Sandestin. DAY 1

Blakely and I got to piggyback off of Daddy's work conference last weekend! It was only a couple of days and pretty weird Daddy not being there during the day, but so much fun! Blakely LOVED the sand. I was shocked about that! She didn't care anything about the pool, but wanted to stay at the beach the entire time. I realized really quickly on this trip that the days are long gone of laying out. My back is the only thing that got any sun because I was bent over playing in the sand. We were only really able to stay out for an hour both days and as you can imagine Blakely much preferred the early morning sand playing verses the middle of the hot day adventures. Still, I wouldn't trade it for the world! I loved watching her and seeing her so full of joy! We are planning another trip where Daddy isn't working the whole time! =)

Here we are on the way down fully entertained, Thanks Mimi!

We're HERE!

Yummy Seafood lunch

Going to the pool for the first time!

Quick dancing break on the 'stage'

First time going to the beach!

 LOVING every second of her life right now!

 Doing 'head-stands' in the sand??

 Building Tangled's tower

Seriously, love this child! Sometimes the whininess covers up that sweet sweet spirit she has, but this trip reveled it ever so much! While we were there, I ran into a couple other 2-3 year olds acting the exact same way she does occasionally, verifying that the 'less than perfect' behavior is in fact normal and very typical! 

2 Pre-K

It amazes me to look at the difference just a couple of months makes...

The left is a pic of Blakely on her first day of preschool and the right is today, her last day.

Sweet Moments

 I had just a couple of pictures that captured our typical days this month and wanted to get them in the blog. These are some of my favorite things to see...

 Raffe is now potty training too!

 EATING! Finally broke down and ate some hummus and pretzels. The eating hasn't been consistent however, so we will be visiting a nutritionist as soon as they will call me back!

Bath Time

Bath time has become our favorite thing to do lately! This boy L.O.V.E.S the water! I cannot wait to see him play in the water table or go to the lake! He is growing up so fast, it just seems crazy to me sometimes. I love watching the two of them have fun together. Blakely is really caring of Parker most of the time. She loves taking baths with him. 

 I know one day he will probably kill me for this one, but it is just too cute! I will miss these days!

1 Year Photos

I tried to wait for Parker to start feeling better to get his 1 year pictures, but when I realized that this long, never ending sickness was in fact allergies, I gave up and decided to take him feeling yucky and all. We went about 2 weeks ago to the botanical gardens and despite his feeling so crummy, ended up with quite a few keepers! Blakely was my photographers assistant and tried her best to make him laugh. I don't think I got one the entire day of him actually looking at the camera-his eyes were either looking down or at her. =)

Sugar and Whining

We are having some problems with Blakely:

1. Eating

2. Whining

Let's address #1. 

The child will not eat. Basically she is attempting to live like Elf. (You know Will Ferrell in only the BEST Christmas movie ever.) She lives for sugar. I'm afraid to announce that I have been fueling the fire. I would get so encouraged by her actually eating anything that I started giving her Fruit Loops, Pop tarts & even, gasp, a cupcake for breakfast... I know I know-but if your child wouldn't eat a bite of food, you might do the same thing too so don't judge!

The doc told us a while back (like a year ago) that we should offer her the exact same thing we eat and let her starve until she gets hungry enough to eat what is in front of her. Starving your child, I don't care what kind of mother you are, is hard...really really hard.

We are there now (as of yesterday). We are at the point of scheduling an appointment with a food specialist, so I thought I would try this 'starvation' plan for a month before we go in for our 3 year checkup & if it isn't any better than we will have no choice than to get some serious help.

 So, yesterday she ate one bite of peanut butter & jelly sandwich at school along with some applesauce (according to the teacher) and a BITE of a strawberry for dinner...That's it. No milk, no juice-just water.

 Moving on to subject #2

 This is a definition is what I live with 95% of every single day-I am not exaggerating. Before this week, I have tried every form of punishment other than calm, gentle reasoning. The whining is the most annoying thing to me. Some people can't stand a high pitched sound blaring in their ear, others nails on a chalkboard-mine is whining.
What does she whine about-oh any and everything-'hold me, hold me' milk-not cold enough, wanting more, her diaper, wanting a new outfit, shoes frustrating her, Parker, napping, food, wanting popsicles, wanting to go outside, not wanting to leave school...you name it.

So, after some very valuable counseling, I decided to give this a go-which mind you takes EXORBITANT  amounts of patience. Every single time she even remotely whines I stop her and in a very calm and gentle voice ask her if that is necessary to ask Mommy in such a yucky tone. I then ask her to attempt to ask it again in a normal, non-yucky whine. I send her to her room and then go have a talk with her. I would be safe to say that 2 solid days were spent with Blakely in her room. The others have resulted in about 25 different 5 min sessions in her room. I will say I am standing strong and no matter how bad I want to scream at the top of my lungs (which I do-I just remove myself from visibility, pillow in hand and have at it).

I am proud to announce that it all seems to be paying off! She has only been whining about 40% of every day now!!! Which for me is totally doable and such a relief. She is even catching herself whining and admitting she is wrong. YAY! So valuable lesson learned with Miss Blakely, she responds best to calm and gentle discipline. Who would have thought??