Back To School

In an effort to bring life back to this ol' blog, let's talk about back to school! Charley started Kindergarten this year and Laney started her first year of preschool.

 

Let's start with Charley.

No, wait. Let's start with me. Just because I like to come back and ridicule myself later when things are falling apart, let's talk about how TOGETHER everything is right now with my school preparations. And let's also keep in mind that this was only Charley's second day of school. (First official day as last week was a phase in day) HA.

First, I have a legit meal plan. Sometimes we get ourselves together enough to have a dinner meal plan, but never plan breakfasts or lunches. It's weird to not be scrambling in the morning and hurrying kids out the door with a cup of cereal in their hands. Today, they had THREE DIFFERENT FOOD ITEMS on their plates and they ate at the table.

 

For lunches, I bought actual plastic compartmentalized containers because we usually only use glassware. (Where's the sassy emoji puffing her hair up when I need it?) Since my children have always eaten lunch at my sister's house, we typically sent leftovers that needed reheating and I'm not a reheat-in-plastic kinda girl so we always used glassware. (This set, to be exact, but they were way cheaper at Costco.) ANYWAY, no reheating meant we could add some plastic-ware back to our lives. Today was the first day I used it and by golly I had three different foods in each compartment AND a pudding cup and snack floating around in her lunch box too. Someone give me a trophy.

(By the way, that trophy would be well deserved because last year in preschool there was a "snow" delay once which made school start an hour late. When that happens all kids are to pack a lunch and eat lunch at school when normally she would go back to my sisters to eat lunch. So, in a panic that morning we were trying to pack a last minute lunch that couldn't be reheated and had NOTHING. Y'all. I'm not even exaggerating. NOTHING for an entree. We had some fruit and maybe something else small, but nothing substantial. And then I found something in that pantry that I'm ashamed of sending to this day...Pop Tarts. We don't even BUY Pop Tarts (because I'd eat them all) but there was nothing else so Pop Tarts it was. I was so scared they were going to sit me down in the baby chair and have a chat with me about proper nutrition during the parent-teacher conference. Anyway, send me a trophy.)

Ok. So, rocking the breakfasts and lunches so far after one whole (official) day. But wanna know what else? We got both kids bathed, in bed, and multiple books read to each by 8:05 tonight. Oh yeah! Typically we are kind of lax with the exact bedtimes (we shoot for 8), and it can drag out to 8:45ish, so I'm trying to be more routine-y and get them down at the goal time instead of starting our routine AT the goal time. So yeah! One day in and rocking that too.

So, back to Charley.

 

She's super adorable in her uniform and while she has been nervous, there have been no tears. Both days she said she loved school and is excited to go back. She had computer lab today and that was pretty thrilling for her. And, the lack of computer lab at the private school we toured was one of our cons for that school, so having her come home and rave about computer lab time did give me a little satisfaction about our decision to send her to public school for now.

Although there was the issue with her name being spelt wrong on EVERY SINGLE THING in her classroom this morning. (Desk, Cubby, Car Rider slip, Attendance record, Class List on the door..ALL OF IT.)

But, she's doing great! As expected!

Laney. Oh Laney.

So last week was her first week. She goes 3 times a week for 3 hours. Last week, Monday was pretty good. John and I took her on her first day and she was fine! Quiet, but as I snuck a peek through the glass on the door before leaving, she was moseying over towards the toys and the other children. Looked promising! I smiled at how well she did despite how I thought it was going to go. That's what I get for saying she did well. Totally jinxed it...

 

Day two was ok. She cried on and off almost the entire 3 hours, but they didn't call us. I think day 2 is pretty bad universally, so maybe that's why. They said she was super sweet and did play some, but was very tired and cried for bunny. That night I was super strict about getting her to bed early.

But day 3 was even worse. She wouldn't stop crying unless she was being held, so the preschool director held her and called my sister to come early and get her. She said we could send her bunny lovey and we hoped that would help.

Today was day 4 and was exactly the same. WITH bunny. She cried for an hour and 15 minutes before they called again. (And btw, they are just calling to let us know. We don't have to go pick her up. But, she's 2. I don't see the point in forcing the issue. She's not going for her PhD or anything.)

Sigh. We'll keep trying for a little longer, but man. Tough to know she's so sad and crying at school where she's only there to have fun! She is about 6 months younger than Charley when she started but it does no good to compare them...they are TOTALLY DIFFERENT CHILDREN. I hope she starts to enjoy it, but if not we'll adjust and move on. This one keeps me on my toes for sure!

So, back to me! Here I am getting my kids to bed on time and John and I just watched an episode of our current Netflix series (Narcos) and then I still had time to blog! Let me revel in my successes because they are going to be out the door faster than it takes Charley to bring home her first school germs.

Too late. We all had the first cold of the year - which Charley brought home - over the weekend. Looks like I'll be shoving cups of cereal in their hands before I know it.

5 Was Big

Last September, my biggest girl Charley turned 5 and just next week she will turn 6. Five was SO BIG for us, guys. I sat down earlier today and just started thinking of how much she's learned and changed this past year. I remember writing a monthly blog post at the end of Charley's baby years and saying there was no need to keep up the monthly updates because they just no longer change as quickly as they do when they are babies. Well. That may be true for most years, but I seriously think age 5 was just as exciting and had just as many changes as the baby years. Here are some highlights.

She gave up the habit of sucking on her Owlie blankies.

She learned to ride a bike with no training wheels.

While I don't encourage it, she has climbed up, gotten a cup out, gotten the milk or OJ out, and poured herself a drink with no messes.

She can order for herself in restaurants.

Charley has mastered the iPad and my phone as well. She knows the codes to unlock them. She knows how to turn the wifi back on if it's off.

Along the same lines, she can turn the TV and surround sound on, she can get to Netflix, choose her account and choose her show.

Or, she can go to the computer and click on the favorites link to PBS Kids and play those games using a mouse.

She can put together an outfit that isn't totally crazy and mismatched.

She often either drives herself (in her power wheels) or walks herself over to my parent's house.

My mom and dad even let her drive their golf cart - although they handle the pedals. She just does the steering.

She's lost 3 teeth! (All involving tears and drama!) (One just tonight!)

She has 2 permanent teeth in.

She graduated Pre-K.

She started Kindergarten. Today.

She loves math and can do a good bit of addition.

She recognizes some sight words.

She can swim....and swim well!

She rode Space Mountain...and liked it!

She enjoys a couple shows that aren't kids shows. We've watched the last two seasons of Survivor together, for example.

She can bathe or shower herself.

She can put a Lego set together herself.

She caught her first fish.

She found her first shark's tooth.

She can just about do a cartwheel.

She can melt me into a puddle with just a few sweet words. Although, that one didn't just start at age 5. ;)

All that to say...it was a big year for my Charley bear. And I imagine Kindergarten will bring so many more things. Reading. Writing words with cute kid misspellings. Buying her own lunch in the cafeteria. Going on field trips. And a million other things.

As sad as it can be to send my baby off to Kindergarten, I'm happy to focus on all the new fun things I can write about next year at this time. I always thought I was more of a baby mom, but these big kid stages are turning out to be so much more fun. For example, I was actually the one who taught Charley to ride a bike. I always thought that would be John's thing, but when it came down to it, it was a matter of patience and I have more of that than John. When she got it I was of course THRILLED for her, but also I was thrilled for myself! It's SUPER EXCITING when a baby learns to walk of course. But, they more or less learn to do that themselves. When your child learns to ride a bike it is directly related to the instruction you just gave them. YOU HAD A HUGE PART IN THAT, you know?? SO much more rewarding.

Anyway. Five was big. Charley is big.



I love her.

Getting Ready for School with KidsShoes.com

*Check out these Back-To-School must have shoes At KidsShoes.com! Boys and girls shoes that are fashionable, cute and just the right price! I received shoes to review, opinions are my own.

August is a big month for our family. Charley will start Kindergarten in just a few short weeks. And if that wasn't scary and sad enough, Laney will also begin Pre-K. I know they will both love it so I try not to be sad about it, but I feel like with Charley we are crossing the bridge from little kid to big kid in one fell swoop. Sigh.

BUT! There's some excitement that comes along with that too. I LOVE school supplies and getting new backpacks and just getting ready for school in general, so we were anxious to shop!

Laney is easy - she doesn't need a backpack or lunch box or school supplies or uniforms. She can wear her regular clothing so I'm not even too concerned with buying new clothes for her until the seasons begin to change. I'll buy her a cute outfit for her first day of school and will get her a new pair of shoes. That's where KidsShoes.com made our lives a little easier! From the options given, Laney chose a denim slide with embroidered tigers. I mean - what doesn't go with embroidered tigers, right?! So I allowed it.

She's pretty happy with her choice and I'm happy that they are versatile enough for running around the playground, digging in the sandbox and still comfortable enough for sitting criss cross applesauce at circle time. I hope to get a lot of use out of them this school year. 

Charley, however, is not quite as easy. Going into Kindergarten requires a lot more. She needs a new backpack and lunchbox, tons of school supplies, school uniforms and of course new shoes.

If you know Charley at all, you know that she has always had a very strong opinion on what she wears. She went one whole winter without ever wearing a coat once, and went a couple years wearing only skirts and dresses. I'm happy to report she's not quite as difficult with her clothing selections each morning any more, which is great because her elementary school is a uniform school. Polos and khakis from here on out. She's not thrilled about it. BUT! While reading the uniform policy we did catch a couple of opportunities for Charley to add a little flair to her every day uniform. First, "Belts, if worn, must be a solid color."  And also, "Athletic shoes, leather shoes, and boots are all acceptable". Which, again, is where KidsShoes.com comes in and helps us out!

Charley loves sparkle, so she chose a floral applique sneaker. Not my first choice, but I allowed her to choose whatever she wanted since she will have so little say-so over her outfits anymore. While the regular price of these shoes is more than I typically spend on kid's shoes, I am going to hope they last longer and prove their price tag.

Combine those fancy, sparkly shoes with this solid colored but fun belt, and her boring ol' school uniforms looks a whole lot more Charley.

Thanks KidsShoes.com for scratching one item off of our back to school checklist!

Made Last Minute With Love

Here's how Valentine's Day preparation went in my house this year. [Not] Shockingly, it was the same general situation the last couple of years also. I'm not sure if it is because I'm a working mama (doubt it - I'm thinking many working mamas and stay at home mamas were doing the same rush this evening) or if it is because work is so busy this time of year for an accountant so I just don't have the energy to think about it when I get home, or if it is just my general procrastinating attitude, but whew. Glad they are done!

Y'all know I am crafty and I like Pinteresty things. There are so many cute ideas on Pinterest that take very little time, so I WANT to do these types of valentines with Charley for her class because she really enjoys crafty things too. I had good intentions of starting early so I wouldn't rush around at the last minute and pinned an easy and cute valentine over two weeks ago.

All I needed to do was find some freeze pops next time I went to the grocery store and print the valentines on card stock. EASY PEASY.

Step one: Buy some freeze pops. 

And that's where the whole plan of getting these done early derailed. 

Between John and I, we visited different grocery stores 2 or 3 times and never did find the darn freeze pops. I've never bought them before so I wasn't really sure where in the store they sell them and wondered if they just didn't have them this time of year. (Though clearly they are missing some sales if that's the case since it was nearly EIGHTY degrees yesterday.) So I kept hoping some would magically appear somewhere somehow.

They didn't.

So today, February 13th, at 10:00 this morning, I figured I'd better figure something out. And ol' Amazon saved the day again. I did check Amazon a couple weeks ago also, but I couldn't find any packages of less than 100 freeze pops. I don't really need 100, and so I didn't order then in hopes of finding a smaller and potentially cheaper pack elsewhere. Obviously that never happened, so today I Amazon Same Day Primed a box of 100 freeze pops to my door. (Of course you need to spend $35 for free same day shipping, so I added on a couple of Shopkins gifts to give to Charley and Laney tomorrow on Valentine's Day.) Done and Done!

That package delivered tonight at 6:40, just in time for us to finish dinner and start on valentines.

We finished up dinner and got to work. 

Only, I never printed the free printables I found. Whoops. Did I mention we currently don't have a working printer, either? Dang it.

So, I saved the printable to my Google Drive and hopped in the car to drive next door to my parent's house to print them.

Get to their house, run inside, log into my Google Drive, and the stupid ^%%$%%*;^($##@$ website doesn't recognize that computer, so they are going to send a quick text to my phone to verify that it's a legit login. My phone is in the car.

Run back out to car, retrieve phone.

Run back in, enter code, print valentines on card stock paper I remembered to grab from my house and bring.......DANG IT.

Forgot the card stock. Forget it. Regular paper is fine. I'll just add card stock to the back instead.

My mom comes in to see them and as I'm showing her I realize of the 4 valentines per page, the margins are off and it is cutting off the "Happy Valentine's Day!" on the 2 on the bottom. So, only 2 good valentines per page means I need to print 4 more pages. 

Out of paper. 

"MAMA! DO Y'ALL HAVE ANY MORE PAPER!?"

She shows me where it is. Add more paper. Finished.

Hop back in the car and drive up the driveway.

Gather the scissors and glue stick. Crap. Where is the glue stick? PLEASE tell me we still have a glue stick.

Whew. Found it.

OKAY. Charley is ready to get started. As much as I like the perfection of the ones from the Pinterest link, I would rather Charley do them all herself. So, I just gave instructions. 

I instruct her how to cut them apart.

She glues them each to a piece of card stock.

2 fit on each page, so then she cut each piece of card stock into two.

From there, she only had to sign her name. (Her teachers suggested only putting their names on the cards so they are easier to deliver! No problem!)

She added a heart to each one also, because she's Charley.

And then her part was done! Despite the craziness of not being prepared, once she sat down to do them, that part only took 10 or 15 minutes.

She went to play, and I used an exacto knife to cut slits in the tops and bottoms and slide in a freeze pop on each one.

So cute, right? I love the imperfect cuts and her sweet heart and the way she writes her name. Awwwww.

AND MAN WAS THAT EASY.

HA.

Charley Lately

Current likes:

Barbies

Monster High

TV (Netflix)

iPad (You Tube)

Stuffed Animals

Shopkins

Scooby Doo

All of our former clothing struggles have left us. Charley wears jeans! Coats! Pajamas with PANTS! Basically whatever Mama chooses for the day. She still loves dresses also, but variety in her wardrobe has served her well.

Her eating habits have taken a slide backwards. Even go to vegetables like broccoli and green beans have been a struggle sometimes lately. She's often "just not hungry" but once we get her eating, she tends to like what we are having. 

Bedtime stall tactics include:

Playing a game

Reading a book. No! TWO books!

Needing water

"I'M SO HUNGRY."

Silly little things like not letting go of my hand after hugs and kisses and "pulling me over" on top of her. "JUST TWO MORE PULL OVERS MAMA!"

"One more short show??"

But, the good news is most of these are pretty easy to curb and she goes right to sleep and stays asleep.

At her 5 year old well check, she was 43.5" tall, and 44 pounds. She was also TERRIFIED of her shots. It was BAD BAD BAD. Screaming, flailing, all of it.

Charley loves our weekends. Stay-at-home days are her favorite. It does give me a bit of Mama guilt that every day isn't a stay-at-home day, but then I remember that if we were always at home, she likely wouldn't love our time at home quite as much. Definitely a grass is greener situation. So, instead I'm grateful she simply loves to be at home with her family so very much.

Charley and Laney are definitely playing independently together these days. Especially now that the basement is getting a lot of use, those two just go downstairs, Charley turns Netflix or music on for them and they just play down there all by themselves. Charley is great with Laney, MOST of the time. 

Of the two, Charley is our earlier riser. 7:30 or 8:00 is pretty typical on weekends. 

She recognizes and can write all of her letters now. Preschool really helped because she didn't show interest on her own at home. I can see the beginnings of her learning to read though and that's pretty exciting!

She's all about being in the front of the line whether at school or gymnastics or even during swim lessons. I guess that's pretty typical though. 

Charley LOVES matching what Laney wears. And of course, I love it too.

Speaking of gymnastics, unfortunately Charley has inherited my non-athleticism it seems. However, the difference between her and I is that she WANTS to keep trying to get stuff when I was too embarrassed to keep trying. (Heck, sometimes I'm even embarrassed FOR her when I watch. And yet she doesn't seem fazed at all. Love her innocence.) I actually saw her legs go up instead of just around when attempting a cartwheel last week and I was SO proud of her for just getting to that part. 

She prefers fruity/sour candy over chocolate candy which is WRONG WRONG WRONG but so very RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT regarding her leftover Halloween candy.

Charley's got a sensitive heart like me. She watched a cartoon on Netflix that was rated for ages 8+ (with our permission of course) and after it was over I realized why it was rated that way. The cartoon had something to do with a family's home catching on fire and they lost everything. (I know, I know. WHAT kind of cartoon even has that!?) Charley was pretty heartbroken though and cried and cried about how sad it was. And that she was afraid we'd lose our house. So we've had so many conversations about how the material things aren't important, as long as we all have each other still. (I think the show was Peabody and Sherman.)

  Charley was Angel Gabriel in her preschool play this week. She did SO good; I was so proud of her. As most parents are of their children, of course. I often see myself in Charley in the way she can be shy, but then I love being surprised by something like this where she is totally NOT like I was. She said she was nervous when she saw all of the people, but I couldn't tell a bit. 

 She is looking so much older to me these days. I don't know if it is just the jeans, or the new favorite hairstyle the "top knot" (messy bun on top of her head), but man. I can see glimpses of teenage Charley and no! It's going too fast!

 

 But then other times I look at her, and whew. There's my little girl again.

 

Santa Max

So last year I gave you way too many words on which local Santa is our favorite. (Santa Max at Carolina Place mall if you are local.) Basically, I don't want to take my own picture - even if I have to pay way too much for it, and I want a Santa that will smile. This year we went back to our favorite Santa and our experience was SO great I have to tell you about it.

As I predicted last year, I knew this would be Laney's crying year. It's just that stranger-danger part of her development so I was prepared for her to be afraid. What I WASN'T prepared for, was for Charley to put on the brakes about 20 feet away from the jolly ol' fellow. She STOPPED in her tracks and was not moving at all. Of course, this surprised us because besides her stranger-danger year, we've had nothing but smiles and happy Santa visits otherwise and she hadn't mentioned being nervous at all up until that point.

So, we tried to talk her into it, but she really wasn't having it. I definitely wasn't going to force her to visit him. I figured that I would look back at each year's Santa picture and I would say "awww 2016 was the year Charley was afraid!" so I told John just to let it be. I was prepared to just get our crying Laney picture and go home. John at least got Charley to walk into the queue line by telling her she could just watch Laney but that's as far as she would go.

At the same time, I'm holding Laney at the front of the queue line because we were the only guests there. It was around 7:00 on Thursday, December 1st, so early enough that there were no crowds whatsoever. One of the helper elves came over to me to get my girls' names discreetly while John was still trying to convince Charley. I told him I was holding Laney, and that was Charley over there but it didn't look like she was going to visit Santa this year. He nodded and walked on over to Santa.

A minute later, here came Santa out into the queue line! With a jolly ho, ho, ho, he walked over to Charley. "Well hello Charley!" and she loosened her grip on John just a bit. She was still hiding a little bit behind him, so he continued on. "You know Charley, somebody told me you wanted a garbage truck for Christmas. Is that right?" She shook her head no. "I didn't think that was right! I know Charley and I knew that wasn't something she'd like!" She starts to giggle. And it went on and on for a few more minutes. He was so wonderful! But, despite his best efforts, she said she still didn't want to visit with Santa. Again, I'm fine with that so I'm thinking ok - let's just get Laney's over with.

Then Santa said "Well Charley, I'm going to go out and feed the reindeer real quick so I'm going to step out. Feel free to take a seat in my chair if you'd like!" and he walks off. I'm BEYOND confused. I'm like really, Santa? You are taking a break right now!? So I just stood there holding Laney with a look of total confusion on my face as he left.

Mr. Elf comes back over and ushers us to Santa's chair, where we all sit. Ohhhhhh ok, they are just going to let us have a family picture, I think. So they take a TON. Adjusting Laney's legs, having me shift this way, trying to get Ms. Serious to smile (it wasn't successful).

   

 And I'm happy with that because family pictures are hard to come by, but, I still wanted Laney to visit with Santa. And then. THEN! I feel a warm hand on my shoulder and realize Santa had been in our family pictures after all!

I mean, at that point even I didn't know he was back there so I know my kids didn't know!

Maybe I'm a bit slow, but it took me all the way until then to realize what they were doing. These guys were pros at this! They knew just what they were doing! On top of making sure they got a sale either way, they were getting Charley comfortable. 

After our shoot was presumably "over" as far as the kids knew, Santa walked around to the front of us and pretended he had just missed our whole shoot. Charley giggled, but was still apprehensive. Then he asked Charley if she'd like him to read her a book. Sure, she says! So I get up, Santa sits down and he begins reading her a book.

And before you know it, we have this.

So, he read to her for another minute, and then came the real test. Laney. I was right in my prediction with that one. 

She cried, we got a few shots, and I took her right back.

From there, we paid for the whole shoot because it was either $20 for prints of one shot, or $35 for everything they took and some prints. (Turns out if I had made my reservation online I could have saved 20% and I would have gotten another $5 off if I'd printed a coupon for coming so early in the month. Argh! I'll know for next year!) I needed a picture for our Christmas card and I was sure at least one of those family ones would work because they took so many. I of course chose the crying one as my print because I had to.

Aren't great customer service experiences so satisfying?! I think I'm so used to having bad ones or ones that are neither good nor bad that a really great one shocks me. Terrible, right? I came home and found Santa Max on Facebook and will keep up with him all year long. I'm a believer!

And this is what we (er, I) chose for our Christmas card this year. Last year I tried taking my own family picture for the card and there were tears involved on my part, so I wasn't looking forward to trying that again. I shared all of the pictures already from our last session with a photographer (I like to have a new picture to share on a Christmas card) so I knew I wasn't booking another photographer so soon after the last one. So this chance experience really worked out perfectly. Thanks Santa Max!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merrrrrrrry Christmas!

Owlie

4 years, 6 months, 15 days. 1,659 days. That's how long Charley used her lovey blanket, we dubbed Owlie, as her comfort item.

 

The good ol' Easter Bunny delivered one Owlie blanket to Charley on April 8, 2012. Charley was 6 months old and immediately fell in love. I'm thankful she declared her love for Owlie so soon because we were able to buy two backups immediately from Target. I guess that's where the Easter Bunny shopped too.

This was the day she received Owlie. It was so clean!

Owlie has gone everywhere with us. 

On hikes,

to 3-D shows,

camping with Grandaddy,

in Grandaddy's chair,



of course to every nap,



lots of time on the couch,



to family birthday parties,

to the beach, 

to Christmas celebrations, 

on road trips, 

to the zoo, 

and a million other places. It took me about 10 minutes to collect all of these pictures. There were TONS of them. Owlie is probably photographed more often than our cat. Sorry, Reese!

Charley essentially used Owlie as a pacifier. She did the same sucking motion as you would on a pacifier, but on the corners of Owlie. Every single corner became discolored and they STANK real bad real fast. They got regular washes on the weekends but Charley rarely minded their smell and love love loved them so.

I wasn't that worried about them either since the dentist had mentioned that they didn't pose the same problem as a pacifier since they were flat. So, I tried some gentle approaches to get her to break the habit. Essentially I didn't want to just take them from her, I just did not want her to put them in her mouth any longer. 

For a while, we talked up her 5th birthday like she was OFFICIALLY going to be a big girl. And you know what big girls didn't do? They didn't chew on owlies. We told her on her 5th birthday she would give them over to us, and then she'd get her birthday presents and she was pretty agreeable about it. So, that morning, in our camper, she begrudgingly handed them over.

Yeah, so, that didn't work. Her and Laney share a room in the camper and I wasn't trying to have two non-sleeping babies that night, so she convinced me to let her just have them at night but that she wouldn't touch them at all during the day. That continued on for another couple days where she even brought them to me and handed them over first thing every morning, but before we knew it she just kept them and then "used" them whenever she pleased. She didn't take them to school or anything, but if she was resting on the couch and watching a cartoon, she liked to have them. I gave up the fight for a while.

We randomly tried to let her test out her own willpower for the promise of a coveted toy. (Monster High girl dolls...thanks a lot Charley's older cousins! haha) We told her she could continue to hold them, but as soon as she put them back in her mouth she had to start all over. I think we put a 3 day limit on it or something like that. But, this was HABIT, and even though she tried to lay there so sweetly only holding them and not chewing them, habit took over and they were back in her mouth before we knew it.

We gave up for a while. She truly didn't use them as often as she used to, and we just hadn't come up with a nice way of taking them away.

A couple weekends ago John went out of town. While Charley misses her daddy when he leaves of course, she also gets really excited because I will let her have ONE sleepover in Mama's bed whenever he isn't home. She chose Saturday night over the long weekend he was gone to sleep in the bed with me. That night I didn't sleep very well and one of the reasons why was because I could hear her sucking on those blankies ALL NIGHT LONG. I sort of thought she used them to go to sleep and that was really it, but that night I realized that she would grab them in her sleep and suck on them periodically throughout the night. I decided I needed to help her break the habit soon. In the middle of the night sometime, I finally came up with an idea that I thought may work.

Safety pins.



I think most people questioned my sanity when I said I was going to put small metal POINTY objects on something that my daughter regularly put IN HER MOUTH and kept IN HER BED. Relaxxxxx, everything's going to be justtttt fine.

I did use larger, sturdier safety pins and put them on every single corner at some point that next afternoon. I decided I should tackle this that very next night because John was still out of town and I could let her sleep in my bed again so I could comfort her and also so her crying wouldn't wake up Laney on their side of the house. Charley was less than thrilled with me when she saw what I had done that afternoon. :(

And that night wasn't very fun at all. Charley cried pretty hard for a good 30-45 minutes. It was tough and I felt really bad for her. She had used that thing to put herself to sleep for YEARS and I felt bad that I hadn't helped her to break the habit sooner. But, before too long, she was asleep and there wasn't a blankie in her mouth at all. My big girl. <3 p="">

But then....it was over. She may have asked for them that next morning and got a little teary eyed a couple times talking about what Mama had done, but that was IT. A few days later I ordered the dreaded Monster High Girl dolls and she was SO PROUD OF HERSELF. Which now, makes me a little teary eyed thinking about.

She still takes them to bed with her (and they are still safety pinned JUST IN CASE) but there weren't any other tears shed and haven't been any pokey accidents, either. She was just ready, I guess. 

It's such an accomplishment to get through parenting feats like this, right? It makes you feel encouraged and strong and ready to tackle the next feat!

Meet Bunny, Laney's blankie that she does the EXACT SAME THING with. I have a feeling - knowing Laney's spunky personality - things won't go as swimmingly with her. I'm gonna........wait a couple more years on that. So much for feeling encouraged.