Going against my gut... For convenience

So you all know I'm a control freak when it comes to things I'm passionate about.

1.my child

2. My teaching

With Grace I am fierce about everything, I can not seem to relax about anything! Food, allergies, asthma, sleep, potty, clothing, hair, manners, learning, I think about all that constantly.. As I'm sure most mothers do too. ( I hope ). Anyways during Christmas break our sleep schedule got all out of wack, we laid with her to fall asleep, we rocked to sleep, we let her pass out in the car, and the worst one was watching tv and movies in her room till she was asleep. The movies were great at first.. Sleep timer for thirty minutes and she was out.. Then it turned into an hour, then we started hearing " mamma, back up my movie!" oh my goodness we realized we had a problem the night she watched "Annie" twice all the way through.. And was still up!!! So, my wonderful husband brought me back to "momma's in charge" mode. He reminded me of my own words, that we didn't need to create a crutch for a child that has never needed anything but a quiet room and a soft blanket to get to sleep. So back to bedtime routine we went Sunday night. 7 :30pm came along and we started her music sat with her for about five minutes until she was relaxed, gave kisses, and said our safe words " we'll check on you in just a minute" and she did just fine. Its Tuesday and she went down easy. She also had a great day at school. She's been having quite a few accidents at school the last few days because of the bad constipation and then because of the laxatives.. But we had a no accident day today! Woo hoo! I bet it's because of the good nights sleep!

Mom and Dad=1 Grace= 0 haha

Look how big she's gotten! AND Look how big she WAS!

So, I went to the doctor this week for my annual and did the dreaded step on the scale, and my doctor brought to my attention that I had lost 10 lbs this year, and last year at the same time I had lost 10 lbs! Soo from the first picture to the last is a 20 pound loss. I love looking at progression photos of miss Gracie too! She has gotten so big so fast! Though, her 2 year gain is somewhere around 10 lbs :) I'm excited that I can see the slow trim down in photos!

Secret to my success

1. A toddler who needs something every time I try to eat.. ( for all you dieters out there, you can rent her for a small fee (: ha)

2. A health conscious husband

3. A fabulous appetite suppressor called "STRESS" ha.

My goal for year three is to actually "move"..... I hate exercise.

HOLY $#!T (Reader beware of poop)

Ok... so I haven't blogged in a while

Well, I never saw this coming... never.

Grace has always been a "regular" girl. Mike calls her a "ten o-clocker". Meaning, her "bowels" have always moved right along. I never had to bribe her to potty train, she was "poop" trained months before the other, and she even tells us to "SHUT THE DOOR" when its her time to go. SO I partially blame myself for not paying attention to my poor child's "lack of potty". She didn't ask to go and I didn't remind her, and daycare didn't notify us... so long story short, my sweet girl went 9 DAYS WITHOUT A BM!!! It took 7 for me to even notice!! OMG!!! We took her to the doctor on Saturday because she was afraid to go and wouldn't even take a bribe. They massaged her tummy.. said she was literally "full of $#!t" and prescribed VERY LARGE doses of Miralax.. we got home.. she freaked out (and in a lot of pain) passed something that looked like a brick. By Tuesday she still had not gone potty by on her own, so we had to do the "baby fleet" (google it) within seconds we got her going, still very traumatic and scary.

Soo my anxiety "clicks" on in a situation like this.. and I start making up impossible scenarios

1. my child will never poop

2. she will have a psychological fear of pooping

3. she will regress in potty training..continue to #4

4. i'll have the kid that is in diapers in kindergarden

and just as I have convinced myself that my kid will never be the same and that life as we know it is over.. We got home from dinner tonight and she says "umm I gotta go poop before my bath"

PRAISE GOD!! just like that.. this whole mess is over!! Wooooo HOOO!!

SOoo Busy..

I haven't really blogged is a loooooong time. Work has been so busy, Mike has been traveling with work (too much if you ask me), and Grace is an extremely active, mommy addicted, 2 year old, who rarely sits still. SOO I am blogging watching HBO as Grace is asleep and Mike is in Austin, yet again.

Let me catch you up on Gracie Goo.. She is 28 months old :) and changing so much everyday. I know that sounds cliche but my goodness, she is changing. It's crazy how you look back and think I just THOUGHT she was talking, or I just THOUGHT she had personality. She such a young lady now.. I'll explain.

She has started to really love to pretend play. He favorite game is "nap time" this is where she pulls out all of her baby blankets, lays them on the floor, turns on her night light and fan, and puts all of her babies to sleep. She explains to whoever is playing with her that, "We have to be still, ok?" "We are soo tired" then she pops up and says "Ok we are awake now, its sunny outside"

She is coloring and drawing for longer amounts of time now. We finally got the "grip" down on the pen/crayon/marker, and this kid CAN WRITE a LETTER G!! it is CRAZY! She also loves to draw rainbows, clouds, and smileys. When you ask her what she wants you to draw, 9 times out of 10 it's a fireman... I have no idea where this came from.. She also LOVES to draw with a pen, and she is showing some "daddy" personality and making sure she "clicks" the lids closed on all of her markers after she uses each one.

She is such a lady. She loves to look pretty, sparkle-y, clean, and matching. She insists on the style of her hair in the morning telling me " just one pony today... over here... I need 2 bows," She prefers sparkle-y shoes over tennis shoes (I mean who doesn't?) and we are having a few arguments in the morning over "not those pants MOMMA!" When she eats she insists on a wet rag with her plate to wipe her hands and face, (Sorry folks no funny spaghetti sauce faced pictures of this kid), and she says "Oh no, sorry momma I spilled" even with the smallest drop of food or liquid.

She is still our picky picky picky eater. I could go out on a limb and say this is the worst it has been yet. No veggies on their own, I am still hiding them. and THANK the LORD for those organic/fruit/veggie squeeze pouches. She eats very simply, she likes real cheese, crackers, turkey and chicken, yogurt, fresh fruit (not canned), applesauce, fruit leather, dried fruit, cereal, tortillas, toast, and pasta, and tomato sauce, and that is about it. We give her a multi-vitamin and a TUMS (for calcium) everyday. Eating is not enjoyable for her, she doesn't understand why we have to sit and eat... and then eat again. My theory is that she is a super taster!! HA. She was ALMOST 25 lbs at last weeks doctors appointment. ;)

She is in LOVE with the Cinderella movie, she likes to talk you through each part, especially when the step sisters tear apart Cinderella's dress. :) She says " Oh my gosh...They are soo mean to her dress, She's NOT in trouble! poor Cinderella"

She is counting well and can count up to 6 objects like " I have 5 cookies!"

She loves to have her fingernails and toenails painted, to wear jewelry, and hairbows.

And my goodness she is talking and singing non stop. There is no use me telling you all of the things this kid says. I could go on for days... hopefully you have had the pleasure of a conversation with her. She also is following directions really well from adults, like she is really concentrating on what she is supposed to do.

As tired as she makes me, she also makes us laugh soo hard. And she is really starting to be a daddy's girl... though she is stuck to momma most of the time :/

We are looking forward to more firsts and laughs this year with our sweet girl!

For sweet Paige!

"Let's just pretend she's three.."

So last week I posted about Grace being the "mean girl" at school. When I talked to her about being mean to her friends she would say things like " I can't like her.." or "She cries.." or " He takes my toy." When you ask her what she did she says " I push (name of small child)" or "I bite ____". This situation was really pushing me to my stress limits for MULTIPLE reasons.

Reason #1: my child is MUCH too cute to be mean :).

Reason # 2: Biting is an EARLY toddler issue that starts because of teething or language frustration... both of which do not pertain to my child. (she has all of her teeth and says things like "You know better than that..")

Reason #3: I can not stand the thought of my child not being "liked" by her teachers or causing frustration among other kids.

Soooo I went a little "mommy psycho" and set up a meeting with the director and her teachers. Her teacher wanted me to pretty much "get over it" that she was 2 years old and kids act out and Grace was only acting out when she was frustrated with another child not responding to her previous words of warning. If you know me, which most of you do, I am not one to sit back and be "cool" with someone else's advice when it completely goes against what I want. I will not ever be "ok" with Grace being mean. So we started brainstorming. They hooked a teether to her and told her to use it to bite instead of her friends.... I hate this technique, it's confusing.. it sends the message don't bite your friends, but hey.. bite this thing. so we scratched that. THEN we started punishing. Talking about what we did and not doing some of her favorite daily things.. getting a popsicle, watching tangled, riding her scooter... you get the picture. EPIC FAIL. THEN we started rewarding good behavior and building her up for a prize (bribe) .... this worked for 2 days. Day one: "GRACE!! Today.. if you are sweet to all of your friends we will go get a SLUSHY!!!" success. She talked all day at school about a slushy, told all of her teachers and made a CHOICE not to be mean, "smart little stinker" The next day, we used chocolate as the bribe, when we picked her up she had a good day but asked for a popsicle instead so we went with that reward. Day three was paint our fingernails. She did good until 4:45pm then attempted to bite, she was caught without any injuries.

So here is the consensus.. Grace is too verbal to be in the 2 year old room. She is getting frustrated with kids not wanting to "play" with her. She wants to pretend, and play house, and sing songs, and dance, read books, and color. She does not enjoy fighting over a toy, she doesn't put toys in her mouth, and she wants to use objects for their specific purpose. SO after the director observed Grace in her classroom for a while she also did a little pre-school readiness test with Grace. Grace was able to verbally describe 3 pictures one happy, one sad, and was able to tell the director what was happening in another. She had book orientation, she knew which way to turn the pages and could find the front and back. This last meeting with director was really optimistic. She told me " Lets just pretend she's three, she may be two but she sure doesn't act like it." They moved her to to three year old room and she LOVES it. She is talking about all of her friends, she told me that they learned the "pokey turn around" dance, and today she said " I don't bite my friends". Relief. I am so hopeful that this is going to work! She is adjusting well and seems to really be worn out when we get home from all of the activity. SO glad she is happy!

"that's so mean..."

I am in need of some serious seasoned advice OR pitty :). My sweet 23 lb 2 year old, who says things like "how you doing today?, you good?" Or "ummm I would lie a blue popsicle please.." Is terrorizing the kids at school. All of the sudden she is pushing, fit throwing, and worst of all BITING. She is by far the smallest, but is doing some damage. I have no idea what to do. She is so good in public, follows instuctions easily, and really enjoys to play. I'm concerned that there isn't enough structure in her room or that she is frustrated. I'm really stressing about this. We've talked to her... Got on to her... You name it. Tomorrow we are going to try rewards for increments of time with good behavior, who knows. I'm trying to stay positive!

I've repeated the same phrase to her about biting, now when you ask her about it she says "thats soo mean, I won't do it ever again" yet tada! I pick her up and she did it again...

Cheerweeder

Grace is an honorary cheerleader this year! She had a little uniform made, and she loves to stand on the line with the girls! She thinks she is something else, kicking, jumping and cheering. Go lobos!

2 year check up

Today Grace went to the doctor for her two year check, she's right at 25 months today :)

first question:
does she know at least 10 words?

Me: with a laugh.."yes"

Right as grace says: "mommy I need to go potty.. Get up mommy :)

Haha! She pointed our every color for dr. parr, and was overall really good

We graduated to a few inhalers instead if the nebulizer meds, thank goodness! I know grace will be thrilled about that!

She grew an inch and a half since her last well check. She is 34 inches tall, which is about 50th percentile. She had lost about a half a pound also, and weighed 24lbs on the dot. But she looks great. We are taking her off milk and soft dairy to see if it helps with tummy troubles and asthma :)

She is happy and healthy :)

Its official!

Grace has completely graduated to panties! I had been holding off and keeping her in pull ups at school because of inconsistent teacher schedules and mommy schedule. But now that we are back to school we decided to just go for it! 7 days in panties and only 1 accident! Way to go Grace! She is so cute about it too!