Aunt Amber Said

Sleep training. Ugh.

Let's recap. I suffer with other people's children daily. I force them to learn through tears, screams, kicks, bites and mountains of developmental disabilities. And it doesn't phase me. I walk out the door and smile feeling good about the chaos I created and ended in an hour's time. In fact in my office I'm well loved and hated for being strict and firm. Hard core.

Enter motherhood and an infant that refuses to sleep through the night. Oh trust me I know why. I co-slept for during her first few months, especially when her dad was in Africa and Pippa and I were traveling across the West. Then we came home and moved into a new house, took a little road trip, I started school and BOOM! I was a zombie sloppily wiping sleep from my eyes and drool from my text books.

In a not so rare fit of self pity, I called my sister Amber and asked about her baby who is a two months older than Pippa. He's sleeping soundly through the night. Pippa was waking up every 30-45 minutes and wanted to be fed and held for nearly an hour. And that's when Aunt Amber said the awful obvious truth: Pippa needed sleep training. So we cried it out, for two hours at a time that first night. Every time Pippa took a breath and wound up for another shriek, I just looked her in the eye and told her to sleep "because Aunt Amber said so."

Yep, strict and firm.

Reunited

School has officially started for me, which means summer has officially ended. And in some ways I'm glad. Pippa was too young to wear sunblock, and the humidity out here negates the shade, so we spent most our time indoors anyway. We also fit in two family reunions, one built around my brother's wedding and the other built around a NASCAR detour. Both extraneous events ended with tired eyes and huge smiles and to prove the success of our relations with our loved ones, I'll post some photos.

(Disclaimer: We constantly loose and misplace our cameras. Even when we've packed them in our pockets for the event. So we don't always have pictures of everyone we'd like to. Blame it on bad planning.)

Swimming in the river, a daily occurrence in Arkansas.

Who knew there was great shopping in Mena? These girls.

The non-photo bombed edition. I was in big trouble for ruining the family portrait...

Pippa's blessing the day after Travis and Jessica were married.

Those under 10 nearly outnumber the rest of us!

The Skipper's crew for Pippa watching.

Infamous group hug.

Sister photo. Did I mention we all had babies over the year?

Yai Yai and Papou