The Nap Juggle

I'm quite happy I'm keeping up with this blog! YAY for me! OK enough cheering and patting myself on the back. On to my real post.

I'm in a quandary. Lorelei pretty much gave up naps during the whole broken femur incident (see first post) and when she gave that up I lost my creative time. She has been sick this week with a cold and I've been encouraging naps or at least rest time so she gets better sooner. Today I was given the 13 yr. old 'tude from my almost 3 year old and decided it was a definite nap time (since she was yawning). She fought for a bit but then it was silent. She was asleep! I could hear the angels singing "HALLELUJAH, HALLELUJAH!" I had some me time!!! I didn't waste it either. I grabbed a cuppa and got on my trusty Mac and started working on a graphic design project for a client (yes I still do them on occasion). I have been needing some time and haven't had it lately so this was a perfect opportunity. I got it all done. Well she ended up napping about 2 hours which was great, or so I thought. She woke up happy and was glad to see Daddy since he was finally home. FAST FORWARD to bed time and she was in bed by 8:30, not asleep or even close to it. She was wide awake till a little after 10 and she kept getting in and out of bed saying she needed things. UGH! Talk about kink in the night! So my question is this....keep trying to force the naps or give up on them? Usually with no nap she goes to bed early like 7:30-8:30 at times. But she's fussy and cranky around dinner time. If you still have a toddler who is almost 3 what do you do? I'd love some advice!


Enough about naps. (yawn) So phase 2 started on the rocking chair today and I have to say I like it the way it is. I was going to stencil on it and do a pattern but wasn't sure. My mom had a cool idea of doing a "Swirlyville" scene on it which would fit the chair perfectly considering the color it is. I think I might try and do that which means Lo can no longer help me. She LOVES to paint. "Swirlyville" is where I started when I first started doing non-digital art. I sold my original watercolors for TOO cheap on Etsy and they sold like hotcakes! :)

Today Miss Lo asked me to make a pumpkin pie. I'm not a baker by any means. In fact I just barely bought some cookie sheets. LOL I don't have the ingredients to make pumpkin pie other than her Elmo pumpkin. So we decided to roast our own pumpkin seeds. She was so excited and started pulling out all the seeds for me. We cut Elmo's face off to save for a day or two until I can throw it out without her missing him and threw the pumpkin outside for the squirrels to nibble on. The pumpkin seeds were delicious!! She loved them too.

Putting the seeds in a bowl for Mama

She's usually dressed!

About to be baked.

Elmo's Face

All in all it was a good day, managed to get my workout and shower in too! It's the little things right?? Tomorrow we'll be making a little cotton ball snowman together and may go see Santa at the mall just to get out. I have major cabin fever at the moment!! Get me outta here!

Till next time,

Lo & Mama

Little Miss Boogers

So our adventure today was keeping the boogies away, I know yucky, right? It must be Winter time with all the lovely germs floating around. Yes that's right little Lo caught a cold and it came with lots of boogies! I'm praying and taking vitamins and colloidal silver to keep the bug away from me. I am feeling run down since my workout today and I'm hoping I'm just tired. Early bed for me tonight!


We had lots of play time today, not taking her out while she's still sick which means cabin fever for me. We did phase one of her rocking chair today. Painted it with gesso and she had so much fun helping me. We turned on iTunes and let the Christmas music play while we painted. She ended up covered in gesso on her arms but had fun getting messy so I was good with it too. She informed me she wanted to paint the chair blue (my favorite color mama!) :) So funny, blue has always been my favorite color even as a girl. I was never a pink lover, it was always blue and sometimes purple too. Makes me smile!

She insisted on bringing down every little tiny character she had in the house today to play with me. "Play with me Mama." was the phrase of the day to which I complied. We had fun together but I had such little energy :( I did manage to get my workout in and a shower so those were my big accomplishments of the day. Actually my biggest was putting stamps on all 70 (yes 70) Christmas cards and getting them in the mail for tomorrow. Not sure why I still send with such a huge list! I must be insane! :)

Anyways besides wiping all the boogies it was a pretty good day. We had fun together. The best was tonight while playing on the floor all 3 of us. I was a boat, Lo was the passenger and Daddy was the motor. To make the boat go they had to hit my behind! LOL Lo kept falling out the boat and then the tickle monster would get her and pull her back in to tickle. Good times! She was having a blast and that's all that matters.

Tsatziki & A Rocking Chair

So I've missed a few days on here and I've missed blogging. The last few days have been pretty busy with babysitting, shopping and a surprise birthday party for a friend. Can't say we've had many adventures over the last few days but I'm noticing more and more how much Lo needs us. She's been wanting to do lots of things together with J and I and it's so cute. We ask her what she wants to do and who she wants to do it with and her response is always, "Daddy, Mama & LOLO!" she always exclaims her name at the end. We're a threesome and she knows it!

Lo with her sweet cousins Caden & Corlin

(gotta get rid of that binkie!)

We don't get much adult time and get to go out much but I was very appreciative to my brother and his wife for watching Lorelei. She had quality cousin time last night with her cousin Corlin. They had a blast together. We went to a surprise 50th birthday party for a friend and it was nice to get out for a bit. So we're there enjoying the band, enjoying the food and quality conversation but almost every conversation either started or ended with Lo. Many people remembered her broken leg and were asking how she was doing. I'm amazed at how many people remember our little star. We went to our favorite Greek restaurant tonight and that is where Lorelei took her first steps after her cast was off, it's her favorite too. Anyways I forgot we had the same server tonight until she mentioned how well our girl was doing. She's quite dynamic our little one! Lorelei has been asking for Tsatziki so we took her out for Greek food, our family favorite and we have a great restaurant in town! In Lo's words, "UMMM I LOVE Tsatziki!"

Still haven't painted her rocking chair yet! Hoping to do that tomorrow. Here's a photo of her when I first bought it. Look how small she looks!!

Anyways hope you're all having a wonderful weekend! Will post more adventures during the week. Told ya not much has been going on! :)

Lo & Mama

A little off but still great!

I woke up this morning with a start. Not sure why I woke up so fast and jumped out of bed but when I did I realized it was 10:30 am and I hadn't heard a peep from Lo. I went downstairs and noticed that my hubby was on the couch and then I was really confused. Normally he's at work by 7:30. I thought I lost a few days and we were already on Saturday or something. Five minutes later I heard little hands trying to open her door, Lo was up! Jason was home sick with his eye, he has a blocked tear duct at the moment and was in pain. Poor guy. Anyhow I knew that the day would be somewhat off with him home. I'm pretty much chopped liver when Daddy is home. She is a Daddy's girl! BIG TIME!

We ate brunch since it was so late in the day and J and Lo had some quality time together. We woke up to a ton of snow outside which looked gorgeous! Lorelei was soooooo very excited about that and wanted to go play in it. She went sledding down our hill in the back with J for a little bit and came inside when she couldn't feel her fingers. She had mittens on but I can't find the nice, waterproof and extra comfy, warm ones for toddlers. She loved it and was braver than ever going down on her belly at times all by herself. Sledding by herself which she didn't even want to try last year. I took a video and it's here if you'd like to see. So cute! After that I colored my hair!

I promised her we'd make a gingerbread house today and we did. The hardest part was getting her to stop licking the "glue" icing and eating the candy. It's not the best gingerbread house but it is cute and was made with love. Here are some photos.

After that and while I was cooking dinner, Lo and Daddy went back outside and made a little snowman in the back. They came to the door asking for a carrot and something for his eyes. He wasn't a traditional snowman so I gave them black olives for his eyes! LOL He's kind of funky looking so they named him Shrek! LOL So now that she has Shrek outside tomorrow's promise was to watch Shrek with Mama since it's one of my faves. She wanted to tonight but it was too late.

All in all a good day, she was tired, I think from all the snow stuff but she managed to stay crank free most of the day!

Tomorrow's agenda, besides Shrek is to paint her little rocking chair together. :)

Lo & Mama

Day one of a new start!

Well my theory of Lorelei being bratty, defiant and horrible because of all my time on the computer was right on the money. Today every time she asked me to play or do something I didn't make an excuse or make her wait a little bit before responding and it paid off in lots of giggles, laughs, hugs and kisses. We had a great day!!

We wrapped presents together, she was my "bow girl" and stuck one on each present for me. We played "Beach" first thing this morning. Daddy brought her beach toys in when he cleaned out the garage the other day. We were making sand castles, playing drums on her buckets, jumping into the water which was my dining room and getting out when it was cold. Lots of giggling from both of us ensued. You can tell she was thrilled to have Mama play these new games with her. We browsed Flickr and searched for the perfect ginger bread house and found it (see above)! I promised her we'd make our own tomorrow! I bought a kit tonight and she's thrilled! The weather is supposed to be nasty but we'll be all set!

Another new thing I did today was tell her about the "Toy Monster". Our neighbor gave us this idea and it really worked!! I told her that she needed to pick up all of her toys because if she didn't the "Toy Monster" would come and take them and think they were his. She jumped right up and picked up everything in site!! LOL She then asked questions as to what he would take. I've never seen her clean up her stuff so fast. LOL She got worried about the vacuum or something and I said he was only interested in her toys. The other part to this is that if she refuses to pick them up, leave them there and put them away (when she's in bed because he only grabs toys at night) and give them a mini holiday from her playing with it. Bring it out a few months later and it will be like a new toy and a nice surprise!

She hasn't been napping since she broke her femur this Summer and got out of the habit so I'm trying to enforce quiet time. Today she complied and watched a movie in our bed while I compiled our grocery list. Setting boundaries is key and she needs them. All in all it was a fabulous day with no attitudes which confirms that I made the right choice last night. That makes me proud!

Thank you all for your wonderful comments and supportive words, they really mean a lot and I've taken everything to heart that has been said.

Lo & Mama

Brutal Honesty

Hi!

Always strange when you start a new blog. Not sure what to write about and who would even read it. I am sitting here wide awake at 1 AM after too many cups of coffee today and a long road trip with 2 fussy toddlers and a friend. I watched Coraline tonight, strange movie by the way but it was very eye opening for me (no pun intended, ok maybe a little ;).

My daughter Lorelei is the love of my life but lately she's been so hard to deal with. I know it's the age, she's almost 3 (January) but I've really been taking stock in a lot and I feel like I am affecting her and in not a good way. Lying in bed tonight as my husband sleeps I couldn't sleep and felt convicted of having my priorities off, WAY OFF. I have been working hard over the last few years growing my art business and striving (key word) to be published, be noticed, have a following and be successful. Nothing wrong with being successful but it's bad if it gets in the way of your family and raising your children. I may never have another kid, who knows I may have 3 but if I can't do my best in raising up my daughter on a daily basis I shouldn't be blessed with more. I have found myself getting annoyed if I'm trying to blog on my art blog and she comes over to talk to me. I get upset if she wants to create with me and I'm in the "zone" and that's just not right. She's been throwing fits and attitudes at me a lot lately and how I respond isn't helping. Today she was so defiant I was yelling at her and I feel so awful about it. We've made up and there is no bad blood but I'm failing as a mother at the moment and need to make some changes. I know it.

Starting today I am going to only create art for Bad Girls Project 52 (I'm on the design team for a year) and create art for fun and with Lorelei. If I sell a piece of art because someone likes it, then great! I'm not going to mass promote it on Twitter, my blog and Facebook it's such a waste of time and takes up too much of my time with little or no response. Life is too short to live it online trying to make your life grand. Yeah there are critics who will say you need something for you, you need a hobby. Yes that's right but I have a responsibility to my girl and there is always time for hobbies in the future. I'm not quitting all together I'm just changing my focus. I feel like there will be a blessing for her and for me in this. She needs me and I need her. I'm going to start exploring hobbies with her and nurturing her the way I should be. Just typing this is freeing and I know I'm making the right decision. Follow us on this journey if you like. This blog is where I'm going to post our grand adventures and times together. Her and I. Because of that I need less online activities to maintain. I am offering 40% OFF everything in my ArtFire and Etsy shop, even sales items. I just want it gone and need to start fresh with her. 40% OFF until it's all gone! Life is too short people!! I hope you understand!

Aimée