Challenges

[WARNING:  If you are still in the trenches, you may want to skip this post.  Heavy on children, parenting, and observations about same.]

This weekend was a challenging one.  In addition to having to take the boys in for haircuts on Saturday morning--something which we do only every four months or so, because AJ cries from start to finish--the boys decided Saturday afternoon that they would no longer stay in their cribs to sleep.  MJ has been capable of climbing out of his crib for a few weeks but would only climb out if put in his crib for confinement during times other than nap or nighttime (example: MM will sometimes put MJ in his crib briefly while changing AJ's diaper).  Previously AJ has not been capable of climbing out of his crib, which is a little higher off the ground than his brother's, but he figured it out Saturday with his brother's assistance.

The novelty of freedom led to a later-than-usual and greatly abbreviated nap on Saturday, no nap on Sunday and falling asleep over two hours later than usual on Saturday night.  Last night the boys feel asleep almost immediately after being put to bed (on their mattresses on the floor--interim plan until their toddler beds arrive later this week). . . only to awake about an hour-and-a-half later with MJ screaming and crying inconsolably with what appeared to be an episode of night terrors.  It took over 40 minutes to get him calmed down and another 30+ minutes to get him back to bed.  Poor AJ was awakened by his brother's screaming and crying and had to be soothed back to sleep as well.

Needless to say, all this sleep disruption also led to more moodiness than usual (plus AJ is finally getting more teeth--poor guy has been stuck at four teeth since 15 months), although not quite as much of a decrease in energy as you might think.  They also didn't eat as well as usual.

In addition to not sleeping on Sunday afternoon, the boys used their naptime to figure out how to get into their closet.  (Prior to Sunday, they had been unable to open the fairly heavy sliding doors.)  While I was out running errands, apparently they managed to remove every single shirt from the rod and from its hanger, empty out almost every drawer of their dresser and take all the shoes and puzzles out before Dad realized what they were doing.  The silence didn't make him suspicious because he thought they were sleeping.  (Ha!)

So instead of spending my weekend putting up our Christmas tree, doing some holiday baking and cleaning house in preparation for my parents' upcoming visit, I spent my weekend wrangling twin toddlers, trying to persuade them to sleep, walking them around the neighborhood in their stroller when those attempts at persuasion failed, and taking them to the park (for the second time) in a vain attempt to make them tired enough to fall asleep.

At the same time that these changes are frustrating and a bit stressful for us, they are also signs of growth and development for our sons.  MJ and AJ were so proud of themselves for being able to "escape" their cribs, and it was actually pretty cute to hear them giggling together as they gleefully jumped on their crib mattresses on the floor on Saturday night. . . even though this was going on at 9:30 p.m., long after they should have been asleep.

AJ is talking more, and as a result, I am worrying less about his speech development.  They are both becoming more agile all the time and continually surprise us with the things they are able to do.  They are challenging but fun, too.