So, the update. In the last two (I guess it's now almost three) months, Sahana has come a long way. Operation Unswaddle was finally successful, after unswaddling her first for the 7-10pm stint and then, a few weeks later, all night long. It was just in time, too, as she started rolling over at around her four month birthday, and that wouldn't have worked too well for her at night in a full swaddle. The real success came when I finally had the courage to drop the 10pm feed, at which she was taking only 2 ounces, so she is now sleeping from 7pm-7am! This is an even faster progression than Paras, who was still downing a 6oz bottle at 7 months. I can't express how great it is to get both kids in bed by 7pm and to have the rest of the evening to myself!
Paras is doing well also. We had a rough patch when he was acting up at school and actually got sent home one day for attacking another kid. It was a low point for me, as I imagined Paras ten years from now as a pot-smoking soon-to-be high school dropout. But I made an appointment with the Yale Child Conduct Clinic, which teaches a program called Parent Management Training, which basically involves ignoring bad behavior and lots of effusive praise for good behavior and rewards via star charts and the like. I had a semblance of this already in place, but I've tweaked it according to the training and Paras is already making a turnaround, anxiously awaiting his "stars" and the Skittles he gets at the end of the day based on the number of stars he earned. Hey, whatever works.
Anyway, I have some pictures from Halloween -- Paras went as Curious George (which I had to express order three days before Halloween when it became clear that there was going to be a showcase showdown if I insisted on him being a cow, which is the $4 costume I got for him from a local consignment shop). He is pictured below with his friend Mark from across the street, who was, if you have trouble discerning, a robot. Sahana went as a chili pepper.
More recently, we took Paras for Day Out with Thomas, which involved a ride on a life-size Thomas the Train and bad, overpriced state fair-type food. Paras had a blast. We had a moment when we bought him a $9 Thomas the Train balloon, which he untied from his wrist and watched as it floated away into the sky. He asked, "Where is my balloon?" And then burst into tears when he realized that it was, in fact, gone. Very sad. So I went and got him another one (the lady kindly didn't charge me for it) and all was good. Here he is with Thomas:
All in all it's been a good fall so far. Sahana starts at her new day care on Monday (which is Catholic -- between that and Paras' Jewish preschool, I think at least one person in our family has a chance to get into Heaven). More to come, soon.
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