Update

So I have professed that this blog is my "baby book" for Dana and Alice, recording milestones and general happenings of their young lives. So this update is without pictures (as I can't seem to find a good moment to snap pics these days) and instead is more of a run down of the last several weeks. If you're not interested in sleep habits or stubborn toddler behavior, you can skip the rest of this post.

So, Dana... she is the best! But she really has us scratching our heads about her nightly sleep routine. We thought we had cleared the biggest hurdle of having a young baby - sleeping through the night! The night before she started at daycare, she slept through the night. We thought this was a fluke but she continued to do this for almost two weeks! But, of course, this was too good to be true and after a little sickness, she is back to getting up two, sometimes three times a night. The major bummer about this is that she is very difficult to get to go back down so the cumulative time she's up during the night ranges from 2-3 hours. ugh. With the season starting on Tuesday, I'm desperate for her to sleep through the night. So we are trying to "train" her to soothe herself. We are going to attempt to put her to bed while she's still awake and currently (as in right this second) I am putting her in her crib for a nap, letting her cry and going in every 5 minutes to reassure her that she's not experiencing total parental neglect. On that note, got to go up and rub her belly. Not sure this first attempt is going to result in a nap but hopefully it's a step in the right direction. ugh.

So on to Alice... she has been a handful in a different way. She is choosing when she wants to be a good listener and when she wants to ignore everything we say. Generally I would say the ignoring behavior outweighs the good listener behavior quite significantly. The difficult part is trying to address her acting out with her without totally affirming to her that she is a bad listener.

And lastly, we had a terrific weekend with lots of family for Alice and Dana's baptism. It was a VERY special day with Uncle Perry performing the service. Alice was a little surprised by the water on her head but seemed to like the excitement of the service and all the attention she received. She most liked the "birthday cake" that she wanted seconds of at both lunch and dinner. Dana was super smiley and only showed her really pathetic poutty face once or twice during the service. Overall, it was a fantastic day!

It's been a crazy weekend and we are just bracing ourselves for the crazy that awaits us when the season begins on Tuesday. We promise to try to post pictures next post. They are much more fun and interesting!