Sleepless Nights and Screaming Babies

This post is inspired by a fellow blogger (my cousin's wife) and her little boy who decided to stop sleeping through the night after months of sleeping 10 hours at a time. It must be going around because my sister recently called me in hopes for some words of inspiration on how to get her 8 month old baby to sleep through the night. Unfortunately I had none. I too am searching for that ah ha moment when I finally find the answer to a much stewed over equation. Kennedy promised to be an angel baby and began sleeping through the night at as early as 2 months. I hate to say that it didn't last for long and around 5 months old she began the whole process of waking up again. I thought for sure it was just a phase and I would soon know how it feels to be refreshed and ready to start a new day again. Well Kennedy is going on 13 months and Iam still waiting for this phase to pass. I must say that we still have it pretty easy and typically are only required to get up once during the night and sometimes it would be at a more reasonable 5 a.m. However, I hope I speak for most mothers when I say whether it be once a night or 5 times a night I don't think it makes a difference... it is extremely frustrating!! So what do you do when you come to the realization that enough is enough? I feel like I have tried everything with very minimal results. I almost shouted victory last week while Nate was away for a few days and I tried the 'cry it out' method again for who knows how many times in Kennedy's short life time. After one night of enduring almost two hours of heartbreaking screams I couldn't believe it when four days passed with out getting up at all. As I was gaining confidence in my tough love approach, the fifth day brought getting up multiple times at night with an almost inconsolable baby. I am always quick to suspect the obvious...(teething) and apply orajel. And if her crying continues I eventually add the appropriate dosage of children's Tylenol to the equation. Yet I have been suspecting teething for far too long with no new pearly whites as confirmation of my theory. We do know she does have teeth trying to work their way down as her gums are swollen and more recently have become more and more asymmetrical with what I refer to as teeth bumps. But honestly, how long can it take for teeth to break through?? So after an evening of going up and down the stairs trying to comfort a child who can't seem to stay asleep for longer than 1 hour at a time without waking up, I find myself anticipating another sleepless (and frustrating) night.

Backpacking in Escalante

Nate recently spent 5 days down in Escalante on a backpacking trip with his friend Spencer and some of Spencer's family. While there, they ventured two different hikes. The main hike was a 3 day, 21 mile hike called Box Death Hallow. The second hike was a day hike through a very narrow slot canyon called Egypt Canyon. Nate claims that these hikes have topped his all time favorite hikes in his life. Needless to say he had a great time and he can't wait to go again.

Swimming Lessons

We decided to prepare for the summer by putting Taylor in swimming lessons. She is so timid in water and fights me when I try to teach her the basics, like putting her face and heaven forbid her whole head under the water. She is doing well considering her refusal to get water in her ears. (When water does get in her ears she freaks out because according to her she "can't hear!!!") She absolutely loves her teacher and there have been times when class is over and she won't get out of the pool. Our hope is that by the time summer rolls around we will have a more confident swimmer so that I won't have to worry about her so much. So with one month to go lets hope we get to that point because Kennedy is fearless of the water and loves to dunk her face and crawl until she almost starts floating away.

Happy 1st Birthday Kennedy!

Yes it is true, our little rascal turned 1 year old today! One year ago this sweet little girl joined our family and threw everything we knew about babies out the window. She is definitely her own little soul. In this first year of her life she has learned that there are many things she loves. Topping the list is her love of eating, specifically mac and cheese, love of giving kisses, love of her mommy (she loves her daddy too but is definitely a mamma's girl), her love of climbing the stairs and more recently discovered her love of climbing onto little tables and toilets, and finally her love of dogs. The love of dogs includes all and any form dog. Be it pictures of dogs, dogs at the park, Roxy...she loves them all. If she sees a dog or anything that resembles a dog she gets very excited and, if she can, she will give it a kiss. It is very sweet. We (but mostly I) decided to take that love for dogs and throw Kennedy her very own pink poodle 1st birthday party. It was so much fun and Kennedy didn't disappoint when it came to the much anticipated eating of the cake. She started out very polite and nibbled at the frosting but when she realized there was cake underneath it all there was no stopping her. She had a blast digging and smearing the cake everywhere she could. Don't belive me??? Check out our youtube video.

Ahh clean again...Happy Birthday Kennedy!

New and Improved

Instead of filling up blog space with our little home videos, I decided to put them on youtube instead. If you fill so inclined to view video of our day to day life you'll find links to all the fun in the sidebar under the blog archive.

All Dressed Up

Easter festivities

dying our Easter eggs and sprinkling gliter

The finished product

Bed head and all, Taylor emptying her eggs left by the easter bunnyKennedy "hunting" for eggs (or just following Taylor around)