It Has Come to This...

Forget lullabies and stories, bedtime at our house is now defined by lock boxes and metal gates. But let me back up and explain...

We had a very rough week from a going-to-bed perspective. Max was getting out of bed over and over and over again, shaking the gate, screaming, and turning on the light. All of this would get Henry riled up, and by the time we got up the stairs, we'd find the lights blazing, Max dancing around in front of the gate and Henry standing in the crib, pumping his fists in the air and hooting his brother on. Not a situation that was conducive to sleep for either boy. The final straw was one particularly bad evening when Max pulled Henry's arm through the bars of the crib and bit it. For a few days after that, we started putting Henry down in our room and then transferring him back to the boys' room after Max was FINALLY asleep. This was a big pain for everyone involved, however, and didn't seem like a good long-term solution. Eventually, we decided that everything would be less intense if Max couldn't turn on the lights at all. He learned how to peel duct tape off the light switch pretty quickly, so we found this contraption at Home Depot that locks over the switch so he can't reach it. Of course Scott and I can't reach the light either without using a key, but the inconvenience is outweighed by the fact that Max is now going straight to sleep. At least for the moment. With his stubborn streak, I'm expecting chains and iron bars aren't far off on the horizon. By the time he's ten years old, it's going to look like San Quentin Prison around here at bedtime.

It's not all doom and gloom in Chez Gerber, though. The best news on the sleep front is that Max can now sleep through the night without wearing a diaper. I'm sure we'll have a few accidents along the way, but I can comfortably call him "potty trained" at long last. Hurray!

Not to be outdone, Henry has also made great developmental leaps recently. He's gone from being a baby to a full-fledged toddler in a matter of weeks. He walks everywhere now and (knock on wood) hasn't sustained any of the black eyes and other contusions that Max had CONSTANTLY in his first months of walking. His ability to understand language has also taken off and he can follow simple requests like "Bring me your shoes" or "Give this truck to Max." Speaking of trucks, he and Max have been spending a lot of time driving their cars and trucks all over the house. They can do this for twenty minutes at a time without any interference from me. Sheer heaven! It is so sweet to see the two of them becoming friends. With any luck, this relationship will continue to grow as the boys get older.