30 July 2013

Too Easy...

Reading to her babies while her quilt was finishing in the dryer. Girls are SO much different than boys!
Folks it has happened.
Immanuelle Marie is now a certified "Big Girl Bed" sleeper.

Like her big brothers before her, she has a younger sibling on the way and that means movin' on up to the Eastside whether she likes it or not. Or, mind you, whether I like it or not. (she's way tiny to be a big girl) Isaac and Isaiah were briefly both in cribs, but that was just because we had no clue Isaiah was going to arrive so quickly. As soon as it was possible, Isaac was promoted to big boy, Isaiah followed about 20 months later, and now Birdie-bye has her badge as well.

Our life sometimes seems so full of unsettledness, moving, changing, transitions, and the like. We wouldn't trade our lives for anything, but always "saying goodbye" to everything and everyone can wear on you.

So, with big-beds we have done our best to try and make this one small aspect of their young lives as easy as possible on us and them. We decided not to do toddler beds, but to go straight from crib to bed...
#1- because even though our crib can change into a toddler bed, there has always been another baby needing the crib in the crib form.
#2- because we didn't want to buy anymore furniture than necessary. (an extra crib or a toddler bed)
#3- because saying "bye" to something- even a bed- can be difficult sometimes. So we just decided to only make them say goodbye to their crib. Instead of a crib AND then to a toddler bed too.

More "sameness" for them for longer, less furniture buying and having to help them transition through change for us. Win-win!

Now that we're through with the explanations that you care not for... shall we move on to photos of our sweet Ellie Bellie in her big girl bed?

We shall.

Easiest
Transition
Ever.
HomeBird was so excited about her bed. Everyone "helped" as we assembled the mucho cheapo frame from IKEA. We found her reading to her babies that she had lined up all by herself like she'd done it a thousand times. At bedtime she showed no apprehension and seemed to need none of the brief explanation we gave her.

For this milestone Anthony and I have made sure we start on a night when we are both mentally prepared to sit outside the door and "train" said child to stay in bed. Isaac took 2 nights, Isaiah somewhere around the same. Not long, maybe a few tears, repeating the instructions, but overall not a big deal for us or them.

But Ellie Bird? The baby who speaks in 5 word sentences? The in-tune toddler who tells me when she has poo-poo in her diaper? That easy child?  She never even tried to get out. 

Doesn't surprise me.

Maybe she loved it too much to want to get out? Maybe she just knows the rules somehow already? I dunno, but the only "training" we had to do was one time catching her standing up on the bed and telling her to lay down.

Naps? You ask? Hasn't missed a beat!

One adorable note was that she seemed to think that she was supposed to lay on her back on her pillow, but after 45 minutes the first night, we went in and she still wasn't asleep.  She was perfectly still, quiet, and under her blanket, but awake.  So we told her to lay on her belly and after that she was a goner.

AND...to round out this ridiculously easy transition, she has slept about 30 minutes longer than usual the last two mornings!

Love. Her.

So not only has she seemed to tackle this milestone effortlessly, Mama now gets those snuggles with her after she's asleep, as logic would tell you, cribs and snuggles don't exactly mesh well.

Parenting is most definitely not always this easy. So we are super grateful this one has gone so well!

Sweet dreams baby girl!

24 July 2013

June

The whole thing was fun.
I mean, Grandparents?
Fun.
Bali?
Fun.
Aunt Cara on vacay with us?
Fun.

But what's this you say?
It's July??
I haven't blogged since May?
Interesting. I'll have to look into that.
While I'm getting things sorted out, how 'bout y'all just scan through a few hundred of these pics? Is that ok? (you may wanna get a snack or something first, there's a bunch) (I'm not kidding)

When Grandparents come they just scooch right on in to our everyday lives.
Eating Naan. Playing with rice. Being admired.
We eat with our hands a lot here and there aren't many napkins. Zayby-baby waiting his turn to wash his hands.
WHY was I the only adult at the table who did not find this amusing? Rice cubes + Satay sticks = The Foreigners getting stared at even more at the restaurant.
So our hotel room had a smoke detector. The boys, having never seen one, were crazy-fixated about fire. Afraid of fire. When's the fire coming? I don't wanna die in fire. I don't want fire to be on me. Does fire kill you? Yada yada yada. Before seeing this pic, I thought it was the smoke detectors but now I see the focused attention of my eldest on the flight safety information card on the flight there (which pictures the plane on fire). On that same flight he watched "Bolt." (spoiler alert- Bolt the dog saves Penny from a fire at the end.) So maybe I should give the hotel a break now and quit hating them a little for their smoke detectors and just embrace the fact that the cards were stacked against me this time.
Granddaddy!
Granddaddy!
We have no tubs in our house, so they're kinda a huge deal. So how could I NOT post this adorable tired Birdie gaze? I couldn't not. You're right.
Then Aunt Cara arrived! Yay! More adults to climb on in the pool! I highly advise stacking the ratio of adults to kids in the adults' favor when headed to the beach. Not only is conversation better, but supervision duties are less burdensome and everyone has a better time!
GrandMama!

Even though as a beach-snob I find the coral sand lackluster and slightly painful, I'm not too proud to admit that on these little feet, just about anything is cute!
Beach snob.
Lemme 'splain. On several occasions we witnessed women being photographed by their significant others on the beach. Not just a selfie people. We're talking WAY beyond a "be sure to get the volcano in the background too," and straight into the regrettable territory of striking ridiculous poses on the beach- with sarongs, in the water, in the sand, hair in their face, sun in their eyes, waves crashing in on them.  They were hoping- oh, you could tell they were hoping- to come away from their Bali holiday with facebook likeable, instagram worthy, twitter-trending, heart racing beach shots. Victoria's Secret was their goal I think, but, "bless their hearts," I've got a hunch their expectations weren't met when they viewed them on the laptop that night. Nevertheless, we got a good laugh out of watching them all and the fever musta been in the water because before too long my sexy man couldn't help himself. What can I say? The camera loves him...
I'm not saying he should go into acting (or modeling) but this is a ridiculously good impression of the posing we saw.
Superhero-esque. I like. Also bonus. Man in a speedo collecting seashells.
Balinese Dancers.
Aren't they a handsome couple?!
Day trip to Ubud. No really. I was excited about it! Ibu Oka has had to change locations twice since Anthony Bourdain stopped by her shop and declared on the Travel Channel her roasted pig to be the best he had ever eaten anywhere (he's pretty accurate on that!) See his show "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations" for reference.

We went to the monkey forest and this was the ONLY photo of any of us WITH a monkey in it. Lots of us. Lots of the monkeys. Only one with a monkey and a kid. Incidentally, 2 years ago, we got a funny video clip of Isaiah at the monkey jungle...it's a Rivers Family favorite.
Grandmama!
Ellie-bellie has never seen a slide she couldn't handle.


There's a crab in there.

We didn't spend ALL our time on the beach. A couple times we actually showered and applied make-up!
Too sweet, huh? This was probably Isaiah laying on the bed, looking up at that ridiculous smoke detector and asking if he could sleep in our bed because he didn't want the fire to get on him. Just a guess. (but I'm right)
Thanks again Bali! We hope to see you again next year!