4 yrs old

My Audrey is FOUR! I can't believe it. And now for my bragging. Sorry I really do try not to.

She is into all sorts of things now a days. Her most recent accomplishment is learning that she can jump over things and people. Also she has now figured out that it is fun to jump off of things. Right now she is only jumping off of the armchair and the sofa and such. I think I have also heard her jump off of the stairs. But if she hasn't done that yet it will be happening soon I think.

Audrey is starting to understand and follow rules more now. She understands the basics of being polite (please and thank you). :) She is understanding that if she just demands things of me I am no longer going to just comply. And while she hates that she can't be in charge and get everything her way she is starting to get that she isn't in charge of everything. Although she still tries.

We are working on learning "The Golden Rule". As now she is starting to realize that Ellie hits back. And wants the things that Audrey has too...

She still loves to "help" me clean. And I am trying to let her. She will help out with the dishes. And today she actually helped me vacuum after 10 mins of screaming about me not vacuuming, because her toys weren't all picked up, but she didn't want to do the work to "save" her toys. But sometimes she will clean up all of her toys just to help out. And that makes me very happy. She is learning the rule that if she changes her mind and wants to play with different toys, she needs to clean up the toys that she already has out. As I said she is just learning this rule. It is a hard concept. But I think she understands it, she just doesn't want to do it. So I have to remind her. And for the most part she will keep her toys in their designated areas. And that helps me out with keeping the house clean.

She also loves to help me cook. Which can be really fun. We are finding new things we can do all the time. She is a great fitness coach. Though I don't really appreciate when she bugs me about getting out and exercising. She loves to go for walks to the park. And I am looking forward to getting out more on those nice sunny days :)

She is doing the things that she has told us she would do. As in keeping her promises. She is sometimes trying new foods. We haven't had near the amount of melt downs about trying new foods as we had been having. But I also don't know if that is because we haven't been pushing the issue. But her amount of foods that she likes and will eat is growing!

She loves her sister, and even though they fight on a fairly regular basis. At least they generally get along and love each other.

Audrey's Stitches

This morning I was playing with Audrey, tickling her and such... And I decided it would be fun if I started a pillow fight. Just fun right... Well, when I pulled out the pillow she went to run away from it and fell right into the corner of my bed post. And let me tell you that corner of my bed is mean... it gives me bruises all the time. Anyway, as soon as I heard the smack I knew that this wasn't going to be good. I just knew that she would be needing to go to the doctor's.

And when I saw the blood forming I knew it would mean stitches. So I called Stu right up to tell him what happened and he headed right home. I then called my mom and she headed over asap as well. I tried to put a towel on it to stop the bleeding, and I tried to get ice on it as well. After a little while she was okay with the ice pack and wanted it.

Stu got home and proceeded to get her into the car and took her to the hospital. I made sure I knew where he was going so that when my mom got to the house I would go over after them. So I got ready to go and talked to my mom a bit and then left her with Ellie and went to the hospital to be with my girl.

They were still in the waiting area when I got there. Stu had calmed her down by letting her play Angry Birds on his phone. She is super scared of doctors, nurses, and their tools... So getting her checked in was fun. she reluctantly let the nurse do everything but check her blood pressure. And she wanted to go home as soon as she was taken into a room.

For the most part she was okay there until a nurse or doctor would walk into the room. Then she would start to panic. If they just talked to her she was okay. But if they wanted to give her anything like medicine or look at her eye she didn't want anything to do with them.

They told us she was lucky and they only needed to stitch it up not put anything underneath it. But they had to put some lidocaine on the area to numb it up a little before giving her the numbing shots and stitches. so we had to hold some gauze with the lidocaine on it to the wound and she didn't like that much at all... but Stu is very smart and figured out a way to get her to let us hold it on with out her freaking out about it. However, they had to put her on the papoose board and strap her down so they could actually do the stitches. And they had to cover up her eye to do the stitches and shots. Well that had her in fits.

It was very very hard for me to be there with her. At first Stu was up trying to get her to calm down. And then she asked for me. So I went up and talked to her. We did get her to stop screaming enough for the doctor to actually suture up the wound. The doctor talked to her and told her a story about his own son. And Audrey said some interesting things while she was freaking out. Apparently the nurses had heard many girls say the same things when they were freaking out about things like this before. She said some of what the doctor was doing was tickling, she said she couldn't calm down. And lots of other things. But the doctor was able to do the job fairly well. It was technically one stitch looped through four times.

The nurses got her a popsicle and a sticker. And she was much better by the time she was out and done. I took her out with my Mom, Ellie and my nephew Gid, for some ice cream and fries. But I don't think she had any fries... just rootbeer and ice cream.

We came home and I put Ellie down for a nap and cleaned up Audrey... And let her watch some tv. And maybe an hour later I walked downstairs and found her asleep on the couch. Needless to say I am going to just let her sleep a bit. She had a rough morning. But I took some pictures. It looks like she has her first official black eye and of course her first stitches.

Asleep on the couch

poor kiddo...

Well....

A lot has been going on here... I started working a new show. "A Tale of Two Cities" (it's a musical... yeah I know). It is an amazing show and I am glad to be a part of it. During the last night of tech rehearsals I got a phone call from my mom. My Great Grandma had passed away. Peacefully. And Mercifully. She was 88 yrs old, and she had Alzheimer's. I hadn't seen her since I was 10 but I apparently was still very attached to her. I love her and I am glad she can be at peace now.

I found out later that night that my husband could take off some work to watch the girls so that I could go back to Northern Michigan for her funeral. So then my Mom and I began planning our trip back to Michigan. We drove. We took my Grandpa, and my Aunt along with us. We left early Saturday morning...

The ride out was fairly uneventful as far as driving goes... until we hit Michigan. There we ran into a storm that turned from rain to slush to ice and snow very quickly. And we were unable to finish driving all the way to Northern Michigan that day. But we stopped at my Grandpa's sister's house. And lucky for us she and her husband were home and took us in immediately. And wouldn't even think of us not staying the night. I had never met this Great Aunt of mine. And I am so happy that I was given the opportunity to stay with her. She has a lovely little house set back in the woods just off of Lake Michigan. It was beautiful. And she gave us the fun idea to go out and search for ice caves in the morning. Which we did but I will talk about that at another time... and put up some pics. :)

This is a pic of the Lake as we were walking out to it...

This is a pic of a small (I mean really small) ice cave.

After braving the ice of Lake Michigan we continued up to Harbor Springs... with a few turn offs. We tried to find a grave of one of my great great (etc) grandmother. This was a fun adventure...(which I will also talk about later) :) And after a few hours of driving we finally made it to Harbor Springs in the late afternoon Monday.

The funeral was Tuesday morning. And it was nice. It was good to meet family whom I didn't know. And to see family that I hadn't seen in a long time. That afternoon we went to my Great Uncle's house, to have a meal and talk with more of the family. And after we were done there we went to my Grandpa's other sister's house. And I met her for the 1st time as well. After a few hours of chatting with her and her husband, we left and I got some pictures of my Great Grandma's house and I took pictures of Harbor Springs before the sun went down completely. And then we went back to get back together with my Aunts and Uncles (who were all gathered in Harbor for the funeral too)...

The next morning we went to my Uncle's Candy Store before taking off to drive home. And we stayed there for a few hours and Grandpa made a batch of fudge before we left. It was a nice time there... I got lots more pictures, but mostly video of Grandpa making the fudge and talking to my Uncle.

Then we started our trip back. We got lost on the freeways in Illinois and ended up driving almost into downtown Chicago at rush hour... and a few hours after that when we got back onto I80 when I was driving, I got pulled over... mostly for being nervous and going 5 mph over the speed limit. (which at the time I wasn't aware of if it was 65 or 70) Anyway, I got a "slow down young lady" and I was sent on my way. Of course this was after he asked me where I was coming from. My mom said Michigan, and I said "My great Grandma's funeral".... I don't think I will ever live this one down... but hey I got out of a ticket. :) Needless to say I was very aware of the speed limit signs after that and I didn't speed at all. We ran into some fog that night... and we made it to Des Moines and stayed the night there.

Continued in the morning and made it to Nebraska with fairly good weather... but in Nebraska we ran into some more snow and drove past a scary accident that closed I80 eastbound. After that the snow got a little better... and we continued on to Wyoming where we ran into another snowstorm at Cheyenne. We decided that it would be a good thing to stop where we were and wait out the night rather than get stuck on the interstate in the middle of the night. And it was a good thing we stopped when we did because we got off the road before they actually closed it and we got a room before they had to start turning people away. The next morning we got out after they had sanded and cleared the roads and we had pretty clear sailing until we got home, Friday afternoon.

Messy

Today was a messy day. Just in general. I tried to get myself up for cleaning... But all I wanted to do was curl up in a blanket and watch a movie. (A movie just for me not for the girlies) But unfortunately I had restricted tv use for the day with Audrey. And what does it say when Mommy turns around a turns on the tv. So here I was stuck wanting what I thought I shouldn't have.

Ellie was asleep for her nap. And finally I decided that was it. I was going to take lunch and take Audrey down, curl up in the blankets together and watch Ever After. I thought it would be safe enough to watch that with my girl. (also secretly hoping she would fall asleep... didn't happen) Anyway... Had a good cry and thoroughly enjoyed the show. And Audrey said she loved it too.

I felt sooo good afterward! I felt like I could actually get some cleaning done and get things going!

Then Audrey... who hasn't been feeling very well all day. (She has problems with constipation) She starts freaking out sometimes and her tummy hurts... Well she was using the potty for like the 10th time today and decided that she needed a bath... for the 2nd time today. The first time after like 5 mins she decided she was done, just wasn't feeling good and the bath was not helping. What ever I will give her another bath maybe this time it will help her feel better. Nope... she saw something brown floating in the water (nothing bad I promise) but it made her want to get right out. So I told her if she wanted to get out that she needed to go take a nap.

Oh this was not going to fly. She absolutely hates naps. I mean HATES naps. But she is sooo tired looking and she isn't feeling good. So I insist. Which I know is going to be a problem. But She finally decided to get out of the tub and see what she can get away with. We head to the room and I lay down next to her. We chat a little She screams a little. But finally I get her to just lay there with her blanket covering her head so she is just calm. She doesn't sleep at all even though she tells me she did close her eyes for a while.

All the while Ellie has been eating lunch and then taking her own bath. And I can get a little bit of cleaning done... And I start thinking and hoping and wishing that there was a way I could convince my daughter of the goodness of naps. Oh and hoping that in the future she won't hate me for being a "mean" mom who tries to enforce rules that she doesn't understand right now. And who has to enforce the punishments too... And lots of other thoughts flying through my head... Ugh this day is not going well...

So I decide I need to make some brownies... I talk Audrey out of helping me. I will dance with her once the brownies are in the oven. Yummy brownie batter! I love brownie batter it helps me destressify :)

Got the brownies in the oven by the time Stu got home... Went down and danced... Yay Just Dance 2!!! Get through the dancing and my batteries died in the Wii remote. Find new batteries and go on to the Wii fit stuff... Ellie loves the "ball" games :)

Dinner time...

There are many days that are broken into tiny tiny pieces by dinner time. Girls screaming and fighting me or Stu with what they won't eat. Lucky for me today Audrey wants her usual and I have the left overs to give her for it. Spaghetti and Rolls. But I have a thought... Audrey needs much more fiber in her diet, how do I get her to eat it... Well the one vegetable that she will eat faster than anything, Broccoli. Weird I know. But her friend next door got her to eat it fresh and that is now the only way she will eat it. And she will eat it all. With out ranch dressing or anything like that. And I bought some on the hopes that I could get her to do this. So I ask her, would she like some broccoli? She asks me a few questions about it and then agrees. So spaghetti, rolls, broccoli. Her dinner plate looks nice and colorful. :)

I gave the same thing to Ellie only with smaller pieces of broccoli and no roll. At first Ellie was skeptical and she spit out the broccoli that she had bit into. But as she watched Audrey munching happily on her broccoli, she kept trying it. And decided that she could eat a little of it, in between bites of spaghetti.

Wow! I have 2 girls sitting there eating their broccoli and being happy about it! I could shout, and jump for joy! Oh my goodness! It was a successful dinner! And Audrey earned her brownie dessert!

I got Ellie ready for bed. Let Audrey go downstairs to watch a few shows while I put Ellie down. And expecting a fight about it, I decided that I should just have some cuddle time with my little girl. So I wrapped her up in her blanket and just held her and sang to her. She loved it! And when I was done I sat her in her crib with a book to look at and left her there, just as happy as can be. I later heard her "singing" along to her music. But no screaming!

Now it is time to get Audrey to bed... let us hope that we can have a good rest of the night... :) *Fingers crossed*