Milstones and Little things I want to remember...

BEDTIME
We reached a little milestone this week. Arnold put Reese to bed all by himself. When Reese was a new born, she wasn't very easy to get to bed at night. We tried the whole "put them in bed still partially awake and let them learn how to put themselves to sleep" thing, but it never worked with our little Reese. However, she started sleeping through the night at about 6 weeks so I've never complained about having to spend a little more time at night to get her to sleep. She also wouldn't go to sleep for anyone but me. Arnold tried a few times, but she seemed to think daddy was all play, no sleep. Anyway, as I mentioned in an earlier post, she has become very easy to put to bed lately and on most nights goes into her crib partially awake and puts herself to sleep. Some nights after family prayer, I put her binky in and she's asleep before I make it upstairs to put her in bed....So...last night I hosted my neighborhood book club and we decided to have Arnold try to put her to bed so I wouldn't have to leave my guests. I am happy to announce that it was a success! She went right to bed for him, no problems to report. I have to admit that I have a few mixed feelings about this. I'm excited that I'm not home bound by 8:30 p.m. anymore, but a little sad. Snuggling with Reese at bedtime was my favorite time of the day. I would sing to her and we would have our little conversations as she drifted off to sleep. I would talk, she would coo and giggle. The have been some of the best moments of my life. Time goes by way to fast!

CRAWLING
Reese is almost fully crawling. She can totally do it when properly motivated. What is this proper motivation you may ask; believe it or not it's a tall glass of ice water. Let me explain. Reese loves to drink out of Arnold or my glass of water. She won't have anything to do with a sippy cup, she wants the real thing. I have to admit she's not bad at it. With our help she drinks really well, with no spills. So, if we want her to crawl on demand we put a glass of water in front of her and she hops right up on all fours and goes for it. No toy does the trick, no binky, no blanky, no dolly, and no person...just a glass of water.

NO CHORES FOR MOMMY
Today Arnold left on a business trip. He won't be back until Saturday. We miss him already. Usually in the evening Arnold will watch Reese while I catch up on chores or work that I didn't get done during the day. Well tonight Reese was in the family room playing with all her toys. totally occupied.  So I thought I'd finish the laundry and Ironing, and clean up the kitchen. Every time I got up to do something Reese would protest and start complaining. It wasn't that she wanted me to play with her; she was fine playing by herself. She wouldn't even pay attention to me until I tried to do something. I was allowed to sit on the couch and watch TV, or sit on the floor by her, but if I tried to anything else she was not happy. I couldn't decide if this was really annoying because I couldn't get anything done, or if I should be thankful to my little best friend for insisting that mommy relax. I would give anything for a small glimpse into that little head of hers.