hooray!

Is it Quincy from Little Einsteins ("Eintimes,") who says, "I cannot believe it!"? That's what I'm saying tonight. It's not yet 9:15, and Lauren Clay is asleep. No tears tonight. I did have to put her back to bed 7 times... but the first 5 times were in the first 5 minutes and the last two came about 15 minutes apart. It took her some time to fall asleep (maybe 45 minutes), but she did it on her own. I did sit in her room and read a magazine, but I figure it's a good compromise from what our evenings used to look like. A couple of times I had to respond to her (she took off a wet diaper, so I put on a dry one; then she brought her empty sippy cup over to me when she finished her water. Each time I interacted with her, I was very matter-of-fact and didn't look at her. It's not easy, but I've learned these past few nights that she is working very hard to engage me, and when she does, I can expect her to respond with tears and jumping out of bed 3 or 4 times.) My next step is to kiss her goodnight and leave the room, but I'm thrilled with where we are now. I don't mind the reading thing, either; I've been able to finish a book and catch up on lots of magazine reading the past few nights. Actually, that would probably be a good time to read my Bible.

We had a fun day today. Spent the bulk of it with Uncle Jon and Suzi.
-We went to Georgetown for lunch in the "caf" with Grandaddy, Ga Ga, Jeana, and Robin (Lauren Clay took off running toward them as soon as she spotted them. That's big progress, too... it used to take a while for her to warm up to extended family in a setting like that.) Here she is eating a brownie with Robin (dad's brother):

Lauren Clay ran over to this bench after lunch and sat in it like she wanted us to take a picture. Jon and Suzi hopped into the pose:

The matriarch with her boys:

A young Marilyn Monroe?

We stopped by Poppy Joe's house for a visit. Miles stopped by, too. (Lauren Clay was pretty reserved around him, but she finally warmed up to him enough to yell over and over, "Hi, Gaston!" as we sat on the porch and he talked in the yard with Jon and Suzi.) I don't have pictures from that stop, but I do have one that Miles took with his iPhone after he and a friend dressed Poppy Joe up last Sunday. All I can say is that my grandad is a trooper. I think next Miles wants him to pose in front of Poppy Joe's new Cadillac.

I was sad to leave the Oldhams' tonight at 7:30-- which was actually later than I'd planned to leave-- because I feel like I should spend as much time as possible with Jon and Suzi while they're here. I was a little sad that we'd started tackling this sleep issue the week they are here AND the week of the first football game, but we just couldn't keep putting this off. There's never a good time to start something like this, just like there's never a good time to cut out junk food or start an exercise regimen. Now that we're moving on it, though, I am determined to see it through. Actually, at this point, it's almost like an experiment, and I don't want to give up now that we're into it. I also don't want to have to go through another night like we had Monday night... that's enough to scare anyone into sticking to the plan once it's in place and improving each day.