haha

This was in my inbox today from a parenting email. Made me laugh, so I thought I'd share. =)

My daughter is a little rational adult stuck in a 3 year old's body

Last night, after returning home from Bible study, I told Carlee it was almost time to go to bed, and we needed to get ready. She matter-of-factly looked at me and said, "Oh, well tonight I can sleep in your bed, because Daddy's not here."

"What?" I was speechless for a few seconds! LOL "Well, don't you think you should sleep in your big girl princess bed?" *fingers crossed* {I still haven't been able to write about our whole buying her bed experience... I'll get to it.... eventually. heh}

"No, I'll sleep in my bed tomorrow. Tonight I can sleep in your bed because Daddy's at work and he'll be home tomorrow afternoon. So there's room for me now."

"Well.... I uh... hmmm.... Let me call Daddy and see what he says about this." So I called him, and he just laughed at her rational thinking. We both decided that if she understood the fact that when it was all 3 of us, there is not enough room, that neither one of us minded if she slept with me on Tony's duty days. I really don't want her to feel like she's not wanted in the bed, because that's not it at all, there really is just not enough room. And honestly that is the reason I've been giving her, so how could I tell her no after she realized that there was room last night? lol... I'm going to have to watch how I say everything and what reasons I give... looks like I have a little lawyer on my hands, or something. =)

The Sleep Situation

Funny that I got this article in my inbox this morning.... :)

So, the sleep issue is getting a little bit better. Okay, a lot better, but only in Carlee's weird little way. We ended up "SuperNanny-ing" it at first. I started it on Thursday (Tony's duty day YAY!) and it was a nightmare. She fought for an hour at first, with me repeatedly picking her up and putting her back in the bed silently. As soon as I laid her down, her feet were already swinging out of bed, and I had to race her to the door to close it and prove I was serious. Every time she opened the door, I'd take her back to bed. My back was killing me! She finally quieted down for a bit around 10 PM. I had time to take a shower (my only break) and as soon as my head hit the pillow, she started up again. That was about 10:30 PM, I did not lay back down until 1 AM when I finally gave up and let her in to bed. I insisted that this was the absolute last night, and crossed my fingers that she at least took a hint from the last 4 hours and would be more cooperative the next night.

Friday was much better. Still a struggle initially to get her bed, but she eventually quieted down but was laying by the door. She got up and fought Tony (I told him that night was cake compared to the night before, so he had Carlee duty) about 3 times max. She ended up sleeping by the door on the floor!

That's where she's been since then. She finally let us know that she thinks the crib (which is in its daybed form) is for the baby, and that she likes our bed. So, I decided to use a chart to track her nights slept in her room. Once she gets 10 stickers, *I guess....* we'll go to base and buy her a twin sized bed. I really had wanted to wait until we got to the states to buy her a bigger bed, with more selection and better prices.... but whatever will work, I am willing to do.

She's been doing much better. Usually only waking up once or twice and going back to sleep fairly easily once I remind her about the stickers. I just find it so weird that she's happy on the floor in a makeshift blanket bed. LOL but whatever.... :) Plus I'm wondering if when we do get the bed, if she's going to actually use it, or stay on the floor..... o_0

sooo sleepy

I haven't been able to update any of my blogs lately... Saturday my friends threw me a baby shower!! It was sooo awesome. THEY are sooo awesome. It was kind of weird for me, because I've never had a party thrown for me as an adult, so I kind of kept forgetting the party was for me LOL. I kept finding myself in the kitchen, and my friends would give me looks like, "What are you doing? Go to the living room!" haha. I hope no one was offended, I didn't do it on purpose. =) I will post pics later. I loved everything I got for the baby. I'm so grateful for my good friends I have here. I don't know what I would do without all of them.

So, why am I sleepy? Well, for the past week I've been dealing with Carlee's weird sleep patterns that showed up out of nowhere! Seriously, is there a reason to get up at 3 AM and NOT go back to sleep for the rest of the day!!!???!!! I'm not kidding. I'm 30 weeks preggers and dealing with this. I'd like to enjoy my sleep for the last few weeks I have it, Carlee, thank you. One night when Tony had duty, I fought to get her to sleep for 1.5 hours in the middle of the night, and finally decided to just let her cry it out, and went to bed. Well, she came in to my room and crawled into bed. I was too tired to even say anything... my biggest mistake. Well, I did tell her that when Daddy was home, she would not be able to do that, but she knew better.... LOL The next night, (when Tony was home) she did it again. Came into our room around 1 AM, went straight to my bed and started feeling for my face (since it's so dark in there, heh). "Can I help you?" I asked.

"yeah, you can help me. Pick me up." I had to laugh... little smart butt. We let her into bed. It's a battle for me, because I naturally parent with attachment parenting. I did it even before I knew what it was, just by following my instincts. But now, my brain is telling me that she's going to start taking advantage of it, and I don't need to deal with bad habits after the baby gets here. Anyway, she wanted to sleep on the edge, so I was forced to the middle, which is horrible for someone who can't sleep in their current state if it's higher than 71 degrees. It was so hot between the both of them... ugh. I couldn't move, my back was killing me. After laying there for a few hours, I finally had enough and told Tony to take her to her bed. Just as he was laying her down, she said, "What are you doing with me?" AHHH!!!! She ended up back in our bed.

Last night, I told her she had to sleep in her bed. It took me a while to get her to sleep the first time. As I left her room, I put the baby gate up in the doorframe. Yeah, she was not happy about that at 2 AM this morning, let me tell you. LOL I took her to the bathroom, then back to her room to try to get her back to sleep for over an hour. I didn't want her crying loudly since Tony had to work this morning. After that hour, I gave up. I was exhausted. I left the room, and of course she got out of bed, opened the door and screamed and cried and was pissed. I kept hearing her open and close the door, say Mom!!! (she's been calling me that lately,) turn the light on and eventually quiet down. Turns out she passed out with the light on the rest of the morning lol. sigh.... I don't know.....

I hope this weird phase passes soon. She used to be such a good sleeper. We'll be doing the baby gate again tonight. I hope she gets the point.

Sarah Palin: Mother and First Female VP Link

A friend of mine sent me this link, and I loved the write up. These definitely aren't the pictures of Sarah Palin that the news media wants everyone to see. I love how she is first and foremost a mom, no matter what.

Sarah Palin: Mother and First Female Vice President on Parenting Freedom

enjoy!

Homeschooling & Crazy Event of the Night

Carlee had her first homeschool preschool co-op group meeting today. She loved it! She made all new friends and did so well. I was a little worried since she's used to only playing with a small group of friends here in our neighborhood. But I worried for no reason. =) Today was a simple water play date to introduce the kids and let them get to know eachother. They had a blast! Next month is my month, so I've got to get planning! =) I'm thinking some activities about our 5 senses since Carlee just got a new book in about the subject. fun fun

A few friends and I took the kids to the park tonight to wear them out... A young boy and his even younger sister showed up about 5 minutes after we got there. The boy must have been about 6, and kept jumping off of everything high. His mom was nowhere around. He even stood on the side of the highest & steepest slide and jumped off, grabbed the monkey bars, and swung. We told him we didn't think he should be doing that, but he assured us he was okay. I didn't doubt he'd be okay, it looked like he'd done it before; I was more worried about our 2 & 3 year olds trying to copy him. Well, two tries later he missed the monkey bar and fell. I thought he hit his head, because he was crying and yelling "OWWW!!" I went closer to ask him if he was okay, and I look down and there's his wrist in his other hand, obviously not in line with his arm. I immediately looked away (I have such a weak stomach!) and said, "OMG he broke his wrist!"

My friends were like, "WHAT?!" We kept asking him where his mom was. Where did he live? etc. Turns out his mom was out at baseball practice (about 4 streets down.) My friend D started to run to go get his mom after asking his name. Ugh after a few minutes (nobody really believed D when she told them he had broke his wrist) they finally ran down to the park. After about 10 minutes, they finally took him to base to the ER. I don't know what they were waiting for, I think they were trying to put a splint on it or something. He's so lucky we were there.

I just don't get it. I mean seriously, how old is old enough to go to the park by yourself, especially with a 3 year old(ish) sister? I definitely wouldn't have allowed him to be there on his own if he were mine. I don't even know how old Carlee's going to be before I finally feel comfortable letting her go on her own. I told Tony, "By the time I do feel comfortable letting her go, it's going to be boy liking age, so she's still not going to get to go." LOL just kidding... but honestly, I don't know. Six is definitely too young in my honest opinion. What do you think?

these are AWESOME!

I can't WAIT to get one of these for Carlee!

These are in the All Services Exchange Catalog for only $99! The age requirement is 4, but I think Carlee will be okay. You know, it's never too early to start a good workout regimen. You know, indoor walking and indoor cycling?

I mean... I guess I could just go for a walk with her outside... or ride bikes with her to the park... but...

nah.

:)

Sugar Cookies for Carlee!

This morning started out early, with me almost deciding to ignore the alarm clock. I thought of the fun Carlee would have today, and it forced me out of bed. I headed downstairs and made her holiday sugar cookies: snowmen, stars, bells, angels, and gingerbread men galore. I got Carlee ready and gathered the cookies and we were off to decorate with friends. She had a blast! Of course. I got a few laughs for bringing my own cookies, but also a few inquiries about how I had made them, and what substitutions I used. Interestingly enough though, after eating one and a half cookies with a little bit of icing on it, she handed me the second, saying, "I don't want anymore." A little too sweet, maybe?

The recipe I used was one I found on Allrecipes.com and then altered it to the following:

Vegan Sugar Cookies For My Little Carlee to Decorate
Ingredients:
3 Cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Cup non-hydrogenated margarine (or another butter substitute)
1 1/2 Cups Natural Sugar Cane
2 Tbsp Soy Flour + 2 Tbsp water (to replace 2 eggs)
2 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2. Cream together margarine and sugar. Beat in egg substitute one half at a time. Stir in vanilla. Gradually blend in sifted ingredients until fully absorbed. Cover dough. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheet. On clean, floured surface, roll out small portions of dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out shapes.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
5. Decorating with icing/candy of your choice.

These turned out a little chewy (which I like) since I took them out as soon as their raw looking glisten was gone. I didn't wait for them to brown at all. They weren't too sweet but just sweet enough. You don't want them too sweet anyway, with all that icing making up for it. :)

Carlee enjoyed decorating with her friends, and I really hope that I'm making it clear to her that eating vegan doesn't mean giving up socializing or doing fun food things with friends. I know she's still probably too young to understand that, but I want to make it clear from the start. If there are any left, (since Carlee and Tony have been eating plain sugar cookies left and right,) we're going to decorate the rest tomorrow for some family time, except using home made icing instead of cake icing like they used today. (blech!) heh.

P.S. I started putting copyrights on my photos, only because I don't want people thinking they're in the free domain and they can distort pictures of my baby! lol. If any family want originals, I'd be happy to email them to you, just let me know!

Stress Induced Baking Produces Yummy Results

This morning we had delicious Pumpkin Muffins from the Vegan with a Vengeance! cookbook. These were the positive result of a stressful day yesterday and getting my first Christmas present in the mail.

First, yesterday was pretty stressful for me. One of the nursery workers who watches the kids for the main base's chapel's bible study group was sick, so a friend of mine had asked me if I wanted to come in on Tuesday to fill the lady's spot. "Sure," I said. I figured I wasn't doing anything else, and it would be nice to get out of the house for a bit. Monday night, I planned out all my other errands and wrote my grocery list so that I could get it all done in one trip.

I was put in the 2 and under room and worked until noon. It went pretty good. The kids were a little fussy and cried every now and then for their moms, but it was okay. Afterward, I had to mail a few boxes at the post office. Trying to carry two boxes (one quite heavy) from the car, through the parking lot, across the street to the post office proved to be a challenge since it was impossible to do this while holding Carlee's hand. At one point she took off through the parked cars, and believe you me, I was quite upset. After 4 times as long as it should have taken, I somehow managed to open the unusually heavy door and usher Carlee inside. "Stay next to Mommy," I told her, since the last time we were in here she managed to run behind the counter, grab the attention of a Chief in a back office, who (thankfully with a smile) came out and said, "Who's trying to mail this little girl?" I had been very embarrassed, but apparently it wasn't the first time it had happened. Of course, today, Carlee failed to listen to my demand, but the door to behind the counter was not open, thank goodness.

After mailing the boxes, we headed over to the Nex to pick up a mic for Tony (who has self admittedly fallen off the deep end in WOW as he and his friends now voice chat.) Then we made our way to the food court for lunch. Subway is pretty much our only option, other than a small pizzeria in which I can order a veggie pizza senzo formaggio, but I didn't feel like waiting for a pizza to bake. So I ordered my veggie sandwich and grabbed a bag of Frito's, which Carlee usually likes. She wouldn't eat. Not only would she not eat, she wanted to run around the food court, and not let me eat. I tried to make her sit down. She wouldn't listen. I tried to hold her in my lap, but she thrashed around making it near impossible for me to eat. But I kept pulling her back up obviously against her will, ignoring the stares I was more than likely getting. I just wanted to eat.

The next stop was the commissary in order to get a whole list of things that I can't get at our neighborhood's small commissary, things I needed for our Thanksgiving dishes. By this time I was so tired of Carlee's behavior that I just put her in the seat and buckled her up, ignoring the whines, the "pleases," and the countless "Mommy I'm stuck!s" This trip actually went faster than I expected.

After making our way to the car and turning it on, I noticed how very close to running out of gas the car was. Tony had said I would have enough to get to base and to gas up on the way home. It wasn't looking that way. I drove toward the smaller base where our mail box is, constantly watching the gas level the entire time. As I drove through the gates, the car was already driving funny, I knew I should just go get gas. So I turned around and drove toward the nearest gas station (which isn't all that near when you're almost out of gas.)

"How much?" the attendant asked. Even though he asked me in English, I answered in Italian: 35 liters, please. He nodded, and I think he was a little surprised I had even attempted the Italian number. After pumping the gas, he washed the windshield for me, and started saying something else to me, but I didn't understand. Maybe he thought I knew more, I just smiled. I handed over my gas coupons and said thanks. "Grazie," he answered, "ciao, ciao." I was so grateful I had made it to the gas station.

At this point, I had to decide whether to drive the rest of the way home (since I was half way there) or to turn around and go back to the small base to check my mail. I knew there were probably boxes in there, at least I had hoped, so I decided to check the mail. However, turning left at that particular gas station is a nightmare, you can't see the oncoming traffic coming around the curve at all, and pretty much have to hope for the best if you're going to turn left there. I decided not to chance it. I turned right and drove about 5 miles before I found somewhere safe to turn around.

I made it back to base eventually and found out that in fact I did have boxes, a lot of them. It took me two trips to get them in the car. Finally done with that, I could head home. In the end, I'm glad I decided to turn back for the mail, as on the way home, I passed a pretty bad wreck. Four or five cars were on either side of the road in awkward positions. I decided that my long delay in getting to that particular spot was a good thing after all.

I finally arrived home, got Carlee inside, unloaded all the groceries and the boxes, and I was exhausted. When Carlee acts up like that when it's just us, it's very energy draining. I put the groceries up, and opened the boxes. This is where my Christmas present comes in... I opened the biggest box from my grandparents and there sat the box for a KitchenAid Artisan mixer!!!!

I've wanted one of these for years!!! I've listened with envy as my friends talked about theirs, and how great they are. Now, I had one! I immediately tore open the box and placed it on the counter. I felt like a 16 year old kid who had just gotten her first car. I carefully wiped it down with a dishtowel, getting all my fingerprints off the shiny black body. I called my grandparents right away, to thank them of course, then I cleaned out the bowl really quick and decided to use it right then. Is baking a weird stress reliever? Not to me.

Knowing of course that a standalone mixer is just a thing (albeit a very nice and helpful thing to have,) I'm even more grateful for the love of cooking and baking that my Grandma and Mom somehow instilled in me. I can remember baking all the time with my Grandma. It was always so comforting to smell the yummy scents coming out of the kitchen. And cooking, well cooking I didn't get into until I got married, because to be honest, my Mom and Grandma always did the cooking up until the day I left. But as soon as I was in my own home (a handful of states away) I found myself wanting the exact mixture of flavors my Mom and Grandma always cooked up. So I had to learn. It took a lot of practice and many inedible dinners... especially learning to make my Mom's enchiladas...

But with that love for baking, this KitchenAid just makes it so much easier! I was so amazed at it, how fast it mixed the muffin mix, how the consistency was perfect, and how quiet it was! I was in love. And as the muffins baked, and the pumpkin aroma filled my kitchen, I was suddenly completely relaxed and in a mood 100 times better than before.

The rest of the night was nice, Carlee went through her bedtime routine perfectly (which is unusual on Tony's duty days,) and, needless to say, we ate the muffins for breakfast, and started today out on a tasty note!