Happy girl

Capturing laughter in my girl's eyes makes this photo an instant favorite. When you can hear the giggle just by looking at the picture, you know you've captured something precious.

And she had good reason to be happy. All afternoon running around outside in the spring weather, riding her tricycle, playing with her neighbor friend. (Who, by the way, calls her his "girlfriend" and says she is pretty and has pretty hair - - awwww!) Then we came inside and I let her go pretty wild with scrap paper and pictures and stickers and markers and scissors and all kinds of junk as I tried to get some scrapbooking done. I will have a mess to clean up tomorrow but it was worth it.

In other news... my reason to be happy: We are on the road to independent sleeping! Tonight was night 4 of me working on getting her to sleep solo. The first night was horrible! She thought it was a game and that she could play me. It took 90 minutes for her to fall sleep but she did! She woke twice and that wasn't so great. The second night was wonderful - - she went to sleep quickly and slept through the night for the first time since she was a baby I think! (Of course, I kept waking up to hear her, out of habit). The 3rd night, she went to sleep fast again. She woke up once and kept calling out "mommy" but when I went in there I saw that she was putting herself back to sleep (this is new!!) When she woke up this morning she said "Mama! I did it!!" And tonight, she didn't want to go to bed, but the refusal was short-lived and she was out pretty fast again. I am so glad I decided to dive in to this. We were both ready! She is sleeping better and I am too!