Breakin' Habits

Ryan, Ryan, Ryan...We thought Morgan was the one that thrived on routine and was the one that was very black and white. Little did we know, he was paving the way for Ryan. Ryan loves routine, which generally is not a bad thing, it is when he starts his own routines and you deviate a little from the routine. Ryan started this getting up to go to the bathroom at 3:00 a.m thing. No complaints there as it is better than wetting the bed which he had been doing. For the longest time, we would help him get there. Over time he became able to do it independently, but just had the need to announce it. Now, you must recognize that he does not wear his BAHA to bed at night so, his announcements were LOUD and would scare us to death when we were in a deep sleep. One day, I thought I just need to talk to him and tell him that he doesn't need to come tell us...So, I told him that he can get out of bed, go to the bathroom, and then go back to bed - That he didn't need to wake up Mommy and Daddy - You know what he did, he laughed - little stinker! I told him that if he could do that he could have some raisins when he got up-he eats breakfast at school. Voila! It worked...Mike's internal alarm clock is still waking him up at 3am and Ryan is not exactly quiet, but there is progress! Our next battle will have to be transitioning him out of expecting the raisins every morning...Oh well, one step at a time. We have been battling another sleep issue with our little guy - Some nights he just wakes up crying. If you try to soothe him or pick him up, he will throw the loudest, longest tantrum you have ever seen! We have no idea if he is awake or if it is a night terror/nightmare, but it is really bad!! Many weeks we feel as if we are living with a newborn as sleep is interrupted continually throughout the night.
One of the biggest habits we have broken is the drinking all the milk in one gulp at dinner time. and this one resolved itself naturally. Both Rylee and Ryan drink all of their milk immediately at dinner. and they barely come up to breathe. As a result, they often don't eat their meal. They have both done this since they have been with us. It is amazing what Oreos can do to solve this problem...They love to dunk Oreos in their milk -Thanks to Daddy)..In order to dunk Oreos you need milk. Now, they leave half their milk. Pretty good problem solving techniques for 3 and 4 year olds! ;o)
Rereading this I can't help but think how petty they sound...Yes, they are petty and someday I know that I wish that we could have all these little moments back. These are little "issues" and as they grow the "issues" will be much bigger ones with bigger consequences. I guess what I have recognized is that sometimes we need to take the time to talk to our children from the heart, sometimes we need to let them work through it while we step back, and other times we just need to let natural consequences occur. Our challenge is to figure out which course we take at the given time all the while supporting them at every turn!