Find Kardus

I mentioned that we sent Lily away so that we could work with Tyler on his sleep.  He has been getting up most nights at least once during the night and then insisting on starting the day at 5-5:30 every day.  Were so tired from all the middle of the night wake up calls and the yelling for Daddy when I would try to get him back to bed.  We needed an intervention.  Heres the play by play...sorry if its too detailed but this is kind of part of my therapy.  If you dont like it, skip to the bottom and check out the photos. 

We put up a baby gate at Tylers door to keep him in his room.  The idea was that we just tell him to go back to bed and we dont really "engage" with him when he gets up at an unacceptable time.  Just say it once softly and then we go back to our room.

Well, the first night, he got up a 3:00am.  I told him to go back to bed and he did.  At 3:15 he got up again.  Said he had to pee so I had to let him out of the gate so he could go - and he did pee.  He got up again at 3:45 for no reason at all and I put him back to bed.  Then he slept until 5:30.

That was the ONLY night the entire week that he got up before 5:15 and he didnt fight me at all (so the whole bit where we worried about Lily getting disturbed turned out to nothing to worry about).  No issues any other night with middle of the night waking.  None.  What the?

He did, however, continue to wake up between 5-5:20am every day.  Always saying he had to pee and most days, he really did go.  Joel moved the gate to the hallway so that Tyler could get to the bathroom without needing us to let him out.  At first Tyler wouldnt go to the bathroom without one of us right there, but by the end of the week, he was doing better.

We sent him back to his room until close to 6:00am - cause thats wake up time.  Not 5:30.  Most of the time, he complied.

We were feeling pretty good about the process - though seemed like a bit of a fluke.  On Saturday night/Sunday morning at Grams house, that little stinker stayed in bed until after 7:00 CENTRAL TIME - so after 8:00 our time.  What the?!?!  Joel and I were so frustrated because we just cannot figure out how to get him to sleep anywhere near that late at home.  Doesnt matter what time he goes to bed and how much we try to wear him out the day before.

Now, move on to Sunday night - were all back at home and sleeping in our own beds.  And guess what?  Tyler woke up at 1:00am, 3:00am and 4:15am.  OH. MY. GAWD.  Joel and I were nearly delirious with frustration. Tyler finally goes back to sleep and then a crazy thing happened...both kids had to be woken up at 7:00am to get ready for school.  Nuts.

Monday night - 2:15am - "Moooooomy!  Daaaaaddddy!"  Joel and I were both out cold sleeping and jolted awake.  Joel goes flying out of the bed (a rare reaction - normally he moves at a snails pace).  It was Lily this time.  Are.  You.  Bad.  Word.  Kidding.  Me?!  Tyler ended up sleeping ALL NIGHT until 6:50am and Lily was the galldang one waking up in the middle of the night.  Joel and I are absolutely, 100% convinced we are being punished. 

Tuesday night, Tyler got up out of bed approximately every 10-15 minutes from 11:30pm until 2:30am.  Sooo, that was awesome.  Full on screaming when I tried to put him back to bed.  Joel had to finally come rescue me (and Tyler from the beating he was about to get).  Lily thankfully slept through the whole ordeal.  This is exactly why we sent Lily to Grams house last week - so we could work through this exact issue where Tyler screams for Joel.  But he NEVER pulled this prank last week - so we didnt get to work on it. 

I cried for probably 15 minutes last night after my attempt to put Tyler back to bed at midnight.  I feel so defeated.  We know this will pass....eventually....but we are desperately hoping that it doesnt last much longer.  I dont know how much more of this crappy, interrupted sleep we can handle.

But now for the best news.  I mean, THE BEST news.  (Please dont let me jinx it by writing about it.)

Tyler is potty trained.

Wait, what?  In the span of about 1 weeks time, Tyler just GOT IT.  He was consistently having dry pull ups and I said to Joel on Sunday, why are we even putting these on him any more?  We use the same one all day and it ends up ratty but still dry.  So we chucked the pull ups except for sleep time and so far, Tyler has done GREAT.  No accidents (though Im not naive enough to think we wont have some).  Hes peeing AND pooping on the potty.  He knows when he has to go and he can pee all by himself (as long as the step stool is there).  He needs help taking care of his butt when he poops, but otherwise, hes got it!

Hes such a boy.  He likes to show me the hole in his "wiener" and tells me thats where the pee pee comes from.  I say wiener and penis equally.  Tyler usually says wiener.  No clue what Joel calls it...hmm.  Tyler tells me if he put a big poop or a little poop int he potty.  Or sometimes its a brown snake which I think Ive mentioned before.  (Hes going to be so embarrassed when his fiance reads this in 25 years.)  

I think this is about the exact same age that Lily stopped wearing pull ups during the day.  The main difference is, we started with Lily a lot sooner than Tyler so the whole process was harder with Lily and took a lot longer.  With Tyler, mostly of out laziness, we started later.  Turns out that was the perfect approach.  One of my previous coworkers used to say regularly "Procrastination pays."  I always gave him shit about it and accused of him of being a hardcore slacker but apparently there IS a case where this principle is true (and no one suffers crappy consequences from said procrastination).

And crazy enough, his pullup is usually dry when he wakes up from nap/nighttime.  Im pretty sure that we will have Tyler fully out of pullups before Lily.  She still wets her pullup almost every night.  Their physiology must be different.  I dont know if its a boy/girl thing or what??


Im so proud of that little dude.  For the underwear thing - not the getting mad and throwing toys part.  Thats a function of the sleep issues.  Cant win em all.  Heres the part where you knock on wood.  Thanks for your support.  :)

Heres just a few other cute pictures from the last week.

Tablets and snot bubbles. Can not be bothered to deal with snot when trying to assemble the letter A.


Ritz crackers with peanut butter and (still) frozen peas.  Yum?


This kid ate 6 chicken rings and part of his fries from White Castle on his bro-date with Daddy.  Im going to start putting aside an extra $20 a week now to put towards groceries in a few years.  Hes probably going to be 6 tall in 6th grade and eating me out of house and home.  (And also, unrelated but important, dont you just want to squeeze the dickens out of him?  Hes so. stinkin. cute.)


I love this little boy more than I can possibly express in words.  Even though he prevents me from getting a solid 6 hours of straight sleep - I still love him in an overwhelmingly insane way.


Eating icicles.  Im trying not to be grossed out and concerned for their health from all the pollutants probably found in those icicles.  But this is something every kid needs to experience.  Just like eating raw cookie and brownie dough.  Childhood is not complete without it.  Im so grateful that Joel is a "stop and smell the roses" kind of guy and thinks to do this for them. They have no idea how lucky they are.


Oh and one more big deal thing thats Lily related.  The child FINALLY picks out her own clothes and fully dresses herself every single day without fail (and without a fight).  YES!  Sometimes (ok, many times) she doesnt match.  But I dont care.  Perhaps it will be a new trend:  "Pre-School Chic!"