Little sleeping in our house

Jude has decided not to sleep at night.
He's still napping once or twice during the day.
And he goes down to bed fairly easily after our usual  routine.

Then he wakes up at 12:30
And 2:30
And 3:30
And 4:30...

I've changed the diaper (just a bit damp). I've made sure he has extra blankets to stay warm. I've sung songs, I've left music on and I've tried white noise. I've tried no light or night-light or even full light.  I've tried toothy-medicine and I've tried baby Tylenol. We've tried letting him cry it out, which he will stubbornly do for an hour.  Usually, our last resort is to snuggle him up with us, but he kicks...a lot.

We are going to drop in to the doctor's tomorrow to make sure it isn't any hanging on infection from the most recent bout of colds in our house.

However, We are not sure what to try next!

Anyways...be warned, family we are about to visit...you may be hearing Jude quite a bit in the night. 

Halloween is coming!

 Last week, we dragged up the two totes full of Halloween decorations.   While Jude was taking his nap, Tamlin helped me sort through all the stuff.   He loved checking everything out and deciding where it should go in the downstairs rooms.

I thought he might have been worried or scared by some of the creepy things we have...like the plastic skeleton.  Tamlin thought it was cool, once he figured out how to untangle him.  

We also have a motion-sensor-activated skull that lights up and speaks your fortune.  Tam remembered "Skully" from last year and wasn't afraid of him either.  Skully only awake sometimes, because the we found out that Tam's laughter is loud enough to cause him to start talking (even from a different room).

Our other motion-sensor-activated spooky mask did scare both the boys.  Eventually, it went back into the basement because neither boy would walk past him without someone holding their hands.

Spiders are dangling from the lights...

Bats are flying around...

Eyes are peaking out from the walls...

Little bugs are creeping all over the mantel...


When Jude woke up from his nap, he got to check all this creepiness out :-)

It took some sweet talking to get him to walk over the skeleton grill on the floor.  He had to touch it several times to make sure it wasn't real.

The bats too, needed to be investigated...Jude stared at that bat for a long time before becoming brave enough to touch it.

Once the decorations were up...

The stored costumes came out...

ARRGH!

There was a ghoul loose in the house!

Tam LOVED trying on the various masks and jumping out at Brian and me.  

He also loved being surprised by Daddy in the mask.

BOO!

 Okay...How creepy is this?

I mean the mask is creepy by itself...but on a nearly 4 year old?

I think the creepiness factor is multiplied ...

BRRRRrrrr....shivers....

Oh, and Tamlin thought the mask was hilarious!

He laughed like a maniac when he wore it, when he saw his photo with it on, and 

when Brian wore it and jumped out at him.

 I think the best is that when I would ask Tam if something was scary, he would answer..."That's not real, mom."   Oh, and we dug out our copy of Nightmare before Christmas.  I warned Tamlin that it was a scary movie.  He disagreed:  "Mom, that was the wrong movie.  That's not scary at all."  What a trooper.