Bath time

Ali and I have enjoyed almost two weeks of through-the-night sleeping. Ok, we both probably woke up once or twice expecting to hear a "wah" but were able to go back to sleep when we only heard crickets. It makes such a difference. I think the Army should develop Military Babies to keep enemy soldiers awake at night so they can't shoot straight the next morning. I'm sure it'd be much more effective that WMD. We've been enjoying our nights, but have almost been afraid to talk about them; afraid to jinx things. Well, I've been afraid to talk about it, anyway. I can't tell you how many times I've had a good nights' sleep and have said something about it to Ali the next morning only to hear that I slept through two separate 45 minute screaming fits from Sadie.

We've been working on making the bedtime routine consistent: bath, PJs, snack, TV, storytime, BED. Here's bathtime:

Here's Jake in his cowboy PJs. How can you resist his cuteness? You can't.

Another nice weekend for a hike

We hiked the Difficult Run trail again this weekend, and brought along the Jackson boys this time. Jake was so excited, he kept running back and forth between them and showing them his 'tricks' like pulling his hat over his face and saying "I'm a pirate!" Here are some more pics from that day. By the way, if you're local and you haven't checked out Difficult Run over in Great Falls, you really should. It's much closer than Shenandoah and the views are comparable to a lot of hikes we've done there. It's short, so a good hike for kids.

Dollface

Mike and Stacey, I hope you're getting royalty payments from the Cabbage Patch company.



Check out more pictures of Lily (and her BFF Sadie) here.

On Strike

You'd think these guys would be able to come up with a catchier strike slogan.

Number One Fan

Sadie doesn't care if this tiny guitar is out of tune. She's a good listener.

Sucrose vs. Bedtime

Here's an interesting Halloween experiment:

1. Give a two-year-old a bucket of candy and tell him to have just one or two pieces.
   
2. Of course you give in and let him have three or four pieces.
3. Now try to keep him from just eating the entire pile. See if you can hide a piece or two in between temper tantrums.
4. Observe as toddler bounces off walls and speaks in gibberish (more than usual).
   
5. Watch clock as bedtime comes and goes. Toddler has probably invented new games consisting of constant jumping and limb-waving, and possibly banging head against wall.
   
6. Mention bedtime.
7. Hide (or insert earplugs to save hearing).
8. Instructions at this point vary with your particular situation, but somehow transfer flailing toddler to crib and hope for the best.
   
9. Once toddler is in bed, destroy all evidence of Halloween and in the morning pretend you don't know the meaning of the word "candy".