Exciting times around here lately as we are now outnumbered by little people that can move. Claire is getting quicker by the day but she still hasn’t got into much trouble. Lucky for us, we never bothered decorating or buying living room furniture so Claire can pretty much do what she wants on the main floor. The girls have been told that if they want to do things that don’t involve Claire they can either go into the basement or take their stuff up to the table. End of discussion.

I am very grateful we have a finished basement. It boggles the mind how many little things we own. 

Claire is doing better now. She had a really bad cold and wasn’t sleeping well so we have reverted to some of our old habits. I bought my first parenting book (The no cry baby sleep solution) and I relate to a lot of the things the author has to say. The one thing I have FINALLY realized is that it’s not at all fair for me to compare Claire to Leah and Emma. One day it just hit me that the girls weren’t born good sleepers/nappers/routiners - they spent 23 days all by themselves in an incubator to get like that. It’s actually sad when you think about it. Unfortunately this realization came to me after my second attempt to let Claire cry. Both times she cried for an hour. We won’t be doing that again. Call me soft but I think it’s mean to do that to a baby who we’ve taught the opposite. Once she learns how to sleep and then pulls no sleeping crap I will be mean - don’t worry I haven’t completely lost it!

Things are going better with Emma. She still gets very clingy when I’m dropping them off but I am able to talk her down. Yesterday Leah finally helped me out and put her hand on Emma’s chest and said “Don’t cry Emma, I’ll hold your hand.” They both ran off without looking back. I have noticed that Emma is also more assertive with strange kids at the park so I think she is slowly learning that she can speak up rather than getting scared.

Nothing much new to report with Leah except that she is a little bit obsessed with being a princess (a yellow one of course). I went so far as to buy her a truck this past weekend but no go. I’m sure there are women out there who would kill for a little girl that wants to be a princess. Too bad I’m not one of them. John and I have agreed to sit down and talk about our princess strategy going forward. And while some of you might think I’m joking, those that know me will know that this is serious stuff!

Life beyond kids is good. On Sunday night John and I played Scrabble. We have been trying to play Scrabble for 2 weeks.

I must also remember to say that John has taken full credit for getting the girls out of pullups at night. In a moment of genius he forgot to put them on the girls one night and they woke up dry. We’ve never looked back.