The best Mommy in the whole world.

That's me. 

Ellie told me this morning when we were being snuggle bunnies in bed.  It was one of those Calvin Klein commercial moments - the beautiful family cuddled up in the white duvet and white sheets.  ;)

Ellie snuggled closer and closer and kept repeating how wonderful we were.  It should have been obvious what was coming next but we were too smitten to notice.  She went from cuddling in bed to snuggling on the couch just to take a little rest before the birthday party she was to attend that afternoon.

Her big brown eyes were glassy and only half open at 10am and when I went to bring her a drink she was burning up.  103.0.  I called the birthday boy's mom immediately to give Ellie's crying and pleading tears regrets. 

Instead of bouncing for hours and devouring cake, Ellie spent the day curled up under a blanket with her favorite stuffed friends sipping apple juice and watching Toy Story 3.  (Toy Story 3 is wonderful and deserves the Oscar nod if you ask me!)  And while we tried to keep Mads away, she wanted to snuggle our sickie, too.

Tonight when Ellie asked to go to bed at 5:30 pm, Madeline was confused.  She walked around calling "Eh-yee!  Eh-yee!"  looking for her sister.  When it finally clicked in her toddler brain, Mads walked over to the stairs and called, "Nigh-nigh Eh-yeeeee!" and waved.  Then she ate up all of the 2 on 1 attention for the two hours until bedtime.

Hopefully Ellie will be feeling better soon and at school on Tuesday.  We are on Blizzard Watch 2011, so if she misses Tuesday who knows when we will dig out and join civilization again!


Is your sickie a snuggle bunny or a crab?   

Sometimes things are just easy.

Parenting is so random. 

Somethings you think are no biggie and they cause tears, hysterics and tantrums.  Other things that you dread and build up to be this huge deal turn out not to be.  For our family I'm talking about - cue the evil music - the pacifier.  Not the pacifier in general, but getting rid of the pacifier.

When Ellie was a baby, I created arbitrary times for when things should happen.  Like Ellie should be done with the pacifier when she turned one.  Then Ellie turned one and I snapped back to reality.  This baby is sleeping 12 hours straight a night.  Only a fool would mess with this sleep success!

So I selected the next random date - 15 months.  By 15 months Ellie would no longer have a pacifier.  And June 2008 came and went with a pacifier dangling out of her mouth every second in the crib and car. 

Eighteen months!  By 18 months there will be no pacifiers in this house!  To prove my point, to myself more than my baby, I stopped buying them.  For weeks we were down to one ugly orange Nuk. 

Then one day on a trip to the grocery store when Ellie was 16-ish months old, she threw the paci into the scummy shopping cart.  The pacifier was tossed in the diaper bag, we came home and it was time for Ellie to nap.

Not wanting to search the abyss that is the diaper bag, Ellie went into her crib with her Lulu(s).  I gave her a kiss and practically ran out the door expecting to hear, "Paci!  Paci!  Mama paci!" but it never happened.  She didn't ask for it at bedtime either.  Or the next day or the next.

My laziness broke Ellie of her paci addiction.  Take that Tiger Moms.

I'm happy to report that, again, my laziness helped break Madeline of her addiction.  Since Mads' crib is bumper-less {I don't let anyone stand and smush Serena & Lily bumpers!}, her paci's were falling through the cracks.  Literally.  When I went to put her down for a nap earlier this week, the pacifiers were gone.  Not wanting to crawl on the ground and search for them, she went in without.

There was a lot more chatter than usual, but Mads fell asleep and stayed asleep for over two hours.  Same deal at bedtime and the next day and the next. 

And that was that.  And we were shocked.  Friends planned how to take away the pacifier for weeks or months.  But for us it was just easy.  No bribes, trades, parades, paci fairies, or parties. 

I just love it when things turn out easier then planned. Especially since it's usually the other way around!

What has turned out easier than planned for you?  What's been more of a challenge?

The First Baby {a not so much "wordless" wednesday}

December 2, 2006

An excerpt from my pregnancy journal:

I think Oxford and the baby are going to be best friends. Whenever I am sitting down, Oxford is in my lap. The dog and the baby snuggle all.the.time and he has been glued to my side the last few months. For those of you who really know Oxford, you know that he has never been a "mama's boy" but that has all changed. I am enjoying our snuggling time, but I'm sure once the baby is born, Oxford will go back to hanging out with Ryan again. Oxford has been overall more calm and clingy and I think he is getting ready for the baby just like we are. Oxford and the baby will be lucky to have each other and hopefully they will wear each other out and we will have some nice long naps in our future!

On this Worldess Wednesday, I would like to feature our first baby.

Oxford, our six year old Yorkshire Terrier has always preferred a throw pillow to a dog bed.  I snapped these pictures as he was falling asleep next to me on the sofa tonight.

Despite barking every time someone leaves {the reverse guard dog!} he is sweet and snuggly.  Now that Ellie is getting older, she's getting in on the snuggles, too.  It's only a matter of time before Oxford ditches his bed in the corner of our room for Ellie's big girl bed.