More Friends, More Swimming, More Snowbird

Baby Jack - 15 months old. Cognitively, he and Max were on the same page. Max is just more mobile = a more destructive escapee.

Cole was the butterfly whisperer. He had several butterflies land on his hand.

Jack really wanted that squirrel.

Lots of Wii time.

Hadn't been to the game room in years. Pretty sure this was the same air hockey table I played on when I was 6.

Deer.

Snowbird Pics and Video's: Here they come

Swimming, hiking, friends, and stuff....

The pool at night...

{Just realized the middle of this clip was already posted in a previous post. Oh well.}

Max and Griffin. I think Max is a couple months older.

Piper and Reagan...

Christine, with Jack and Cole in the kiddie pool.

Piper and Reagan.

{swimming, cousin, and grandma video}

The park.

Cole and Max.

Cole and Jack.

Piper and Reagan.

Things Max Has Attempted to Flush Down the Toilet this Week

1. His swim trunks (not pictured)

2. the little box that hotel soap is packaged in (also not pictured)

3. one flip flop

4. one empty Capri Sun

Things that Max successfully flushed down the toilet:

1. my favorite fingernail clippers

2. three-quarters of a roll of toilet paper

3. one hotel wash cloth - although it didn't go down without a flood.... but it did go down, and the toilet is working perfectly

And this is why Max is gated from the majority of the house back at home!

Steve took Max home early tonight, so Piper & I had a mommy/daughter play date at the activities center... alpine slide, mountain flyer, tram, bungee trampoline, ropes course... weeee!

Why is the 6 year old in charge?

Piper is in heaven! This week has been a whirlwind of friends coming and going, and we're just hitting the halfway mark. We have a no sleepover rule (unless it's with family), but we let Piper pick some friends and invited their families up to the condo to swim during the day and a couple to even stay the night. Play dates and sleepovers. Good thing we like her friend's families!

Steve has been taking Max to sleep at home at night and bringing him back up before work. So we're having a much better time than we were the first two days. We also brought a few more gates up. And somehow I got Max to take a nap yesterday, but Piper really wanted to go swimming (for the four hundredth time), and since we had friend's up, she still could. Thank you to all my friends who happen to have 6 yr olds who are Piper's friends and happy to watch her at the pool so she can stay and I can take Max up to the room when he's done.
A few highlights thus far...

Fresh bag of chips... why not dump them on the floor?

Funny tidbit about the loft (aside from how dangerous it is)... the kids had finished eating and the adults were still at the table eating. So Piper and her friend Cole started throwing toys over the balcony down to the living room. Apparently they ran out of toys, and the next thing we see falling from the balcony, is my bra, and then the rest of the dirty laundry out of the basket that was in the closet. Thanks guys. Good thing we were among friends ;)

In between friends, Piper did one of the kids classes today - make your own t-shirt. Friends and crafts - yep, heaven.

This is Suppose to be a Vacation?

What's wrong with this picture? Notice the incredibly large space at the bottom of the loft rail? There is a 9 foot drop from the loft down into the living room in the condo we're staying in this week. And the horizontal rails perfectly creating a ladder to climb! Is this legal? This timeshare has been in our family for 35 years (first time bringing Max as a walker). I am amazed no one has fallen though!

Baby gate to the rescue.

Max is in heaven. We don't have enough gates to keep him from everything. He can reach sinks to turn water on. He can get into bathrooms to flush toilets. He even tried to flush his swimsuit down the toilet! He can empty all the kitchen drawers. He can open the front door himself (no hotel locks - weird huh?). He can dump popcorn all over the floor - well, I guess he can do this at home as well.
Swimming is fun too.

This is probably the last vacation we'll be taking for awhile. I'm exhausted and we're not even to the halfway mark. Max has escaped out the condo door down the hall several times. He ran off out of the playground this afternoon. He has tried to leave out the swimming pool gate several times. He discovered he can climb out of the port-a-crib. There is no safe place for him to sleep. He can climb out and get out the front door if on the first floor. Or he can climb out and fall through the huge space in the railing in the loft on the second floor. Steve didn't take time off work this week, since we're only 20 minutes from home. He comes up for dinner and a swim, then heads back home to sleep and work. Until last night. I was at my wit's end and called Steve to come back up and get him at 11:00pm. Max would not go to sleep and thought it was hilarious to climb out of his bed, run downstairs and grab anything he could get his hands on and throw out of the kitchen. I was ready to pull my hair out. So Steve took him home to sleep and then brought him back up this morning. When Steve arrived to get him, Piper announced, "Mommy's been crying." Yes, he had me in tears. But we had a much better day today. And after dinner tonight, Steve just went ahead and took Max with him then. It's amazing how much more relaxing it is when you're not watching the front door for the escapee. Good thing he's so dang cute.

The Day I've Been Regretting

So in case you didn't know, my plan was to keep Max in his crib until he was 10. OK, at least 7. Seriously.
We moved Piper to a big girl bed when she was 2 1/2 and it was the worst parenting decision I've ever made. She was a great sleeper, but immediately became a terrible sleeper and has pretty much slept with me 90% of the time since. Joy. I wasn't about to make the same mistake with Max.

But then yesterday happened. Max woke up and started jumping up and down in his crib as usual. I heard the boing, boing boing... then a thud. I assumed he fell against the back of the crib. Nope. Next thing I heard was him jiggling the door handle to get out of his room! He managed to trampoline himself over the crib rail. And not get hurt. He had thrown all of his bedding and stuffed animals out first, as usual. He must have landed on them, on his feet I'm guessing. Wish I would have seen it. He must have got big air!
Anyway, I opened his door and he was grinning ear to ear. Guess we're done with the crib. Arghhhhhh.

So after an online search for a crib tent (many of my neighbors swear by theirs and this was my game plan for the next step when Max became capable of climbing out of his crib - little did I know he would be catapulting out, not climbing). But the crib tents were recalled and the company went out of business for injuring children - killing one. Yikes. So off to find a room size babygate. I really didn't want to just gate him in his room and give him full access to it, even if I took everything out of it. So I found this babygate at BabiesRUs for much more money than I wanted to pay, but cheaper than a visit to the ER. We gated the cubby section of his room off and took the front rail off the crib so he can get in and out. I thought it would work better with just the mattress on the floor, but I thought the change in sleeping would be smoother if it was more familiar with most of the crib still surrounding him. He loved it.

Still lots of bouncing fun!

Until it was bedtime. He cried and cried. So we went for a drive and he fell asleep, so I could put him in bed sleeping. He only fell out twice. But then never went back to sleep after the second time. Not too early though. Tonight I'm going to just do the mattress on the floor. I still think he's way too young to have such sleeping freedom ;)

On a side note, his highchair was about to fall apart, too. He loves to stand up and lean back, cracking the plastic quite a bit. So we switched to a booster. He loves eating at the table like a big boy!

Probably too much change for one day, but better safe than sorry. And in two days when we head on vacation, sleeping in a port-a-crib should throw another fun wrench in the mix. Wish us luck!!

*This was today at naptime - went down without a peep. Guess it helped to just have the mattress on the floor - or else he was so tired from lack of sleep last night ;)

{He did start out with the sheet and pillow on the bed.}

** And he went to bed tonight without a peep. Really. Hmm. I better go check on him....
Yep - asleep. Not on the mattress, but a blanket on floor. Good enough!