Flower Girl

Tonight, we took Autumn over to Papaw and Nanny's house so that Brandon and I could go grab a bite to eat. When we got back to take her home, she was practicing being a flower girl.

She was so cute. Her and De were playing in the living room with the flower girl baskets and purple rose petals. She would pick up the petals and throw them on the floor. Every once and a while, she would pause in the middle of her walk to pick up more.

De is helping our little monster transition into a sweet princess like flower girl...Good luck De!!!

I will get some pictures up to show you all soon. It was too cute. Autumn was very proud and very excited about playing the part. She saw her flower girl dress this morning hanging in my closet. She kept pointing at it, saying, "Clothes on, Momma." I told her that she had to wait till the wedding to wear it. She was not very happy with me.

We tried the flower girl's dress on her a couple of weeks ago. She definitely thinks she's something in it. She gets all excited. She turns into this dainty little princess. She twirls around and spins in circles. She's funny to watch. I will try to get a picture of her in the dress (that I found at the consignment sale for $12...WOW!!!) prissing around for you.

She's very excited about being one of DeAnn's flower girls! Now, we just have to wait and see if she will actually walk down the aisle! This will definitely be entertaining to watch!

Kentucky

This week is my Spring Break, so that means ae and I have been busy all week! We went to Kentucky on Wednesday to play with (Kris)T(i). Autumn loves her T! We got to meet some of Kristi's friends. Then we went to eat and went to the park. Autumn and T had so much fun hiding and playing on the slides. They were chasing each other in the grass. It's so funny to see Autumn run. She runs with such stiff arms. It's so cute!
We ate ice cream! Autumn thinks that she can get away with anything as long as she's with T. They are very mischevious together.
Autumn was so sad when we had to leave. It made T really sad, also. We look forward to having T come home soon!
Kristi....We love you whole bunches!
'Mon, T...come home! (from ae)

The Sweetest Prayer

At bedtime, Autumn and I read, sing, and say our night night prayers. She would always just repeat me. But now that she's in her big girl bed, she gets on her knees by her bed, get's in prayer mode, says "Jesus" then looks to me for guidance. She's so funny!

Well, this past weekend she did her prayers all by herself. They were so simple and sweet. It truly melted my heart.

But last night's prayers were just so precious. Let me tell you a little bit of information so that it all ties together. On Monday, Autumn and I went to visit my nana at Adam's Place. She is there because she had knee surgery and has to have rehab. Anyways, on our way there, I told Autumn that we were going to see Nana. She said, "No Nanny, Papaw. Mommy home." She thought she was going to her Nanny's. But she just wanted to stay with Mommy because I was home.
So I explained to her that we were going to go see "Mommy's Nana." She of course just said, "Oh!" It's like she's saying, "Oh, well that makes sense."

Anways, we go see my nana and Autumn sees that her knee is bruised and bandaged. Autumn gets this very concerned look on her face. But doesn't say much.

So last night as we were saying our "night night" prayers. She says, "Jesus, you (meaning thank you) for Daddy, Momma, T (Kristi), Pa, Me (Grammy), Nana Momma boo boo on knee...ouch, Papaw, Nanny, Papa, Auboll (Autumn) and Ba (Bama)...Amen." But for her to remember my nana's knee a day later and to give that prayer to God just made me realize how lucky I am to have this little girl in my life.

I look forward to what and who she is going to pray for tonight.

Praise Him!!!

So yesterday ae and I had a very busy day. We were doing some running around for DeAnn's shower. I knew we would be out and about most of the morning. So, I had already decided that I wouldn't stress about naptime today. I just knew that at some point that ae would fall asleep in the car, which would mean that she wouldn't sleep once we got home. And for this one day, I was okay with that. I didn't want to fight anymore.

We did our running around. We returned home around 12:00. She only dozed off for a brief minute on our way home. We ate lunch, and I told her..."Okay, Autumn it's time for a nap." Oh course, she said, " No, wait Momma." When she says wait, she sticks her hand out as to say STOP.

But we went to the couch, I held her close to me and rocked for about 3 minutes and SHE WAS OUT!!! She even let me put her in her bed without waking up. I know it's not the best way to get her to sleep. I know it would be better for her to fall asleep on her on, in her bed...But who cares! If this way worked for us, then Praise God...she slept!!!

It was the best feeling in the world! I was so excited. We found a bit of success!!! I turned the ringer off on the phone. I did some laundry. I cleaned the kitchen and the living room. It was beautiful!!!

So, thank you God for the small blessings!!!

Worst Mommy Award

Right now, I feel like I deserve the "Worst Mommy Award". I am typing this as Autumn is sitting in her bed yelling, " Mommy, mommy, momma, wait...momma." She wants to get out of that bed so bad. I just want her to lie down for 10 minutes and take a nap, so that there was some success out of these past 2 hours.
This stinks...that's that the word I wanted to use, I wanted to say what the vaccum cleaner does.

Today was the day I wanted to work really hard on getting her to take a nap. However, I think it all went down hill when she fell asleep in the car for about 20 minutes. But 20 minutes isn't a normal nap. So, we came home. We ate, and then I did the routine her and her papaw do. I sat and rocked her while the t.v. was on to kinda relax her. This didn't work. So, I thought...you know, why not do what I do at bedtime. Bedtime is going pretty good right now. So I gave that a try.

We went into her room. We read a few stories. We sang a couple of song, and said some prayes. Then I told her to go lie down, and I would come cover her up. Well, see that's where the problem is. It's been down hill since then. She's danced around in her bed. She's bounced. She's played with her socks. She's laid still for a few minutes to get up again. She's cried and fussed. There were so many times, I just wanted to get her up out of the bed, but I want to see if she would just go to sleep for just a second or two. That's all I am asking for.

She even went as far as to lay down and make sleep noises. Then yell out to me, "Momma, I do it. I sleep! I sleep!" It was precious, but...

Like I said, I feel horrible and I hate this. I just want her to rest. Because if she doesn't rest now, then she's going to want to at 4:30. I feel like we have wasted so much time, especially today with it being 72 degrees out side. I want her to rest just for a second, then I will praise her and reward her. I will take her outside to play with her bubbles. We can run around in the backyard with Bama. I just want her to sleep for just a couple of minutes. So that we both can feel successful.

This is killing me and I hate it. I hate hearing her call out to me and crying. I hate that she won't take a nap for me but will for her grandfather. I hate that I not only feel like a horrible mother right now, but I also feel like I am a failure. This Vaccums!!!

So after about ten minutes of posting this blog....

Autumn finally gets brave enough to get out of her bed (I am not going to lie...I told her earlier if she got out of her bed she would get a spanking) to come look for me. Now, saying this...I did actually sit in her room for much of the first part of this issue, because at bedtime...I sit in there until she falls asleep. I haven't been able to figure out how to leave before then just yet.

So, I hear her feet as she looks out the door (because after I left her room, I sat outside of her door for a long while, although she couldn't see me) and saw that I wasn't there. She started crying some more. So, I calmly said, "Autumn, come here. Mommy's in here."

She came into the kitchen, and I just took her in my arms and asked her to put her head down and hug me. She did...and within 3 minutes, she was out cold. So, I just laid her down in the bed, hoping that she will sleep for a little bit.

But now I feel guilty and horrible again. Because, all it took was comforting her and holding her for a brief moment. But I did this when we first started out today. I held her, rocked her, etc. and it didn't work then. So, what am I supposed to do?

Nap?!?

I usually post all the sweet lovable things that my precious daughter ( sometimes refered to as monster). However, today I am going to share one of our struggles. So, if you have any suggestions, please feel free to post them or email me. I will take all the help I can get!

So the last two weeks have been a diaster when it comes to Autumn napping at home. She naps fine at her Papaw's house. He's definitely got it down. He sits with her and rocks her and when she's good and asleep he goes and lays her down.

My goal was not to rock her, but since he does it every other day...I figured that I had to as well.
This worked great for most of the school year. However, these past two weeks, she doesn't want to nap at all ( well, at least not at home with me). I started wondering if she was trying to get too big for a nap. Since she thinks she's all grown up now that she's two. But then, by 4:30, she's exhausted and wants to sleep then. But if she sleeps then, she doesn' want to go to sleep at her bed time...which somehow also seems to be getting later and later.

She is definitely running this show right now. It's driving me crazy. I am fustrated with her, and I definitely don't want to be. I seem to waste so much of our afternoon fighting with her to go to sleep that I miss out of the fun times of playing with her. So, today is one of my days at home...so say a quick prayer for me, or send me a tip...and hopefully we will be more successful at this thing called Nap!