For the past four and half years, this has been her “go to” position for comfort. 

As a baby it was great… she totally self soothed… no pacifiers to chase down or beloved blankey to snuggle.  Just pop her index and middle fingers in her mouth backwards and start rubbing her ear (or twirling her hair) and she could instantly calm herself to sleep. 

We knew of course this would have it’s trade off.  We knew that the cost for an easy night sleep would pay its dues when it came time to break her of the habit.  Because unlike the pacifiers her older siblings used, you can’t exactly throw away her fingers when you want her to stop sucking them. 

And so, we put forth our best efforts to rally a campaign of no more finger sucking at age 3….

which then became age 4….

So, here we are, almost 2 months from her fifth birthday and she’s still sucking her fingers in the car, when she’s falling asleep, and when she’s snuggling on the couch….

Until this weekend….

At around 10pm Thursday night as we were driving to my SIL’s in Va, I hear here say to herself in the back of the van… “Look at me not putting my fingers in my mouth.  I AM NOT PUTTING MY FINGERS IN MY MOUTH”  We of course affirmed and praised this decision of hers. 

Next day, “Guess what?  I didn’t put my fingers in my mouth, the whole way to Aunt Karen and Uncle Jim’s or all last night or this morning in the van.” 

Every now and then, when she was tempted to put them in her mouth, she’d proclaim, “Here I am not putting my fingers in my mouth.”

This was the most telling to me, because I knew it meant she was making a conscious decision not to put them in her mouth.  For whatever reason she decided she wasn’t going to do it anymore. 

And we praised her for it and I promised to paint her nails when we got home on Saturday night if she kept them out of her mouth. 

Saturday night I painted her nails… 5 bright shades of fantastic with a top coat of glitter!!!

So, you can see all it took was 2 years of nagging her finally coming to the decision on her own to stop doing it and she broke the habit.  Cold Turkey!

I’m pretty sure this says something about her will and personality and the *fun* we’re going to have when the teen years arrive…

It’s been really neat to watch the bond between my oldest and youngest.   Our baby was the answer to his older brothers prayers, as he longed to have a little brother.  I’ll never forget the look of pure joy when he found out he finally had a baby brother.   I know he can’t wait for the day when they can truly play together, but for now it is so neat to see the love between them blossom. 

Last night was proof that the love flows both ways.  The baby is used to falling asleep at night with his big brother on the bed across the room reading his book.   Last night, however, his big brother spent the night at a friends house.  So, when we put the obviously tired baby into his crib, he had his baby, his pacifier, light on, door closed…but no big brother across the room. 

When we walked out of the room, he was quiet for awhile.  Then he started crying… truly crying.  This is something he never really does when we put him down.  Typically, we put him to sleep and he will just lay quietly in his crib until he falls asleep.   I went back after awhile to see if maybe he lost his pacifier or something.  But, no he had everything he needed, yet he was crying.  After taking him out for a drink and laying him back down, he again started crying, REALLY CRYING. 

We both suspected it had something to do with the big brother missing from the bed beside him. 

So, Scott laid him down on his brothers bed.  He snuggled up and fell fast and sound asleep… for the entire night. 

It was his first night not sleeping in his crib…

sleeping soundly in his big brother’s bed…

It simply melts my heart…

My youngest often wakes up early in the morning… you know that tricky hour of the day when it isn’t yet time for anyone to be awake but yet close enough to morning that if you let him cry it out a bit they’ll probably wake up and it’s way earlier than you want more than one child up seeing as it’s earlier than you even want to be up.  You know that time of the night/morning?

So, when this happens, I grab my lil man and bring him into bed.  He is my snuggler.  And by snuggler, I mean, wrap his sweet lil arms around your neck and lay his head on your chest and fall asleep.  Or, sit beside you and lay his head on top of your face and fall asleep.  Sometimes he’ll lay snuggled in the middle of us with one or both of us putting our arm around him. 

This of course means that we almost always end up staying in bed longer than we originally planned.   Because if your already not an early riser by nature, think of how much harder it is to get up with your sweet lil baby sleeping on top of you. 

Sometimes, however, there is not choice but to risk disrupting him and get out of bed.  And when that happens I always, always find myself thinking of that episode of Friends where Chandler Bing learns Ross’s “Hug and Roll technique”.   

I am convinced that some of the best bonding between my kids takes place after we kiss them goodnight and shut the door.  The policy in our house has been that they can talk in bed (or in their drawers) as long as they are quiet and stay laying down.  (no jumping off the bed or playing with toys) The giggles and chattering drifting down the hall are some of my most cherished sounds.  In fact, it was during one of these “behind closed doors chats” that my son led his younger sister to the Lord.  She told me one day that she knew she was a Christian because she had prayed with her brother one night asking God to forgive her of her sins and be her Savior. 

So, naturally, when my oldest son moved out of the room he’d shared with his sisters for 4 years in order to share a room with his little brother, it was a bittersweet moment at the circus.

But, I think in the past year since that happened the bond of friendship between the girls has grown.  AND a genuine love of reading has transpired in my oldest sons life, as well, as a unique bond of brotherhood between the boys. 

When he moved into his brothers room, we knew the late night talking would cease for awhile.  But, we told him, you may stay up and read in your bed.   I had no idea at the time the hours of reading that would transpire with this new arrangement.   It is not unusual for me to have to go back and tell him lights out at 11:00.  In fact last Friday, he was beyond excited because he had managed to stay up until midnight! 

It’s a cute little arrangement that has taken place.  My youngest will contentedly lay in his crib falling asleep watching his big brother reading.  It doesn’t bother him to have the light on, or to fall asleep with someone else in the room.  In fact, I dare you to try to put him to sleep at night without his brother there. 

Last night we told the kids to get ready for bed and we went down the hall to find this. 

He sat there so quietly, so contently that we ended up leaving him there for awhile before going back and moving him to his crib.  

When I was taking my Elem Education classes in college, I learned that reading in front of your children is crucial to develop a life long love of reading.  They need to see that you too enjoy reading and it just isn’t something you do because you have to.  I can only imagine growing up watching his big brother read for hours every night, will have a similarly positive effect on him. 

More times than not, when I peek in on my girls before heading to bed, I find them sleeping together. 

Sometimes this means they are both down on the bottom bunk.

Sometimes, it means they are side by side in their drawers (truthfully I find them like this almost as often as I find them in the bottom bunk). 

Sometimes they are both on the floor.  (haven’t found them like that in the last 2 weeks)

And once, last week, I even found them side by side in the same drawer. 

As I peek in on them snuggled up together, it gives me hope that as they grow, they’ll share secrets, slumber parties, and hopefully a life long friendship, side by side….

Every now and then, when I peek in on my oldest daughter before going to sleep, I’ll see something which instantly takes me back to her infancy.

And even though she’ll be 6 in a few short weeks, I see her as this sweet little 8 month old in her crib, sleeping folded in half. 

I’ll remember how she used to sleep like this every.single night… and suddenly all these pictures of her sleeping like this pass through my mind like a slide show. 

Pack-n-play, hospital hooked up to IVs, crib, toddler bed, bottom bunk, top bunk… she’s done it ever where.  It’s her classic sleeping position.  And it makes me smile every.single.time.  Sweet dreams my little girl!

Time and time again our fourth child has blown us away with his easy going, flexible, happy-go-lucky approach to life.  It has made the transition to a family of 6, for this family on-the-go, SO MUCH easier—a fact I am truly, truly grateful for.

This weekend, he really went above and beyond our expectations though.

Not only did he fall asleep in the tent both nights, while the rest of us were out at the camp fire, but he even napped in the tent Saturday morning.  And as if that wasn’t wonderful enough… today we put his pack and play up behind the tent, on the off chance that he’d fall asleep and Scott could tear down the tent and pack up our gear while the rest of us went swimming… fat chance of that actually working we thought, but we figured it was worth a try…

He laid down, outside, in the daylight, and took a 2 hr nap while Scott tore down the tent and packed up the van. 

He truly spoils us!

There are all kinds of people in the world.  Some morning people, some night owls.  I truly think your propensity towards one or the other is an inborn part of your personality.  True, you can work on becoming more of a morning person (and society pretty much dictates this to some degree), ones natural inclination, I think,  is innate.

For a glimpse of this, one must simply observe my two daughters.

Both raised in the same household, by the same parents.  Both even sleep in the same room and go to bed at the same time.

Both, however, do note wake up the same way. 

Take this morning as a very typical example.

My three year old woke first and appeared in the dining room with a smile on her face.  She instantly asked for Cheerios and chocolate milk (as she does every morning) and as I got them for her she began chattering to me about the birds she heard singing out of her window. 

While I set about cleaning the kitchen and packing Scott’s lunch she eagerly began coloring a picture in her coloring book.  She does not need any time to wake up or adjust.  She wakes up, “On” and ready to seize the day.

Thirty minutes later her sister appeared in the dining room.  Her eyes are barely open, a literal snarl on her face, and while she is standing in our dining room, she is by no means awake yet.  When she wakes up, she doesn’t want to talk, she merely wants to crawl in Mom or Dad’s lap and sit. 

It’s a wonderful time for snuggling if you seize the opportunity.

About 10 or 15 minutes after she appeared in our dining room she utters her first word, “banana”. 

I can tell she is going to be my coffee drinker.

After eating her banana and sitting on Daddy’s lap for a good 15 minutes, she is ready to climb down and face the world.

While I have known she is not a morning person for awhile now, I have not figured out the best way to get her up and dressed on the mornings we need to get out the door by 8 am. 

In my ignorance, I have let her sleep as long as possible with the hope that she will wake on her own and thus wake in a better mood.  Only recently, have I realized the folly in this approach.  Even if she wakes on her own, she still needs at least 15 minutes before she can start thinking about moving along.  If I let her sleep until 7:45 or worse yet, if I WAKE her at 7:45, it is only going to be a battle of epic proportions to get her dressed and out the door in 15 minutes.   I know b/c I tried this for weeks on end and it was not a pleasant start to the day.  Recently, we learned that if you wake her up earlier, give her time to sit and snuggle, eat and THEN prompt her to get dressed and ready, she is much more amicable. 

Hmm…. is it actually better for a non morning person to wake up earlier rather than later?

This is interesting.

This week I tried the same approach on myself.  I would attest that Scott nor I are morning people.  And as such, our most productive time of day seems to be late at night.  Mornings we like to sleep in as late as possible than race around the house to get everyone out the door.  We often run late in the mornings.  

Yesterday my youngest woke at 5:30.

A.M. 

I decided to go ahead and feed him so that he would be fed and set until after we got home from dropping his brother off at the tutorial. 

I then decided that since we had no bread in the house for breakfast or lunch, that perhaps I should just stay up and make some.  Thank you Sarah, for your quick beer bead recipe, which doesn’t need time to rise.   With the bread in the oven, I decide to go ahead and work on my homework for Bible study, which I was dreadfully behind on.   Then, it was 7 am and I hopped in the shower. 

I have tried setting my alarm and rising early in the past.  I typically hit snooze and roll over till the last minute possible.  I think, much like my 5 yr old, I need time to wake up.  I can not wake up and hop in the shower.  I need to come out, sit on the couch, read a little facebook, grab a cup of coffee, sit on the couch and do my quiet time, AND THEN shower and get ready to start the day. 

I don’t know how long I can keep this up.  Old habits die hard and I am not one to rise early and meet the sun.  BUT, I will say that the last two mornings I have greatly enjoyed the time of quiet to prepare the kitchen, the house, and my heart, for the day ahead.   I like starting the day feeling like I am some what ahead instead of racing around feeling rushed and guilty and very much like that mom. (Ya know the one with all the kids who is never on time and didn’t even shower or put together a somewhat respectable outfit).

Perhaps my switch to the dark side this fall was a preparation for such a time as this…

My lil guy isn’t a newborn anymore.  I’ve known it for awhile.. he’s eating solids, vocalizing, and working on crawling.  But, recently, I also realized his days of simply sleeping in my arms are fleeting.  He’s working himself into a rhythm… sleeping through the night… taking 2 solid naps a day…The days of just holding my tiny, sleeping newborn in my arms are over. 

So on those random Sunday afternoons when he falls asleep in my arms, I am going to stay put and savor the moment.  I’m not going to lay him down, no so much out of fear of waking him, but out of fear of missing the all too fleeting moment. 

“Dusting and scrubbing can wait ’till tomorrow
For babies grow fast we learn to our sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs and dust go to sleep
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.”

-Author Unknown