KC,Picasso, and Mario Bros!

 KC is my resident artist.  All the kids enjoy expressing themselves through art, but for him it is a bit more than that. It is at the very core of his being to use art of all forms to express himself.  He is especially enarmored of Pablo Picasso these days.  He has been experimenting a lot with geometrics in his art since reading Just Behave Pablo Picasso!  The above shot was on Lissa's magna doodle and I promised to take a picture of it so that it was saved for posterity and the magna doodle could be used by someone else!  LOL

 More cube art, this time of the sculputural variety.  He is also looking forward to pottery camp which starts next week and lets him work with clay all week long.

And here is the little artiste in his new room he is sharing with Rob.  His Mario Bros sheet set came today so the bed is all dressed as he wishes and he had to try it out and make sure it was comfy.  Some of the Mario wall clings have come but not all and I think I will wait and see if he wants to journal this on his blog before I co-opt more of his story! :-)

KC Moves out!

Of my bedroom that is!  He has been sleeping in his own bed at the bottom of my bed for months but not been ready to make the leap to sleeping in Rob's room.  I didn't push, finding that if I mentioned it too often, we had incidents of sleep walking and night terrors that to me, just were not worth it.  I figured he would go when he was ready and today, he apparently decided he was ready.

He and Rob readied his side of the room,Kirsty helped him hang is Mario poster.  In went the bed, the new night light and a small bookcase for treasures and all his books.  He is very very proud of the space and other KC specific items will decorate it in the future.  I just didn't buy them in advance since I wasn't sure when this great event was going to happen.  LOL

Meanwhile I am LOVING how spacious and airy my room feels.  And Rob says he is okay with things as long as KC does not wake him or try to get in bed with him.  Neither are likely, and even Rob admits that! LOL  Speaking of Rob, he is off on a date tonight.  He and his gf have had a hard time getting together recently.  T's grandmother has been ill and T has been in charge of being with gmom in the day while her parents are at work, as well as keeping an eye on her 13 y/o brother.  But tonight she is free and they are dining out and he was dressed to the 9's when he left the house.

Sleep Issues

Lissa has always been a light sleeper.  But lately, she has been sleeping--or NOT sleeping--- more than ever.  She will waken about 3 a.m. and be awake for an hour or more.  Doze off and then waken again at 5.  Some nights she wakes at 2, messes around for an hour and sleeps the rest of the night through.  But she is not particularly quiet when she wakes up.  She is warm and covered.  She is not crying. But she is noisy as all get out.

I have had a really hard time getting to the root of this.  I have gently asked about bad dreams, or feeling sick or having to go to the bathroom.  She is so heavily into magical thinking that the only answer I get is that her stuffed animals are making all the noise, not her.  Or that there was a big noise outside and that woke her.  In some cases this could be true because there has been a lot of late night trucking away of snow due to the size of the drifts.

I have not put beads in her hair lately, thinking that I don't want to do anything that could rattle and waken her from sleep.  Her bedtime routine is always the same.  But the problem persists. And she is loud enough that she wakens KC not just me. So a nasty cycle of 2 cranky kids has evolved over the past several weeks.  Truly, it isn't pretty, people.

Finally last night I suggested that she come into my bed if she wakes up. I just have this niggling feeling that she is afraid about something and isn't verbalizing it.  And oh goddess do I want to have a decent nights sleep! LOL  At any rate, she came in so quietly that I barely heard her. She slept soundly in my bed till 6:15 which for my kids is roughly equivalent to sleeping till noon!  So apparently I am destined to co-sleep forever, but truthfully if I get a full nights sleep I am inclined to think it is worth it!

Security and staying dry

So Miss Lissa has been doing really well with night time potty training.  Hardly any accidents, even when we went camping. (which amazed me)  But our bedtime situation is kind of wonky.  KC was starting out in his bed (which is at the bottom of my bed) and staying there for 1/2 to 3/4 of the night and then moving in to my bed.  Lissa was starting in her bed (next room over) and coming into my  bed at some point as well.  Which was all well and good--except that Lissa wakens earlier than KC. And when she is lying next to him, she pokes him awake.  By midweek he is definately showing the signs of not getting enough rest.

So I thought in my infinite parental wisdom that since he was staying in his bed most of the night, I should encourage Lissa to do the same in her bed.  She doesn't cuddle with me in bed.  Doesn't cuddle with KC.  Doesn't really like anyone to TOUCH her in bed. So I thought it was not a big deal. I thought maybe she was just coming in with me because KC had and that if he wasn't, she would not feel the need the do so. We talked briefly about us all staying in our own beds and I began leaving the gate between our two rooms closed.

And Lissa stayed quietly in her bed each night.  KC got more sleep in his bed.  I had acres of  a king sized bed to myself. After a couple nights, Lissa wet the bed.  Copiously.  Still slept in her bed but was awash when I went in to wake her up.  Clueless parent I thought she had just had a drink fairly close to bed (true) and was maybe extra tired (possible.) 

Except that over the ensuing few weeks, she began wetting the bed almost every night.  I am ashamed to say that it took me a while to make the connection between the fact she was in her bed alone now and maybe felt anxioius about this.  Mid way through last week I started letting her come back into my bed.  She has been dry ever since.

I felt bad for the wee miss.  She is so tall and so self possessed much of the time which perhaps make it easy to overlook the fact that she is still only 3 and needing reassurance in the big big world.  So for now I have not quite figured out a solution that allows KC to sleep longer but am mulling over naps--midday quiet reading times etc, because Lissa will be back in bed!

Peaceful Nights

If anyone does read my blog (and it still makes my eyes widen when I realize that people do!) they have got to be rolling their eyes as I keep rhapsodizing over the bed thing.  KC slept all.night.long.   In his own bed, and awoke with a smile on his face. 

Why do I keep going on and on?  It really isn't because nothing else has happened in my life!  It is more because co-sleeping is not the norm in our society. And even among friends who co-slept, their kids were in their own beds long before KC decided he was ready to make the transition.

Also although my wife initially supported co-sleeping--and I think at some level still does--she also believes in moving things along with our children if they are not moving quickly enough according to her internal time line.  I am way more laid back about things like who sleeps where, and how they get to their bed.  I have had to listen to people tell me this journey was "unnatural." That I was not "parenting"  That I would never  get my children out of my bed.  Well, let's just say it was awkward and hurtful to listen to the various comments.  So I am simply basking in happiness now.  Just basking!  LOL

And KC goes to bed!

KC's new bed arrived today.  Clearly I didn't need to order the frame as this made it waaaaay too tall.  Without the frame it is exactly as tall as my bed. It is at the bottom of my bed as I write this.  With the cosleeping bolster as a bed guard for him to cuddle and to keep him from falling out.  With his comfy sheets. With his blanket.  His bear.  And . . . him!

At 7:30 I typically put on a popular PBS on demand show that just plays sleepy music.  It is like a tranquilizer dart to him and he falls asleep in minutes.  Literally in minutes.  Then I work downstairs for a few hours and eventually carry him up to bed.  Tonight, I will walk up to bed all by myself! 

I am almost afraid to hit the publish button; as if saying this aloud will somehow jinx me.  But I think our little guy is just having a total power surge of confidence and I am loving watching this happen. And I am also feeling good about the fact that I haven't pushed any of this.  I have let it be on his terms, in his time and in his way.  There are so many things out of children's control. I try to let them have a say when it is possible and reasonable. 

And they're off!

Saturdays are busy and fun.  When you put May Day AND the Kentucky Derby on the same day, well it is high drama at our house!  LOL  This morning we mailed Nana's May basket, and a small bit of jewelry and make up to Fiona. Then it was off to do banking and the library and dance class.  At the dance studio there were all these women sitting on lawn chairs in front of the school.  Say what???  This, it seemed ,was the ticket line.  The recital ticket sales were commencing this afternoon and people who clearly equate 5 and 6 year olds wandering aimlessly around the stage for 4 hours or so were literally queued up hours in advance.  Needless to say I was not one of them.  This production, sweet though it might be, will not be the Boston Ballet.  Nor would it be one of the musical artists  Rob and I saw at Christmas.  Sean Kingston I might wait in line for.  Tickets to this , not real likely.  Luckily I found out that if one was not a groupy, one could return about 3ish and one would not find a line.  So that is what we did. And in between, we played outside with waterguns, made cookies for Rob to bring to fellowship, delivered May baskets, made silly hats to wear during the Derby, and bought KC a new mattress and box spring.  The latter took the longest as just like Goldilocks he had to try all the beds (or very nearly so) to see which would give him his "beauty sleep."  He decided on a set and it turned out it was on sale (can we all cheer here!) AND he said he thinks he is getting tired of the Good Night Show and would like to try going up to bed with his bear at 7:30.  This will begin when his new bed comes on Tuesday.  Wahoo.  Three cheers. I am so hoping that this transition goes smoothly and that my laid back child led efforts in this regard are really beginning to come to fruition.

Can it be? A bed for KC??

I am primarily a believer in child led learning and development.  Yup, I try and nudge from time to time, and I was certainly not above pointing out to KC that his sister zipped her coat successfully when he was wailing that he could not do it on his own.  And yup, that had the desired result of stopping the wails and getting him to try (and succeed).  But for the most part I am pretty laid back.  One of the things i have seen in my many years of parenting is that they really do eventually learn.  And grow.  And fledge.

Some things are easy to see.  For instance, KC has an amazing sight word vocabulary.  We just did a flash card thing this morning because he wanted some school work and i still have little voice.  Out of 200 words he got 4 wrong.  We are talking words like  believe, gentle, locker, because.  Not dog, cat, and apple.  So clearly my laid back early reader program is coming up roses.  He can do basic math, count to 100 and count by 10's.  Getting there with counting by 2's.  Math's all good too.

The bed thing, well not so much.  KC has slept with us essentially since birth.  Every prior effort to move him into his own bed has been met with tears, resistance akin to a rock wall, and night mares.  The thing is, I believe sleep should be restful, peaceful and enjoyed.  Not feared.  So I backed off.  What I did do, was get a co-sleeping bolster and put it between us so that he was cuddling that in his sleep instead of me.  This seems to be much of his issue.  He has to have that long person shaped thing to snug up against.

And then Lissa started coming into my bed as well, so I just sort of threw my hands up in the air and went "what will be, will be."  Then today KC announced that he was getting big enough to have his own bed.  Would I buy a twin and put it at the bottom of my bed so he would still be near me and Sissy and could crawl up if he felt scared.  Yup, i can do that!

Of sneezes and sleeping!

Well almost as bright as my shiny red nose from this cold I have been fighting!  I have this "blinkin beacon" of a red nose and a deathly pale face.  Such an attractive combo.  I don't really feel badly, but I am tired.  I haven't slept that well the past few nights.  I would either waken because of the congestion or I would waken because KC had rolled on top of me again.  Seriously I have to find a way to coax that child into his own bed.  I am reaching the end of my co-sleeping limits.  However I don't want to say anything to him as if I say things about being ready for a big boy bed, he freaks out and it is oh so very much worse.  I am trying something new tonight though.  Back in the late summer or early fall, I bought a special co-sleeping bolster so that when Lissa came into bed with us (which also happens often, that i would know she wouldn't fall out of bed.  Except that she has decided she likes to sleep on the OTHER side of the bed, not the side with the bolster.  So she will either fall out or not.  LOL  And hasn't so far.  Anyway, I slid the bolster to the about the mid third of the bed so that i have a roughly cot sized portion of bed just for me and KC, the little king (laughing) has about 2/3 of bed but a bolster between us.  I want to see if he will just cuddle up to the soft bolster.  I did read in the literature that came with it that many kids will do this.  If he does, I will gradually move the bolster further and further away from me and in my happy little dream world, by the time spring comes and warmth returns to our home, he will be in a twin bed all his own!