Meltdowns and Parks

Today Sunny woke up way too early, 5:30 to be exact. I was one tired mama. She's been co-sleeping with us and it hasn't exactly been working out. I feel she moves so much in her sleep that I have this tiny corner of the bed and I can barely get comfortable. I put her to bed in her own bedroom, but come 1-2 am, she crawls right into bed with us. Rodney goes to work at 5:30 and I am too tired to get up and put her back into her own bed, so I just deal. So it is what it is during this season of our lives. So, I decided at 7 am to mow the lawn and pull weeds while Rodney made eggs and pancakes. After we ate, he got busy rototilling our backyard and garden area and trimmed our zuchinni way down. This took a good 3 hours. We then headed to Costco. We put Sunny in the Cart, but it didn't last. She put up with about 10 minutes and then meltdown. She wanted out. To try to discipline this kid in public is humiliating. She will throw the biggest tantrum, drawing attention. The sucker I am, I let her out. After refusing to hold my hand, she began walking and getting into people's way. I put a bag of Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets in the cart. (He is her favorite character in the whole world). That sordive made her smile. She allowed rodney to hold her, but then again, she wanted to be free. Let's just say there were many meltdowns. A few hours later, we headed to the park for a picnic. Sunny saw a big bounce house and we explained to her that it was someone else's and she couldn't go in it. More meltdowns. I really think I need parenting classes. I feel I fail in so many areas as far as being consistent in disciplining. Part of my problem is I have never been able to stand crying. Giving in just shuts her up, and then it's peaceful again. That is very poor parenting, I know. Rodney is much more consistent. He definitely is a good role model When Sunny becomes a teenager, I will probably look back at this season of my life and think this is a piece of cake compared to the worries parents have once 16 hits. I respect my mom so much more now. She raised me alone, with little help, except from my sister's who were in high school when I was born. Well at least Fall is here and time for boots. I can't help smiling over that and watching Women's Conference tonight with my mom. ;)

Yoga For Life

I am not one who really enjoys working out at a gym. Treadmills bore me as well as other cardio machines. I've been going to the gym religiously, but I don't really enjoys it. What I do enjoy is yoga. I've been doing it off and on for 6 years, but the last few months, I cant seem to go a day without it. After having my baby, I began to feel stiff and achy in my back. Bending over to diaper change or give baths didn't help. Yoga is amazing. I feel my flexibility returning. Yoga just tops my day. In addition to walking a few miles every other day, I feel I am finally returning back to my pre-baby body. It is awesome. After class today, I took sunny out for yogurt, her favorite thing ever. I thought about going into Ulta, but buying makeup has led to lots of buyers remorse. The last year, I have not been happy with my makeup choices. The mascara I choose is always too clumpy and dry, the eye shadow I have chosen is just all wrong, and my eye liner is way too hard. It just doesn't go on smoothly. So I decided to give makeup buying a long rest. I don't wear makeup except on Sundays anyway, so all is fine and dandy. Sunny did a bit of art at her grandma's house and then we came home and I decided to get dinner planned. Today was that day I didn't know what to make. Rodney suggested Chicken Parmassan, so I headed to walmart to get the ingredients. When I got there I saw a big Pioneer Woman Collection of kitchen gadgets and nearly died. I love this woman. Her recipes, her personality, her taste in clothes, everything. I hope they add more seasons on netflix. So because I love her, I bought a beautiful floral pitcher. I plan to store my wooden spoons or sunflowers in it. My VT's are the sweetest. Terri and Allison brought over these treats while I was gone. Yum, turned out great. Even better, Sunny went to bed at 7:30 tonight. That is rare. Rodney and I are now watching some netflix, enjoying our treats and relaxing. A great day ! A few words of wisdom for today are, Think positive thoughts in your mind and block all negative. Negativity brings in dark energy the body doesn't need. Each time a negative thought enters the mind, erase it by thinking of a bright color, a rainbow, or a flower.

Waterworld

Sunny loves the water, but only if she is free. If we hold her, she becomes irritable. This kid hates being tied down, which explains her hatred towards her high chair. She prefers eating while running around. That is a huge No in our household. When at the pool, we often hang in the wading toddler area so she is free to do as she pleases. We try to go to the pool once a week, and after water play, she comes home hungry,tired and ready for bed. Something about water always does the trick in relaxing her. Once we got home, she was diaperless and began to pee on carpet. I saw her doing it and then yelled, "hurry, run to potty, fast." She ran to potty and finished tinkling, right in it. Rodney and I cheered her on and kept praising her. I can't believe it. This was the first time she has ever used her potty. She did it. We are on our way to success, I hope. Afterwards, she ate her left over mac n cheese from lunch, some brown rice with chopped meatballs (in which she picked out, she hates all meat) and a big cup of water. She had a bath and then was ready to go to sleep. Here are some pictures from our day. My words of wisdom for today are, celebrate each success you observe everyday. Today, I celebrated Sunny reaching an important milestone of becoming potty trained. Celebration doesn't have to involve a huge party, but can just be a sense off inner satisfaction and accomplishment. This guy is the best. I think we make a great team!

Independent

Since turning 2, Sunny has been challenging me more and more. She has never been one who is submissive, but rather assertive. She has always been on the sassy side as well. Lately, she has become more defiant and disobedient. It could be that she wants control. I have been trying to reflect back on my school days and some behavior classes I took. I remember learning about using positive reinforcement to correct a negative and eliminating the word, "No" or "stop that" but rather use a positive before a negative like, "I love when you are kind ,can you please share your toy." I am definitely guilty of using negative reinforcement over positive. Often, I must think before I speak which is quite difficult for me. Nevertheless, I am working on it. Patience is not my strong point and I am definitely not the parent I envisioned myself before Sunny was born. But we all have room to improve. Everyday is a fresh start. Today, we woke up and headed for a early morning walk to the park. We then came home, had lunch, did some housewife stuff, then headed to the park again.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Sunny doesn't take naps and still won't go to bed until at least 9 pm, so in all attempts to keep my house looking clean, getting out is the perfect solution. Sunny loves the water and today was muddy. I contemplated whether I should allow her to get in the mud. It's just another job for me, but then I thought, why not. If I were her age, I would want to do the same. Children will be children. My words of wisdom for today are, Don't sweat the small stuff, but embrace the big stuff. If your house is always messy, be grateful you have a family to mess it up. I have found that when I don't sweat the small stuff, such as always trying to keep my house clean, and reflect on being a mother first and spending time with my child, I feel much more satisfaction then I do from keeping up with a huge to do list. If I fail one day, I know I can improve the next. Here's to fresh new beginnings each day. Children after all, live in the moment. They will not dwell on the past like we do.

A Nursing Weaning Update

Sundays are by far my favorite day of the week. I look forward to this day all week because I love being lazy and having that little time to myself. I love being able to feel spiritually charged as well and take home valuable teachings and lessons I learn in church. I love being able to see people every week at church. I just love everything about Sunday. I love to visit people and having my mom just up the street is often the first place we go. Sunny is starting to say, "Nama's house, Nama's house" and everytime we get in the car, she asks to go there. Today, we packed up the stroller and headed over to visit her. Sunny loves everything about grandma's house. Grandma knows that when toddler enter's her territory, nice house get's a little messy. But cleaning up after ourselves is a given, as we all know that grandma's house must always be tidy. Sunny loves grandma's house for many reasons. It is a time for her to do art and see grandma's new stuff. Often grandma shows us her things she bought and then we do a little artwork and then it's off to play outside. Sunny is so busy playing, that she doesn't ever bother asking to nurse. It's been one week since I finally put my foot down and decided it was time to wean Sunny from Nursing. As she is geting close to 2.5 years old, I figured it was time. Nursing has been a wonderful experience, and it is bitter sweat saying goodbye to it. Part of me doesn't want to say goodbye to the babyhood that passed, but Sunny is growing up and it's about time I started accepting it. I never had any intentions of nursing her as long as I did. While every woman has a different experience with nursing, mine was mostly good with a few negatives. The biggest negative was feeling very dehydrated and depleted all the time. I never could get enough water it seemed. So, here is how Sunny is doing with this weaning thing. I must add that it was not done cold turkey. I refused to just shut it off like that. Rather, I did a decrease. She went from nursing 4-5 times a day, down to twice a day, Monday-Wednesday and then from there to Sunday (today), only once a day, and that is where she is at now. She nurses at bedtime only. The hardest part has been her constant asking and begging. She is talking all the time time in full sentences, something that just seemed to happen overnight. She will come up to me and say, "I wan't to nurse." I will say to her, "You are a big girl, not a baby, and big girl's don't nurse." This seemed to agitate her and she would run off and throw a tantrum. Another big issue is that I have been putting Sunny in her own bed at night after she nurses to sleep and she has been waking up between 2-3 am to get in bed with us and nurse. She has cried herself to sleep each time. A few weeks ago, I got her a nursing transition bottle. I have been giving her the bottle with milk and giving that to her in place of nursing and she has done fine on most occasions. My plans for this week are to continue the bedtime only nursing. The progress we have both made is great in terms of where we were before. My goal is to have Sunny be able to put herself to sleep without having to nurse and to be able to comfort herself. I believe she struggles doing this and is my fault completely. I guess you live and learn. I always heard that we make better mother's the second time around and I think that comes from trial and error/living and learning. I know she is closer to being weaned. Each day, she is asking less and less and is getting more interested in other foods to fulfill her. My goal is that within a month, she will be weaned 100%.