February 2

Sheesh. Last night, we had another epic sleep battle that lasted from around 11 pm until sometime after 1 am. At first I was calm and explained to Lily that she needed to go to sleep by midnight, and it would be really nice if she slept until 8 am since I was quite tired.

Ha.

After about an hour, I was no longer calm and patient and able to explain things to the girl. Finally - after nursing her and snuggling her to sleep, only to have her wake as soon as I laid her in the crib three different times - I gave up and left her in her crib. In theory, I don't believe in Ferberizing babies, or using the "cry it out" method, but in reality? Sometimes it's the only thing you can do.

In this case, I gave up around 12:45, and told Chris not to go into Lily until at least 1. By 1:15, she was sound asleep and she slept - get this - until 8:15. My little girl, who previously had slept a max of five hours, slept seven hours straight.

Apparently she was listening to me?

This age is so, so rough when it comes to sleep. I'm thankful that she'll outgrow it soon, and I'm hopeful that none of our choices will cause permanent damage to her psyche.

Sadly, despite all that sleep, I only took crummy pictures today.

This is the outfit Daisy chose for church today. I love the combination of polka-dotted dress with striped tights with flowered shoes. I also love how obvious her streak of blond hair is; it's been there since birth, and I love it!

Caleb chose to wear his "work clothes" to church. I love that boy.

And here's a very-tired Lily, relaxing at the kitchen table after church. Right after I took this, I put her down for a nap and she slept for four hours. Now that's a sleep schedule I could get behind - seven straight hours of sleep at night, with just one four-hour nap. Sadly, I don't think it's normal or developmentally appropriate for a six-month-old. Still, a mama can hope!

When Caleb woke up from his  nap, he immediately asked to go swimming at the Y. You know, because he hasn't gone enough this weekend. Luckily, we didn't have much planned today, so Chris could say yes - again. Even better, the girls were still napping, so it was a special boys-only swimming visit. Caleb tried to take his shirt off, but he's still not proficient with buttons. I love this photo of Chris helping Caleb practice on his shirt. Soon, he had it down and was able to get his own shirt off.

We also picked up some goggles for Caleb last night, he returned home to tell me that he jumped off the ledge and did a belly flop and went underwater and... He was so excited! The underwater is a new thing for him, so I asked him what it looked like underwater. Caleb replied, "Um, it looked like ground. And feet." Ha!