Daddy's Girls

In our continued efforts to help teach Etta to sleep through the night, we had been doing the "Sleep Lady Shuffle". This worked wonders when Addie was having trouble falling asleep on her own when she was around Etta's age. You start off right by their crib at night, not talking to them much or touching them, just physically present. You go to that same spot if/when they wake over night. You stay at that position for a couple of nights, then over a span of 2 weeks or so you progressively move farther from their bed until you are in the hall. Instead of just sitting on the ground, we brought a single mattress up for this training.
The girls loved the mattress on the ground because they got to climb and pretend to sleep on it. Their favorite location by far was when it was in the closet. I had decided the closet was better than the hallway because with the door from her room open to the hall she would hear too much noise from her big sister.
So instead I put it in the closet that connects Etta's room to ours.  It was a nice snug fit in the closet and I joked that it was Matt's new bedroom. Really, though, the girls inhabited it as much as possible.

Etta might scream the entire time she is in childcare at the gym, but Addie does well. The childcare worker has this little routine (she is a stickler for doing things a certain way: her way). First thing, wash the hands before entering. When we first enter we take off shoes then she wipes the girls eye gunk and noses. She is very thorough about the nose cleaning portion and usually has the kids lay on the ground. So on about the fourth time we were there, Addie took off her shoes then laid herself prostrate on the floor and patiently awaited her nose excavation. It has been the same ever since. Addie lays down with a smile and waits to have her nose cleaned while Etta clings to me and sobs. 

This most recent time I picked the girls up after my workout, I found braids in Addie's hair. Addie will hardly sit while I brush her hair. She cries and fusses if I attempt a ponytail, but she will let someone she has seen not even once a week since Oct. braid her hair. Go figure. So here is a picture because it might be quite a while before I am granted that privilege. 

And Etta wanted to say "hi" to the camera and get a picture since big sis did. 

One of Etta's new words is "dance". She will sit on the hearth and bounce her bum and say dance. Then if we do not respond right away, she will try to make it even more clear what she wants by attempting to open the tv cabinet since that is where we play music from. When she sys dance she wants two things: us to turn the music on, and to pick her up and dance with her (or swing or run or jump).

Matt has Addie. Addie has Lion.
Matt has Etta. Etta has Dog-dog.
They sure love their daddy!