After about a week of letting the boys run like manics and a week of sitting in the room for up to an hour at a time to get them to fall asleep, we decided the boys just aren’t ready for beds yet and put the crib fronts back on. Now we’re having fun playing the “put the baby back in the bed” game, complete with the “let’s hide from Mommy to see if she can find us” bonus game. It’s taken as much as 2+ hours to get them to go to sleep, but I think in the long run, this is the right thing. We sure can’t wait until they get the idea that they’re supposed to stay in though!

Some new pics in the Sept-Oct 2007 album include another example of the mess the boys made when they should have been napping, a special breakfast made by Debbie and Cole, and dressing up as Pooh (Zach) and Eeyore (Alex, of course!) for Halloween.

Tags: Alex, chaos, Halloween, holiday, milestones, Zach

Just four days after Zach started to figure out how to get out of the crib, we had to take the front of the cribs off to turn them into toddler beds. We just couldn’t get Zach to stay in, and Alex was quickly catching on too.

With that, all of their good sleeping habits seem to have gone right out the window. They’ve been having a blast running around (and running into things until we put their nightlight back on), climbing, and pulling everything out of every drawer possible. After they broke a dresser drawer and pulled down a radio and some books from the top of the dresser, we’ve put locks on the drawers and moved a bunch of things out of the room.

When they finally do fall asleep, it tends to be on the floor where they happen to pass out from exhaustion from all the fun.

Pictures of the toddler bed milestone and the following day’s naptime have been added to the Sept – Oct 2007 album. Enjoy!

They’re having a ton of fun, but we can’t wait until the novelty wears off and they start to actually sleep again…

Tags: Alex, chaos, milestones, Zach

OK, so I’m posting this just a bit late, but Zach and Alex had their 18 month checkup on 8/1. They are healthy and doing well, although they have apparently inherited their father’s body type since they grew in height but not much in weight. Alex measured at 32.5 inches tall (60th percentile) and 20 lb 11 oz (0 percentile). Zach is also 32.5 inches tall but is a little lighter at 20 lb 2.6 oz. The doctor was OK with the weight because their height and development are doing so well (in fact, they demonstrated their climbing abilities for her right in the room).

They are learning new words and new things almost every day. Both can walk halfway up the stairs with the help of the balusters before they crawl the rest of the way. I’ll have a pic up on the site soon that shows Zach nearly climbing into his crib. They have learned to say “all done” when done with a bath and can imitate many farm animals. They’ve become big fans of watching bee-ball (baseball) and wheel (Wheel of Fortune). They still love to read and can often grab a certain book that you ask them to get. They are now starting to figure out how to open doors (uh oh!) It’s truly amazing how quickly they learn.

Check out the latest photos in the July-Aug 2007 Family album.

Tags: Alex, checkup, milestones, Zach