As soon as we got back from our summer trip, we decided to move Aiden from the crib to the toddler bed. I guess we actually decided soon before the trip since he became an accomplished escape artist in the weeks leading up to the trip. Luckily we tamed him enough to make the situation do-able until we got back.
The first time he really attempted an escape was way back in February. I heard his “I don’t want to nap” cry change to a “whoa, something’s wrong” cry. I ran into the room and found him clinging to the top of his railing, but his body was outside of the crib. Startled, I grabbed him, comforted him, and put him back. But I kind of wished I’d gotten a picture! Lucky me, I got the chance (many times, actually). The next time I heard the serious cry and opened his door, I assessed the situation: he was afraid but stable – he had a good grip. And my camera was so close…just inside my room on my desk. I gambled and said, “Hold on, Aiden,” ran for the camera, and got this shot. I think I ticked him off. 
I put him back and after a few more tries he finally stopped his attempts for a few months. But when they did start back up he got brave and began lowering himself down. Luckily he did nap pretty well in pack-n-plays while travelling, but we knew his crib days were done. So soon after getting back home (not instantly, we really wanted a few normal nights of sleep first!), we converted it to a toddler bed.
Here’s the new set-up: 
In the days to come things rapidly went downhill, as expected, but when we first left him there to go to bed he never strayed from the position we left him in. He laid perfectly still and fell asleep without moving a muscle.
If only naptimes were still like that…
Did I ever mention that Andrew was promoted from Second to First Lieutenant? The promotion ceremony was on April 5th. The promotion was really a given – everyone in the class promoted – but we were still proud! Way to hang in there for a year and a half! 
This was on May 17th…it was reaching 100 degrees and they still hadn’t opened the pool, so we improvised and made our own outdoor water fun. I got the awesome mom award that day. 
Ava came into my room after her nap time one day and said, “I made this because I love you!” It’s a picture of she and I, and she has a heart over her head. Melt. My. Heart. Since you can’t save a magna-doodle picture I figured this was a good way of remembering it. 🙂 
At the quadrangle, way back in early spring. 
I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it on here, but I’m doing homeschooling with Ava for preschool. It’s something I’d been thinking about for a long time anyway and joining the army made me consider it even more. I read about it regularly and really love the opportunities that kids can have with homeschooling. I still wasn’t sure if it was for me though, but when I found out that the pre-K option on post is all day, every day, that settled it for me. I’m not okay with my baby being gone from 7-3 every day at 4-years-old. That’s so much! Since we’re moving next summer anyway it seemed like a great trial run. I firmly believe that I can’t mess her up too much for just preschool, and before even starting she met most of the assessments for what she’s supposed to know by the end of pre-K. So we’re giving it this year as a test-run and when we move we’ll see what the schools are like in our new location and how homeschooling worked for both her and for me. We are pretty laid back about it and don’t have any sort of rigorous schedule for now. We kind of approach life as being full of educational opportunities in general and I like that so far she doesn’t think of school or learning as something that happens just between certain hours and that she needs to get through so she can go back to having fun. Learning about life is just part of her having fun, and even the more structured things that we do are still really fun for her. Here are a few of the specific things we work on: 
And we just recently enrolled them in Kids’ Day Out, where they get to spend their Mondays (from 9-2) in their own classrooms playing, learning, doing crafts, and fun stuff like that. They just started in late August and it will go along with the school year. I was really nervous about how they’d do being left there, but they were so excited and on the first day both of them went straight into their new rooms and headed for some fun new toys without even looking up to say goodbye. They still are so excited to go every week, and I love having a few hours to get things done. And mostly I’m glad they get a chance to hang out with some new kids and learn how to follow rules and take instructions from other adults. They already get this every week at church and small group and with regular playdates…but this is a longer, more structured version and they’re both doing really well with it. 
A picture as we were headed to our first Kids’ Day Out, and each of them in their classrooms…already having too much fun to smile at Mom and say goodbye!
The Golden Baby 