W...X....Y... and......

The "Z" has been missing a little bit lately in our home. Carter from 6 months on (we sleep trained him at 6 months) has really always been an incredible sleeper. Sleeping always from 7:30 to 7:30 with a nap at 10am and 2pm. A mother's dream child for sleeping really. He also USED to just stay in his bed or in his room .. never cried and just said goodnight after a bath, a story and a prayer. We would give him a kiss and then off he went into dream land for 12 hours. We were spoiled, but lately Carter has been the total opposite! For a few weeks now he has been taking up to 3 hours to PUT to bed... first it was "I'm so scared" now it's "I just want to play" or "I need to go potty".. the list of excuses goes on... he was constantly getting out of his bed no matter what we try. Carter HAS to sleep with this light on...



If we turn it off when he falls asleep.. he will FOR SURE wake up in the middle of the night to come to our room and tell us that its to dark in his room.. Its like he has an internal clock that goes off at 3am just to check that his light is still on lol I really (at this point) wished he was still in diapers, in a crib and really just a little baby again. This stage is HARD especially when we have always been used to him just going to bed. Over the past few weeks, I really feel like we have tried almost everything! First, because he was scared of his room.. we changed it all around.. took out anything that seemed "scary" to him. Then we tried a more relaxing bed time routine... a hot bath.. nice lotion.. a calm story, only speaking in a calm gentle voice... that was a bust! After two hours of that .. we broke... "CARTER GET IN BED RIGHT NOW!!!" ... <- ya.. kinda shameful lol. I felt defeated! We tried taking his nap away completely.. OH MY HECK.. by 3pm he is a complete disaster! So no thank you.. back to one nap a day.



So this week has been so much "tough love" as people call it. I am firm with our schedule. To the minute! I do not give up and eventually he falls asleep... and STAYS in his bed! Just over the last two days, Ive really felt like we have been making some good new progress! Not only was Carter falling asleep at night until 9:30 or 10 sometimes.. but he was also waking up way earlier.. like 6:00ish.. again.. no thank you. Yesterday morning, I had enough.. I would be ok to get up with him that early IF he was not tired and still a relatively good boy in the day but waking up that early for Carter just means a day full of tantrums.. so I did it... I locked his door. He HATES that more than anything. So much so that he will actually kick and body-check the door. I have to stand quietly on the other side of the door so it doesn't break.. lol yes again.. I'm not proud of that. But I did it yesterday morning and he eventually went back to sleep until 8:30 and he was so good yesterday (because he wasn't completely exhausted!)! This morning, he came into our room at 6:08.. I calmly got out of bed and said "Carter, its still night time.. go back in bed. If you come out of bed again, Mommy will have to lock your door." He walked back and got in bed and slept until 7:30 .. PERFECT.. now he knows Mommy means business!

But when he does fall asleep, he looks so peaceful and wonderful.. I just want to cuddle and kiss him. But I don't dare.. just incase I wake him up! That would be tragic!







Having a toddler is tricky..trying to read minds.. and understand what they understand.. all while trying to keep your eyes open from exhaustion. But one thing is for sure.. I could never live with out that little boy. He is my life.

As for my second little prince charming. He is growing up so fast!





I feel like he just went through a huge growth spurt. This morning he cut his 10th tooth! WOW now he has his four centre bottom teeth, his four centre top teeth and two molars.. top left and top right! Crazy! I can hardly believe that he is almost one.. and Bentley.. he sleeps just like Carter used to .. 7:30 to 7:30 with a nap at 10am and 2pm! Its glorious! Thank heavens for baby schedules!





As for our third (really he was the first) furry baby.. he still sleeps like a charm!



I am so excited to spend this weekend with my family! We are celebrating Bentley's birthday for him on Saturday and going to Ghouls Night Out at Heritage Park with our boys and some friends on Friday night. Carter is so excited to wear his halloween costume and I just finished making Bentley's costume! Its going to be so fun!

Hopefully we can continue to look for this missing letter "Z" in our home. Im pretty certain I can get it back if I am consistant .. and I can definitely say I'm determined to, so wish us luck! Good thing Carter's so darn cute!