neal got up with the kids today and they got some quality daddy time while i got to sleep a little longer. we went to the gym later than usual. the kids wanted to go! they were so excited to see what kind of food would be there - it was an open house at the gym and there were balloons and free food, it was very exciting! the kids got to watch pippi longstocking for the first time. they loved it and asked to watch it over and over. it's very cute to hear rex say "pippi longstocking". after nap, we went swimming at island park. our friends, safina and emery, met us there. malloy was very excited that safina showed up. the girls had so much fun together while rex mostly played with neal. after dinner, we got to watch pippi for a little bit, then took a bath and went to bed. they went out without a peep tonight!! bedtime had gone much smoother lately. i've started taking malloy to the bathroom before i go to bed. so now she knows that i'll get her up to go potty and doesn't yell that she has to go a million times before bed. it's also stopped her waking up in the middle of the night and yelling for me over little things. a few nights ago she woke up twice yelling for me - once to go to the bathroom and once to put her blanket on. ridiculous! so i had a talk with her in the morning and told her that i was no longer getting up in the middle of the night. i put a nightlight on in the bathroom so she can go by herself if she needs to. it seems to have worked! she's slept through the past 2 nights. i'm hoping it sticks!