Go to sleep Jackson! Pretty please?

Jack sleeps quite well in his crib... for all of 2 hours.  After that, well, it's cuddle time with mom. Every. night.

Frankly, I'm a little tired of it.  I'm also a champion "find-the-nuk-in-the-middle-of-the-night"-er AND a gold medalist "find-the-nuk-in-the-dark-with-your-eyes-closed"-er. (Not that I've ever asked for either distinction. And if I did win big, really, I would like for anything I win to be awarded with a tiara, if you please.)

But, that's how it's been for the past few weeks. I wake up at 11:45 or so to get Jack. Wake again about an hour and a half later for an emergency nuk search, and pretty much repeat at random intervals all through the night culminating in a 5 a.m. series of kicks and fussing.  Not too fun.

I mean, It's not *too* bad, but I also don't want to do this for the next year (which is when Jake got the memo about going to sleep in his bed and *staying* there) so I'm trying a gentle version of sleep training a la Super Nanny. It worked for Jake so here's hoping.

(I'm about to go in to rub his back but he keeps dosing off, then waking up a bit, them dosing off again so I've been standing in the bathroom for about 10 minutes now. Asking myself if I should go in or not. I'm thinking night one might be over soon... here's hoping.

Okay, I didn't go in, Jack fell asleep, and now I'm typing this post.

Oh, yes the boys still share a room.

What?

Oh, where's Jake?

Ummmm. He's... well, he *might* be sound asleep in my spot.  On my very comfy bed.

Yes...

A sleep training refresher *might* be needed. 

*sigh*

Some exciting updates from the house of little sleep...

Katie took her second math test at school and she "exceeds expectations."  This girl is so smart, it's scary.

She also went to the science museum today with the community center after-school program. She had a lot of fun.

She mentioned that they watched a movie about the jungle. And the people in the movie did not wear...  pants. Conversation about different cultures is probably needed at this point... after all, we've already had the DWTS clothing conversation so she'll have something to relate it to.

Jake has been Adorable (yes, with a capital 'A') with his "please" and "thank you"s.  I had my first (understandable) phone conversation with him today!  He still loves to run around the house, loves his Batman costume (the one that fit him in October but that is now just a little tight around his neck and shoulders), loves reading his "No, David" books, loves visiting Grandma and Grandpa's house, and loves playing with Flarp.

And one final wonderful thing... Jack says 'mama'. At 7 months old, he says 'mama' and reaches for ME!  He's somehow also learned how to crawl.  I wouldn't have been surprised if he just managed to go from scooting to running around like a nut with the other two but I'm glad he's taking this mobility thing slowly.

So, busy times.  Lots of kids stuff.

Not enough sleep...

But we're getting there.

He's a crawler!

When I woke up Saturday morning I sat on the couch in my jammies and robe. Snuggled in while the kids played. So relaxing.

I made my list of to-dos. Laundry,  dishes, breakfast,  church... and... something was missing. I puzzled on it for about three minutes.

Thats how long it took me to figure out that Katie has gymnastics on Saturday at 10:00... and it was 9:33.

It goes against everything in me to get dressed without taking a shower but there was no time.

I jumped up, looked at Katie with wide eyes and told her to get ready! Leotard,  tights, teeth, hair, face, pants, coat, shoes! And hurry!

We did make it and, as usual, it was fun to watch the kids try hard to do the cartwheels, handstands,  jumps and balance beam. No one faceplanted this week so it wasn't *as* entertaining as last week but it's always fun to see how excited Katie gets when she does one of the activities well!

Katie is also super observant.  On Saturday she pointed out to me that Jackson was CRAWLING. Sure enough.

He's officially mobile now *Gulp* which means the days of setting him down and leaving him to play (without worrying that he'll make his way to Katie's room or into the pantry) are pretty much over.

Crawling is scary and awesome.

He's getting faster every day! Today he followed me and the kids to Jake's room where we were putting up Jake's Toy Story poster he got for Christmas.

I wonder if the baby fence will work better with Jack than with Jake. 

Here's hoping.

Kids are fun(ny).

Me, my mom, and all three kids justh got out of the show for Elmo.  Busy event, infant,  toddler,  5-year-old (who thinks she's 15), AND over the dinner hour?  How we managed to make it out with only a minor demand for a balloon shaped like Elmo's head and a few times when *someone* wanted to wander off on his own (JACOB) I just don't know.

The Elmo balloon he wanted are super expensive... but I think Jake thought they were giving them out for free because he was saying he needed "to get my balloon" as he walked towards a little kid about 20 feet away from us.

Eventually he'll learn that, at $10 a pop (pun intended), we do not purchase fragile bits of helium filled Mylar that won't last long in our house between the pulling and the pushing and the poking and the probable popping.  Plus. $10.

Really Sesame Street people?

So, no balloon.

Hypothetically, impulse buys like oh, say popcorn for $4.50 and maybe some cotton candy for $5? Yes. For sure.   Ahem.  HYPOTHETICALLY.

Balloon? Nope.

Also, Katie started gymnastics! She loves it!  It was a little hard though to not laugh TOO much at the face plants and tipovers I saw. Katie did a great job on the things she learned from her last class and she got to wear her pink leotard.

(And I realized that I will pay inflated prices for so-so food but not for flimsy balloons.)