To Sleep or Not to Sleep

That's not MY question, but it seems to be Ben's. Ever since learning that he could get out of his crib, open his door, and come upstairs any time he wanted, our nights...and days, haven't been the same. About the same time he discovered that he was no longer confined to his bed, he also became acutely aware of the monsters and dinosaurs lurking in his closet. AND he decided he doesn't need to nap anymore. Because I cherish my alone time, I've always been strict about bed times and I never allow kids to sleep in our bed. However, when Ben started joining us at around 3am every morning I was too tired to fight it. I must be getting old.
We decided to get him a cool new bed, in hopes that he would be excited to move out of the crib. He was pretty excited...until he found out he had to sleep in it. A new bed doesn't get rid of monsters and dinosaurs. Next, we moved him upstairs across the hall from us. That hasn't exactly worked out either. I'm not sure what else to do short of locking him in his room and making him stay there. But knowing that he truly is scared, would make me feel bad. He really is certain that he's going to be eaten by a dinosaur. In fact, if he notices someone with a scratch or scrape, he'll ask if a dinosaur ate them. Or even with his own wounds, he tells everyone that a dinosaur ate him. I'd say he's borderline obsessed.

Ben in his new bed, before he found out he's actually supposed to sleep in it.

There's no official nap time anymore. He usually just passes out somewhere at some point during the day. On the couch, the wood floor, outside in the sandbox, in the car, he's not too picky as long as he's not told he has to sleep.

He feels much safer sleeping in camouflage. The monsters and dinosaurs are much less likely to eat him if they can't see him.


Then there's the idea of sleeping with your comfort food. By the way, Ben doesn't care to eat his marshmallows. He only likes to either burn them up on a stick over the fire, or sleep with them. On this particular night, I heard him come out of his room, go into the kitchen, and get a handful of marshmallows before joining us in bed.

Recently, all the boys (except Weston) have started sleeping in the same room together. Spencer on the cool new toddler bed, and the other two on the floor. This method of sleeping will occasionally keep him from visiting us at 3am, but not always.

We're leaving him with my mom this week while we go to Boston. But don't worry Mom, I'm sure he'll do fine. Just keep taking your sleeping pill, and you'll never even notice when he climbs into bed with you.

He's Walking!

And it's about time! I'm tired of the scraped up knees and feet and dirty legs, especially because we're spending a lot more time outside now that we've got nice weather. He's not, however, very stable on his feet yet, so goodbye to scraped up knees, and hello to head injuries.

This was taken 2 days after his birthday.

My Almost Free $500 Visa

You've all seen them while browsing online, little advertisements that say things like, "Free $500 visa" or "Free Wii" or "$500 in free gas". If your like me you think, Yeah right. What kind of idiot would fall for that? That is, until I came across someone who actually did one and it worked. So, I decided to try it, and today, the FedEx man delivered a $500 visa to my door. And I'm expecting my $500 target gift card any day now.
As stated in the small print of the ad "participation is required". You'll need to invest a small amount of money to try different trial offers, and of course it takes some time and organizational skills.
A brief look at what I put into it:
About $60
About 5 or 6 hours of time (after doing one, and being familiar with how it works, it should take less time here on out).
I started the whole process on March 25th and received my payoff today, May 12th. Just under 2 months.
If you're interested, you have to check out this blog: http://moneysavingmethodsonlineoffers.blogspot.com/
Unfortunately, I didn't find it until after I had already done my offers. Make sure to carefully read all of her instructions. She walks you through the whole process step by step.
There are a lot of other money saving and making tips on her blog so check it out if you like that kind of thing.
As for me, I'm going to be looking into doing some different ones. Almost free gas is sounding pretty good about now.
I'll be taking my almost free visa with me on my trip to Boston in a couple of weeks. Hooray for almost free money!!! And best of luck if you decide to go forward with one.

Happy Birthday Weston!

Weston turned one today. It was a fun day. Especially for Ben, who thought it was his birthday. We pretty much went along with that since Weston's too young to care and Ben's too young to understand that everything's not all about him.

I let him eat all the cake he wanted and he loved every minute of it.

I didn't buy a present for Weston. Both sets of grandparents sent gifts so I figured I'd save my money. It's not as if he'll know the difference (until, of course, he's old enough to read this post and then he'll know I was too cheap to buy him anything, but hey, the hours I slaved away over the cookie monster cake ought to count for something).

Because Ben thought it was his birthday, he had to open the gifts. Weston didn't mind, and they both had a great time playing with them. Thanks for the toys, grandparents!