Just Livin'

Well, I've done it again. The more overwhelmed I get by increasing pictures, the more I put off a post. Get ready to be bombarded.

I don't remember the last time I was able to say, "We haven't really been busy lately," so I'm not going throw everyone off by starting now. As always, we've been filling days to the brim; sometimes by choice and sometimes not. I'm on the three week countdown until school is out, so I can handle a few more overflowing weeks.

Some unrevised Lisa rambling and a picture dump, since the girls are in bed and Mama's aiming to follow the trend by 9:00 at the latest.

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Kaitlyn continues her "I stay up till the wee hours if I nap, but I can't stay past 5:00p.m. if I don't nap" stage. We are just going with it. Accidental nap days make for challenging bed times. Think in-and-out-of-bed-50-times. She's got every excuse in the book down by now. "I need water." "I'm scared." "I just really, really want you to come back." "I need a kiss and a hug." "I need to go potty."

We have now concluded, with 100% certainty (you know, that whole "you know your own kid" thing), that each of these is a scam. I had a hard time with the last one for a while, since I don't want to deny her going to the potty when she needs to, but after a week of no results when we let her try, we added it to the list of scams. I have a hard time (and I know Jeff does, too, but we Mamas' heart strings tend to be more fragile sometimes) with this whole process because when my baby wants a hug and a kiss, I want to give it her dangit.

Did I mention she has a gate at her door so she can't come in and out eleventy-billion times? Believe me when I say that it's necessary. And she's okay. I know she is. And I know that us doing our bedtime routine and kissing her goodnight and telling her to have sweet dreams and that we love her so, so much and then showing some "tough love" by not giving in to every request is good for her. I did give in for a while, and it made bedtime longer and longer and Kaitlyn sadder and sadder when I had given her expectations that she could get me to come back. No matter how much I know she's okay, though, those fragile mommy heart strings threaten to snap every time we have a tough bedtime. It's painful. But it's getting better the last few nights because she is getting used to the idea that bedtime is bedtime, and it's starting to go more smoothly.

What is our whole bedtime routine, you ask? I'll oblige because this is something I'll want to remember in all its specicifity:

Brush teeth (Kaitlyn is now using "big girl toothpaste" because she finally started spitting it out - this is beyond exciting for her), say good night to Austen, pull-up and jammies, pick a book and "hop in bed," read book, "draw me about your day" (this started as "tell me about your day," then evolved into drawing about it on the magnadoodle), erase the day and "draw me a big, big heart," big hug and a kiss, lots of lovey words, crack the door and cross your fingers for everything to go smoothly from there. I love that this routine is a mixture of our orginal plan and Kaitlyn's modifications. :)

A 5:00 snooze after the car ride from school. She is impossible to wake up at this point. She actually falls asleep on her feet if you try to get her to walk:

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Kaitlyn loves to help me fold. As you can see, she does a stand-up job. She is our little perfectionist:

Ah, the Great Haircut of 2012. We keep our scissors out of reach, we really do (although, I won't pretend that it wasn't until after several things were destroyed -- luckily no body parts -- and we finally came to our slow senses). Jeff was working on a fishing pole project (I knew this fishing hobby was a bad idea ;)), and Kaitlyn got a hold of the forbidden shears and did this:

We call it the side mullet. Business on the side; party on the other side. This was a major, "What's done is done" moment. Kaitlyn's justification? "I wanted my hair short like Austen's."



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Magnadoodles have been the "It Toy" for over a year at our house. Who woulda thunk? Kaitlyn draws on this every single night at bedtime, and it's a treat to go in the next morning to see what artwork put her to sleep. "This is a sheep."

Evening napper and a little sister who bugs her like it's her job. (Some would argue, myself included, that this actually is her job as the little sister.)

Cutting food with forks is in right now.

It's 9:02 and I haven't even brushed my teeth. I coulda been brushed and reading my mindless novel by 8:50 if Blogger would figure out this whole "user-friendly" concept. Formatting pictures this evening was like slow torture. Hitting Publish now without editing.