The Latest Scare

Two nights ago I woke up in the middle of the night when I heard Jack's bedroom door open. He wasn't crying, and usually if he wakes up in the middle of the night he is upset. When I got up to see what he was doing, I found him holding his blanket and walking down the stairs. I caught up to him 4-5 stairs down and carried him back to his bed. It was pretty scary. I didn't think a 2 year old would be sleepwalking! Last night, I locked the gate at the top of the steps just in case it happened again. Sure enough, around 2:00 in the morning I heard Jack's door open again. I got to him before he even made it to the gate this time. He was definitely not awake. I just put him back in his bed and he went right to sleep. I think I will need to close the bathroom door, too, just in case he wanders there in his sleep. When I read about it in a parenting book this morning it said that there is not much you can do other than make your home safe so your child does not get hurt during his night wanderings. The book said the sleepwalking will go away on it's own eventually.

Hodgepodge

I haven't brought my camera many places lately because I know that if I take pictures, then I will need to update the blog, and I have been so busy lately I didn't know when I would find the time. When I did get the camera out, I realized there were some pictures from a month ago that I hadn't downloaded yet. So, here is a hodgepodge of pictures from the past month. Some of the pictures are compliments of my friend Kathleen who brings her camera out more often than I.

At the end of June, my buddy Connie came in town and we got to meet her adorable daughter, Alexa. Jack enjoyed playing with the toys at Alexa's grandparents' house.
She is such a good baby. I don't think she fussed the entire time we were visiting.

A few weeks ago we met my friend Kathleen at the Science Center. She was there with her daughter, Lily, and her friend and friend's daughter. The kids really liked the Discovery Room. Here Jack and Lily played with the dollhouse.

Jack did not want to leave the train table where he and Sophia were playing.

Jack also held this giant cockroach! Yuck!!!

I recently had some car trouble. We were on our way to the Botanical Gardens one morning and my car wouldn't start. Jim came home from work and jumped my car. He then followed me to get a new battery and my car died a few blocks from home. It wouldn't start again. We decided to have it towed to get a new battery and Jim rode in the tow truck. For the next few days Jack frequently asked, "Daddy in the tow truck?" He still asks occasionally, but he knows it didn't happen today, so he asks, "Daddy ride in the tow truck last night?" For some reason it seems that events that occurred in the past occurred "last night." Too funny.

A few people mentioned that once my car was going it should not have run out of battery and that maybe I needed a new alternator. Jim was anxious to tackle this project. So, with help from his friend Vinnie, he was able to replace the alternator in my car one evening! I am quite impressed!

Last weekend (not this past weekend, but the one before), my college roommate Amy came in town with her family. They came over for dinner Saturday night and Jack and her boys, Abe and Bo, had fun with a borrowed water table. It was fairly cool outside, but that didn't stop the boys from getting wet!

After getting wet, Bo took off his wet clothes and played in a diaper before putting dry clothes on. It made me cold just looking at him.

He was having fun, though.

This past Friday I met up with some of my high school friends and their children at the wading pool at Tower Grove Park. The kids had a blast! Here is a group shot of the kids.

Today Jack woke up crying at 6:30. He usually doesn't wake up until 7:30 or 8:00. He laid in bed with me for a while, but never went back to sleep. I was pretty tired and knew it was going to be a long day, especially if he didn't get a nap. When Nancy called to see if Jack and I wanted to join them at the Magic House (or "Magic's House" as Jack refers to it), I said no at first because I was too tired. Upon further consideration we decided to go. I was hoping I could wear Jack out and then he and I could nap this afternoon. So, here Jack is doing construction work at the Magic House.Nancy and Margo drove a loader.

I thought Jack would love to sit in this loader, but he just wanted to get out. He was nice enough to sit for a picture, though.

Here Jack is trying to talk into the microphone at the podium of one exhibit. He and Margo ran around the stage and auditorium for quite a while. They were loving it, and I was hoping he was getting tired.

I decided to take a long way home and hope Jack would fall asleep in the car. When we got close to home and he was still awake, I took a different route to give us more time in the car. Sure enough, after about 25 minutes in the car he was out like a light. He transferred to his toddler bed just fine. I was able to take a nap, too!

Funny Man

I have not been good about bringing my camera on our outings lately. I will try to take some pictures to add to the blog soon. Here are some funny things our little man has said or done lately:

• One night I put Jack to bed. He usually goes to sleep shortly after we put him down. Sometimes he will get up and get some books to look at before he goes to sleep, but always makes his way back to his toddler bed to sleep. On this particular night, I heard him still awake 45 minutes after I put him to bed. I went in his room to check on him and he was sitting on top of his bookcase (it's only 2 shelves high) reading a book like that was the most normal thing in the world.


• Jim put Jack down for a nap in the pack 'n play in his room and told Jack that Mommy would be up in just a minute to say good-night. By the time I got to Jack's room (a couple minutes later), Jack was out of the pack 'n play and sitting on the edge of his toddler bed. The next morning, after sleeping all night in the toddler bed, Jack got up and climbed into the pack 'n play. We have taken the pack 'n play down and he just "naps" in his bed now. He really just gets up and plays or reads books.


• Recently, Jim and Jack were visiting Grandma and Grandpa. Jim put Jack down for a nap in the pack 'n play upstairs and went to cut the grass. When he came back, Grandma and Grandpa were still giggling over Jack's antics. Shortly after Jim went outside, Grandma heard some noises and went upstairs to check it out. When she opened the door, Jack looked up from the pack 'n play and said "Bunny rabbit in bed." He had crawled out of the pack 'n play, found his bunny rabbit, and crawled back in. Grandma told him it was time to sleep and went back downstairs. A short time later, she heard some more noises from upstairs, and simultaneously Grandpa noticed that the phone line was in use. He picked up the phone and heard Jack's voice on the line. So, they had a short conversation before Grandma went upstairs, again, and put Jack back in the pack 'n play. This time, Grandma turned on the baby monitor. Shortly after she came downstairs, she and Grandpa heard through the monitor that Jack had again escaped the pack 'n play and picked up the telephone. They heard him repeat over and over: "Grandpa on the telephone?" When Jim returned a few minutes later, Grandma and Grandpa told him the story and Jim went to get the playful little man, finally abandoning the nap.


• Jack's friend Ben was visiting when Jim got out the "tunnel." Jim told Jack to tell Ben about the tunnel. Jack pointed to the tunnel and said, "tunnel." I guess Jack didn't think it needed any further explanation.

Here is a picture from our trip to Ted Drewes this afternoon. Jack and I walked up there to meet Kathleen, her friend Tori, and their girls (who were sleeping in their cars). Jack had an ice cream cone, and it was messy!