Two Days!!!

Wow-it has been over a week since I last posted...guess we've been busy...AND preoccupied with the idea that in TWO DAYS we will be heading to Galveston!!!!!  I've been counting down the days for pretty much the entire month, and now it's down to TWO.  Harper finally gets to meet her awesome Aunt Alyce and see her adoring Gramma and "Grandude" :-)  Can you tell I am a little excited?!?!  It will be so nice to get a little family vacay after a long, busy summer.  I am pretty nervous about flying with the baby, so stay tuned to see how that goes.  Fingers crossed for the best scenario possible: baby *peacefully* eats on the way up, sleeps while we're in the air, and either continues to sleep or *peacefully* eats on the way down.  Fingers crossed--reallllly tight! 

In other news, Josh and I have been trying two new things in parenting.

Number One: we've been working on getting Harper to fall asleep on her own without soothing.  That is going really well!  I am so proud of her.  For the last two days she has gone to bed on her own and  also fallen asleep for naps on her own.  Good girl.  After watching the funny scene in American Reunion (yes, we watched it...for nostalgia purposes!) where Michelle bounces their two year old to sleep-I said to Josh, NO WAY is that going to be us!  We've got to move on from bouncing/rocking/nursing/soothing to sleep.  Learning to self soothe is SUCH an important skill for little ones.  I know it can be a fight, and I'm glad she just kinda eased into it without any problem. 

Number Two: we've been working to get the babe on a more predictable schedule.  This one has been a little tougher.  Because for me, I would ideally like her to take 2 hour and a half naps during the day.  HA.  This girl never sleeps longer than 45 minutes at naptime.  I've tried all kinds of different tricks to help her stay asleep, but nothing has worked.  Right now I just leave her in the crib for an hour and a half whether asleep or not.  She's awake for a little bit before she gets bored and goes to sleep, wakes after 45 minutes (like freakin' clockwork), and then just kinda hangs out for another 30 minutes or so until I come get her.  I've been hoping she'd fall BACK to sleep of boredom after she wakes up at the 45 minute mark-and today she FINALLY did during her first nap!!!  YAY!  The second nap was not successful.  That's okay!  Baby steps for my baby girl!  One nap at a time :-)

Alright, signing off until we return from our beach vacation!  Praying Isaac steers clear of the Galveston gulf!  Will report back next week with some fun stories and some inevitably adorable photos of Harper's first trip to the beach!