Happy Easter- and holy poopy Jackson!

So many things have happened since Jackson's birthday. Its hard to believe that a whole month has passed. For starters we began "sleep training Levi". We are pretty well read on this subject and we understand that it is controversial. There is a certain stigma associated with calling it "sleep training". And I can assure you that we have researched many strategies and employed many of them in our own home. We have experience on this matter. We have also consulted our families and friends who are parents extensively about how to approach this. The thing is, we have been co-sleeping with Levi for the last 8 months. We did this for many reasons. Because his room is attached to Jackson's room and we didn't want to disturb Jackson's sleep and we didn't want Levi's crying to wake Jackson up. We co-slept because as a breastfeeding mother it IS more convenient to sleep with your baby. There is a big difference between going downstairs in the middle of the night to feed the baby and rolling over and passing out while you feed the baby. As a working mother who needs to sleep, I needed to co-sleep to maintain my own sanity.

What changed that caused us to decide to train Levi to sleep in his own bed? Several things. If not now, when? And, our jobs really play a huge role in this process. Justin or I and at times Justin and I need to travel and be away from home for several days. And it just isn't fair to anyone else to have a sleeping arrangement that is designed under the auspices that I am the only one who can get the baby to sleep. I was also growing concerned about the number of hours Levi was sleeping in a 24 hour period. All of the experts on sleep and cognitive development agree that more sleep is better. And, at Levi's age, he should be sleeping 14 hours per day. Going to bed with me at 10 and getting up at 7 or 8 with no organized sleep schedule during the day was WAY to little sleep. My young man was overtired and this is dangerous for a baby his age. Lastly, I got some good advice from my cousin Olivia who is mother extraordinaire. She said my fear that Levi would wake Jackson up was unfounded and that I was underestimating Jackson. So, I put Jackson to bed one night, then I put Levi in his bed. Levi cried.....A LOT. But Jackson did not wake up. We started a routine of going into his room at timed intervals to soothe him without picking him up. We did this for a little over a week (I was gone for 3 days during this time). Then Justin and I had to go to San Francisco for TEN DAYS. Justin's mother, sister and father all came through to help guide the process. After ten days, we got home and Levi was sleeping when we arrived. He definitely still is not sleeping through the night, and he definitely cries more often than not when we put him down. But we ARE making progress and we are committed. I am manning the fort by myself this weekend and now that I have been home for almost a week, I can see progress. But, I really want to thank everyone who has been through our house during this process for their patience with us, and Levi, for the hard work and long nights that they've put in and for supporting our decision. So, Helen, Justin, Nakobe, Elise, Randy and most of all Frankie, thanks for putting up with sleep training. We can't promise anything but we can hope that the next time any of you see him, he will be a much more well rested and content little boy.
While Justin and I went to the Bay Area for two back to back national championship tournaments (no, we did not win either of them), the kids stayed home with Honey, Lele & Pappa (at least that's what it sounds like when Jackson says "grandpa"). While these pictures make it look like our trip was all fun, it was definitely stressful and I can now safely say that I am MORE tired out from attending debate tournaments than I am staying home by myself with both kids. We did have one day when we took the team to Muir Woods and to Stinson Beach. We had one student who had NEVER seen the ocean before and none of them had ever seen redwoods so we felt really good about working these two outings into our schedule. And, I have to admit that it was good to see green vegetation, mountains and bodies of water that were not built by the Army Corps of Engineers.
We came home to two boys who were pretty excited to see us, and the full force of spring. It was 90 degrees here earlier this week! I have been having a great time taking the kids to the park and playing with them. Levi is an excellent sitter upper and this skill has been instrumental in making him a lot more interactive with people, toys and nature. He is incredibly inquisitive and I also think he's highly mischievous. He will try to grab, eat, hit, push or pull anything within arms reach whether its an inanimate object or a living being. I mean, just look at his face- he's up to something:

Jackson is so excited about spring. Whenever we are in the car and we drive by anything resembling a park he exclaims "I see a playground". He can tell you where all of his favorite places in town are- his favorite playground, the county playroom, the grocery store, target, and he loves it when Justin drives through Sonic during happy hour (he's also recently discovered that there is a playground at Sonic too). Last summer Jackson was just learning to walk, he spent most of his playground time on the swings or crawling around, he didn't get enough courage to go down the slide by himself until Labor Day weekend when my dad was here, so there is much for him to discover in the same places he spent most of his time last summer. I am frequently amazed by his discoveries. I love how he can sometimes be a loner:
And the other day he ran down this hill into the sandbox over and over and over again while Levi and I watched on:

After doing this several times and totally cracking himself up he stopped and realized that he was in fact in a sandbox and that it too served entertainment purposes. His friend Lily came to the park and brought some shovels and buckets. Jackson promptly filled an entire bucket with sand. Once he'd filled the bucket he methodically scooped the sand out of the bucket and onto his own lap. For a moment, I thought about stopping him, worrying that he was "getting sand all over" and then I thought, you know its almost dinner time, its the end of the day, he's a little boy and its ok for him to get dirty. I didn't disturb him rather, I watched him make his mess, he was so concentrated on doing it. I didn't want to disturb him.

Tomorrow is Easter. Today the boys and I hit up two egg hunts. One in the park down the street organized by the Lions Club. They had the park divided by age group and Jackson fit nicely into the 2 year old zone. He really had no idea what he was supposed to do and quite honestly with the playground in eyeshot of the egg hunt he was less than interested. But, he collected a few eggs. We went to a second egg hunt in the afternoon that boasted "TEN THOUSAND EGGS!" in their radio ads. Jackson knew what to do this time and collected quite a few eggs.

Tonight I had a first ever experience with Jackson that was kind of gross, but also speaks to what I think could be a pretty big developmental milestone.

Because Levi is doing so well sitting up, the boys now take baths together in the big tub. There are several cool things about this, but it does pose a slight logistical problem when there is only one adult around. You can't leave either child unattended in the tub for a moment. And, our bathroom is rather small so they both have to come out of the tub at the same time and brought to the bedroom to put their PJ's on. So, one of them has to wait to get dressed while the other gets dressed. Jackson was wrapped in his ducky towel while I put Levi's PJ's on this evening. He was playing with the exersaucer, circling it, singing songs, etc. I asked him what he was doing and he assuredly replied "pooping". I kind of freaked out, as I peeked under his towel and discovered that he was definitely not fibbing. I was able to collect the contents of his waste and flush them down the toilet without making too big of a mess and since I had not yet drained the bath water, I threw him back in the bath. Then we had a remakedly grown up conversation about poo. Until tonight Jackson would always deny that he was pooping. So, I asked him if he wanted to poo on the potty like daddy. He was SOOOOO excited about this idea. So, I asked him if he would like to tell me next time he has to go poo. He agreed that he would tell me and that he'd like to poo on the potty.

To be honest, the idea of potty training is NOT exciting to me, there are bound to be tons of mistakes along the way and that just seems pretty gross to me. But the idea of changing less poopy diapers is extremely exciting. We'll see. I don't want to get too ahead of myself.