Little Decision Time

I think we're going to be pulling the plug on The Little Gym soon. I'm just trying to decide if we stay for the winter months or not.
Ugh. I'm sad to think about this since TLG has become a very familiar and welcoming place. I'm going to miss the instructors and the families we've been with for months. There is also the fact that Sadie screams and claps as soon as she realizes we're going there. She loves it. I love it too. I look forward to it every week and at one point wanted to add a second class!
So, why am I pulling her out?
I'm no longer trusting their philosophy of letting the children explore without limits. Sadie can't handle it. The idea is to let the children do what they wish as long as the parent participates and the result for us has been Sadie thinking she can do whatever the **** she wants EVERYWHERE we go.
My mom has been complaining about this for a while now but it took a TLG kid tearing up Sadie's music class last weekend for me to finally buy into the idea. The two kids in the class that were causing a ruckus were TLG members. Uh oh.
Then, at our last TLG class, Sadie didn't seem interested in participating in anything. All she wanted to do was do what SHE wanted to do. We'd been having such a good run too. It's been months since I'd last wanted to pull my hair out in frustration.
So I think it's time. We need to start preparing Sadie for school in a year and a half. She needs to learn to listen and follow instruction. She needs programs that expect this of her.
I think we'll *all* be getting memberships to the YMCA with the $95/month I'll be freeing up (yes, it's THAT expensive for a 45 min class once a week!).






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Eeek! Finally!

We have our first half-sib match on the DSR! A baby girl that is less than a month old. I let my membership slide so I'm not contacting them yet.....

This is SUPER exciting!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

I forgot to Mention...

....that Sadie is talking.

She's had a surge of words over the last couple of weeks and is talking way more than even the day she was last assessed. At that appointment I had mentioned that she was starting to chatter a lot of nonsense and was told that was a good sign. Within that very week she changed.

She can now say 2 word sentences. Mostly "No, Mine!" and "I do". When I ask her something she will acknowledge me by saying "Ohhh-kay" or "Kay". She surprises us daily with the things that she says and does. Last Tuesday D asked her what she had done that day. Her response (correct answer with appropriate arm and leg motions) was "I swim", and "I kick".  Awesome!

 So she's behind, there's not doubt about that, but she's made progress on her own. It's pretty amazing to witness it.

 Update: I spoke to my mom and we are going to send her to ALL of the "Parent Education" sessions. D and I are now in the process of negotiating the half-day work from home/personal time hours to accomplish this. It is going to work out that we both have one half-day per month for the next two months and then I will have one additional in April. I'm somewhat disappointed that I'm not going to be getting to participate in these sessions but to ask for 12+ hours (when adding in commuting) is a bit extreme and we have our vacation fully planned (with only a few floating vacation days). The schedule for this program is a bit crazy in my opinion. It isn't even well suited for stay at home parents because who will watch their children?

Sent from my iPhone

Speech Assessment

We have the results from Sadie' speech assessment and have met to
discuss "next steps". The report basically indicated that she has
mild delays in the area of expressive language development and
significant delays in the areas of motor speech and articulation. She
was also assessed as having "limited jaw and independent tongue
movement" as well as "Significant drooling and open mouth
posture".

I'm a bit stressed out by the service recommendation we were given
because it wasn't what we had expected at all. We've been booked
into 10 hours of "parent only" workshops which are during weekday
mornings. Ideally we had wanted my mother to go to whatever sessions
were scheduled because she spends the most waking hours with Sadie.
Now that we know Sadie cannot attend we need at minimum two of us
available for each of the 2 hour appointments and this does not
include two 1 hour appointments with Sadie to practice what we have
learned. 12 hours. It looks like I'm going to need to work with my
manager on a flexible schedule to accommodate this or we're going to
have to pass on it. Wouldn't that suck since we waited 6 months to
get into the program? There is also the issue that I would still like
my mother to attend since she is more receptive when she hears it
"straight from the horse's mouth". Of course that would mean D
taking mornings off work as well which would be enormously unfair for
her to be taking care of Sadie while my mom and I went. I just don't
know what to do about this. I assumed the appointments would be during
the day but I hadn't even considered they wouldn't include Sadie.

The entire process has been stressful. Even getting to the appointment
yesterday was stressful. The initially letter we had received had
"threatened" that if we missed 2 appointments without giving 48
hours notice to cancel we'd be booted out of the program. Sadie was
sick with a cold/fever all night and I didn't know what to do.
Ultimately I was going to leave her at home and go without her but
then she had a burst of energy and her fever was under control. We
took her and she ended up sleeping all sweaty in my arms for most of
the hour. Thankyouverymuch for making me feel like I had to bring my
sick child for fear of losing our space.

I guess at this point I should be looking at private therapists
because THIS is what you get for free in Ontario.

Trip Report -Day 3

My goal is to finish this before our next trip (North Carolina in May!)...
We decided to mix it up a bit on Day 3 and went to Blizzard Beach. We accidentally slept through our early breakfast reservation at 1900 Park Fare (Marry Poppins) which we decided wasn’t a big deal. It made up for the fact that we’d used 2 table service credits the day before.
We love Disney water parks. We started the morning off in the children’s area that was a small splash area with slides. Sadie had a pretty good time but it was hard being at both the top of the slide and the bottom. There was a lot of coordination involved that wasn’t a lot of fun so we moved on to the wave pool. Overall I wasn’t very impressed by the toddler area but I’ve heard that the big kid’s area is a lot of fun and we can’t wait to try that out in the future.
At Blizzard Beach the wave pool is very calm. We played with a tube and swam in the pool for a while before Sadie started asking to get out. I’m not sure if she disliked the moving motion of the waves or if she was just being impatient. She probably wanted to go back to the slides but I can handle only so much of that before I want to have fun too.
We decided to try the Lazy River which turned out to be the biggest hit of the day. They had tubes without a hole that Sadie was able to sit in on her own and ride beside us. She LOVED it. The river was huge and we rode it twice which I’m pretty sure took close to an hour. At the end of our last trip around Sadie was done and when Sadie is done she let’s you know. Her announcement was to jump out of her tube, it was pretty scary. She dropped right to the bottom and was swept away by the current. I had to chase after her and grab her by her hat to pull her back to the surface. Luckily she held her breath but she was scared out of her mind. Lesson learned? I hope so. When Momma says to stay in your tube you don’t jump out! There were tears and hugs and we figured it was time to go!
We returned to the resort, ate lunch, and had a nice long NAP. We needed one after our adventures that morning!
In the late afternoon we made our way over to Downtown Disney but not before stopping at the playground at POP. Funny, I had never noticed it before? Sadie played for a while and then we were off again.


We had planned on going to McDonald’s for dinner but we found out that it was no longer there! Left in a situation with a hungry toddler (she’d slept through lunch) and not so hungry Moms we had to figure out a back up plan quickly. The fast food options that had replaced McDonald’s did not look appealing (not that I love Sadie eating McD’s either) so we decided to check out the menu at T Rex.
T Rex is essentially Rainforest Café except with a dinosaur theme. I had wanted to eat there because it was still under construction the last time we were in Florida and I had been curious to see it.
We ended up ordering a large appetizer plate ($17) and drinks. We opted out of a kids meal and figured we weren’t that hungry and could easily split the food. We were amazed by the portion we were given. It was HUGE and we were barely able to finish. The food was also so good that we had planned to return a second time. I was pretty surprised since I’m not a fan of Rainforest at all.


Sadie wasn’t afraid of the Dinosaurs or the meteor shower. I love have easy going our kid is!


After dinner we attempted to look through the stores but Sadie was pretty adamant against it. Our kid may love rides and scary dinosaurs but she does not love shopping.


Lego Store

We rushed our way through and ended up at the fountain where we’ve often seen kids splashing around. We settled in and Sadie played. She was having so much fun we stayed there for quite a long time!









I’d hoped that we could have done more but with a wet, tired toddler it was time to head back to the resort. Another long day (7:00pm!) and still holding up and having lots of fun!
But first.... We stopped by Walmart. I'm actually not sure why after all of these months but if you see Sadie on "People of Walmart" you'll know why!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Thankful

Last night I was *so* upset because I realized I had lost Sadie's new bathing suit after her swimming lesson on Tuesday. I know that this is really silly (even to blog about) but when it comes to Sadie's stuff it's more than just "stuff". It was HER bathing suit, it was a favourite souvenier from WDW and I'm honestly not sure what happened to it.
Did I drop it on the way from the shower to the change area? Did I throw it out with the diaper? I don't know. It simply didn't make it home and it didn't make it to lost and found. I'm trying to blame myself (throwing it away) because it makes me sad to think that someone would pick it up (gross, right?) and keep it. It also makes me angry to think we'll run into a kid wearing it.
The good news is that I was lifted up by some great friends who understood my disapointment as silly as it was. Friends that searched for a new one online and one who is giving Sadie a Minnie Mouse bathing suit her daughter has outgrown. How great is that?
It feels good. Really good. I think it actually feels better than if we had found the bathing suit at Lost and Found.






LOST: If found, please return to disorganized mom who regrets not being more careful.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Pregnancy and TTC

I'm surrounded by pregnant women. It seems like 1/3 of the women on my floor at work have round bellies.
Plus my cousin is pregnant with #2, and my high school BFF is pregnant with #2 (18 months apart!) and bloggy pregnancies and bloggy TTCers.
I was pretty worried about how I'd feel when my cousin announced #2. I was worried I'd feel left behind. I had enjoyed being pregnant with her and our kids are going to be so close growing up BUT there is still that ever present jealousy of her instant success.
I knew it was coming because I knew she was trying. So when she announced I wasn't surprised.
This is the part when everyone reading this thinks I'm a bitch because I was happy when she found out she was having a second boy (and thought it would be a girl).
I'm a bitter awful bitch and I can admit that... but honestly, the real deal is that I'm dragging my feet concerning #2 because I'm terrified of going through the horrible disapointment again and especially with only 6 vials of Sadie's donor left. TTC sucks. Even thinking about it sucks. For those of you who have been there and are doing it again... you are braver than I am!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Chapter Closed

We had 21 great months co-sleeping but now it's over. Sadie has fully transitioned and is sleeping through the night in her own big girl bed. No fighting. No crying. This is the easiest I've had it in months.

This picture was taking on our first night co-sleeping. We were staying with a friend. I'll never forget waking up to her sweet face staring at me. I thought at the time we'd co-sleep forever!





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Night 2/3

Quick update:
Sadie has gone to bed easily each night.

Night 2: I found her in my bed at midnight and although I wasn't able to get her back to sleep, D was, by simply telling her to "go to sleep" while sitting on her bed! We know she was sleeping in her bed at 1:30 am when D checked on her but once again I woke up sleeping with her in the big bed. FYI - D is still sleeping in her own room.

Night 3:
Big improvements. Sadie was a bit of a handful getting into bed but it had nothing to do with which bed she was sleeping in.
She slept until midnight (very predictable) and came to get me. About 30-45 min later we had her asleep again after both trying. I eventually won that battle by laying with her.
Then... get this... she slept in her bed until 4:30 AM!!!!
So to recap:
9:00 PM-12:00 AM
1:00 AM - 4:30 AM
And on only night THREE.
We snuggled in the big bed until 7:00 AM.

Now if only we can get past the midnight waking!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Night 1, round 2

Last night wasn't THAT bad!

Sadie went to sleep (easily) in her own bed and even chose to
sleep there herself (she has been napping there since November).

After a good 4ish hours she woke up at midnight screaming and crying. This is about her normal "middle of the night" waking just without the crying and most recently with not wanting to go back to sleep.

I waited in my bed. I was wondering is she'd come across the hall to see me but when she started screaming "Momma, Momma" I went to her. I told her that Momma was in the big bed in the next room and if she needed me she could come and see me whenever she wanted.

With a sippy cup of Milk and a snuggle SHE WENT BACK TO SLEEP IN HER OWN BED!!!

About another 4ish hours later I woke up holding Sadie. I have no idea when she got into bed with me but she did!!! What a sweetheart! I debated going back to sleep but decided she should wake up in her own bed. I struggled to get up holding her and NOT wake her up but it didn't work. I moved her back into her room just as the dishwasher was kicking into high gear.

CRAPTASTIC. Yes, I now regret being cheap and not buying the whisper quiet one but we run it at night and with closed doors you can't normally hear it. We're in a ranch style house so, yes, on the same floor as the kitchen. Then my mom had a shower which we could also hear because the fan in her bathroom sounds like an airplane. Thankfully that is being replaced as part of our upcoming renos!

So I was up for the day at 4:15 AM. That sucks but overall not a bad second start to the transition.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Intervention

But first, I forgot a big part of Sadie's birthday when I wrote about it yesterday.
On her birthday we did more than eat cupcakes and open presents. We took her to Fantasy Fair, an indoor amusement park for children that is located in West Toronto. We hadn't been in a long time and were somewhat blindly hoping it was still a great place (the mall it is in is GHETTO). It was awesome and Sadie loved it! For only $30 we got an "all day" pass for Sadie and I. She measured in at 36"* on the dot which meant she wasn't able to go on a few of the rides but she had fun anyway. Her favourite was probably the train ride. It goes all around the "park" and even crosses pedestrian paths. This was really neat because "ding ding ding" the railroad crossing would go down as we approached. The train went through a tunnel (twice) and over water! Really, could anything have been more fun for our "choo choo" loving toddler? We also went on spinning rides that made me feel OLD because I really thought I was going to be sick and the carousel. We had such a great time.

On to the "intervention".
We have been having an awful time with sleep issues lately. If anyone is wondering, our transition to Sadie's big bed was a failure after only 4 nights. I couldn't handle her crying for me. It got so bad that even when I did pull her into bed with me I couldn't calm her down.
Anyway, Sadie's latest thing is to wake up around 1:00 am and then REFUSE to go back to sleep. We have tried everything with her and I have even tossed her the ipad and fallen back asleep. Not a great parenting moment on my part! I woke up at 4:00 am to find her glossy eyed staring at an episode of The Backyardigans.
Last night seemed to be a breaking point. D had joined us in the "big bed" only to notice that my snoring was waking Sadie up over and over. She ganged up with my mom and both said that Sadie couldn't sleep with me anymore and that co-sleeping was over.
My mom took Sadie and sent me back to bed (this was 2:40 AM). She got her to sleep in her bed at some point after that and whe I woke up this morning I was told "That's it, the transition has taken place".
I guess Sadie can no longer sleep through my snoring.
I don't know what the next few nights will bring. I'm a bit worried. I am picturing Sadie wandering through the house unsupervised in the middle of the night and we don't even have a working bathroom door (long story but the bathroom IS getting reno'd in February). I'm going to need to figure out a good baby gate solution.
Crap.

____

* We were super excited that Sadie measured in at 36 inches. 40 inches is a magic number for WDW next fall and we're hoping that over the next 8.5 months she grows the 4 inches needed to go on more rides. At the very least she has cleared the "kiddy slide" height for Great Wold Lodge (35") so we have booked a trip for March!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Birthday Celebration!

Sadie is now TWO!
We chose against a party again this year because we feel that parties are for friends and for when Sadie is old enough to invite them. We're hoping that by next year we'll be able to do a party. I'd really like to host it at The Little Gym.

Until then we're celebrating within our immediate family. On her Birthday morning she woke up to presents and balloons! After a week of opening presents she was finally hitting her groove and was really excited.

We chose a Toy Story theme because she LOVES Toy Story. If we'd let her she'd watch it all day, every day.

Presents!! (Can you see the crazed "I want MORE" look in her eyes?)

Sadie received an art easel with Chalk, craft paper and white board crayons. The chalk lasted one day after the dust was EVERYWHERE. Imagine little hand prints all over the couch.


Sadie's gifts from us were Buzz, Woody and 2 pairs of Toy Story PJ's. Buzz and Woody are now her best buddies. She takes them everywhere. Sadly, Woody is now a partial amputee after losing a finger. Remarkably we found it (D stepped on it) and are thinking of writing a note of disapointment to The Disney Store, including the finger, to let them know Woody lasted 5 days before being broken. We think it happened when Woody fell out of bed. We had briefly thought about returning him for a new one but his missing finger adds character.

Sadie loves balloons!

A new tradition we have started this year was lighting a Waldorf Birthday ring. We got the idea from a fellow blogger.

Here is some info on the Birthday Ring Tradition:

A birthday ring consists of a wooden circle with holes representing each year of life.

Traditionally, on your child's first birthday, you place one candle on the ring and fill the rest of the holes with figures. On each consecutive birthday, you replace one figure with a candle. Place the unused figures in the center of the ring to signify the child's previous years. Finally, on the twelfth or sixteenth year (depending on the ring you choose), the ring will be fully illuminated.

We haven't filled the ring with ornaments yet because they are expensive and we bought a 16 year ring. This year only four were filled as well as the number 2 in the center. The candles we used were homemade from a "make your own" menorah kit that came with a rainbow assortment of perfectly sized bees wax (enough for 44 candles!).

Sadie thinks it's pretty cool and loved playing with it (without the candles). We love the tradition because Sadie's birthday needed something special to make it "shine" when placed between Christmas and New Years. We actually left our tree up this year when we'd originally said it would always come down before her birthday. We liked having the decorations up through New Years and also felt that with the birthday ring Sadie had something that was her own and JUST for her birthday.

Sadie and her Birthday Ring:

Enjoying a strawberry Cupcake

Sadie's other Birthday tradition is going to see Disney On Ice. We went this again this year (the day after her bday) and she had a great time. Last year we paid for VIP front row seats but this year we went for $15 seats that were on sale. We liked the cheap seats better!

Happy Birthday my beautiful baby girl! You're TWO!!!

2011 Holiday Craft Exchange

This was our second year participating in the Holiday Craft Exchange. Last year we gave to Next in Line but didn't receive a package. This year we gave to Mommies Making Miracles and Creating a Miracle .


We DID receive a package this year! It arrived from Allison, Jen and the Bean at Two Moms To Be. THANK YOU!!

It contained a German Paper Star and three adorable woodland creatures for Sadie to paint.


Confession time about the woodland creatures:

1) I decided to keep them white. I think they're pretty that way (sorry Sadie)
2) I'm intrigued by them because they are light as air but look like plaster. Allison, if you're reading this, what the heck are they made of?
3) I had to bend one and it didn't break (refer to point 2), they're kind of rubbery.
4) I feel the next step in exploring point 2 would be to bite one. I'm not sure why but I'm tempted.

Thank-you to S at An Offering of Love for organizing the Craft exchange again this year!

Speech

First, We DID recieve our ornament exchange package! It arrived on the eve of Flu-mageddon which unfortunately meant less fanfare on my part than I had hoped but I will be posting pictures shortly. I also have an oodle of "Sadie's Second Birthday" and "Happy New Year" entries to write.. and the Day 3 of our Disney trip report (aka the longest trip report, ever) is sitting as a saved draft.... But first, since this is a mobile entry I wanted to write about Sadie's speech issues.
It has been pretty much a full year since the 09/10 winter baby blogs started buzzing with posts about talking babies, since FB posts bragged about word counts and the adorable things "our" young toddlers were saying. I say "our" because Sadie wasn't included and she's only just getting to where those toddlers were in the winter/spring last year.
We've been jumping through waitlist hoops since last August to get her therapy. She's been assesed twice now. Once for getting a referral to the Speech and Language program and a second to place her within it.
Yesterday was the second assessment and it went really well. Sadie's smart and she scored very well on the tests related to her cognitive abilities and social skills. I was so proud of her as she showed off her skills. It was proof that she's learning and it helped ease some of the guilt I feel over her delay.
We were told she has good "approximation", meaning that the sounds she's making are recognizable. For example, she says "Bee" for Baby, "Oh" for open and "Sey" for Sadie. We were told we need to pay close attention to what she is saying and fill in the gaps (BAY-bee, Oh-PEN, Sey-DEE). She was assessed as having 5 to 10 words (which I think is on the low side of correct) but I'm guessing that meant full words like "Momma", "Ball". Etc. Not her cutoff single syllable sounds like "mo" for "more".
We need to book a hearing test, get her off her chooch (that is going to be fun) and switch her from sippy cups to straw cups (which will help strengthen the muscles needed to talk). Thankfully bottles have been gone for about a month now.
Parenting a child with a speech delay has really had it's ups and downs. In some ways I feel like Sadie has stayed my "baby" longer this way. That is a selfish thing to say but it's true. When I see kids her age talking they seem much older than her and i feel like we've had extended babyhood. That may be one of the reasons we've stuck with the chooch and bottles so long - it's hard to see her as a "big" girl.
Dealing with feelings that we haven't done enough to teach her to talk or feeling judgement over it has been the hard part. I felt better after the first assessment when I was told that Sadie needs different strategies to learn to speak. The thought of teaching Sadie to speak is overwhelming. If you were really faced with this, where would you begin? I would argue that it wouldn't be repeating ABC/123 until they can count to 50 or sing their ABCs. I find people take great pride in word counts/alphabet/numbers etc. but did they really TEACH their child 200 words? For us, ABC is a useless skill when our child is barely able to communicate through words. How does Sadie count to 5? 2, 2, 2, 2, 2.... Forget going past 5 when you can't get her to say "1".
It's frustrating and I guess my point is that people often make us feel like we should try harder by counting steps when we walk down them and stuff like that but the reality is that it's much easier to "teach" a child who has developed appropraite language skills. I'm sure it makes teaching them a very rewarding experience. I'm also certain that maintaining conversations with your child when they answer back is also much easier than the silence we hear.
Sorry, that got a bit ranty.
The good news is that we're in the program now and just waiting to meet with a service coordinator. Sadie has also really started to chatter away like crazy. It makes no sense but it's beautiful to hear her chatty voice. We've been told this is the first step towards really speaking.
I hope so!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

La La La La

(The ugly part of Christmas)

Where to begin?

On the 20th of December I still hadn't heard from my Dad and then that night my step-mom responded to a FB status asking if we were coming on Boxing Day.

By the time I saw her response Sadie had started throwing up and things were not looking good. I responded via PM that we had plans on boxing day and would need to come earlier. I asked what day was best as well as gave her the heads up that Sadie was sick.

She didn't respond (despite being on FB). She didn't respond to anything I had posted that week about us being sick. Silence.

On December 24th I gave in and called.

At this point I need to give a little background info. My Dad hosts a Christmas Eve Open House. He has every year as long as I can remember. As an adult, I have attended every single year that he has lived near us. My Aunt and my three cousins from my mom's side of the family always attend too because my dad is best friends with my Uncle.

So, on December 24th I call and ask what the plans are for that night and my dad's response was that his doors would be open all night. He then asked if we were coming in to "do the rounds". This may sound pretty innocent reading it but there are no such "rounds". We spend Christmas Eve with them and he was making our visit out to be a casual drop-in with a "we'll be here all night if you want to stop by" attitude. Christmas Eve has never been like that. EVER.

I was really pissed off when I ended that call and immediatly called my cousin and suggested that we get together at her mom's house. She agreed and we set it up that instead of going to my dad's open house we'd do Christmas eve there. Since this included my mom it seemed like a good deal.

Back to my Dad. I called back and asked to speak with my Step-Mom and repeated my FB message that we had plans on Boxing day and flat out asked when she wanted to do Christmas because we were available that day or the next (I was still pissed off at this point). Her response was "Whenever you want to come in, hun". I asked what worked best for them Christmas or Christmas Eve? Her response "whatever you want". OK. Soooo now I follow up with "This afternoon OK then?" and she literally starts talking OVER me and says "you just let us know, ok?" um, yeah... That's what I was TRYING to do.

I don't know if by writing this it is coming out right but neither my Step-Mother or my Father would invite us over officially. It was like a gaping hole of "if you have time you can stop by, we'll be here" but in the same way as when you say to someone you barely know "If you're ever in Canada, stop by". I was trying to make PLANS and their disinterest was really getting in my way.

We did end up going to their place that afternoon. It seemed to work out perfectly that we were in and out before their friends started arriving. As we were leaning and someone was arriving we overhead them say "who was that?" to my dad. I'm getting a feeling that my dad isn't out and proud about us.

We went to my Aunt's house and had fun. My dad seemed a bit taken by surprise when we said they wouldn't be going to his Open House because it meant 8 less people for his party. At no point did he ask us to stay, come back or even mention Sadie's birthday.

This has all been so frustrating and upsetting. I had hoped that with my dads initial excitement over Sadie that they would be really great grandparents. With all of the spoiling of my brother I also thought they would spoil her rotten. Soooo not the case at all. They are so distant and aloof.

At the risk of sounding petty I need to comment on Sadie's gifts from them. This falls into the category of wishing they'd try a little harder. When asked (over FB) what Sadie had wanted I had said she really loved Trains (Thomas and Chuggington), Cars and Toy Story. I get that this may be hard for some (narrow minded) people to get but I didn't expect that 80% of Sadie's gifts would be BARBIE. Not to mention Barbie clothes that ranged in size from 4 to 6. Size 6, really? It was painfully obvious that all of that stuff was free or discounted from my Step-moms work. Truthfully I'm having a difficult time saying "it's the thought that counts" when it is their granddaughter. It also doesnt help knowing their 12 yo son got $400 headphones from Santa and said they weren't good enough and exchanged them for $600 ones the next day.

Really?



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Fa La La La La

I'm stuck in a major backlog of blog entries... So I've dug out my netbook...

My "12 days of Christmas" blog challenge ended abruptly when Sadie came down with the stomach flu. Soon enough we ALL had the stomach flu. It was brutal and I was ready to cancel the holidays! Christmas did happen and it started on December 24th with a trip to my dad's house for "Christmas". I'm going to post a second more detailed entry on that because it needs some attention.

Opening presents with my Brother

Sadie LOVES visiting "Freckles" the bird.

After my Dads we drove over to my Aunt's house for a Christmas Eve get together. My mom joined us in her own car (obviously not visiting my dad first!).

My Aunt gave Sadie and my cousin's son noisy guitars. Yay!!

Sadie's last minute bid to get on the Naughty List!!


I'm so happy Sadie and R are growing up together!

Back at home, Santa arrived!

Most of those presents were for Sadie!

Playing with Mr. Potato Head from Ryan!

On Boxing Day D's brother and mom came over with the kids. Sadie had a lot of fun playing with her cousins... and we FINALLY met the 4th one....

With #2

With #4



Cousins!

And THAT was Christmas without ANY of the drama that actually happend!