Sleep training, take 5000

After 6 months (not including the 4 years of the other kids), I am officially sick of never having 8 hours of straight, uninterrupted sleep, so I decided that Victoria was going to have to cry it out. The Ferber method never seemed to work with Kiera and Ian was a decent sleeper, so we never had to use it on him, but Victoria has been waking up every 3-4 hours during the night where I ended up having to feed her, which was not making me a happy camper.

Night 1 - started crying at 1:30AM, I did the check at 5 minutes, 10 minutes and another 10 minutes, then she slept until 7AM. Looked promising

Night 2 - started crying at 3AM, went in once and then didn't need to go again until 6:30. I was hopeful.

Night 3 - slept through from 9PM to 7AM. Bring out the champagne!

Night 4 - cried at 1AM and then again at 4AM, went in twice for each, but what the heck is going on?!?

Night 5 - started crying at 10:30 PM - this sucks!

Soother all gone

Even though he only used his soother for sleep time at home, we felt it was time for Ian to give up on his soother. Plus, it was getting very worn out and I was feeling too cheap to buy another one. So we convinced him that he should give it to the garbage man. He seemed fine with it, until he saw the garbage truck drive away and he began to realize that his soother was not coming back.

I was able to distract him easily enough with a promise of a cookie, but he became a wreck later in the day when Kiera kept asking him if he was sad that his soother was gone. Nothing like a little sisterly concern.

It has been a week now and he has only asked about his soother a couple of times and is satisfied with the answer that the garbage truck has it. Although I am beginning to wonder if that soother had magic powers since Ian has been whiny and does not eat as much. On the plus side, we can now understand him when he talks and he does not have that rash around his mouth.

The Princess, Stinky One and Chicken Little

Kiera was in heaven, since she was able to dress up as 3 different princess/fairies - Tinkerbelle for he school parade, Belle for a friend's party, and princess in pink for trick or treating. Thanks to all the generous aunties and amah for providing such an assortment of wardrobe.

Ian, on the other hand was not into wearing any costume and it was only by pinning him down did we manage to get him into the skunk outfit. However once he realized there were treats to be had, he did not mind at all.

Victoria did not know any better, so she was fine being put into the chicken outfit.

Getting ready for Christmas

We went out Christmas tree chopping for the first time ever. Took all the kids and they had a blast. It was a Christmas tree farm out by Rockton and we thought we had done well by not immediately chopping down the first tree we saw, until we went on the tractor wagon ride and realized that there was a whole other section of trees to choose from - doh! Nevertheless, we picked a good one, if a bit wider than we expected once we set it up at home.

ballet

Today was Kiera's first ballet recital. It was more of a demonstration of all the things they learned during the year, but it was at the Theatre Aquarius and so they were on the big stage for about 15-20 minutes.

Kiera spent most of the time looking for us in the audience and looking a little like a deer caught in headlights, but she did great and said she was only a little nervous. She did enjoy it and the applause. She has been showing off the videos to all who want to watch. See below for a short excerpt.

Kiera's birthday

For Kiera's birthday this year, the one thing she asked for (and received, thanks to her Goo Goo Lianna) was a Belle dress. (We saw Beauty and the Beast musical over the Christmas holidays and has been fascinated by a fancy ball dress ever since. In fact, I think she was most upset during the show when Belle changed out of the ball dress and back into her regular clothes; and only perked up when Belle wore the dress again in the end.)

She wears her new Belle dress whenever she can (even to school) and dances around the house even more than usual. It has also gotten Ian into the dancing mood. Although his dancing usually consists of running around the house with his hands in the air until he hits a wall.

Ian, Scarface

Ian has been going through a bit of a clumsy phase this spring and seems to always land on his face to break his fall. The good thing is that other than a few tears when he first falls, it doesn't seem to bother him. Unfortunately, it always seems to be on the same side of the face. These are pictures from two different falls. Just when the first one healed, he hopped off some stepping stones at school and scraped the same spot. We are thinking of getting him to wear a helmet all the time.