A good past week

This past week was just a really good week. I guess anytime that the seasons change you just feel a sense of refreshment and renewal. Or it could also have to do with the fact that Brian and I FINALLY, after 11 months, wised up and did what we should have been doing months ago...making Olivia sleep in her own bed all night long! We are shocked at how well it actually worked and how much better we feel. Since moving to Ripley we kinda got lazy and just would put Olivia in the bed with us if she woke up in the middle of the night. We were getting zero sleep and neither was she. It's amazing how much space a 20 pound creature can take up when trying to sleep! She was all over the place, kicking us in the face, stomach, etc. Finally Monday night Brian said "Whatever we're doing isn't working" and I just told him that I thought we needed to do what the majority of the people in America were doing and that was to let their child cry. And it worked! It was literally to the point that our night time routine with her took over an hour. We would lay her down in our bed and sing church songs and Christmas carols to her for at least forty five minutes trying to get her to sleep. The past couple of weeks as we were singing she would jump straight up and start playing "Pat a Cake" while we would sing. Precious yes, but so very frustrating! We would put her down, sing, and then we'd just give up and go back and let her play in her playroom while we waited to go to bed. Now that we have started to let her fuss, our nightime routine takes about five minutes tops. Brian and I both agree that the five minutes of her crying is the worst part of our day, but once we realize we haven't heard a peep out of her all night, then we quickly forget about how "mean" we feel like we are being!

Olivia and I went and picked out pumpkins and mums this week. Some of our new friends here in Ripley have a three year old little boy named Ace who Olivia has played with a time or two so his mom, Jessica, and I took them on Wednesday to the pumpkin stand. We had a good time, but I think Olivia Kate was more interested in Ace than she was the pumpkins. She really seems to love other children and I try my best to make sure she gets some time each week to interact with another "little person" even if it is just at church or at a play ground area. Fortunately there seem to be alot of stay at home mom's here, so hopefully I can continue to make an effort for us to all get together some.

This will be Brian's last week of school before Fall Break next week. He's really looking forward to the break. We are leaving Friday and going to Lexington, Kentucky, to visit some friends of ours for the weekend. I'm not sure what we are doing all next week, but I know he will be glad to just be able to relax some at home.

All in all our week was great, just really busy. I'm going to try to post at least once a week until things slow down a bit. We are in the middle of a kitchen renovation and our computer is currently in the kitchen, so as of today we are going to have to find a new place to install it, so we may be out of the loop for a day or two.

Hope everyone has a great week! Will post more soon