HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY, JAKE!!!

My sugarbear's 4th birthday was yesterday. I can't believe how the time has flown. I'm sure Olivia will be 4 before I know it, too. He has been SO excited about his birthday. He is as such an incredibly fun age. Santa Claus has also become very real to him. We have frequent discussions about where Santa lives and yesterday he watched The Polar Express for the 10,000th time so he could see the North Pole. He requested and had a Lightning McQueen (from the movie Cars) party. It was a big hit. My friend Stephanie and I bought a jumping castle together about a year ago and the kids love it more than anything else. Jake got lots of good presents including a child friendly digital camera from us. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures by photographer Jake in the near future. Olivia had a good time at the party. She was shy and quiet at first because of all the people, but by the end of the night she was jumping around the jumping castle and running across the room to jump in my nephew Chase's arms. Jake and Olivia both had a really good time and we were all beyond exhausted last night! I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever get over this jetlag. Everyone tells me it's normal for it to be worse coming this direction than going that direction, but it's been a week! I am starting to feel a little less tired though.

Speaking of feeling less tired, Miss Olivia slept in her own bed last night until 4 o'clock this morning!!!!!!!! This is HUGE!!!! I was so excited. It was very nice to snuggle with Mike again. I've sure missed cuddling with my husband these last few weeks! When she woke up I went and got her and put her in bed with us and she fell right back to sleep and slept until 7. This is such an amazing improvement. You just don't know! Now if I could get naptimes going well, we'd be a happy bunch. I've tried several different things with Olivia at nap time and none of them work. She's absolutely exhausted so I know she needs a nap. It's not that she's out grown naps. She just hates hates hates laying down. When she realizes that I'm going to start trying to get her down for a nap that's when the screaming starts. Yesterday it went on for over an hour before she finally fell asleep. I've tried walking her, rocking her, singing & not singing, laying down with her in assorted places, letting her lay on top of me. None of this works. She just screams. This is as you can imagine frustrating beyond belief. Our social worker keeps telling me to think of her as a newborn and that she was born when we got her so I should expect her to sleep like a newborn - which is of course very unpredictable. I'm trying to remember that. I really am trying, but it's difficult when I'm watching a 2 1/2 year old scream bloody murder. I'm sure that it will get better with time.

Other than nap time, things are going great! Olivia and Jake get along really really well. I'm so happy about that. She's really just a funny funny girl. She and Jake together are just as I expected - a total riot! They are so much fun! Well, except at Wal-Mart because neither one of them wants to ride in the buggy. Mike had been trying to figure out how to keep me from shopping at Wal-Mart so much and I think he's found a way. Right now I've put in a Baby Einstein DVD to see if she'll watch it and this is the first video she's been interested in. Jake is still fast asleep. He woke up around 3 crying his eyes out. I held him for at least half an hour before he calmed down. He never would tell me what was wrong. I thing he must have had a bad dream. It was so terrible. My poor angel. He never wakes up during the night. He's the best sleeper in the world. Probably why I'm having such a difficult time adjusting to Olivia's sleeping. Mike reminds me that Jake wasn't born this way and that I "conditioned" him to be a great sleeper and that I can do the same thing with Olivia. I had a lot more time and energy when Jake was growing up though! I have a 4 and 2 year old now! Holy cow!!!!!! How in the heck did that happen? I wish you could see Olivia. She's sitting in a little mushroom chair with her pink pj's on and a little Vietnamese flag on a stick in her mouth. Well, now she's trying to stick the flag in the vcr. Oh dear. I'm never going to get this post finished!

Alright. I have to get back to being a Mommy now. By the way, Happy 1 week as an American girl, Miss Olivia! (Now she's naked and saying bath. I've got a busy day ahead of me!)