The Hickmans: Napping Solved?/Defiance sets in!

Well, from my last post I see I was struggling with the fact that Carter was taking an unusual amount of time to put down for naps sometimes...I am happy (knock on wood) to say that I think we've found a good solution. I know it sounds silly, but everyone talks about a good bedtime routine and well I started to go up to Carter's bedroom 5 minutes before I want to put him down and I read him a book or two - yes, we sit and read books!! Then, we rock for 5-10 minutes and i lay him down on his tummy with his pacifier and he's out! He's taken marvelous naps since Saturday. I'm not a fan of the tummy sleeping at night yet, because I usually check in on him a few times during his naps still. But, like I told Dave, even if this solution only works for a few days, it's a few days of less stress for me. As Dave says, 'when the mom is stressed, it's bad for everyone'. I'm still having issues with him not sleeping as long as I'd hope at night, but I guess one step at a time. We tried a bottle last night before bed with 1 oz. of formula mixed in to see if that would help and he slept only 4 1/2 hours, so it wasn't really that noticeable and I'm not even sure if it was the formula doing that? We're just taking it one day at a time. I can't believe that 3 weeks from now I'll be back at work though. Kind of crazy, but I'm actually looking forward to getting back into more of a routine of things and having some adult time.

On the Ethan front, well...let's just say he's defintely challenging his boundaries lately. I'm sure it's a factor of turning 3, still adjusting to having a little brother and really just seeing what his boundaries are. This past weekend he showed his true colors, by yelling at both Dave and I at different times and telling us things like "NO, DON'T DO THAT" (this was as we were carrying him to his room for a timeout) or "NO, I'M NOT GOING TO HAVE A TIMEOUT!". The time Dave went back in to talk to him to ask if he was not listening and he actually put his fingers in his ears and said he wasn't listening - my god, where does he learn this stuff?! Anyway, we're definitely on high alert for his defiant behavior to try to nip it in the butt!! Ah, the challenges of parenthood!!

We had a busy family week together, which was nice last week. Here are just a few pics of our events. Ethan started his sports class, which encompasses some basketball, soccer and t-ball, we went to the Shedd Aquarium, Morton Arboretum, Sandwich Fair and I took the boys into my work to show them off and we rode the train and hit Millenium Park.

Outside the Shedd Aquarium after lunch - nice background!