It's a miracle.

I've just experienced a miracle. Andrew worked tonight and I had Gracie and Simon to sleep by 7 pm. It felt AMAZING. And it wasn't a drama at all. I've been dreading Friday and Saturday nights alone with the bedtime routine, but they did great!

After almost a week of waking lots at night and not sleeping as well during the day, Gracie appears to be back into her "LuLu" routine. We're determined to get our darling cruiser back and so the next two weeks we're committing ourselves to the schedule. Two days in, it's working wonders. We'll see what happens tonight. Gracie just puts herself to sleep so beautifully and is happy enough for you to leave her to go to sleep alone in her bassinet. The only time she cries is when her dummy falls out of her mouth, poor girl. I have begun to call it her new best friend and Andrew says, "Liz, she's not crying for us, she's crying for the pacifier!" Man, do I hope he's right. This go to sleep alone thing is very different to my philosophies of attachment, but I think we'll all be a lot happier and more attached to each other if Grace continues to sleep easily the way she's doing. Thank you, Grace, for a good day!

Oh, and I failed to mention her GORGEOUS full faced smiles today! They were amazing. She just grins, a big cousin Sally grin, and looks right into my eyes. I LOVE her smile. And she loved her bath tonight, too. And in her bouncer she was reaching out and grabbing for the little kitty and touched it! She still loves to stare at pictures and anything red or artistic.

Simon has been so cute with Grace. He comes up to her and says, "Hey Dacie, How you doing?" It's adorable. He still can be a little rough with his passionate cuddles, "You love Dacie SO SO much. You want to duddle Dacie" but today he seemed to be a lot more gentle. He calls her "my baby" and thinks she's "SO cute, and my favourite".

Other adorable things he's been saying lately. Before dinner tonight I said something about his teddy bear eating his lasagna and he said, "No mummy. Teddy bear doesn't have any teeth." And he's been calling everything "spicy". He'll say, "You no like the carrots (in the meal). They're just a little bit spicy." The other day he rubbed my unshaven leg and said, "It's a little bit spicy mommy." Everythings "that's a little bit spicy". I keep making mental notes to remember the funny things he says so I won't forget but then when I sit down to write them all down, I can't seem to remember....

Oh, he had his first trip to the dentist on Friday and was AMAZING! Andrew said they were so impressed by him that they brought in two extra dentists just to see the amazing kid sitting so well in the chair and opening his mouth upon instruction. He seems to take instructions from adults in these positions very well. The dentist asked what Simon drank and upon hearing of his juice intake she immediately told Andrew that he should only be giving Simon water and milk. Andrew suggested she tell Simon this instead. So she did and all day he was telling us that he can't have juice. Amazing! We were at the chemist to pick up medicine the other day and Simon was asking me what all the candies were called. One were teddy bear shaped gummy menthols for kids so I told him they were for children when they were sick, to which he replied, "Mummy, my teeth hurt, I need one!"

I think that from now on, I'll just visit the doctor or dentist whenever I need to get something through to Simon! I told him the doctor told me I had to sit still when feeding Gracie and that I should buy Simon a special toy he can only play with when feeding her. He picked out a Bob the Builder ramp and so far, that's been working as well and he only plays with it during feeds. We're trying to ump the discipline and routine with him as well, as he always does so much better with these in place. I especially have been slack since Gracie arrived, not wanting him to feel unloved. But I feel like he's adjusting pretty well and I need to be more consistent. It's hard, though.

Before bed at night I tell him the teddy bear picnic story, and then sing him the teddy bear picnic song. Tonight he said, "kitty and teddy are my favourites." And often mommy is his favourite too. It's so cute, when he says it. Yesterday Simon and I ran errands together for an hour. It is so much fun when the two of us go out together now, which has happened twice since Gracie arrived. He's so well behaved and so easy to manage. We both have commented on how much fun it is to be together and how happy we are. He'll say, "You so so happy. You love mommy so so much." I find it hard to give up all of our Simon and mommy time, especially falling asleep cuddling each other and nursing him (although I still am, he goes in phases of liking it and not liking it). But at the same time, I want more Gracie time too. One thing I don't like about the routine is that it doesn't allow me to sleep with her, hold her to sleep, or wear her the way I did with Simon. To be honest, I loved that. It was beautiful and I hope that Gracie is as cuddly as Simon is at the end of it. Because I just LOVE my baby cuddles.

Simon started day care as well! He'll go Monday and Friday mornings. He had his first day alone on Friday and did really well- staying there for three hours total. He did cry when Andrew left but Andrew hid and watched and said it didn't last long and wasn't a distressed cry. It was more because he wanted to stay inside and play with toys but it was outside playtime. Anyway, we love the childcare center and feel it's a great place for Simon and the teachers have been really impressed and happy with how well he's doing. Andrew actually didn't leave Simon and kept hiding and peeping in to see how he was doing and Andrew almost had tears describing what he saw- Simon so happily engaging with the other kids and teachers, singing and dancing and playing. Andrew will probably be the one to drop him off. I think I'd find it to hard to leave if he asked me to stay, so for now, until he's well adjusted that will be daddy's job.