Big Boy Moments

Sam is turning into a big boy. He's growing up so fast. I've decided to document some of the new steps we've taken in the last few weeks.

Toddler Bed

Sam was doing fairly well at the whole sleep thing until we spent a week in Idaho over Thanksgiving. When we got home he started rebelling against the crib. He is pretty spoiled and wants to sleep in our bed. First we tried to let him cry it out, but he had a cough and would cry until he puked. Cleaning up throw-up all night long was less restful than letting him sleep in my bed. The final straw came when he began launching himself out of his crib and onto the floor. I decided that the safest move would be to set up the toddler bed, which he loves...just not at night. We're still doing the night time battle. It's not hard to get him to sleep initially, it's just that when he wakes up for the fourth time in one night and it's 4:00 AM, my resolve is weak.

Naughty Stool

We've been working on not hitting. He gets one warning and then has to sit on the naughty stool for 1 1/2 minutes. This worked brilliantly for a few days. He even went several days without hitting at all. The downside is that now he LOVES the naughty stool. He thinks it's FABULOUS, FUN, HILARIOUS! He pretends to, threatens to, and sometimes actually hits someone and then laughs and runs to the naughty stool for self inflicted time outs. Yet another parenting failure.

Self-serve Breakfast

One very groggy morning after a night shift I was dozing in bed with Playhouse Disney babysitting. (I tell myself that I am able to supervise while half awake and that Sam has learned a lot of very useful things from Mickey, Little Einsteins and the Wiggles.) I began hearing a strange plastic scraping noise. I peered over the edge of the bed and found Sam quietly sitting on the floor with an empty cup and a spoon, very diligently eating nothing. "Oh Sammy, are you hungry?" I asked. "Yeah" he said. Poor pathetic child. Poor pathetic mommy. But at least he is learning to be resourceful.

I guess he is officially a Big Boy now.