Break Time

With the holidays approaching and life getting in the way, I'm going to take a little blogging break.  The last several months have been full of laughter and joy--but that joy has been tinged with some stinging sadness.  It is all fine--my family is good, and I hope to be back after the New Year refreshed and renewed.

Have a wonderful rest of 2013!

Sarah

The Sun Will Rise

Making Dinner?

This is so true!  One day, I'll tell you about the time the fire engines actually showed up...

Halloween Pics--Only 11 Days Late!

Wait, was Halloween really a week and a half ago?  Whoops--time, once again, is getting away from me.

I spent a good bit of time planning Halloween costumes.  Both girls picked their own.  Minnie Mouse was an obvious choice for Charlotte.  I got her costume from Toys R Us of all places, but they seemed to have the most "classic" dress so I went for it.

Cate's Prinecess Celestia costume was DIYed, which I though would save me some money, but I think it ended up being about double what good old Minnie Mouse cost.  I found a tutorial here and it turned out nicely.

For those who don't know, Princess Celestia is a My Little Pony.  Cate had a momentary flicker of regret over her decision, wishing instead to be Rainbow Dash, which her best buddy had picked.  When Rhett found this out he told me "I hate to pull rank but isn't Princess Celestia THE TOP pony?  Isn't Rainbow Dash one of her subjects??  This is an obvious choice."  Haha--can you tell he is the father of young girls????

Anyway, Cate quickly forgot about that because she was so excited when she saw her costume come together.  Here it is:

Crown: check, unicorn: check, multi-colored mane: check, wings: check,  cutie mark: check!

Don't know what a cutie mark is?  I didn't either.  Princess Celestia's is a sun.

Halloween night!

 And here is Minnie:

Pretty darn thrilled with life here, folks. 

Sweetness...

Top Ten Things I've Learned Over the Past Year

November 5th marked exactly one year since we moved.  One year since the whirlwind of quitting my job, packing up our "forever house" and heading up to Northern VA.  One year being a stay at home mama with my babies.

For me, it's been awesome and I am so grateful for the past twelve months.  I know that many women don't have the opportunity to be home full time and it really is such a gift.

Here are the Top Ten Things I've Learned Over the Past Year:

10. Big house, small house, or something in between--it really doesn't matter.  Home is home because of who is in it.

9. But extra closet space is always nice.

8. In real estate, location really is king.  I don't love our townhouse, but the location is amazing and it makes a huge difference.  Rhett's commute is relatively short and we can get anywhere we need to go with ease.  I'd rather live in a shoebox near to where I need to be than a huge house that is out of the way.

7. No matter if you're a mom that works full-time, part-time, or stays home--you will always question if you're doing it right.  Nothing is perfect and everyone has bad days.  Just do the best you can.

6. Across the board, Maryland drivers are THE WORST--it's almost unbelievable.

5. Every parent thinks their school is the best--and you know what?  They're right.  If they love it, it is best--for them.

4. Living for the next "thing" is such a waste.  Life is tenuous and you never know what's around the bend.

3. Pray with your children.  It teaches them to be grateful.  Even if most days they are only thankful for Snow White, Cinderella, and Rapunzel, at least they are thinking about being thankful.

2. Take a shower, dress in "real" clothes, and put on some makeup every day.  It makes you more productive and you feel better about yourself.

1. Love the one you're with.

I Don't Want to be Right

Rhett sometimes jokes when he gets home from work that I look very "comfy."  So, with that…

Yes, indeedy!

The Pacifier

When Cate was a baby/toddler, she loved her pacifier, or "passer" as she called it.  But, as she approached her second birthday, I knew it was time to give it up.  I was pregnant with Charlotte and Cate was moving to a big girl bed.  It was just time to go.

I wrung my hands for weeks about it, but finally decided the day she moved on to the green room at school was the day she would give her pacifiers to "the baby" (in my tummy).  We talked about it a lot, and I was really nervous about how my sensitive girl would do.  The morning she was to move to the green room, we collected her passers, deposited them in the closet in the baby's room, and never looked back.  There was not one peep.  Color me surprised!

For my easygoing Charlotte, life has not been so…well…easy.  She is now almost two and because of the timing I used with Cate, I've always had the milestone of the second birthday in my head when thinking about taking away the pacifier.  Charlotte has exclusively used it in her crib, and I really thought it wouldn't be a big deal to lose it.  Not so…

Back in September, I introduced the concept that pacifiers were for babies and that when Charlotte was two, she would have to give her pacifier away to a certain baby we knew.  How did she take it?  Well…she absorbed the information for a couple of weeks, and then let me know she no longer wanted to see "that baby" and in November she was not going to be two…she told me she was going to be six.  It was if she was saying, "Nope, sorry, try this one on someone else."  Ok, on to Plan B…

I kept quiet for a few weeks, and decided that trying removing the pacifier in conjunction with her birthday and/or to giving it to someone we knew would be bad.  So I said after Halloween we would send Charlotte's pacifiers to a new baby at the hospital.  Then, this past Friday, the removal began.

Charlotte happily took her passers out of her crib in the morning and deposited them in an envelope.  She watched me address the envelope and she lovingly put a Dora stamp (sticker) on it.  Then Charlotte happily skipped her way to the mailbox and put the envelope in the mail.  This is going great, I thought.

Later I told her the new baby had sent her a thank you gift, and I presented Charlotte with a new doll.  She was thrilled and played with it all morning.  It was all fun and games…

…until she got in her crib.

We are now over three days into a pacifier-free house.  We've had three pre-nap crying sessions, three very early wake-ups (with a side of daylight savings to add to the earliness), and lots of "where is my passer?" along with very sad eyes.

I've been begging Cate to be SILENT once Charlotte is in her crib so she can peacefully (ha!) drift off to sleep.  Unfortunately, Cate is four, and sometimes once I've put her to bed, she forgets that she has some very important questions she needs to call me into her room to answer.  Questions like "What sound does a pony make from its nose?" "Why can't I fly?" and "What do you want for Christmas?"

So, it hasn't been perfect, but there is no going back now.  I'm hoping we're over the tough days, but I'm a bit worried that the early wake ups are here for awhile.  It's life with a young kid though--constant transitions and trying to figure out how to get more, more, more sleep.  Wouldn't change that for anything though :)