Size 4 and on the floor

Where to start - Big happenings around the Hurley house, well.. Big to me. Let's start with the Size 4's -- Lily is now in a size 4 diaper. I am sure you are asking yourself at this very moment "What's the big deal? So Lily is in a size 4 diaper - Whoop D Frickin' Do!" Here's the kicker. Lily is 9 months old - Grace who was 26-27 months old when she stopped wearing diapers was only in a size 3. The largest diaper Grace ever wore was a size 3 and Lily is in - what looks to me - Baby Huey diapers. She is by no means an over sized girl - In fact she is below average for her weight... I just found is surprising and noteworthy.

Now I did say size 4's - plural - Lily is also in a size 4 shoe. The same size shoe Grace was wearing 9 months ago when Lily was born. Grace is at the moment only a 5.5 -- My baby is going to be the 'big' sister in no time. Poor Lula has trouble with shoes though - Her chubby little foot has such a high and chubby arch that I can fit so few shoes on her foot. It breaks my heart since I am so enamored with shoes - [Yes, Shelbi was at one time a bit of a shoe horse, though people who are new in my life might think this a lie. I live in my Birkenstocks today but I was all about shoes BC (before children) ] -- I hope it is simply baby fat and she will not have this issue forever. For now Kelli is reaping the benefits of Grace's many pair of PediPeds, since Lily has out grown all but one pair.

But on to the biggest news of all. Thanks to Grammie, a small white Toddler Bed arrived at our front door yesterday. Not wanting to take the milestone of putting the bed together away from Brian, but so excited about the big step, the girls and I went about moving all the furniture around in Grace's room to finally accommodate both girls, a crib, bed, dresser, changing table and a few of their favorite play things. Lily has been residing in the guest room for the last several months in the hopes that she would start to sleep through the night - no such luck. But the holidays are coming and so are the guests, so I needed that room back.

Big changes - all in one night. We put Grace's mattress on the floor where her bed will be - We moved Lu from her crib (Thanks for the loan Kelli) into Grace's crib and changed the bumper and added new dust ruffle from Nonie so that the crib would be unique to Lily. We hung a picture of Grace and Rylan and another picture of Grace and Lily on the walls. We added a few more butterflies and we were set for our first bed time with Grace not in a crib and Lily in a crib in "The Girls Room". I figured if I was going to change things, why not change it all at once?

So back to a bedtime routine - I have strayed from that routine quite a bit since the arrival of Lily, but tonight I was turning over a new leaf. We walked, played hard at the playground, came home and straight to the bath tub. Bath - teeth - pj's - music - story - bed. Lula, decided this new plan was not for her. I attempted to put her to bed first and quietly finish with Grace but Lily SCREAMED the entire time I was with Grace. So, slight change of plan - Get Grace settled, then take Lu to the rocking chair. Grace kissed me G'night, promised not to get out of bed and said "Sweet Dreams" I took Lu to the rocking chair and I heard for the next 15 minutes the 'Girls Room' door open and close. I had placed the baby gate in front of the door so there was no escaping - Although I did still gate the top of the stairs in case G turned into Houdini. When I rounded the corner and Grace (standing in the doorway) saw me, she immediately proclaimed "I'm not out of bed!" I had to laugh and say "I can see you knucklehead!" I put both girls in bed, lay on the floor next to G and held her hand for about 5 minutes. (It was AWESOME!) Then kissed her G'night and reminded her to stay in bed and go to sleep... She did not move from that bed until 6 o'clock this morning! I am so proud of my big girl!

Lula on the other hand was up at 1am and then up for good at 5am...