playcentre

The kids went to Playcentre on Friday and then again on Monday. . We are now attending twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. I have duty day on Mondays where I am responsible for an area of play, like books, blocks and science or play dough, house-play and collage. On Fridays I attend with the kids and help out, but I don't have a specific responsibility so I was able to chase them around and take some photos.

On my duty days I come home pretty worn out. Even with low teacher to child ratios of 1/3 (which is not too different from what I am used to at home) things still get kind of crazy at times. But Max and Maya love it. They are learning a lot and gaining even more confidence.

Usually I have my hands full, but on Friday I remembered to bring along my camera.

Here Max is making a collage.

He also especially loves to play at the water table. On Friday the kid had dyed the water pink.

Maya found these head-phones in the carpentry area where she practised pounding real nails into a styrofoam block. They blocked out a lot of sound I am surprised she wanted to wear them because when I put them on it was hard for me to hear, but she kept them on for almost an hour.

Maya followed around the bigger boys who were playing pirates on the fort.

She also had fun with some girls playing queen rabbit.

big beds

For several weeks, the kids have been asking about sleeping in "big beds". Maya was the first to try and took a nap in the single bed in their room. A few weeks later, she slept all night long in the bed. The night Max tried, he was good until 4am when I found him whimpering at his bedroom door. Lately whenever they are getting ready for bed, they both ask to sleep in the "big bed". We tried unsuccessfully a couple of times to let them both sleep in the single bed, which brought on a lot of giggles and not a lot of sleeping. So I decided it was time for toddler beds.

I have been a bit hesitant to make a change because Maya and Max are great sleepers. They typically go to bed between 7:30-8pm and then get up 12 hours later. They have also been very good at taking naps, and lately their naps have lasted 2 1/2-3 hours every day.

We don't have a long going to bed routine, just a song, a prayer, and a kiss. The kids each have a special doll and blanket, and they still sleep with their pacifiers. Sometimes they fuss a bit when Lonnie and I leave the room, but only for a few seconds (hopefully they know that once the door is closed it is time to sleep). For the most part, they only wake up in the middle of the night is when one of them is sick (although Max hardly ever wakes in the middle of the night even when he isn't feeling well). While they have always been good sleepers, they have become even better sleepers in the last six months.

Because they are such good sleepers and they were very interested in "a big bed", I decided I should reward the great behavior. I found some great second-hand toddler beds online. They belonged to another set of boy/girl twins who are moving to Australia.

Last night, we took down the single bed in the kids' room to make space for the new beds. Max and Maya were thrilled with their new beds. As soon as they were set up, they jumped in them and asked to go to bed. We pushed the beds together in an effort to keep the kids from falling off. They went right to sleep. Maya lasted until 3am when she fell out of bed. I heard her crying and came in to find her on the floor. Max slept in the big bed all night long (he had the safer spot on the inside).

When I went in to pick up Maya at 3am, she asked to be put back in her cot (pack-and-play). Thankfully, she went right back to sleep. We have decided to keep up the cots until the kids are a little more skilled at sleeping in their beds.

After Max got up this morning, he grabbed a bucket of toys, two pacifiers and some books and jumped back into his cot. This is how I found him...