Does time truly change?

I mean, it has to. How can time move so quickly when you're on a vacation and so slowly when you're at home. Maybe it has to do with monotony. I'm not sure, but I can't believe Monday is drawing to a close already and we're looking Tuesday in the face!

Traveling to Galena was a dream. We never stopped one time except for James and me to use the bathrooms at a rest stop. We each took a turn and left the kids all in their car seats. My parents took Caden and Avery with them so we just had our 3 littlest so it was very quiet. Declan watched Dora's Puppy Power DVD (it's "Daa doo" = Dora to him) and the twins slept. The entire time. Not one peep! Granted, it's only just under 4 hours but still, we thought that was pretty amazing. I got to read some of the "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" that I got from the library and I'm trying it out...more on that later.

Kristi, before I forget, the jumper is from Southpaw Enterprises that we got for Caden. I can give you more info on it once I get home.

So let's see. We arrived Saturday early afternoon and got settled in. My mom and I took Caden and went to get groceries and eat at Culver's while everyone else stayed in the hotel/condos and ordered pizza. Then it was bedtime - Caden, Avery and Declan are sleeping in with my parents and brother and we have the twins. They are fighting a nasty snotty/full nose so haven't been overly happy here. And then James came down with it last night and today has been taking Alka Seltzer left and right and is just downright miserable. Right now we just caught up on Amazing Race online and he is now snoring next to me.

Ok so sleeping. Um, it's not going the greatest. Mostly it's Macey who doesn't like to settle down and go to sleep without a lot of intervention. The book I'm reading asserts that you put them down after a brief (but consistent) period of soothing, whether or not they are asleep. No problem, that's what we've always done with all of our kids. However, twins are a different ballgame, especially when they are sharing a crib. Macey likes to cry her blessed little eyes out, while Madelyn looks around and then finally goes to sleep without usually any pacifier replacement at all. Last night it took nearly 2 hours to get Macey to finally fall into a deep sleep on her own in the pack n play, and this included MANNNNNNNNNNNY times putting the pacifier back into her mouth (which I'm not even sure is "allowed" according to this book honestly) and tonight it took over an hour. Progress? Sheesh, it's frustrating. But this book says children wake up early and wake up repeatedly during the night because they don't get enough sleep, and putting them to bed earlier will help. So we're trying that. And we're trying to let them cry a little longer (maybe 10 minutes is all I can handle of full-out crying). So far, I can't say I am impressed with the results, but we ARE on vacation and they ARE sick. So we'll see......

Caden and Avery have truly enjoyed the indoor pool. It's nice to see the changes in our kids. Today I was able to take Caden AND Avery to the pool by myself for an hour! Previously, that would have been impossible, and mostly due to Caden, but recently he's come around and is really showing that he can be more enjoyable with things like this, which is SO good for a mommy's heart. Declan got in yesterday, but we put him into his floatie and he SCREAMED so loud I thought the whole place would come running. He was terrified. It took him a long time to smile again, but he did stay in the floatie for a good, long time. I think we'll try again tomorrow when James can help again.