Firsts & Lasts

After I posted the other day I broke down and fed Keziah rice cereal for the first time. Erik talked me into it and I was easily persuaded seeing as how poorly she's been sleeping lately. Here's a little video of her very first taste. You gotta love the facial expressions...



I'm not sure how much actually ended up in her belly. And in the end it didn't help her sleep any better - in fact she slept worse, waking up every 3 hours to eat. We fed her again last night and her sleeping was still the same. Maybe she's just waking out of habit??

And Thursday night & Friday nap were Micah's last sleeps with his beloved nukies. After he woke up from his nap yesterday, we put the final sticker on his countdown chart and put his nukies in a little baggie. That's when the tears first started. I think he was starting to realize that this was serious! He soon forgot about it until after supper when we made a big production of taking his nukies out to the mailbox. No tears at this point. He was actually pretty excited to put them in and was talking lots about the present that the mailman was going to bring him! Erik and I confessed to each other that we actually felt like crying ourselves - partly because we were taking away a major security item for Micah, but I think mostly because it seems like such a huge step in him growing older. He's not our little baby anymore!

Well, bedtime rolled around and he started asking to go get his nukies back. So, we reminded him why we put the nukies in the mailbox and kept talking to him about what a big boy he is now, adding in lots of kisses and hugs and some extra bedtime stories. But finally we just had to say goodnight and listen to him crying "no, no!" in his room. Erik had to leave for a late night hockey game shortly after so I was stuck dealing with the issue... Eventually I decided to lay down with Micah. He was crying for Daddy more than anything (not for his nukies like I thought he would!) so I calmed him down by telling him exactly what Daddy was doing - putting on his skates and his helmet and shooting the puck into the net... "Yay Daddy!" After he stopped crying I started singing to him and about 5 minutes later he was out like a light! I had expected a longer fight, but he was just too exhausted.

He slept straight through the night without a peep but woke up at 5:30 this morning and wouldn't go back to sleep. We waited awhile and when the sun finally came up we headed out to the mailbox to see what the mailman had left for Micah: a Dora the Explorer book and stuffed doll!

The doll seems like a bit of a "girly" gift, I know, but when I saw it at Wal-Mart, I knew that Micah would love it! I also figured it would be something that he could take to bed with him (along with his dozen other stuffed animals) to be a reminder of this "big boy" transition. Micah was so excited when he opened the mailbox! I also included a couple of leftover candy canes from Christmas which thrilled him :)

So, now I'm trying to get Micah to go down for a nap. I told him he could read some books in his bed and that I would come check on him in a bit. I'm hoping he'll fall asleep on his own, but we'll see... He should be exhausted by now since he was up so early. I'll keep you posted!