Happy Birthday, Zev!!

My son turned three last week.  We had a little party for him:

Scary how that doll is the size of Tzelia...  who has yet to break 16 pounds, by the way.  Her sister outweighs her by about three pounds.  The little peanut...

Now that Zev is three, the pacifier has been taken away.  Its been a rough week.  I spent the few weeks up to his birthday telling him that once he was three, the 'wa-wa' (his pet name for it) goes away.  He only had been using it to sleep at night, and I was anticipating a rough transition.  I was right.  The first night resulted in an hour of screaming, ending in him sleeping in our bed.  The second night was another hour of screaming, both in his room and in the hall way, ending in me sitting on his floor next to his bed in the dark until he fell asleep.  The third night was a repeat of the second night.  The fourth night, I knew he wasn't going to fall asleep quickly, so after sitting with him for about ten minutes, I told him I needed to go have dinner, but that I would check in on him in a little bit.  Some more crying, but that seemed to work ok.  The fifth night was a repeat of the fourth night.  Night six there was no arguing after I told him I'd go back up and check on him.  Last night was the same.

So it seems things are slowly getting there.  Tonight will be one week, and hopefully it will continue to go well.

Thinking ahead, Tzelia doesn't use a pacifier at all:  she sucks her thumb when she sleeps.  Meorah does use a pacifier only when she sleeps, so we're going to have to come up with another plan for her in the future.

We're also working on pull-ups over underwear for Zev.  Great tip from a friend:  the problem with the pull-ups is that they are too much like diapers.  But you need the protection in case of accidents.  So we've been doing pull-ups over the underwear when we go out...this way he still feels it if he has an accident.  We've only been doing this the last few days, and while we're home he still runs around in his underwear and no pants to make it easy for him.  But he's gotten better at using his potty.  We're getting there.  Sometimes he'll take the initiative and sit by himself, and sometimes we have to remind him, but we get very few accidents at home now...the only time that's happened is when he's been really upset about something, and I think he just loses control while he's crying.

The girls are doing great.  Tzelia is beating up on Meorah, and its kind of interesting to see their personalities start to come out.  Tzelia is the dominant girl and will often grab things away from Meorah, who then just sits there and cries while looking up at you for help.  But usually they play together well.  My biggest issue with them right now is feeding:  they have different palates, and its a pain to try to figure out what to make them without making two completely different meals.  Once again, everything is just more complicated when you multiply it by two....