Onward Toddler Soilders

Grace has gone from a crib to a semi-big girl bed. Her crib breaks down into a transitional bed where it is half crib, half bed. She is enjoying it but I am not! God knew what he was doing when he sent Kendall first. She never once got out of her bed unless I told her to get up. It was so easy! Grace is a different story. That child is up and moving! She will come prancing into the family room an hour after bedtime and say "Hi Mama!" She gets up and pulls all her clothes out of her drawers. She puts all the clothes in the bed and sleeps with them. She gets up in the morning and sits in her doorway trying to talk to Kendall in her room. Sigh...it's a process. I hope every milestone will not be this hard. Is it okay if I make her preschool teacher potty train her? Maybe I'll teach Maddie first and then Maddie and Kendall can teach Grace. There's no shame in wearing a diaper when you're four. The pics are Grace enjoying her bed. The one with one foot out is her asleep after a night of getting up three or four times. I guess she fell asleep in the middle of the last escape.

I'll take my engineering degree now...thank you.

Thirteen Reasons why I should get an engineering degree because of on the job training.

1. Repaired approximately 285 toys with small parts.
2. Sewn, stapled, or glued together 15 princess dresses, shoes, or accessories.
3. Used kitchen chairs to block toddlers from a wet floor, running fan, or drying paint.
4. Took apart the vacuum cleaner, yanked out a stuck object, and put it back together.
5. Used canned goods, jello boxes, and ketchup bottles to build a castle with a child while cooking dinner.
6. Pushed a double stroller through countless doors that were too small for the stroller.
7. Put together train sets and ramps for little cars.
8. Kept the ball from taking out half the stuff in the living room.
9. Wrestled clothes onto an unwilling child.
10. Managed to design a way of packing my bag so I have a sippy cup, bottle, snack, band-aid, pacifier, blanket, extra set of clothes, diaper, wipe, toy, baby tylenol, bottle of water, and that all important aspirin for me and still able to find my cell phone in it before it stops ringing.
11. Put shoes on a baby that stayed on.
12. Nursed a baby, bounced a toddler on my leg, and made a peanut butter sandwich for a 4 year old. (Okay this one doesn't happen that much, but doing it once or twice was enough for me)
13. Putting clothes on doll babies, Barbies, and Polly Pockets. (Props to Jay Gibson for telling me licking the polly pocket legs will help their pants slide on better. It really does work!)

The First (and Last) Bath.

I know I am creating a complex for Madison that will follow her all of her days. Since she is our last (hopefully) I tend to get a little sentimental over everything she does. The last time I'll bring a baby home from the hospital, care for a newborn, roll over, sit up etc, etc. Well today was the last time I will give a baby their first bath in the big tub. Ahhhh, she was so stinking cute. She spent a good five minutes just looking around the bathroom. Then she spent the rest of the time trying to figure out why the toys kept moving around her. We had a few slips but no spills. Grace never seemed to notice she was there at all. She was busy with her new tub crayons from Santa. So after almost 5 full years, the baby tub will not sit on top of the refrigerator anymore. I guess I should finally get around to cleaning up there now that I have nothing to hide the dirt.