Just a quick update: our move went well and we’re now busy unpacking the new house while cleaning the townhouse.  I don’t even have any pictures to share, but I wanted to let our faithful blog followers know that we’ll be without internet and phone until March 10 (when Verizon can finally hook us up at the new house).  Feel free to call me on my cell phone if you need to talk, and check back on the blog in mid-March.  Bye for now!

Tomorrow is moving day!  Today we’re getting the carpets cleaned over at the new house, and tomorrow the furniture will be transferred over.  We’ve reserved a U-haul and will use Student Movers again to do the heavy grunt work.

As for Lex, he’s still sleeping pretty well.  Last night there was only one wake-up around 1:30 AM.  Meanwhile he’s a very busy boy.  He loves walking around the house, waving bye-bye, and feeding himself with his new plastic fork.  Yesterday he pushed his own stroller when we went for a walk around the block…very cute!

My parents flew back to Oklahoma yesterday morning.  They will definitely be missed around here.  Lex had a great time playing with grandma and grandpa Stewart.  

Here’s Lex and his grandpa at the duck pond and grassy field near our townhouse:

I shouldn’t even put this at the bottom of the page because it’s such big news, but guess who slept nearly 12 HOURS last night!!!  That’s right, it was the Lex man.  He went to bed around 6:30 pm and we didn’t hear from him again until 6 this morning.  He’s making mommy and daddy very happy!  God bless sleep training…

My parents wanted to go to the beach during their Oregon visit, so yesterday we all took a day trip to Tillamook.  Mom and dad’s longtime friends (the Phays) joined us at a restaurant in Garabaldi and we all had a nice lunch together.  

In a past blog entry I mentioned my consultation with a sleep trainer to help with Lex’s frequent night wakings.  Tim and I chose Friday night to initiate our designated “sleep training bootcamp.”  Basically the golden rule was to never let Lex fall asleep outside of his crib.  Tim went in to comfort Lex at five-minute intervals, but for the most part he left him in his crib and just patted and hugged him before leaving the room again.  I gotta admit, that first night was brutal.  I stayed out of the nursery because I wasn’t going to nurse Lex until later that night, but Lex cried on and off for about two hours (with his dad comforting him).  He finally did fall asleep on his own around 12:30 am, and then I nursed him when he woke again at 4 am.  The next night we saw marked improvement, and Lex fussed for only about thirty minutes before giving in and going back to sleep.  Then last night was amazing.  Our son went to bed at 6:30 pm and didn’t wake again until 3 am!  (Meanwhile Tim and I are used to waking up every three hours, so we didn’t sleep that well even though we were given the opportunity…)  We’re looking forward to tonight and hoping that we can have a repeat performance of last night.

This morning my parents joined us for a late breakfast and then mom and I took Lex to his Gymboree class.  He had fun (as always), and his grandma enjoyed playing with him.

On Friday Lex and I joined everyone over in Salem for lunch with Aunt Winnie.  Lex was eager to show his grandparents around the manor.

“This way Grandpa!”

Here he’s visiting with one of his favorite surrogate grandmothers:

Apparently my parents don’t have Lex’s ability to run and play all day long…

In other news, our house purchase closed on Friday and we get the keys tomorrow.  We’ll show my parents our new digs tomorrow after we get back from our day trip to the coast.