Changes are tough

Last week, Charli started in the Toddler Room at daycare. This was tough. Every morning as I'd drop her off, she'd ask for "Na". Fortunately I wasn't lying when I told her Na wasn't there. (Na was on vacation for a couple of days) It is helpful that her friend Violet also moved up to the toddler room and so did one of the teachers. However, Charli just doesn't handle changes real well. She's not napping well at school now and nighttime sleep issues have resurfaced. She fights going to sleep at night. I still read the 'special' book to her and then she wants me to sing. So I sing "Silent Night" to her. But for some reason she stirs everytime I try to leave her room. I have to sing until she is out cold and then I creep out of her room (this is anywhere from 15-45 minutes). She's sleeping in her big girl bed for 4-6 hours and then wakes. She won't go back to her bed, she wants to come to "mama's oom" (as she calls it). I am too tired to fight it or to sing for another half hour at this time of night. I am hoping that this will get better as she gets more comfortable in the toddler room. I am also hoping this is the last big change she has to make for a while. It took her a couple of months to get used to daycare and to actually enjoy it and now I feel as though on some level we're starting all over again.

She's been home nearly 10 months and she's gone through so much. I tend to forget that since she seems to adapt fairly well. And for that I am thankful. I guess that's why when things do go awry, I get more frustrated than I really should. I need to remind myself of what all she's gone through and how well she's doing. And as they say, "this too shall pass".

First Field Trip

On Monday, June 22 I accompanied Charli and the rest of her daycare friends on her first field trip. We went to Como Zoo. Here she is on the bus getting ready to leave Bayport.


This is Charli with "Na", Christine to you and me. I took this as Charli also moved up to the Toddler room on Monday and will no longer be with Na.

Here are the six toddlers in their Bye Bye Buggie. It's a sight to see in person.

Charli was really excited to see the monkeys. She thinks they are soooo cool.....

.... until they came right up to the window, that kind of freaked her out.

And the giraffe was pretty impressive too.

Of course Charli was hot and with the sun beating down didn't want to leave her hat or her "eyes" on.

After our picnic lunch, the bus was waiting for us to head back to Bayport.

All the little ones fell asleep on the way back to school. It was a fun day and I will definitely be taking Charli back so she can see more animals.

What a week.....

This is Charli and Dan doing her first at home nebulizer treatment. She really handled them well. I didn't think she'd like the mask, but that's what she preferred. We did these twice a day for about a week. She's doing very well now. Our last treatment was Tuesday night June 2. Yeah.

Then last week on Wednesday when I picked Charli up from school, she was soooo excited. She took off running in the parking lot. And of course being a toddler, she was going faster than her feet. She fell in the parking lot and got a very small skinned knee. She calls it her "owie". Mind you the picture isn't overly clear as she was very wiggley. But it's on her right knee, hence the darker spot. She still points to it every day and says, "owie". And I tell her it's all better now. She's a funny kid.

And this is by far my favorite part of the whole week. Our friend Deb Mullen is the queen of garage sales. I had asked her to keep an eye out for a solid wood toddler bed for me. She found one on Thursday. Papa brought it over to our house and then he and I took down the crib and put it in her room. My mom, dad and I all made a big deal about the "big girl" bed. She slept in it Thursday night. She woke at about 1:00AM. I made the mistake of picking her up. She then came back to my room and bed. But from that night on, I would go talk to her or pat her back when she woke and she'd go back to sleep. She LOVES her big girl bed. She likes to play on it when we're in her room and when I tell someone about it she gets all smiley. It's been only 7 nights but so far so good. She used to ask to go, "NahNee" (night night) after reading a few books but now she gets all excited when she asks to go "nahnee" It's really cute. And it's been great to have my bed back. I also think she has a greater sense of attachement to this bed already than she ever did with her crib. WooHoo!!!! It's been a good week.

(P.S. this is kind of dark even though I turned on her light but I didn't want to get too close as she hadn't been asleep for too long. I'm sure my friend Juli can give me some pointers on better picture taking :-) and of course a new camera may be in order too)

Finally more pix

Okay, so it took me longer than it should have but what can I say. Charli and I both went back to the doctor last week as we were NOT better. She did another round of antibiotic and was sent home with a nebulizer. I continued my antibiotic and did six days of steroids. And in the meantime I had a wedding in Duluth that I was the reader for and the office moved. Never a dull moment. We are both on the mend. The office is settling down. Next we start the round of graduation open houses.

As for the last of our vacation pix, this one I love. I have no idea how or why it's like this, but this is the fire truck in our parking lot. To me it looks like it is on fire.


And off they go.....

Charli was really enjoying seashelling by the end of the week.

She even insisted on carrying her own basket of beach toys.
She LOVED the pool.
and did enjoy playing in the waves by the end of the week too.

here's one of Charli's favorite birdies.

Out in the parking lot in front of the sign, so school could see where we were.
On our way home