Sleep -- thanks for the help!

Just wanted to say thanks to everybody for the suggestions on getting my kids to go to sleep at night! We've made a few changes thanks to you all. First, Luke is not taking naps anymore. He's having "quiet time" for a couple hours in a different room than Benny, with books. He doesn't have to go to sleep. That's not going great right now, he's getting kinda bored, so we may have to explore a few other ideas, but that's during Greg's childcare time usually, so I'll leave that for him to try first before we institute any changes. Secondly, the boys are now earning pennies to ride the carousel. I took Didi's idea from my Facebook notes comment and melded it with one I'd tried that didn't work as well. I give them five pennies in each of their jars when I put them to bed. If I have to go back to their room for any reason, I take a penny. In the morning, they get to put the ones they still have onto their penny chart. They're motivated and so far, it's working pretty well. And, Elsi slept through last night; first time in 3 weeks. We'll see if it continues!

This week is different, and different than I planned.

This week, Greg is in some sort of mental health crisis intervention class, which means he works from 8 to 5:30. This poses a babysitting problem for us, since I still have to go to work from 10:15 to 2:45. Greg's mom was planning to come up to help us Monday through Wednesday and we were really looking forward to having her. Also, Greg would be home with us every evening. So this week was going to be different, but nice in its own way.

It all got changed up when we kept getting rain and kept getting rain and kept getting rain. My school was cancelled Monday and Tuesday, which eliminated the need for a babysitter and Greg's mom couldn't get up here until at least today. These added elements made it all a little more exciting. I'm not sure that missing work was advantageous for me right now because I have work piling up for me that has looming due dates, but it was nice to have an extra long weekend! And we're still looking forward to having Greg's mom, as soon as she can actually make it up here.

Eating Oreos

I didn't have to go work today, which is bad for our community, but good for
my kids, since Greg had to be in class today during the day. In this picture
you can see how we spent part of our morning. Greg bought me Oreos because
he got ice cream, which I can't eat right now, due to a certain nursing baby
who doesn't digest milk products very well yet. At this point, I'd MUCH
rather have the ice cream! But thanks, Babe, the Oreos are yummy too!

Elsi @ 5 months

Little video of Elsi who is 5 months today! She smiled for me, but wouldn't do the other stuff she normally does in her bouncy seat, such as babble, grab her toes, or the toy hanging next to her.