Sleep Update

Thanks to Good Night Sleep Tight by The Sleep Lady (and to Mandy for reading the relevant chapters for me) we now have a plan of action to eliminate the hours long drama of putting Charlie to bed. In conjunction with limitting his afternoon naps to no more than 1 1/2 hours and setting his bedtime a half hour earlier, I have started "checking" on Charlie, first 5 minutes after I put him to bed, then 10 minutes, and then in 15 minute intervals until he falls asleep. Last night it took 3 checks before he was asleep and he got out of bed 2 times. Tonight it took 3 checks before he was asleep and he got out of bed zero times!!! (As compared to say, 20 times a night last week.)

He still wakes up in the middle of the night with nightmares, but we are tackling one thing at a time.

Thank you Sleep Lady!!

"Reach And Pull!"

Charlie has finally realized that if he wears his life vest he can actually "swim" without anyone hanging on to him -- here he is doggy paddling across the pool while saying "Reach and pull!" over and over to himself, courtesy of his swimming lessons at the Y.

Not A Good Week For Sleeping

Really it just boils down to another excuse for not blogging this week -- but seriously, Mandy can vouch for me -- I have been UNABLE TO DO ANYTHING this week because I am putting Charlie to bed for 2 to 3 hours each night. Last night he was up and out of bed every 5 minutes till after 11pm which I think might be a record of some sort. I am hoping it is a backlash from our vacation last weekend where he got to sleep in the same bed as me, or something that can be solved easily by reducing or eliminating his afternoon nap; if not, I am seriously in for it!!

Shamelessly Lifted...

...from Mandy's blog, here is our attempt to get a picture of all 5 grandkids together for Mom's birthday. As you can see, we were less than successful thanks to Charlie being completely oblivious and Ben being sulky:

Chanticleer Garden

As if the zoo wasn't enough yesterday, we took Charlie to Chanticleer Garden outside of Philadelphia yesterday afternoon. It was very hot and we were all worn out but we still got some good pictures!

The Philadelphia Zoo

Probably the highlight of Charlie's trip was the Philadelphia Zoo with "Grampy Best and Grampy Paxton" yesterday; Charlie raced around like a maniac getting his fill of the lions and tigers and bears:

Academy of Natural Sciences

On Saturday we took Charlie to the Academy of Natural Sciences with Uncle Alex, Aunt Miki, Cousin Annie and Cousin Jay. Charlie had a great time, particularly enjoying digging for dinosaur bones with his cousins: