March of Dimes - Last Chance!

I am indeed walking in this in TWO DAYS! This is your last chance to sponsor me in this walk. Click the link above to help with March of Dimes research if you are feeling so inclined. If you've already pledged or donated to my or anyone's walk, THANK YOU!

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Easter update

I shouldn't have said "Easter Schmeaster." Every time I look at that title I cringe. Maybe I'll change it.

Anyway, Easter weekend was F.U.N. (esoteric TMBG reference there). We had a wedding on Saturday night at which you were relatively well-behaved. Except that we could NOT get you off the dance floor. At one point (the First Dance), you allegedly screamed bloody murder because Daddy had to remove you from the dance floor. *sigh* Yeah, that was the low point. Thankfully I was in the bathroom and missed the whole thing! Heh. Otherwise, you were pretty good and conked out before we were even out of the parking lot.

Sunday morning we had breakfast with Grandma and Uncle Chris, then our own little Easter Egg (chocolate/caramel eggs) hunt in the front yard. Pictures forthcoming, of course. You got a couple of pieces of chocolate, and have only had a couple since but you ask for them now ALL the time. I should hide the basket. Church followed, and you looked darling in your white dress with pink butterflies. After Church we wen to the Duncan family reunion, which was pretty fun. You got to play on the big kid play equipment and generally ran Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Angel ragged. Again, asleep before we left the parking lot.

So, it was fun. The not-so-fun part came on Monday. I can only deduce it was a result of overdoing things over the weekend, but you apparently were quite misbehaved. You spent 1/4 of the day in time-out by yourself because you didn't play well with others. In fact, you had four separate biting incidents, two of which were fairly significant. I felt terrible when I heard the news and you were even very badly behaved Monday evening at home with us. We had some good long chats about it Monday night and every morning and evening since. Tuesday you were just fine so I am hoping it was just a bad day.

Incidentally, anybody want to take over accounting for my daughter's daycare? They apparently are incapable of doing math. They're trying to tell me I owe them almost $500 and I've had to literally go back and print out the copies of the cancelled checks. For Pete's sake!

Easter Schmeaster

Am I the only heretic supposed Christian who forgets what all the events were this Holy Week? I get Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday all goofed up in my brain. I know the general chronology, but beyond Palm Sunday I am at a loss.

Anyway, I know that Easter Sunday means breakfast with the family, a chocolate Easter egg hunt in the front yard, church at 10:00 and the Duncan Family Reunion. That should be interesting considering I don't know the Duncans, and they don't know me. Your daddy's mother's mother was a Duncan, and she passed away when Daddy was 2 years old. After that, they never had a lot of contact. So when they say reunion, they mean reunion. Anyway, it should be interesting at least.

The teacher in the baby room at daycare just adores you. She sent you home with an Easter basket with table tennis toys and candy. Every night when I walk in the door, you excitedly point to the basket which is now safely stored on the very top of the china hutch. You babble to me about toys and candy and how badly you want to play with it. Daddy and I have taken turns reminding you that you get to have the basket in three - no, TWO! - more days. Daddy even illustrates this with, "Fall asleep, wake up, fall asleep, wake up and then you can have it!" *sigh*

What this has really done though is make me annoyingly self-conscious about the basket we have for you. Can it match up to Mama Sylvia's surprise basket? Ours is a tiny green woven $1.99 Target special filled with bunny-shaped sidewalk chalk, a $2.99 clearance Little People girl and cow, a mini-See 'N Say and a free bunny I got from purchasing 3 Hallmark cards. Your easter eggs are actually just chocolate eggs in multi-color foil, so I really hope you find them all or we'll have dogs and cats sniffing our bushes for an Easter chocolate bonanza.

Anyway, I hope the basket stands up to your investigation and tops the table tennis and candy. With our luck your Grandmas and Grandpas will give you more baskets and trump me yet again. Have I mentioned how spoiled you are?

March of Dimes WalkAmerica

So, I've decided to do this - in two weeks! Nothing like waiting until the last minute. Please visit my page and consider pitching in. So many people I've encountered have had premature babies. Even Ceili was technically premature. But the research that March of Dimes is doing might help prevent preterm labor and ultimately stop the steady increase of premature births.

Click my link above if you feel so inclined, and let me know if you have questions! Ceili and I will be there, with bells on.

Yesssss!

So, thank God that "no" is no longer your favorite word. Now it's "yes." Oh, that's so much more manageable. The phrases currently heard most often in our household are now "Yessssss!" and "Thank you, Mommy." Both of those are just music to my ears. The latter gets repeated... and repeated... and repeated. You love to hear me say, "You're welcome, baby" so you will just say it over and over. Very cute. So far, you are almost flawless with your thank you's and getting better with your please's. Now if only we could get you to be so courteous physically. The hitting and kicking tantrums continue. Depending on how tired you are, they can get pretty unpleasant.

Speaking of sleep, you must be going through another growth spurt (great) since you're suddenly sleeping like crazy. Last night you fell asleep at 7:45, and I had to wake you up this morning at 7:00 a.m. Wild. You were cheerful and rested, though so I can't be too concerned about it.

Daddy's evening job is thankfully coming to a very quick end. His last night of it is tomorrow. He got offered a full time job at the high school where he was, and doesn't need the night one. My prayers have been answered and now I can stop hearing you ask, "Daddy coming soon?" every night. That wasn't so fun.

Because the Night

Well, we're into our new schedule now. Today is Day One. Daddy is done with his student teaching. He is substitute teaching today, then he's going straight to his "new" Security job. "New" because he did it before, through the end of the year last year actually, but he was doing it during the day. When you were a newborn and up until you were about 8 months old, Daddy did this job at night too. So it's not entirely new to us, just a revisiting of an old (non)favorite.

The good and bad of it really got more complicated when he found out that he has been offered a long-term subbing job for the end of the school year. That means if he does both, he'll be working 7 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. M-Th, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday for the next nine weeks. If that doesn't sound like burnout, I don't know what does. Next week is Spring Break, so he'll only have to worry about the night one. Beyond that? We'll see if everything pans out, but right now I'm pretty uncertain about what's going to happen.

What I do know is that I get to pick you up each day this week and next. On Mondays and Wednesdays you will go to the gym daycare with me. Fridays Daddy will be able to get you, so that's good. Hopefully you won't mind the gym daycare too much. You've gone twice. Once you could care less and once you had a complete meltdown. One for two ain't bad? Right. I'd like a better track record than that.

We'll find out tonight.

You did have a fun weekend. We finally got your two-year pictures and you were unbelievably well-behaved. We were asked a dozen times how old you were because nobody could believe a just-two-year-old could be that well behaved. It was freaky. You even held some unnatural poses and gave some nice wry smiles on command. Made me think fleetingly that you really could do modeling if we had the desire. Nah.

You got to hang out with Aunt Chelsie and Uncle CR on Saturday day, too. You seemed to really enjoy that, and you got so worn out you took a three hour nap! But I heard you had a blast. Good girl. You have such a great family.

I anticipate a change to the background picture soon, as soon as Grandma gets your new photos scanned in. Maybe an Easter theme for a few weeks, then one of the other cutes ones. We'll see.

Event Fun

Did I ever mention that we DID get to go to the Heffalump movie? I'm not sure if I did or not. You did pretty well, got a bit restless, but mostly behaved and enjoyed. I thought it was a really cute move, and like Lumpy the Heffalump tremendously. Now Disney needs to get some merchandise out there! I know I'd buy some, so I can't figure out why they're missing this opportunity!

Anyway... I'm hoping to maybe get your two-year pictures taken this Sunday. I've been remiss in that already.

Plus, I'm considering taking you to a Spring Training game. You can be a bit more rambunctious at a ST game, plus they're cheaper. You got some ADORABLE baseball clothes from Grandma and Grandpa for your birthday, so you're geared up and ready to go.

Also, update on yesterday's 2-year-old checkup. You weighed in at 30.9 lbs. (90%) and measured at 34.5 inches (75%)! Way to grow. She wants us to try Children's Claritin with you for a while, as she's worried about your snoring and possible apnea. If that doesn't work, we'll be headed off to an ENT. Otherwise, the visit was wonderful. You were cheerful, even giggly. And you took your Hepatitis A shot without even a whimper. I simply couldn't believe it. The Dr. said she couldn't believe it either, at your age. You just thought it was all very interesting and entertaining. Whatever the reason, I'm just thankful as it could have been much worse.

So there you go. Happenings as they are. More on the not-so-great changes in our life and schedule next time.