Happy Birthday, Dylan!

We had a wonderful time celebrating Dylan's second birthday with all our family {and friends, too}. The rain held off, for the most part, and everyone had a blast!

The birthday boy...Here's Anna Claire getting to know Mrs. Lori, who will be her play~school teacher next year. This is a good sign! The children loved the pinata ~ and the fruit chews inside even more!

Mallory thought she was hot stuff riding Dylan's new scooter ~ even though she needed some help from Cousin Danielle.

Cousins on the back porch...

My sweeties...

On an unrelated note, it has to be noted that Mallory has taken to calling me Lisa at bedtime when she isn't exactly getting her way. Stinker!

Hanging In There

I will not dare say the sleep situation has gotten better for fear of early-calling it again, but we're not ready to throw in the towel...yet.

The napping situation this weekend was a fiasco, as expected, with this girls not falling asleep until between 2:30-3:00. This is typically the time they are waking up from their naps. As a result, I had to wake them up for fear if they slept too late in the afternoon then we really would have our hands full at bedtime.

I do think we've made some gains at bedtime, though. Mallory was asleep tonight in under thirty minutes after only leaving the bed maybe twice which is a vast improvement. Anna Claire was asleep in under an hour; however, I think she may have left the room somewhere around 20 times. I am not joking. And, while Anna Claire has slept all night long since night one and has been the last one up in the morning, Mallory has been waking up around 3 am since night two {taking about an hour to get back to sleep} and has been the first one up each morning ~ around 6:30 am.

As exhausting as it is to do this Super Nanny-style, the girls are making it easy on us in one way ~ by not crying!!! I think this has made it a little easier for us to stick to our guns because I think it is so important they learn to fall asleep on their own in their new beds ~ just like they've always done in their cribs. Nevertheless, any and all advice is welcome!

An "Incident"

That's what Walter called it. While I was at Publix, Cody knocked down Anna Claire while they both tried to get through the porch door. Apparently she landed face~first on the concrete. I wouldn't be surprised if she had Pooh in one hand and Piglet in the other ~ you know she's got to protect those lovies!

I'd like to say it looks worse in the picture than in real life, but that wouldn't be true...

Walter said there was only a little blood and she didn't cry for very long. Her little nose and forehead look awful, but she seems just fine.

A Good Night's Sleep...Finally

We made a plan, stuck to it, and it worked!

The girls went to bed at 7 pm. This time both Anna Claire and Mallory were up and out their beds. Both girls would take their turns opening the door, though only Mallory would come out the room. I think I walked her back to her bed no less that 157 times last night over about an hour and a half. No crying, NO temper tantrums, just some fussing, whining, and moaning. Never anything but giggles from Anna Claire. Both girls always got back in their beds willingly, even if they didn't stay there long.

The door stopped opening around 8:30ish, and by 8:45 all was quiet. We went in to check on them at 9pm ~ Anna Claire was asleep in her bed and Mallory was asleep in the rocker. Sweet girl, all she kept asking me to do last night was rock her.

It's 6:30 am and they are still asleep. That's right, we slept all night long. Yay, Anna Claire and Mallory! Mommy is so proud of you!

I've always believed in the three day rule when it comes to establishing new routines with the girls, and I'm counting last night as night #1. Thankfully the weekend is here, though it does Bring with it the challenge of nap time in their new beds.

We're not home free yet, but I hope we're on our way. Last night was so encouraging {and so much easier that I thought it would be}, and I am so proud of the girls! I think we can do this!

Big Girl Beds

The girls' cribs {which I love, love, love and already miss so much} do not convert, and I didn't feel like we had time to order something and wait for delivery with Mallory so skillfully able to get out of anything we tried to corral her in, so after coming to the swift decision early Wednesday morning {after very long Tuesday night} that we needed to move the girls into toddler beds immediately, I went out yesterday to see what I could find.

Note: If you need a toddler bed {or two} in a hurry and live in the Charleston area, your choices are severely limited.

My advice: Order your bed{s} before you need it! If you're anything like me, you like to do your research and want to have plenty of time to make an informed decision, and you'll want to save yourself the frustration I went through yesterday.

I went everywhere I could possibly think to go {do not tell me if I missed somewhere we did not think of} and ended up getting the only beds I could find that were not Cars, Spider~man, Barbie, or plastic ~ two basic white wooden toddler beds from Babies 'R' Us. They're cute and match the girls "cottage" style furniture just fine, but they're not what I would have chosen if I'd had more time {heck, if I'd had more time, either the girls would be old enough for bunk beds, or we'd be living in a new house with bedrooms big enough for the two twin beds I would have already ordered from the same store I got the girls' furniture}.

We got the beds all set up and made up for the girls' when they got home from my parents' house, and the only thing I didn't have time to do was hem the bed skirts we had on their cribs. I bought them each a bed pillow, and we pulled down the quilts and throw pillows that go with their crib bedding in addition to two embroidered pillows they were given as newborns and lots of lovies! I'll have to take a proper picture of their new beds all made up later because they were all over those beds before I could even get my camera out.

Here they are having a blast wallowing all over their new beds...

And here's the great news...Anna Claire stayed in her bed and slept peacefully all night long!

And here's the not~so~great news...Mallory did not.

It took Mallory from 7:00 to around 8:30 pm to fall asleep which isn't too bad considering the past couple nights. Sadly though, she was up from her bed around 12:30 am and did not go back to sleep until 5 am...exhausting for us all {except for Anna Claire who slept through everything}. At least now that Mallory is in a bed where she is safe we can work to teach her to stay in her new bed and reteach her to sleep through the night once again. Lord, help us!

Oh, What a Night, Part 3

Welcome to the world little Finley Lennox! Anna Claire and Mallory's first girl cousin arrived last night {or early this morning, depending on how you want to look at it}. I think Mallory and I may have actually been awake around the time she was born. Interesting how the last few nights have been reminiscent of the girls' sleeping patterns as newborns.

Oh, What a Night, Part 2

Another long night...taking the day off to shop for toddler beds!