Day 1145 - Poll Results & New Poll

Last week, I asked what age you thought you were when you remembered your first childhood memories. All of the votes were pretty even, but thirty-three percent of you took the lead and said your first memories were when you were four years old. The ages of two and three were right behind with twenty-two percent each.

Personally, my first memories were probably between the ages of three and four. I do recall a childhood memory of myself crawling through a small hole, so that was either my birth or spelunking in Hawaii when I was nine. I hope it was spelunking...

It's weird to think that Emma and Andrew might have some life-lasting memories at the age they are at now. If they do, I have a feeling all they are going to remember is their Daddy looking frazzled and constantly mumbling, "Where's the beer?"

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The kids are going through another phase that is driving us crazy. After we tuck them into bed and leave their rooms, the next thirty to forty minutes is a constant bombardment of demands. They ask for tissue. They ask for chapstick. They ask to go to the bathroom. They ask for their sheets to be rearranged. It's like a Sprout version of Upstairs/Downstairs.

Our usual M.O. with them is to let them cry it out for a bit, and if they are still crying after five or ten minutes, we go see what they want. It would be great if they only had one request, but they usually have several requests. So Lisa and I end up going up and down the stairs in a huff. The only good that has come out of this ordeal is that our calves are really toned now.

We're not too sure what to do. On one hand, it would be really easy just to go to their room and give them what they want. If we did that, they'd probably be asleep in fifteen minutes. But since we don't want them to think that their crying is going to get our immediate attention, they sometimes don't fall asleep for an hour and Lisa and I end up being stressed and grumpy.

So what do you think? Give the kids immediate gratification? Continue doing what we're doing? Don't check on them at all? Buy earplugs?