Not A Baby Anymore

I suppose I can say Landen is definitely not a baby anymore - even though I like to refer to him as my baby boy. I do however quickly get corrected with - "me not baby, me Landen Joseph (last name)". Just like his Uncle Eli at that age. =)

He's really growing up, it's been almost a year since he last nursed. He still likes to help nurse Amelia though. Ha ha!

He's potty trained completely now. He hasn't wet the bed in a very, very long time and I don't even have to tell him to go.. he just goes. That right there is a huge milestone. Here I didn't even think he was close to being ready to be potty trained and he did great the first time we really tried.

For the most recent thing - he's now sleeping in his big boy bed.. in the other room. *sniff, sniff* How did this happen? Honestly a few weeks ago I would have never said he'd be sleeping in his own bed, but it's happened.

I love co-sleeping, but having two grown adults, a toddler and a baby in a queen sized bed just wasn't working anymore. I decided that after 2.5 years (and a little encouragement that he wouldn't die in the other room from my mom, who has a lot more experience then me) I could put the baby bed away on the floor of our room and use the big twin sized bed in the other room. I know what you might be thinking - I must have just wanted him out of my room if we had a little bed on the ground for him. Well, he wouldn't fall asleep in there and whenever he woke up (which was a lot anymore) he'd get in bed with us and wouldn't want to get out. So, I thought we'd at least try the big bed, see what happened.

We decided at the beginning we weren't going to be super strict with the idea, if he really was scared or something, we were going to try something else. We were also going to let him come in our bed in the night if he needed too. I have absolutely no problem with that - I'm all about co-sleeping and believe children need to be with their parents. I won't go into all my beliefs on co-sleeping right now though. So I put Landen's little bed away, told him it was gone and he seemed fine with that. I asked him if he was going to sleep in his big bed - "sure". Ha ha.. that's what I thought, no way would it really happen.

The first night he went to bed early, in his bed - BUT - it was the start of the dreaded flu and the next three days we were down stairs sleeping. A minor set back.. oh well.. try again when we're all better.

Now, he lays down in bed with one of us, we sometimes read stories (depending on the night), prayers, hugs, kisses, and he goes to sleep. We have a nightlight and if he needs us in the night he just calls one of us - "mommy, daddy." One of us goes in, hugs, kisses and he goes back to bed. He hasn't even asked to come into our bed. He's doing GREAT! I'm not expecting him to not ever come back in our bed, I'm actually expecting it at sometime - which is totally fine. I just can't believe he's actually in there sleeping on his own. He's well rested in the morning and seems to be in a better mood. Kurt and I are getting better sleep too, which makes everyone happier.

I always get caught up in the moments of feeling like - it will be like this forever - but I really try not to rush him. He won't stay a baby forever, he won't have to be in our bed forever, use a diaper forever, or nurse forever. I won't have to keep him with me forever.. these times he needs me - he only needs me like this for such a short amount of time. Why rush him to grow up? He's only 2.5 and he's already past all those little steps that make him more of a big boy. Those things I cherished (maybe not cherishing all those dirty diapers.. ha ha) and helped form the wonderful bond we have now.

Before I know it, he's going to be race carin' it and I'm going to be really freaking out!

I need to constantly remind myself, not to rush... time goes by fast enough without me rushing to make my kids older than they're ready to be.. do things they aren't ready to do. All in do time.