Jumping and jumping and jumping

Clare has finally realized she can JUMP in her jumperoo and loves it, but as soon as she realizes that she is being watched, she stops as evidenced by the videos. I took an idea from Betsy and used my digital camera to record these, so the quality isn't great.

Berry Sweet!

Clare went to her first Halloween party on Friday dressed as a Strawberry. I made her costume which she was not happy about putting on. Once we did get it on her - she was all smiles. The best picture has her head cut off! I may need to take a few more because she's so darn cute!

Sleep "Learning"

There has been much discord in our house over the fact that I am the only one who can get Clare to sleep and it is not an easy process at that. Brian has been getting frustrated because 1) he wants to be able to do it - so that I can get out of the house and 2) we're hoping to be able to go on a date soon. She sleeps great once she is asleep, but it takes bath, books, rocking, singing, nursing up to 3 times - basically if I think it might work I do it. So tonight it began (or stopped?) ...I've been reading Healthy Sleep Habits...which I didn't get. I know everyone raves about it, but I just didn't like it because I needed to be told exactly how to handle this whole going to bed thing. I checked out a book called The Sleepeasy Solution from the library. One thing I especially like is that they call it sleep learning instead of training. WOW - this is what I needed. It gave me a plan and while I am not an advocate of crying - it gave great explanations for why I was doing what I was doing which I was able to read between checking on her. It took 1 hour and 18 minutes of going in at specific intervals, but she's asleep. I feel good about the fact that she did it on her own - just wish me luck tomorrow night!