I'm trying to kill some time/distract myself while Owen is upstairs crying.  No, I'm not neglecting my baby, we're just letting him cry a minute or two (or 3 or 4) before intervening.  The boys are usually really great at falling asleep for naps and bed so when Eli started crying hysterically about 20 minutes after we put him to bed we figured something was really wrong.  After patting, rocking, trying to feed, suctioning his nose, etc. he is finally back asleep.  However, the fun part of the boys sharing a room is that if one cries the other hears it.  So now Owen has been crying on and off the past 20 minutes.  Let me also add the Chloë (who has a room across the hall from them) has been crying hysterically in her bedroom because she hears them crying and it upsets her.  Fun times here tonight!   I have an inkling that it all has to do with a little cold that Chloë brought home from preschool.  We have hand sanitizer out and we are washing our hands a lot--but we just can't keep her little toddler hands OFF the boys' faces!  I guess this kind of thing was bound to happen sooner or later.  She has been attending preschool since March 2011 and this is the first cold she has had since the babies have been home.  I guess we are due.   **As of this moment all kids are quiet..fingers crossed that it lasts**

I remember with Chloë at this age we would swaddle her, rock her and feed her until she fell asleep at nights.  Then we would tip-toe her over to her crib and veeeeeery gently place her in, and then tip-toe out of the room.  There was even a specific way to turn the door knob and close her door so it didn't make any noise.  We ended up doing sleep training with her at 6 months old.  One night we just didn't swaddle her, didn't feed her a bottle and rock her to sleep..and just put her in her crib awake.  We were shocked when she did great with the new routine and was having no problem falling asleep on her own by the 3rd night....and sleeping through the night.  With these boys we are trying a bit harder not to build some of these "bad habits" so we don't have to break them later.  We have put them down drowsy but awake from the get-go and I'm so glad we have.  We also ditched their swaddles as of last week and that has been great as well.  In fact, they both seem to sleep better without the swaddle!  

Owen & Eli running errands with me yesterday

Chloë's first pedicure.  Right afterwards she decided she didn't love it and said "I wanna wash my toes!" I had to convince her to keep the color on and that it would not mess up her sheets during nap.  (I was out of nail polish remover).

A friend of ours is married to a cop- he let the kids check out his patrol car.  Chloë was on cloud 9!

Feeding baby Eli.  

Testing out the bumbo chair at dinner last night.

Sitting on the stoop

We are supposed to be going up to Santa Monica (near L.A.) this weekend but if a cold takes over the household I think we'll be staying put.  Fingers crossed that it doesn't happen!  Just in case it does I better head to bed--may be a long night.