A Girl & Her Shoes

Have you ever loved a pair of shoes soooooooooo much that you just couldn't bare to part with them at bedtime?

 (Sorry the pics aren't great. Sadie was asleep and I had to get a pic, but I didn't want the flash to wake her up so I tried to keep it turned away from her face...thus the badly centered, no face pics)

Ok. I get it. I will be the first to admit that it is possible to have a love affair with a pair of shoes. Here is Sadie out on a date with the loves of my life.

Walking in heels is not an easy task, and Sadie has mastered it in heels that are 5 sizes too big. Is anyone else thinking Super Model?

Perhaps.

At any rate, at least I am glad to know that she has learned who her true friends are at such an early age.

Fieldtrip Friday: They Do Still Exist

Yes. Sadie and I still do try to get in our weekly activity known as the Fieldtrip Friday. I have just been woefully terrible at picture taking and blog posting. So here are the fieldtrips I did manage to capture over the past 3 months.

January: I enrolled Sadie in a gymnastics class which was every Friday for 6 weeks. She absolutely loved it! And she still asks to go to gymnastics.

The Foam Pit. A class favorite. You could run and jump into it, go down the slide into it, or swing from the rope swing and drop in.

Sadie would not even attempt to climb this ladder at the beginning. By the last day she wouldn't even let me come within arms distance of her because she wanted to do it all by herself.

 

Sorry. Camera phones make for blurry action shots.



Sadie would often raise her hands in the air and exclaim "TA DA!" every time she finished an exercise.



February: I enrolled Sadie in a 4 week ballet class. See my Ballerina Girl post to see how that went down.

March 4th: Butterfly Pavilion

The Pavilion was awesome! You enter a rain forest type atrium that is filled with tropical flowers and plants and over 1,600 free flying butterflies.

 I didn't get a picture of my favorite butter fly (The Blue Morpho) but it was so beautiful! There were literally thousands of every color and size.

Unfortunately, it was a long drive from our house and we arrived just about at nap time. This was one of the more frustrating experiences of my mothering career, starting with Sadie running (away from me, in a very fun game of keep away from mom) around the pavilion and ending with me pulling her through the parking lot by one arm as she screamed and dragged her legs. At least the pics let me imagine that we had a wonderful time. I called my mom almost in tears when I got home and she just laughed at me. Apparently I put her through the same thing a time or two. (How sweet revenge can be) :)

March 11th: The Wildlife Experience 

A much better experience than the previous week! Although, I forgot the camera. We started the day off with an IMAX film, Animalopolis. The film covers the real-world activities of a variety of animals but the narration is done "Dr. Seuss style."

Next we headed to their live Frog exhibit. Sadie had a lot of fun trying to find the frogs in each tank. Some were huge! Others were so tiny and so well camouflaged it took us while to find them. Did you know that there is a species of frog that is metallic silver?

We ended the day exploring their Globeology exhibit which simulates a journey through the major biomes of the world, such as the Tundra, Rainforest and the Coral Reef.  Sadie really enjoyed the falling snow in the arctic area and the snapping crocodiles in the African area.

March 18th: Dropped in for a one day gymnastics class.

March 25th: We had friends in town last weekend and we visited the Colorado Railroad Museum,

The Nature & Science Museum and the Children's museum. So, I think we might just take it easy today. Perhaps a little pedicure? I shall post pics if that is the route we take.

Happy Friday to you!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

I don't really get into holidays that much. I have "fall" decorations for my front porch which suffices from September to December. Then, of course we decorate for Christmas. But all of the other holidays of the year are neglected in the decorating department. I sometimes remember Easter baskets for Easter. Hopefully I will get better at that since Sadie is starting to get old enough to understand and remember. (I think it could be traumatizing for a child if the Easter bunny didn't show up...) I figure out what my Halloween costume will be about 15 mins before we need to be at the Halloween party, and that is if I even dress up at all. As far as patriotic holidays go, I think they are important, but I am just not going to wear red, white and blue.

So that is why I think it is so funny that I always really want to make green food and wear green clothes on St. Patrick's day. But here are some things to remember for future celebrations:

• Green sprinkles on your apple cinnamon muffins just looks like mold.
• Maybe the holiday that embraces the color "green" is NOT the holiday to celebrate with food. i.e. green milk, green muffins, green enchiladas... Green just isn't an appetizing color for any food besides salad.
• When Sadie discovers that green sprinkles exist, they will become a part of every food choice for the day



Sadie eating a banana covered in green sprinkles, while wearing the only green shirt she owns...which is a size too small :) (Sorry phone pics always come out blurry)

• If you wear green to the gym you will realize how super uncool you are when you are THE ONLY ONE wearing green.
• Or, perhaps I was the coolest one there. Who knows?
• Ryan will NOT remember to wear green pajamas, despite being raised by the mother he was, and will look at you very angrily when you pinch him.
• Don't laugh when Ryan looks at you angrily. It just makes him more angry.

Maybe it is time I pick a new holiday to embrace?

Nap Time Gone???

Please, Please, Please say it isn't so. I have spent many an afternoon in tears over the past month because Sadie has suddenly decided to stop napping. (My sanity requires that 2 hour brake in the day!) So, is she done for good or is this some kind of fluke?

She did give up taking 2 naps a day quite a bit earlier than "experts" said babies should, so maybe she is just following her own pattern. However, on the days she doesn't nap she is the most ornery, whiny, misbehaved child that has ever crossed my path and she has a complete meltdown by about 5pm. This leads me to believe that she does, in fact, still need her nap. Why then is she not sleeping?

Many nights the problem is extending into her night time sleep. She has a hard time falling asleep. We will put her to bed around 7:30 or 8 and she will still be awake at 10. Many nights she starts screaming hysterically and when we go in she tells us that "the monsters are coming." This initially scared me. I thought she was having night terrors, until the night I opened the door and caught her smiling. Then as I walked closer and closer to her crib her smile faded into a scared look. This child is a master manipulator! I also don't think that she thinks the monsters are actually scary because I told her to say, "Go away monsters! I am not scared of you!" And she said, "No Mommy, the monsters are nice!" So, who knows why this girl can not ever calm down?

I follow the exact same routine I have been following for almost her entire life: After lunch we head straight upstairs, change the diaper, read a story, darken the room, turn on the fan, say good night. In the past she would be out like a light without a peep for a good 2 hours. Now it is maybe quiet for 10 minutes at which point she starts throwing things out of her crib, singing/yelling which quickly turns into crying. I have taken to leaving her in her crib for at least an hour to give her a chance to fall asleep or at the very least have a quiet time (which is never very quiet). She will take a nap about once a week, and those days usually turn into a 3 to 3.5 hr nap.

I have been trying like crazy to figure out what set this off and I can only come up with 2 things:

1. She really is ready to give up her nap but has not quite gotten used to going the whole day without sleep

2. I read an article today that said that "a major change or stressful event" can put kids off their naps. The only thing I can think of that has changed is that I have tried to introduce potty training. Do you think that potty training could cause enough anxiety to make her not nap?????

I welcome any suggestions because at the rate we are going one of us isn't going to survive...