We’re back « Leah, Emma and Claire (and Jen and John)

We’ve actually been back since Thursday but I’ve been enjoying the last few days of our vacation.

Our last couple of days in Florida were nice. We all went out for dinner twice and the girls were pretty good. We don’t take them out much at home - it’s not relaxing so we usually wait and go out just the two of us when we have babysitting in town. Maybe if the girls were into food it would be better but they are much more interested in running around so you have to eat fast or in this case take shifts entertaining them. At one point we gave both of them forks and discovered that they are quite capable of stabbing food and feeding whoever’s lap they are on.Leah also got a taste of spicy food when she stole a piece of cajun chicken off my plate. She was very upset and could not understand why her mouth was on fire.

Our trip was a nice break. My mom and dad have the perfect location - you can see Tampa Bay from their deck (see picture below) and the ocean is across the street on the other side. There is water everywhere and it is very pretty although hurricane season can be a bit stressful. The weather wasn’t too hot and it was a nice break from snowsuits. One bonus of the girls being so small is that all their summer stuff still fit.

The plane ride home was a bit better. I gave them gravol again and this time it knocked them each out for about 45 mins - not at the same time of course. The plane was mostly empty so we got two rows in the back to ourselves and they were able to move around a lot more which made them happy.

It was nice to be home and sleep in our own bed. As I have mentioned, the girls have not been sleeping well for the past few months. It is slowly sucking all of our energy and we really did need a break. I think the majority of our problems are because they are in the same room. Emma has night terrors and it wakes Leah up. If you go in to comfort Emma, Leah sees you and wants up. If you try and leave with Emma all hell breaks loose. The same thing happens if Leah wakes up. We have got into the very bad habit of just giving them bottles in the middle of the night because it is the quickest way to settle them both down and there is always some reason why we don’t want to be up for hours in the middle of the night trying to get them both to settle!

It has become an expectation that we be up in the middle of the night with one of them. With Christmas and then this trip I was hesitant to start any sleeping boot camp but I have reached my limit. I’m not 100% sold on separating them yet so our first try will be getting them off the night bottle. If they wake up they have to work it out (with minimal intervention from us because I don’t want the bottle to be replaced with the expectation that they get snuggles if they cry). Thursday night Emma cried for 10 seconds in her sleep and woke Leah up. Leah played in her crib for about 30 mins and then decided it was show time. Emma then woke up. I went in, gave Leah her soother and Emma her chickie and left. They weren’t impressed. John and I made a deal that we weren’t going in unless it was real crying and not just the whiny cry. Emma fell asleep after minimal whining. Leah alternated between whining and playing for 1.5 hours and then went to sleep.

The last two nights they have slept through which I’m sure is just a fluke. I am determined to be strong on this and not let exhaustion cloud my judgement. I will embrace coffee and diet pepsi! John starts his new job tomorrow and I will not let him get up with them. If he has to put ear plugs in and sleep in the other room then that’s what we’ll do. I really hope this works for us because I really don’t want them in two rooms but I am just so tired and fed up with getting up in the night. I get so frustrated that I can’t fall back asleep! I guess I got spoiled with them sleeping through until they stopped 3 months ago.

So that’s the news here. Tomorrow starts a new phase for us. John will need the car for work so I will be carless (which I’m sure I will whine about here on a regular basis!). Hopefully he will have clients downtown so he can take the train in sometimes.

I have to mention that Emma peed in the potty. They are still not at all ready for the potty but we are back to trying before bath now that we are home. John’s mom was here Friday night and Emma peed for her.

They have also started saying a few two and three word phrases. Emma is much more into it because it usually involves bossing around Leah. She can actually say “No touch Leah” which is pretty funny.

Here are a ton of pictures from our holiday. No pictures of the cruise - I didn’t bring the camera.

The first picture is of three storks that showed up the night we arrived. Nobody in the park had ever seen storks before (not many babies in a retirement community….) and it was really, really weird. They are definitely not at all what the storybooks portray them as - long pointy beaks and a creey fixation on the girls. They actually followed them down the street. One lady took it as far as to say that it meant that one day I might have triplets. I didn’t laugh.