Baby’s teething. And keeps losing the teething rings; so we’re eating a lot of corn on the cob this week. Only has four teeth so far, but she sure tries hard. And succeeds.

I popped into a grocery store to pick up corn at lunch, and the greens guy was there, shucking the corn – it didn’t look pretty enough to sell. Argh. But I talked him into giving me a few intact, and I could really tell the difference between the unshucked and the shucked and shrinkwrapped stuff they sell for twice the price. And score – they were cheaper than the marked price (which was still scandalous, but what are you going to do at the trailing tail of the country).

Baby’s also moved up to the toddler room. They move “when they’re ready” at anywhere from 12 to 20 months. She’s ready. I need to get them to change her diaper more often – she’s coming up a bit red from being in them too long. I know they change them at set times, but it’s not quite frequent enough for her. And she’s been doing random loose stools – mild virus or a problem with their ultrapasturized milk like her brother? We’ll see as the weeks progress, I guess.

She’s not quite used to one nap a day yet, but it sure makes her easy to put down at night. We’ll be moving her to her own room (twin mattress on the floor) in early November, so I hope the easy bedtimes keep up and become habit.

Having been so busy with work and baby and life and all – Wolfie’s bedtime routine has somewhat slipped away from us. He does the routine fine, but then parties until well into the night. We gave him some warning we’d be cracking down and did so – putting away his music instead of letting him listen to it, and trading it back as he settled down and started staying in bed.

We also put a self-resetting clock in his room and laid down the rules: Bedtime is 8:30, Bedtime for the music and flashlight are 9:30. No exceptions unless he’s hurt or ill. He earned back his music with good bedtimes, racked up a few more good ones and last night earned his new flashlight. He’s been fascinated with the emergency lights we have in the hall and keeps unplugging them, so we had him earn his own.

His is a hand crank light, with LED lights. He loves it; not just the power of having it for his very own (and the power of responsibility to put it away every night), but it’s fun. Every night his pop has been showing him something new with it. Doggie fingers, big shadows, little shadows … now *I* want a flashlight.

A full month of “good bedtimes” will hopefully make it easier to move his sister upstairs nearby. The habit of quiet, the habit of going to bed, and soon the habit of waking up together. We’ve moved his little sofa into the hallway – maybe we can do dual stories and then split up for sleepy time. We’ll see how it shakes out.

Other than that, we’re just busy gearing up for fall, such as it is around here. Fake autumnal leaves, halloween costumes, and the Great Pumpkin. Yay!

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