Sorry for the late blogging. It has just been "one of those weeks." While we are doing okay without Abbey (Leanne says she feels guilty for feeling as okay as she does) it feels as though the week has flown by in slow motion. All three of us (Leanne, Mia, and me) can swear that on multiple occasions we've heard Abbey thumping in the hallways, clomping down the stairs, or clicking on the hardwoods. And on more than one occasion, Mia says she has thought she heard Abbey coming down the stairs and simultaneously, the cats scurried for no apparent reason. So, I guess Abbey is still with us.

I haven't mentioned sleeping in quite some time, so here is the update. Grayson is still coming to our bed. He went through a phase a few weeks ago when he (well they) were sick with a cold where he'd be in our bed by 9-10. That is a royal pain in the you know what. But lately (last few nights) he's at least waited till we have gone to bed and turned out the tv/lights. That is helpful. But his new thing is not going to sleep easily at night. Before this week, he'd fall asleep quickly and easily - but this wee, he's been fighting sleep till 8:30-9:00. Which is a long time given that he is in bed between 7:45-8:00. And someone has to be with him. It is all just odd given that he goes to sleep 100% on his own at naptime. I am just chalking this up to one of his phases.

And Carter hopefully has ended his phase of middle of the night wake-ups. While he was sick, he'd wake up, cry, gulp down water (that I had to get up and hand him - evidently he can't find his water cup in the middle of the night even when it is in bed with him), and then go back to sleep. And several times this week, he'd wake at 5am and cry. I'd go in, tell him it was still nighttime and he needed to go back to sleep - and he would. He hasn't done this in a few nights, so I am hoping that crummy phase is over. Basically, we still aren't sleeping through the night. And I've more or less resigned myself to the fact that we won't until they are good and ready. And they will be. At some point, right? Right?

Yesterday was Easter and the boys had a good time. Here are a few pictures:

"Hey look Mom! Look what the Easter Bunny brought! Eggs filled with Goldfish!"


Gray sporting his new backpack/leash. Ok. First off, Leanne was opposed to getting these. While I've said for years that I would never put a "leash" on my kid, it was before I had 2 toddlers. I was advocating for them for a couple of reasons. 1) We we are going to TN in a few weeks. Our kids have a lot of energy to burn off and their day is going to look like this: car ride to airport in car seat, trapped in car seat or mom's lap on plane, trapped in car seat for one hour or more to get to Nana and Grandaddy's house. They need the time in the airport to walk - and holding the hand of a toddler while pushing a stroller and pulling a car seat (and wearing a backpack) is not as easy as it seems. And our kids aren't terribly adept at the concept of staying close by us. They are wanderers. This way they can walk through out the airport and get excerise while we have complete control over where they are and no one can take them. That is what finally won Leanne over - the fear of someone kidnapping them. And 2) We are planning on doing some weekend trips this summer and our kids will need to/want to get out of their stroller to walk. These will come in handy then too.

Grayson has discovered the jelly beans in the Easter pails Papa Page and Grammy sent. He stuffed 3 orange ones in his mouth and then couldn't eat them. I finally had to extract 3 partially chewed, slimy, and sticky jelly beans from his mouth. Lovely. Carter was just intereted in what was in the pail!

This chicken sings the "Chicken Dance" and obviously Gray was getting into the groove!