Big Boy Bed

Dave and I decided this week that Spencer was ready to transition to his toddler bed. This means one side of his crib has been replaced by a bed rail and he can get in and out as he pleases...yep, he's a free-range chicken now.

 
  Here's how the first 4 nights went:

• Monday: Called me back into his room a few times but didn't get out of bed.
• Tuesday: We were sure we'd made a terrible mistake. Took us over an hour to get him in the bed. Then he woke up many times throughout the night and was sitting on the floor each time I went in there. We have chalked this up to an atrocious mood from having no nap.
• Wednesday: Called me back in a few times right after bedtime, then at 1:00, then at 6:00. Was sitting on the floor each time. We went back to sleep in the guest room.
• Thursday: Slept all night - not a peep - and walked out of his room calling "Mommy!" at 7:15. One change we made was removing the larger pillow he slept with the first 3 nights, and just kept his baby pillow in the bed. Probably unrelated, but who knows.

What will tonight hold? Stay tuned!

Focusness

Jump Piwoes! (aka Jump Pillows!)

Check out the April photo album for more fun pictures.

Orange-White Game

We took Spencer to the Orange-White Game on Sunday. We started with a pre-game meal at Texadelphia, then met our friend Brian at the stadium. When we arrived, the Silver Spurs pulled up with Bevo in his big trailer and we got to see him get unloaded.


Then we found some seats and let Spencer soak up his first visit to Daryl K. Royal - Texas Memorial Stadium. He didn't understand why we couldn't go onto the field but was content listening to the band and watching the first 9 minutes or so of the scrimmage.

Then I took him downstairs and we wandered around and eventually found Ken, Nicole and Sarah. I think getting to check out Bevo at a pretty close distance was the highlight for these two.

By the way, I think I'm going to open a new fitness bootcamp where people can carry Spencer up and down the stadium steps. I thought I was going to pass out by the time we got back to our seats!

We left after the first half and Spencer told us he wanted to nap. So Dave drove us around for an hour. When we got home, Spencer wanted me to carry him inside to our bedroom, where he promptly lay down and went back to sleep for almost an hour. Unprecedented!

(Note: I'm experimenting with smaller photos - you can click them to see full-size images.)

Great-Grandma Hill

It's so hard to believe that Spencer has lost another great woman in his life so soon. I'm thankful he is too little to understand what has been going on, but at the same time I hope he'll remember his sweet Great-Grandma Hill. He loved playing with her cane!

We'll miss you, Grandma, but we know you'll be keeping an eye on us from heaven.

Nature vs. Nurture

I have never thought of Spencer as being shy, but rather a little cautious in new situations. He's always tended to take everything in and slowly acclimate to the environment rather than jump right in. Lately I've noticed that he doesn't seem to need that warm up time as much. One day this week, Dave dropped him off at our friend Anissa's house where he played with her littlest boy while she home-schooled her oldest for a few hours. He barely knows these friends (we of course know them very well), but he just walked right in, started playing and had a total blast. Yesterday was our first class of the new semester of Music Together. The teacher and the parents (most of whom were in our class last time) kept looking at me like, "Who IS this kid and what have you done with Spencer?" He was Mr. Showboat - dancing, singing, banging drums, talking to the babies and mommies and just having a grand ole' time. We went to the rodeo carnival last weekend and he was eager to get on rides. And I already described how fun and comfortable he was at our friend's birthday party last weekend.

The reason I'm talking about this is I think it's interesting that this behavior is exactly what has been described as a benefit of Attachment Parenting - a style of parenting that Dave and I subscribe to (though somewhat loosely). The idea is that keeping your baby close in the early years and responding to his needs doesn't create a clingy/needy/spoiled child - it actually fosters independence. So, maybe Spencer was just born this way. But I like to think all that baby-wearing, co-sleeping, extended nursing, responding to him throughout the night, and keeping him close to us actually did something!

Dancing Machine

New plan: Whenever I'm feeling sad, I will just watch this video.

Our boy had an absolute blast at Alexis' 40th birthday bash. He got to play with other kids, blow bubbles, nosh on all sorts of goodies, stay up way past his bedtime, and of course DANCE!