to Utah to Utah

Yes, we went to Utah again. We like to make our seasonal trip back to see family. We have our usual routine, but we decided to do some different things this time to mix it up a bit. Lots of things about this trip were different...

First, let's not forget the AGONIZING trips there and back. Wait, yes, let's forget them so I have it in me to do it again. Grace has always been a world-class traveler. She loves the airport, taking her shoes off at security, putting her back pack through the scanner, the plane, the seat, the movie, the drink from the airline attendant, everything. Harriet HATES EVERYTHING ABOUT TRAVELING. She screamed all the way there and all the way back. Poor thing, though, she had a double ear-infection on the way there and I didn't know any different because she never gets them and I thought she was just her usual unhappy traveling self. So, yes, our trip started with a trip to urgent care - nothing changes.
We spent lots of time with grandmas, grandpas, aunts, and cousins and a few friends. (sorry if you're reading this and got skipped this time friend... we still love you...)
After all the birthday celebrations, we got out and did a few things. We spent time at some of our usual hang-outs - the zoo, mo-Deb's work, and the Training Table, but we added lots of new things. We went to the aquarium in Sandy, took Traxx with Grandma and Grandpa Chapman to the museum of Church History (spent most of our time in the Children's exhibit), and Grace and I went skiing at Alta. Grace had a rough day on the tow-line at Alta. When I say "day", I mean 30 minutes. It wasn't her happiest moment, but she and I made it up and down a few times together and then we went back to the deck at the lodge to enjoy the ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL 60 degree day. The drive up and down Little Cottonwood Canyon on that day made everything else worth it. And, she says, she will try skiing again with daddy.

A few notable things about this time spent with family was that Sean finally decided that he likes his cousins. Up 'til now, he has never enjoyed spending time with Grace and Hattie, but this time, they TOTALLY played together and had the most fun. This made things even harder to leave - to know that they could be good friends and play more often... At least he likes us now.

We also got to spend more time with Aunt Jess. Since she is living at home again for a minute, we got to see her every morning when she got ready for work and sometimes at night. We usually don't get to see much of her, so we were thankful for seeing her every day. The kids got to know her much better.

Grace went to see her dentist, Uncle Randy, to find out that she has 4 CAVITIES in her teeth! Yikes! I feel like the worst mom ever. We're getting 2 of them fixed tomorrow here in MA.We tried to do a few Easter things too. We took a few pics of the kids in their Easter outfits and did an Easter Egg hunt with Mo-Deb. Grace dyed Easter eggs with Aunt Em and mailed them home to herself. All but one were broken when they got here.

On our last day in SLC, we had a late flight, so we had time for a quick outing in the morning. We went to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum and went to the Sesame Street exhibit. That was SO much fun, and a great way to end our trip. We said good-bye to the ALMOST 70 degree weather (I know it got colder this weekend) and came back to MA where it is only 30-40 degrees. Spring can't come soon enough for me man.

Probably the hardest and saddest good-bye though, was Grace's good-bye to Grandpa Earl. She really really really loves him. She wanted to take him home on the plane.As always, we are so thankful for everyone who took time to spend with us and made our trip so much fun. We'll be back in July for lots of Chapman Family Reunion Fun! :-)

Catching up...

Well, I meant to blog about Grace's birthday the whole time we were in Utah, but never got a minute to do it. Now, I'm behind on the whole trip and Easter too!

I will start with Grace's birthday. Turning 5 was a pretty big thing for her. She has wanted to go to school since we can remember. She has wanted to ride the school bus since we moved here and she saw the school bus picking up the kids across the street. Here, the bus comes right to your house! Turning 5 means that she is getting very close to this big fun thing. Kindergarten registration is this week!

Her 5th birthday was celebrated, um, 6 times. Celebration #1... She had a GREAT birthday party with some little friends. She invited 7 kids over from pre-school, church, and town. It was her first real birthday party with friends.
This is what they did at her "somewhere over the rainbow" party:
1- decorated their own puzzles to take home (along with a new set of crayons for each kid.)
2- had a treasure hunt to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow
3- tried very hard to break her rainbow "5" pinata (see post below for pic), but eventually, daddy had to step in with the bat and break it to get the candy out
4- had pizza and rainbow birthday cake.

Grace was pretty funny. She insisted that I make her cake at home and buy ice cream to go with it. She helped me make it (which was why she wanted a home-made cake), but she didn't eat any of it. She didn't eat any ice cream either. Weird kid. At least she really liked her cake and her party. It was exhausting though. I thought after teaching 30-40 high school kids at a time I could handle 8 five-year-olds in my house, but I was WRONG. There is a big fat reason I never taught elementary school - I don't have those SKILLS! Still, it turned out pretty well and Grace had a blast which is all that counts. Grace's favorite present: the wii game "MaterNational" which is a Cars racing game. She's playing it right now.Celebration #2... we failed to mention that we had Grace's party on David's birthday, so after the party, we went out to celebrate with Daddy. Grace and David wanted to go candle-pin bowling so that's what we did. Then we came home to have some good soup and more presents for Daddy. Daddy turned 33. Good number.

Celebration #3... took cupcakes to pre-school so she could have a snack-time birthday party at school.

Celebration #4... went out to dinner with her friends at McDonald's after dance class on the day of her real birthday.

Celebration #5... move the party to SLC! We left the day after Grace's real birthday. Last year we went to SLC for Hattie's birthday, so we figured it was only fair to go for Grace's this year. We had our first party there with David's family. Grace and Grandma made cupcakes and they all gave her a very nice party with presents and good food. Grace requested salmon and mashed potatoes for her birthday dinner.
Celebration #6... have a party with Aunt Jessica at my parents' house. Jessica's birthday is 3 days after Grace's, so we were in town for it. We wanted Grandma Primmer to come and make it a three-some since her birthday is 2 days later, but things didn't work out for her to make it. Grace and Aunt Jess had a great little party with a Tinkerbell cake and, of course, lots more presents.

Even Grace was tired of having birthday parties after it was all over.
Well, Gracie, you're officially 5 years old! Watch out for big girl stuff!!!

A quick birthday letter to Grace

Dear Grace,
It's a crazy day that you have turned 5 years old! Five years old is pretty cool. I cannot believe that it's been 5 years since the day you were born. It seems like forever and yesterday at the same time. You are the best little girl I know. I want to make a big long blog about you, but we are busy busy packing and getting ready for our big airplane ride tomorrow. I just want you to know that your mommy loves you a hundred thousand million bajillion. So does your daddy and your little sis. I am so proud of all of the things that you do and that you know and that you are. You are so smart and beautiful and funny and nice and kind and great to be with and you look at life with the best attitude and you love the world around you. Those things make me so happy that I'm your mom.When we get to grandma's house, I will blog about your birthday party and all of the fun things you got to do this week. But, I didn't want to let the night go by without writing you a note on the blog.
Happy Birthday Grace!
Love,
Mommy

I won the battle of the sleep

At least I think I did...
Our family had not slept through the night since Christmas, literally. So at the beginning of February after one particularly terrible night, we decided we'd had enough. I read every message board on the net, looked up the super nanny web-site and watched her videos and went upstairs the next night with a half dozen different techniques to try.

Our main sleep issues were: Grace is almost 5 years old and still required a person to sit by her on her bed until she fell fast asleep. Most nights this only took a few minutes, but sometimes up to an hour. This, we decided, had to go. Then, she had been getting up multiple times a night and yelling "mommy" and waiting for someone to go to her door and tell her that she could come get in bed with us.

Hattie had an exhausting "planets aligned" routine that often fell apart after much time spent and had to start over. It was taking a good hour to put her down for a nap and for bed-time. Then, she was getting up multiple times a night too and getting in our bed and not sleeping after that.

What do you do? Well, after reading the message boards, I've decided that there are few 2 year olds in America who actually do sleep. Still, it's no consolation that other parents are walking zombies too. You still want to sleep!

So, we tried everything from sitting in Hattie's room until she fell asleep to putting her back in bed and leaving and shutting the door (sometimes 35 times a night each time she woke up before it worked.) I tried the super nanny sit by her bed and then the next night move closer to the door and then the next night to the door and then eventually out of the room. This did not work well either. We tried locking her door from the outside (THIS WAS SO MEAN!!!!! David wanted to do it and I didn't, but I got desperate enough one night to try it.) She wouldn't stay in her bed and fell asleep in front of her door on the floor. Then, I tried putting a baby gate over the door with the door open. Still wouldn't stay in bed and would bring her blankie to the gate and put her head on the gate and wait for me to come back.

All this went on and on for nights. Finally, I won the battle of wills and she would stay in her bed if I stood near the doorway. She has a bathroom connected to her bedroom that you have to walk through to get to the bedroom. Eventually I just moved into the bathroom where she couldn't see me and each time she got out of bed to find me or I could hear her sitting up, I would go in, lay her back down and say "time for bed" and walk back to the bathroom. After many many nights of this, she finally started staying in her bed, but cried when I left and wanted to sit up and wait for me, so I just kept saying from the bathroom "time for bed." After a couple of weeks, I only have to do this once from the bathroom and now I can walk out and shut the bathroom door. She still won't let me shut the bedroom door, but I can go back in later and shut it so that I can use the bathroom at night! I haven't been able to use that bathroom in the middle of the night forever.

Then, she was still getting up in the middle of the night. Same thing over and over - time for bed, time for bed. Until, yes, I can't believe it, she went to bed and slept through the night last night without one complaint! YES!!!!!!!!!!

As for Grace, she is just plain scared of the dark. David bought the girls a set of new cool LED night lights. 6 of them. Hattie has 2 in her room and one in the bathroom and Grace has 3 in her room plus a really bright night light behind her bed to light up the dark corner that scares her in the middle of the night. I finally convinced her that she could fall asleep if I turned off her light, left her door open, and walked across the hall to my room with my light on. I've been doing a lot of reading waiting for them to fall asleep. It was taking so long, but now I don't have time to read much. I walk across the hall, put my jammies on and by the time I'm done Grace is asleep and I can shut her door and move on. She's also sleeping through the night too - last night was the very first night that BOTH of them have gone to bed and SLEPT ALL NIGHT!!!! Seriously, this is the biggest victory for me.

I am also well aware that this may not and probably will not last forever. Something will mess it up. Like, say, going on a trip this week for 2 weeks and sleeping in different rooms and beds!!! I know I'm toast. But at least now I know I can win. I wasn't so sure before. I have been through these sleeping things many times before, but never felt like I really won the battle of wills. I've decided there is no easy answer or formula. Each kid is so different and has their own set of little issues that you just have to keep trying different things and be willing to not give up. It has taken 4 weeks of pretty much no sleep to solve the problem and get one complete night of sleep, and YES, it was worth it!