Bippity Boppity Bye.

Oh, I am so punny.

(get it?)

We're now on night 5 (yes, I had to count on my fingers) of being Bop-free, and I think we might be almost sort of completely done. And when I say almost sort of completely done, what I mean is that Rohan has gone to bed the past two nights with minimal rocking, minimal requests for the Bop, and NO crying. And we've slept through the night. I say we have slept through the night because we all know that a baby not sleeping through the night = a mom not sleeping through the night.

A quick aside: I looked a lot younger before having kids. I mean, I realize Luca's 3, and thus it's normal for me to look older than I did before her. But I do believe they are aging me. Today, I was asked if I was 'in my 30s' and while my ego cried "NO!", the calendar was all "Well, technically. If 31 is 'in' the 30s. I prefer to think of it as 'dipping a toe in the 30s pool'." So, you know, I blame the kids for looking 'in my 30s'. Thanks, kids. Someday I plan to show you pictures of how youthful and radiant I once was, and then mutter under my breath about how you ruined it for me. Sleepless nights = stolen youth, you know?

But, sleepless nights aren't the problem now. Because, remember, Rohan slept through the night with minimal fussing before going to bed the past two nights. Part of it, I think, is acceptance on his part that he's not getting the Bop back. But I also took a mildly different tactic last night, and tweaked it a bit tonight.

Last night, with no fanfare, I took him to his room, hugged and kissed him as usual, and put him in his crib and left. A few minutes later he was crying a little, so I returned and rocked him to sleep. He saw the Bop on the dresser and asked for it, so I obliged and then when he started to nod off I took it away and he was ok with that. (All the bops in the house are now cut, so this one was as well)

Tonight, I hid the Bop from his view. and when we got to his room he pointed, out of habit, to his dresser and asked for it. I showed him there wasn't one and then turned away from the dresser and rocked him for a few minutes. As soon as his eyes were closed, I put him down with blankie and left the room, and I have not heard a peep since.

I am hesitant to call it a complete success, since he has daycare and Grandma's house to make it through this week, but I think we're just about there!

-----------------------------------------------

On another note, Luca is writing some words now! She can do her name, though she wrote in pink pen on black paper and it didn't photograph well. So we practiced with other names as well:

This one says 'Bob', for her Uncle.

And this one says 'Jaimi', for her Aunt, but the letters are not in order.