Leah v the stupid Paci

So the nights have become an interesting place around here. Our little Leah has gone from being a great sleeper to an almost 'Grace Mitchener' sleeper. It all started about 7 weeks ago; she was 4 1/2 months old. She started waking constantly needing the paci put back into her mouth- literally like 15 times a night. Crazy! She doesn't use the paci in the day. We just kept holding out knowing that eventually she would be able to put it in her mouth by herself one of these days. But things just kept getting worse. She has 3 waking hours...11pm, 1am, 5am. This is fairly normal for a 6 mo old- but instead of waking, putting the paci in and the baby going back to sleep...the baby was beginning to NOT go back to sleep without lots of rocking and walking. And even then, she seemed to want her paci, but when you put it in her mouth she would get really mad and spit it out. But then she would cry for it and eventually hold it in her mouth and go back to sleep. For whatever reason things got really bad this last week. She was up for 2 hour blocks in the middle of the night just crying and sleeping on me...the mommy...because if the daddy even walked into her room the benevolent dictator would wail. And so this is how it has been. She just couldn't settle with the stupid paci in her mouth, but yet she needed it all at the same time. And she was actually tired of me holding her, but that was the only way I could keep putting the stupid paci in her mouth. So, short story long, after the worst night ever on Sunday night ( I maybe got 3 hours of sleep) I woke up Monday morning and decided that I was done with the stupid paci. I prayed all day that God would give me the strength to hear my baby cry and know that I was actually doing something good for her. Sid and I were scared, but as veteran parents we had faith that we were doing the right thing. So I put her to bed last night without the stupid paci and she cried for 26 min- we went in several times to comfort her. She woke up many times through the night and had one other long crying spell at her 1:00am waking. She woke again in the early morning to eat and then slept until 8am. She fussed a little before both of her naps today but then went to bed with no fussing tonight. I am hopeful that she will do better than last night. And so that's it. I took the stupid paci away from my 6 month old. And I know we are all better for it. Last week Leah got to sit in the front of the grocery cart for the very first time. She loved it!

Leah's first real food is a hard sourdough pretzel. I love these because they don't break down in her mouth. She just gnaws and gnaws and then drops it on the floor and it breaks into a hundred pieces. Then Isaac comes to step on and crush them into a million pieces.

I love this video of Leah. She is looking in the mirror....

Happy 5th Birthday Grace!

For Grace's 5th birthday she chose to have a few close friends meet her at the nail spa in the mall. They all received a pedicure complete with flowers painted on there toes and some color added to their nails with flowers there as well. They were all very excited to sit in the huge massage chairs. Most giggled when their feet were massaged and of course they all chose crazy colors. After their beauty treatments we had a "Rainbow" party in the mall. Complete with lots of balloons, pizza, rainbow fruit, rainbow cake and rainbow goodie bags. Nana came in town for the big event and daddy took care of the little kids. It was hard to miss us in the food court.

Here they all sit...so tiny in those chairs.

Grace loves pedicures...it's our favorite thing to do for "Mommy/Grace" time.

This is Ryen and Carly.

Now we are drying.

Nails are now complete and ready to be messed up before completely dry!

Rainbow fruit.

Happy birthday to you...happy birthday to you...happy birthday dear Grace...happy birthday to you!
Here is Lauren, Elizabeth, Grace and Ryen...and my Rainbow Cake!
This is Meghan, Carly and Hayden...who fit right in with her rainbow dress.
Even Leah was in on the action...chewing on a rainbow napkin.
Isaac did not get nail polish in his goodie bag- he got an Iron Man shirt!

Hot in July

It has been crazy hot over the last week. We have been at the pool- but also doing lots of inside activities as Leah can only handle so much. Last weekend Grace and Isaac both started jumping/diving off of the diving board. Grace is a fantastic swimmer and she jumps in. Isaac cannot swim and he dives in...with Daddy there to catch him. This was taken on Wednesday- we played inside this day. We took the kids to see the Durham Bulls Minor League Baseball game on Monday night. They love going to the games. Grace will not leave her seat. Leah was very interested too... And tons of cotton candy always makes things more interesting. I love when they play with their toes. I have a picture of all three of them holding on to their piggies. When we bought the playset 4 years ago I would have called BS if you'd said to me that my own children would someday fill all three swings. How wonderful. These are my tomatoes. I am almost ready to pick my first one. The contraption they are growing in is called the Earth Box and it's amazing. Strawberry shortcake is better when eaten as a finger sandwich. Thank you to Grandpa there was a good hour of entertainment b/c of his thoughtful gift of silly string.
I hate to provide so much explanation for a video- but I must. First, unfortunately you can hardly hear a sound- we were in the garage with a fan on b/c it was so hot and the fan drowned out much of the sound. Truly disappointing b/c the songs that the kids made up are funny. I have no idea what Isaac is singing about but his body language is funny. Grace is singing about God. And her body language is just so "Grace." Her song says things like " I love my God!" "I pray to my God!" it is funny- trust me.

Dinner Last Night...

If you would like to experience what our dinner conversation was like last night...please play this video of Grace at least 25 times.

Isaac's Big Boy Bed

Over the weekend we graduated Isaac into his big boy bed. He is doing great! A couple of times he has asked if he could have his crib back- I think the crib offers a little more protection from...??? But he stays in his bed until his Tot Clock is yellow every morning or nap time and then gets up and starts looking for parents. He is so sweet- his little self in that great big bed. He was so excited when he first saw his bed and even more excited to show his big sister that he too has a big bed.


Just one more time..."Pbbbbbt!"