Ramblings

We keep the house fairly cool at night.  Instead of running the heat enough to keep the basement warm (which would cost WAY too much) everyone has a heated mattress pad.  I love this invention.  My kiddos are terrible about keeping covers on, but they wake up when they get cold.  So the mattress pad keeps them warm whether they stay covered up or not.  I also love climbing into a toasty warm bed in the winter.  Lulls you right to sleep.  Anyway.  I had a small one on little brother's bed.  It was actually supposed to be just a foot warmer, but it fit on his little mattress perfectly.  Unfortunately, he and big brother managed to kill it.  Grrr.  I decided it didn't matter, but I was wrong.  He kept waking up at night, and he wasn't hungry or sick or anything else like that.  So we moved little brother out of his toddler bed and into a full size bed.  I didn't want to buy another smaller heated pad when we would eventually move him into the full sized one anyway.  So we moved some furniture around.  I'll post pictures eventually.  He LOVES it!  It's mainly blue and green stripes, but the sheets and the throw pillow are baseballs, footballs, soccer balls and basketballs.  The first night was a little scary for him, so big sister slept with him.  He's been good to go ever since and is sleeping so much better.  YAY!  It does force me to come to grips with the fact that we don't really have any more babies.  The crib is gone, and a lot of the stuff that goes along with it is gone.  It makes me a little sad, but then I remember that we are slowly getting to the point where they can all feed themselves, dress themselves and in general take care of that basic stuff on their own.  I'm really okay with that!

My debate about what to do with big brother rages on.  *sigh*  He is writing so well, knows his abc's, numbers, all that good stuff.  He is academically ready for kindergarten.  I worry that he'll get bored if he has to do preschool for another year.  I would love for him to be able to go with all the friends he's in preschool with.  And be in the same grade as his twin cousins.  However.  He is still not even close to potty trained.  This is not for lack of trying or lack of consistency.  He just doesn't want to.  He's failing to see what's in it for him, I think.  He IS finally understanding bribery.  If he goes, he gets a starburst.  He loves that.  But he'll still fight me on going to the bathroom.  He just likes the candy after I do make him go.  He's off track from the special needs preschool next week, so we're gonna try to make this our focus.  I'm not sure if it'll make a difference.  But it's worth a try!  And little brother is wanting to try, too.  So we'll see.  Heaven help me!