April 2013

Here's a selection of photos from April.  You'll see some from a trip to the Botanical garden and a walk in the woods at a park near our house.  You'll also see Claire dressed up like a cowgirl for a spirit day at her school.  It was the day I got that first sick kid phone call.  She was running a little fever.  She was also pretty normal, but a little lethargic and wasn't interested in eating her snack.  Her teacher knew something was up then.  Claire not eat??

Lunch date with Mommy.  I got juice...

...amd ice cream!!

Hand painting at the botanical garden

Froggy

Touching a worm!

Screaming for mama with Auntie

Orchid display at the garden

Looking for to the new exhibit featuring these giant plant sculptures!

Auntie Dori and Great Grampa visited for Jamie's graduation party

Claire tore up her pillow and shoved the stuffing behind her bed!

Snuggles with Paaps!

Sick cowgirl

Cowboy hats are a must for TV watching

Feeling well enough for hokey pokey with Daddy

Walking in the woods

Picking "flowers" in the meadow

Toddler bed!

April Fool's!!

April 1st seemed like a good day to finally pull the trigger on converting Claire's crib to a toddler bed. She did pretty well with it the first week.  She did start a new morning ritual upon waking.  She would toss all her stuff over the rail (pillow, sheep, and blanket), climb out, carry all her stuff to the door and rattle the knob while crying.  So when we tried to open the door to get her, she and all her stuff was in the way!

Then after 6 days, she decided she didn't really want to be in her bed anymore.  This was after a stay at my parent's in a pack n play, so maybe she thought this new bed wasn't all it was cracked up to be.  After we put her to bed, she got out repeatedly and would stand at the door crying.  She would ask for more "rock, rock" or a book or a song.  Jeff and I took turns going up there and we each gave in to those requests once or twice.  She would calm down while we rocked her and even drift off, but after we put her in bed, she'd be up again in 10 minutes.  Finally I realized this was just prolonging the issue.  At a previous nap time when she has trouble, I had just stood in her room for a few minutes to get her to calm down and lay down and she quickly drifted off.  I tried that again, but I couldn't stand there long enough for her to fall asleep and I didn't really want to be starting that bad habit anyway.  So after 2.5 hours, I pulled out a "supernanny" technique (like the TV show with a nanny who comes in and fixes dysfunctional families).  I just stood outside her room and kept putting her back in bed.  So I laid her down, closed the door, listened for the thump of her getting out of bed and went back in to lay her down again.  Each time I said something like "It's time for night-night.  Mama loves you.  See you in the morning."  Lather, rinse, repeat 4 times.  And then she was down and out for the night.

I had to do the same technique for a couple nap times and one or two more bedtimes, but with less repetitions.  Some nights her sleep was a little more interrupted and she'd wake up once or twice and need a snuggle and rocking before going right back to sleep.  And some days she was getting up earlier in the morning or at the end of nap.  But overall, the transition was not nearly as bad as I feared, except that one night.

Easter 2013

Easter was March 31st this year, an early year.  Fortunately the rainy weather held off just enough for us to get Easter egg hunts in.

We started the day with Easter baskets and a small egg hunt (6 eggs) in our living room.  Claire loved it!  Her basket was filled with lots of b's - bubble bath, books, bows, and bunny ears!  The Easter bunny also brought a few goodies for mommy and daddy too! 

Easter baskets

Reading a new book with Daddy

Found an egg

Got my ears on!

We headed off for church (where Claire wasn't too terrible).  Then we headed down to Stockbridge for brunch with all the Schulze's.  Mmm, brunch!  We had a great Easter egg hunt and bubble blowing extravaganza outside.  The egg were hidden over a large space, allowing all three granddaughters plenty of opportunity to find eggs without fighting over them.  There was even a bunny spotted hiding in a bush!

Cousins

What's this hiding in the tree?

Still trying to get a good picture of the 3 of them

Love this out take! 

Walking with mama

Sharing??

Bubbles!

Pure childhood joy!

She would NOT let go of her basket

Love this picture of Claire and Grandpa

Balance beam

More swinging fun

After all that fun, we headed over to the Simpson house for even more Easter festivity!  More egg hunting and a delicious dinner.  I think the eggs got hidden a few times since Claire was having such a blast and doing so well at spotting the eggs.

Easter bunny stopped at Grammi's too

Showing Auntie how to find eggs

Got a bucket full already

Ooh, I see one!

Egg hunting with Grammi

Showing Paaps an egg

Exploring the contents of her eggs

Posing with Paaps (and eating!)

Still stuffing her face with Grammi

Claire also had an Easter party at her school.  They hid eggs outside for the kids to find.  They were very smart to keep the eggs empty and allow the kids to turn in their empty eggs for a baggie of candy that would have been in the eggs.  Then the kids chowed down on some food!

Found an egg!

Here's one!

Losing an egg from her basket as she dashes off for more

Food!