Sleep training

Because I had UEA/fall break off, I figured it was now or never to sleep train Millie, because I had more nights I could stay up later.

My 3:40 AM alarm has forced me to nurse-sleep with my babies over the years, just so I can get sleep. She got used to that. The other problem with this baby girl is that if she isn't sleeping by me, or on JB, she really likes sleeping in her car seat. I don't know if it's 5th baby problems (always out and about) or her own comfort, but that's where she just has slept longer and better. But she just can't do that forever.

I figured we had Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night to work on it, and by Sunday night she would cheerfully say "Good night, dearest parents," wave night-night and lay down in her crib and drift off to slumber with a smile on her face.

Nope.

Here's an example of what she does. She falls asleep crying while standing up.  JB snuck a picture through the door on Saturday morning during nap time.

Then he carefully opened the door and zoomed in a little.

It's the saddest thing.  Her standing-sleep nap didn't last long. I had some errands to run, so into the van went all the kids, and when we got there, she was fast asleep in her car seat.  She was probably thinking, "Finally."

On Sunday night she would scream, fall asleep and doze for a few minutes, wobble and wake up and scream again.  I couldn't sleep so I finally gave up  and went in and nursed and rocked her again until she was fully asleep then laid her down again.

The last few nights and naptimes have gone a little better. JB has been helping her so I can sleep and I really appreciate that.

Pauline sleep-trained then-baby James for us when we were on a trip so I guess I don't remember how hard it is. I just have to remind myself that this is for the best. We will all be happier with more solid sleep, and she is 15 months old, so it's time for her to know how to put herself to bed, right? Right?

UEA/Fall break

Lots of people took trips for the fall school break (Utah Education Association weekend). We had thought about it, but ended up just doing a few things closer to home. I had time off and each day felt like a Saturday. 4 year old James kept asking what day it was, because Mom was home in the morning and the brothers never left for school.

We went to Lagoon on Thursday for Frightmares. It was a beautiful day, and all the Utahns who did not go to Southern Utah or to California were at Lagoon with us.

We took Max's best friend Andy with us for a birthday treat.

Millie watched the little boys ride rides.

We loved the trick-or-treating sections in the park set up just for this time of year. All day the next day, James and Andrew kept fighting over whose plastic toy harmonica was whose, so I pulled out a black Sharpie and labeled them.  Now they have been forgotten about and discarded under the couch.

On Friday, Andy's mom took Max and Ben with them for some fun activities for the day.  I took the three littles to the park and library.

(Methinks James is getting taller. Also, he wanted to wear shorts.)

On Saturday, I encouraged and wheedled and pleaded the boys into some deep cleaning of the house. Then I took them to split 2 large shakes as a reward. Pumpkin Oreo, and Cookie Dough.

Then we watched both our college football teams lose. Ugh.  Three in a row for Utah, 7 in a row for BYU.

On Sunday, church was tiny. Many people were still out of town. Ben had to go into Max's primary class.  But wow, it was a great Sunday, with amazing, uplifting talks and lessons from amazing women who bore strong witness and testimony of God's love and plan.  

We finished with dinner at JB's parents' house, for the first time since Nona broke her hip. We have been worried about her and praying for her, and she is such a rock star. Nothing can keep her down, she is such an example to me.

Oh, and the break stretched into Monday for our school district, and by then I think the boys needed some school again. Andrew and James both wanted to hold the same large plastic spider Halloween decoration at the same time, and we had to go over our family rules of conduct again (ie no hitting).

Brand new hair styling

Tips, please.

Millie's hair length is now to the point where we gave her brothers their first hair cuts. It is getting snarly tangled in the back.

I am giddy with excitement over the thought of eventual pigtails and water spouts. But, how do we handle the slow growth as it gets to that point?

I can almost do a pony up top. But she squirms so much it's hard to get those wispy strands into the tiny elastic my neighbor/visiting teacher/friend gave me.

Other first haircut posts (Max was pre-blog)

Benny at 19 months old here

Andrew at 10 1/2 months here

James at 7 1/2 months here

15 months

Millie update!

(just a portion of the photo shoot with Valeri Anderson recently. More to come!)

She is now 15 months and is walking more, though crawling is still faster for her.

At her appointment this week, she weighed 22 pounds 7 ounces (45 percentile), and was 31.25 inches long (72 percentile).

She has 16 teeth (four of which are partly through molars) and she loves food. If her brothers are eating a snack, she gets right up in there to see what bites she can eat, too.

And she is getting so smart.  She knows where her hair/nose/toes/mouth/belly button/etc are. She points to each brother when we say their name. She loves looking at books and trying on shoes. She found a used bandaid on the floor, and lifted up her pants and tried to put it on her leg.

But she still nurses on demand.

And she still likes to sleep on or by her parents.

The Sunday School hour (roughly 10-11AM) is morning nap time, so it takes a good hallwalk/bounce/cuddle or her car seat to get her to drift off.

She goes up and down the stairs now as she pleases, ad sometimes tries to sneak back down to see brothers after they have gone to bed and before she goes to bed.

She loves selfies.

Snacking

A funny nursing position one day.

Walking a little in the doctor's office waiting room this week. She charmed everybody, then screamed to high heaven for her shots.

One last funny thought -- she gets jealous of James or Andrew when it's their turn to read a book with me. She squeals and pushes them off my lap. Andrew puts up with it, he adores her. James howls.

Not scary enough

Andrew has been begging us to decorate for Halloween. He keeps trying to make his own decorations and sticks them on the porch steps and I keep removing them, because they were a tripping hazard. 

Finally, over the weekend, I brought out the few Halloween decorations I have in the attic. 

It wasn't enough for Andrew.

So I picked up a large cobwebby thing from Target ($1 section, yo)

We stretched it out and put it up all over the front porch.

Now it wasn't enough for Ben.

Apparently both boys want large skeletons sitting on the chairs or huge blowup lawn decorations or hanging heads or fake blood running down the window, I don't know.

Ben even tried to tell me people wouldn't want to come get candy at our house.  Oh boy.

In the end I told them they could spend their own money on huge decorations if they wanted.  A look at prices at Wal-mart changed their minds.

I took all four boys to the Walmart Saturday evening anyway, because Max has been wanting to buy more paracord for his monkey fist creation business.

While we waited, the little boys tried on stuff.

And this was what I texted JB:

Ben wants to be a BYU football player, and I believe I can cobble together something from the help of family/friends/co-workers.

Andrew plans to wear the Utah football outfit we have already, that our friend Roger got for then- Benny because he used to love the Utes.

When Ben was almost four he was a Clemson football player

James wants to be Batman again.

Millie I have a flower costume for from a box of girl clothes.

Max I don't think will dress up. He's 12 and I know he wants the candy, but, he may just watch a movie with friends.

Oh, and back to the spiderweb -- some of it came off, and Andrew ran down to his bedroom and gleefully draped it over the rocking chair. and made a black paper spider. That night James cried that it was too scary, so I had to remove it, and then Andrew cried.  We compromised by hanging it in the kitchen.

Smart, kind cookies

I am so proud of my boys after their parent teacher conferences.

We had one for Andrew (first grade), two for Ben (ELP teacher and 4th grade teacher), and six for Max (science, math, language arts, PE, college & career readiness, Utah studies. Orchestra teacher was a no-show).

They smart cookies. Their reading levels are super high, way off the charts. Math scores are very high as well.

They do their work in school and at home (with some nagging sometimes for forgetful Andrew).

Their teachers say they aim to please and are a joy to have in class.

But just as important, their teachers say the boys are good friends to their classmates. They are nice to others, they are empathetic, they are helpers, they obey rules and they are not mean.

We make reading every night a priority, and JB and I also always did well in school, so I feel like genes and habits and socio-economic status works well in the boys' favor in terms of success.  And I hope it sticks.

But I also really hope the empathy stays with them.  Too many problems in this world are caused by a lack of kindness toward another.

Me Sleeping

Jamesy fell asleep by me Monday for a nap, because he was still a little under the weather. But before that, he was watching Daniel Tiger on my phone. 

Or so I thought.

I have a burst of 300 photos of the quilt, dresser, and me asleep.

Deja Vu.

This has happened before, 5 years ago when Ben was almost exactly the same age, 4 1/2! He only took 20 photos then, because the iphone didn't have that "burst" capability.

My mother in law Pauline made both the quilts.

I normally sleep on that side of the bed, above, but at naptime lately I switch to JB's side to nurse the baby on the other side. She usually naps beside me but is getting so squirmy, I am starting to put her across the hall.  She neeeeeddsss to be sleep-trained. But I remain forever a softie.

Scenes from the weekend

I worked Conference Saturday doing wrap-up reports during the day (a few people texted that they heard me on the radio, aw shucks), and that night, JB took Max to his first Priesthood Session in person at the Conference Center.

Aren't they both so handsome? What a great opportunity to live so close.  I told the boys about how growing up, we would get dressed up and drive to church to watch General Conference on TV, often having a lunch there in between sessions. Now we lounge and watch it at home.

While they were gone, Millie kind of started playing with her dolls!

It's mostly because her brothers were right there beside her. They tried to teach her how to have a tea party.

Honestly it was so cute. She has to be around the boys and they always want to be by her, picking her up and carrying her from room to room. It's no wonder that at 14 1/2 months she doesn't walk yet.

But...
She did take several steps in a row on Sunday! I never got a picture of it. This is when she dropped back down. 

(that's a pumpkin I crocheted on her head. Methinks it could be overkill)

The sad part of the weekend was that Jamesy was sick and feverish. It is a good time to get cuddles from Mr Active though. And I also fell asleep beside him, it wasn't just JB.

I keep going over the messages from the speakers about "Fear not," because Monday morning came the news of the terrible mass shooting in Las Vegas. My stomach clenches in fear when I think of the evil in the world.