Cherry Blossom Festival

This afternoon was gorgeous, and luckily for us Matt's experiment wasn't going well, so he ditched work and we went to the Tidal Basin for what will probably be the last decent day of this year's Cherry Blossom Festival. At first when we got there I was disappointed because the blooms were clearly past their prime and a lot of them had already fallen off the trees. But the further we walked around the Tidal Basin, the prettier the trees were. Plus it was such a nice day to be outside enjoying the weather and the city.

In other news, you remember Willito The Wonder Sleeper, the baby who falls asleep at 8:00 on his own, sleeps until 5:00, eats, and then sleeps again until 7:00? Yeah, he seems to be gone. I know that it is common for six-month-old babies to change their sleep patterns and not usually for the better, but we've been spoiled for the past several months and we don't like these new developments. Tonight he was exhausted by 7:30 and fell asleep nursing. He woke up when I stood up to put him in his crib, but we stuck a pacifier in his mouth and he quieted right down and appeared to fall asleep. Matt left for judo and I started doing the dishes. And five minutes later Will was screaming in his room, up practically on his hands and knees wondering how we could be so cruel to expect that he might sleep. Mind you, the kid was really, really tired. He just didn't want to sleep. I returned him to his back, put the pacifier back in his mouth, and he started to laugh! He just wanted to talk and smile and play all of a sudden, even though he was also rubbing his droopy little eyes. This was cute for a minute and frustrating for an hour. I spent that hour rubbing his head and resting my hand on his chest until he'd fall asleep for a minute or so before remembering that sleeping is not playing. So he'd awake violently, flip onto his belly, and start crying hysterically. So I repeated the process. A lot. A couple of times I got as far as the door before he woke back up. I don't know what was different the last time, but I guess he got tired enough finally. A couple of nights ago he (and Matt and I) were up from 3:00 until 4:45 because he woke up and just didn't feel like sleeping anymore. I hope we can all settle back into a mutually acceptable sleep schedule soon! Each day with Will is better than the last, but the nights are getting worse.