Valentine's Day Our Way

The Colletts celebrated Valentine's Day a little differently this year than we ever have before. We've celebrated with dinners in expensive restaurants, fancy desserts, and weekend getaways, but this year Tony and I celebrated Valentine's day with peanut butter sandwiches and catching up on the DVR.  We did have a good reason, however, for the low key celebration: Friday the 13th, Jack officially gave up his pacifier.

We knew that we wanted to wean Jack off his "wub-a-nub" when he turned two, but a series of illnesses and poor timing had us going into February with a boy who still wanted his "wubby" every night. After doing some reading and some talking, Tony and I decided the best thing to do would be to tell Jack we were going to give his wub-a-nub to a baby and let him pick out a new toy as a replacement for the "friend" he was going to lose.

We talked about getting rid of the pacifier and Jack decided to "give" his wub-a-nub to our friend's son who is 9 months old. So, we picked a cool box and Jack happily put his wubby in the box and we gave lots of high-fives and there were smiles all around. We packed up the kids and went to dinner and then stopped by a toy store to let Jack pick something out (and Harper too).

As soon as we saw Daniel Tiger, Jack was enthralled; he held tight to Daniel as we wandered through the store trying to get Harper to pick out something small. In fact, Jack was upset when we had to give Daniel to the store clerk to ring him up.

For those who don't know, Daniel Tiger is a character from Mister Rogers Neighborhood (one of my favorite children's shows) who has now gotten his own cartoon. Jack and Harper catch the cartoon some days before Sesame Street and they really like the singing Daniel Tiger does. Well, lucky for Jack (and for Tony and I) the Daniel Tiger stuffed animal also sings when you push his hand! Oh boy!

So, we put Jack and Harper to bed- Day 1 with no pacifier and Jack cried from 8-10. Tony and I walked in and out trying to calm Jack down and he finally wore himself out and slept until about 12:15 and he cried again until 1am when I finally popped up a pack-n-play in our room and we put Jack right next to us. I was able to get him to fall asleep and calm him when he whimpered throughout the night.

The next morning was Valentine's Day and after surviving the first night with no pacifier, Jack woke up to presents and cards from people who love him, and Daniel Tiger, of course. Harper was also excited to open her Valentine's gifts and have a yummy breakfast.

 After breakfast, the kids and I went on a nice run with Abby- a perfect way to enjoy the wonderful weather- and we even got to play outside as a whole family when Tony got home from the gym. Here are some of our favorite shots of our kiddos who now run and jump and play and can't wait to spend time outside.

We ended our day with a trip to the mall and a little boy who only cried for 30 minutes and then slept through the whole night without his pacifier!  Everyday since then, he's gotten a little better. In fact, tonight was the "biggest" regression we've seen since Saturday night and Jack only cried for 15 minutes or so.

Here are some pictures of the kids this week. I especially love the giant tower Jack built by standing on a stool, Harper in her golfing outfit- she insisted on wearing a hat and played golf with a soccer ball- I love that girl. When Harper put on her hat, she also insisted that I find a hat for Jack, so here are some pictures of Jack in his hat too. We also managed to eat dinner as a whole family three nights this week- all of us eating at the same time- that's a record!

This week we've seen the kids language really take off and both are talking in complete sentences. Jack speaks in whole sentences more often than not, in fact, he even said "good night, sleep tight" when we turned off the light. I love these kiddos so much, and I know that I may regret saying this, but I'm really liking 2- much better than the baby phase, and even better than the early walker phase. We'll see what adventure these two come up with next!