Sweet Success

It's official. I found the secret to sleep. Or at least the secret to getting my kids to sleep. If you have followed along with my many sleep related posts, then you will know of the many struggles I've had, for quite some time now, of getting my kids to sleep. This includes naps and bedtime. I wasn't going to count on it being a success until at least a few weeks had passed and now that time has come. The secret to both of the monkey's success is to cut out Alex's nap. Believe it or not, he is only 2 1/2 years old and has officially given up his naps. Now, there are the occassional times when he will catch a quick cat nap in the afternoon if it was a really crazy day and the timing is right. And by timing, I really mean having him in the car and in motion to knock him out. He has only fallen asleep three times or so in the last three weeks. I guess that is averaging out to one nap a week that lasts at the most, one whopping hour. So he gets up at a decent time in the morning (between 7:30 and 8:30) along with Abby. They both wake up together and go to bed at night together. By kickin' the nappin' habit, he zonks out by 9:00 or 9:15 now at night. It takes, at most, 5 minutes for him to pass out for the night. He has replaced nap time with quiet time. He gets to watch a movie and sit on the couch. I'd like to say that he is actually quiet too, but I think that is asking a bit much. He does so well now. He's happier and I'm happier. Abby is happier too. She goes down in her crib for her beauty rest and catches a nice long 2 to 2 1/2 hour nap per day without the noisy and nutty Alex waking her up too soon. She goes down at night just has wonderfully. I tell ya...it was a crazy time trying to figure all this out. They won many battles...but I won the war! Tis a good good thing to have my evenings to myself now. My new battle is purely Abby related. It's the battle of the boob. It's weaning time. One out of four feedings down, and three to go. Wish me luck.

Here are those pictures I was promising you. Not great ones, but with the big birthday party for miss Abby (one year old already? How did that happen?), I hope to have a nice cute blog this weekend sometime.

Sock time! Thanks again Aunt Heather!

Just call me Mr. Potato Head. (yes...those are Mr. Potato Head's glasses).

Applesauce time! My first time with a spoon...hmmm...pretty!

It is quite tasty and i'm so good with the spoon already.

And I do believe the spoon tastes better than the applesauce!

Hey, I like applesauce too Mom! I even turn my bowl upside down to indicate I'm done.