Red Light/ Green Light

The biggest issue that we have had with Cain since McCoy has come along is early wake up time.  Chris and I used to not see Cain till 7:00am and than shortly after McCoy was born he started getting up between 5-6 (when the time changed it was 4-5). Chris and I are morning people but having a two year bouncing off the walls that early is not my cup of tea especially if I had been up a lot with McCoy.  We tried changing his bedtime to earlier and later, we skipped some naps and we made a sticker chart.  Nothing helped and we ended up buying a $60 combine when he partially got 5 stickers on his chart.  I posted on Facebook my problem and a couple of people mentioned a light/clock that the parents set before going to bed and when the light turns the child knows it is time to get out of bed.  I looked into it and found a stop light clock, we turn the red light on every night and at 6:00am the light turns from red to green.  At first it didn't really work so I had to step it up a notch and make a big sticker chart, he had to stay in bed till the green light came on for 5 days than he got a special treat (he got donuts for breakfast), than he had to go for 6 days and he got to do a special activity (he went to work with Daddy, which he did today), his next goal is 7 days for a special meal out and than 8 days for a special toy.  He does not do it every morning but we can tell that he understands the concept because if he leaves his room before the green light comes on he hangs out outside our bedroom banging around till we acknowledge him, if he waits it sounds like elephants are running through our house when he runs into our room and slams into the bed.  The light is kind of cheaply made for how much I spent on it ($32) but it is helping us and he is really proud of his accomplishments, he tells everyone about it.  I found it on One Step Ahead website, there is one that has a sleeping bunny on it that is in the magazine and I came across the stop light while looking at the bunny one on their website.  The stop light was cheaper and had better reviews plus I think it is really helping Cain with his colors and the concept of stop and go.  Now we just need McCoy to stop chattering in his crib from 5-6 and I will be very well rested.  

Trip to Chicago

We took our first Family Vacation as a foursome over Thanksgiving.  We headed out to Chicago to be with family for the holiday.  It took us 12 hours to make a 8 hour trip but we took some much needed stops for example the John Deere Museum in Moline Illinois.  When we got to Chicago we enjoyed seeing cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.  My sisters, dad, and I ran a 5k on Thanksgiving, it was challenging since I had not run that much in a year but it was a blast.  Since everyone was together we went ahead and celebrated Christmas too.  One of my favorite decorations of Christmas is our family stockings that an lady had made for my mom after I was born and through out the years we have had so many additions to our family that it went from 5 to 16 stockings.  It was very cool to see them all hanging up together and it was a wonderful holiday and vacation for my family.

Halloween Cuties

Very excited about Halloween this year. I have been planning Cain's costume since last year when we saw a rodeo clown out trick or treating. He has been super excited about it all month and tells everyone that he is a radio clown and Matoy is a hotdog. I was most excited about making the barrel, I have always wanted to make a Halloween costume and this year I got to. I was in luck because I found a very old lamp shade in my basement (I was going to remodel an old lamp and never got around to it) and it was perfect weight and size for Cain, with some felt and ribbon it was transformed (nothing ever is that simple for me). They were both hits at the Maryville Downtown trick or treating, McCoy was ask to have his picture taken with the Sonic Hotdog Mascot and Cain was shown in the Maryville Daily Forum.

Introducing McCoy Lee

This is really late but I really want to start working on this again. In July we welcomed another angel into our lives. McCoy Lee was born on July 6th. I had decided not to do the epidural which was a big mistake because it was very hard but McCoy was well worth the pain. Cain is very excited to be a big brother and loves McCoy even though he does not understand how fragile a baby is. I have had many nervous breakdowns as Cain jumps on, pulls on, and lays on McCoy while he is playing on the floor. McCoy is now almost four months and he smiles when ever someone looks at him and he jabbers constantly. He loves to take baths and snuggle his blankie. He hated the carseat at first but he is getting used to it and we are just crossing our fingers that he can make it to Chicago in November. Even though life is a lot harder with 2 we would not change anything. God has blessed us and we are thankful everyday.

"Tain Do It Self"

It has been a very long time since I have posted anything but it just really hit how far Cain has come just in the last few months. Cain has become very big and it happened way to fast for me. The biggest accomplishment has been potty training, what started off as just an introduction to a potty seat and underwear turned in the actual training itself within a few weeks. He is not 100% yet (I have learned that if I say that we have a few days of regression). He loves his underpants and he loves the excitement he gets when he goes, most of all we loves to go to the farm and be able to "pee on the wheel." His second big accomplishment is his big boy bed, I never imagined in a million years that he would climb out of him crib because he wore a sleep sack and his legs are pretty short but one morning he proved me wrong and he did it, now he has a new room with a tall twin bed. We only had a few bad nights where he ran across the house to our bed but we quickly nipped that in the buns. Everyday he surprises us with what he remembers and what he can say, we find ourselves smiling all the time thinking about how funny he is. He is excited for the new baby and he keeps saying "play with tractors" every time we mention it, I am not sure if he is scared to share or excited to have the baby play with him. We are now really getting into the independence stage and we hear "Tain do it self" a lot, which has taught us a lot about patience.