Top 5 Saturday Laughs 2.25.12

What a long, fast moving, super busy week!  I am hoping to get some rest this weekend since have come down with the dreaded cold that has infected my household for the past few weeks.  I am hoping the cold moves along as quickly as this past week has.  I am very excited to share my laughs with you this week!

Like always, I am joining my friend, Melissa, in her Saturday Laughs bloghop.  If you have a funny post, you should link up too!

I remembered to write down lots of laughs this week, so I had a list to choose from!!

5.  Claire and Natalie are starting to interact more and more while playing.  In the bathtub, Natalie was holding out a fake cookie and Claire was pretending to eat it.  They both got a kick out of this, but then Claire took it in her mouth and shot Natalie in the face with the water from inside.  That was seriously so funny!  Everyone laughed so hard, Claire laughed so hard that she got the hiccups!

4.  Whenever Natalie hears any type of music, she begins dancing. The majority of the time she twists her upper body and reminds me so much of the "we did it dance" from Dora.  She only dances for a little while, then it's back to playing.  It makes me smile every single time.

3.  Thursday evening I was feeling rotten and Claire was in full stall-before-bed mode.  I was tired from a really long day at work and getting rather frustrated with her.  I finally barked at her to get in her bed and lay down.  She put her little hand on my cheek and replied, "Mommy, is that how we ask for something we want?"  She was right, I had to apologize for not having good manners.  Of course, Ryan thought this was hysterical!!  

2.  Natalie is obsessed with the refrigerator.  Whenever it is opened, she crawls as fast as possible to start pulling things from the shelves in the door.  Sometimes I just let her play in there while I'm cooking since it can entertain her for a good five minutes.  This week she discovered the bottle of chocolate syrup and somehow managed to open the top.  Now she's really obsessed with the fridge!!

1.  Claire LOVES cooking.  All kinds of cooking and baking.  Lately she loves to pretend to cook and bake.  We have pretend food all over the house.  There are bowls, measuring cups and spoons in every room.  Ryan  was bathing the girls one night and Claire was pretending to cook Chinese food in the bathtub.  She had a big mixing bowl and spoon and was adding the ingredients (water).    Here is the interaction that I overheard:

R: "Claire, what are you doing?"

C: "Rubbing my boobies"

R: "Why are you rubbing your boobies?"

C: "Because I burnt them on the stove when I was cooking"

That girl seriously cracks me up!

I have a bonus laugh since it literally just happened as I was writing the others.  I have blogged before how Claire likes play where she wipes off our kisses.  Ryan asked her for a kiss goodnight and he then wiped off her kiss.  This happened three times.  On the third time, he told Claire that he wasn't going to wipe that kiss off because he liked it.  Instantly, she responded with, "why didn't you like the other ones daddy?"  Ryan told her she was just like her mother.  What a typical girl response! Ryan is still laughing about that one.

Our Sleep Training Journey :: An Update

We are now three weeks and one night into our sleep training.  Everything has been going very well.  Natalie is typically in bed by 8:00 (latest has been 8:20).  Before I go to bed, I go in and dreamfeed her until she is full.  This is a very nice way for me to settle down before heading to bed and I like the snuggles.  Eventually, we will work on cutting that dreamfeed out.

For the last week and a day, Natalie has slept until 7:30ish every day except twice.  Two morning in a row, she was up at 5:00 and 6:00.  Both days, she would lay down and be quiet but wouldn't stop fussing for long.  Her cries seemed to be ones of pain or distress, so I waited about 15 minutes before heading in to feed/rock her.  Both girls are battling nasty colds and croup.  In addition, Natalie has a bunch of teeth moving around.  Her lateral incisors are beginning to bulge so that could have been the issue.  I rocked her for a bit, fed her and put her back in bed awake. She did fall back asleep both mornings until it was time to get up.

I was concerned that this would affect Natalie's ability to truly sleep through the night.  She did stir and fuss at 6:00 this morning, but went back to sleep until I woke her at 7:40.  That was a big achievement, I was concerned the previous two mornings would set us back!

I am happy to report that we have slept through the night for over a week!!  It makes me a happy mommy!

Wordless Wednesday :: What Wonderful Weather

It's February and we are outside playing on the swing-set!  It was still cold, but the sun felt so good.

Top Five Saturday Laughs 2.18.12

This week has been super busy for us, so I am thankful that the weekend is here!  I love writing these posts and this week is no exception to that rule.

5. I don't know if you'd call this a laugh or just plain pathetic, but I finally took down all of my Christmas decorations this past week. I had taken down all the super Christmas stuff (tree, stockings, centerpieces) but I still had plenty of snowmen and garlands on the shelves.  I was just glad to get it down before Claire's birthday in a couple of weeks.  

4.  I've written about the game where Claire wipes off my kisses and I make a big deal about it.  She thinks it is hysterical and I get tons of kisses.  I made the comment that I didn't want to see her wipe off anymore kisses. She responded that I should just close my eyes and proceeded to wipe off the kisses with giggles.

3.  Natalie is becoming quite the daredevil.  The girl has no fear.  She will climb everything in site.  She was climbing at daycare one day and her daycare provider called her a daredevil.  She clapped with delight at the name and Claire said, "My daddy calls her that, but my mommy calls her a stinker."  Oh the things she must hear!

2.  Claire and Natalie were playing the movie, "Bolt" together.  Really, Claire was playing Bolt and made Natalie be Bolt the dog.  Claire was calling Natalie to her, "Come here Bolt. Come here!" Natalie just sat up on her knees and shook her head no.  She wouldn't budge as long as Claire called her Bolt.  We've got two strong willed girls on our hands!

1.  My favorite laugh of the week happened in the morning as we were getting out of the car at daycare.  Claire always has her sippy cup with juice and her breakfast during the ride since we can't ever seem to get breakfast in at home.  I asked Claire to hand me her juice cup and pancakes.  She then informed me that she didn't have juice and pancakes, she had beer and candy corn.  I have NO idea where this came from, but it cracked me up. 

Wordless Wednesday :: Breakfast Time

I love the closeness of sisters!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Our Sleep Training Journey :: Day 14

This is the last daily blog post that I will be doing in regards to our Sleep Easy sleep training journey.  I am ecstatic to be able to report that on day 14 (2.13.12) Natalie SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am still somewhat in denial that it really happened, but here is how the night went:

7:53 - I put Natalie in bed

7:56 - Asleep - she was tired!

10:40 - Dreamfeed

There were various times throughout the night that Natalie fussed, but she never even sat up in her bed.  

6:30 - Natalie woke up, sat up and proceeded to put herself back to sleep

7:35 - Natalie started rolling around and I went in to wake her up and congratulate her on her first night with no middle of the night dreamfeeds!

Now I need to learn to sleep through the night!  I was up at 3:00 and 5:15 (of course I then had to go potty otherwise I wouldn't have had to get out of bed), I guess old habits die hard.  It has been over a year since I slept all night long.  The third trimester of my pregnancy had me waking often to go to the bathroom and Natalie is just over 10 months old and had never slept through the night.

This was a very hard process for me.  I can undoubtedly say that it was worth it!  I am still amazed that in two weeks all of the bad sleep habits are nearly gone.  If (that's a really big IF) we have anymore kids, I will not be waiting this long to sleep train that is for sure!  

The difference in our family is astounding, both kids are getting more sleep due to the strict routine we are abiding by and we all have a better temperament.  I feel as though I can function again since I'm not up multiple times a night. This is good for my family, my employer and myself.  

Thank you to everyone who has read about this journey daily and for your thoughts, prayers and encouraging words!!  They were more helpful than you will ever know.  I will continue to update our progress weekly since I'm quickly learning that sleep training is an ongoing process.  

Our Sleep Training Journey :: Day 13

Thank you all who have been joining me on this journey.  It is nice to know there is so much support!

Yesterday was an off day for us.  Natalie didn't go down for her morning nap until 11 am and her afternoon nap was from 3:30-5:15 so I was concerned if she'd be ready to sleep at night.

Here is how the night went:

7:58 - In bed, she really didn't eat well beforehand.  She never fussed, but was quite restless.  She rolled around trying to get comfortable and just laid awake watching her mobile for the longest time.  I wasn't surprised that she didn't go right to sleep, but I was surprised at how calm she was in her bed.  It was such a great feeling!!
8:35 - Finally asleep.

10:45 - Dreamfeed before I went to bed

I took the advice of so many of you after Day 12 and decided to stretch the middle of the night dreamfeed.  Instead of getting up at 3:30 like I had (or had been trying to) on past nights, I decided to get up at 5:00 to dreamfeed.

5:00 - Dreamfeed 5 minutes (I fell asleep in the chair for a few minutes - oops!)

7:50 - Awake for the day

I am so glad that we are not even to the two week mark and Natalie's sleep habits have so drastically improved. I honestly didn't think we could get to this point in such a short amount of time.  Had it not been for Sarah from Nurse Loves Farmer and her Sleep Easy recommendation I would probably still be getting up 2-5 times per night.