Posts tagged parenting

Yesterday, on a glorious 55 degree and sunny day, we headed up to Ligonier after church for a day trip to visit Gramps and Granny.  It was a short visit, but we spent every moment laughing, playing and sharing stories.

Charlotte was the most excited of all—she skipped her nap, and chattered the whole drive about seeing “Gamps Ganny!”.  We played outside most of the day—Charlotte ran around picking flowers, and we played “school”.  

Ellie had a hard time settling down for a nap, so she rested with daddy while we played outside.  She was so happy to see Gramps and Granny too—she of course loved all the attention.  Not to mention….crawling and exploring every where!

I’ve mentioned before that Gramps and Granny have a house way out in the country.  It’s incredibly peaceful and serene.  The day was perfect for a family walk up their long hill.  

I can’t begin to express how much it means for me to have not only grandparents in our girls’ lives—but great-grandparents too.  Granny and Gramps treat our girls like their own, and the relationship they are building with Charlotte and Ellie is something they will always have with them.  Truly a blessing in all of our lives!

Recently, I’ve come to the realization that my first born is very much past her baby years and fully into her toddler years.  Actually…she might even be a border-line tween in my opinion!  She has really developed her own little sassy and sweet personality since she turned two.

Awhile back I did a post on “10 things you didn’t know about me”. I thought it would be fun to write a similar post about sweet Charlotte.  I’m curious to know if these are Charlotte-isms or if every toddler shares similar stories!

1.  Charlotte will NOT let anyone watch her shows with her.  Or dance with her.  Or sing with her.  She watches 1-2 episodes of Barney a day…and if we try and cuddle or even stay in the same ROOM as her, she yells ” Mommy No!” and points towards the door.  She is proving to be a little bossy already…

2.  For naps and bedtime, Charlotte HAS TO HAVE a little friend.  It started out with just one “friend” (teddy), but has quickly turned into a whole classroom full of “friends”: teddy, Rudolph,  Rudolph’s friend Clarice, a pretend lipstick, a little doll from China etc….

3.  During said “naps”, Charlotte will drop one of the friends out of her crib on purpose so I come in to get it.  This is in an attempt to delay any kind of rest, so today I decided no more friends at nap time.  As you can imagine, this created a huge meltdown.  Her naps have been awful!  So goodbye friends, hello sleep?  (Hopefully….) 

***update: as I’m finishing up this post, there is now SILENCE.  It worked!  No more friends at nap time!!***

4.  Every time I give CG any kind of dip at mealtime (peanut butter, ketchup, syrup etc) she ends up eating it all with her finger instead of actually dipping the food into it.  I started giving her these dips hoping she would eat a larger variety of food but NOPE!  Didn’t work.  Still a picky, picky eater.

5.  Charlotte loves saying prayers.  Every time we sit down for a meal she will fold her hands and say “pree??”.  She always helps with the prayer, and my favorite part is what I say “thank you for—-“.  Last night she answered with, “mommy, me, daddy, eddies (Ellie), toys and coat.”  It’s always different and SO cute.

6.  CG LOVES big girls.  We were at a restaurant the other night and a few 8 and 9 year old girls came in.  She pointed and shouted “GIRLS!”.  She idolizes them!  The rest of the dinner was spent with her spying on them and waving.  Sorry Charlotte, you will only have a little sister in life..no big sisters!

7.  I’ve mentioned this many times before…but my little girl does NOT LIKE leaving school.  She throws a fit 4 out of 5 times.  Last week, I let her stay for lunch in the hopes that she would be excited to see me since she stayed longer.  WRONG!  It was even worse…because she made a “big girl” friend.  The older girl tried bringing her over to me saying, “Your mommy is here!” and she ran away sobbing.  Am I that awful to be around?!?!  (kidding…I’m glad she loves school and I would rather have THIS problem than the opposite)

So—does my toddler seem pretty typical? Does anyone else share some of these toddler “quirks”?  I’m curious to know!!

I have blogged many times about Ellie’s erratic sleep patterns (or lack thereof).  After using and blogging about the Babywise method with Charlotte, who slept through the night by 2.5 months old, I tried implementing this on Ellie—but to no avail.  I had basically given up hope that Ellie would start taking long naps and declared her a “bad sleeper”, and “so different than her sister”.  I was saying these things even 3 days ago, and had settled with the fact that I may never sleep again!

Until I decided to try something else.  A new friend, Turner, whom I had “met” on Twitter and through shopping kids clothes on Facebook gave me advice about Moms on Call after I posted a desperate status post about Ellie’s sleep.  I had first heard about Moms on Call through my blog friend Erin, and had thought about trying it out a month ago but just didn’t think I needed to spend $30 on something that I could “Google”.  Or so I thought…

Turner told me about her experience, and we emailed back and forth with all my questions.  I bought the seminar on Saturday night, and we got ready to let Ellie cry it out.

I know a lot of parents do not agree with the CIO method, and of course you have to do what you feel comfortable with.  Personally, I do have a hard time hearing my baby cry…but I also truly believe that babies need to learn how to sleep on their own without your help.  Ellie is at the age where she knows that I will come in and comfort her, so she cries until I do that and then wakes up 15 minutes later and needs me.  I was exhausted.  I spent all day trying to get her to sleep, and it was CONSUMING my life!

The first night was hard…Ellie cried off and on, and I kept wondering if she was hungry.  But she’s not hungry, her body was just used to waking to eat at certain times.  By morning…I had to wake her myself at 7:30am and she was so happy to see me!  We also took away the nighttime swaddle too.  I was SHOCKED to see she could sleep on her own without it.

Night 2…amazing.  Ellie slept from 7:30pm-7:30am only waking once at 5am for about 5 minutes before falling back to sleep.  I’m AMAZED.  Beyond amazed!  I have been following the MOC schedule to the T, and Ellie has been taking 2 hour naps, 2-3 times a day!  This is a MIRACLE.

I now firmly believe that ANY and ALL babies can learn to sleep through the night.  The parents just have to be all in and help guide their babies so they can get some healthy rest.  This is just my own opinion of course, and I know as a parent you have to feel 100% about any parenting decision you make for your child.

After all is said and done, I give the credit to Moms on Call of course…but I have to also give the credit to God.  I prayed NON STOP about this sleep stuff, and agonized and just finally decided to leave it up to Him.  I think God was listening, and together with MOC He made our hardships with sleep a little easier.  Isn’t that what faith is all about?

My happy, and well rested baby girl!!

**In absolutely no way was I contacted by Moms on Call to write a review about this service.  These opinion are my own, and I am sharing them because I am so amazed at our own results**

In two days, Charlotte turns 2.

TWO days til 2!

As we get closer to September 20, I find myself reflecting on all the memories I have shared with Miss C over the past two years.

You know, I never thought I would find a teacher in a two year old…but I really have.  

Charlotte has been my greatest teacher.

We eat breakfast, lunch and dinner together.  We play.  We laugh.  We cry.  We have time-outs.  (yes…even me!  Sometimes I have to put myself in a little time-out, ha!)

I look back at the memories we have shared as mother and daughter, and I absolutely can’t imagine my life without her.

More than anything I could ever teach HER, she has taught ME such important lessons in my life.

When a child is born, you not only become a parent but a teacher as well.  But sometimes, I feel like Charlotte has been MY teacher.  

Everyday she teaches me how to love someone whole-heartedly and un-conditionally.

She has taught me patience.

She has taught me how to translate her little language (ha).

She has taught me how to put someone 100% before myself each any every day.

These are lessons I did not learn in school.  They are only lessons that can be taught from the innocence of a child.

I am beyond grateful to have a teacher like Charlotte in my life.  I only hope and pray I can be the kind of mother and teacher for her that makes a difference in her life too.

[One year ago—my buddy and me]

This weekend was a fun and busy one!  Friday night Andrew and I went to a work dinner and I met some of his co-workers.  It was a lot of fun and the food was amazing!  My mom babysat both girls, and we came home to 2 sleeping girls.  A successful babysitting night for my mom!

Saturday was my dad’s birthday.  We headed over to my parents for dinner that evening and had such a fun time.  There are lots of birthdays in September!  My mom and brother cooked up a feast for us to enjoy, and the girls (mainly Charlotte) had fun running around.  A few highlights:

Pop-Pop holding his newest granddaughter.  Ellie is the 4th girl in my parents family including my sister and me.

Charlotte is IN LOVE with my sister Devon.  AND—they were wearing matching outfits!  I couldn’t believe it!  CG would just giggle and look at Devon like she was a princess.  It is so cute.

Delicious ice-cream cake.  Happy Birthday dad!

Sunday we had a relaxing day.  We went to church, came home and all of the girls (including me) took extra long naps.  Andrew played a round of golf, we watched the Steelers beat the Jets and I was able to squeeze in a work out at the gym.  

Andrew with his sleeping angel in the “cry room” at church.

I love weekends that are fun and busy, but also relaxing.  We had a mix of both, and it went fast!  This week is another busy week, with one VERY special event happening on Thursday….Charlotte turns TWO!!!  I can’t believe it.  My babies need to stop growing up so fast…

Hope everyone has had a good start to a new week :)

Last Thursday, my little girl started school!  Charlotte will be going to Children’s Corner—the two year old class—at the FriendShip school two mornings a week.

The first day was an abbreviated day with only half the class attending an hour at a time.  Charlotte’s hour was from 10:30-11:30, and my mom came to be with Ellie so I could focus my attention 100% on CG.

I wasn’t sure how it would go.  CG has never really been in a setting with other children her age without mommy—except for the church nursery.  But this experience is totally different, because it is a structured school setting.  She is going to have to get used to new rules—yikes!

Of course, being the punctual person (or neurotic as my husband would say) I am we were the first ones to arrive.  I’m so glad we were, because the classroom was quiet and didn’t seem as overwhelming as it may have been when everyone else arrived.  

At first…CG was SO hesitant and stayed outside of the door.  But once I went into the room and started showing her all of the neat things to play with—she stepped in.  She was very impressed with the massive lump of play dough on the table.  At home, we are only allowed to play with play dough outside!  I also showed her the sensory table that was filled with water and baby dolls to bathe.  She gave me a huge smile and touched the water—a big hit!

I remembered the teachers asked us not to linger, so I asked her if she wanted to give me a hug goodbye.  She said, “no”, and went towards the play dough.  I said, “Ok, mommy is going to go bye-bye for a little bit.  You have fun, ok?”  I TOTALLY expected her to start screaming and chase after me…but…

She waved, and I didn’t hear a PEEP!  I was shocked.

I then had an entire hour with no children.  WHOA.  I went and got my nails done, had a Starbucks, and arrived back at the school to pick her up.

The teachers said she did great—no tears from ANYONE in the class!  She looked exhausted…and every child in the class did too.  Then the meltdowns began—no one wanted to leave!  CG was pretty good until we got to the car….and then the dramatics began.  It was a struggle to buckle her in her seat!  And I may or may not have bribed her with cake..

Tomorrow she will attend for 2 hours, and this time I will bring Ellie with us for drop off and pick up.  I’m praying she will love it again, and the transition goes just as smoothly.

I’m so proud of our big girl!