Weekend Update: Pictures of the Girls

We had a pretty mellow weekend. On Friday we had a fantastic morning at the beach with Rick and Jonas and Elliot. The weather was amazing: sunny and high 70's with no wind. The water was, of course, freezing but Lucy put on her little wet suit and had a great time frolicking in the water. We went to this great beach at the harbor that is totally enclosed so you don't have to worry about your kids being swept out to sea by a rogue wave. Josie spent the entire time eating sand and waving sticks around. She didn't spend as much time with giant pieces of seaweed sticking out of her mouth so we missed out on that comedy routine.

On Sunday we went to the YMCA and joined up. Then we took Josie and Lucy "swimming" in their pool. Lucy actually eventually went into the deep end by herself (Mitch was 2 feet away in the water) using one of those pool noodles and kicking madly. Of course she kicks with her feet straight down so she is totally inefficient. Both Mitch and I tried to tell her to lean forward and put her feet out behind her more but she was having none of it. You can't tell that girl how to do anything!!! (remind you of anyone?)

We have also been hard at work on obtaining an actual full night of sleep without being woken up. This is a pretty darn hard feat. Typically one or the other of the girls wakes them both up and simultaneous crying results for any length of time. In a desperate bid to get Lucy to stay quietly in her bed regardless of what Josie does, we went to four thrift stores in downtown Ventura and bought out their supply of quality stuffed animals. It is amazing the bargains you can get. I purchased 12 stuffed animals for $10 at one of the thrift stores. For around a $30 investment we now have five bags of stuffed animals that we use to bribe Lucy into better nighttime behavior. For every night that she doesn't wake up Josie and spends the whole night in her own bed, she gets a surprise in the morning. We are still getting woken up but at least she is staying in her bed. Tonight we upped the ante to she doesn't get a surprise unless she STAYS in her bed and is quiet (typically when Josie starts crying, Lucy likes to get up and come in our room to tell us that Josie is crying - as if I can't hear it loud and clear both through the door , which is like two feet away, and on the freaking monitor!!). We'll see if she earns a surprise tomorrow or not. So far she has already accumulated three dogs (honey, soft dog, and sit dog), a sheep, a cardinal, a t-rex, a cat, sully monster, and a bunny. When we get too many we'll go through the give away process and teach her about non-attachment and giving to others.
Lucy and her "surprises"