A New Year

I know it's just a difference between 11:59 p.m. and Midnight on one day, but it's so significant. 2006 was such a rollercoaster for me and my family. Full of life-changing events, mostly for the better. Many of my previous posts have already talked about this, so I'm not going to go into it again. I will say that I feel like I have grown a lot, learned a little about myself and done my best to support my husband and my daughters in the challenges we have faced. I think we are all stronger because of it.

There are random moments throughout the week that I look at my girls and think "WOW!" So much of my day is filled with the same diaper changing, feeding, soothing, cuddling, entertaining...it is easy to let the big picture fade a little. Tonight I was watching Cami and Brie roll around on the floor and had one of those moments. They were smiling at me and playing with each other and I realized how quickly they are turning into little people. They are so much fun (and so much work!) and we are loving it.

I had all the kids in bed for about 45 minutes until Cami decided she needed some one-on-one time with me. She is a horrible sleeper. I am fairly confident that if Cami would sleep all night Brie would follow suit - she usually wakes up only after Cami has. I am clueless about how to fix this. I own The Happiest Baby on the Block and I used a moderated Ferber technique to get Maddie to sleep when she was an infant. First problem is I can't find the book, and if I do find it, when would I read it? The other problem is that all three girls are sharing a room. Kind of hard to Ferberize without waking up the other two. I am sure I am setting the twins up for horrible sleeping habits and I am trying so hard to prevent that! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Oops, I got side-tracked. Cami was playing on the floor while I was working on a new menu and grocery list. She kept looking at herself in the mirror and she thought it was the funniest thing. She laughed and laughed. So cute!

For some reason it is really easy to get giggles out of Cami and Brie when they're in their highchairs after they've eaten some yummy (?) baby food. I'll get them started and Maddie will come running in from the living room to take over. She loves to make them laugh. Tonight Maddie offered to feed Cami for me while I put dinner together and I took her up on it. That was a mess! I should have taken pictures. Eventually she managed to get most of the food in Cami's mouth. She was so proud of herself. She loves being the big sister and she really shines when she's doing things to help them (and me) out. It's great!