The week in pictures

Smoothie Stupor

Frankie sniffs, oh wait, make that tastes, the playdough Sarah made

Dex, wide awake, while he was supposed to be sleeping (and yes, the kid has totally outgrown his moses basket)


Chris comes home tomorrow night, we've almost made it a whole week without him! I am very ready to see my husband. With the Murry's help, we have done well this week - I showered just about every day, and even went out with Sarah tonight to a community group meeting at our Pastor's house after the kids were asleep while Jeff stayed home with them.

In other news, we have abandoned ship on the big boy crib campaign. Frankie was just too tired, and I felt bad for her (and me, who had to deal with an overtired toddler all day). Dex will often wake at 5, nurse, and go back to sleep, but once woken at 5, Frankie is up for the day. When Dex isn't in the room with her, she's been waking up at more like 6:45 or 7 these days, which feels like vacation to us. After 18 months of having her get us up every day by 5:45 or 6, 7:00 feels really late. It's been amazing to get up in the morning, get a cup of coffee and sometimes even get in the shower before going in to get her. I'm not ready to give that up yet, so Dex is staying in our room for now. I think we'll move him to the pack 'n play soon though - as you can see from the picture, he's seriously outgrown his bassinet.

We've also been letting him cry it out, and it breaks my heart. It's so hard. He's getting better at it, which means I'm able to deal better with it, but I still can't stand to hear him cry. He really needs this though. He is so social, when I'm in there with him, trying to soothe him, he refuses to go to sleep. It's been getting worse and worse, to the point that yesterday he only napped for 40 minutes between 12:30 and bedtime at 7. He was happy for much of that time, but was clearly overtired by the time bedtime came. Today I let him cry it out for his nap, and he slept for 2.5 hours this afternoon, which is more normal for him, and a child of his age.