Converted Crib

Sam is now sleeping in his newly converted crib. Eric took the side rail off and put the toddler rails up. Sam loves that he can get in and out of bed on his own, and does so repeatedly. He's pretty good about going to sleep too, but needs a bit of monitoring. Eric is sitting in the armchair in his bedroom reading books while waiting for Sam to fall asleep. I've got a good picture of Eric sitting on Sam's bed last night while tucking him in. Now if we can only kick the pacifier! He's officially way too old in my book to have a pacifier. They interfere with speech development, oral development, and just plain look wrong in a 2 year old's mouth. But as a mom of a thoroughly addicted kid, I don't have the nerve to just take it away. I like sleep and peace and quiet and easy naps and bedtime. It's hard enough to get both kids to settle down even close to the same time, and I need every prop I can get my hands on. But Sam's developing a tongue thrust in his speech, (OK, so I'm not supposed to analyze my son, but hey, some things are just a bit obvious, like a tongue hanging out when he's trying to speak).

Sam likes to count to 3 now, and sometimes shows a little comprehension of numbers. He'll count steps as he climbs them, cheerios or grapes as he eats them, and arrange things in groups of three. He also just counts out loud because it sounds cool and Mom and Dad sure get excited, so it must be cool!

Potty training is moving very slowly. While on vacation he would have loved to have used the outhouse. He did tell me he needed to go potty while in the bath at Aunt Clarene's, and I set him on the toilet and he actually pooped, and let me wipe and he flushed. So I guess he's learning something. But we are a very long ways from this to out of diapers. Need to get there soon, because he's moved up to a size 6, and that's as big as they make them for kids.

Awyn is doing well. She's willing to take a bottle so long as it has breast milk in it. I'm trying to pump up a supply for her to take to the babysitter's on Thursday and Friday. For those of you who've done this before, I'm open to advice. I own 1 playtex ventair 'natural' style bottle, 5 4 oz. advent bottles, and 2 8 oz. advent bottles. I've thrown a nipple away because it was cracked. Can I keep using the nipples from when Sam was a baby? Also, Awyn seems to like the Playtex ventair bottle. It's fatter and stubbier than the other ventairs, and has a fatter nipple base. Thursday will be a long day for all of us, I think.