Sleeping through the night

if you have a newborn, or have had a conversation about a newborn with someone, the likelihood of their sleep patterns has likely come up. You know, the customary "Getting much sleep?" "Are they sleeping through the night?". These conversations take place with the assumption that once they get older you will sleep more. But here's the reality (at least for us), movement out of the newborn stage has not equated to sleep for parents. This occured to me last night at 3 a.m. while I was tending to my four year old's bloody nose.

Sure, I have been up at night with Nora over the past several weeks. But, I have also been up with my other two kids. Elijah has had several bloody noses, bad dreams and necessary trips to the potty. Lillian has screamed so loud you are certain that something traumatic has taken place - only to learn that her dearly loved soother has gone missing.

Now I only have experience as a parent until age four, however, I was also a child once and I do recall that my parents spent many a late night waiting up for me (or at least lying in bed pretending to sleep while they waited for me to come home and try to quietly walk past their room to mine.)

See, what I'm beginning to understand is that I will never sleep through the night again. Eight hours of uninterrupted sleep? A distant memory. Not going happen again.

I think I need a nap.

No pretties

I tried to put pretties in Lillian's hair again yesterday. You can tell by the look on her face and the very large lower lip that we did not have success. Try as I might she does not let me put anything in her hair. She claims it hurts. I think she just wants short hair like her mom. :)

Say "Cheese"

A year ago we bought a DLSR camera which I have loved. Rarely does a day go by that I don't take a picture. I love to catch those moments in my kids lives when they are doing the things that make them kids. Playing with Lego. Jumping off couches. Experiencing life.

The kids have been pretty interested in my camera lately and in an attempt to distract them, I decided to haul out my old camera. They have taken great delight in it. It warms my heart to see this and I wonder if this is the moment that they will look back and say they started to have an interest in photography. It is so much fun to see them discovering the things of life.

I have also been reminded that kids are always watching what you do. I was told by Elijah yesterday to move to a certain place for a quick family picture. His voice sounded EXACTLY like mine when I'm trying to generate excitement for another posed shot.

Here are some shots of their photographic adventure. This first one warms my heart to see all of my kids together. Elijah is instructing Lillian on how to use the camera. (Which she still doesn't really know how to do but loves pointing it at things saying "Cheese".)