@lauk80: hi!! I saw your comment on the “dictator of sleep” entry… all I can recommend is figure out his self-soothing technique (LMW’s is rubbing her lovey on her face) and encourage it as much as you can while he’s eating and falling asleep. Every time you put him down he should cry a little less and be able to switch from crying to self-soothing when he’s ready. You can also do a form of crying it out where you let him cry for 5 minutes then go in and soothe him back to sleep (or just calm him down and leave again). Then next time he cries, let him cry for 10. Then 15, and every time after that, 15. We did this with Wagon Jr. (night sleep first, then naps a week after he’d mastered that) and even though it was DIFFICULT (really really difficult!) it worked and we’d be able to put him down awake every single time it was time to sleep. With LMW we are trying to avoid CIO as much as possible, and she’s been doing ok for the past few days. But it’s a day-by-day process! Most days I let her fall asleep drinking her bottle, then rock her for just a few minutes then put her down. She has gotten to a point where she’ll cry for a second or two, then fuss for a good 15 minutes before flipping over and settling in, then falling asleep.

@Mrs. Paintbrush: hehe.. totally ditch him and have Daddy do everything!! That’s what happened for us when LMW came along. :) Although these days he asks for both of us. Thankfully he’ll settle for either of us with a little persuasion. We are total freaks when it comes to the kids waking each other, but honestly, they wake due to street noise or their own waking cycles plenty, and they should be able to fall back asleep on their own anyway. Plus they both have white noise going so even though they can hear each other, it shouldn’t affect them too much.

And seriously.. those pigtails?? I DIE! I wish DD had enough hair for pigtails!! You have a gorgeous gorgeous family! :)