Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

I got a full night's sleep last night! Emily slept from 10:15-7:15 without making a peep. Before that she slept from 7:30pm to about 9:40 pm. Whoopie! Yahoo! It feels so good to get a full night's sleep.

little update

We got the girls to bed a little earlier than we have been recently and had time to do a little gardening while it was still light. I dug up a forest of weeds in my gasrden to make rook for zucchini and herbs.

I have started doing 10-15 minutes of exercise when I first get up in the morning.

I took the girls to the beach with Katie and Luke today. Emily rode on my back while Claire and I waded in the waves.

8 months

8 months (Adjusted age.)
Emily loves Claire. She thinks Claire is THE funniest person alive. She was laughing hearty laughs just because Claire was peeking at her through the side of the swing today. Emily also loves Cheerios. She likes being in the Ergo pack. She likes sitting up and standing up. She likes music. She likes the rhyme "To Market, To Market to buy a fat pig..." especially when you jiggle her on your lap. She likes pat-a-cake with her feet. She likes chewing on toys and other objects. She loves to splash in the bath.

Bridge

Claire is growing too. She is 35.5 inches with shoes on and 24 lbs fully clothed.

Emily can sit for about two minutes now before she topples over. Emily has been taking some 45-120 minute naps lately. I've been trying to get her to sleep other ways besides nursing her till she falls asleep. One night she had a 4 hour stretch.

I had a hard time getting to sleep last night because there was a sad turn of events in the book Mark and I reading aloud to each other. (Bridge to Terabithia) I had a hard time not thinking about it or busying myself thinking of other things to avoid thinking about it then Emily woke up.

Emily sits

Emily is 12 lbs 5 oz. She is officially in size 2 diapers and 3-6 month PJ's. She has been playing with her feet a lot lately and can sit up unassisted for almost a minute. She likes to be on her feet too.

We're all starting to feel better.

update on illness

We went to the doctor for a re-check today. Claire's lungs sounded clear so she was diagnosed with bronchitis and Not pneumonia. She continues oral antibiotics. She is energetic but a little clingy and continues to cough and have a runny nose. The rest of us are stuffy nosed and tired.
I didn't nap an much as I'd have liked because I had to put both girls to sleep twice during nap time and then I had a sore throat and couldn't get back to sleep

plagued

The Hudsons are plagued with sickness again. What looks for the rest of us like a cold goes straight to Claire's lungs. She went in for a breathing treatment and antibiotic today. Hopefully she wont be as sick as she was last month. All of us are showing some symptoms. So much for making progress on the sleep issue...

I have a question about toys... Do your kids play independently with their toys? There are very few toys that Claire will pick up without encouragement and play with on her own. She will pretend with her dollies, play with her tea set and pots and pans, push a few buttons on her music table, put on some dress-up clothes that's about it. The rest of toys she will only play with if someone is playing with her and they usually have to suggest a particular toy. She spends a lot of time looking at books (and being read to). Today she recited from the beginning of Peter Rabbit. "Old Mother Rabbit said, 'You may go down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGreggor's garden.'" She also has been reciting a lot of nursery rhymes in their entirety. Some of which I didn't know she knew. Today it was "Baa Baa Black Sheep". Some activities she requests are finger painting, play-dough, making muffins for Daddy and perpetually wants to go for a walk, see the kids and go to the park. so anyway back to toys. Any toy that requires any dexterity or practice is automatically out. She will stack blocks only when prompted. Same with lacing cards, shape sorter, stacking rings, pounding "nails" and other play tools, stringing beads is out because she still has to be supervised because she puts them in her mouth, She will occasionally play with her picture dominoes, farm animals, musical instruments and wooden snake pull toy.

Theories

(written on Monday)I'm starting to develop theories about when and why Emily has a good night's sleep or not. Last night she did not. It was the worst in recent memory. She didn't nap much yesterday since we were at church most of the day and inevitably her naps get interrupted there.

(Written Wed)
Well since none of my theories are panning out I won't bother finishing the previous post. Emily had another lousy night followed by a slightly better night. The good news is that she had good naps in the car yesterday and good naps at home today.

Let's see if I can remember some Claire quotes...
She was looking at a book in which a momma duck kisses her duckling and she said. "It was a wet kiss." A little while later she said, "I sure do love my daddy. He's nice to me."

I am really struggling with what to do with Claire while putting Emily to sleep. Since visiting grandparents have all gone back home it has been a challenge again. I had her pretty well trained to sit by my closet and look at books or play quietly till Emily was asleep. Now she's in a phase of constantly testing me... probably because I've been extra grumpy with being sleep deprived. She will sometimes start out reading books quietly but then come over and pester me so I end up buckling her into her high chair in the kitchen. During this transfer Emily cries and so I have to begin the soothings to sleep again.

Okay I will say something about my theories. I think the disruption of the weekend interrupts any progress we make during the week. I also have noticed that having house guests and traveling (especially travel) messes up our sleep routines. In December before our big Oklahoma trip I had Emily going to sleep on her own in the co-sleeper and sleeping for 5-7 hours. I've never been able to return to this. I thought we were making some progress recently but then everyone got sick...

If you're wondering why I harp on this issue so much it's because I am not the person I want to be when my sleep is interrupted every 45 minutes during the night or I am kept up for an hour and a half during the night in addition to other interruptions. I suppose this is why God keeps allowing me to experience this over and over these 3 years now. I've been drinking coffee lately to perk me up a bit but I think it is causing Emily to have a rash on her legs so I am giving it up.

progress

Emily had a couple 4 hour stints of sleep last night or the first time in months. Hooray! In between she had long wake full periods though.

I went to our monthly mom's group today down in Orange County. Emily slept in the car both ways and was happy throughout. I really enjoyed the discussion and enjoyed getting to know the other mom's better. Many of us struggle with similar things which I found very comforting.

I am so thankful to God that Emily has learned to sleep in the car. She will cry when I first put her in her car seat but as soon as we start driving she mellows out and is happy. It was so stressful when every trip was a big cry-fest.

Mark and his dad took out the bird of Paradise plants to the north of our house which were ruining our neighbor's driveway. Mr. Lopez asked us to remove them because the roots are lifting up the edge of the cement. Whew! That was a lot of work.

Unpredictable

Lately Emily has been taking two 30-40 minute naps each day. On Wednesday Emily had two naps. One was 20 minutes and the second one was 10 minutes. I tried to get her back to sleep each time and tried to get her to nap several other times without success. Wednesday she took two naps in the car. One of which was over an hour. Today she napped and hour and 50 minutes in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. Wow! I am daydreaming about what life would be like if Emily took a two hour nap every day! I remember there was a month or so of 2 hour naps during Claire's life so far. It was really nice.

Emily can sit on her own for 10 seconds or so at a time. She first did this at the Jones' house on Monday while playing with one of Luke's toys. She can also stand for a few seconds at the music table without being held onto. Thanks for loaning it to her. It continues to inspire her.

Grandpa is visiting this weekend. He helped us with some major pruning tasks in the front yard. And he fixed our front gate which would barely open. Not sure what happened to it but it works really well now. Mark and his dad are at the Greek Theater hearing Garrison Keillor tonight.