"Words"

Grace is all about writing these days. She can do almost all of her upper case letters without help and some of her lower case letters. Every time she draws a picture she puts both her name on it and the name of the recipient...usually mommy. Of course there is at least one heart and one rainbow on the page as well. It's like her personal insignia. 

She can write her name, mom, dad and Chloe without me first showing her how to spell them. Once she realized she can write more "words", she decided that she is going to make the full jump to book author. She sits down and doodles letter after letter after letter in a row across a sheet of construction paper. Often times, she will have rows and rows of letters or "words" followed by squiggle lines once she gets tired of writing the actual letters. She then folds the paper in half like a book, draws a picture on the front, adds her name and the recipient and then presents it to the lucky family member. It's adorable.

She wrote one such book the other day. It was the longest one she has written and contained lines and lines of random letters. She then asked me to read it. I started rattling off the letters, "CYPFDBA...." and there in the middle of the book, unknown to Grace, was the first real word she has ever written (aside from names). There, in bold caps was CRAP. Ahh yes, an adorably proud moment for a parent.  

In case I ever forget

I have seen this article going around. I love it and want to high-five the author every time I read it.

I think all of us moms had a trace of these feelings before having kids, although this woman is REALLY clueless. 

I want to keep this as a reminder in case I ever forget what the word 'constant' means, or in the event I become so brain dead from the sleep deprivation that I'm unable to articulate just how it was to be home all day - every day with little ones.

Another First

It seems the older the girls get, the fewer "Firsts" we have. That makes them all the more notable at this age, if you ask me. We had a MAJOR milestone today for Chloe.

For the past few weeks, Chloe has become obsessed with going to preschool. Grace gets to do it and she really wants to as well. She also wants to go to swim lessons like Grace and get her hair cut like Grace. My answer to all of these things is "You have to be 3." That seems to make sense in her little mind, since she is very proud of the fact that she is 2 now and knows that she will be 3 next. She often walks up to me and says things like "Chloe goes to preschool when me turn 3."

This girl cannot wait for it to happen.

The sad thing is, I NEVER want it to happen.

I'd be happy to keep Chloe a 2 year old and home with me forever. I like spending the one on one time with her and cherish these times we have together. Plus, I just can't imagine myself without a little one in the house.  Chloe has never been away from me. She wouldn't go to the church nursery, even as an infant. She wouldn't do the gym kids club and she only recenlty has been able to tollerate being left with Aaron while I escape leave the house.  She's just my little buddy.

Grace started swim lessons today. So Chloe and I picked her up from preschool and drove to the pool.  While we were there, we walked by the kids club. When Chloe saw it she looked interested. I told her it was 'preschool' and asked if she wanted to go while Grace was in swim lessons. Her eyes lit up! YES! She wanted to go. I couldn't believe it.

I walked up to the front desk and asked if they would honor my 2 year old punch card (the one I bought when she was a baby thinking I could have both kids in the kid room and get a short hot tub work out in. Ha! What a joke that was!  Turns out they would honor my punch card and I checked Chloe into the "preschool". It was amazing. The child who used to scream when I left the room just turned and ran from me into the kids club. No hug. No kiss. No tears. Just a smile-filled wave goodbye.

I was in total shock.

I then proceeded to get Grace dressed for lessons and joined the other mom's on by the side of the pool to watch. I was finally one of 'those' moms. You know, the kind I was always jealous of who could sit there for 30 minutes and have alone time while their kids had swim lessons. I thought to myself "well, that only took 4 1/2 years!"

To be honest, I didn't quite know what to do with my self and ....dare I say...I felt a little bored. This could take a little getting used to.

Big Girl Bed

It's a brand new year and we are starting things out this year without a crib in the house. Chloe is officially in a big girl bed. This will be the first time in over 4 1/2 years that we have not had a crib. Amazing. I never thought this time would come and, frankly speaking, never really wanted to rush it.

I have always been a big fan of the crib. Mostly for one reason, and one reason alone....it's an amazing containment device!

I have a lot of friends who have great escape artist kids. Not me. Neither of my girls ever figured out that climbing out of the crib was an option. I also wasn't sure if Chloe would nap in a big girl bed with all of her toys so easily accessible.  I wasn't in any hurry to get her out of the crib, plus I kind of liked having a 'baby' in the house. I know she's 2, but I could still sometimes pretend I still had a baby.

I started to get a little nervous about how this would all play out at Christmas time. We planned a trip to my parents house and I knew Chloe was just too big for a pack & play and the only option was for both girls to share a room and each have their own twin air mattress. Since Chloe has never wanted to get rid of her crib, I was really worried about how things would work out at my parents house. Let's face it, it all boils down to "how much sleep is mom going to get" when weighing these options.  Anything that makes ME lose sleep is a VERY BAD THING.

So, I started talking up the idea of the girls sharing a bedroom and Grace was on board right away. She was thrilled at the idea of sleeping in the same room as Chloe and was excited to help 'teach' Chloe how to sleep in a big girl bed. Now that I had Grace on board, Chloe was really excited about it. We talked about it every day for a week before visiting Grandma and Grandpa.

Then the visit came. Bath. Stories. Bed. Lights out and 11 hours of sleep!  My kids sure have a way of totally surprising me! Chloe also took the liberty of putting herself down for a nap the following day and then did another 11 hour night in the big girl bed. This is much better than she does in the crib at home since she usually wakes herself up at least once a night rolling around and hitting her head on the crib slats.

The first thing on our agenda when we got home was to get that girl a bed! It came with a 14 hour night sleep and a 3 hour nap the following day. Amazing! While I don't expect that to become a trend, I'm going to enjoy it as long as possible.

Gore fun fact: Grace transitioned to a big girl bed exactly 2 year ago on January 1st as well.

The crib is now disassembled and ready for a new life at a friends home. Yay for big girls!