Weekend Report

I did get a nap on Saturday. I got up with the kids at 5:45 or whatever awful hour it was that they woke up, and when Matt got up at 8:30, I handed Alex to him and said, "I'm going back to bed now." And I did. I slept for two glorious hours, and probably would've gone longer except that I thought Matt might like to get dressed sometime before lunch.

We had such a tough time getting Alex to bed on Friday that Matt and I decided it was time to start sleep-training.

So Saturday afternoon, as Matt packed Penny up for a visit with Braz, I put Alex in his crib and started a timer. I seem to recall it taking about 45 minutes for Penny to get to sleep, that first sleep-training session -- Alex went much the same way, conking out mid-cry at about 43 minutes.

He was still so tired from all that crying that he barely went over five minutes that evening. And so it went. He lasted maybe thirty, thirty-five minutes for his afternoon nap on Sunday, and conked out fairly quickly at night.

We're still letting him get us up in the middle of the night for now -- we figure we'll give him a week (maybe two) to get the hang of going to bed in the first place before we start denying his mid-night joyride. (He goes right back to sleep after those anyway, and since Penny's pulling out of her honeymoon phase, we're still needing to check her in the middle of the night anyway.)

Penny had a great weekend; she spent most of Saturday playing outside with Ray, and then we took her to the park for Ray's birthday party on Sunday.



Of course, just as the kids were finishing their cupcakes and Ray had finished opening his presents, it started to rain, which meant the kids couldn't go back out into the park to run off all that sugar. Once the other kids had gone, though, Penny and Jess and Ray found other ways to amuse themselves.



The Hickses came back to the house with us afterward; we hung out and talked and watched Penny and Jess run around like miniature maniacs. It was fun. (Even if we did forget to make Jess spit out her gum before they left... Sorry, guys -- hope you managed to get it out of her hair... and her clothes... and her ears... and the carseat...)