The Stair Gate Blues

On Sunday, somebody took their eyes off of Libby. During this moment of freedom, Libby climbed halfway up the stairs and then proceeded to fall back down that same half-flight of stairs. We decided it was time to put the gate back up at the bottom of the stairs. To commemorate this historic moment, Siena wrote and performed The Stair Gate Blues. The lyrics are "Once upon a time (or a gate) there was a gate that climbed up the stairs." We especially like the harmonica flip halfway through her solo. John Popper has nothing on Siena!

Rooms of Their Own

We've made some big changes around here over the past few weeks, moving Siena from her crib in the nursery into a big girl bed in her big girl room, and moving Libby from her lowly status in the pack-n-play in the guest bedroom into the crib in the nursery. New rooms for everybody... Hooray!! I admit I was a bit wary of Siena's move especially, since she was still sleeping well in her crib and was (more importantly) well contained. It was so easy during naptime and bedtime to just put her in her crib and shut the door without worrying about her wandering. We made the move about a week before Joe went back to work, and at first it was NOT a good scene. As I'd predicted, naptimes and bedtimes became a huge battle with Siena, as she'd leave the room every 5 minutes with any excuse not to be in bed. Joe's return to work was fast approaching and I was having nightmares about how I'd get them both to nap without him around to help. I did a desperate search online for something, anything that would help. It was then I discovered...

...MY TOT CLOCK (cue the Hallelujah Chorus). This little gadget is a must-have for parents of toddlers graduating to a big kid bed. Basically you set a naptime/bedtime/wake time on the clock, and it turns blue when the child is supposed to be asleep and in their room and yellow when they're allowed to leave the room after waking. Siena has bought into it completely and naptimes and bedtimes have been easier than ever (even when she was in the crib!). What's great is that even when she doesn't feel like napping (if she slept in late that day, for example) she'll stay in her room for an hour and a half of quiet time while the clock is blue. And although she's not an early waker compared to Libby, if she does happen to wake up early in the morning she'll wait patiently in her room reading books until the clock turns yellow. It is, in a word, AWESOME. I think she loves the added freedom of having her entire room accessible while at the same time holding herself accountable with the clock. Such a big girl -- I'm so proud of her.

As for Libby, she's currently in the midst of dropping her morning nap, so she's requiring a bit more work in the sleep department. At this point she's taking one late morning nap while Siena takes one early afternoon nap, which means we're homebound from about 11am to 4pm (and I'm not getting a "mental break" since one of the girls is always awake!). Hopefully Libby's naps will get later and later as the weeks go on and they'll eventually be napping at the same time again. At least she continues to be an incredible sleeper at night, for which Joe and I are extremely thankful. I'm sure I'll look back on this blog in years to come and think to myself, "why did I write so much about sleep??" It's really is amazing what a big role sleep plays in your life the minute you become a parent -- your sleep, their sleep, everybody's sleep. Anyway, at least Libby is enjoying her new quarters... it's nice to finally be in a real bed (it only took 14 months!).

ER

We had an eventful evening last week with Siena's first trip to the emergency room. As a parent it's something you know you'll have to go through eventually... thankfully our first time wasn't a life-or-death issue. We'd been out with the family for dinner and had stopped by a memorial walkway for my grandmother, where Siena picked up a little dried berry from a bush. She's often picking up little things and holding onto them for awhile, so this was no big deal. We were driving home when suddenly she started crying that she'd dropped the berry. I replied with my usual response that I was driving the car and couldn't help her until we got home. Then all of a sudden she started crying that the berry was up her nose. How the berry got from the floor to her nose remains a mystery... Was the berry in her nose all along and it took her a minute to feel it? Hmm. Anyway, I only half believed her, thinking that the berry was still on the floor, until I saw her stick her finger up her nose. I quickly reached back and told her to hold my hand so as to keep her from pushing the berry further north. Too late. We got home, I grabbed my penlight, and peeped up her nose. Sure enough, there was the berry, WAY up there. There was nothing I could do but tell Joe that we were headed to the ER. Thankfully Siena was acting perfectly normal at this point -- I think we were both kind of excited about the new adventure. I, for one, thought it was all pretty funny. We had a bit of a wait in the waiting room but kept ourselves occupied with checkers and books. Finally we saw the doctor, who was a bit stumped with how to extract the berry, especially since Siena was not the most cooperative patient. Thankfully he was able to get it out relatively quickly with a little plastic hook, much to our relief. Siena obviously didn't enjoy the procedure but recovered quickly once the doctor presented her with a popsicle, which pretty much made the entire experience worth it for her. We returned home with a souvenir of the event: the berry (see photo). Another parenting milestone... check!