Scarlett and Clark - 16 Months

15 months and 20 days. That's how long it took for Scarlett and Clark to completely stop night nursing. Praise the Lord, we are all getting more sleep! The day after Easter Rob and I decided it was time to cut off night nursing for good. Scarlett must have heard us talking, because she decided to sleep through the night on her own. With the exception of a few teething wake ups, they have both slept through the night since. I thought it was great to only have that 5 or 6 am feeding, but them sleeping until 7am is so much better. No more early mornings of me laying in bed trying to decide if I should just get up or if I can get another hour of sleep. Bed time is between 7 and 8pm each night, and they consistently wake up with the sunrise each morning, close to 7am.

Now that they aren't nursing at night, they only nurse two times a day, nap time and bedtime. Nap time always results in them falling asleep on my lap. I think they enjoy those nap time snuggles as much as I do. I felt like they were going to drop their bedtime nursing, but now that they aren't nursing overnight, they have ramped up their milk consumption at that nursing session. At some point over the next 30 days, we will completely drop their bedtime nursing and start having a glass of whole milk with bedtime stories.

We are spending large chunks of our days outside. Clark loves bubbles. Scareltt loves sidewalk chalk. Sometimes she even draws with it instead of just eating it. They both love testing my patience and getting too close to the street. We have introduced the Cozy Trucks, and they really enjoy sitting in those. Scarlett discovered that she can sit on H or B's tricycle and move it around by pushing her feet on the ground. She really likes that. We've made a few park trips when the weather has been nice, and we plan to do a lot more once H and B are out of school for the summer. 

One of my favorite changes this month is their increased love for reading. We have done stories at bedtime since they were a couple months old, but it wasn't until this month that they were interested in books at other times during the day. Scarlett has started grabbing a book and crawling into our lap, and it melts me every time. We have a Sesame Street lift the flap book which is their favorite book to look at while sitting in our lap. Some Bugs is still Clark's favorite book, and Scarlett really loves Blue Hat, Green Hat.

We have been trying to introduce a small amount of TV to them. We almost never have on the TV when the kids are awake, but with H and B soon being out of school for the summer, I know it will be on more. Right now the babies' attention span is about 3 minutes and then they're pushing the buttons on the TV and cable box or trying to unplug the TV. H and B don't find it very amusing. S and C do love watching YouTube videos on our phones. Anything with Elmo. Their favorite is Celebrity Lullabies with Ricky Gervais.

Scarlett

• is a little spitfire. She gives us a run for our money every day
• is also a seriously happy kid. Until we tell her no that is.
• is still obsessed with Jules. She loves Jules almost as much as Jules loves her. I love watching the two of them together
• likes going to the pantry to look for snacks
• is suffering from cracked skin on her toes. We had to start her on a steroid ointment because it wasn't healing.
• colored her first beautiful picture, on the basement wall

Clark

• has started getting into music and dancing. He likes to bob his head or hold onto the oven handle and bounce up and down. He's a mini twerker
• is obsessed with sunglasses. He constantly wants me to put them on him. He then takes them off 5 seconds later and wants me to put them back on his face
• LOVES bath time. He arches his back and throws a fit if I take him out of the tub before he's ready
• has two new teeth! oth of his bottom one year molars have come in over the last month
• is always following me around and holding onto my legs
• is a pretty serious kid, but he gives the biggest hugs and smiles
• doesn't say much, but he likes to woof like a dog

When I told Brooke this morning that they babies were 16 month old she got way more excited than I expected. "Oh my, they're 16 months old. That means there's only 17 and then 18 months left. Then I can play with my Elmo guitar and alphabet turtle!" At least we know what's important to her, toys. Even if it's for different reasons, at least someone else in the house is as excited about the babies' next couple months.