Imatjen

I wish I could sit down and have a conversation with Kate Goselin.  I wish she was my close friend I could call up on the phone and allow her to vent, and offer support and advice. 

I wish I could tell her that the grass is not greener on the other side, if she is anticipating divorce.  That this is not the solution.  That she and Jon need to remember the good times.  Remember what brought them together.  To have a date night and talk.  To have time for just them.  To pull out old notes, to remember old conversations.  To truly think what they have shared, especially the bad times with the good, before the public eye.  Because without realizing it in the moment of early stages of divorce do you ever see that you "can" fix it.  You can put your trust in God and he will help you work it out.  As her children grow she will see traits of the husband she is so quick to shut the door on and as they grow and develop their own personalities, she will be reminded every day after it is too late, all the reasons she loved Jon.  All the reasons she married, him and all the yearning to grow old that will never come. 

Resentment is such an ugly thing and in the eye of Hollywood it becomes a huge plank and not just a small speck. It is magnified. 

Yes I wish I could call her up and say come have a cup of tea with me, and let's catch up.  I would tell her to try, try, try again.   And Try Again. 

Okay I just went to the bathroom at work, and noticed I had a Lacy Baby sock stuck to the back of my underwear. 

For Baby M's birthday, we had a Jack's Big Music Show Party.  For those of you who are not familiar with Jack's Big Music Show.  Here is a link with more information.  Jack's Big Music Show.  I think my husband and I enjoy the show as much as M, if not more.  The sad thing is that the show is not on anymore.  The gentlemen at Spiffy are extraordinarily talented people. You may recognize the voice of "Baby Bear" from Sesame Street was created from the same group.  We were posed with some challenges as they do not sell any "Jack's Big Music Show" products so we had to be creative.  I printed out the T-Shirt iron ons and made T-shirts for all of our guests and took the same print out to Kroger's and had them make our cake.  I bought maracas, candy necklaces, and I made tamborines.  My initial idea was to take pie tins and fill them up.  However we were expecting 10 2year olds and the mini pie tins were $4.00 for a set of 4.  I went over to the plant section and bought the plastic drip catch trays for $0.23cents each.  I then went to Fuzzywinklebeans candies and got colored m&m's and whistle pops and filled each one.  I used a single hole punch to put holes in the sides and sealed each one shut by tying colored ribbons to attach top and bottom. 

My husband used our projector to display "Jack's Big Music Show" on our living room wall.  The kids loved it. 

Pretty funny that my birthday is the first day of school, (August 29th) and M's birthday is the last day of school.  After I picked her up from the baby sitters we went home and gave her our present.  We got her the 30th Anniv Cozy Coupe .  We put a blanket over it and let her unwrap it.  We let her play for about 45minutes before we headed out for our family dinner celebration. 

We celebrated Baby M's actual birthday at Pump it Up.  It can be pretty pricey in my opinion to have a party there.  However on Thursday nights they offer a Family Jump in that includes pizza and beverage and an hour of play time. 

For Memorial Day Weekend we went to both the Asian Festival and the Ice Cream Festival.  I didn't take my camera to the asian festival but purchased a red japanese maple tree and another cool plant for G.  I'll have to upload those pictures later.  Below are pic's from the Ice cream festival. 

Okay here I go again trying to make my own photo invites and Miss M refused to make eye contact with the camera.  She was being so funny.  I was trying to capture the just right photo for the invite. 

M's friend Abigail turned two and we had an awesome time at her birthday party. 

G had her annual art show at school.  She won an award and her art will be displayed in the lobby of one of our local hospitals.  Congrats G.  M thoroughly enjoyed playing on the playground at the school after the art show. 

Okay so this sleep thing is like a full time job.  I think working at the Hotel standing on my feet for 48hours straight with no sleep might be easier.  My older kids commented that they wish I still nursed.  Although at the time they all had comments about that too.  What is crazy is I still have milk.  We stopped nursing the end of November.  I don't know if my body somehow is triggered by all of this and thinks she needs it or what is going on.  Last Sunday morning, G brought me breakfast in bed of Cinnamon Toast crunch with my favorite vanilla rice milk, (yum) and Baby M woke and started crying a little.  I leaked all over my pajama shirt.  G was like, "Mom, are you leaking". And the Hubby was like,   "Ummm is there something you need to tell me"...    no I don't think so, 'cause Aunt Flow has been making her regular visits like clockwork. 

So Sunday, getting Baby M to bed took until 10pm as we had the whole family over for Mother's Day.  Monday night went well and Baby M was asleep by 8:20pm  Tuesday by 9pm,    And last night.... I really tried to shoot for 8:00 and it turned into 10:00pm...and then she was up at 4:40am...    ARGH!           Her little mind is sooo busy.  She is too darn smart for her own good. 

At 23 months, Baby M has pretty much potty trained herself.  She knows all of her alphabet and can identify any letter in any order.  She knows her numbers 1-20 and can identify any number in any order.  She knows all her colors and shapes and not just basic shapes.  She can identify Octagons and Hexagons.  The other night at dinner, G said she wanted a (spelled)  C-o-o-k-i-e and Baby M said   "Cookie".....     As I drive she knows the way home.  As I drive past the mall on the way home, Baby M says, "I would like to go to the Mall and walk"...       When we pray at night she can recite the "Now I Lay Me prayer...   

So I don't know if her little mind just like never shuts down.... or what.  I need to find Glow in the Dark Letters, Numbers, or some kind of Algorithm or Math Equation and glue it to her ceiling so she can lay in her crib and figure it all out and hopefully her busy little mind will finally compute that ummmmm    "It Is Time To Go To Bed"..

I think by true definition they should say, when you have a 22month old, or an active minded Toddler, you get no sleep.  Our 22month old does not sleep.  She would gladly stay up until midnight, get up at 5am, skip the nap, and happily go about her day.  My older children commented saying they wished she still nursed so we could all have some peace. 

I have decided to sign up for the Nickelodeon Parents Connect link.  I found an interesting article about 30 Days to get your kid to go to sleep, so I thought wow this is for me.  Of course, I'm the mom that wants to read ahead and skip chapters to get the final scoop and unfortunatly there isn't one.  You literally have to go 30 days, checking each day for the next step. 

So the first step is to commit to doing this 30 days.  Both Mom and Dad on board. 

Step 2 evaluate how many hours your child requires to sleep.  Okay according to the chart, Baby M is supposed to sleep 11 hours and take a 2 hour nap... (LOL!  wow, that's hilarious)... okay ahem... seriously, really, that much....

So last night I get her ready for bed, we have a big production to brushing our teeth, I put her in her jammies and we read two books while rocking, I put her in her bed awake as indicated by my reading and the games begin. 

Baby M begins with outstretched arms and the saddest face imaginable and puckers her bottom lip and says, "I hold you me..." which is her way of saying she wants to be held.  I told her she was okay and that it was time to go to sleep.  Then she grabs at her diaper and says, "I have to go poopie, pooopie, POOOPIE!!!!!!!"   I said okay after you go poopie, then you have to go to sleep.  So I go downstairs and fetch the pottie, remove jammie pants and diaper, while she indeed uses the potty, we flush, wipe, and wave farewell to the flushing poo. I then place her back in her bed.  Then she decides she needs a drink.  I am almost chuckling at the stall tactics she is so quickly coming up with.  I think it is funny that her little mind works this way, after all I know who her mom is... (wink wink).   So I give the drink and then kiss her and tell her good night. 

Then Baby M just gets flat out angry and destroys her bed.  She takes all stuffed animals, blankies, and her socks and throws them on the floor, she continues to undress herself and throws all her clothes on the floor, then she yells that she is cold.  I go back in pick everything up, dress her and put her back to bed.   I stroke her cheek and shush her to sleep telling her every couple minutes in my sing song voice.... "Its Okaaaay"..."Shhh, Shh, Shh"....    So the first night I put her to bed at 8pm and she finally decided to go to sleep at 11pm.  Last night I put her to bed at 8pm and she was asleep by 9:30pm.  So far that is our progress...