‘graciecakes’

Our trip to Target today was filled with some thrills and spills!!!  Ok…no thrills…all spills!  I decided to put both girls in the carriage rather than deal with whose standing up in the back of the shopping cart.  I quickly realized that the only problem with the carriage was that EVERYTHING is in perfect reach of their cute little, chubby fingers.  As we strolled into the store past the “one-dollar” items, things started flying off the shelves and making their way into our carriage.  Mind you, these were not things I needed nor wanted.   

The first spill happened on the way down the craft aisle.  Sarah grabbed an extra large box of crayola crayons and began to open them.  I couldn’t blame her.  Who doesn’t love a brand new box of crayons?  However, in my attempt to regain control of the crayon box, Sarah threw them and 125 crayons were scattered from one end of the aisle to the other.  I tried to leave the scene of the crime, when both Sarah and Olivia began, quite loudly saying, “Uh-oh, what happend to the crayons?”  I quickly diverted their attention elsewhere as I did not want to pick up 125 crayons!

The middle of our shopping trip was filled with the normal banter…”I need crackers!”  “I need juice!”  “Baa Baa!”  “Down!” 

Unfortunately, our exit from the store was not a quiet one either.  While I was emptying the items from the cart, unbeknowst to me, Sarah had helped herself to a super-sized bag of M&M’s and proceeded to open them.  Presuamably to share them with her sister!  While ripping the bag open, she apparently lost control and the M&M’s spilled all over the floor.  The girls were now screaming for the candy, which they couldn’t reach.  Believe it or not, not one M&M’ made it into their carriage!  All that work for nothing!!The clerk couldn’t have been nicer and told me not to worry about picking anything up and she talked and played with the girls as we checked out.

Lesson learned:  Don’t go shopping with kids!!!

We all went to the doctor yesterday in the pouring rain.  Olivia…a well visit.  Sarah…a sick!  Although there was much crying involved, Olivia checked out perfectly.  75% for height, 50% for weight.  Wishing those were my percentiles right now:)  Sarah went for a quick check of her chest and ears.  All clear!  The past few nights have been rough; with a lot of tossing, turning, coughing and choking.  Today, thankfully, is a better day!

When Sarah woke up this morning, she remembered right away that I promised her that we’d go back to Aunt Margie’s house today to play with “Lukie-Bob’s” toys.  But because Olivia was taking an early morning nap, we couldn’t go.  Luckily, Aunt Margie saved the day and showed up with Luke at our back door, right before a meltdown was about to take place.  For Sarah, all was well with the world.  She had her Lukie-Bob and her chicken and french fries.  What more could a 2 year old ask for?

Later in the afternoon, we did our daily check of our little seedlings.  Sarah is very excited about their growth and thinks they smell just beautiful:)

Planting sunflower seeds!

Today was warm…70 degrees warm and the perfect day to take a ride to Starkies Garden Store!  I told Sarah about a week or so ago that we would plant some seeds and she hasn’t let me forget it.  Today was the day!   We did begin the activity outdoors in the a.m., filling the peat pots with water and of course, playing in the water!  We needed to wait until the peat pots grew and expanded before we were ready to plant.  In the meantime, we went to Wendy’s for lunch, picked up our new playhouse from BJ’s, took a nap and woke up to find Alex, Jake and Luke at the bottom of our stairs!  Dad, “expertly” cooked (Dad made me write this!), our first barbeque of the season…hamburgers and hotdogs….yummy!   Finally, at 7:15 we got changed into our “jammies”, sat in our high chair and planted our seeds.  

Now we’ll wait!

Break out the paint!

Look how happy she is!  Her best friend and sister, Olivia, aka..”Libby Cakes” was in for her morning nap and Sarah was bored out of her mind.  We had already went outside and swung on the tree swing until both of us were dizzy.  We had already watched two episodes of Barney, one of the Wiggles and an Elmo movie.  (I don’t think I’m going to win the “Mother of the Year Award” for that!!!  And we’ve already played with every toy she owns.

Painting by water was a hit!  Give the girl anything involving water and she’s happy!   Just like her Mama:) 

What do I hear over the staticky monitor…Olivia’s waking up.  Time for lunch and off to the park.!   Thank God spring is here and we can play outside!

The 5:00 am “screaming” alarm clock went off this morning.  It’s name was Sarah!!  I haven’t heard that alarm clock in quite some time. 

Afternoon nap in high chair!

Let’s turn back the clock to October 2008 when Sarah decided that she no longer wanted to sleep in her crib.  Not in the day, not at night….NEVER!   Why this happened, I have no idea.  We tried the “Ferber” method which suggests you let the child ‘cry it out’ until he/she falls asleep.  Sarah is apparently not your typical child who cries for 20 minutes, gives up and falls asleep.  No, she was not, under any circumstances, going to be ‘Ferberized’!  One evening, after crying for 90 minutes, she finally fell asleep standing up. I was so afraid that she would fall and hit her head, that I went into her room and tried to lay her down and the screaming began again.  I ended up crying that night as well.  That was it!  Dave and I decided; no more crying for either of us; she wins!  From that point on, naps were either taken in the high chair or on the road.  I’ll tell you this; during this time, I really learned the ins and outs of Massapequa Shores:)  At night, she would fall asleep on the couch downstairs with either Dave or I sitting beside her.  Once she fell asleep, we would carry her upstairs and pray that she wouldn’t cry to come back down again.  This went on for about 3 months until I couldn’t take it anymore.  It was the night after New Years Eve 2009 when I decided it was time to go back in the crib, tears or no tears.  Crying there was!  But, not for long.  Within a few days we were back to a normal sleep schedule and everyone, parents included, was happy and well rested once again.  In hind-sight, I should have let the crying go on for just a little while longer and I could have probably avoided the all the shenanigans in-between.

Olivia

It was a beautiful day from beginning to end.  Today, Sarah and I started the day by meeting Nana, Poppie and Aunt Arlette at Church.  We lasted about 20 minutes before Sarah started asking if it was time to go home!  I broke out all the tricks in order to get her to settle down; crayons, easter eggs, lollipops, crackers, juice and M & M’s.  Nothing worked.  The question of when we were leaving was increasing in volume until an all out temper tantrum broke out and I had no choice but to take her home.  We made a quick exit out the side door, ran in the cold wind to the car and settled in with a lollipop and a Barney video for the 2 and 1/2 minute car ride home:)

Both Sarah and Olivia went in for morning naps before going to Nana’s for our Easter celebration. 

When we pulled up to Nana’s house, we were greeted with an easter egg hunt on the lawn.  So much fun!  Poppie told the kids that one of the eggs had a twenty dollar bill in it, so a frantic “search and open” technique began with the bigger kids.  Nana cleared up the false $20.00 rumor and everyone resumed just looking for candy!

Easter Egg hunt at Nana and Poppies

The Easter Egg Hunting Gang!

The Magnificent Seven!