Bye Bye Binky

Getting rid of the pacifier has been a work-in-progress since Caleb was 15 months old! At Caleb's 15-month appointment, the pediatrician told me straight up that it's time to be all done pacifier when she saw Caleb had it in his mouth (which I normally didn't bring out with me in public but knew he was getting shots and would need something to comfort him). She said cold turkey was the best method and to just throw it away.

Matt and I didn't act on her advice right away because sleeping has been our biggest trial with Caleb. The first time Caleb slept through the night was when he was 3 1/2 months old, and that was a fluke. I recorded in Caleb's journal any time he slept through the night because the nights were so infrequent!!! (When Caleb was 5 months, I have an entry expressing my frustration of waking up with him twice during the middle of the night every night!) It was more than just sleeping through the night that was so difficult. Getting him to go to sleep by himself took forever/5months (I did start some bad habits in his first few months of nursing him to sleep which didn't help matters...I didn't start reading books on sleeping until he was 3 months and realized everything I had been doing was wrong!). I remember how I used to dread putting Caleb down for a nap or down for bed because it was so hard! There was always lots of crying/screaming involved not just for a few minutes, but for 45 min. to an hour. When he became attached to his pacifier, there were no complaints on our end simply because it made nap/bedtime so much easier.

So at 16 months we took away the pacifier cold turkey. He actually did okay as long as we were in the room with him (usually holding his hand) until he fell asleep. However, a week later, he caught some sort of cold virus and was the sickest he'd ever been with fevers, stuffy nose, etc. We finally gave in and gave him back his pacifier so that he would actually sleep. After he was better, we noticed most every kid older than Caleb at church still had a pacifier, so we didn't worry about taking it away anymore, but made sure he only had it for naps and for bed.

About a month ago, we decided that he better be all done pacifier by the time he turned 2. So we tried cold turkey again. I guess he was ultra-attached by this point and after listening to my toddler cry for 90 minutes, my nerves just couldn't take that twice a day (nap and bedtime). Instead we tried snipping his binky, and that's what ended up working for us. I snipped it just a little at first, and then once a week I would snip it a little more. It got to the point where he didn't like his pacifier anymore, which is what we needed.

The glitch in this plan happened when we made our impromptu trip to Utah. Caleb wouldn't sleep and was preventing his cousin, Dallin, from sleeping as well. As if a road trip is not hard enough, throw 2 crying, cranky babies on top of that where the parents never get a reprieve from trying to entertain their children, and it will drive anyone crazy! After 2 days of driving to Utah and wanting to pull my hair out (as well as knowing everyone else is miserable), we finally gave in and gave Caleb his cousin's spare binky for the rest of the vacation. It made things 10 times easier with getting Caleb to take naps and sleep in an unfamiliar environment, and the drive home was much more pleasant when the babies actually took a 2 hour nap and slept well at night.

I was worried about starting from scratch again when we got home, but Caleb only had a tough time that first night going to sleep. Now sometimes he'll still cry for 10 minutes or so, but generally he will just lay down until he goes to sleep.

Mission accomplished!

As a weird side note, Caleb has called his pacifier a 'na na' since he was about 18 months old. I have no clue why he calls it this. Dallin, Caleb's cousin who is 6 months younger than him, has started calling his pacifier a 'na na' as well, much to his parent's dismay :o).

Impromptu Vacation

We made the long drive to Utah on Saturday, August 1st in order to attend the graveside service of my grandfather who passed away on July 31st. Most of the extended family was there for the service, and it was good to catch up with family and celebrate my grandpa's life. One of his greatest talents was painting and sketches. I get so many compliments on the sketches he has done of Matt and I when we got married and 3 different sketches of Caleb at various ages. We have two beautiful scenery paintings that he has done for us as well. Although I didn't know him as well as my older siblings (because we moved to Texas when I was 7), I know how much my mother admired and looked up to her father. His passing was expected and a relief as his quality of life had gone down significantly.

Because we were going to spend 4 days driving total for this impromtu occasion, we decided to make as much of a vacation out of it that we could. We visited a museum with the kids and went to an indoor pool with lots of kids' activities. The kids were also able to go to the zoo with my parents, grandma, aunt, and cousin while the kids' parents attended the Salt Lake temple. Thanks to my cousin, Ali, for being the photographer so we could have lots of pictures of the outing! Probably the most memorable activity that we did with my family was to go to a park and sit in a circle and talk about all our favorite memories of my grandpa. It ended with a rousing game of red rover, which the kids enjoyed immensely. Here are some pictures of the trip. Unfortunately Matt is only in one picture as he had to fly home early for work.

Special Visitors

I'm really starting to enjoy teaching nursery each week at church. Some weeks are definitely better than others (it depends on how many kids are there as well as how many boys are there). I work hard each week to try to prepare something fun for the kids. This past Sunday, we had some special visitors come visit us during our lesson. Our lesson was on following the prophet, and we had 4 prophets come and visit. The children have never been so well-behaved or listened so well! They were so excited anytime another prophet knocked on the door. Here are the prophets we had:

Joseph Smith who talked about the Book of Mormon

Daniel who talked about the power of prayer

John the Baptist who talked about the importance of baptism

Samuel the Lamanite who talked about the importance of following the words of the prophets

I really appreciate my hubby and these men for helping me out!

Our First Time at the Circus

Last Saturday we were invited to attend the circus by some friends who got free tickets from work. Neither Matt, Caleb or I have ever been to the circus, so it was such a treat. Between the tigers, elephants, and other acrobatic acts, Caleb was mesmorized and behaved very well! Matt and I were really impressed with the 7 motorcyclists who survived being trapped in that too small ball while riding around. We also loved the amazing tricks and stunts by the acrobats. We were thoroughly entertained as well. Thanks to our new friends Lauren and Peter! We had a great time!

A Pat on the Back

My sister and I are still running in this beastly weather right now, and I got my FASTEST time ever this morning! We run/walk a 4 mile stretch every day, but only time ourselves for 1 mile of it since the mile is actually marked out in a forest in her neighborhood. This morning I ran it in 6:24!

I also had my best couponing grocery trip ever yesterday. I spent $35 and saved $47. For the experienced couponers out there, this is probably not a big deal, but this is the first time I saved over 50%. Wahoo!

Finally a Video!

Figuring out how to use our video camera to upload videos to our computer has been a work-in-progress. The video always turned out jumpy. Now the videos just look blurry. Any advice from you tech. genius' out there? Despite being blurry, I'm going to post anyway because I'm excited to actually show Caleb's personality instead of just telling about it. So here is Caleb in our most recent video at 22 months.

(saying "bless you", "thank you", and counting...he can say "1, 2, 3, 5, and 10" although in the video he just says 5 and 10)

Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk

Caleb has recently learned to open the fridge. My first thought is that this new skill is going to be absolutely disastrous. To my surprise, 2 weeks went by without any mishaps. Caleb's newfound ability actually makes things easier for me because Caleb was going to the fridge several times a day asking for milk. It got very tedious. Now he is able to get his milk when he wants it and put it away when he's done. No more worries for me about trying to remember where his milk ended up so I can put it in the refrigerator. Caleb is very observant and wants to be very helpful. When his milk sippy cup needs to be refilled, he will pull out the carton of milk, set it on the floor, and take the lid off of the carton...all ready for me to do the rest. Unfortunately this one time, and hopefully the last, he got a little anxious and decided to try it all by himself.

Scenario: I'm busily making dinner and rolling out rolls. My back is to Caleb as I'm working, but I am aware that he has gone to the fridge for his milk. He must have drunk all his milk and needed more. Instead of waiting for Mommy's help, he decided to be a big boy and pour his milk into his "big boy" cup (his sippy cup was in the dishwasher) all by himself. Recognizing when to stop pouring is not an easy task, however. As soon as I hear his adorable "Uh Oh," I knew things were not going to be pretty:

I'm so happy I caught this smile!

Messes are for playing in!

One of my lesser qualities that I am working on is that I anger easily. With several tasks to do before people arrive over at my house for dinner in 30 minutes, the last thing I have time for is cleaning up Caleb's messes! Instead of letting those feelings of frustration rise to the surface, I ran to get the camera. Caleb has taught me so much about patience and controlling my temper. Messes come with the territory of motherhood, and I wouldn't trade it for anything!