The adventures of Big Boy, Boopy and their parents: Transitions

2008 has started off to be a year full of transitions for our family; transitions into new jobs and transitions into new kid stages. Papa Vaughn has transitioned nicely into his new jobs. He is so happy to have the base job finally settled and secure in the temp tech position. It was a long time waiting on the paperwork and now we're just anxious for April and the likelihood of it turning into a permanent position with benefits. For the time being though, he's very happy there, enjoying the opportunity to do the work he studied for and more importantly, enjoys. As for the second job at Circuit City, it's something to bring in some extra cash, not very difficult and a place he rather enjoys shopping, so it's not a bad deal at all.

Transitions into new kid stages are bringing us smiles, frustration and exhaustion! Big Boy is currently bringing us miles of smiles! His transition into a full fledged big boy at age 4, is starting out wonderfully! Lately, his listening ears work like magic, he's remembering his manners and his easy going gentle nature is so fun to be around. We've even had a break through with the long, long, struggle of potty training. Oh how wonderful that has been this weekend. For the past few weeks rather than trying underwear just at school or days we aren't going anywhere, we finally threw caution to the wind and have had him in underwear all the time except for sleeping. While we've endured many "accidents" and outfit changes and fights to get him to try to go potty like a big kid, this weekend everything worked like it should. Big Boy managed to make it to the bathroom before he had an accident, before we had to remind him and without much assistance from us! I'm so proud of him and while I am more than ready to no longer deal with pull-ups it does make me a bit sad to see that he finally, really is a big boy.

Oh, and to top things off my now official Big Boy, has decided he's a punk rocker and that haircuts aren't so bad after all. Haircuts for Big Boy, up until this fall, have always been dreaded very unhappy affairs. I'm not sure why, as everyone has been great, soft spoken gentle hairdressers ready to try anything to get Big Boy interested in how fun a hair cut can be. In the past we went out of the way to try the kiddie haircut places and even those, while on occasion gave us a less traumatic experience, didn't seem to make enough of a difference. So, we've weathered on and dealt with it. This fall however, something changed and Big Boy decided to be big and sit in the chair by himself, without being in someones lap. He sat nicely smiling, chatting and not having any issues with getting his hair cut. This weekend proved no different and in fact, Big Boy wanted to prove just how big he is becoming and have some say in his styling. While waiting his turn, he saw another little boy get his haircut AND get to have colored gel streaked in it. Big Boy wanted to have colored hair too. Once we were assured that it was extremely temporary and would wash out, he was given approval to have some fun and rock himself out. While you can't tell too much in these pictures, Big Boy did get red colored streaks in his front part of his hair. Red has become his favorite color these days. When we got home Big Boy HAD to look in the mirror to make sure his "red" was still there.

As for Boopy, the transitions haven't been so rewarding. Her transitions are turning out to be ones that make us frustrated and exhausted. While she is absolutely adorable and very lovable, she is entering her "terrible twos" WAY too early. Either that or we REALLY have something to look forward in the next year! As noted in my earlier posts she's found a way out of her crib. Overnight, we went from a little baby who would go to sleep without fussing in her crib to a screaming, yes screaming, toddler who won't stay in her bed and has no desire to go to sleep. We took the side off her crib to turn it into a big girl bed, a bit earlier than I would have liked, but for safety reasons, the only thing we could figure to do. At first this was fun and exciting to Boopy, but VERY quickly she realized that she has complete freedom now. UGH! The past couple of weeks since New Years it's taken us nearly an hour each night to convince Boopy to stay in her bed and go to sleep. While Big Boy climbs right in, stays there and sleeps through Boopy's arguing, we battle the toddler asserting her independence. In trying to stay consistent, we put Boopy to bed at the same time as Big Boy, tell her good night and leave the room. We end up putting her back to bed numerous times, sternly telling her to go to sleep. We've tried laying down next to her, singing to her and patting her back. Nothing works until she ultimately wears out. Problem is, it's wearing us out too! She's just a very determined little girl. This weekend we finally got her bed moved in with Big Boy to share a room for a while. We're aiming to move them into their own rooms this summer if finances and timing work right. Until then, Boopy's finally out of our room. Unfortunately this move didn't really help the bedtime issue but over time I hope she'll want to continue to be like Big Boy and having him there as an example will help. Here's how their room now looks. We moved everything but the dresser around. It's a little crowded, but not too bad for two small people to play in.

Here's Boopy napping in her "big girl" bed. And no, she didn't fall asleep in it, she crashed in the car after running errands and I put her there. Oh well.

Please excuse the basket of clothes that needs to be put away. If you look closely you can see Big Boy playing with his big truck and Mather the cat hanging out in the doorway.

As for other aspects of her transition to toddlerhood, Boopy really wants to be a big girl. She received a gift card to Toy-R-Us from her godfather, Ric, for Christmas that we redeemed on Saturday. While in the doll area, Boopy fell in love with a baby stroller for her babies. Out of all the options in the store, this is what she wanted. Although I offered she insisted on carrying the box all around the store and in the car! While I didn't have my camera in the store with me I had to get a picture of her asleep in the car hugging her stoller! She fell asleep on the way home.

Boopy was so excited when she woke up from her nap and saw that we had put the stoller together for her! Please excuse her crazy hair. She wanted colored hair like Big Boy and the hairdresser was sweet enough to put some small purple streaks in her bangs. Sorry, I didn't get a picture before she slept and messed them all up.