SSSSLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPP!!!!!!!!

Hallelujah!!! It has finally happened!!! Since Saturday night, Olivia has been sleeping nine hours straight! That's four nights in a row!! It's a miracle!! It's pretty funny actually...Amanda has so much extra energy, she can barely stand it. Ah, the joys of sleep! So, what finally did the trick? We're not 100% sure, but it seems establishing a routine combined with Olivia learning how to soothe herself back to sleep is what finally tipped the scale in our favor. We'll feed Olivia around 7:00 then she gets a bath around 7:30. Between 8 and 8:30, Amanda will just hold Olivia getting her calmed down and sleepy. By 8:45, Amanda has Olivia in her crib...usually not asleep, but very very close...and Olivia just puts herself to sleep. There was one night earlier this week in which Olivia was rather fussy and did not want to go to sleep, but Amanda stuck to the routine and put Olivia in the crib and closed the door. For five minutes, Olivia cried and screamed, but since we littered the crib with pacifiers (thanks for that tip, Jen!), she found one, and in no time, she had put herself to sleep. We're so happy, we can hardly stand it!!

Earlier this week, Amanda took Olivia to a nice little autumn scene outside one of the business here in Amarillo. Amanda put Olivia in her Halloween costume (a sweetpea!!) and snapped some very cute pictures.




Yesterday, Amanda and I took Olivia to Wildcat Bluff Nature Center. It was a bit breezy and didn't quite go as well as we had hoped. About half way through our outdoor excursion, Olivia started getting fussy. She may still be a bit too small for that large backpack system...so we just cut our losses and called it a day.

Stop for a little snack on the trail.

Backpack trek with dad.

She's got the lean going.

No more backpack ridin' for her until she grows a little more.

Here some other pictures from the past week.

Her first Halloween is coming up!

You guessed it! More crazy hair!!