This week Sean has really seemed to listen well. When he is in my office at work, he asks before runs off somewhere else in the suite to find a friend. When I ask him to do something like, "Hang your jacket up, please" he says "Yes, Mommy" and does what I ask him to do. I'm really trying to always say "please" when I ask him to do something. Manners! Good ones make being around other people so much more pleasant.
Shortly before Thanksgiving, we moved Paul's crib into Sean's room. That necessitated moving the dresser out of the room - so where to put the boys' clothes? Josh installed an adjustable rack system in the closet and we got plastic file bins for clothes that sit on the racks in the closet. In order for me to get to Paul's clothes, the closet and the room must be tidy and I have been very pleased about how well they have been keeping their room picked up.
I intentionally put some of the smaller and more difficult toys to pick up on higher shelves so that the boys do not get them out without parental approval first. The messes the boys make seem smaller and therefore easier to pick up before bedtime.
Paul has become quite the little helper as far as picking up goes. For example, last night Sean brought a gallon tub of popcorn over to the couch. In his haste, he spilled almost half the bucket; Sean and Paul very carefully picked up all the spilled popcorn, and right away!
Paul struggled for a while with sleeping in the crib in the new room initially because we set it up as a toddler bed where he could get in and out on his own. He kept getting out of bed instead of going to sleep, even after time and time again of putting him back in bed. We tried it for over a week, hoping he would learn, but eventually, I decided that he was simply too young to handle a toddler bed and Josh put the fourth side of the crib back up. The first night it was all together Paul kept walking around the crib looking for the open side (chuckle). Since then, Paul has done very well sleeping in the crib.
Paul babbles a lot, saying what could be words if you really try to use all the context clues and use a very liberal interpretation of word pronunciation. Paul makes the "B" sound for book and ball, which are two of his favorite things. He says "no" and "no-no-no" because, unfortunately, he hears that said to him quite often.
I want to share our Advent activities, but I haven't taken any pictures yet, so that will be another post. :)
