We're making progress

I'm definitely a breastfeeding-babywearing-cosleeping-(used to even cloth diaper)-kind of mama. Let's face it, Ava still makes her way into our bed. She was the first baby - and of course our guinea pig. When I TRIED to get her to sleep in her crib and all I got in return was gut wrenching screaming, I read the book "The Family Bed" and welcomed her into the world of cosleeping. We have continued TRYING to get her to sleep in her own bed at times. At this point, we are proud that she will go to sleep in her own big girl bed, but we still face the middle of the night wake up issue. The other night after I read her some books she actually said to me, "Mommy I don't want to go to sleep because I have bad dreams." After reassuring her that Mommy and Daddy are here for her and talking about lots of happy events and things to look forward to, she fell asleep. I am now on a mission to research night waking due to bad dreams, or nightmares, or even night terrors. (I think it might be night terrors because there have been a few times where she wakes up crying and it's all Anthony and I can do to get her to snap out of it. Like she won't even wake up so that we can calm her down.) SOOO, we're working on it.

As for our little Lia, she has now been sleeping through the night, alone in her crib, for 10 days straight. This is a big deal for us. The four of us in our king size bed had been getting kind of tight. I've also been wanting to wean her of night nursing again (I say again, because she was weaned months ago, and then something happened and we fell off the wagon). I'm incredibly proud of her. It has gotten to the point where I can lay her down, even still half awake, and she turns right over and settles in and falls asleep. Only 10 days and I'm already used to full night of sleep again. It seems silly for us to hope that she'll stay in this habit (because it NEVER happened with Ava), but we're making progress.



A few sneak peaks at Ava's ballet progress. The teacher told me that one of her recital dances will be the Elephant march from The Jungle Book, and another will be to Yankee Doodle Dandee. Her first dance recital - in June! - I'm so excited. These pictures are taken through glass...can't wait to get a new camera.

There she is, second from the right.



Yesterday, Saturday, was SO rainy here. We had been invited to a birthday party at Let's Play (remember Ava's 3rd birthday was here?) and were looking forward to it all week. Unfortunately, millions of other families thought it would be a great place to come on a rainy day. Although it started out quiet with just the party group - by the time we left, that place was crawling with kids. Literally.

Yay! She went down the slide all by herself and then tried to climb back up. Over and over.

Inside the play area





The lighting in this room is awful. Just had to include this shot because I was amazed at how good Lia was while everyone was eating.