I'm So Behind!

So behind on the blog, on sleep, on cleaning, on laundry. On life. I'm just so behind.
Sleep is going so poorly with Imogene that it pains me to even type it out. Perhaps it's because she was sick most of January and February, but we can't figure out how the sleep train got so terribly out of whack for her. She had been doing pretty well, but we're back to putting her to sleep before we put her down. She cannot put herself to sleep now. Screams hysterically, sobbing to the point of giving herself hiccups and those can't-catch-your-breath little puffs of crying that kids/babies do when they have just cried too long. We spent 3 hours with her one night this weekend, and I spent almost 2 hours getting her to go to sleep last night. Hopefully Bill's very long hours at work will take a break so that we can work on getting her to put herself to sleep again. Meanwhile poor Lily falls asleep in her room waiting on me to come read her a book (after we've read together to Imogene). She's getting so big!

The weather has been amazing the last three days. We've made it to the park twice (plus being able to play after school) and Imogene and I walked to get Lily at school today, and they ate lunch in the stroller on the way home. What a relief it is to be outside in the sunshine. It completely changes your outlook on the day when you know you'll get to be outside. I even cleaned out the car yesterday just so I could be oustide. Apparently it was way overdue, because when Lily got in at school she said "Yeah Mom, you cleaned out my car, thank you so much. You did a good job. I knew you could do it." Alright already, I get the message.

Lily is getting into letters and numbers a lot these days. She was flabbergasted that she'd never noticed that the aisles in the grocery store and the registers have numbers on them. It was such a highlight for her yesterday. She had a lot of time to observe them, we shopped and then ate last night (love that about Whole Foods). Lily seems to recognize almost all the letters (I guess she has for a while) but now she's interested in the sounds they make. I have to say it's enjoyable to watch the wheels turning in that little head. She's left-handed, and Dr. B said it's normal for lefties to read backwards for a while. Like Register No. 14 last night was number 4-1. If she's "reading" a picture book to Imogene she reads the picture on the right side first and then the left side. I think this is going to be a really exciting time for her, this age of 4, and I hope I'm awake enough to help her enjoy it, and to encourage what I think is an early love of learning. (Boy I sound like a dorky, overzealous parent.)

Bill and the girls were doing something in the basement for me this morning and it was in a bag, and Lily came running upstairs and said "Mom, you are not going to notice what's in that bag okay. You are not going to notice."

"Mom what is your birthday going to look like?" (I think she meant what decorations was I going to have.)

Whenever she gets fussy or just too tired at night and she loses it over me asking her to brush her teeth or take her own clothes off (I'm such a meanie.) she'll say "Do you know why I am crying? I am crying because I miss my daddy. I need my daddy." Love how she tries to tug at my heartstrings in order to get away with something!

Today we turned off the TV (We put "pet star" from Animal Planet on in the morning since Imogene adores dogs, still.) So Lily wouldn't get dressed, so we turned the TV off. *Let's just put aside how the TV probably shouldn't be on in the morning, etc. etc.* Lily fussed her whole way through the arduous process of getting her dressed and then said, "Okay, I'm happy now. You can turn the TV back on."