Friday

So it sounds as if we may have a potential bidder on deck, although we won't know for sure until early next week.  The people who came to see our house on Monday have requested a second showing, so clearly they are narrowing down their list.   If we haven't accepted a bid by this time next week then I think we will take the house off the market.  I talked to Patty for a while yesterday and she is super flexible with our contract.  She said we can come out of it early or extend it - she's fine with either way.  Our contract date lists July 21 as the last day for the house to be on the market but if we don't get a bid in next week it's silly (and a complete waste of time) to continue to show the house.  For starters, we are going away twice in July.  While that would be a perfect time for Patty to show the house, we won't be here to look at houses for ourselves - which, in my opinion, has been a far bigger issue from the get-go.  One of the houses we were semi-interested in - but never got to see before it was taken off the market - has been relisted (as of yesterday) but Patty is going away this weekend so the earliest we'd be able to see it would be next week, which is also the start of some summer activities for the kids.  Time-wise things just aren't working out to our benefit with this whole house situation.  Jim is far more optimistic than I am about all of this.  I guess we'll wait and see what happens.
The girls have been driving me crazy at bedtime lately.  I think I need to implement a new bedtime routine.  When they started sharing the same room, a few months ago, I decided that it would be easier to put them to bed at the same time.  In the beginning they had some trouble falling asleep, as the concept of sharing a room was new and exciting to both of them.  However, after a few weeks they settled down and, typically, within 15 minutes or so they'd both be fast asleep.  This week has been very different, though.  It's been taking them almost a full hour to settle down for the night and that's only after I've had to go upstairs to quiet them down *several* times in a row.  At first I would ignore their giggles and chatter, content with the fact that regardless of how loud they were, they were staying in bed.  But then Savannah decided to get out of bed.  She climbs under her bed, on top of Bella's bed or leaves the room to get toys.  She takes all of her clothes off.  Bella, being the older of the two, *knows* to stay in bed but she provokes Savannah to misbehave.  Often times this week I would hear Bella saying "Savannah, go get that book!" or "Savannah, come tickle me!".  Ignoring the situation is no longer an option, because the more I ignore them, the wilder they get.  It is absolutely exhausting for me to have to climb the stairs multiple times.  Yelling at them doesn't work, nor does threatening to take away things (i.e. pool time in the morning, ice cream cones for snack).  In the end, by the time they fall asleep (which isn't usually until around 9p), I feel terribly guilty over the fact that I'd lost my patience with them.  I also feel bad for Kyle because I usually get to spend an hour or so with just him before he has to go to bed but with the girls staying up so late I've been giving them the attention that he would normally get.  Of course he doesn't seem to care one way or the other, but I do.  So, all this being said, I think it's time to change things around a bit.  My first plan is to put Savannah to bed 30 minutes before Bella and hope that she might fall asleep during that time, before Bella even goes up.  My second plan is to put Bella to bed before Savannah - since Bella doesn't nap, she's a bit more tired than Savannah is come the end of the night.  I think that if one of them is sleeping, the other won't feel the need to cause chaos.  The weekend is upon us now, so I may not be able to try out this new routine until Monday, but we'll see.  I like to keep the kids on schedule regardless of what day of the week it is but sometimes that's not easy when Jim is home and we're out and about.  Last weekend we visited my Dad twice and both times didn't get home until after their bedtime, so it would've been too late to keep one of the girls up for an extra 30 minutes.