The Young and the Restless

Wow!  The month of January was exhausting!  We moved into our new place three days after Christmas. Oh happy day!  Then, in January, Julian had 4 work trips which were each 4-6 days long.  Also, after we moved, the binky fairy came (I know, I know.  We should have done that a year ago.)  We put all the pacifiers on the front porch, shut the door, and then an awesome bike showed up at the front door.  Paige wasn't very excited about the trade, but did okay until bedtime.  It took a couple nights of crying, but after that, she's been fine ever since.

Also, when we moved, we did some bed shifting.  It was time for Abby to move from the bassinet to the crib...in her own room.  Yea!  Which meant that Paige had to move from the crib to Kaelyn's toddler bed and Kaelyn had to move from the toddler bed to...eventually a new bed.  Sidenote:  since about the time Abby was born, Kaelyn started waking up in the middle of the night and sleeping on the floor next to my mom while she was helping out.  After that, it just became a nightly ritual.  We'd find her in the living room, in Ogden's room, in our room.  I thought it was kind of cute.

Soooo...while Julian was away, I attempted to get Abby used to sleeping in a crib.  That wasn't so bad.  At the same time, I was training Paige to sleep in a toddler bed.  I don't think she was ready for this.  She did so well in the crib.  All I had to do was lay her down with her pacifier and she was good.  And we had already done this with Ogden and Kaelyn and had zippo transitioning problems.  But I had seen Super Nanny, so I knew how this could go down.  The first day I spent 2 hours at naptime repeatedly placing her in her bed and leaving the room.  She thought it was hilarious.  Since naptime was over, we tried again at bedtime and she didn't get out of bed ONCE!  Hallelujah!  The next day at naptime, same thing--she stayed in bed.  Nighttime--it was all a trick.  She was in and out, in and out.  For the next 2 weeks I would spend anywhere from 30 min. to 2 hours putting her back in bed.  AND sometimes when I would leave the room, she would go through her closet that has a tunnel into Abby's closet and go wake Abby up.  This girl is good!  She knows what buttons to push!

Fortunately, Paige just does this for me and, for the most part, will stay in bed when Julian puts her to bed.  Unfortunately, Julian wasn't here much.  Needless to say, January was a very difficult month for me.  Not accomplishing much during the day, because I had no naptime, and by the time every child was in bed it was 10:00 at night.  That's when I would collapse on the couch and turn off.  Of course Abby was still getting up 3-5 times during the night also.

It's March now, and things have gotten much better.  I sure do love having Julian home.  It helps so much and I like the time we get to spend together in the evenings, even if we just watch a stupid show together.  The fights with Paige have gotten shorter.  Abby is sleeping for longer periods of time.  Kaelyn now has a new-to-us bed that she thinks is so cool--and sleeps in all. night. long.

I figure in about 5 years, I'll look back at the cute little things 2 year olds say and all the fun baby milestones and miss it.  But it's easier to think that way when your fully rested.  I'll still miss it.

I sure love my cute kiddos.