Big Girl Bed!

About an hour before Emma's bedtime last night I made a rash decision.  Let's convert her crib to a toddler bed!  (Like that's just no big deal...)

My thought process was brought on by the sudden refusal to let us change her diaper on the changing pad.  Side note: we don't actually have a changing "table", we just attached one of those U-shaped pads onto the top of her dresser.  So can't say's I blame the girl.  She was about 5 feet off the ground, her now toddler-sized legs dangling off, surprised she lasted as long as she did.

So for the last week or so I've been changing her on the floor and my lower back has been letting me know it's not happy about this.  So I had a brief thought that maybe if we moved her to the toddler bed, I could use it to change her on.

So without thinking a step further, I called Cody in, we busted out the tool set and took her down.  Then it dawned on me.  Holy crap, she can get out!  Like any time she wants!  Remember those couple days last week when she didn't want to nap, and you just left her in there till she finally fell asleep?  Well you can kiss that goodbye.

I started to panic.  "Too late now," Cody said.  (After a small mishap trying to find the directions, and only after all was said and done, realizing they were attached to bottom rail, he wasn't in the mood to put everything back.)  So we did it, we went about our regular bedtime routine and put her down.  We listened out just waiting to hear her bouncing down the hall, but there was nothing.  Then it was off to bed for us.  I don't think I've slept that badly since the first night we brought her home.  Every sound woke me up, but again there was nothing... I am happy to report we didn't hear a peep out of her until 8am the next morning!

But then it was time for the dreaded naptime.  How on earth was this going to work?  Again, went about the regular naptime routine and put her down like always.  Within a matter of minutes I heard her back up.  Crap!  I usually partially shut her door during naptime, so that was keeping her contained to her room.  I gave her about 30 minutes to see if she'd lay back down.  When I heard her pulling the drawers open on her dresser I decided enough was enough.  I went back in, laid her back down, rubbed her back a little and as I was leaving the room I saw her eyes closing...  Didn't here another peep until 3 hours later!

WAS IT REALLY THAT EASY???  I have a sick feeling in my gut that it wasn't.  When we did bedtime tonight, again she got up not long after we put her down, but I took her back to bed, rubbed the back, and she's been out every since.  But something tells me tonight may be different....

Emma the Explorer

Look at that sweet face.  How could anyone ever say no to that??

Try telling those big blue eyes she can't have everything she wants...

Emma will be two in June, but the "Terrible Twos" have already arrived my friends.  Oh yes, and with a vengeance.  That sweet little face turns gruesome within a matter of milliseconds.  (Ironically have no pictures of that.)

For starters, Emma is not shy, nor does she like being contained.  So all you Mamas that have sweet little babies that cling to your leg, sit in your lap contently, or just all around angels in public, count your blessings!  My kid on the other hand, screams - no squels - when she's strapped into a high chair, held back from running into the street, or asked to sit quietly in Mommy's lap. 

No - she wants to run, play, explore!

While I appreciate that I have an adventurous daughter, it does make for some stressful outings.  And of course that Mommy Guilt kicks in and you start thinking this is your fault, that maybe you should discipline her more so she behaves in public.  There's the sting of the "looks" you get in restaurants when she lets out a toe curling squeal simply because I said, "NO, you can't play with the knife."  (How dare I??)

As I embark on this journey of Toddlerhood, I know one thing.  I don't want "NO" to be the only thing my kid hears from me.  I am so glad she is exploratory, investigative, audacious!  (Nice vocab use, ah?)  I don't want to give her so many boundaries, be so controling of her that she never learns self-reliance.  [Insert mental image of 30 year old living in their parents' basement.]

But at the same time, I don't want her to be the head honcho around here.  She's the kid, we're the parents.  We know what's best -- period.  Sorry kiddo...  But how on earth do you discipline a such a strong-willed child?  Heaven help me, Time Out is going to be my friend...

Lentin' for Punishment

My mother would be so proud.  This year I am going to honor Lent in every way us Catholics are supposed to.   Everyone knows that Lent is when you're supposed to give up something, most folks do the usual chocolate or sweat stuff.  In a society where multi-tasking is must, I can understand where some folks see it as a "two birds with one stone" opportunity.  That diet you've been wanting to try, why not give it a whirl during Lent?  Give up soft drinks for 40 days and surely you can give them up for good.

At Christmas time we all get hoards of "Remember the reason for the season!" cards, so unfortunately I'm going to use that same ole tired line for Lent.  Don't forget the reason you are skipping that piece of chocolate, saying no to that refreshing Coke.  If you're going to participate in the Lent traditions, than make sure you know what the purpose of these traditions are.

I'm not usually one to jump on a religious bandwagon, so I'll make this brief... As Catholics, or any Christians for that matter, we believe He died for our sins.  So Lent is a time to remember His great sacrifice, so in return we sacrifice a little something ourselves.  As you abstain from that slice of cake, don't just do it because you want to loose weight, but do it as just a little gesture to God that you appreciate all He did for us.

So what am I giving up you ask?  Well as Catholics, we're supposed to not eat meat on Ash Wednesday and then every Friday from now until Easter.  So that's the first part of it, but I also decided to give up curse words.  Yes, curse words.  I know, it's silly... but I need to give it up anyways because my daughter is to the point where she repeats everything I say... and I think it would make me a better Catholic... and --- wait.... this sounds alot like I'm multi-tasking doesn't it???  :)

Girls will be girls

It has come to my attention that we might have a girly-girl on our hands.  Case in point:

Note how Emma has these little plastic rings around her wrists.  These rings are from a tic-tac-toe toy my MIL gave her on her first birthday.  From the minute we unwrapped the present, she grapped up those rings and put them on her wrists.  How did she know to do this?  I don't usually wear many bracelets other than my watch.  Where did she learn that you can put things on your wrists?

Here's another example, our neighbor gave us her daughter's old dollhouse with a few dolls and accessories, one of which is this little chest of drawers that has a brush attached to it by a string.  Do you know she drags that chest of drawers around everywhere so she can use the brush to brush the doll's hair?  Now I know she's been fascinated with Mommy & Daddy brushing their hair.  She's even snagged our brushes a few times and insisted we pick her up so she can brush our hair (Which by the way, is not a fun game.  She leaves you feeling like your scalp was peeled.)

So maybe some of these gender specific traits just come naturally.  For me, growing up on a farm and with two older brothers, I didn't have the "girliest" of homes.  Not to mention my mom wasn't big on make-up, fancy jewelry, or any of those other feminine things girls learn from their mothers.  In fact, my mom purposely kept my hair short as a kid, mainly because I had curly hair that was prone to tangling, but also because my mom (and I quote) "didn't know how to fix it".  Which also lead to many awkward situations where folks would mistaken me for a boy.  It didn't help that I'm basically the spitting image of my brothers and my dad, but still...  It's only later in life that I realize this upbringing might have helped me be more independent, less materialistic, etc, etc.

So as silly as it may sound, I remember finding out we were having a little girl and being somewhat intimidated, because I didn't really know how girls are "supposed" to be raised.  But maybe some of that stuff is just engrained in us?  As tomboy-ish as I was raised, I still remember playing with Barbie dolls.  Obsessed is more like it, I'm pretty sure I was in middle school before I gave them up.

So if I do have a girly-girl on my hands, as uncomfortable as it makes me, should I support her?  One things for sure, I'm not spending gobs of money on fancy outfits, jewelry, whatev.  I'm afraid plastic rings from a tic-tac-toe toy will have to suffice for bracelets my dear (atleast at this age).  Or is this the turning point?  When many parents decide to indulge in their child and we end up with spoiled kids that never learned the value of working for/earning their living.  Let's not open that can of worms...

Well here's to finding a happy medium of making my child feel that her wants, interests, personality traits, what have you... are supported by her parents, but not to the extent of having everything her heart desires.  Sorry cupcake, but that's just life...

I'm feeling old...

Don't know if it's the recent birthday that's got me down, or the recent discovery of my lack of tech-knowledge (more on that in a bit), or that I decided to wear this adorable short-sleeve cardigan today and when I looked in the mirror I realized my mother's reflection was looking back at me - either way, I'm feeling old today.

Googled "old lady cardigan" and found this pic.
Why is she in the woods?  Idk, but it cracked me up.

Update on the computer, apparently we got a lemon.  Said we could exchange it, but for some reason in the past 16 days since we purchased the laptop, they have discontinued our model and no longer had any in stock.  (Sounds fishy to me...)  So they gave me a "comparable" computer that was conveniently $50 more but had 4 hours less battery power than my original.  Anyways, decided to bend over and take it accept their exchange offer and now were back up & running with laptop #2.

All of this recent tech failures got me to realizing, I'm way behind the times.  I used to be somewhat tech savvy.  I remember always having to help my mom setup any new gear she happened to stumble upon.  Now I'm no different!  And heaven forbide I have any problems and have to explain to Geek Squad that the do-flicky that makes the thinga-ma-bob go "whoosh" is now going "beep" and the whatcha-ma-call-it is giving me an error.  I recognized the "Uh-huh" they gave me - I use the same with Emma & her baby babble...

Man down

Forgive me as I use this outlet as a way to express some fears.  My brand new laptop, less than 30 days old, has broken....  Really?  How does this happen?  I was so careful not to let Emma touch it, despite the temper tantrums that ensued after every disciplinary "No" I gave her to not play with Mommy's computer.  And I never set a drink near it, or even typed with greasy fingers, nothing!  But yet, somehow, it's on the fritz.  The function keys (speaker on/off, volume up/down, wifi on/off) aren't working and the mousepad area has hit or miss functionality.  So I'm hoping maybe there is just some setting I accidentally put it on and with a click of a button they can fix it.

But what's looming in the back of my mind is how we decided to opt out of the Best Buy protection plan (>$300) that would replace/fix any problems we had for the next three years.  Our thinking being, what could happen in just three years?  We've had the same computer since college and have never had problems with it.  So what's the point of spending money for a protection plan that we'll probably never use?   Oh God, famous last words... 

Birthday

Yesterday I said goodbye to 27 and hello to 28.  And oh what a birthday it was!

I moved my work schedule around so that I'd have the day off.  So me & Emma started the day with a trip to the gym.  Emma played in the nursery while I went to my Power Punch class - that I love!  It so empowering to punch the crap out of something.  :)  Then we met Cody for lunch and had some great family time together.  Then it was afternoon naps (for the both of us) and then to get ready for the evening's festivities.  Thanks to my wonderful hubs for letting me take a night off from my Mommy duties and join some girlfriends downtown for dinner & drinks.  A delicious dinner turned into entirely too many drinks but oh what a night...  So many great laughs, so many fun stories, and, oh, did I mention - so many drinks!

So to my girls I say pass the salt, swallow the cake, give me a big cup, and oh yeah, salud!  Thank you for helping make this birthday one of the best ones yet.  I heart you.  ~Eduardo