Tales of a Fulltime Mom: Face Time

Calleigh has made significant strides with getting her face wet in the water. All the pool time has finally paid off. Previously she had been jumping in off the little ledge area that's in the pool and some of the time her head would go under. But now, she's even going down the slide by herself. We were at Ron & Elaine's on Sunday evening and at first she would only go on the slide with Duncan but then eventually decided to go by herself. We thought she had a little bit of panic on her face as she hit the water but amazingly, as soon as she got out, she wanted to do it again...and again. We couldn't get her to stop. I am hereby very encouraged for the lessons next year. Hopefully she won't lose it all during the off season whenever it cools down for that to start.

Earlier in the day on Sunday, Calleigh and I went to a birthday party in Heathrow for her friends Macey and Marley. We left Aubree at home with Daddy since the party was exactly during the hours of nap time. I figured Calleigh would be fine and she did end up sleeping in the car for about 15 minutes on the way there. The theme of the party was a princess/prince ball and I was excited at the prospect of Calleigh being able to wear one of her flower girl dresses again. I opted for the brown one from the most recent affair. It was pretty wrinkled so I took an iron to it. I got the whole thing ironed except for the very top front and as I put the iron down on that area, BURN! Two giant holes appear right there smack dab in the middle of the top of the dress. I have no idea why the rest of the dress ironed just fine except for that part which was the same material as the rest of the dress. All I could think of was "Thank you Lord that this wasn't two weeks ago." So in the end, she ended up just wearing her pink dress up dress which she loves but has always been relegated to the house. Anyway, the party was great fun. All the little girls and a few boys that came were dressed up and Calleigh loved it. A lady showed them some ballroom dance steps (taking a few steps forward, curtsying, and twirling your partner) and some other games where everyone joins hands in a circle. Calleigh was paired up with a girl named Casey (whom we didn't know) and stuck to Casey like glue for everything. They were giggling and screaming just like little girls are supposed to do. Braelyn arrived a little late or I'm sure they would have been partners. After cake, everyone changed and went out to the really great playground. Since I didn't have Aubree to tend to, I was able to give Tangie a hand with the twins as she was there without a hubby as well.

A hug for big sister before she left.

The birthday girls, Marley and Macey.

With partner Casey.

Trying to keep the twins entertained.

With their party favors

As I mentioned, afterwards we went to Ron & Elaine's for supper and pool time. With just a short nap, Calleigh was understandably tired and fell asleep so quickly in her bed that night, that she didn't even take the time to move her toys out of the way. We got a kick out of that one! Unfortunately, she has once again fallen asleep by 9 pm tonight as well. I say unfortunately because it's from not taking a nap again today. In my last post, I told you she didn't nap Sabbath for some reason. Sunday was understandable. I was hopeful she would nap yesterday and about 20 minutes into the nap session, I got a little worried. She called me up to her room to inform me that she does not take naps in the morning (she meant to say afternoons) because it's light out. She only takes naps when it's dark (she calls going to bed at night, a "nap."). I went downstairs and held my breath hoping she was just teasing me. Thankfully it did eventually quiet down and I figured we were back on schedule. Not so fast. Today, no nap again. I'm blaming it on not a lot of activity this morning (only at story time for a short while). I always hope that we aren't at the end of her napping forever. But it just doesn't seem realistic to me that a kid would go from napping for almost 2.5 hours a day (and it would be more if I let her because I always wake her up) to nothing. Wouldn't it wind down to just less and less time? And of course, now she'll have gotten more sleep during the night tonight because she fell asleep like an hour earlier than normal. That doesn't bode well for napping tomorrow! I've already decided she's getting up when Aubree gets up in the morning. Fortunately, tomorrow morning should be busy as we're going to Yolanda and Emma's house for playing and lunch. Calleigh told me she was SO excited to go to Emma's because Emma has "many, many, many toys."

In Aubree sleeping news, she's gotten a little better. She's still been waking up at about 6 or even a little before each morning but now I just go in, turn on her music, put her binky back in, and leave. She cries hysterically for like 60 seconds and then goes back to sleep. She wakes up again around 6:45 but I can deal with that. I can't deal with the 6:00. Thankfully her naps have been going great although I have started leaving her door open like I do with Calleigh (don't remember what age it started with her but probably similar). She seems to cry less and fall asleep faster with it open.

On Monday, the girls and I went to the Science Center and since Duncan was at the main campus for some morning meetings, he was able to meet us over there for about 45 minutes. The girls had great fun doing this and that, especially Aubree who is now able to get into everything with her newfound mobility. We went and visited the dinosaur bones up on the fourth floor and although Calleigh has always looked at them with awe, this time she seemed quite bothered by them. I guess it was the fact that Aubree could walk and apparently get closer to them than Calleigh would have liked. Calleigh started freaking out and yelling "No, no, my sister, my sister..." and was trying to grab Aubree and pull her back to safety (or so I assume). We assured Calleigh that they were just bones but decided it would be best to just vacate that area ASAP.

Not Aubree's best hair day ever.

Riding the bike as part of orange juice production.

In the hurricane simulator.

This afternoon the rains came down and the floods came up and it sounds like there will be more tomorrow due to the tropical depression. It's always a bummer since it limits our activities. As long as it's gone by Friday (yard sale-ing), we'll be good!

Daddy took Calleigh out for a walk in the rain. Just a little wet afterwards!

In closing, just a few of Calleigh's little word miscues to share. I'm always amused by how kids mix up there words. Last night at supper, Calleigh was eating a hard boiled egg and declared that while she liked the white part, she didn't like the "joke." Then the other day, Duncan was talking and said that he was certain about something. Calleigh quickly butted in and said, "NO, don't talk about Satan. That's not nice." We finally ascertained that she thought Duncan had said "serpent" instead of "certain." And although it wasn't a word mix-up, I still had to chuckle about her prayer this evening. The entire prayer was about "right now." She told Jesus that we shouldn't say "right now" and that she was sorry about "right now" and on and on she went, and kept on repeating those two words. That was all she talked about in the prayer. And I'm thinking, where did this come from and what does it even mean? After she was done, I asked her what it meant and she said "You know, you shouldn't say, I want it RIGHT NOW." Oh, and then there was my favorite question of the week... "Does Jesus pray?" Pause. "Does he say 'Dear Jesus'?"

A few random pictures: