. She is getting so big and is just a delight. She is a happy little girl most of the time and is really easy going especially when it comes to her brother. She is such a beautiful little girl. She is happy to smile at almost anyone and is getting pretty good at interacting with strangers. She is also really good at giving hugs and kisses. She is totally into clothes and will put on any random clothes that are around, especially when I am folding laundry.
Fundi has been working and being a good dad. We had a terribly busy summer. We took a two week vacation to North Carolina and then we tore out our front deck and shrubs and hired a landscaper to make us a real yard. Then we painted the rest of the deck. HUGE Changes around our house this summer. I can't wait to show you photos. But, until later...