What Does Winning Look Like?

Well, a few weeks ago I posted about how well Bird has transitioned to his "big boy bed."
Nix that. Sunday night he decided that he was NOT interested in sleeping in his bed. At All. Between tears and sobs, he was saying, "No more Jackson's bed! I sleep Mommy Daddy's bed!" Literally from 10pm to 2am, he would get out of his bed and Jacin or I would put him back in it, tuck him in, and walk out. Before I could even shut the door, he would be back out of the bed. Then we would repeat the process. I even tried spanking him. He cried, but wasn't phased. Finally, at 2am I decided to sleep with Bird in the recliner in his room. It wasn't very comfortable for either of us. He woke up at 4am ready to go. Then at naptime Monday, he again refused to sleep in his bed - like there were pins & needles in it or something. He took a brief nap in the floor of his room. Monday night the saga repeated itself. So Tuesday afternoon, after 2 napless days and 2 nights of 3 hours of sleep or less, I was about to lose it.

Jacin and I talked, and it's a hard call to make. All Bird wants is more cuddle time with his parents. Is this a bad thing? No (it's a GREAT thing!), and it's probably just a phase. Jacin is ALL FOR allowing Bird to sleep with us. I, on the other hand, feel strongly that Bird should sleep in his own bed. While Jacin may be able to sleep soundly with Bird in the bed, I definitely canNOT. And my bed is the ONLY place in the house that's mine. Don't get me wrong... I LOVE my little Jackson Bird. But after being with him all day, there's little time or space that I get to call my own. I can't even go to the bathroom by myself! Being able to sleep soundly in my own bed with my husband (and NO kids!) is a luxury that I'm willing to fight to protect. So although it breaks my heart for Bird to cry that he wants to sleep with us, the answer is NO.

And Bird is shaping up to be a very strong-willed child. This latest issue with the bed is one of many recent "battles of the wills" that we've engaged in, and I am determined that he will lose and I will win! I'm the parent; he's the child. I'm in charge; he is not. And he will learn this! BUT since Tuesday, I've decided that I may need to chill out, relax, and re-evaluate what "winning" looks like. For example, for the bed issue, I originally thought winning looked like Bird learning to sleep in his own big boy bed. Period. No matter how long that took for him to figure out. Now, though, I've adjusted my thinking, and "winning" looks like the removal of the toddler bed rail and the re-installation of the full-sized crib rail. So we're in the process of winning... and it looks like this:

LOTS of cuddle time during the day...

And a crib with rails at night. 

Yesterday and last night at bedtime and today at naptime, he still cried for quite a while, saying "Mommy! I cuddle you, Mommy!" Heartbreaking! But each time he's eventually settled down and went to sleep. And I'm trying to make an effort to make more cuddle time during the day. It's a Win/Win for both sides, wouldn't you say? :)

Scripture Scraps Book

I originally saw the idea for a Scripture Scraps book on a blog - lowercase letters by Carissa Graham. Here's the link to see her Scripture Scraps book: http://www.carissagraham.com/2012/03/i-made-book-scripture-scraps.html.

I loved the concept of the idea, the simplicity of it, and the minimal cost involved. I bought my Smash Book at Michaels for $6 (with a half-off coupon). I'd never even heard of a Smash Book before this, but they're pretty cool. It's basically a glorified journal with different backgrounds on each page. It also comes with a pen & glue stick! Everything else I used for the project came from my scrapbooking stash. It took me a while to complete it since I could only get out my supplies and work when Bird wasn't at home. I made pages for about 15 different Scripture passages. The book's still only about 1/2 full, but I figure we can add to it as he gets older. Here's a quick peek at Bird's Scripture Scraps book.

It's a belated 2nd birthday gift. If he likes it, I'd like to get into the routine of reading a page or two each day during cuddle time before his nap. We'll see how it goes. :)
Have you ever made anything like this?

Birthday Fun

This Friday was Bird's 2nd birthday, and we had family & friends over on Saturday to celebrate with a back-yard cook out. The party "theme" was dump-trucks/construction, but really the only things that matched the theme were the invitations and Bird's bday shirt he wore. I would so love to just go all out for a bday party and have everything all matchy-matchy (you know, like on Design Dazzle or Pinterest), but that costs money and requires lots of time. And besides that, is it really that important? At midnight Friday night, I was quickly becoming VERY frustrated while attempting to ice the cupcakes I had made in lieu of buying a cake (trying to save money). Jacin reminded me that the party was really about Jackson - not me. And Jackson, after all, likes to EAT the cupcakes. He doesn't give a rip what they look like. So true. So the decorations were minimal at best, and the food wasn't fancy. But Bird had tons of fun running around and we so enjoyed being with family & friends. Here are a few pics:

RayRay, Kirk, & Jackson playing in the new sandbox.

Jacin grilled hotdogs for everyone.

Bird opened LOTS of presents.

Trying out a new weed-eater from Uncle Jared.

Giving rides in his new tractor from Granny & PawPaw.

It was a great day, and we are so blessed to have so many friends & family who love our Jackson Bird. And now, thanks to the new golf clubs, trampoline, tractor, and sandbox, we now have "Play Central" in our backyard! Come on over and play!

Big Boy Bed

So our first attempt at potty training didn't work. Day 1 went fine, but day 2... not so much. Bird is back to diapers for a few weeks.

So next on the list: converting his crib to a toddler bed. In the next few months we'll be moving Jackson to his new room (which is our current spare bedroom) and to a new bed (which is a full-sized bed), so to prepare we removed the front panel of his crib and added a bed rail. I wasn't super excited about doing this because I didn't want to mess up Bird's bedtime or nap routine. He's a GREAT sleeper, and I worried that when he wasn't hemmed in on 4 sides, he would become an escapee. But we took the plunge. Jacin fixed the bed on Saturday night, and Bird's first night sleeping in it was Sunday night.

So how did it go?
Night #1 (Sunday night) was perfect. We put him down and he slept all night. No worries. He even took a 3 hour nap on Sunday without any issues. Night #2 (last night) was pretty good. He woke up twice crying, but I think it was just bad dreams.  Today, I put him down to take a nap, came in the office, and sat down at the computer to write a blog post about how easily Bird had transitioned to the "big boy bed." Right as I opened my laptop, I saw him coming down the hall. He threw down his paci & tat-tat and declared, "No nap. Jackson play!" Oh the irony! I had to put him back to bed 5 times within 30 minutes. The final time I threatened to spank him, and that worked. He just needed a little motivation. I checked on him after a few minutes of silence and found him sitting in his bed with one arm around his stuffed Clifford and the other hand holding his paci while flipping through a book. He was reading to Clifford. Pretty cute! Then, only about 10 minutes later, he fell asleep and slept for 2 hours. Tonight, he went right down and we haven't heard a peep since. All in all, things could definitely be much worse! I'm very proud of my little Bird!

Learning to climb in.

Can you tell he's VERY proud?

Sound asleep.

Yesterday he learned a new phrase: "Good Mownin'!" (That's Calhoun Toddler Speak for "Good Morning!").

Today he held his first caterpillar.

Tomorrow we'll go to the zoo with Mandy & Kirk!