Fence Painting

That's exactly what the girls did today. They painted the fence (with washable paints of course). I really needed to get quite a few things done before we leave for our trip tomorrow so I needed to come up with something the girls would be self entertained with for a while. So...I decided why not let them paint the fence. My little Picasso's had a lot of fun and got some sun too. At the same time I got all the house work and packing done that I needed to.

"Mommy, Mommy, eyes, eyes"

What a long day! The girls are still not sleeping very well which of course means neither is Mommy. Katy is getting up between 2:00 and 4:00 in the morning nearly every night. Once she is up it takes almost an hour to get her to go back to sleep. She will roll her body all over me and then she will start to whisper, "Mommy, Mommy, eyes, eyes." To translate, this means "Mommy, get up and put your glasses on." If I tell her to go back to sleep she lets out a big sigh and then will take the covers and tuck me in all the way up to my neck and say, "There, that's better." She'll then lay still for a few minutes then she'll sit up and pat me on the back and say, "Perkit." Translation, "Perfect." After that, she goes back to laying still for a minute and then it starts all over again beginning with the "Mommy, Mommy, eyes, eyes." Of course it's as cute as can be but not at the wee hours of the early morning.

As for Brylie, I have still not been giving her a nap in order to get her geared up for Kindergarten. The problem is that by 6:30 at night she is completely wore out and sound asleep in bed. Then each night around 10:30 she gets back up. Since Mitchell and I are usually still awake she comes out and sits on the couch with us and doesn't go back to bed until we do. Last night I couldn't get her to go back to bed until nearly 1:00 in the morning. With Katy waking everyone up in the mornings by 6:30 it makes for a very cranky Brylie during the day. I'm still working extremely hard to stick to our schedule in hopes that it will eventually work on these crazy sleep patterns. Until then I am ONE TIRED MAMMA!

Today we went shopping with Grandma for a new swimsuit and a few other beach items. The girls were amazingly well behaved inside Kohl's. We really had no problems with them. Then in Target they started to get a little restless and by the time we made it to Walmart they were just short of out of control. I guess their shopping quota is met after one store. Oh well, at least I got a really cute swimsuit!

Texas Bluebonnets

Future Gymnast Katy

"Brylie's at Work"

Another wet, rainy day! We did at least conquer naptime today. It was no piece of cake, Katy had one of her new terrible-twos raging fits! I feel so bad for her but I don't want to give in anymore because she really needs her nap. She kicked and scream and threw herself around. I'm telling you it was so bad that if we had a straight jacket and a padded room I would have used it. Finally she caved and was so tired she just couldn't resist anymore. She laid down, asked for her blanket, and then passed out sobbing. I'm really hoping this phase doesn't last too much longer. It is so hard on me when she is that upset.

After naptime we took Brylie to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa so that she could go and stay with them for a couple of days. Boy does Katy miss her! Every 30 minutes or so she asks where Brylie is. At first she kept telling me that Brylie was at work. When I told her where she was she then kept telling me that Brylie was working at Grandma's. Little ones are so cute!

April Showers

What a wet and yucky Saturday! The girls didn’t let it stop them from playing outside! They put their rain boots on and away they went on a puddle-jumping quest.

Today was day 3 with NO NAP for either of the girls. I don’t mind so much with Brylie since I really need to break her before she starts Kindergarten anyway but Katy is nowhere near ready to be nap free. (For her sake and my own!) I finished one of the new books I got on discipline. Supernanny’s “How to Get the Best from Your Children.” It was a really great book full of lots of neat ideas. One of the ideas it talks about is using a “naughty mat”. A child receives 2 warnings for inappropriate behavior and then the third time they sit on the naughty mat. It is basically the same as a time out. The difference is that a naughty mat is a designated space and it also goes with us wherever we go. So today during our naptime battle I tried using it on Katy. The first couple of times she refused to lay down I put her on the naughty mat and then went back to lay down with Brylie. Katy would go and “hide” the mat from me and then come get back in bed. Each time she started to act up I immediately placed her back on the mat. After a few times of this she decided she was going to be in control of her own naughty mat. She crawled out of bed and said, “No night night, Katy go to naughty mat.” She went in and sat on the naughty mat for a couple minutes then came back to the bedroom and said, “Katy be a good girl now.” She would crawl back in bed for a few seconds then start it over again. Finally after many failed attempts I gave up on naptime yet again. I know, I know, I’m not suppose to give up because it lets her know she won…..but Supernanny failed to mention what to do if your child puts themselves on the mat to avoid a naptime. So we will try again tomorrow! Besides, if I reason with myself I figure the girls both end up going to bed around 6:30 and I have the entire night to myself.

Zoo Trip

Well today we went to the zoo. Brylie is so excited that we got memberships so that we can go all year long. (Thanks Nana!) They had so much fun! Katy's favorites were the monkeys and the elephants. She thought the monkeys were stinky though. We took the wagon so that she could ride along and not get tired but much to my amazement she insisted on walking the entire time. We literally walked an average of 2 mph. She had to look at EVERYTHING! At one point she even decided to pick up EVERY leaf that she saw lying on the ground. Brylie's favorite animals were the elephants and the kangaroos. She also really enjoyed the carousel ride and train ride. We were so exhausted by the time we left. Kaytlyn didn't even make it all the way to the highway before she clonked out in the backseat.

This evening after Mitchell got home we took the girls for a bike ride to the snow cone stand down the street. It was Katy's first snow cone and boy did she enjoy it.