so long paci :(

It's been a big week in the Baublitz household.  We have been officially paci-free for the past five days  and it is going GREAT!!  Harrison never took a paci so I've been in unchartered territory in knowing how to deal with this obsession - and it truly is an obsession.  Anne was nursing within 3 minutes of being born and basically nursed her entire first 24 hours until I figured out that I could try a paci.  She took to it immediately and other than a brief couple of days around 5 months, she has had one every single nap and bedtime (except for when she would fall asleep in the car).  When she was a baby we took it with us everywhere and we have gradually reduced its use to only in the crib.  Even though I knew that it wasn't good for her teeth and that it would be harder to stop it the older she got, I could not bring myself to take it away from her.  Part of this was because it is just another symbol of babyhood that is gone and partly it is because I know how much she loves her paci.  So, for the past year I've been telling myself that she would be paci-free before her second birthday.  Since we only have about 3 weeks to go and I didn't know how long it would take, we started weaning her after we returned from our trip to Ocean City, NJ.  We basically just removed it from her crib and when she looked for it we told her that the paci "went bye by because she was a big girl now."  She kind of wimpered for about an hour so I went in and read her some stories until she was too tired to worry about it and she fell right asleep.  Yesterday was her first nap without it and while she put up a screaming fuss, I just went in and read her more stories until she got really sleepy.  That night she asked for "pa pa" but didn't fuss much at all.  We had a mini setback tonight when she discovered a paci hidden in the bathroom but after crying for a couple of minutes, she shrugged it off.  I'm so proud of my big girl and couldn't be happier with how this transition has gone!

Here are a few pics of her with her beloved paci:

taken after a midnight feeding sometime during that first week (I've always loved this picture!):

and another one of my favorites of her, taken about a year ago:

Sniff, sniff.

first prize

So, Harrison told me this morning that he wanted a "ring in his mouth."  My heart felt like it dropped to the floor.  Surely he couldn't mean a piercing???  But since he recently finished a weeklong sports camp where most of the coaches had various piercings and tattoos, I feared the worst.  I tried to casually probe as to what he was talking about by asking if he knew anyone who had such a ring, what it looked like and why he wanted it.  But since my casual probe turned into extensive questioning his answers ranged from "at the sports camp, it was in/on their tongue, and it looks cool" to "his 4 year old friend Max had one, it was red or blue, and it tasted sweet."  So, while I'm still not sure as to whether he wants his tongue pierced or one of those giant candy rings they sell in the checkout line, it reminded me that my little guy is growing up and I had better write down as many childhood memories as I can.

Riding in the car with toddlers and kids a lot you get used to trying to distract them from their arguing and whining (especially "are we there yet?") so one thing I'll do is say "the first one to see so-and-so wins a kiss from Mommy."  Now, I'm not trying to short-change myself but I'll be the first to admit that it really isn't that great of a prize.  But, to Harrison you would think he was trying for a real life Lightening McQueen race car.  Not only does he get SO excited when he gets to claim his kiss from me but he gets really, really mad if Jamie spots something first (I finally had to remind Jamie to let Harrison win).  While I'd like to think otherwise I know for a fact that this will not last forever and there will come a day when he would rather do anything than get a kiss from mom.  But, today is not that day and for that, I'm thankful :)  Little does he know that it is really me who is getting the prize!!

                                  This is a pic of us after having just claimed our mutual prize.  

Memorial Day weekend

I'm a little late posting about our Memorial Day weekend but better late than never.

One of the things that gives me the most joy from parenting is being able to introduce Harrison and Anne to the things that I loved as a kid.  Obviously, being from the beach a lot of my fondest memories involve the water and I love watching my kids creating their own memories there.  One of the many water related memories that stick out in my head is crabbing off our houseboat.  While we no longer have the houseboat I was eager to teach Harrison how to crab and was overjoyed that he seemed to love it as much as I did.  Anne was at my parents house napping so we were able to give Harrison our undivided attention (which is also loved!).  After creating several lines with chicken necks we quickly caught tons of crabs although only six of them were a decent size.  In fairness, by "we" I mean Jamie and Harrison because I did not catch a single crab that was big enough to consider keeping (and we ended up letting them all go).

The other thing that I introduced to Harrison this trip was my childhood love of climbing trees.  I'm lucky in that my parents still live in my childhood home.  We took several walks around my parents neighborhood and I showed him the best trees to climb and helped him do it.  I love his current age because he is eager to try at least some of the things I suggest.

Of course, in addition to crabbing and climbing trees the rest of our weekend included several trips to the beach and pool and lots of time playing in Mimi and Granddaddy's big yard.

I'd say that we're off to a pretty good start to the Summer!!!