Movie Night

This is two Saturday nights in a row that I've gone to the movies.  But this time, it was at the church and it was free.  The church showed a Veggie Tales movie this evening and since Calleigh has seen a few of them (they were what I purchased to replace our lost DVD's from the 

plane), we thought she would enjoy "going to the movies."  We were encouraged to bring a picnic and that's just what we did.  Popcorn and lemonade were provided and that only added to the excitement since juice is not a common occurrence.  Kids movies are typically short so Aubree actually was well behaved through the whole thing mainly because she was eating through most of it.  Calleigh was very intrigued the whole time as to be expected.  Apparently we shouldn't have told her about it ahead of time, however.  She did not take a nap this afternoon (despite being in her room for several hours) and when I asked her why she said "Because I was excited about the movie."  Not sure that it was really the reason but I suppose it's plausible.

Well, so far the big girl bed has been working out well.  It was off to a rough start with her needing to go potty the first night like five times with most of the times being a false alarm.  She didn't wake up during that night nor has she so I'm relived about that.  And so far, I've had to wake her up each morning at 7:30 so we haven't had the excitement of her running into our room to wake us up yet.  Not that I would be there anyway.  Aubree has had a tough week with waking up early in what I can only hope is just a bad week and not a permanent change.  She's been waking up a couple of times during the night which fortunately has been remedied with reinserting the binky.  But then she's also waking up for good between about 6:05 - 6:20 for about five out of the last six mornings.  Typically she would sleep until about 7:15 - 7:30.  I take her into my bed and nurse her and hope that she'll go back to sleep but so far I'm zero for five on that strategy.  So I bring her downstairs and let her play while I lie there on the floor trying to wake up.  Clearly if this keeps up I'm going to have to get to bed earlier than my typical 11:30.  We do, however, think this may have something to do with her teething.  At least I hope so.  But back to Calleigh.  She has been really good with not coming out of her room at all...even when she has to go potty, she just yells like she used to.  I would call the conversion a success.  Speaking of the conversion, we did find the other parts that we were missing.  Duncan said they weren't in the garage but then after I called the company and they assured me that I should have them, I went to the garage myself and noticed a big long box with the words "Infinity Crib Youth Conversion Kit" and I figured that was probably it!  In Duncan's defense, he wasn't looking for a box.

Another Calleigh picture.  I wanted to include this to show her top teeth that are coming in.

As far as other stuff we've been up to...Thursday was our normal Walmart day and it was an interesting one.  First off, I tried to get Aubree to take a catnap in the car on the way there after her early morning.  She can't make it until 1:45 (nap time) after waking up so early and I rather she get a catnap sooner than later.  Unfortunately it didn't work so we finally went in only to see a sign that said "Walmart is only accepting cash." Apparently their credit card machines had been plagued by a virus.  Just our luck.  But we did get some luck in that after we used the potty, it was up and running.  Phew.  But then more bad luck when we got in line behind someone with all these food stamps and I'm not kidding, it must have taken ten extra minutes for her to check out.  It wouldn't have been such a big deal but by now, Aubree, who didn't have the nap, is really fussy and finally snaps by grabbing the box of orange fruit cups and flinging it to the floor.  Yup, you guessed it.  It broke and orange pieces and juice go all over the floor.  I was happy when we finally go home unscathed.

Yesterday we were off to our yard sales and this time we had the excitement of love bugs harassing us at each stop.  Those love bugs are the absolute worst.  They don't bite but they bug the heck out of you.  They're everywhere.  Calleigh appears to be one of those true girls and started yelling "Help, help, there's a bug on me."  She would not stop clinging to me and wanted to get back in the van post haste.  I kept trying to calm her down by saying they don't bite but it had no affect.  Hopefully the bugs will be gone soon.

Friday evening Aunt Wanda came over for supper and it was so nice to visit with her since it's seemed like a coon's age (as my dad would say) since we talked to her at length.  Calleigh was very excited about taking her up to see her room and kept asking her to go up there.  She finally got her wish after dessert (raspberry squares that Aunt Wanda brought) and Aunt Wanda was happy to read several stories to them.  And speaking of that, Aubree is the cutest thing now.  She gets a book, says "story," and sits down right in your lap (uninvited).

Another thing about reading books...We have a set off books in which there is a book for each letter of the alphabet and it's called "My 'a' Book," etc.  We've read them numerous times but as what happens, we go through book phases and it had been awhile since we read them.  I decided that we would do one book each night and Calleigh has been loving it.  Every morning she'll ask me "What book are we on today?" and then she sings through the alphabet to see which one comes next.  During the day we talk about all the words that start with the letter we'll be reading that night.  The thing I like most about it is that the books are about the lower case letters of the alphabet.  She already knows all the upper case ones so this has been very helpful in learning the lower case.  Most of the time she does like to talk about the letters but yesterday I was asking if she wanted to do letters on her little sketch pad and she said "No, that's boring."  I'm aghast that she's learned this expression.  She could not have learned it from me because I'm never bored (even before kids).

Since I've made several comments on here about Aubree doing everything later than Calleigh, I feel like I should give her some kudos where they are do.  I've come across a couple of things she's done faster than Calleigh and that's using a spoon and fork, sipping from a straw, and drinking out of a non-sippy cup.  Calleigh barely uses utensils now but Aubree has just about mastered feeding herself yogurt and Cheerios with her spoon.  Maybe it's because I've basically insisted she do it herself since I don't want to take the time to do it for her. At any rate, it's been a big help especially the straw thing.  When she drinks the smoothies without a straw it is a MAJOR mess.  And we love our smoothies!  Just about every morning Calleigh says in a sing song voice "I think it's a smoothie day!"

Aubree's latest word of note is "airplane."  We were on the way to church this morning and all of a sudden we hear Aubree shouting "airpane, airpane" (no "l") and pointing out the window.  Sure enough, there's an airplane. The biggest thing we're working on, though, is trying to teach her that every roundish item of food is not an apple.  Apple is by far her favorite word and she uses it on many items, especially a tomato.  She has, at least, started to call a strawberry and blueberry by name although it's not completely clear.

Another thing about Calleigh...I think I've hopefully rectified her bathroom schedule. I don't think I've mentioned it here, since it's bathroom matter, but Calleigh likes to take care of her business at about 9 pm every night after she's gotten into bed.  Actually, I think I have mentioned how she would always yell down "Mommy, I have poo-poo."  Same schedule but now she'll yell "Mommy, I have to go potty."  I've been hoping she could somehow go before she gets into bed for the night and I finally hit on the solution.  I had been dressing her in nightgowns and loose pajamas so that it will be easier to undress her for the potty.  But last Saturday night when Grandma put her to bed, Calleigh put on her footed pajamas and thought it was great ("so cozy" as she told me in the morning).  I told her that she could only wear them to bed if she went potty first.  Well, voila!  The problem has been solved (mostly).

Finally, one last Calleigh anecdote.  One morning over breakfast Calleigh decided that we should tell each other stories.  I took this as an opportunity to tell one about a little girl who was with her mother in Walmart but then gets lost.  The last few weeks I've been telling Calleigh about what she should do if she got lost, etc.  I build up to the crescendo of the story and say how the little girl couldn't find her mommy and what should she do.  I look at Calleigh expectantly, anticipating her answer that the girl should go up to the front and find a cashier or worker. She thinks for a second and says "She could get a NEW mommy."  I guess it's back to the drawing board!