3 Things

These three things helped make my day today. The Kraft Food & Family magazine is essential to my family's nutrition. As you can see this is the holiday edition, I'll have to make sure I keep nutrition in mind! Then after the children went to bed I made a Starbuck's run--hot chocolate and classic coffee cake. Michael's pulled me in and I sprung for a 40% off scrapbook album.

So my friends have been posting these wonderfully intellectual blog posts on many different topics and I enjoy reading them while wishing that I was so intellectually inclined. I guess my gifting is entertainment because if you are reading this, clearly, you are not here for the intellectual stimulation!!! I'll refrain from wishing to be something I'm not. =)

On to the good stuff...

I've been losing a lot of sleep the last couple months due to Aliza waking up and wanting to be "re-tucked in". I got tired of getting up and started realizing her needs were really unnecessary so I had to figure out how I was going to end this habit. I decided that I was going to start off by having a heart to heart talk with my 2 1/2 year old.

I sat her on my lap on the rocking chair while Josiah was taking a nap and in a quite adult way explained to her that she was too old to get out of bed during the night. I told her that when she wakes up she needs to just roll over and go back to sleep. And that when she calls for Mommy that wakes Mommy up and Mommy needs to sleep. In her child gibberish and a few English words we carried on quite a conversation. I really had no idea what sunk in until naptime. I tucked her in and she said, "no get up, Mommy sleeping."

That night I reminded her of the basics of our conversation and do you know what? She did not get up!!! I stayed in my bed ALL night long! The next day I bought a nightlight for her room and reminded her again to stay in bed. Last night I heard her cry a little and call for me from her bed. Then I heard some rustle and that was the end of it. She didn't get up. Tonight is night 3. We'll see what happens. But, maybe, just maybe, I had a rational conversation with my daughter. How cool would that be?

And a really sweet moment for me was yesterday morning when I laid Josiah down for a nap and Aliza wanted to sit in the rocking chair and talk. Awwww....she wanted to talk to Mommy. And she did. She had a lot to say much of which I didn't understand. But she did repeat some of our earlier conversation.

This afternoon Laura Dye took some pictures of our family and the children and Jeremy and I and the children alone. Well, you get the idea. She and Jared are awesome. They are a great team and super relaxed and, well, they take great pictures! Aliza is in a stage where she acts shy, pouty and whiney around new people and they were patient with her and pretty quickly became friends with her. After they left Aliza wanted to give Laura and hug and kiss and Jared gave her money (yes, it was a shameless bribe... all for the sake of a good picture) so he was an instant friend too.

Time to catch up on Amazing Race and my hubby's day!