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Monday, January 30, 2012

Party Time!

Since we went to Disney for Caroline's birthday, I did a low key party on the Friday after her big day. It was great thanks to Pinterest, some great friends who let me borrow some awesome stuff, and perfect weather!

Opening clothes from Mommy and Grandmama on her actual birthday (after opening them, we went to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast--yum!)

Opening her Minne Mouse card and dollhouse (aka "doghouse") from Mommy and Daddy after a dinner of mac and cheese and a chocolate cupcake



Super cute signs borrowed from my friend's friend (thanks Julie and Rebecca!)


Fun Minnie food! I loved how the cupcakes turned out--and so easy! The bowl was an awesome find at Target (along with Mickey/Minnie cups for the goody bags...M/M coloring books and crayons and beads were in there too). The kids ate Mickey pizzas made with a cookie cutter I bought at Disney (the mommies got Papa John's). And the mommies also chowed down on cookie dough pops (YUMMY!!!). You can check out the how-to here.




My friend, Karin, let us borrow her kiddo's bounce house, and all the kids had a blast! Caroline was very hesitant about getting in at first but then was the last one to get out. :-)



Cupcake time!


The 3 Musketeers :-)

Maddie

Jaxon

Mason

Jace

Ella

Birthday girl!

I just realized I didn't get a cupcake picture of Kailyn. :-( So bummed!
Maddie did a great job of helping Caroline with her presents! Caroline thinks Maddie is pretty awesome and loves being around her. Karin and I think they might be long lost spicy sisters!


Thanks to all my awesome friends (Kristin, Karin, Julie, and Kelly) for helping make Caroline's party so fun! And an extra thank-you to Julie who came early and helped me with the finishing touches!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Disney World!!!!

I'm not even going to apologize for the tardiness of this post. I'm making a resolution (hmmm...can it still be called that if January is almost over??) to be better about keeping up. Anyway, back to the fun...John and I took Caroline to Disney World for her 2nd birthday, and we had such a good time!!! Caroline loves all things Disney and can tell you the names of every single princess. She loved all of the rides (and even cried when she couldn't ride Expedition Everest--that's my girl!!) and liked the characters...from afar! Thankfully, she warmed up to them since her big treat was going to breakfast at Chef Mickey's. Here are some pictures from our trip:

her first character experience--We had talked for a long time about how they were going to be big. I just don't think she realized how big!

Dumbo!!

Teacups--She wanted to ride all the rides again and again.

Prince Charming's Carousel

1st 3D experience

Cinderella's Castle and Mouse ears--pure happiness!!

Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride

Treat from Daddy at the end of the day :-)

Disney Junior Live on Stage--She loved it!!

Not so sure about Minnie...

Goofy was really big!

Giving Mickey a kiss on the nose!

She loved Donald!

Peek-a-boo with Pluto

Triceratops ride at Animal Kingdom

One of her most favorite things...brushing the goats. And don't you think this is the perfect goat brushing outfit??

Worn out!!

I bought a season pass so let me know if you're in town, and Caroline and I will tag along! :-) We love Disney!!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

The D-Word

I have so much to catch up on with my blogging, but I'm just going to put that off for another day or 2 and write about what I'm trying my best to deal with...DISCIPLINE. In our house, the terrible 2's hit hard and fast. I think Caroline is best described by a famous nursery rhyme. I'm sure you've heard this one before:

I am completely amazed at how fast she can go from the sweetest, most fun kid ever to a demon possessed madwoman. And it wears me out! We're tried time out. She goes (and sometimes even asks to go when she's done something naughty) and sits for her 2 minutes while alternating between fake crying and talking about the squirrels (or whatever catches her attention outside). Then we do the whole Super Nanny thing where we talk about why she was in time out, she says sorry, and then we hug/kiss/say we love each other...blah, blah, blah. [I should add that sometimes she refuses to apologize and inserts a really creepy kid laugh in the middle of her crying that reminds me of something out of a horror movie.] And then she goes and does the exact same thing all over again. So....I'm guessing time out doesn't work.
I've also tried spanking. Yes, I spank sometimes. Don't judge. I received 2 spankings as a child--1 from my mom and 1 from my dad and apparently it worked for me. Guess what...it doesn't really work for Caroline. I especially struggle with this when she's getting in trouble for hitting (she only hits or tries to hit me; I guess that's a good thing). I tell her not to hit and then I hit her. Yeah, I know that it doesn't make sense but sometimes I'm at my wits end by this point. [I should add that the hitting usually comes after she's yelled "NO!!!" several times in my face.]
As of yesterday, I tried putting the toy she's playing with when she is acting bad in time out. It kind of worked. I thought she would just move onto another toy, but it did bother her that her toy got taken away. So this might be something that I keep trying.
I work with kids and have done so for a long time, including 2 1/2 years in a preschool room with 12-18 kids. I did pretty good with discipline back then, if I do say so myself. But I feel like I'm failing miserably with my own kid. Caroline can push my buttons and I can truly almost understand how some parents reach the point where they shake/hit/hurt their children. And I know that I sound like a completely horrible person by saying that. [Disclaimer: I would NEVER hurt Caroline.]
In the past couple of weeks, I have seen her throw an uncontrollable fit where she hurled herself out of the tub (and I learned that it's super hard to get a grip on a wet, soapy kid), watched her throw herself in the floor of a really nice Hilton hotel (and the parking lot--yes, I let her lay face down while I loaded up the car), packed up food and left in the middle of eating at a restaurant, and carried a kicking and yelling kid out of Dillard's while everyone stared. I try really, really hard not to let her show how frustrated I am. I'm welcoming any advice, funny stories of your own, or encouraging words from all you moms out there. I'm also turning to these 2 things:


JUST KIDDING! Well, maybe a little of those. :-) These are what I'm really turning to:


I will add that she was the sweetest kid ever tonight (about 99% of the time!). I'll be posting about Disney, her birthday party, and Christmas really, really soon--I promise!