A few years ago, I stumbled into a very informal clambake at a restaurant and always thought it would be fun to have one in a backyard during the summer.  Well, Baby made my dreams come true, and yesterday we hosted our first clambake. 

We ordered 500 littleneck clams, 4 dozen blue claw crabs, and 4 pounds of shrimp, and got to work!  I found a really easy recipe on Pinterest, whipped up a batch of spiked lemonade, and about 25 of our closest friends and their kids all gathered at our abode for a day of games, chatting, napping, and NOMMING!

I remember as a kid my mom spent countless hours in the kitchen in the weeks before the holidays baking cookies. If there was a party, I was at it with a beautiful tray of Mom's homemade cookies.  The kitchen would be covered in cookies. Sugar cookies, spritz cookies, meringue cookies, you name it - she made it! Kenny Rogers and Bing Crosby would go round and round on the record player, and Little Lisa would slowly go insane baking cookie after cookie.

First and foremost, thank you so much to everyone who took the time to participate in the Pampers Celebrating Firsts giveaway last week.  Congratulations to the winner of the raffle, Suzanne Penn!  What makes this win extra sweet is that she's my bestie with a new baby and a toddler, so if anyone can use a win, it's most def her! 

After last week's post, the girls continued their ride to Sleepytown, until a wrench was thrown into the mix.  Now, if you know anything, you KNOW that my babies LOOOOVE a schedule.  When we brought them home from the hospital, the nurses in the NICU were so awesome that they had them on a military-like schedule.  They got their diaper changed, they ate, they slept, they got their diaper changed, they ate, they slept, like clockwork, every 3 hours.  

As they grew, their schedule changed, but as long as I kept them on a set schedule, happy babies.  And everyone who cared for them when I went back to work knew, SCHEDULE OR BUST.  Honestly, if anything differed in their daily schedule, they were crazed animals.

This new schedule that we put them on to get them to sleep through the night worked like a charm.  And then I was nice enough to share my cold with them.  And then Hershey and I had a wedding to go to on Friday night.  And it's been back to square one ever since.  

Emma wouldn't go to bed for the Grandma Squad on Friday night.  I texted my mom at 8:15 and she was still up playing.  When we got home, my mother said she was having a lot of trouble breathing and that both girls were sleeping "fitfully."  They were up the rest of the night.

Yesterday, nap-time was a war.  They both napped, but it was on and off, half an hour here half an hour there.  Jane was awake most of the morning, playing with anything she could get her little hands on.  


And both girls were stuffy and I had to fight them with the NoseFrida every couple of hours.  After their dinner bottle, I ran the shower in the bathroom on hot for 5 minutes and sat in the bathroom with them as all of our nasal passages cleared out.  It was such a beautiful sight, all of the Groff women with snot running down their faces.  Yum.

Last night, Emma was up at 2:00 with breathing troubles.  I had to bring her out and Nose Frida her again and then put her back and listen to her play in her crib for 25 minutes before she finally put herself to sleep.

Today seems to be better.  The girls both have very runny noses, but that gives me hope that the cold is passing.  We have the humidifier running full-power in their bedroom, and they have taken AWESOME naps today (they've been sleeping for about 3 hours now).  I'll be giving them another steam treatment tonight before bed.  

I really cannot emphasize how important keeping a stringent schedule is.  I'm literally now turning down any nighttime activities that occur before their bedtime because I want to be here to put them to bed, since that's their routine.  Until they get a solid month of sleeping through the night under their belts, bedtime for mama will be the same as for baby.  And maybe that's not such a bad thing, since I need to catch up on my sleep, too!

How have your sleepytime battles been going?  I'd love to hear from you!

I'm looking forward to when the girls wake up from their long winter's nap today, because it's CHRISTMAS PICTURE DAY!  I'll post those once my cards go out, which I'm doing (on Shutterfly) for the first time in YEARS!

Stay warm out there! And please click the links below to vote for us!