Cooper can now climb out of his crib. At first this was not welcomed but now it has made life so much easier. If he can continue to understand that he can only get out of his crib when the sun comes up (and not in the middle of the night) we'll be ok. For a few nights he was getting up at 2 and 3 am. He would climb out and come into our bed or go into Cash's room - either way, the whole house was up (except for me, i was out of town). Chandler handled it well and this weekend we implemented a reward chart for all boys who stayed in their beds the whole night. We've got 3 stars across the board - time for some rewards. The cutest part is that Cooper will come out of his bed after a nap or in the morning, crack the door open and say "peek-a-boo".

Cash has a cough again but has been sleeping well despite that.

The boys tend to get in each other's craw quite a bit lately. Cooper is an antagonist and Cash likes to be left alone. These two things do not mix. Cooper is also a morning person and Cash is not. There are countless learning opportunities here - I just hope we begin to learn soon. Cash is and has always been a hot head but seems to really react positively to emotionless redirection and positive reinforcement. We've noticed that he hits and pushes far too much for our liking. If we can catch it early and send him to time-out or for some "quiet time by himself" without yelling or emotion he does much better. We have to remove him from the situation early and often though or it escalates and someone ends up in tears. Cooper is getting a few time outs for bothering Cash but mostly he just needs to stay out of his way. I really hope these boys will become friends soon.

almost back to reality

we've had over 2 weeks off. together. we are exhausted and well rested all at the same time. it's been great to have all this quality time but i think we're all ready to get back into the routine that the Martins love. Even school-hating Cash has asked me a couple times in the past two days when he goes back to school.
Believe it or not, the preschool is closed for another two weeks but they have a special-session childcare for these two weeks before actual school is back in session. When they go back the boys will be combined into two larger classes. This means that Cash gets to be with the classroom above him. And Cooper as well. Hopefully they do well. Cooper's teacher left at the end of last year so we are waiting to hear who his new teacher will be.
The boys had a great Christmas as you can see from the Flickr pics. We are so lucky to have had such a mild winter (even milder than usual) and it's been in the upper 60's since Christmas so the boys have been out in the street driving their new Jeeps around or batting with their new swords. We've been having lots of playdates with Devin and Riley.
Tuesday morning back to school is going to hit us hard. very hard.