Very Exciting News from the Pruetz House!

Okay -- I lied. There is no exciting news. I just wanted to hook you and get you reading. I've got updates and news that is exciting to us, but nothing that any of you will jump up and down and do a cheer over. Unless you're psychotic. And if you are, please refrain from telling me about it. I just don't want to know. I've got enough to worry about.

Things are movin' and groovin' around here. The girls are making daily strides in their quest to go from potato-like creatures to human beings.

First and foremost, these girls want to move. Grace especially wants nothing to do with lying on her back, batting at the play gym. Instead, she immediately rolls to her tummy and starts inching her way toward something...anything. She's even managed to get her feet up under her and push up, so that she's like a little triangle with her bottom in the air. It scares the heck out of me -- only a glimpse of things to come!

Faith is also not content to stay in one place and she has figured out that rolling can be a mode of transportation. She spots something across the room and goes for it -- back to tummy, tummy to back, back to tummy, tummy to back. Again...it strikes fear in my heart.

The twins are also very interested in sitting up and thankfully, a new product on the market called a Bumbo Seat helps babies to strengthen the muscles they need to sit up. We only have one and may need to invest in a second one very soon!

The girls also started on cereal yesterday. Normally, babies start rice or whole grain cereal at about four months, but because of prematurity issues, we were instructed to wait until five-and-a-half or six months. They will be six months this coming Sunday, so we decided we were close enough.

Naturally, the first few sessions have been more for practice than they are for actually filling their tummies. But surprisingly, both girls have done very well. It didn't shock us that Grace attacked the spoon as though this were the last bit of rice cereal left in the world. She's already a pro.

Faith, our sensitive little girl, is a little more resistant to change (hmmmm...wonder where THAT comes from). She will take a bite or two, but then resort to pushing most of the cereal out of her mouth with her tongue. Often, feeding time ends in tears, too. It's what we expected, though, and knowing that Devin was the same way makes us feel confident that she, too, will learn to eat just fine. Devin's never met a food he didn't like. Except Burgoo. Sorry Aunt Shirley and Uncle John.

Along the same lines of filling our kids' tummies with yummy food that sticks with them, comes the most important part of enjoying parenthood: When your kids sleep through the night.

The girls have slept through the night once before, on September 8-9. Apparently, though, it was just a fluke, as they have been waking up around 3:00 a.m. ever since.

Now I never let Devin play me when he was a baby and he slept through the night at four months. I wasn't going to be a sucker.

But with the girls, I'm a total sucker. Maybe it's because they almost weren't or because they struggled so much in their first few weeks, but I just can't say no to them. I'm just now learning to let them "cry it out" at nap time and that has resulted in them just recently starting to nap in their cribs. Seriously. I'm a sucker, I'm telling you.

So, while I know they should have been sleeping through the night two or three months ago, I've just let it go on and on until now. Now that they have some real, solid food in their bellies, I feel better about letting them cry at night. I know it will only go on for a couple of nights before they get out of the habit of waking up, so starting last night, we resolved to make them sleep through the night. We braced for a few hours of early morning wailing.

What a total non-event it was, which only lends credence to my theory: They were ready a loooong time ago. They've only been waking up out of habit and not out of necessity.

Sure enough, at 3:00 this morning, a cry was heard from down the hall. Todd got out of bed, shuffled to their room, popped a pacifier in Grace's mouth and came back to bed. The next thing we knew, it was 7:30 a.m.

Here's to hoping this trend continues.

And Finally...

The holidays are upon us and that means only one thing: The Dawn Arrow Celebration of Lights. It all started last year when our next door neighbors, Billy and Lisa, decided to have the eves of their house lined with lights by a professional. Suddenly, there was neighbor envy and the rest of us (the other four families, including us) decided to do the same with their eves. This was only the beginning. Runway lights down the driveway, trees as tall as our homes wrapped from trunk to tip, spotlights, wreaths, etc. Driving down our street was like driving down the Vegas strip.

We've started early this year in an effort to be able to turn on our lights as soon as the last piece of turkey hits the colon. Todd has already lit our soffeting (we've decided to forgo the professionals this year in an effort to save a few bucks) and three trees in the front yard. Even our back deck is lit.

Soon I'll do my garland and lights around the front door and Lord only knows what new and ridiculously innovative products we'll be suckered into before December 26th. I'll be sure to post photos as soon as the decorating is complete on all of our homes.

There's a strong possibility that our street will be able to be seen from space, too. I'll see what I can do about a satellite photo.