My last Friday of maternity leave.....I will be glad to go back to work however, Makenna has had the best week of her short life. She has been sleeping through the night of the last 11\12 days and is on a great napping schedule. It makes it so much easier to get things done around here. She has started to sit in her little BEBE POD, the small green chair that helps her to sit upright without falling over. She is talking, cooing and smiling all the time and whatever angst I was feeling earlier this summer has all but vanished. We have even heard a few short laughs!! Cassidy is excited to return to Mary's on Monday with Makenna in tow. Hopefully she won't drive Mary crazy (I mean Cass).

As we approach the end of my maternity leave we are beginning to "gel" as a family unit. Makenna is better with her colic and actually is turning into a pretty good napper. She is still waking once during the night, usually between 2-4am, and goes back to sleep waking again sometime between 630 and 8am. That will fit pretty good once I resume working. She is napping around 9am for 2-3 hrs and then napping again in the afternoon around 2pm for another 2-3 hrs. Only issue we have with sleeping is that she still likes to be wrapped in a "swaddle me" which is a sleeping bag\blanket that has velcro tabs to keep her wrapped tightly. She often is found sleeping with one or more arms\legs kicked out at the end of her sleep, but her arms flail and she wakes herself easily when not wrapped. Hopefully she'll grow out of that once she starts sleeping on her tummy. She can still get a little cranky in the early evening hours, but she is much better than she was even a month ago!
Cassidy is becoming more understanding about the amount of attention and work Makenna requires. She also is happy to see her sister smile back at her when she speaks. It seems Cass has a little more time to interact with Makenna without Makenna crying. She is excited about "Kenny" going to daycare with her in a few weeks. Our new thing to do with Cassidy is the Home Depot kids design projects. They have a new design projext the 1st Saturday of every month. She got her own orange apron and gets a pin with each project completed. So far we have a wheelbarrow planter, a hardware sorter (for screws and nails etc) and a birdhouse. Next month she can't wait to make a bean bag toss.