Thursday, December 16, 2010

That Time of Night

It's that time of night again. I fought a hard battle and won. Sienna is asleep. She is a lil drama queen at night lately. It's the change, new apartment. The girl doesn't do well with change. That's why we're not changing wards. Anyway, she is a creature of habit.

Every night I start the same battle with her. I open up my scriptures and announce bed time. We read, preferably a new testament story about Jesus as a child, her favorite, and then time to brush teeth. If we make it to that point then we say prayers and turn on the night light, hugs and kisses, one quick story from memory, and night night, sleep tight don't let the bed bugs bite about ten times, and then she's out. That's if we make it there.

Not tonight. Tonight we got stuck on brushing teeth. I have made a new rule that she can only brush her teeth in the bathroom. I found toothpaste all over the place in the kitchen and spent the majority of the day cleaning up tooth paste from random spots. Hence the rule. Hence the before mentioned hate of change. Hence a meltdown. It started with wanting me to do everything, to me not doing anything the way she wanted, to her being unbelievably upset because her teeth someday will fall out. Logical right?

She cried for over an hour. I tried distracting, threatening, time outing, and praying. Nothing. I called my dad he talked to her for two seconds and all of a sudden she was okay, and T.V. sounded good to her. We went to the living room and sat down and I realized that she had manipulated me. Wasn't the bed the original goal? How was I all of a sudden okay with anything but the melt down? I pondered it then made up my mind that I would not be manipulated. I looked at her with all the courage I have and said,"no tv. bed." I picked her up, said a quick prayer with her, put her in bed, told her the three lil pigs, covered her up, turned on the night light, hugs and kisses from me and mags, and night night, sleep tight, no bed bug bites were said, and I was out of there.

Then on to maggie. This all started at 8. It's now 9:30. "Don't normal jobs end at 5?!" i think to myself. I make her bottle with one hand, my other around her waist balancing her on my hip. Heaven forbid I put her down and start a cry that will get the other one out of bed. I finish making the bottle and feed it to her.

Mid feeding I here, "mommy?" I look at maggie hoping that she is a genius 7 month old and pretend that she said it. Then I see the real culprit out of my peripheral vision. I was pretty sure I had just threatened no Santa if she got out of bed, so I know it can't be Sienna. It is. Testing me. Pushing the limits. "Mommy I want water." I'm pretty sure she wants to not be in bed and not the water she's requesting, but it's a button she knows she can push because for some reason I equate saying no to water with child abuse in my head. Irrational, yes, I'm aware. I tell her to go to bed and I will bring her a cup in when I lay maggie down. She surprisingly goes to bed without argument. I think she was passing the proverbial baton to maggie in the drive mommy bonkers relay.  

I finish feeding mags, get sienna a sippy cup with one hand, give it to sienna in bed, then lay mags down, swaddle her like I'm roping a calf, strap her into the boppy knock off, put the paci in, and walk out. Then I hear it. A little whimper. So sad even Hitler could not ignore it. Sienna in a taunting baton passing voice says,"Mommy, maggie doesn't want to sleep." I go sooth her and walk away.

 Repeat that process until 10:12. Then my hero walks in. What the kids always forget is that I also have a partner in this relay. I pass the baton. I make a smore. Not ww approved, but stress approved. My hero gets the baby. He rocks her. He lovingly responds to all the,"Daddy!" cries coming from the other room. He gets the baby asleep. Gives hugs and kisses to Sienna. He looks at me like, "that wasn't so hard." I blog, because I know the truth. 

heaven help me.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Why I Love,...

Who do I love this week? Miss Marjorie Hope (Maggie Mae) Daniel. Why do I love her so,...

I love Maggie because she is always concerned. Maybe concerned isn't the right word, she's always focused. She studies everything all day long, and just recently she has shown us what she's learned. Today she tore up some foam from a box that I was about to throw away and while I was picking up bits of foam she got to the pantry that I stupidly left open and dumped out a whole box of corn flakes. While I was picking up the corn flakes she made it over to the kitchen drawer and pulled out all the kitchen towels and soiled three of them with spit up. I can't keep up with her! I love that she's smart and growing.

I love Maggie because she looks like my two other great loves, Sienna and Grant. She has the same big eyes as her sister, and the same eyebrows as her daddy. She cracks me up with her little serious looks, and sweet toothless grins. She has the perpetual runny nose that apparently is a family trait on my husbands side. She has a calm demeanor with passive aggressive tenancies just like her daddy too. She just fits in so well with our family!

I love Maggie because she's so picky and stubborn. She hates all juice and most fruit. She loves bananas and would eat them until she threw up if I'd let her. She will stop drinking a bottle in the middle of it and refuse it until I reheat it to the perfect temperature. She pulls herself up over, and over, and over again even though she gets mad that she can't get down without falling. She will not give up until she gets the exact toy/object that she's going for, even if Sienna has it in her hands. She will lunge out of my arms to get to her dad, EVERY time he walks in. The girl wants what she wants, and there is NO getting around it. I love that she's already a woman.haha

I love Maggie because she was a happy surprise. We wanted to have a baby after we got married so Sienna could have a sibling close in age, and then we would wait a while to have more. Well after some miscarriages we just put that plan out of our minds and made other ones, and then Maggie arrived. She was the best little miracle/surprise that we could ever get!

I love Maggie because she adores Sienna. I was so worried that there was something wrong with her because it took her FOREVER to smile! I now know she was just hyper-focusing on Sienna and how she could be more like her. Sienna can always get her to smile and laugh, and Maggie is like a lil puppy that follows her around. I don't think Maggie knows that she's not four just like her big sister, and even though there is a big age difference, they are the best of friends. The first thing Sienna asks to do every morning is to feed her sister a bottle and then they play for hours. I can just tell how much Maggie loves Sienna every time she looks at her. It's amazing how children recognize siblings!

I love Maggie because she's my baby! What more of a reason do I need?!

Keishah's Twins

I have a sweet friend that is having twins and one of the babies is having complications. Please keep her and the babies in your prayers. This is dear to my heart since we lost one of our lil nephews almost two years ago for the same reason. We love you and are praying for you Keishah!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Recent Happenings

Recently life has been busy, so here's the skinny. I'm still dieting, although it's not as great as I have been in the past, I at least have maintained the weight loss that I have already achieved, but I got the flu, so when I was sick I gave up for a while. I'm better now, so I should be back to losing.

Sienna's last day of school was today and she had a blast this semester! She loved her teachers, her fav was Miss Jessica, and she made a new favorite friend named Madelyn. She learned about the seasons, and a lot about nature, went to make pizza at the cafeteria, and many more fun things. She also learned many new songs, and relearned letters and numbers. I think it was a success. She is so excited to start her next adventure, ballet!

Grant is finishing up this semester, his classes are over next week, and I'm so glad he's going to be home more for a couple of weeks. He is doing good in school, and we are still forecasting another 4.0 semester. I'm so excited that we are entering his last year of undergrad. That's right! He graduates fall of 2011 with his BA in econ. What a man! I know it's not the end of school for us, but it's good to hit a mark of achievement. He has been working diligently since he got off his mission to get to this point, and he'll have done it in four years, right on track, even with getting married and being a father of 2!

Maggie has been growing plus some. She started crawling at 6 1/2 months, and pulling herself up a day later, and is still babbling up a storm. Recently she fell and hit her head and gave herself a bloody nose. She wasn't acting quite right and after calling our doc, he had us take her to the emergency room. She had a slight concussion! It was horrible, and I don't think I put her down for a couple of days! She even slept in our bed! She still doesn't have any teeth, a trait which she gets from the Reynolds side. We all got our teeth around 7-9 months. Everyone is now saying, "She looks JUST like her daddy!" It's true, she does. Any small bit of me that I saw in her is gone. I know she gets her eyes from me because Sienna has those same eyes, but her eyebrows mask that! She def has the Brewer brows!!!

Next Saturday our Christmas celebration is beginning and we're going to Provo to spend the night with my grandparents, and then Sunday we pick up Morgan!!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited? This is the first time we won't be spending Christmas with one of our parents, so it's my first Christmas dinner. I want to start a new tradition like both of our families have, my mom make Navajo tacos and his mom has tamales, so I think we've decided on a British Christmas. Twas my mums idea. We're going to google a menu, so I hope it turns out okay!

I love the holidays, and I feel so good that we have survived another semester!


I woke up one morning to find Sienna in Maggie's crib. She said Maggie woke up in the middle of the night and she put her paci back in and slept beside her. What a sweet girl she is!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Britney and Jude's Baby Shower!

These are the super cute invites Adam designed!






Britney's shower is this Saturday, the 11th, at 11am, at The Village clubhouse. Come and Celebrate lil Jude with us!!!