Although the road Jamie takes to catch his bus to work is still flooded (and was basically the only way we were impacted by any fooding), the skies are apparently drying up, the temperatures are mild, and life in the Pacific Northwest is slowly returning to normal. We have many, many, many large tree limbs to chip, but fortunately our chicken pen and goat feeding station really need some new wood chips!

 

So in kid news, we've reached a new milestone with Phoebe...toddler bed! Yes, last week in an effort to address some nighttime behavior issues Phoebe was exibiting, we decided to give the toddler bed a try. Her crib converted to the bed, so it wasn't really too big of a physical shift other than now there's a little opening for her to get herself in and out of. Which is kind of a big deal.

Night 1: Door open, immediately running into the hall, door closed, crying, screaming, extra nightlight on, extra nightlight off, Zoe sleeping on the floor, Zoe out of the room, door open, Phoebe in our bed, Phoebe on the floor of our room. The night ended with us putting her in a pack & play to finally go to sleep. DON'T JUDGE ME!

 

Night 2: Tuck Phoebe in, close door, hear pitter patter to door, crying, pitter patter back to bed, minor crying, sleep.

 

Night 3: Tuck in, Phoebe quietly resisting "no night night", quiet, sleep.

 

Night 4, 5, 6: SLEEP!

 

While I relexively ordered 3 parenting books after the first night of transition (which, by the way, were scheduled for 2 day shipping but took 7 days to get here, which UPS chalked up to "natural disaster"), Phoebe has adjusted nicely to her toddler bed. One step closer to Zoe's dream scenario: bunk beds. She really, really, really wants them to share a bedroom. We have the space for them to have separate rooms, but will continue to contemplate whether they should share a room.

 

Phoebe is in her wildly independent phase where she attempts to do every possible thing that is completely impossible for her to do on her own. Regardless of the task at hand, her first comment is "I dew eet", followed by forceful maneuvers where she tries to wrestle whatever item I'm using from my hands so she can do it herself. Zipping a zipper, brushing her teeth, combing hair, getting the dogfood ready, whatever. Of course, this is wonderfully age appropriate behavior, but seriously, that doesn't make it any less annoying. Toddlers and speed to not mix; the extra 15 minute buffer built into our schedule to accomote Phoebe's independence is standard. As an aside, can I just say that after almost a month off, it is seemingly impossible for us to get to pre-school by 8:55. Was that a parallel universe where I was making that happen? Sometime before The Weather in Seattle Went to Hell?