Finger

We had our first broken bone last week. Layla was sitting backwards on the kitchen chair and tipped over. She smashed her right middle finger between the chair and the hardwood floor and broke it clean across, just underneath her fingernail, above the knuckle. So basically the tip of the bone in her middle finger is separated from the rest of the finger bone. Ouchie!

I didn't see it happen, even though I was less than 10 feet away. My back was turned or else I would have told her not to sit on her chair like that! I heard the thud, which was immediately followed by screaming/crying. I held her while she cried and inspected her finger. I figured she had just smashed it good and at worst her fingernail would fall off. She could bend her finger and said it only hurt if you touched it. I made her a super ghetto splint out of wooden skewers and medical tape and she didn't complain about it for the rest of the day.

The first doctor's visit.

The next morning I noticed her finger looked red and swollen and thought maybe I had done the tape too tight on the splint. I told her we needed to take the splint off, but as I started to pull of the tape she started crying, "No, Mom! Please! Please, no!" and I figured it must hurt really bad. I felt awful making her endure the pain while I took the splint off, but I really needed to look at her finger and figure out what was going on.

Once the splint was off she said it felt much better. It was red and swollen, and her fingernail was dark around the edges, but she could bend her finger, so I still thought it was okay. We had preschool at our house soon after this. I made it a point to watch her during preschool to see if she acted like it hurt, but she didn't; she didn't even seem to baby it at all!

The next day (two days after the fall) it was still very red and swollen. Mitch suggested I take her to get it looked at. Our regular pediatrician, whom we love, does not treat broken bones, so we saw Dr. Pace. He looked at it and said he thought that the swelling was from blood pooling under her fingernail and suggested that we soak it in warm water to try and get the swelling down. Also, we didn't know for sure whether or not it was broken because their darn x-ray machine was down! I was slightly annoyed and mostly didn't feel I should be charged for the visit since it was pretty pointless.

That day we soaked it in water several times, which as I thought, did nothing. The next day it was still red and swollen. Funny thing is, she had not complained about her finger hurting besides when it happened and when I took the splint off. So this originally happened on a Tuesday, and now it's Friday and I take her back to the pediatrician because their x-ray machine is working again and sure enough, it's broken! I felt so bad! I totally chalked it up to nothing more than her fingernail eventually falling off and thought nothing more of it since she wasn't complaining.

She looked so little sitting in the chair with her kitty getting her finger x-rayed. She was such a good sport and her usual chatty self with the nurse and x-ray technician. The x-ray tech loved that when he asked if she liked candy, she said, "I loooove candy!" so instead of three suckers, he gave her four. She's cute like that. The doctor said it should heal just fine and gave her a splint to wear with pink tape (of course). She has to wear the splint for two to three weeks. The doc also said if in three weeks she says it doesn't hurt at all, then we don't need to get follow up xrays because it's probably just fine. Oh, and I also talked to them about only charging me for one visit, so hopefully that will get straightened out. They did send us a gift card to the movie theater for the trouble, which is super nice. I love our pediatrician's office.

x-ray.

Now whenever you ask Layla to show someone her finger, she takes her splint off and, unknowingly, flips them off. Ha, ha! It's pretty funny. I'm still pretty sure she's going to lose her fingernail, but now at least we know to be extra careful with that broken bone! When we got home from the last dr visit I said, "I'm sorry, Layla. I didn't think you're finger was broken, but it was!" and she said, "Yep, it was broken. Wah, wah, wah."  :)

The Sunday following the finger incident was Layla's turn to say the Article of Faith in Primary. We practiced reciting the sixth Article of Faith with her all week: "We believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive church: namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth." She did such a great job! I whispered in her ear the first half and she repeated it loudly and clearly in the microphone, and then she remembered the second half all on her own! She has an awesome memory. And the way she said, "and so forth!" was so full of enthusiasm in her cute little girl voice that it made the adults in the room all chuckle a little. I was proud of her and I'm glad that from age 3 and up the children get the opportunity to pray and speak in the microphone during primary. I think it's a great skill to learn and easier to overcome the fear when you start at such a young age.

Last funny thing about Layla: the other day I was in Marcus's room and she was in her room. She heard me say, "Marcus, why are you so cute?!?" and she answered and said, "Because, that's how Heavenly Father made him!" So sweet.

I love my Layla Bug and hope her finger heals quick! Though it hasn't slowed her down a bit. She still climbs all over the playground and has as much fun as ever!

pink splint.

Oh, and my handsome boy is 10 months old now. He's been a little crazy lately; waking up every one to two hours ... all night long. Totally not cool. This has been going on for a week now. I figured he was having a growth spurt since he was chowing down. But then I wondered if it was caused by separation anxiety, so last night I had him sleep in our bed with me (Mitch slept in Layla's bed since she slept over at my parents'). And guess, what? Marcus only woke up once. One time! Turns out, he really loves his mamma. And, looking back on it, I realize that before this happened, I tried to start weaning him. I had dropped two feedings a day (the ones when he wakes up from his naps) and he was not happy about it. I think the super cranky / waking up all night baby was his way of telling me he's not ready to wean yet. Now the problem is what to do about it ... I don't want him sleeping in our bed every night and I can't sleep in his crib ... I'm not sure what to do. I can't let him cry it out because while his acid reflux is so much better, it does come back when he cries a lot. Also, he is currently getting more teeth and he has a head cold. So we might have a few more rough nights, but hopefully it will get better soon and he will stop missing his mamma so much at night.

He is also very, very close to crawling. Just needs to get his right leg under him and he'd be doing it. For now he gets around by bum scooting everywhere. He still loves to clap and say, "Aaayyy!" (yay!) and lift his arms up for "so big!". He loves dinner time and claps and does so big over and over while he eats dinner. It's adorable. Sometimes he waves, but he just lifts one fist in the air and doesn't move it. It's really funny. It looks like a superhero pose or something. He loves being startled, especially by Layla, and I love that he loves to be scared because I love to scare people, so it's perfect. Ha! I sure do love his guts, even when he keeps me up all night. He's my cuddle baby and his goofy little grin just makes my day.

Spring Is Here!

Well ... not officially for a couple more weeks, but it sure feels like spring! We've had temps in the high 50s low 60s lately and I'm loving it.

A few things we've had going on:

-Marcus turned 9 months old! We went swimming on his 9 month birthday and he looked oh so adorable in his little swim suit. I was disappointed that I didn't take pictures of the kids at the pool, but I took some of my Little Man a few days after.

He thought the camera was funny and kept laughing when I would snap a pic.

I seriously can't stop staring at this handsome little face!

-And I took this pic of Layla after I asked her to go put her swimming suit and cover up on so we could go swimming. I walked in to find her washing her hands and realized she had forgotten to put her swimming suit on first. Oops! I almost died of laughter!


-Marcus loves water! Actually, that's an understatement! It's his most favorite thing in the whole world. If you take him in the bathroom and start the bath, he gets so very excited. At the swimming pool he discovered laying on his back in the water and now that's all he wants to do every time he gets in the bath. Oh, and kick, kick, kick!

-I can't get over his cute face or his endearing personality. He is always smiling or laughing. He loves to be scared, especially by Layla, and I have a feeling he's going to be quite the jokester!

-At his 9 month checkup he weighed 19 lbs 13 oz. I can't remember his height but he was pretty much 50th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference.

Oh the germaphobe in me hates these shopping carts, but they have so much fun in them!

-He isn't crawling yet, but just this week he started the bum scoot thing. He moves slowly this way, but he does get where he wants to go. He also no longer likes to jump in his bouncer. He prefers to scoot over to it and try to pull up to standing on it. He has made it up to his knees a few times now. Lots of bonks as he is falling down while trying to become mobile. I'm thinking he'll be crawling by the end of the month. We'll see.

He's obsessed with the heater vents.

-Mitch has been on travel for the last 4 weeks or so. No fun. He came home on the weekends and thank heavens his travel got cut short due to funding so he is on his way home right now! Hurray! I am sick of having him gone, and it stinks the worst for him because he's been working really long days on an incredibly stressful proposal. Though it was cute when we Skyped the other night and Marcus totally played peek-a-boo with Mitch all on his own.

I love that they have so much fun together.

-One thing I want to remember are the lessons that Layla and I learned the other day. Every time we go grocery shopping, she asks me to buy her a balloon. The kind with a picture on it. I usually say no. In fact, I've only bought her one once. But since Mitch was gone so much, I've felt bad and had a really hard time telling her no (not good parenting, I know), so I bought her the best balloon they had: a pink, heart shaped balloon with three Disney princesses on it. She was beyond excited and asked me to hold it for her until we got to the car for fear of losing her precious balloon. I gave it to her once we were all in the car. On the drive home I opened the sunroof and told her to hold onto the string tight so it didn't float out of the sunroof. She kept arguing with me, insisting that it would never float away out of the sunroof. I told her that indeed it would, so hold on to it tight. Well, what happened but not even two minutes into our drive home and the balloon floated out of the sunroof and up, up, and away. Layla cried and I felt so bad. I almost turned the car around to go buy her another one. But then I realized there was a lesson for both of us to learn. There will be times when Mitch and I will teach, warn, suggest things to Layla and she won't believe us / won't listen. And she will suffer the consequences. I will feel so bad and want to run to her and fix it for her, but I won't be able to. She has to learn things on her own. Maybe that's a little too dramatic, but it really was a good lesson for me about parenting. And I'm pretty sure Layla is now convinced that a balloon will indeed float out of the sunroof. :)

Layla at soccer.

-I wanted to note about Valentine's Day this year. The actual day was super lame. Mitch was out of town. Boo. He was actually flying home that day, but his plane didn't land until midnight, so he didn't get home until the next day (1 am). So on Valentine's I took the kids to the mall food court for dinner and let Layla play in the play place. Lame, right? Actually, it wasn't tooooo bad and the kids had fun. Mitch made it up to us by sending me the most beautiful tulips with a very thoughtful note. It was nice to know he was thinking of me even though he wasn't here. That weekend he took Layla on a date to Boondocks and he took me on a date to Corbins. Yum! It ended up being really nice. Oh, and I also took Layla on a mommy/daughter date to Scheels to ride the ferris wheel earlier in the week. She loved it.

Our mommy/daughter date.

-One weekend while Mitch was in town I got the stomach flu! It hit me suddenly on Saturday night around 11 am. I woke up with stomach pain and started vomiting nearly every hour, all night long. It lasted about 24 hours and then for the next week I couldn't eat normally and was slightly nauseous. I lost five pounds in three days (don't worry, I'm sure I'll gain it right back). But that just shows how sick I was! On Sunday when I was throwing up all day, I was supposed to teach Relief Society, so I felt so bad that I had to bomb out on them completely last minute. And, the worst part was that Mitch flew out of town that day. I didn't want him to leave, but I knew he had to, and so many times the rest of that day I was so angry that I was left home alone, throwing up and running to the bathroom every half hour, all while trying to feed the kids dinner and put them to bed. I wasn't mad at Mitch, just mad at the situation. It sucked. Thankfully I got feeling better pretty fast and was able to handle the rest of the week and no one else got sick.


-Layla and I have made a little goal to use less technology. I told her the Ipad is broken (little white lie...) and she can watch two tv shows a day (which is still more than she should probably watch, but better than what she was watching before, which I'm embarrassed to admit). It's made a big difference around our house! We're much happier, more productive, and spend more quality time together.

Layla's new bedding. Thanks, Mammy Miles!

-Layla still loves soccer and preschool and playing with friends. She makes me laugh every single day. She's really growing up lately! I've noticed how her fingers have gotten longer and slender and her little hands seem so much older, if that makes any sense. She is still emotional, but she seems better as far as being so particular goes. It's not quite the problem it was before. Or maybe I've just learned how to handle it better? She refuses to wear jeans and will always choose a "fancy church dress" if given the choice. Her second choice would be a play dress or a skirt. Third choice is "soft pants" (leggings) with a shirt. She is really into clothes lately, and especially loves high heels. She told me she wants some like mine to wear to church. While shopping the other day she made me try on the most ridiculous pair of leopard high heels that were actually furry. She was upset that I wouldn't buy them. Mitch said I need to work on her taste in style. We're worried she'll start dressing like a hooker. Ha, ha!

Fashionista?

The furry shoes she wanted me to buy.

-Well, after months of internal struggle and debate, I finally admitted that I was depressed and went to talk to a psychiatrist. Best decision ever! Thanks to my lovely prescription, I finally feel like myself again. It's funny, I have absolutely no reason to be depressed—I have a pretty perfect little life— but I think between my Seasonal Affective disorder, lack of sleep thanks to Marcus's horrible sleeping habits (which are improving slightly), and a family history of depression, it was bound to hit me sometime. It must not be too bad though because I'm on the lowest dose of meds and it's working wonders for me. I'm seriously so glad I did it! I have so much more patience and energy, I no longer feel angry or uptight, and I can laugh and be goofy again! Still have some hard moments like every mom does, but I can cope with them so much better than I could before. It's great! And, I also learned that I can no longer blame all of Layla's perfectionist tendencies on Mitch ... the psychiatrist told me that I "could use a little counseling to help my perfectionism." Our poor children have it coming at them from both sides I guess. Hopefully I can learn how to stop being such a perfectionist so I can help Layla since she already shows signs of having that personality type.

Ahhh, I love snuggling with these two in the morning!
It's the best way to start my day.

-Life is good. We are getting excited to plant some trees and bushes in our yard. Trying to decide if we should put up a fence or not. The vinyl fences are SO expensive! I had no idea. We'll have to discuss and get moving since spring came early!

Winter Blahs

We've had a case of the winter blahs over here. We've all been sick.  Boo. Last week I was very sick; I had strep throat and bronchitis. Mitch was out of town so we spent the week at my parents' house and my mom took some time off work to be with us. I don't know what we would have done without her help (and my grandma's and my dad's). Needless to say, I am so very, very thankful to be feeling better!!!

Marcus turned 8 months old almost a month ago! (I'm a little behind.) He learned how to clap and it is the.cutest!!! Whenever you say, "Yay!" he automatically starts clapping. I love it. He still is not mobile, which I am kind of grateful for because we have to install two baby gates in this house, and I think he's going to be crazy once he's mobile. But he does LOVE to stand and will stand next to the couch for up to an hour at a time!

Sorry, but here's a lot of pics of my little man. I couldn't pick a favorite.

Showing off his bottom two teeth.

 
 
 
 

Fake coughing.

Layla still really loves soccer. I don't know that she'll ever want to go back to dance class again (sorry, Aunt Natalie! I know that breaks your heart!). It's hilarious to watch her when they practice because she giggles, squeals, and lets out the highest pitched girly screams the whole time. She'll finish with a red face and a huge smile every week. It's adorable. And I can really tell she's improved! She can dribble and stop the ball much better than she could at first. She's also teaching herself to bounce the ball off her head after seeing her coach do it once. Ha, ha! Good thing her coach thinks she's cute and funny because the other week she told him, "Sometimes my kitty farts in my face!" Ha, ha, ha!

Marcus is yelling in this picture. He yells a lot. Happy yells. He's loud.

Layla at soccer. She gets a sucker at the end.

Grocery shopping. Layla wanted to make the same face as Marcus.

Layla fed her little princesses marshmallows and it made me laugh.

She's beautiful even when she's trying to be silly.

Silly.

She loves to help Marcus "shake his booty" and it always makes him laugh.

My little superman.

She loves watercolors.

The other night we were checking out my in-laws' new couches that have power recliners. I was going to recline my seat and Layla was sitting on the floor in front of me, so I said, "Watch out, Layla! I'm gonna get ya!" Without skipping a beat, she said, "Take your best shot, Mom!" Ha, ha! She cracks me up with the things she says!

Layla was talking about toys and somehow in the conversation we ended up talking about how some kids are poor and don't have many toys. Layla said, "But Santa brings everyone toys!" I tried to explain that some kids aren't as fortunate, but she wouldn't have it. Then she said, "Maybe Jesus can borrow Santa's sleigh and give everyone toys."

The only chore we are consistent with is having Layla feed Harvey dinner. It amazes me how at age 3 she already knows how to make excuses to get out of doing her only daily chore. She'll tell us that her "arms are too tired to feed Harvey."

Once when Mitch asked her to do something, she said, "You're not doing anything Dad, you can just do it."

After church we asked her what she learned about. She said, "Ummm, Jesus all the time, I think." Yep, sounds about right!

Layla is really into clothes right now. I know, we're in for it. She likes to pick out my clothes too, which I don't usually end up wearing what she picks, because it usually involves dresses and high heels and I don't want to wear those every day (or any day really, but I make an exception for church). The other day she told me I should wear my high heels and, "This (my bra), for your nipples!" Ha, ha, ha!

She was getting dressed for preschool and I asked her to wear an undershirt under her dress. She asked why and I tried to explain that her dress was a knitted material and it was a little bit see through and I wanted her to be modest. She didn't understand the whole modesty concept, and eventually said, "Oh, because the dress is see through and we don't want anyone to see my nipples?" Trying to hurry, I said yes, and we finally finished getting her dressed. The mom who taught preschool that day called me after and said, "Layla said the funniest thing today! (ooohhhh no.) She said that she was wearing an undershirt so no one could see her nipples!" Oh goody. Modesty = not showing your nipples. 

The other day Layla was playing on the couch and Marcus was standing in front of the couch like he loves to do. He managed to take a toy from her and she said, "Marcus! You're ruining all my fun! You always ruin my fun!" Ohhhh no.It begins.

That being said, you should see how much fun those two have together. They never giggle more than when they're together. Layla can make Marcus laugh harder than anyone else, and she loves making him laugh. It's totally adorable.

A Sunbeam! A Sunbeam!

Layla had her first week in her Sunbeam class at church last week! This class is for the three year olds who will turn four throughout the year, so basically all of her little friends are in her class. It is very different from nursery, where they played with toys and had snacks. In Sunbeams, they attend Primary with all of the older kids for the first hour where they sing primary songs and have short lessons about gospel topics. The second hour is spent in a class with the kids who are their same age and they have another lesson on a different gospel topic (though due to their young age and inability to sit still for very long, they also take a trip to the bathroom and drinking fountain and spend time coloring and playing quiet games).

She insisted on standing in the sun for her "sun"beam picture.
(Doesn't make for the best pic, but oh well.)

I almost teared up seeing her sit in her big girl seat in a row with the other kids in Primary! She looked so grown up! She truly enjoyed her first week, which was a relief. I was worried she wouldn't like it since it's such a change from nursery, but she seemed to genuinely enjoy it. I'm glad and I hope she will feel the spirit and gain a testimony of her own in Primary. Funny thing though, when we asked her what she learned about she said, "Heavenly Father and that He loves us, but Cambria said that He doesn't love parents." Ha, ha, ha! She's already hearing false doctrine! And from another three year old too! Ha! We laughed so hard! We told her that God does indeed love parents, that in fact He loves everyone, and she seemed to understand. Whew! Glad we could clear that up. I'm so proud of my little Sunbeam and I love her so much!

Her latest smile and pose. Silly and cute.

I thought I'd include the lyrics to "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam," since Layla loves that song so much. Click here to listen to it:

1. 1. Jesus wants me for a sunbeam,
   To shine for him each day;
   In ev'ry way try to please him,
   At home, at school, at play.
2. 2. Jesus wants me to be loving
   And kind to all I see,
   Showing how pleasant and happy
   His little one can be.
3. Chorus
   A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
   Jesus wants me for a sunbeam.
   A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
   I'll be a sunbeam for him.

Funny

I had to write down two things Layla said today that I can't stop laughing about:

• We were grocery shopping and she loves to weigh things in the little scales in the produce section. She weighed a package of nuts and then told me, "Whew, that was heavy! It tooked a lot of muscles! It's a good thing I ate my pancakes this morning!" 
• She has been on a kick lately where she keeps asking me to leave her home alone. She insists that "I can take care of myself" and swears she wouldn't be scared to be home alone (ya right!). I asked her who would make her lunch if she was home alone and she said, "Oh, well I can just open the pantry and ..." (at this point I'm expecting her to say that she can eat whatever she can reach on the shelf, but instead she says), "eat whatever I want!" So now I finally know why she wants to stay home alone ... so she can have full reign of the pantry! Ha, ha! 
• I would also like to add that ever since we grounded her from playing with friends for a day she has been much more well behaved! She hasn't been grounded since and has had no problem getting in the bath. In fact, the night after the bath/grounding incident, at bath time she said, "Bath time really isn't that bad." Then the next night after that she didn't want to get in and Mitch said, "Remember, you said that bath time really isn't that bad," and then Layla said, "Oh ya!" and got in the bath. Silly girl. Also, over the weekend Mitch, Layla, Marcus and I went and played arcade games at Boondocks. Layla loved it and kept asking me all day today when we can go back. It was a fun family memory. 

Christmas and the End of 2013

The last few weeks of 2013 had it's ups and downs, but mostly ups. Here's a recap:

On Christmas Eve Adam we went and saw our city's Christmas lights with the Craguns. It took all of 7 minutes to walk through them. I felt kind of bad, but it was much more convenient than going to Temple Square and the girls had fun anyways. We went to dinner afterwards and of course the girls sat by each other and had a blast. It was a nice night.

Marcus wasn't sleeping through the night anyways, but then for two nights in a row the week of Christmas instead of crying at night, he would scream and I knew that something was wrong. Finally, the next night, he developed a fever and I guessed he had an ear infection in his right ear (since he didn't want to lay on that side to nurse). So the next morning, Christmas Eve, I took him to the doctor and sure enough, an ear infection in his right ear. Poor little guy! Layla has never had an ear infection (knock on wood), so this is a first for us. Thankfully within 24 hours he was back to his normal, happy self, though he still isn't sleeping much at night, but what's new there, right? I am just glad that he was still able to enjoy his first Christmas despite being sick.

My sick boy at the dr.

Christmas Eve day was great after the dr visit. We spent the day visiting Mitch's grandparents and then spent the evening at Mitch's parents' house. We had a yummy ham dinner and then the gift-opening began. Layla was SO excited and loved all of her presents. Of all the neat things she got, she said, "This is just what I always wanted!" when she opened her box of Princess fruit snacks that Brandon gave her! Ha, ha!

She wanted her hair straight for Christmas.

That night, however, all hell broke loose when we got home and tried to put a certain three year old to bed. Oh.my.goodness! She is one stubborn little cuss! You think she'd be so excited to get to bed so Santa could come, but no, not Layla. We very nicely asked her to go potty before bed (like we do every night), but of course this night it was a power struggle that ended in a lot of tears a few cuss words from me. After asking her nicely several times, we eventually told her Santa wouldn't leave one of her presents for her if she didn't listen and she said she didn't want any presents at all. She absolutely refused to do what we asked. Extremely stubborn, I'm tellin' ya! Anyways, after about 1.5 hours of this power struggle, she finally realized we weren't caving in, went potty, said she was sorry, and then we set out cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer. So, while it was ugly for a while, it ended on a good note.

Santa left her a letter and asked her to be a good girl
so he can come back next year.

Christmas morning was fun! (Seems we all needed a good night's rest after the night before.) Layla was so excited that Santa came. She quietly examined everything he left her before diving in to play with all her new toys. The one thing she asked for consistently this year was watermelon, so there was a huge watermelon with an even bigger red bow on top of it waiting for her in the morning. (Don't buy watermelon in December, by the way, it's nasty, ha, ha!) Marcus slept through most of this since he wasn't feeling well, but when he finally woke up we showed him what Santa brought him and he liked playing with his toys too. He's so freaking cute.

Lots of toys!

We all got ready and headed to my grandma's Christmas brunch. It was delicious! Then we opened a few more gifts and the kids were spoiled, of course. We also went to my grandma Miles' house for a bit and visited with her. Grandpa Kermit stayed in St George this year (not that I blame him!), and we missed having him here, especially Layla. The rest of the day was spent playing with all of the kids' new toys! Layla could not get enough of all her new stuff and she has had so much fun playing ever since. The same for Marcus, he loves his toys!

Next year I want to do more to help us focus on the true meaning of Christmas. I'm hoping to involve Layla in the "giving" part more and I would love to do an angel tree.

This year Mitch has two solid weeks off of work between Christmas Eve and New Year's. YAY!!!! It's been awesome and the best Christmas gift for sure! I love having him home and wish he could work from home, though it's good he doesn't because he wouldn't get any work done if that were the case. He spent the last few days installing our kitchen backsplash. I can't believe how much it changes the look of our kitchen! I love it so much. I will have to post a pic when it's totally done.

Our new table and chairs.

We are going to the temple together on Thursday. That hasn't happened for a while! Seems like either we don't go at all, or I go by myself. It will be nice to go with my hubby. We're also going on a real date this week! I'm looking forward to it.

Layla is grounded tonight and tomorrow. The power struggle we had on Christmas Eve happened again tonight, only worse, all because she didn't want to take a bath. I don't know what we're doing wrong or what to do differently. She takes a bath every night, so this shouldn't have been a big deal. I told her a few minutes before so she would have a warning since she's not good with changing activities. We asked her very nicely, several times, to come get in the bath and she absolutely refused. She went in her room and put her pajamas on with the idea that she wouldn't have to bathe since she thought she was already for bed. We calmly and nicely asked her to get undressed and in the bath. When she still refused, we took away a few of her favorite books. That did nothing. So, we went big and took away her beloved Kitty, telling her she could have him back when she got in the bath. She screamed, "But he's my best friend!" (broke my heart!), but still refused to get in the bath. We took away her pillow pet and two princess dresses. The princess dresses were what finally got her in the bath. But once in the bath she kicked and splashed water EVERYWHERE and was a total demon child. It was ridiculous. When it came time to get her pjs on, we had to literally pin her down and put them on her ourselves before turning out the lights and putting her in bed with no books and no snack. This is after an hour of her kicking and screaming at her bedroom door. RIDICULOUS. But I am so proud of Mitch and I for keeping our cool. We didn't yell, we were nice and calm. (Trust me, we've tried yelling in the past, it doesn't work.) We still have not spanked her. Perhaps we need to. We thought about it tonight, but I just can't bring myself to use physical force with my child. So, she went to bed without kitty, her books, or her pillow pet, and her princess dresses are still in our room. She can earn them all back tomorrow if she's good, but she doesn't get to play with friends tomorrow, which will kill her and probably be the death of us too (ha!) but I really hope she'll learn something from this. I'm not really sure what to do. She wants to be in charge. Usually, she is really well-behaved. But then a flip switches and she is this wild, dramatic teenage girl who refuses to do anything we ask. I'm all for giving her choices and try to do so as often as I reasonably can, but things like brushing her teeth, getting dressed, bathing, etc. are non-negotiable. So, if she's in one of those moods when it's time to do those things, then we get locked in a power struggle. And Mitch and I always win, I just don't know how long it will take her to understand that. I think it's partly a phase that most kids go through at this age, partly due to her also refusing to take naps so she's over-tired, and partly due to her stubborn personality. It's exhausting. Seriously, it makes me tired. And also really scared for her teenage years. I feel like we have to get control of this now or else she'll be rebellious teenager who walks all over us. That can't happen. She's stubborn, and emotional, but she's also sweet and funny and I just love her guts even after nights like we had tonight.

They play together really well most of the time.

Pushing Marcus in her doll stroller!

Well, if you're still reading this novel then you can now hear about Marcus. My little man. He sits up like a pro now and doesn't seem to mind tummy time quite as much. He has his two bottom teeth! Adorable! He says, "Yayayayaya" all the time. And he says everything full volume. He is always yelling, "Ah!" but he's not mad, he's just super loud. He whispers, "Da da" for some reason and it's hilarious. His favorite thing in the whole world is bath time. He loves water!

 He won't eat any baby food at dinner except for butternut squash. Little stinker. I've started mixing other things in with it just to get him to eat something else. His second favorite food is applesauce. I'm doing a different approach to sleep training now. Instead of letting him cry it out, I go in his room and pick him up and try to rock him back to sleep. Sometimes I still have to nurse him though. He's still waking up 4 times a night, but he's not awake as long each time. He also can fall asleep on his own when I put him down for naps and at bed time (he just wakes up in the night). So, he's still not sleeping like he should be, but it's definitely improving. Baby steps I guess.

Mitch got an A in his class last semester.  Also, his professor loved the project he did for the class and asked Mitch if he could try to get it published in some engineering journal. We'll see if his gets picked, but even if it doesn't I am still so proud of him! He's doing awesome in school.

Three cheers for 2013! It was a great year with Marcus joining our family and settling into our new home. It was also challenging with Marcus' acid reflux and awful sleep habits. I'm looking forward to next year! Yay for 2014!