DuPage Childrens Museum

We had an awesome time this morning at the DuPage Childrens Museum. It was so fun there! I can't believe we've never been as it's 20 min. from Jason's parents' house. The kids were in heaven. Here are a few slices of our morning...

Noah working on his light board shape building. So sweet for the camera.

Sister joins in on the fun. Quick, take a picture, they are working TOGETHER!

Caroline, Iain and Dylan crawl up into this awesome tunnel near the ceiling. Us moms watch and take pics from below. They loved how independent it made them feel! And we loved how there was only one way out!

Noah watches in laughter as Dylan stands stoic in a "wind tunnel." She loved it in there and stayed for about 20 minutes, just holding these butterflies on a stick and "taking the wind." (It was a huge industrial fan blowing into this clear plastic tunnel. The kids could put scarves and other lightweight things at the front and watch it blow them through the tunnel...or they could just stand there and get air in their face... :))

Playing in the bubble area. There were several tables of bubble fun. She just preferred to stick her whole arms in the bubbles (wet shirt) and swish around her fingers.

Dylan loved the water area too, and took it upon herself to find all the rubber duckies and line them all up along the edge. Then she proceeded to hide them all (hord them) in a corner of the water area before we left...saving them for later?? (not pictured)

This was one of my favorites. It was so simple and so GENIUS! They had a regular chalkboard and chunky paint brushes with water cups on the side. Dylan literally painted water on that chalkboard for over 30 minutes, SOLID. I finally tore her away to go have lunch. But, not before Noah joined in for a few minutes of sibling teamwork.

Ahh, the simple joys in life. Jason saw these pics and was jealous of the fun we get to have. It really is fun. And for some reason, I had to justify it all, "Remember, I took pictures of the high moments. It's not all this picture perfect you know." But why do I have to justify it? It really was a wonderful, special outing. And I really am blessed and extremely grateful to have this time with my children every day. So yes, it comes with low times too, but let's just keep on bloggin' about the highs. Thank you God for my little babes who keep me humble and show me how to have fun every day. And thank you God most of all for my husband, who supports me, stands behind me and walks with me on this crazy parenthood journey, allowing me, through the HARD work that he does at school, to be at home with our kiddos.

Snow pics

Here's some fun in the snow, from late 2007.

He was so into it! He just crawled right through...

Packing snow into buckets is always a good time for a 2 year old. Then we made a mini snowman! Then we got FREEZING and went inside.

Sleep Update

yes! Noah is going to sleep in his crib! I hold his hand (very sweet) and he lays down (no crying!) and goes to sleep! It's beautiful and wasn't even that painful. After about 3 nights of crying off and on, he gave up on the crying and accepted it all! He enjoys our nightly routine now and I really enjoy that time with him too.

Now, we have to work on the night wakings...it's still not good. But we're taking really great baby steps. :)

He's asleep, he's asleep!

Quick update:

It's 8:50 and I just got out of his room, made myself a nice cool beverage, and am relaxing on the couch! We were reading stories at 7:52, probably lights out at about 8:02, and he was asleep 45 min later! Not too bad!! It almost took only like 20 min, but then he woke himself up again and it started again with the standing up, the sad faces, the sad crying, etc. But 45 min is not bad - and most of that he was not crying. I feel good. That is, unless he wakes up in the next few moments...

Yay, Noah, I knew you could do this!

You Need to Go to Sleep

It's 7:33pm and I'm about to put Noah to sleep. Yes, that sounds pretty average. But it's not. You see, I'm going to do a form of "sleep training" tonight. Not the all out cry it out, I leave you in the room while I go down a bottle of wine while we both cry our eyes out method, but the one where I stay there. Stay next to him in his crib, soothing him, letting him know his crib is a happy place, encouraging him to cry if that's what he needs to do.

Because that really is what he needs to do. He needs to sleep. And the way we're doing things right now...not so much working. Noah is waking up all night long and can only get himself back to sleep by nursing. That was OK when he was 2 months old and just home from the hospital. That was OK when he was 6 months old and still such a babe. But he is almost hitting 11 months and I need him to come along with me for the ride. We have to get a more mutually agreeable sleeping situation. He isn't sleeping good either in our bed - he wakes up ALL NIGHT, sometimes 20 minutes after the last...so something has to be done.

I've backed out of this training several times now. And every time I don't do it because I can't bear to let him cry. But, I've been reading this book, The Aware Baby. And it's really incredible and making me think about things in a whole new light. Just a twist on my old philosophy. But it's allowing me to let him cry tonight. Crying is good for him. Cathartic. Necessary. I'll still be there. I'll still be with him, reassuring him, touching him if necessary, talking to him. But, I'm not going to just nurse him to sleep tonight.

Tonight will be different.
(ask me tomorrow if i chickened out...)