2 movies, 2 photos

It has been an eventful weekend here in the Gates' household... 

First off, an update on the Binky War...  I am still winning!  Not to say that Lia hasn't put up a hell of a fight, but it is safe to say that we are making progress.  She has been totally binky free for the last 4 nights in a row and slept through the night successfully each time.  Friday night was probably our toughest battle because the entire bedtime process took from 7:00pm - 10:30pm because she was just so mad, then overtired, then mad again.  I gave in and gave her the binky at about 9:00pm b/c I knew she just needed to go to sleep and all she did was take it out of her mouth, look at it, and then threw it across the room.  As if she was saying (at least I prefer to think this is what she was saying) "I'm a big girl, I don't want a stinking binky!" and then probably immediately regretted that choice...  haha.  She finally passed out in my arms (no binky) at 10:30pm - whew.  We have started to do our normal prep routine and then just lay her in her crib even if she is awake to let her learn to get herself to sleep instead of Todd or I up there doing the "baby sleep war dance" (all you parents know exactly what this is...) for 45 minutes while she struggles against it.  So, we started this technique yesterday and I like it better.  She is still is upset and cries but the time has reduced from 20 minutes to 15 minutes and most recently I put her down and she fell asleep with minimal issue within 5 minutes.  I'm not ready to declare full-on binky victory yet, but we are rounding a corner I think. 

Next, we borrowed a fun push toy from Mady to see if Lia was ready for one of her own - see what you think:

And finally - a new sound we have been hearing around the house for the last day or two... so cute!!

See ya later dudes!