Brock Vs. Binky (Round 1)

So for some crazy delusional reason way back in February, we decided that we should take Brock's binky away. Crazy, I know. I started taking Brocks binky away during the day and only giving it to him at nap/bed times. He turned into a totally different boy. He was clingy. He was insecure. He would hold onto my leg and cry and cry until I picked him up. he would demand to be in my arms at all times. He even would put his hands on my face and turn my head to look at him so that the focus was always on him. He would sleep in our bed every night. He would beg and plead and cry and tantrum for his binky during the day. He would do it in such a way that it would break my heart. The only time that he would stop being so clingy and insecure was when I would give him his binky. If he had is binky he would go off and play and wouldn't cling to me as much. He has always been a Momma's boy but this was extreme and I was having a hard time getting anything done. My sanity had gone out the window at this point and I was desperate for a change in his behavior. I missed my cute little boy, with the big blue twinkly eyes and the killer smile. That child was gone and in his place was a clingy, sad, demanding monster child. So I decided that the Binky just needed to disappear completely. The plan was to take the binky away cold turkey, let him freak out for a few days and then he would get over it and move on. That WAS the plan anyway, until it went spiraling out of control. Things went from bad to horrible.

Brock refused to sleep. It took him hours and hours to fall asleep that night,(on top of me and in my bed) only to wake up a few hours later and cry and beg for his O.D.(his made up word for his binky) The next day totally sleep deprived and grumpy, I was determined that I was not going to get him out of his crib. He was GOING to nap in his crib. After crying for about 20 minutes, he learned how to climb out of his crib, and would climb/fall out every single time I put him back in. He didn't nap that day. That night was just as bad with Brock sleeping right on top of me for most of the night and waking up for hours at a time and crying and crying for his O.D.

The next few days were the same, with Brock not sleeping and climbing out of his crib. I decided to turn his bed into a toddler bed....no luck he still didn't want to sleep in it. In fact I walked in on him standing up asleep next to his crib. Poor baby!



My hope was that he would eventually from an attachment to a stuffed animal and that it would replace his binky and we could get our life back to normal. Ha! There I go making plans that don't work again. He has been in love with Elmo and Cookie Monster for the past few months. He got a stuffed Elmo and Cookie Monster for Christmas in the hope that he might form a strong attachment to one of them. He does love them but not as much as his beloved O.D.. I tried and tried to get him to cuddle with them at night and the more that I pushed them on him the more he refused them. Stubborn child!


My Mom went out and bought him this monkey(named OO-OO) and this tiger. We made a big deal over them. Trying to convince him that they were the coolest thing in the world, but as you can see from the picture he wasn't to convinced.
He liked them some, and he would even play with them but NOTHING was as good as his binky.





So after two weeks of me trying everything I could think of to help Brock with the transition. Two weeks of tears. Two weeks of tantrums. Two weeks of no sleep. Two weeks of H-E-L-L. I caved. I gave him his O.D. back and he is the happiest boy on the planet!

He gets so excited to go to sleep now because he gets his O.D. only when he "Sleepy's". I will tell him that it is time to go to sleep and he jumps to find his blanket and then says, " O.D.! Bed! Music!" and usually beats me up the stairs and into his bed. After his nap he very willingly leaves his binky in his bed and for the most part is pretty good to leave it there until bed time again.

So in the first round of Brock Vs. Binky, Brock won. He was the most stubborn, and I needed my sanity too much. We will try for round 2 soon. I hope to be the victor and have that darn binky gone! Any tips on how to accomplish this would be greatly appreciated!!

Crinkly Hair

Sydney LOVES it when she has braids in her hair because she knows that the next day, I will take the braids out and she will have crinkly hair. She absolutely loves it when she has crinkly hair, and her hair is finally getting long enough that I can french braid it or do other fun things with it.
Most of the time she asks me to do her hair so that it is covering her ears. This means no tight pony tails or pig tails. Most of the time I am okay with this because Sydney's hair breaks easily and she gets a lot of breakage when I put to many elastic bands in it. But now that her hair is longer it is fun having the option to do her hair in different ways, and some funner styles.


She loves headbands right now too. We made a few for her birthday and she loves to wear them. Anything that allows her to have her hair down and covering her ears is perfect in her book.

I love my crinkly haired 4 year old!!!

Friends

These two crazy kids have finally started being more then just siblings and more like friends. They actually play together sometimes now and I am loving it. I don't know if it was just the age difference or the fact that we always have babysitting kids around so they have never really HAD to play together that much. Sydney has ALWAYS had a friend her age to play with practically every day. Brock has ALWAYS been a jealous momma's boy and rarely leaves my side. Also Sydney has always kind of resented that fact that we brought home a little baby and messed up her only child world that she lived in for over two years. All that aside, Brock has started showing a little more independence from me and has started to play and interact more with others(his sissy and his dad included). He has always loved his sissy and it has been so fun watching Sydney start to play and interact more with Brock too. I can't wait for this summer when I wont have any babysitting kids around and Brock and Sydney will really be forced to play more with each other. I hope that someday they can be great friends.

Sydney's Nose

I took the kids to the Hidden Vally Park a few weeks ago. Sydney was finally brave enough to climb on the rope webs that are strung between some of the playground equipment. She was having an awesome time playing with Bria and stopped paying attention to what she was doing. She slipped and fell about five feet from the top of the ropes. I saw it happen in slow motion from where I was with Brock. I saw her land and I thought for sure that she had broke something by the way that she fell. I ran the ten feet to her and picked her up. Her nose immediately started bleeding. I plugged her nose with my fingers and told Bria to grab Brock's hand and follow me to the bathroom. We got into the bathroom and stopped the bleeding on her then swollen nose. I inspected the rest of her and by some miracle, she had not hurt any other part of her body. I thought that for sure she would have broke her ankle or wrist from the way that she feel but she didn't. She is one tough little girl!!

Not only that but I thought that for sure she was going to be to chicken to climb on the ropes the next time that we went to that park. We went again about a week later and to my surprise she wasn't chicken at all. She started climbing again and didn't even think twice about it. She even fell from the same spot again, but luckily her Dad was right there to catch her. What a brave little girl I have!

My little boy is a reader!!!

Brock LOVES to read books!!! He has always been a little bit obsessed with letters, and now that he has discovered that all of those amazing letters can be made into words he is even more obsessed.
He will sit and read books all day long. It is super cute to look around for him only to find him sitting next to the book shelf with books scattered all around him quietly looking through all the books and reading to himself.
He loves any book that has letters, shapes and numbers in them. He has memorized all his letters, his numbers 1-11, and most of his colors(black, green, yellow, white, red and blue). He is starting to memorize shapes too. He knows: heart, square, oval, circle, and star.
He is going awesome with his sight words! He knows: of, eat, so, apple, have, for, book, no, here, dog, cat, the, jump, Sydney, sissy, Dad, cow, Mom, you, me, said, see, all, and, ball, up, my, is, Brock, go, off, on, and we. Those are all the I know for sure that he had memorized but I know that he knows more than that!
His favorite book right now is "One Pups Up" and any of the "Gerald and Piggy" books by Mo Williams. He also likes any books with flaps or animals.

Next I am going to work on more sight words and recognizing the sight words in the books that we read together. I am so proud of my big reader boy!! He is getting so big, and not so much a baby any more. I can't believe that he will be two in less then a month!