Unconditional love

Evie, 4 months

Cora, 4 months

Cora is 4 months old.  And with every post about her, the biggest obsession of mine is her sleep.  She was doing pretty well with nighttime sleep for the last 3 months and then she up and changed her mind.  

It’s officially called the 4 month sleep regression.  Apparently it's when infants' brains are maturing to become more adult like and they start entering sleep in light REM cycles that go on and off throughout the night.  And they have a hard time sleeping through these light cycles.  The easy baby who only ever woke 1-2 times a night is now up 3 as a minimum, but usually more like 5. 
On the bright (dark?) side, we did decide to remove the lights from Evie’s room and she has since stopped getting dressed in the middle of the night.  So, you win some, you lose some.

Evie teaching "Criss Cross Applesauce"
from ballet

It’s crazy to think that Cora will be eating real people food soon enough (6 months is the approved time to begin).  I remember giving Evie her first banana.  She made such a mess but boy did she love it.  Then came avocado, and slowly every other food you could imagine.  Evie loved it all.  Wish that were still the case!  I’m excited to see how Cora does with food.  Right now I feel like all she does when she is awake is nurse, and then I lay her on her play mat and commence doing things with Evie.  When she can join us at meal time, I’ll feel like I’m somehow doing more with her.  And I bet Evie will get a real kick out of watching Cora eat, as Cora very much enjoys watching everything Evie does right now.  
 

Walking with her suitcase to the Inzi's

I should state a caveat to the comment above about curbing Evie’s night waking...  This past Saturday we had a huge dinner party.  18 people, including Will and I.  Since we had nipped the middle-of-the-night dressing sessions in the bud, Evie had been allowed to have the lamp back in her room.  She had been doing great.  Fast forward to our Valentine's party.  Evie was to spend the night at the Inzi's house (home of her most favorite little girl Gigi) so the noise didn't prevent her from sleeping.  Evie left for their house late afternoon and didn't look back.  She had packed her bag and was ever so excited to go.  According to Mrs. Inzi, Evie had a fantastic time playing with all four of her kids.  And then bedtime came, and Evie wanted to go home.  Mrs. Inzi was coming to the party anyway, so Evie came along with her.  We put her to bed and she went to sleep fairly easily.  Then about 10pm, I check the monitor and see her light is on. I go upstairs and find her totally dressed, crying that her door was locked, and that she wanted breakfast.  It was so loud and she was so upset I decided she could come downstairs to say "hi" and then would have to go back to bed.  She saw Mrs. Inzi and ran and sat on her lap, and asked for a peanut butter sandwich.  Oh, why not.  Maybe she'd sleep in tomorrow.  Gave her a sandwich and about half way through she looks at me, starts crying, and says she wants to go back to bed.  Happily, my dear.  Evie was up pretty much the rest of the night, screaming uncontrollably many times.  And then she was up for the day at 6am.  So much for sleeping in.  I thought for sure she'd take a nap that day, but no such luck.

Calendula hair-do

At this point, exhausted or not, Evie takes maybe one nap a week.  I still put her in her room for obligatory quiet time, and regret it almost every time.  Last week, instead of napping, she'd run into her bathroom, get out her little potty, and take a dump.  When I came to get her the first time, I saw the biohazard, laid Cora on Evie's bed and said "please watch her quickly while I wash this out." Evie did a great job watching her.  So great that, when I returned, I found Cora completely naked as Evie was changing her clothes and diaper.  And Cora was peeing all over her bed.  After that happened twice (yes, ALL of it happened twice.  Don't ask me why I let her watch Cora again and then found Cora naked peeing. Again.), I told her I would have to take away the potty if she did it again.  Next day, I come in to find her spreading sunblock (which she had gotten to by climbing on her pedestal sink and opening the medicine cabinet and reaching the very top shelf) all over her floors, bed, step stool, dresser, etc.  She told me she was cleaning.  I smiled for a half second, because she was so endearingly excited to announce she was cleaning, before then asking "what are you cleaning?"   "The poopy!".  Oh.  Shit.  Literally.  She had once again pooped in the little potty, but knowing I'd told her if she did it again I'd take it away, she tried to clean it out.  By using 160 wipes, and putting all those wipes into the toilet.  And putting the still dirty potty into her tubby, which still had tub toys in it from last night.  So, let's just say the sunscreen all over her room wasn't doing much to help clean up anything.  But she was super excited nonetheless.  Oy.  So we not only took away the little potty, but also removed all toiletries from her bathroom.  The next day, rather than napping, she was "cleaning" by dumping her water bottle all over the floor.  Or another day when she decided she needed some lotion and put thick calendula ointment it all over her hair and body. Like I said in my last post, this independence is both delightful and terrible.

It's a good thing they're both so damn cute.