Holy Moly, Roly Poly!

Lila Finally rolled over! YEAH big girl! It took her a while, but I’m in no rush for this baby girl to grow up too fast. My little Roly Poly!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

1-11-11: I think it mean’s you’re #1…even though you’re really 28, you’re #1 in our hearts. Happy, happy day!

Thanks for always making Lila laugh…she’ll always be your little girl, and she’s lucky to have such a good man to look up to: the one whom all others will be compared to, and, most likely, never fully measure up. You’re little girlfriend…

Thanks for teaching Jack to be a strong person…to work hard…to laugh hard…to not take life so seriously. For being his partner in crime and adventure. I hope he grows to be like you.

You’re the rock in our family. You remind us all to slow down and enjoy life. Thank you. Thank you. Love you.

cousins.

Jack's cousin, Ava was in town for his 3rd Birthday/Christmas and they had so much fun playing together!

They both run circles around one another until they can't remember who's chasing who...

Lila even got thrown into the mix this go 'round and although she did no chasing, she's acclimating to the cousin craziness quite well...

No idea why Jack's hand is in Lila's mouth in these pictures, but she seems happy enough about it and we'll just pretend his hands were just washed...yeah...

play.

In this picture, Lila's looking like, "Who? Lil' old me? I didn't do it." and Jack's either in "Dragon Style!"-mode (don't know where that phrase comes from but he says it all the time), OR "RAWR!!! I'm a tiger!" because he makes such a convincing tiger that he scared his little girlfriend at school, so now he can only growl at home!

I could watch them play together all.day.long.

Lila & Sleep...

My happy little beauty and her Poppy!

I love my Dad's face in this picture...LOL!

Last week, while in the midst of another 3:30 am feeding with Lila, I decided it was probably about time to start sleep-training her. It just hadn't hit me until that moment that she should be sleeping through, and is most likely only waking up out of habit (besides a few random nights here and there, she was waking up at least once to eat). With Jack, he started sleeping through the night on his own at 3 months, so sleep-training wasn’t needed (I thought). SO, last friday we decided to attempt the “Cry It Out” method. The first hour of the first night was torture. Lila cried...hard. I cried. Jim gave in and went to get her. She came out with a bright red face and teary eyes, and she looked at me and (I swear to God) smiled…the kind of smile like, “I got my way”. My little girlfriend.

Each night we would rev ourselves up for the meltdown, and each night was a little bit better. Our strategy was to let her cry for 5 minutes, and go in for 1 minute (without picking her up) to soothe her. Then 10 minutes and soothe, 15 minutes and soothe. Saturday night she cried for 40 minutes. Sunday: 20 minutes. Monday: 10 minutes. Tuesday: Not.At.ALL. Not a single cry, whimper, fuss, noise. Just my happy little girl falling to sleep on her own and not waking up once in the night.

She’s sleeping better and waking up happier. She’s on a solid routine. And all of a sudden, life is generally easier. NOW, I may be speaking too soon, it’s all still new, so we’ll see what changes come. But all I know is a sleeping family is a happy family!

PS: Lila's face in this last picture kills me! I love love it!

Build-in Best Friends.

I've been trying to get Lila to reach for me...so has Jim...so has Nani, and CC and everyone. But there's only one person she reaches for...her big brother, Jack.

She just loves him to pieces. It's so apparent in her face...whenever she sees him, she lights up! I love, love, love it. One of her favorite things is to lay on the bed while Jack jumps up and yells, "I. Am. SPIDERMAN!" She cracks up and I love that they already have this connection...

She gets SO excited to see him and waves her hands and cannot wait to be kissed/smelled/hugged/"carried" by her big brother.

This year will be great because they will grow together as siblings...it makes me so happy that they have eachother.

Built-in Best Friends.