We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

The other day I was telling Madeline and Avery all about the carnival that we were going to take them to when Nicole came home from work. After explaining to Avery that no, there are no dragons at carnivals (?), I filled their little heads with visions of cotton candy and whack-a-moles and mini roller-coasters designed just for their mini bodies. I even opened up the website and showed them pictures of the rides and attractions. I managed to whip them up into a fine frenzy until I clicked on “more information” and noticed that the carnival doesn’t open until the weekend. Which is when we will be in Florida. Which means no carnival for them and lots of back pedaling for me.

Thanks for all the sleeping ideas/suggestions/plans. Nicole and I talked about them and came up with a plan. Of sorts. We will enact this plan after we come back from Florida, the theory being if we get traction this week we will only lose it while (whilst?) in Florida on vacation at Nicole’s parent’s house for a week. So now we hold steady and hope we aren’t incurring more sleeping damage that can’t be undone.

One plan that is especially appealing is putting them to bed at different times. Since they share a room, it is almost absurd to expect to put them to bed and not hear a peep. They are too little for that. But I am fairly certain we can get Avery to sleep in about ten minutes and then try Madeline. This is why I love blog friends: Neither Nicole nor I EVER thought about that. That was a light bulb moment for us.

In other sleeping-related news, the girls are now almost two weeks without pacifiers. Two weeks! Madeline still sometimes looks for hers at night on her jammies, where we usually snapped it. It breaks my heart to see her searching for it. But in general taking their pacifiers away was a relatively simple task and much easier than I thought it would be. I think I have harder time with it, as it represents an end of sorts of babyhood. But take it from me: If Madeline can give up her pacifier so easily then almost any toddler can.

We leave tomorrow, which means I am having my little pre-airplane flight panic. I should be taking an ambien right about now and getting some sleep, but for some reason I always hoard those little white pills for an especially rainy day. In terms of stress levels, it doesn’t really rain much harder than this. I should be cutting one of them in half and taking it now.

And there is so much change on our horizon. We are leaving with two-year-olds and coming home with three-year-olds. I cannot believe their third birthday is next week. Already I have noticed that they are more demanding: Their requests have increased from cake to cake plus presents plus balloons plus candles. When we come back, I am hoping we will effectively change their sleep habits and reestablish a sense of evening normalcy. How we got away with years of a fuss-free 6:30 bedtimes and two-hour naps, I’ll never know. But we are going to try our hardest to recapture those glory days. And there are a couple other things that I am required to remained zipped about for the time being. None of it is bad at all, but still, I fight against change with every ounce of energy in my body. Because I am a lover of routine, a creature of habit, an organizer. Even good change rocks my world a little. And I am excited and impatient, which is never a good combo. Never. I am trying to just relax and enjoy. These next ten days should help considerably in the relax department.

Pictured above, I was at the playground and the girls were wearing these dresses and a mom came over to me and asked if I made them myself. Not sure if that was meant as a compliment or not.