Paci-free!

I have been reluctant to share this because we all know that as soon as you declare something publicly with children, they decide to flip the whole thing on you, just to show you who's boss.

But it's been eight whole nights and so I think (hope? pray?) I'm in the clear.

Clair has not had her pacifier since Sunday Aug. 30th!!

My original goal was to put a stop to her nighttime addiction when she turned 2. That deadline was blown out of the water by her supreme-and-total love for that danged thing. If we even suggested she could sleep without it, she would FLIP. OUT.

Is that Sophie in that picture? Awwww! Sophie!

So our new deadline became 3. I didn't want to do it right after she started school because I thought that was too many changes, and that we'd be taking away her one source of comfort. (Poor thing.) So I was all prepared to defy the dentist's admonitions about the pacifier and let her have it a few more months. OK,  I also didn't want to deal with it. But it was mostly about Clair and her comfort! Or halfway about Clair. Whatever.

Anyway, then we went to my friend Andrea's wedding and had the kids sleep overnight at my parents. I somehow forgot the pacifier. My Mom called to tell me we forgot it, and there was a moment of panic (mine). But then I remembered that whenever Michelle would babysit for us at night, and put the kids to sleep, she would never give Clair her paci, and my child would be just fine with that. Like, Southern belle agreeable about it. But with us? FANTASTIC, ACADEMY-AWARD-WINNING FLIPPING OUT.

Anyway, Clair slept without her paci at my parents without incident. So the next night, at home, I just decided to keep it up. I just didn't give her her paci. It was touch and go there for a minute, especially the first couple nights. She slept, but not without giving me the Spanish Inquisition. Seriously, this girl should work for the NSA or something. She would NOT let up. If I knew state secrets, I probably would have given them to her, just to get her to shut up and go to sleep! Eventually I had to lie get creative and tell her the paci-fairy came and took all the pacis to give them to little babies who needed them. This didn't fully satisfy her - in fact, it kinda freaked her out that there was someone in her room who she couldn't see, and that caused a whole chain reaction of other sleep challenges. (#notmysmartestidea) ...

But there was nothing she could do about the fact that there were no more pacis, so eventually, finally, she just accepted it, and slept. And now, she doesn't even ask about it anymore!

Unless something crazy happens (and I have learned enough in my few years of parenting to know that that is entirely possible), I feel fairly ...hmm.. somewhat? ...sorta comfortable declaring our house officially paci-free!

Packed weekend yet again (vegtivals, trees, music, friends and meltdowns)

Saturday, we went to a festival in my neighborhood, with live music and popcorn and slushies and hula hoops and tons of kids. One little girl recognized C & D from school. She's in the 3s class, and came right up to them, saying, "I know you! You go to my school!!" Cary and Dean looked puzzled and a little bit nervous, but the girl was delightfully cute. Turns out I'd met her mother more than a year ago at Mother Goose on the Loose at our local library. We'd even exchanged phone numbers back then, but never called one another. Isn't that funny? I told her we definitely should link up.

The boys loved the Fall Festival! They still keep asking me about going back to the "vegtival."

 After the festival, we went to a park and climbed a tree.

I still remember when we came to this park when the boys were newish walkers, and they had trouble navigating the ground because of all the roots and sticks strewn about. And now they are attempting to climb the biggest tree at the park!  Wow. This blows my mind.

This was August 2011 at the same park. They could barely walk! I remember being nervous that they were going to trip and kill themselves.

On Sunday, we went to their first music class, and saw a couple with twin girls, Abby and Maya, who we met the day before at the vegtival!!  What a coincidence! Turns out their girls are a month younger than C & D, and they live just a few streets over. So perhaps we'll link up.

(That's two couples I'd like to get to know better. Will I ever link up with them? I don't know. We shall see. Making friends at this age is so...bizarrely hard. It just seems weird to call up people we don't know and say 'Hey! Let's be friends!' But I do want to know more people in my neighborhood. So I'm going to try to get over my reticence. I'll let you know how it goes.)


We also went out to lunch before going to visit my friend Stephanie. This was one of those lunches that goes down in the annals of "Worst Outings Ever."

It started off wonderfully. It was a beautiful day; we sat outside. We ordered food we thought we could eat the bulk of, but keep the boys happy with, too. Turns out, Cary and Dean don't really like fancy grilled cheese sandwiches with apple slices cooked in. Or fancy chicken salad sandwiches with golden raisins. Or butternut squash soup with crabmeat and shrimp. Turns out, they get really mad when it's lunchtime and there's really nothing for them to eat. So that started the shift in the day's happy mood toward Grumpville.

Then, I gave Clair a piece of bread to suck on. She loved, loved LOVED it!

When it was getting close to time to go, I took the soggy chunk of grossness from her to clean her up. She LOST HER EVER-LOVING MIND. We're talking bucking, kicking, screaming, crocodile tears streaming. And it was LOUD. I was shocked!

Then I went to pay for the food at the counter and saw that, as it was a day before Rosh Hashanah, they had samples of kugel. I brought one back to the table for Cary and one for Dean. As we packed up our things, Cary asked for more "macaroni." We told him there was no more and it was time to go. He LOST HIS EVER-LOVING MIND! We're talking screaming, kicking, falling on the ground, crocodile tears streaming. And it was LOUD. I was shocked!

People were giving us the serious stink eye so we tried to hustle on out of there, with Clair in her stroller screaming and Cary in Lester's arms, kicking and screaming. To keep Dean from joining in the meltdown ('cause believe me, he was looking a little left out), I asked him to help me push the stroller. Zealot that he is, Hercules Davis rammed the stroller into the table in front of us. I actually started laughing, because it was just like, "Are you kidding me?"

The people trying to eat at the table were. not. amused. We could not get out of there fast enough.

In other news, Clair has decided that she can't sleep without her pacifier. She wakes up three to four times a night for it. I am exhausted.

And we decided to get a cat. I cannot deal with the mice in Baltimore. And nothing else has worked.

Neither one of us really wants the responsibility of a cat. And I have a bit of an allergy. But I seriously can NOT deal with the mice anymore. Have I said that already? I CANNOT deal.

I'll let you know how it goes.