Sleep is still a bit of a luxury item around here, even though Raya is doing a lot better. She has recovered her usual stretch of 6-7 hours on most nights (sometimes interrupted by one or two short crying spells), but after about 2 am it is hit-or-miss. Since she arches a lot after midnight, we are guessing that her reflux begins to flare up, which is typical of reflux. For whatever reason, four out of five nights she also will poop right around 5 am. Make that explode, since her first poop of the day rarely stays inside the diaper; last night we had to change two layers of clothes that had gotten damaged in the blast. To add to the mix, the last few days she also spit up a whole lot more than ever before, which our GI comfortingly told us is probably a symptom of her reflux "peaking" between 4-6 months. Alright. Having seen the vista from up top, we are ready for the downhill slide.
In the meantime, big brother Sava decided not to fall far behind, and he's been waking up at 5.30 am every morning the past week. So, just as we finish changing Raya around 5 am, and we are putting her back to sleep for one last stretch of the night, we usually hear his chirpy little voice. Each of us invariably has the same reaction: "You are kidding me."

On a different note, Sava is getting thrilled about his birthday. As with Christmas, which this year he anticipated for the first time with true excitement, now he can't wait for April 9. Yesterday, dedi Joni, who leaves next week, took him to a wonderful toy store in downtown Los Altos, where we let him pick a birthday toy. We told Sava that he could not pick a vehicle, since we already have so many at home, but he could pick any other toy. Of course, he first pointed out about six vehicles, which we had to veto, but then he finally settled on a marble maze: as seen on this photo, it's a set of wooden blocks with grooves and holes, which, when arranged in any of myriad possibilities, allow the marbles to flow from top to bottom. It's a bit too complex for him right now, and in typical Sava fashion he won't allow us to "teach" him how to use it. Thankfully, this is one instance where he can learn a lot more by trial and error than by instruction, so we are happy to just watch him try.