Sleeping through the night!

Andrew's officially sleeping through the night now! Or if not, at least he's down to one 3am feeding. Several nights now he's slept from 10:30 or so until 6:30 in the morning, and the rest of the nights this week he's woken at 3:30 and 6:30. Sheer bliss! I think it's largely due to the fact he can finally successfully get his thumb in his mouth. For the last couple weeks he's been sucking (rather loudly, I might add) at his fist in hopes of finding that thumb, and once I watched him as he'd simultaneously turn his head to the side, dart his fist towards his mouth, and open his mouth. Over and over again. It really looked like he thought if he just did it fast enough, he'd catch it! I'd really meant to avoid thumb-sucking with his pacifier, but as much as he's liked it before, now he frequently spits it out and goes for the thumb. And it's kinda exciting seeing his personality and motor skills develop. We're open to advice! :-)

I do really enjoy our night-time snuggles though and will miss them when they're gone, but it's alot easier to handle both of them during the day when I get to sleep in those 3 hour blocks! Caleb's been great about watching him from 7 till 9 on the mornings I really needed the extra sleep (like, every morning for those first 10 weeks!), but it's sure nice being able to get my day started earlier.

He's started really engaging his toys lately too... this afternoon, I held his (hand-me-down from Grace; thank you, Joel & Sarah-Jean! ) carseat mobile over him while he laid on our bed, and he'd happily bat at the dangling bugs (they're really cute bugs!). Then he started grasping at one of them and just held on for quite a while. It was pretty sweet just watching him figuring it out.

Halloween 2010

We cheated a bit this year and did some costume recycling, but the kiddos hardly minded. Especially once we asked Grace if she wanted to dress up like Buddy, the lab belonging to a lady down the street - she loves to run out and pet himwhenever we see them walk by. I figure there'll be plenty of years to come to get more creative in our costuming! :-)

It was fun though; the Methodist church a street over from our house was hosting a Trunk or Treating event, with a hotdog supper and an organ concert. We timed it for just half the concert, not certain how long Grace would enjoy sitting and listening, but it was alot of fun. At the end, they did a Disney sing-along, and she was just catching on to Chim-Chimeney from Mary Poppins when they finished, and she was a bit disappointed they weren't going to sing it again. But then she got really excited when they started When You Wish Upon a Star - she said, "I know this one!" I think she was remembering Twinkle, Twinkle, but she still enjoyed hearing words she knew.

We did some Trick-or-Treating on the way home; Grace enjoyed getting things in her bag (thanks, Leslee!), but was a little confused why we weren't going in anywhere. When we were almost back to our house, we saw Pappy & Mimi who'd stopped by on their way home from Arkansas with a big bag of candy to satisfy all the trick or treaters who dropped by. (This was the first year Caleb and I've actually lived somewhere that kids came by, and totally forgot to stock up on candy. Oops! We'll be stocked up come next year though.)

11 Weeks & getting more sleep!

Andrew's eleven weeks old today, and slept through the night last night for the second time! The first time was Oct 30, after Mary's birthday party. I think he was so stimulated, he didn't sleep as much that evening as usual, and I ended up nursing through dinner. Didn't make dinner quite as easy to eat, but he slept from 10:30 to 5:30! So the past couple days I've been working to duplicate that and keep him awake and nursing more in the evening, and last night it worked - again he slept from 10:30 to around 5:30. Though both times, Mama was still up every couple hours waiting for her baby to wake up.