Happy Day

I hope I'm not jinxing myself, but I think the worst is over!!!  Wednesday night she fell asleep nice and woke up once, but only cried for a minute and went right back to sleep - I didn't even have to go in there.  And she's gone to sleep great and slept thru the night ever since.  She even slept until 9:00 yesterday morning!  She was probably so exhausted from the week.  Her reward was a flashlight so that she can read a book by herself after we're done reading books before bed.  She was wanting one of us to stay in there, and this was a good solution!  And I think she does only read the book once and then turn off her light like I told her - she's such a good listener.  One more baby thing to cross off the list...getting closer and closer to being a very big girl! 

Sad Day Update

So yes, she had a hard time falling asleep last night, and then woke up at 3:00 am crying/sobbing.  Nothing would calm her down.  I couldn't take it anymore, so I woke Calvin up (why is it they can sleep thru 10 minutes of bawling?) and had him go lay by her.  She instantly stopped crying and went back to sleep.  So if she does that tonight I'm not even going in there, I'm just waking him up!  He slept with her until I woke them up around 8:00.  He said she tossed and turned the rest of the morning.  So she was super tired, but wouldn't take a nap today either, she was crying for her patchy again.  I did let Ellie stay in her room with her, which probably didn't help the sleeping. 

 

So by tonight she was extra tired.  But, she fell asleep without crying!  I did tell her she'd get a special surprise in the morning if she didn't cry before she went to sleep.  If I have to bribe her until she gets used to it, I'm way okay with that!  Hopefully she'll sleep thru the night since she was so tired.  And tomorrow is day care, and she never naps with a patchy there, so she'll be fine.  I know every day will get easier, and in a month it will be no big deal.  But right now it's hard and sad.  "Mommy, can we please go to the store and buy more?!"  Said while she's crying.  Poor little squeak. 

 

Sad Day

I knew eventually this day would come.  The day we had to give up the patchy.  Jocelyn never had a special blankie or stuffed animal, her lovie was her patchys.  And yesterday she popped a hole in her last one.  I think I said about 3 months ago that I wasn't going to buy any more.  But then something always came up where it would have been pure torture for her (or those around her) to not have it.  One of our vehicles is in the shop, and Calvin had to work last night.  So he took the car, and we were stuck at home.  So, last night was the night we gave up the patchy!  Which was probably the best thing that could have happened, because I probably would have caved.  She just loves them so much and I felt so guilty taking them away.  If she would have had a lovie like a blankie I never would have dreamed of taking it away.  But it was wrecking her teeth, and I was tired of her having a tantrum whenever she wanted it and I said no.  Plus, she's almost 4.  And she knew once she turned 4 it was going away. 

 

So, we wrote a letter to the Patchy Fairy telling her that she was done with them and to please throw it away - "it is too precious to give to anyone else."  Then she put the note and her patchy under her pillow, and got a special surprise in the morning!  And she is going to ask for a mint whenever she feels sad and wants her patchy.  Because she can't cry when she has a mint in her mouth because she might choke.  I love how her little mind works!  She did great last night - I was prepared to be up every few hours.  She fell asleep just fine and didn't wake up at all!

 

However, tonight was a different story.  I don't think she actually thought it all the way thru that it would mean no more patchy ever again.  She kept asking for it, and cried for almost 2 hours.  There were breaks in between there, but yikes.  I'm so glad she wasn't a colicky baby - I don't think I could have handled that.  She fell asleep about 10:30, and was just so over tired that all she could do was cry.  So, let's hope tomorow night goes better!  I was planning on it taking a week.  Thankfully Calvin was home tonight so that was good.  Poor thing, she was just so sad that she couldn't have her patchy anymore.

 

With her card for the patchy fairy, her patchy and her mints 

 Putting it under her pillow!

 All snuggled in with her blankie and her friends

 This is what the patchy fairy brought her - good thing I keep a few things around here just in case - otherwise the patchy fairy would not have been prepared!

 And this is what Calvin got her for giving up her patchy.  She LOVES the Disney show Doc McStuffins.  It's about a little girl who's a toy doctor and fixes broken toys.  I didn't realize it was popular enough to have toys, but I guess it is!  She was so excited to open it.  She's sleeping with Doc (one of the brief no crying times) so she's not in the picture.  When we talked to Cal last night he told her he was going to get her a surprise, when I asked her what she thought he'd bring her, she said "I think he's going to bring me cash!"  Funny girl.  But this was a way better surprise.

 And then this morning she started Sunday School.  And yes, this is what she picked out to wear.  She did not want to go to Sunday School - she wanted to stay in the nursery.  But she had a great time, knew a lot of the kids in her class, and can't wait to go back next week.  Too many big girl things in one day!

When Jocelyn grows up

"Mommy, when I grow up, I'm going to be an artist, a sister, a teacher and an ice cream truck driver."

 

Here's my little artist!

Camping

The other fun thing we did on our vacation was go camping!  We have only gone once since Jocelyn's been born, and we sure didn't go the summer I was pregnant.  So we really haven't gotten much use out of our camping stuff recently!  And we could have taken Pat & Anita's camper, but I want Jocelyn to have a few years of tent camping before we woos out. :)  But you forget how much stuff you need to go, even just for 2 nights.  And next year we're going 3 nights, and in the middle of the week.  We went Thursday and Friday night, and Friday night was way too busy.  We went to Lake Wissota, which is just about 30 minutes away.  Perfect distance.

 

Putting up the tent - there were no fights or tears!  That's normally a stressful job.  But, we are getting another tent for the girls to sleep in.  It's just too crowded with all our air mattresses.

 

 Who doesn't wear striped knee high's and a skirt camping?



 It got pretty chilly both nights we were there.  I didn't bring a warm enough sleeping bag for Jocelyn, so she was up quite a few times in the night and woke up at 6:00!  This girl has never been up that early on her own.  Thankfully Calvin got up with her, and they went and sat by the fire.  This picture was at about 6:30.  Whew.  That would have been an awful day!  He put her back in the tent with me and we slept until 9:30.  That's more like it.

 

 

 We spent a lot of time bike riding and walking.  It wasn't very warm out, but perfect camping weather.  Jocelyn's still a bit slow on her bike, so I walked so I wouldn't have to constantly be telling her to hurry up.  Calvin and Kailee took the dogs and lapped us quite a few times!

 They have a nice playground there, so Friday we walked there to check it out.

 Even Calvin got in on the fun!

 We saw lots of cool bugs too!  Calvin found this cricket at the playground.  There were lots of daddy long leg spiders at our campsite, but I didn't get any pictures of them.

 We found these two caterpillars at the playground too.

 Poor moth with half its body missing

 She does like bugs, but this one was a little close!

 Not a bug, but wildlife.  Kailee and I also saw a racoon on one of our evening walks.  Thankfully no one saw any bears.

 Making pizza in the pie iron - not a big hit.  I thought they were good!

 We had fun at this little beach - the water was freezing, but good for throwing rocks and getting your feet wet.

 Since Calvin got up the first morning, I took my turn the second morning (however it was 8:30 instead of 6).  Look at the coffee and eggs I made!  I don't think I've ever lit the stove before (propane makes me nervous) but I really wanted some coffee.  And I couldn't be wimpy in front of the girls!

 We've had to resort to bribing Jocelyn with a silly picture if she'll smile for a nice picture first.

We all had a lot of fun, and the weather was beautiful.  The girls really had a good time, and it was good for the 4 of us to spend some quality relaxing time together...school starts soon!