Inspired

This week the inspiration came to take some action with certain parenting things. The first change I wanted to make was dealing with Micah's nighttime wetting. I decided to put away the pull-ups for good and just go for it. Erik and I still pick him up and put him on the potty right before we head to bed, but so far we've only had a couple of accidents. Hopefully this will spur him on towards dryer nights!

Micah at one of Daddy’s hockey games:

The second thing I wanted to do was start weaning Keziah from her soother. One afternoon before her nap I felt suddenly inspired. Before I could question it too much I got the scissors out and cut the tip off of her soother. My mom tells the story of how my brother loved his soother so much and she kept cutting it off a little bit at a time until she took the whole thing away and told him that he must've swallowed it. He totally believed her and never asked for it again. I thought I would try that with Keziah, but after two nights of unsatisfying sucking, she has decided to banish it altogether! For the most part she has been going down easily and sleeping through the night, but when she has woken up I've had no choice but to rub her back a bit and then just let her cry. In a few moments of exhausted desperation I even offered her the "in tact" soother I still had, but she didn't even want to try it. And that's a good thing in the long run. Overall I've been really surprised how easy it's been and I pray it continues. It just seems so strange to put her in her crib with just her blankie. I told Erik that I think I was more addicted to her soother than she was :) Knowing that we had the option of popping it in when she woke at night or whatever was kind of nice. But after the struggle we had with taking Micah's soothers away, I'm glad they are gone!

Mommy & Keziah watching Daddy’s game:

Micah has also been having a tough time staying in his bed these days. Recently I commented on how well sleeping was going for him, but of course he decided to change things up on us again. I felt like I was floundering a bit in this area with no clear game plan as to how to handle things. Some nights we'd be really firm, other nights we'd end up sitting in his room until he fell asleep or let him sleep on the floor in our room. I decided this week that I needed to make a deicision and be really firm. So we are currenlty implementing the Supernanny technique - repeatedly putting him back in his bed with no communication or eye contact. And I mean REPEATEDLY. It's been about 45 minutes of hauling him into his bed over and over for the last several nights. Erik is having a tough time being patient with this plan but I really believe it will work if we are consistent. Short-term pain for long-term gain, right?

Micah creating cards for our playgroup birthday party last week:


The kitties are increasing in their cuteness now that they are growing and have their eyes open. We’ve been holding them a bit more which is exciting for the kids. We've actually had several people interested in taking them home, so I don't think we'll have a problem getting rid of them when the time comes.

“Kitty!”


I pulled out a hula costume I bought for Keziah in Hawaii. It's too big for her but Micah was willing to give it a try (minus the mini coconut bra). I thought he looked like a little polynesian fire dancer:













Granny & Grandpa Harder called Micah the other day and he happily chatted with them for a long time, asking questions about all sorts of things. It was really cute!

Keziah says "baby" now and loves everything to do with clothes and dolls. It gets quite exhausting putting diapers on and off her babies over and over, but she never tires of asking for it :) She loves the Praise Baby video that we (repeatedly) borrow from the church library and has lately started settling into her foam chair and pointing at the TV saying, "baby! baby!" It’s pretty hard to resist.


Erik & the kids made brownies together yesterday. Keziah is starting to want to participate in baking & washing dishes.

She also enjoys participating in chocolate beater-licking :)