A Fun Family Day

Daddy was off today and we decided to do a family day. We pretty much just went with the flow and didn't really plan much. So it was fun to be spontaneous. I feel like the girls are finally getting to that age that we can do that more.

We started the morning at Disneyland. It was pretty crowded so we didn't stay long. We basically only went on one ride but we listened to "Princess Storytime", saw Pluto, Belle, and Cinderella. Courtney is really into all the characters and didn't really care that we didn't go on more rides. We didn't stay too long because it was just getting so crowded. I was disappointed to leave early because this is the last time we get to go for awhile.

We had lunch in Downtown Disney, then Ben dropped us off at home so the girls could take their naps. He headed out for golf and I stayed home to clean.

Once the girls got up, I fed Caylee and Courtney had "closet playtime". I quickly got the girls ready meanwhile Courtney had an accident in her Highchair and then while I was changing Caylee's very messy diaper, Courtney threw handfuls of dinner on the ground and mushed it in her fingers. Ugh! So frustrating!

Ben called and we headed to the car to meet him to go for dinner. We went to my favorite place "Spaghetti Factory". I love that place. The girls did pretty good. Courtney loved the fact that the bathroom was upstairs so she kept asking to go, and she had a few break downs but for the most part it was fun. I took Caylee out of the carseat for a bit and let her play with Courtney. The two are so cute together. I can't wait til they can really play.

After that we walked the Newport Pier. On the pier are lots of people fishing, so we took Courtney and Caylee to see the fishes. We actually saw a ton of batrays. It was cool to see them swimming in the dark water, almost Erie feeling. We even saw a seal jump. We stayed for awhile, watched the water and the fishermen.

It was a fun and adventurous day. It almost felt like we were on vacation.

Today felt good

Today was a day in which we had no plans and so our new schedule/routine was in full force. We've been working this whole week on it so today it finally paid off. The girls both woke up early. Courtney actually did what I've been asking her to do for a month and she stayed in her bed and said, "I'm all done!". I went in and told her it was too early to wake up, I turned on her lullaby music and she actually stayed in bed for once. Too bad Caylee woke up soon after, so when I went to grab her I had to let Courtney get up.

I decided to try the bottle on Caylee again this morning and after an hour of trying she finally drank 3 1/2 oz. It's not a lot but the most she has for the last 4 months. Then I had to nurse her after that. Meanwhile, I had Courtney busy with different activities. Everything went smooth even though I was preoccupied with Caylee. Once Courtney was done with room time then Caylee went down for nap. We took the mail out, the trash, played outside, did school, a learning activity and she did "closet playtime". Soon it was time to feed both girls. Then naptime for Courtney, blanket time for Caylee and them mommy time for Caylee all before her next nap. I love when the morning is smooth.

Once Courtney was up and I fed Caylee we walked to Albertsons to get a few things a d walked back to feed Caylee cereal and get dinner started. Courtney did a few activities and then some TV time. I fed Courtney early, well before daddy came home. Then it was baths and to bed.

Guess whose eating food!

It's finally her turn, My little Caylee Love turns 6 months old tomorrow, and she started on rice cereal mixed with breast milk yesterday. She loved it! I made sure we did it on a day Ben was home and Courtney was sleeping. Ben wanted to feed her so he put the first several spoonfuls in and she was very unsure and gave some yucky faces. But before long we couldn't spoon it in fast enough.
She was cute! Of course her little tongue just pushes half the cereal out causing it to come out the sides of her mouth, but I got most in.

Today I let Courtney watch. She was so excited and proud of her little sister. I put Courtney on the counter and she just giggled and laughed. She would say "Mmmmm" when I'd put the spoon in Caylee's mouth.
So I asked Courtney if she wanted to try some. She said "Alwight!". I gave her a spoonful and I wish I had my video camera to capture the face. She wanted to enjoy it, but she had a disgusted look on her face and said, "it tastes like trash!". I offered her another bite and she declined.

Pick up ALL the Legos!!

Since we now have all this extra time in our day with Courtney awake, I've had to restructure our daily schedule. She was watching way too much TV, getting bored and getting in trouble. TV is just so easy when I have things to do. But it's not so great when she gets bored. So I wrote out a daily schedule. It's been going pretty well, but I've realized that I need to work on Courtney's attention span. She can't sit down and play one thing for very long unless I'm right there encouraging it. So I've tried shortening the time slots and I will extend them as she does better.

Caylee is also joining in on the fun and she switches from playpen time, blanket time, her jumper, the swing, mommy time and family time. This morning Courtney was in room time and I hear her say " Uh oh Mommy! Poopy!" I sprinted up the stairs expecting a huge mess. But no mess. She grabbed my hand and led me to the toilet. She had pooped in the toilet during her room time! I was shocked! I'm trying to get her to clean up after each time we switch activities so I don't have to do it all, so after we cleaned up we were ready to take off for bible study.

Then this afternoon we had "Mommy and girls time" and after we were done it was time for me to get dinner ready so I set Courtney up for "independent play" and I gave her a box of legos at the kitchen table. Within seconds she was standing on the kitchen chair. I told her to sit down as I do everyday. In the time for me to put a glass in the cupboard she had managed to fall with two of our kitchen chairs and two stuff animals. I think it scared her more than anything but it frustrated me more. So I moved her to the coffee table where she proceeded to dump all the legos out. I told her to stop, she kept going, I told her to stop again and she dumped the entire bucket all over the living room. So I told her she had to pick up every piece before she could do anything else.

Between about 5 time outs, several tantrums, crying, pooping in the potty, and trying everything but cleaning up she had managed to put about 15 pieces of legos away. It was time for a bath, if she and Caylee didn't both need a bath I would have forgone it, but not this time. So I told her she would have to puck them up after the bath. I quickly bathed both girls and got them ready for bed in record time. We were back downstairs to puck up the legos. She asked if she could watch "TD" (TV) and I said after all the Legos are picked up. I have never seen her clean up so quickly and so well. She kept telling Caylee that she gets to watch TV when the Legos are picked up. Sure enough 2 hours later from the original dump, the Legos were picked up and Barney was in TV.

I don't know if she learned a lesson or not, but I hope she did.

A visit with Henry

Several months ago i was looking at a friend's facebook and noticed she was friends with an old friend of mine from college. It was fun to reconnect with her and to then find out she lives a few miles away and has kids the same ages as mine. So between having babies, getting reorganized with life, sick kids, we finally got together on Monday morning. The kids played and fought while we chatted, ate and disciplined. Her little boy Henry is a few months older than Courtney, but they act so much a like. It was comical to watch Henry do something or say something and I just see Courtney. I don't know if it's the age or the fact that they both have new sisters. Henry got a time out for not listening to his mom, it was interesting to watch Courtney's response to the situation and understand how she acts the same way. We talked it over several times. Towards the end of our visit Courtney started to chase Henry, Henry loved it. They became instant friends. Too bad we had to stay inside because if the rain. We stayed a bit longer, I fed Caylee and the kids ate snacks. Courtney was sad to leave and talked about Henry all the way home.

Girls Weekend

Daddy was gone on a church retreat this weekend. So it was just us girls. I made some plans for us but really wanted to just relax, spend quality time with the girls and do some organizing. On Friday night I made dinner super early, since Ben was gone, I left all the dishes out and we headed for ice cream. It probably wasnt my best idea, since Caylee was getting sick, but we still had fun. Caylee ended up not getting sick, maybe it was just a 24 hour thing. Once we got our yummy goodness I sat Courtney down and she wanted to hold the cup, I said "no" and one of her largest public temper tantrums began! She actual grabbed a chair threw it down on the ground, meanwhile screaming and crying, ran from me and grabbed another chair and threw it down. I settled her down and we compromised by her getting her own spoon. So between Courtney's fit and Caylee's fussing, I was getting a lot if "looks", I decided we would finish our ice cream outside and everything calmed down.

I had planned for us to attend this Jamboree event in Irvine on Saturday morning, but with the rain, it wasn't very good. We stayed about 30 minutes before I left out of pure boredome. So instead we invited Courtney's friend Boston over to play. After naptime we did some errands at Target and came home for fun. Courtney and I made brownies, then baked a pizza, and then watched Cinderella while sitting under blankets and eating brownies. We really enjoyed our time together and she was so good for me.

Then on Sunday we just had church and daddy was home.

We love hand-me-downs

I am the little sister who always wore hand-me-downs. I'm sure I didn't mind as a toddler, but come elementary school, I wanted my own clothes. Then when I got to high school I was practically begging my sister to give me her old clothes. Now that I have kids of my own, I love hand-me-downs once again. It's great having two girls, I saved ALL of Courtney's clothes and now Caylee gets to wear them. Fortunately, when they are infants they barely wear them so everything is in good condition.

We have been blessed so much with hand-me-downs from others as well. I have a few friends who have given Caylee clothes and in the past I had people give Courtney clothes. Now her friend Haley has given her a bunch. It's good to have a friend who is a size bigger!

I love to give away our clothes when we are done with them too. Each time i have given a bag of clothes away i take the time to maje sure they are going to a good family, who will use them and then pass them on when they are done. It is fun to bless others as we have been blessed.

But with all these clothes coming and going, it is soo much work. I bring in a box from the garage of Caylee's next clothes and I have to pull all the old ones out and put them in a bag and hang the new ones up. Then I have to go thru all of Courtney's clothes and pull out what she has grown out of and box it up for Caylee. It's quite the process. The other hard part is when to do it. Between the two girls, one is sleeping in the room. Since Ben was gone this weekend I took the opportunity the go into the girl's room after they went to sleep and purged for about and hour Friday night, 2 hours Saturday night and then a little bit before church today and I still have more to do. But once I'm done we will be good to go for a while.

Field Trip to the Nature Reserve

Play date with Haley today! Erica and I took the girls down to the Newport Nature Preserve Center on the back bay if Newport Coast. They have classes for toddlers there. It's a nice little center that has activities for them to do. A ranger came out and read a story about bird nests, then they passed around some nests for the kids to see. Next they got to make a little nest craft and we finished up with a nature walk looking for birds. It was a great place to do some future hiking. The girls did great (til the end) but they held the teacher's hand throughout the walk and talked to the teacher. It was cute to see the interaction.

Courtney is like Cinderella and when the clock strikes 11:30 am she turns into a terrible twos toddler. It's rough being out in public at that opportune time. I had to feed Caylee at the end, so the girls as well as many of the other kids ate their snacks at the center and played a bit. Courtney was having a rough time all the way to the car. I forgot her water and she just melted down. In the end I had Caylee in the stroller, I was pushing her up a dirt hill while carrying Courtney.
It was impossible. Courtney would do nothing else but be carried, so Haley being a good sport sat in the infant seat in the stroller, Caylee sat in the Ergo, and Erica carried Courtney. Courtney cried so hard as I strapped her in her carseat that she almost made herself throw up. She had worked herself up so much. It makes it hard to do fun activities when her good girl switches so quickly.

Courtney fell asleep on the way home, which is usually a bummer. It's hard for me to get her back to sleep after we get inside. Today was one of those days. Makes for a rough afternoon.

Lots of Visitors!

We had several days of visitors, on Saturday evening Ben's dad and stepmom arrived. Caylee was already asleep, but we kept Courtney up since she doesn't get to see them much. She waited all day for them to come, so when they walked thru the door she bombarded their legs and immediately went into show off mode. She grabbed her dancing Mickey Mouse and showed off her moves to Mimi and Gak Gak. Her newest move is to "Shake her tail off". They could only till the early morning and were out the door by 9 on Sunday.

Between visitors I got the girls ready for church and as I went upstairs to grab Courtney's hair clips and check on Caylee I came back down and I noticed our front door lock was open. I immediately began calling for Courtney. I searched the downstairs and sprinted upstairs to check all the rooms and her likely hiding places. She was nowhere and wasn't answering me. I grabbed Caylee who was sound asleep and ran outside in search of Courtney. We have several different way that she could have gone. I chose one way and screamed her name repeatedly. It felt like 10 min but it was probably just a few minutes, but finally a lady (my angel) appeared with Courtney in her arms. I ran and scooped her into my arms. My heart pounded out of my chest. I couldn't even discipline her I was so relieved. My next door neighbor, Sue, who adores Courtney came running out to help me look. My dad helped me install a top lock on our front door right after church.

By 10:15 my parents were at our place and I was still able to go to Starbucks and make it to church early!

We had a good time with my parents. On Sunday we had lunch and relaxed.

Then Monday we went to Disneyland. It took forever for us to get there and once we were there it was so crowded that we wanted to turn
around and go home. But we hung in there for a few hours for Courtney's sake. We took her on her favorites (small world and the carousel)
and saw some characters. Courtney was being so bad the whole day. It was embarrassing. She must have had 20 temper tantrums in one
day. She pounded her fists, feet and head into the Disneyland asphalt repeatedly. Between the crowds, Courtney's attitude and her pooping
her pants I was over it. We grabbed some lunch and headed home.

My parents graciously offered to watch the girls so Ben and I could go on a date. It was our first date without both girls in 6 months. Since it had been so long, we splurged! We went to Ruth Chris, which was amazing and then we went to a movie. We ate and drank anything and everything we wanted. It felt so good to be out and date.

On Tuesday I took my parents to Zoomars in San Juan Capistrano. Courtney loves it. They have a few petting zoo areas. She loves the guinea pigs and bunny area. It is hilarious to watch her pick up the guinea pigs and carry them around. She loves to puck them up, set them on the benches, and feed them veggies. She even bosses them around. Once we finished there we went to the goats and sheep and then to the playground. Zoomars is in the historical district so we had some lunch at a little cafe and then walked around a bit. Here wasn't too much to see so we headed home to get he girls down for a nap.

A busy few days, but it was nice to have the extra help with the girls and to enjoy some fun as well.

Finally a little freedom.

After 22 days I think I may have figured my Courtney out or I broke her strong will. I did make some changes to her routine and figured a few things out. But she is still getting far less sleep than she should, so I still have the dilemma of what to do with the extra time.

Daylight savings time helped Courtney to sleep in a little longer. She has been getting up at 7 instead of 6. I have been putting her down for a nap earlier, thinking she was overtired before. She was telling me that she was tired and I was ignoring it. She is now going down around 12ish. I'm trying to put her down 5 1/2 hours after she woke up. She is only sleeping 2 hours for her nap versus 3 1/2 before. Lastly, I am putting her to bed later at 8. I am thinking she wasn't tired enough. She was going down at 7:30. I always sing both girls the same song "I Love You Lord" before they go to sleep, but lately I've been frustrated and have quickie sang it as I walked out. The last 5 days I have been singing it slowly and I take my time and put my had on her and rub her back a bit. It seems to help.

So for the last 5 nights she has done really well and the last several naps as well. She has been staying in her bed after naps and in the morning. I practically woke her up a few times so I could catch her being good. It worked, she got the rewards and now is striving towards them.

Caylee has been doing great going to bed in her crib. She has slept thru Courtney's tantrums, night terrors and yelling. Likewise, Courtney has slept thru Caylee talking, and crying.

Courtney has also pooped in the potty 10 days in a row. She's had a few accidents, but everyday has made it at least 1 x in the potty. One day last week she went 4 xs! I'm going to reduce the reward to a little gummy bear.

Finally, I feel a little freedom coming back. That was a long 3 weeks.

My sweet Caylee Love

Oh my sweet Caylee Love. She is doing so well. I have to admit I was a little worried when she was 2 weeks to about 2 months, but once I figured her out we clicked. I can't believe how easy she has been to put in Courtney's room. The past few nights Courtney has screamed and cried for 30+ minutes and she has slept right thru it. She is a great napper too, she naps right on schedule and wakes up happy. Of course she has her moments, but they are so few right now. Maybe she seems easy because Courtney is so rough right now, or maybe the Lord has her being easy for me right now. Either way, she is such a blessing and I love seeing her smile and making her giggle. She just loves Courtney and smiles when she sees her.

I think I'm making progress with Courtney. I was thinking it might be a time issue. So I have switched her naps back since she us waking up earlier. Today she did great and was asleep at 11:45 and didn't get out once. Last night I had to put her down later, 8:00, since we were out and she only got out of bed one time. So tonight I put her down late as well. We will see. Problem is she is waking earlier, napping less and going down later. What do I do with all this extra time? Extra time meaning almost 4 hours. Today she watched a lot of TV, but I don't want that to be routine. I tried setting up activities for her, but I just wasn't prepared for all the extra time. The other tough part is we are kind of stuck at home, Caylee naps from 9-11, Courtney from 11:30- 1:30, and Caylee 1-3. So from 9-3 we gave to be home for the most part. I guess I need to get creative.

"Mommy Smile"

Tonight I was laying in our bed with Courtney watching TV when she said and did something that just broke my heart. She looked at me and said, "Mommy smile.". Then she took my face in her hands and said "Smile!". This might not mean anything to anyone but it meant a lot to me. She was asking me to smile, because it has been a while since she has seen mommy smile and have fun. It just tore me up, I wanted to cry right there but I forced as smile to please my little girl, but I wasn't smiling on the inside.

These last two weeks I have not been happy. I'm having a really tough time with Courtney. Her new pattern of not staying in bed is wearing so much on me that I'm having a really hard time being happy. She is also not listening well at all and i find myself repeating commands over and over. Before this new pattern we had a good schedule, I was getting things done and we were moving along and I had some free time that I could play with the girls. Now I'm spending 20-60 min each naptime and then again at bedtime putting her back in bed. She is also up an hour and a half earlier every day. I don't mean to be selfish, but I am. That's my time! Between cleaning, taking care Ben and the baby I don't have any time for myself let alone to romance my husband. It makes me sad and exhausted.

Tonight was no different. I fed Caylee, then actually put her to sleep in the crib. I decided to try putting Courtney down later hoping maybe she'd be more tired, so I let her stay up and watch some TV. By the time I got back from putting the baby down, gone maybe 30 sec, Courtney had taken of her PJs and diaper and then peed all over my good chair. I was furious with her. This is also something new to take off get diaper. I have told her probably 20 times just today not to take it off and 8 of those were minutes before. I watched some TV with her and then we prayed and I told her I would take her to bed.

I put her in bed and next followed 50 min of her repeatedly getting out. I followed the "nanny" method as best I could. No eye contact and just lead her back to bed. I did take her potty a few times, spanked her once and I think I did great not losing my patience. But I was literally on my knees tears rolling down my cheeks and praying for the Lord's wisdom in front of her door. She would get out of bed and scream all the way to the door. I would lead her bad and she would scream and cry all the way back. She got to the point where she would run to the door, peep it open and run crying back to her bed. She finally gave up and fell asleep.

Caylee slept thru it all! That was the Lord's grace for me tonight. No child could sleep thru all that craziness.

How much longer? How do I smile thru this? I know it's a short season, but my toddler should not notice me unhappy like this.

I may have had one break thru moment. I decided to start putting her down for naps earlier since she is waking up so early. So I did 15 min earlier and it seemed to work. Though her naps have been about an hour and a half shorter.

Courtney, Ben and my Caylee Love- I promise that tomorrow I will smile as much as possible.

Nights 4&5 of Caylee Sleep Transition

The last two nights Caylee has slept in her crib. Both have been successful. I have been putting her to sleep in our room as usual and then before I go to bed I lay her in the crib. So we haven't done the whole going to bed in there thing yet. Courtney was having one of her night terror nights last night and Caylee was able to sleep right thru it all. Yesterday she slept right til it was time to eat in the morning, however Caylee woke at 4 am this morning. I'm still unsure how much to let her cry being that she is in Courtney's room. So I let her go a bit and then went in to feed her. It took her a bit to fall back to sleep in the crib, but she did it. I'm feeling confident. Still am unable to get any sleep because Courtney is having these night terrors and she kicks over her gate, falls oh out bed or is crying in her sleep. I'm looking forward to a good nights rest some day

Miss Independent

We have a little Miss Independent on our hands right. The most common phrase I hear is "no mommy do, Coco do first". I think a little bit is good, but she is definintely heading on the overtly extreme side and I made a point today that I will no longer tolerate. The reigns are coming in. Too much freedom has caused her to think she is in charge and that is not the case, resulting in unnecessary tantrums.

I am going to give her choices on some things but not others and I will continually be changing it up. As of this week, she wants to pull down her pants and underware and get on the potty herself. That is fine at home, but in public, not ok. She also wants to dress herself. Not only can she not do it, but it makes the getting ready routine take FOREVER.
So I have been letting her as I get the baby ready and then trying to guide her along. Every now and then I will give her two choices for breakfast and lunch and very rarely will let her pick out dinner. A few days a week I will give her two choices of shirts but I will pick the rest. When she gets in the car, I will let her get her seat belt on while I am loading the car, but if I come back and it's not on, then I will do it. For snack, occasionally I will let her pick, but for the most part it's my choice what she eats and when.

I'm going to work on these things as they come up, but it's important that I not let the little things slide. She has been throwing a fit when I don't let her do it. No more!

Elmo at the Science Museum

My Mom's group took a field trip to the Discovery Science Museum today. There is a Sesame Street exhibit right now. So the kids were so excited. There is a group of 4 girls that always play at the park (Courtney, Abby, Abby and Rebekah) and all the girls were there today. They didn't really play together but they did a little. They are all 2 and just a few months apart. It was fun to watch Courtney explore, push buttons and see her eyes grow wide. Everyone left after about an hour n half, but we stayed another hour n half. We were having too much fun. I finally called it quits seeing we were past naptime. I think Courtney's favorite activity was the sinks. No water came out but I guess it was just fun. I just wish there weren't so many school kids there. I think it was a bit intimidating to my 2 year old. Both girls were fast asleep once we got in the car.

Night #3: Caylee Transition

Nothing new. Last night went as the night before, but this time I was able to get Caylee back in my room without waking her up. I wanted to put her in the room tonight, but I'm still not ready. So in the hall she stays. Courtney slept better last night and I was able to wake get and reward her as well.

Your not the mother of a toddler unless you have ...

1. Picked up their poop off the floor of their room (or their friend's room) and then cleaned the wall from them wiping their poop on it.
2. Rescued them from falling completely into the public toilet
3. Tried to explain why we can't lick stuff in a public bathroom or any bathroom that is. Just building immunities!
4. Held an infant while carrying a screaming kicking toddler into the store and "gently" putting them in the grocery cart

5. Reversing your steps thru Target in search if that "missing" shoe, only to discover that it was in the cart the whole time.
6. Try to explain why we can't throw the baby's "bumbo seat" into the play pen while baby is in it.
7. Instructed them to not take their clothes off at the park.
8. Explained that it is inappropriate to walk around with your hands down your pants
9. Grabbed a box of fish crackers off the shelf at Target, opened them, fed them to your child all before paying for them

10. Let your child pay for a prize in pennies
11. Don't shower for 3 days in fear of your toddler escaping
12. Walk into the room only to find your child's bear, hands and face covered in Vasoline.
13. Think your child is napping and walk in to see the window screen has a foot gaping hole, from tiny fingers picking at it for two hours
14. Explain over and over not to take their diaper off during nap time
15. Force them to pick up a box of Legos for 2 hours

16. Find them naked in their bed sleeping in a puddle of pee
17. Do a poo poo dance when they poop in the toilet
18. Discipline the dog for eating the child's poop out of their underwear
19. Cleaned poop off the walls of the bedroom since the toddler finger painted a picture with their poo
20. Search the house high and low for that special stuffed animal before bedtime

21. Find a sippy cup under the couch with a week's worth of curdled milk inside
22. Have the power to make an owie go away by a simple kiss
23. Stayed up late into the the wee morning hours, sick yourself and holding your sick little one and still be able to wake up early and take care of the family with a smile on your face.

Night #2: Transitioning Caylee into the Girls Room

Well last night was pretty successful. I didn't get much sleep, but the first step went smooth. I was stressed hearing every sound that Courtney made thinking she was going to get out of bed and hurt the baby who was sleeping outside her door. But it was nice when Ben got up this morning I didn't stress about Caylee waking up. The only real issue was Caylee was kind of awake when I woke up. I wanted to slide her back into my room while I got ready but since she was awake I had to pick her up or she would have screamed seeing me and not being able to get up.

So tonight I plan on doing the same as last night and hoping that I am less stressed. I'm so scared that Courtney is going to hurt her. Today I found Courtney shoving a large plastic link in Caylee's mouth! That is not ok! I always have to be on guard.

Courtney is still getting up during sleep times. We spent all naptime putting her back to bed. It was the worst it's been in a month or so. But I kept my cool and put her back each time with no eye contact. Did it work? Not sure, but so far she has been in her room, in bed, for 56 min and she hasn't gotten out once. Time will tell. Oh and she slept til 7:15 this morning. I kept wanting to go in there and catch her being good, but she was sound asleep and ended up getting up before I could get to her.

Night 1: Transitioning Caylee into the Girls' Room

I'm pretty sure it's that time to finally put Caylee into Courtney's room. I've been dreading this since I was pregnant knowing this would be a challenge. Now that I'm here and ready, it's going to be more of a challenge than I thought. To start with, Courtney is on day 6 (I think, I'm losing count) of getting out of her bed at night, morning and naps. The mornings she has been getting up earlier and earlier every day. I think yesterday it was as early as 6 am! That's a big change from me going Into her room at 7:45 to get her out of bed. That's 1 hr 45 min of my time that is consumed into baby time. So with her getting out of bed right now, that means she will have no fear getting out of bed and waking Caylee or worse climbing into her bed.

Caylee has been doing great sleeping thru the night. Ben has a wacky early morning schedule and he wakes anywhere from 4-7 am. So I'm always paranoid that he won't hear his alarm and it's going to wake the baby, so I'm usually up for awhile making sure he is up a d the alarm isn't blaring. Well lately she has been waking to the alarm and then sees him and she wakes up enough to want to eat.

Today I started the discipline of leading Courtney back to bed with no talking and emotion. It worked pretty good. I'm also trying my best to reward her when she does what is right. So this morning she got out of bed, i took her back and had her stay for about 20 min. Then i rewarded her for staying. So hopefully after a few days of this I'll be good to put Caylee in the crib. She has been taking 1-2 naps a day in there so she has gotten used to it. So for tonight: I have our bedroom door open and Caylee is sleeping in the hall. I can still hear her and Courtney doesn't know she is there. Then first thing when i wake up, i will wheel her in before Courtney wakes. Hopefully she is far enough out of the room not to be affected by the alarm and seeing Ben. We will see. I'm preparing myself for an early morning.