Weekend update...on a Wednesday

Just a few more pictures of our Christmas around here! AND a note on toddler obedience school at the end for whoever is interested:

Frosty (or my cucumber-nose version anyway)

Going in for a smooch!

Questionable hand placement?

I made some stockings for us this year. Can you guess who's is who's? Here's the tutorial I followed: http://fabricworm.blogspot.ca/2010/12/christmas-stocking-tutorial.html

Showing off my neon pants that Ty bought for me for Christmas! He actually had no idea I wanted bright pants, but he was going for a yellow GAP theme (I also got socks and a scarf), so these pants spoke to him.

 

We had lots of gatherings - one of my favorites was the Geng gathering, on my stepdad's side of the family. Hudson made fast friends with some of the other kids, and by the end of the night they were passing around chocolate wafer sticks and screeching/dancing/running around the house.

We visited my grandpa Riggins and grandma Veronica out in Agassiz for an afternoon, and it was a really good time for all of us.


 

 And now it feels like January has just gotten away from us! Ty went back to teaching full time, and I'm trying to get the house together, make it feel like home, as well as picking up shifts, doing some sewing projects, and meeting with my sisters for our own special triplet project. This week the nausea from the first trimester is ebbing, but the energy still isn't back, and I'm counting on it to get on with my life a little! At least now I can make supper without gagging at every ingredient, or walk through the grocery store without having to strip off my winter layers and stick my head in the freezer (yes, that happened - hot flash + already very nauseated = a wild scene at Superstore).
But we're making positive strides in other areas around here! As Ty mentioned in a previous post, bedtime has been a major issue for Hudson. He was starting to push 11:00pm or later with his bedtime, then cry for one of us at 1:00am, then end up in bed with us at 3:00am and kick both of us in his sleep simultaneously until getting up at 7:30am. All of this usually resulted in major crankiness the next day (for him, and often for me, especially when I was already exhausted and sickly)...and it would repeat, repeat, repeat.
We had no choice but to recruit some help.
I hopped on to the internet (I have some trusted parenting forums that I go to - and even then I do alot of weeding through advice and suggestions to find something that fits with how we want to parent), and found a number of parents suggesting a few tricks made popular by the Super Nanny herself. I went on the website, and found that what she was advising seemed like a reasonable solution, something that was definitely worth a try. After all - there was yelling and scolding and the occasional spanking with what we were doing previously, none of which yielded any results, so obviously this much gentler approach was worth giving a shot. We tried it that same night.
I'll link up to it in case anyone wants to check it out:
http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Advice/-/Parenting-Skills/-/Routine-and-Teamwork/Getting-Toddlers-to-Stay-in-Bed.aspx
And honestly, so far it has worked very well. Occasionally it still takes an hour of repeatedly putting him back to bed when he come out of his room, but since we start so much earlier, he's often asleep between 7:30-8:00pm. AND he has much calmer parents too! He still wakes up at some point in the night and comes to sleep between us, so we'll have to deal with that soon. I really (reallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreally) don't want to have a newborn AND a toddler sleeping with us in our already very cramped room come the summer! But one thing at a time.
The other change we made was to stop spanking altogether. There's no reason we started it in the first place. It just kind of...happened...as a last resort. One day a few weeks ago, Hudson said to me, "I'm mad! Hit mommy!" and smacked me on the arm. I thought, 'Uh oh. So THAT's what he's understanding from spanking. We hit when we're mad.' That was a huge eye opener for me. He is much too young to be spanked, in my opinion, and it doesn't help anyway. It doesn't get to the root of the problem. These years are extremely important for emotional development, and I have to take things like how I discipline very seriously.
 I have heard over and over from parents of older kids lately to enjoy these years when they're young. In fact, a dad I met at the park the other day told me he has to hug his eight year old while he's sleeping!! So, as occasionally hair-pulling as it is raising a young boy, I think I have to remember that he won't always love me this much...he won't always call me his best friend like he did just a few minutes ago...he won't always want me to cuddle him "like a baby" (his words at bedtime when I wrap Blankie around him almost like a swaddle)...and that's such a bittersweet thought. I want him to grow up as an individual, able to cope and make decisions and treat others well when I'm not around to guide him, but I still want him to want his mom sometimes (aaaand, tearing up - dang hormones! I actually can't admit all the embarassing things I've cried at over the past couple of months).
Ok, that's enough! Puzzle time.