Weiss Family: Milestones....

Just a few random posts from the last few weeks.

After almost 3 decades, my dad retired from the State this month. Oh, those of you that know him will know that he is certainly not going to be just sitting around....No, after a 3 and a half week vacation, he is headed to work for a local law firm.

Anyway, his office threw him the nicest retirement party (complete with a UF theme as you can see!)

And although we don't have a picture, Dad was SO happy to have his wife, daughter and two grandsons in attendance (sporting their Gator attire of course!)

Since our last trip to the mountains, we decided to go Cold Turkey on the pacifiers. Alden and Carson only used them to sleep at night and during naps, so we thought it was good timing.

Here was the plan:

A) Snip the ends off of pacis once a day or so and have the boys "find" them around the house

B) Congratulate and make a HUGE deal that they outgrew their pacis

C) Continue doing this until all are done

D) They'll just TOTALLY understand the process and be happy that they've outgrown them!

Welllll..........not EXACTLY.

We did snip them beginning on a Monday, and throughout the week, they found them around and were VERY excited to put them in the trash can. Then, on Friday, I snuck in while they were asleep during their nap (is this torture to my children??) and replaced their current delicious pacis with ones that were already snipped. When they woke up, I made a HUGE deal about the fact that they had outgrown their last one! And that BIG BOYS get a special present when they outgrow their pacis.

So, when they went to sleep that night, they each had a new mini pillow pet in their beds, and we told them that big boys sleep with pillows, and don't need pacis. They were very excited about that! Until, we put them down to sleep and they realized that they actually weren't getting those pacis.

Well, using the same method that we did to sleep train them, Alden cried for 35 minutes, and boy was he MAD!!!!! Then he fell asleep and slept until about 3 am - when he was up for another 30 minutes. Then he fell asleep and slept the rest of the night.

Carson, poor baby, he was just DEVASTATED!! :( We felt so bad, he just couldn't understand why it wasn't there and he, being quite the creature of habit, could not figure out how to sleep without it. So, after an agonizing hour and a half, he fell asleep and slept all night long - he didn't even budge when Alden was awake in the middle of the night screaming.

So, long-winded as this was to tell, I want to remember it one day - this was a big deal in their lives during this time!!

I am happy to report that the next night was only 20 minutes or so of fussing, and then a few more rough days of naps, and we are all OK! Every night before bed and every day before nap, they say "Pacis for Babies, not for Big Boys!" and they are so proud of themselves :)

One Saturday morning, Colson and Jackson came over to play with Alden and Carson - this was the best shot I could get of them all "looking" at the camera :) Can't believe these little ones all turned TWO this summer!

Well, it happened. I accidentally left a pencil in the playroom and while I was cooking dinner, I heard them say Color! Color! so I went in there (a minute or two too late I guess) and found this on the wall.
Luckily it was just pencil on a brick wall so a Clorox wipe cleaned it right up!