Thursday, January 21, 2010

Maybe All Transitions Need to Be Celebrated With Cake


Cake


Cake Party (Avery’s term of endearment for any event that includes cake of any sort for any reason) was a rousing success. The celebration began when Nicole came home with two You-Paid-How-Much-For-Those-Giant Balloons? The girls ran around ecstatically tugging their balloons, one shaped like Big Bird, the other like Winnie the Pooh, who Avery horrifyingly and bizarrely and instantly started liking without any formal introduction at all. I literally have no idea how she even learned that Pooh existed. But one day, she was all about Winnie the Pooh. I might need to have a talk with my niece Skye! Anyway, This was followed by a visit to their room and the formal introduction of cribs-sans-front panels, aka Big Girl Beds. Lots of “Wow! Look at your new bed! Bye-bye cribs! What big girls you are!” And the celebration was finished off with cupcakes and candles, with repeat blow-outs, as ordered by Avery.

We brought them to bed at 7:30. We read them a book (Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed) and then left. Madeline was upset at first, yelling for us and crying and shouting out her most heart-wrenching “Where’d ya go Momma?” But within about 15 looong hand-wringing minutes (I do not do cry-it-out well at all) she settled down and instead started talking with Avery. Here is a snippet of their actual conversation: .

M: Peek a Boo!
A: Peek a Boo!
M: I can’t see you!
A: I here Maddie
M: Avy
A: Maddie
M: Aaaaaaaaaavy
A: Maaaaaaaadie
M: What’s gonna work? Teeeeeam-wuk
A: Teeeeeamwuk

Yes, they are currently very much into the Wonder Pets and if you are my Facebook friend, you can watch a video Nicole uploaded of them singing this as a duet. They chatted themselves to sleep. I am fine with that. They are really starting to have this very basic, caveman like conversations. Maddie woke up once around 12:30. She didn't get out of her bed. I went in there, sort of curled onto the bed with her, which is no easy feat. She held my finger and nestled her head on my shoulder. All I could think was “This is sooooo nice but I can’t let this habit start.” I stayed with her for about 15 minutes and then went back to my own bed. And she was fine.

Of course, the success or failure of this cannot be determined in one night. I am curious to see how naptime goes today. And nighttime again, as Nicole won’t be home to participate in the brand new ritual. But I am optimistic. And also a little sad: How quickly time is going by. I remember putting them in these cribs when they came home from the hospital.

OK, off to the gym.

Pictured above, cake party. I am obsessed with macro pictures of sprinkles. I have never met a sprinkle that I didn't want to photograph. Also, to file under things I want to remember, Avery calls Nicole's cufflinks "quarters." I don't even remember her learning the word "quarter."

8 comments:

psapph0 said...

Sounds good so far... they'll make great role models :-)

Anonymous said...

Wow, you are fun moms to celebrate their big-girl bed transition. I know what you mean about kids just learning about new characters. Our son is obsessed with Thomas, it's like he just learned that Thomas the Tank is the cool thing for 2 year old boys to like! (He also loves Wonder Pets and would watch it all day if we let him).

K J and the kids said...

I call it success...and that conversation between them is AWESOME. I love all of the songs on the wonder pets. I think that is one of the sweetest shows.

Good luck tonight :)

Molly said...

I need to think of a reason for a cake party of my own. Nice job with the transition!

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear it went so well. I love the conversation between them……Teeeeeam-wuk, how cute is that! It sounds like Avery was a comfort for her sister last night. Don’t be surprised if you don’t find them in bed together snuggled up sound to sleep. Hope nap time went well.

The cupcakes look delish.

L

Anonymous said...

Hello
My comment may be a little late but I just had to add it since my daughter loves her book. I'm also a preschool teacher and recommend it to parents. It's pretty easy and fun for the kids to make.

We basically took photos of all our beds, then pictures of people sleeping (or pretending to sleep) in their beds as well as pictures of Gina and doing things downstairs (watching TV, reading a book). We made a little book with the pictures that basically goes like this:

Everyone in our family has a bed. We sleep in our beds at night.
Macie gets in her bed. She closes her eyes and falls asleep. She sleeps all night long.
Avery gets in her bed. She closes her eyes and falls asleep. She sleeps all night long.
Cayley gets in her bed (it's a crib). she closes her eyes and falls asleep. She sleeps all night long.
Mommy and ima go downstairs to read books or watch TV. Later they get into their bed and close their eyes and sleep all night long.
We see each other in the morning!


Cayley loves the repetition of it, has started to read it with us and it seemed to be comforting to know what was going on. We also started discussing at bedtime what to do if you wake up at night. Again I say the same thing each night (routine/ritual/consistency is great for kids). "If you wake up at night, cover yourself up, you might be cold. Find your binky, Close your eyes. You can get back to sleep by yourself. Mommy and I are in our bed sleeping. We'll see you in the morning!"


It's a great routine that I too am amazed will someday no longer be needed...they grow too fast.

Julie

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