10 Months

She's now got all four of her front teeth (2 top/2 bottom), after 2 weeks of crappy sleep, crankiness, really bad diaper rash and LOTS of frozen washcloths. Hopefully she'll be taking a break on the popping out new teeth front for a while so we can try to get her back onto some semblance of a sleeping routine again. And our major milestone that she decided to hit around 8 pm last night.... Drum roll please....

She STANDS! Fully un-assisted, and can even drop it like it's hot while standing! Nothing better than watching your baby shakin' it like a fly girl and laughing her head off!

I promise I'll snap a few pictures as soon as I can catch her in the act again!

Sleep, Precious Sleep

I haven't talked about it in a while, but I feel like bragging a little right now. After having a heck of a time sleep training Miss Brooklyn around 2 months old, we finally got over the hump and she's been sleeping through the night ever since. I can't preach it enough: you have to get your baby on a schedule. It doesn't have to be super strict on what happens when, but there needs to be some consistency in your nightly routine for the baby to learn when it's time for bed. We have a pretty loose routine at night, Daddy takes Luke and I take Brookie, and we get 'er done. Luke's routine is pretty much set in it's ways so it usually goes dinner, playtime for about and hour, 30 minutes of his Teen Titans cartoon to wind him down, a sippy of warm milk, jammies and teeth, 2 books with Daddy and then we both come in and give him kisses and tuck him in. He still gets up a few times a night to pee, tell me he had a bad dream (without actually falling asleep), talk about storm clouds in his room (his night light reflects off of his dresser and makes a weird shape on the roof of his bedroom in the dark), or 1 of a hundred crazy, off the wall thoughts that fly into his head that can't wait until the morning. Brooklyn's is far more simple. It usually begins with changing her diaper and onesie, followed by a bath ( every couple of days...), chow time, and then off to bed in her crib. This has worked like a charm and we've only had a few hiccups where she's woken up later in the night hungry or wet.

Schedules are a beautiful thing! Anybody see Idol last night? How about those painted on ridiculous grey and black pirate pants Adam wore for the duet with Allison? What a buzz kill... No man should EVER wear pants that tight!

Lame

Why is it that I feel completely incapable of writing about anything other than my munchkins? I swear that other things are actually important to me and the world doesn't revolve solely around Luke and Brook but damn, I am really boring to read lately! I guess I can't help it. When you are stuck in a vacuum spending all of your time at home taking care of kids, there really isn't that much happening around here right now that I care to chat about other than my babies.
I can't believe that it's been almost 2 months already since Brooklyn was born... God how time flies when you're surviving on 4 hours of sleep (on a good day). I'm already starting to worry about how insanely difficult it is going to be getting two children and myself ready for work/daycare in the morning. I'm probably going to start back at work on a Wednesday or Thursday so we can dry run it a few times without having to pull a full week right off the bat. Any ideas on how to get all of us out the door in the morning fully dressed and still maintain a little sanity?
I think I'm going to take a stab at starting the hell that is sleep training little Miss Brooklyn this weekend. I swore that I wouldn't be "one of those parents" who has their baby sleep with them at night but it is impossible to get her to sleep without tons of screaming. On top of her wanting to nurse ALL NIGHT LONG, I also am at a quandary because I think I'm allowing her to use me as a pacifier because I don't want to disturb Matt and Lukey Duke's sleep... My parents brought over Luke's twin bed from their house and put it into Brookie's nursery so I think I'm going to sleep in there with her this weekend and hopefully get her to sleep in her crib by Sunday night. Pretty ambitious I know, but I really don't want her in our bed anymore for her safety and for our sleep... Wish us luck!

Oh yeah, remember that smile I mentioned a few days ago? I finally caught a picture of her grinning!