Baby Noah - Turns ONE!

I'm sorry but I'm just going to combine 11 months and 12 months.  I LOVE having these to look back on but OMG...so done.

So here we are, Baby Noah is ONE!!!

Eek!

It's bittersweet.  I love seeing him get bigger and more independent but it's also so sad that there's no babies left in the house!

At 11 months Baby Noah:
Waves when you say Bye Bye Noah.
Thinks the cats are amazing.  He actively seeks them out and TRIES to pet them gently.  It usually ends with him screaming and pulling their hair but he's working on it.
Likes to put things in other things.  I love this stage when they start doing this.  I've found "presents" in the most random places lately.
Unpacking and packing are FUN!  We pull clothes out of the dresser almost every day now.
Still sleeping through the night.  Even teeth didn't have him up at night!
Speaking of teeth.  He got 2 new teeth just a few weeks before he turned 1. For a total of 4.
This one is very vocal.  If he's unhappy, he let's you know it!
Generally he's been a happy smiley little thing.  People are always giggling and smiling at him because he's just so damn smiley and happy.
Expressing very little interest in walking.  Even if you try to hold his hands he wants to sink down to the ground.
Started swimming and seems to really enjoy it!

At 12 months he:
Started using utensils and now will not eat unless he can feed himself with the utensils.  It makes for LONG mealtimes.
He loves pushing things around the house.  Chairs, stools, etc.  He walks around everywhere by pushing furniture around.
He still absolutely refuses to get down of couches/beds/chairs safely, as in sliding down on his belly feet first.  He still wants to plunge head first over the edge.
I've been trying to teach him some signs like we did with Jett but to be honest he lets everyone know EXACTLY what he wants without the signs.  We were working on signing milk but he's only half interested.
No words.  Nothing even close.  But noisy...very noisy.
Came down with roseola this month.  OMG...so so miserable for almost a week straight.  I thought it was a fever from teeth but then that damn rash showed up.

Nursing.  He was doing so much nursing when he was sick with roseola but ultimately has cut way down on his nursing.  He loves real food so much that nursing is really just supplemental a few times a day.
And still no walking.  But is LIGHTNING FAST with the crawling.

I both can't believe how quick this year has gone by and also how much of it has seemed to DRAG.  Goodbye Baby Noah, Hello Big Boy!

Baby Noah - 10 Months

I have to admit I'm glad I'm almost done with these!
I love looking back at them but DAMN I am struggling to finish these last few months.

But here we go:

10 Months

This month baby Noah has picked up a few new skills.

He learned to clap.

He learned to wave.

He learned how to use a sippy cup properly.

He is also constantly saying Dadadadada...and every once in awhile Mamamamama.  Neither seem to really be directed at anybody as he says dadadada at me a lot.  But he's working on it.

He has a total of 2 teeth.  Both bottom have come in.

And HE IS OFFICIALLY SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT.  It is now the rare night that one of us ends up in there.  A whole month and a half before Jett!

As to the boob he is still nursing but could really take it or leave it.  We're at only 4 times a day now.  I can't imagine him going much past a year just of his own accord I think he'll end up weaning WAY before Jett.

Still loving all food.

And a few things that have been ongoing for several months that I never mentioned.  This kid LOVES baths.  I'm sure it helps that Jett is always in there with him but he absolutely loves the water.  I think we'll have fun this summer at the pool!

He gets MAD if he doesn't get what he wants.  There are a few things he REALLY likes/wants like the baby monitor, the remote and the phones.  If he sees any of these items and you remove them or don't give them to him he's sure to let you know how pissed off he is about it.

He's a climbing fool these days.  Anything he can reach that knee up to he manages to climb up on.  This means he can get on the couch by means of the ottoman, he can get on Jett's bed, he can get on a few of the smaller Jett chairs.  Lots of ways for baby to fall down!

Adorably he loves to lay his head down on anything soft.  Especially when he's tired if he's on a bed or a couch or there's a blanket or pillow on the floor he'll just lay his head down and rub his face in it.  SO CUTE.

And he has a lovey!  We had several small loveys that were gifted to us when Jett was a baby, he just never took to them. But from a young age Noah has really liked to scratch and rub his head so when it felt like he was ready I threw all 3 loveys in the crib with him.  He immediately took to "blue bunny" and has pretty much been in love with it ever since.

 

Only 2 more months little dude, just 2 more months before you're ONE!

Baby Noah - 9 Months

SOMEONE IS FINALLY SLEEPING!

Thank god.  Mama is ready to sleep again.

At 9 months once again I'd just like to direct you here to read Jett's update.

No?  Not cool?

Ok...fine.

At 9 months Baby Noah is doing exactly what Baby Jett did.

He's lightening fast when crawling ESPECIALLY if you leave a bathroom door open.  He will make a beeline for bathrooms.  LOVES BATHROOMS.  Why?  Why do they like bathrooms???  So the bathroom door must remain closed at all times now.

He also REALLY likes to go outside, so again if the door is open WATCH OUT, Noah will be there in a heartbeat.

He's working on stairs.  He's made it all the way up to the top a time or two, though he still has a tendency to stop and want to sit down and thus topple over backwards.  Lucky for him mama has made it to the stairs to follow close behind so that each and every time he's tumbled over I've been there to catch him.  One day I will not be there kid, DON'T TAKE A BREAK ON THE STAIRS!  It's up or down kid, up or down.

He's also really not a fan of going DOWN the stairs the way they're supposed to, you know SAFELY and backwards.  Work in progress.  There's no baby gate at the top currently...I'm thinking we might have to put one up, though really it was something I was hoping to avoid.  I loathe baby gates.

He spends most of his time standing and will cruise along furniture and move from one piece of furniture to another.  He also likes to walk with some of Jett's chairs, scooting them along the floor and walking behind.  I should really get a baby walker...

Food.  This kid is all about the food.  He LOVES food.  We're only nursing 5-6 times a day now, which is morning, after both naps, before bed and once at night (or two on really bad nights).  So much different than Jett in this one aspect.  Jett was still nursing every few hours and wasn't as into real food as this one.  Oatmeal is a current fave as well as pasta and scrambled eggs.  I think a huge part of why this one likes food is that he's offered so much more than Jett ever was.  I will pretty much give Noah anything we're eating, with Jett I definitely held back and only gave him certain foods.  I blame it on being a new mom.  I didn't let Jett have dairy or grains or just didn't think to offer him foods that didn't seem baby friendly.  This one has proven to me that I should really let HIM make that choice.  I offer almost all foods and he tries what he's interested in eating.

Chicken Tikka Masala!

Size.  I thought for sure he was bigger than Jett but after our appt last week it turns out that Noah is THE EXACT SAME SIZE AS JETT at this age.  Even though he eats and eats and eats...same size.

Height: 28 inches (me and Dr. actually think this was a mismeasurement but whatevs
Weight: 18lbs 4 oz.

Sleep.  As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, we've finally turned the corner on sleep.  Just after he turned 9 months old HE SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT.  And I mean actual through the night like 7pm-6:45am through the night.  He only did it once so far but he's regularly waking only once at 3-4am which is heavenly at this point!

Naps have been good for at least the last month, both morning and afternoon are always at least an hour but less than two.  It's been so nice to finally have some planned down time in the day!  Now I KNOW I can get things done at 2 points during the day, allows me to get dinner done, do laundry etc.

And finally A TOOTH!  Just like Jett, only a few days after turning 9 months the first tooth popped out.

The Little Boy With Glasses

My firstborn is growing up so much these days, I feel every once in awhile I should sit down and document the changes going on in his life.

The biggest most important thing to happen to Jett lately is the diagnosis of a lazy eye.  Jett has officially become a glasses wearer.

As a mom this has been an incredibly difficult transition FOR ME.  Suddenly my perfect baby has such a HUGE obstacle to overcome and it makes me so incredibly sad that life is not going to be as easy as I hoped for him.

As a boy my biggest fear is that he's going to be bullied for being the little boy with glasses.  He's already so skinny (though tall) and now he's got glasses to boot.  It doesn't seem so harsh for girls, not until the teen years when contacts would be an option. Every once in awhile I hear bigger boys say, 'hey look, he has glasses.' I've never heard them say it with malice...but I fear there will be one day.

The discovery of the lazy eye came about when his eye started to wander, so he was looking a bit cross-eyed at times.  His preschool teachers noticed it and said it might be a good idea to mention it to his ped at our next appt.  Well, I didn't have a ped appt scheduled until August when he would be turning 4 and wasn't going to fuss about it until then.  But over Christmas our families were in town and THEY ALL NOTICED the eye.  So...off the Dr. we went.  Lo and behold poor Jett can't see out of his left eye AT ALL.

His glasses have an insanely high prescription for the bad eye, that glass is THICK.  He'll be in these glasses for 2 months and then the shitty part...he has to start wearing a patch OVER THE GOOD EYE.  Which means he will be damn near blind.

It breaks my heart.

And I have to be the enforcer.  I have to FORCE my poor baby to wear the glasses and this goddamn patch so that one day he will be able to see.

Luckily my younger sister (and Dom's mom, genetics at work) has a lazy eye and so at least this is familiar territory and I know what a lazy eye is and how they try to fix it and I have someone to talk to about the whole thing.  Also Jett has someone to talk to should he need.

Know what a lazy eye is?  Let me explain for those who don't know.  Basically it's when you have poor vision in one eye at a young age and your brain decides the blurred image coming from the one eye is irrelevant and quits using it.  It shuts down all the information coming from the one eye and so the eye just gets weaker and weaker and if it's not treated you are become near blind in one eye.  To fix it you have to force the brain to use that bad eye and how you do that is get rid of the good eye so the brain has no choice but to accept and use the information coming from the bad eye.

Jett's glasses right now are supposed to be strengthening the weak eye but what that means for him is that sometimes he eyesight is WORSE when he wears his glasses.  This is obnoxiously a GOOD thing because it means the brain is attempting to use the bad eye but try explaining that to a 3 year old!!!  The next step in another month is to patch the good eye and OMG I am dreading it!  It starts slow with just an hour a day and then slowly increase it until by September he should be wearing the patch for 8 hours a day.

Luckily kids are incredibly resilient and he doesn't seem too fussed about the whole thing.  I know he doesn't love the glasses but he tolerates them well enough.  He always asks to take them off at some point in the day and I let him have about an hour break but generally he'll put them back on without too much of a fight.

Unfortunately this is probably a lifelong chronic condition.  It was caught very early (usually it's diagnosed at 5-6 when they hit school age) but I don't know that he will every have great vision in that bad eye.  The goal is to strengthen the eye so that hopefully the eyesight isn't so poor in the left eye but ultimately I think he'll be wearing glasses or contacts for the rest of his life. 

And onwards we march through life whatever it throws at us.

 

 

Baby Noah - 8 Months

Eight months was the magic month.

At 8 months baby Noah has started sleeping and crawling and YAY on both counts.

Amusingly I went back and looked at Jett's 8 month update and lo and behold...it's like I'm reading an update about Noah.  Seriously...I'm going to be writing almost the exact same thing.

Shall I save myself some time?  Go here and read this Jett update and pretend it's about Noah.

I kid!

As a 2nd child myself I know Baby Noah needs his own update.

So here goes.

Baby Noah had been dabbling at crawling for a few weeks but wasn't REALLY on the move.  Until FINALLY after 3 unbelievably crappy nights in which he stayed awake FOR HOURS crying (we were convinced it was teeth, even gave him ibuprofen!), he woke up one morning a brand new baby.  He could crawl, he could stand, he could cruise.  He suddenly started exploring on his own, venturing out of whatever room you put him in (crap!) and just generally moving around with a confidence that did not exist before. AND quit fussing at me all the damn time! He had been such a whiner, but it seems he was just frustrated. Moving baby equals happy baby.

He's already made it up a stair or two.  Sigh.  Must keep a better eye on him now!

 He will use ANYTHING to pull to standing.

Sleeping also took a turn for the better.  After the 3 craptastic nights mentioned above the next night he did TWO 6 hour stretches.  Which means I ACTUALLY SLEPT FOR 6 HOURS STRAIGHT.  It was kind of amazing.  Then the next night he slept for 9.5 hours!!!  Followed immediately by a night of 4 hour stretches.  BUT HE'S DOING IT!  We do no more than 2 night feeds and some nights we get away with only 1.  The light at the end of the very sleep deprived tunnel.

Naps are finally becoming reliable and I'm almost at the point where they're at set points in the day rather than 2.5 hours after he's up in the morning.  We're settling nicely into a 9:30/10am and 1:30/2pm routine for naps.  Nap length is roughly an hour, sometimes a bit more and sometimes a bit less.

Food.  This kid loves food.  I feel most of the time he would prefer real food to boob.  Though he's still happily nursing 5 or 6 times in any given 24 hour period.  He'll try almost anything but definitely prefers to be eating WHATEVER YOU ARE EATING.  If you try to give him something different than what he can see on your plate HE'S NOT HAPPY.  I can't give Jett a yogurt or a banana without also giving one to Noah.  I see his point, clearly it's unfair to try to give him "baby" food!  So, yeah, he pretty much eats anything we're eating.

Jett continues to love little brother.  He went so far as to tell me he wanted MORE babies.  Another brother and a sister to be exact.  I don't know about that Jett...I just don't know.

And just like big brother...no teeth!  Jett's first came in at 9 months, will baby Noah follow suit?

Baby Noah - 7 Months

Dear blog, you are lame these days.

Sorry.

One day...one day I will write something interesting again.

But in the meantime...

At 7 months:

Noah is still fighting the good fight against sleeping more than 3-4 hours.  Sometimes he'll do a whopping 4.5 hours but usually there's a wake up somewhere around 2 hours.  So...no sleep for mama STILL.

He is also fighting the good fight against anything resembling crawling.  Tummy time equals screamy time.

But he has managed to pull to standing and would really love it if he could just stay like that all day.

Or walk.  Walking would make him happy.

Basically he is EXTREMELY frustrated that he is not more mobile and really likes to voice his frustrations.

It's super annoying.

He's doing some serious moving around in the crib these days though.  He can now roll onto his belly BUT does not seem to really enjoy the fact that he's on his belly once he's there.  So there's screaming in frustration anytime he wakes up from a nap or at night because OMG I'M ON MY STOMACH!  WHY AM I ON MY STOMACH?!  HOW DO I ROLL BACK OVER?!

Ugh...

In other news he LOVES eating.  His squeals and squirms in pure joy when he sees a banana, a pear or a date coming at him.  Other food loves include meatballs of all things.  Broccoli and asparagus seem to be a lot of fun to play with but he doesn't eat much of them.  He's also a huge fan of pasta!

Things he doesn't like to eat...cucumbers.  Which is weird because big brother LOVES cucumbers and it's the one veggie I absolutely ALWAYS have on hand!

We're still nursing but honestly he's not THAT into it.  He much prefers real food during the day.  At night it's a different story and he seems to want to still nurse 437 times.  I've tried offering the boob more during the day but he just isn't interested.

Such a difference compared to Jett who would happily forgo real food for boob ANYTIME.

 And how is big brother?  Big brother loves Noah and still happily includes him in all his games.  So fun watching these two start to interact!

Baby Noah - 6 Months

It's hard to describe just HOW EXCITED I am that Noah can do this:

 

That's right, baby sitting means we are SO CLOSE to being mobile and thus...NOT REALLY A BABY ANYMORE.

And you know I hate babies.

I can now plop him down in the kitchen or the bedroom or anywhere really and he's a happy camper for awhile.  Unlike when all he could do was lay there and he would get MAD almost immediately.  Kid is not a fan of lying down.

So, here we are, 6 months!

Stats:
Weight: 16lbs. 2 oz.
Height: 27 inches

Sizewise he's still very similar to Jett, in fact their 6 month stats are almost identical and he is wearing clothes at about the same time frame as Jett did.  He's in 6-9 month or 9-12 month clothes.

His hair is lightening up just as Jett's did, looks like it will go blonde as all the new hair growing in seems to be light.  And his eyes are gray.  

I am eternally amused at just how similar my two babies have been and then at the same time how different.

For instance, this is a picture of Jett at the same age as Noah is now.

 

That kid was ON THE VERGE of crawling and would not sit still!  This one on the other hand mostly just lays around on his back like this:

 

or just sits wherever you put him.

 

I think a huge part of this is that Jett is often around to entertain him and he doesn't have quite the same need to be on the move.

  

Or he's just lazy.

Either way, there's absolutely no way Noah will be crawling when Jett started crawling.

It's alright Noah, don't ever feel the need to be just like you're brother, I'm just pointing out a difference, it's not a bad thing, just different.  You've been sitting for weeks now and Jett didn't start sitting until almost the same day he started crawling.  So you've got that going for you.

He is semi-mobile in that he can scoot around on his butt.  Perhaps he will skip crawling altogether and just butt scoot around until he walks. 

Noah has perfected his roll this month.  Back to front mostly.  He still doesn't do it much, but it's definitely part of his repertoire and if he NEEDS a toy that is out of reach he will put in the effort and make the roll.  And by toy I mean ANYTHING THAT IS NOT A TOY and has potential to cause harm.

He's "eating" solids now.  Though how much he's actually ingested is anyone's guess.  We're going the Baby Led Weaning route again so really he just gets fruits or veggies or pancakes and sort of plays and experiments with putting food in his mouth.  For the most part it all seems to end up in and around the high chair...not so much in the tummy.  But whatevs, at this age it's all about playing and learning how to eat.  He's very gung-ho about the whole thing and really, that's what matters.

Sleeping...ugh, sleeping.  Sleep training began anew and has been really hit or miss.  Put down is easy again but he definitely isn't sleeping for anything resembling long stretches.  I am EXTREMELY happy when he goes 3 hours.  That means basically 3 feeds Every. Single. Night. And he definitely still spends an hour or two crying in the middle of the night every other night or so.

FUN TIMES.

I'm hoping, like Jett, it will all be worth it in a few months and we'll have two amazeballs sleepers and I WILL FINALLY SLEEP.

Big dreams.

If we can get sleeping under control I think I will spend more time enjoying my kiddos rather than forever feeling like a hot mess who doesn't want to leave the house because I AM SO TIRED. 

But there you have it, half a year under our belts already and mama is so happy to be leaving the baby days behind us! 

 

Baby #2 Has Broken Me Too

So much for getting the 2nd one sleeping better than the first.

It happened.  Just like last time.  He broke me.

Noah.  Oh baby Noah.  Noah got VERY sick, so sick that we were making daily trips to the pediatrician to check oxygen levels and breathing, desperately hoping we wouldn't have to make a trip to the hospital.  So sick that he had to be held all night long because he had to be upright to sleep.  Laying him down (even on an elevated surface) resulted in horrible coughing fits.

It was so awful.

So that was last week.  Three nights ago he finally made the move back to the crib and while I was desperately hoping he would go back to sleeping at least 3 hours it seems he has most definitely not.

He's awake every 2 hours.

Unfortunately THE SICKNESS finally hit me as well and there was no way I could stomach sleep training when I was feeling so so sick myself.

But last night was really awful.

Down at 7pm after having to be PUT to sleep, he would not settle on his own at the beginning of the night, something we've never really struggled with but definitely struggled with while he was sick.

Then he was up at 9pm, I fed him because I hadn't fed him since 6pm and I was hoping to go to bed myself and get a few hours sleep.  But it was not to be.

Up at midnight (feed), then 2am and at this point he wouldn't go back to sleep even though we were doing a nursing/rocking to sleep sort of thing NOT CIO.  But cry he did.  Dom went in at 3am.  No dice.  Somewhere around 4am I finally tried to nurse him to sleep again.  Down for a whopping HOUR.  Up again at 5am, husband rocked him for AN HOUR.  Then he was up again at 6:30am.  I tried nursing him again at this point but he wouldn't go back to sleep.  So, I turned off the monitor, left him in the crib and Dom finally went to get him at 7:15am.

It was a really miserable night.

So...here we are.  Broken.

We have no other options left to us when nursing and rocking him to sleep don't even work.  As in even when we're not CIO he's still crying.

This happened with Jett.  We got to the point where he was crying no matter what we did, so CIO wasn't much different, he was just crying by himself instead of in our arms.

We were actually mid CIO when he got sick so this is actually CIO 2.0.  But CIO 1.0 wasn't really working out so well, we had many a night where he was up for 2 hours crying and we had to resort to nursing to get him back to sleep.  So I'm REALLY not looking forward to this.

But here we are back in the exact same place we were 3 years ago.

Wish us luck.  WE NEED IT

.

Baby Noah - 5 Months

Things Noah loves:

Anything that is not a baby toy, this includes all electronics, remotes, phones etc., all sharp objects, all small choke hazard objects, all hot liquids and all breakable objects like coffee cups.  The only time he'll try to pull a cup out of your hand is if it's full of something hot.

Other loves include ANYTHING THAT JETT IS PLAYING WITH.  Be it a toy or a book or a pen or even a plastic bag...does not matter.  If Jett is playing with it then IT IS THE BEST and no substitution or other toy, book or plastic bag will suffice.  It must be THE ONE IN JETT'S HAND or he will cry and scream about it.

At least the feeling is mutual as Jett seems to think that any and all toys that Noah is playing with are also the best.  Jett playing with baby toys and Noah playing with toys with sharp bits and small pieces.  Good times trying to keep everybody satisfied AND ALIVE over here.

He does all sorts of reaching and grabbing and shoving everything in his mouth.  And can do a pretty good spin if you leave him laying on his mat but that's about all the movement we have out of this one.

By all accounts Noah appears to be a bit "lazier" than Jett was at this age as he shows absolutely no inclination to roll or really become mobile in any way shape or form.  He mastered the back to front roll when he was 2 months old and then flat out gave up on it and no longer rolls...just lays there and cries.  And back to front?  He can make it to his side and then again...just gives up...and lays there and cries.

He can however arch his back up farther than I've ever seen any baby do.  He will get his butt and shoulders fully in the air and just sort of hangs out with only the top of his head and his feet on the ground.  I'm not sure what he's trying to accomplish in this position but he does it ALL. THE. TIME.  I feel he should spend more time attempting maneuvers that will actually make him mobile...but he disagrees.

Whatever kid, whatever.  You do you.

So while he's making no moves toward crawling he would however really like to just be standing already.  He arches and squirms to get down on the ground but when you put him there he's unhappy...unless you hold him up so he's standing.  Then happy as a clam.

We haven't had him weighed in awhile so I have no idea on weight.  6 month visit is in a few weeks so I'll find out proper stats then.  My guess is that he's very similar to Jett, maybe a bit heavier and a bit shorter.  But definitely no chunky baby over here.  Long and lean.

Sleep...oh sleep.  I hate babies and sleeping.  This kid was doing great with the sleeping.  We were able to put him down without nursing and he'd sleep for "doable" stretches, anywhere from 3-6 hours.  I was ever hopeful that we could avoid sleep training with this one if we just kept doing what we were doing.  But then he got sick.  That damn RSV really messed everything up and he never went back to sleeping well after that.  Sleep training was definitely something we were reevaluating and we were just waiting for the madness of the holidays and a house full of guests to begin the training.

THEN HE GOT SICK AGAIN.

Second kids = sick kids.  This time it was a tummy bug and he was up every hour and a half for basically the whole 2 weeks we had people in the house.

FUN TIMES.

So...about a week ago after everyone left and Baby Noah was finally healthy we began sleep training.  And it's gone...ok.  He goes down pretty easy (MUCH easier than Jett) for Dom and will generally sleep for 3-4 hours.  Some nights Dom gets away without having to go back in there at all and I just do feeds every 3-4 hours.  Those are the "good" nights but still means I am up every 3 hours and I feed him no less than 3 times.  Other nights he's up after an hour and a half (like last night!) and Dom has to go in and out at intervals and some nights this lasts for an hour and a half!!!  THEN after finally falling asleep he wakes up half hour later and I have to go feed him because by then it's well within a feed window.  This results in me losing 2.5 hours of sleep in the middle of the night...sometimes I think it's just easier to feed him every time he wakes up!  I'm still so so tired.

And naps.  Naps suck too.  Half a fucking hour every goddamn time.  For awhile he was really stretching out the morning nap and sleeping for an hour or more but not anymore.  We're back to solid half hour naps and not a minute more.

And finally...food.  At just over 5 months Noah finally got what his little heart desired, which was to eat.  He was SO interested that it was starting to feel cruel to not at least let him try to partake in family meals.  So one night, pancake night as it were, we just handed the kid a pancake...

Love at first bite.

(Rather a different first food experience than with Jett where I planned out when and how and what I was going to feed him then had the camera ready for the momentous occasion.) 

He now gets a bit of food at dinner every night.  Things like banana or apple or bread.  I have no idea if he's really ingested any of it yet but he's sure enjoying the hell out of trying everything!

How Jett Cheated at Christmas

At 3 years old this is the first Christmas that Jett really understood Christmas. He was SO excited for it.  The month leading up to it we talked a lot about Santa and presents and what to expect Christmas morning.  Everytime we went to the store and he wanted something he'd "put it on his Christmas list" and he did a really good job not getting too present crazy.

He even helped me wrap cousin presents and didn't get too jealous that there were no presents for him under the tree.  He in fact repeatedly wrapped and unwrapped some presents for himself, household items that he'd put in a box...so funny.

But then the families turned up.  And they came bearing gifts.  Lots and lots of presents went under the tree and Jett just couldn't help himself.  He knows his name by sight and found the 2 or 3 under there that had his name on them and he just kept going back to that tree and those presents. 

Lesson learned.  All toddler gifts must be wrapped in wrapping paper and not come in gift bags because the little cheat peaked into his presents!!!

Come Christmas Eve we opened the few presents under the tree ("Santa" presents were for Christmas morning and weren't under the tree yet) and Jett kept telling us what was in his gift bags before he opened them.  "Oh and now I'm going to open the rolly racing car!"  I couldn't believe it.

And then.  AND THEN.  It gets better.

Opening the few presents Christmas Eve just got him even more excited.  He was gifted with this awesomesauce robe from his aunt and cousin who couldn't make it over from London.

And O.M.G. this was now his Christmas "costume" and he would not take it off.

At bedtime we finally convinced him it was too hot to sleep in and that we'd drape it on the doorknob of his door and when he got up in the morning he could put the robe...I mean costume...on and come get mommy and daddy and we'd all go downstairs together to see if Santa came.

He went to bed no problem.  Right on time.

But he couldn't handle the excitement.

At 2am I hear the pitter patter of little feet coming into my bedroom and there's Jett in his robe/costume telling me that Santa had come and he watched the sun come up already so it was time to go downstairs.

My house was full of people and Noah was in our room so I tried to quickly and quietly usher him back to his room telling him that we have to wait until morning to see if Santa came and that he needed to go back to sleep.

He actually went back to bed pretty easily and I went back to sleep.  The next morning my little sister informed me that he had actually been up again, turned the light on, put his robe on AND WENT DOWNSTAIRS.  He then came back up stairs, did a little happy dance in the hallway as she looked on in amusement then went back to his room and back to bed.

I CAN'T BELIEVE HE CHEATED.

My little rule follower cheating at Christmas.  

To be fair we never told him he couldn't go downstairs and check.  

Our mistake.  Next year we'll know better!

Anyway, he then slept in on Christmas morning and we actually had to go wake him up, help him into his costume so we could film his entrance into the living room assuming we were witnessing him seeing the presents for the first time.  It wasn't until later that morning that my sister informed us about the cheating.

Sigh.

 

Nevertheless, all cheating aside.  Christmas with a 3 year old was a blast.  I can't wait for Noah to be able to enjoy it as much as Jett did this year, only 3 more years!

Anyone else have toddlers cheating on Christmas morning???