Quick 5

My dad and brother-in-law have given me serious flak over the pictorial Quick 5 a couple of weeks ago.  I stand by it.  Thus my first encounter with back seat bloggers.

1.  I've taken to staying at home on Mondays, which is laundry day for us.  I try not to go out unless absolutely necessary.  This has given me the freedom to dress Alaina like a ragamuffin while her good clothes are being washed.  Although, with the onset of serious potty-training, she looks like this a little more often these days.

The shirt is quite small, and the pants are border-line high-water.  And there is a little hole on the backside.  I think it is so cute, but I would quickly change her into something more presentable if we had to leave the house.

2.  Speaking of potty-training, I bought a bag of Easter Hershey Kisses to use as rewards for this go-around.  Alaina earns one if she a) poops in the potty (a rare occurrence) or b) goes tinkle in the potty AND has dry pants.  I bought the Easter bag because I thought the colors were fun and pretty.

Guess what color is Alaina's current favorite?  Gray.  As in silver.  As in the color of the normal, boring, every-day Kisses.  As in, I didn't need to buy a fun bag.  Sheesh.

3.  On Wednesday Alaina did not take an afternoon nap.  This happens sometimes.  Thankfully not often, because on the day she misses her afternoon nap there are usually tears galore before bed.  But on Wednesday when she was supposed to be sleeping I heard her call "Mommy!  Mommy!"  Since we're potty-training I ran to the room, thinking she was going to declare that she had to poop or something.  Instead I found her looking out the window calling "The turtles!  The turtles!"  Sure enough, there was a very large tortoise roaming our front yard.  So even though it was nap time, I scooped her up and we ran downstairs.  As we came outside our neighbor was bringing out another, slightly smaller one.  Apparently he does reptile shows for schools and stuff.  These two guys were really big; one was 21 years old, and the other was 57.  I asked him he had snakes and he said a couple.  I didn't go into any more detail, because there is a no-pet policy in these town homes  I didn't want to know any specifics.

4.  Yesterday I began the process of weaning Joya from her swaddler.  You know, those fancy swaddle blankets with the velcro that keeps them wrapped up in a tight burrito.  I simply wrapped her in a normal blanket, so she would have an easier time breaking out of it.  The morning nap went fairly well.  She actually fell asleep with her arm out, and I was excited to know she could fall asleep without her arms pinned down.  However, she woke up much earlier than she normally would.  And the same thing happened during her afternoon nap.  She fell asleep okay, but woke up after about an hour.  I wrapped her up again, and again she fell asleep for about 45 minutes.  So she can fall asleep, but just doesn't really stay asleep at this point.  I'll put her back in the swaddler for the night, but I hope she can get used to it and stay asleep for her naps soon.

5.  And finally, an update on how last Sunday went.  Last Sunday was my return to the worship team, which meant an early, long morning for all of us.  Alaina is an old pro, and really enjoys eating her breakfast at church and playing all morning.  Joya did pretty well for the first two hours.  And that was about it.  I ended up with her in the mother's room for most of the second service, and she screamed for quite a bit, even with me holding her.  She didn't do so well during the last service either.  And when I finally got her home, she had a really hard time falling asleep for her nap, even though I knew she was overtired.  So I'm going to have to hold off for a couple of months before we try it again.  Hopefully by then she'll either be back to taking a bottle, or will be able to be distracted by snacks or something.  I just can't bring myself to make the nursery workers deal with her again for awhile.  I'm glad we did it, but we're just going to have to give it more time.

That's a wrap!