I'm amending my previous post. Yes, hiring someone to get the boys to sleep through the night would be dreamy (ha ha ha), but I think that hiring someone to clean the house weekly is far more important. This summer ee hired an agency to come to do a thorough cleaning and then come bi-weekly to scrub the house. It was wonderful. But then came child care, formula, clothes, toys, gas to commute to work, etc and the much adored cleaning people had to go - leaving Leanne and I to do it. Leanne likes to do it on Thursday night so that it is done for the weekend. Somehow, Thursdays come and go and we are too exhausted to do it.

We've tried doing it on Fridays after they have gone down for the night and/or during morning naps on the weekend, but more often than not, Sunday night rolls around and we find ourselves dusting, vacuuming, wiping, picking up, and doing a whole cadre of things that need to be done before the work week starts. All the while muttering under our breath how much we hate to do it on a Sunday night. So, while a sleep training would be fabulous, a house cleaner would be divine.

**NOTE*** - We did a very smart thing yesterday. The boys went down for a nap around 9 (that is what happens when you get up at 6:20 on a Sunday) and were passed out by 9:30. Rather than tackling the house, we crawled back into bed and got another hour of sleep. It was incredible. We said it was the smartest thing we've done in 10 months. :) Of course, it meant that we were finishing cleaning the house at 9pm last night, but my,oh,my that nap was good. :)


We went swimming!!! Our gym has a huge family pool (complete with 3 water slides, a water mushroom, and a basketball hoop!) that we finally took advantage of.

Here they are after in the locker room donning their swim diapers and trunks.
Carter (L) and Grayson (R)

Carter really enjoyed the pool. He adores being in the bath and he just thought that the pool was a big cold bathtub without his toys!


Grayson was a bit more unsure. It took him quite awhile to uncling himself from Leanne and stand in the water (the entrance to the pool is on a gradient so kids/adults can sit in the water and get in gradually.) This was about 20 minutes after being in the water - he finally "agreed" to let me take him out and swirl him around - although he looks none too pleased, huh? :)


Do these look like kids who are ready to go to bed????