The Albin Family

Yup that's right, today is my Birthday. I'm getting closer and closer to 30 by the day.

This morning I woke up to my sweet little girl putting one of her baby dolls in my arms to snuggle up to. Could she be giving me a hint? It's funny, because there is a little baby boy around 7-8 months that goes to her daycare and so she is more conscientious of babies now. When you ask her if she wants Mommy to have a baby, she will say yes. Then if you ask her whether she wants Mommy to have a girl or a boy, she always says girl. Humm... something to think about.

We had a pretty low key day today, which is perfectly fine. I had the day off, but Rick had to work. I spent most of the day planning our meals for the next two weeks and clipping and organizing my coupons. Exciting, I know!

Maddie has been begging for 2 days now to go get her haircut. Which is really weird, I guess her hair was in her eyes enough to get on her nerves. So this afternoon, I took her and the whole time we were waiting, she kept say "I get hair cut!" Rick met us there and after the little princess got her piggy tails and glitter in her hair, Rick took us out to dinner.

We went to Applebee's. We haven't been out to eat in a long time.. it is just so much cheaper to eat in. We can easily spent half to three-quarters of our grocery budget for the week on one meal out! That can be kind of hard to swallow these days. But because of the special occasion, we did go out and have a nice family dinner! They sang Happy Birthday to me and I think that embarrassed Maddie as she buried her face in me. But she did enjoy splitting the ice cream sundae with me!

All in all, it was a very good day. I had many people call, text and "Facebook" me a Happy Birthday, I do feel very loved. Thank you to all!

And P.S. it's 9:22 and Maddie is in her own bed yet again. I think we can hang up the Bootcamp hat as the worst is over. Wahoo!

Day 3 of the Bedtime Bootcamp extravaganza went pretty smooth as well. I am posting this the morning after Day 3 because I was just too exhausted to blog after she went to bed.

First off, Day 2 recap: She stayed in her bed until about 4:30, however I was already up and at em by that time, so no worries. I am very excited that this is going so smoothly!

Last night, I was really exhausted by the time that dinner was over and had a headache. I seriously thought about skipping the bootcamp for the night, especially since I had off of work on Thursday. But I pushed my self to stick to it so we weren't sending mixed signals.

I did however, declare it a "Bath Holiday" and we skipped bathtime. We didn't get home 'till about 7:00 last night so we were running a little behind schedule.

Rick came home during story time and tucked her in. She came out a few times but was redirected to her bed.

She did end up coming into our room probably around 4:00 am.

Overall, this is going very smoothly and it is so nice to be able to get good sleep without having her in the bed with us all night. Also, she seems a little more refreshed in the mornings too.

Wahoo! We made it through last night! If you have no idea what I am talking about, we started a Bedtime Bootcamp with Maddie this week. To hear about Day 1 click here.

Last night was great! As predicted she did come into our room. But the fabulous thing is that she didn't come into our room until 5:45am!!!! This is great because it was only 15 minutes before we were to get up anyway! Last night went smoothly and this morning she told us that she wanted to sleep in her bed again tonight.

So tonight I stuck with the same routine and stayed on board with the patience thing. Rick came home earlier than predicted so he was actually able to read a bedtime story, which she was very excited about. She did come out of her room a few times, but I just led her back into her room very calmly. Last time I heard from her was 9:10, which was about an hour ago! This is going so well. *knock on wood*

I have to admit, I am not always the soft spoken patient Mom that I would like to be, especially when trying to get her to do what I wish of her. However, over the past two nights, I have realized that when I need to get her motivated to do a task at hand, she is much more receptive to me being patient with her and not getting upset with her. Sometimes you just have to choose your battles, and not get all bent out of shape when it doesn't go smoothly.

Well, here's to another night of being able to stretch out in bed without Maddie's feet in my back!!

So I have to admit, we have not been very structured with Maddie's bedtime routine. As of recently we have been very, very relaxed with the whole situation. She's been sleeping in our bed for the past few months and doesn't go to sleep until we go to bed, which is sometimes not until midnight. Needless to say this has made our morning routine a nightmare at times.

In addition to nightmarish morning routines, I am a little scared to develop bad habits that are going to be impossible to break. You see these types of things on "Super Nanny" that a child can't sleep unless she's in Mom and Dad's room and then no one gets enough quality rest. Also, I think the straw that broke the camel's back was that the last few nights Maddie has decided to sleep "cross-ways" in the bed between Rick and I, so one of us has little feet in our back. In addition to this, at least twice during the night Maddie wakes us up to move which ever cat(s) that have decided to sleep on her pillow. So, in essence, none of us are getting quality sleep, and she is not getting enough sleep.

So with all that said, I decided to implement a "Bedtime Bootcamp" this week. Ideally, I would like to have her bedtime at 8pm. However, because of our afternoon routine we don't get home till 6:30 or so and then don't eat dinner until 7:30 - 8:00 sometimes. So therefore, I am aiming for a 9:00 bedtime. In addition to a set time for bed, "Bedtime Bootcamp" will also include first and foremost, her sleeping in her own bed. Also, a set routine for bed to include bath, brush teeth, one bedtime book of her choice (we have to shine a positive light on it somehow right?) and tuck in. All of these thing we have been very relaxed on.. even to the point of letting her shower with us to save on time (another bad habit). Ultimately, I would like to separate her from her Binkie too, I mean, it is about time right? But lets take this in baby steps...

So tonight, we had dinner, then a bath... a bubble bath for a treat. Typically bathtime can be a "Bear" to get through. She hates having her hair rinsed out. Then she never wants to get out of the tub. Now that I think about it, I think that what has made it so bad, is that many times I rush her and loose patience with her wanting her to get out of the tub. However, tonight, after we got through the necessities of bathtime, I set the microwave timer for 10 minutes of free bathtime play, instead of rushing her out of the tub. While she was playing I got her bed all ready.. after all she hasn't slept in it in a few months. She has also been pretty independent as of lately, so I let her play in the tub by herself and checked on her a few times. Much to my surprise, getting her out of the tub wasn't so bad!!!

Another thing that she loves to do is run away from you naked into the living room after a bath. She'll put up a little fight about getting her clothes on, and she again will run away from you when you try and comb her hair. However tonight, I feel like I was a little more patient with her and all of that went a lot smoother.

After we got dressed, we brushed teeth... again she usually puts up a fight with this and wants to be independent. And again, tonight I was more patient with her and let her brush her own teeth and then, much to my surprise, she asked me for help to get the ones in the back!!! Combing her hair was not a problem at all.

After all of the bathtime routine was out of the way, I had her pick out her own book. Dr. Seuss was what she picked. She whined for a few minutes about wanting to sleep in our room, but that didn't last long and she crawled up into her bed. I read her "One Fish, Two Fish" (Wow! What was going on in Dr. Seuss' head???? This book made absolutely no sense!) Once we finished the book and I kissed her goodnight, she started to get upset and cried for wanting to sleep in our room again. I gently told her "No" and that she was to sleep in her own room. She followed me to her bedroom door crying as I left her in her room. That was at about 8:50, and I haven't seen her since!!!!! I want so bad to go check on her, but at the same time I don't want to mess with a good thing. I just am not so sure if she is asleep in her bed or if she is laying on the floor. But I guess that is neither here nor there, just as long as she is in her room.

So will she stay in her room all night? Doubtful! But at least I got her to go to bed in her own room with a lot less effort than I expected. Much of that I attribute to the fact that I didn't loose patience with her and tried to make it a positive experience.

This is only Day 1! Hopefully, the rest of the week will be just as easy if not easier... and we won't have to worry about developing (any more) bad habits.

So we've been living in Surprise for about 9 months now and I have found what looks to be a very nice park right adjacent to the Library, which is only 5 minutes away. We have been to the library several times, but we never walked over to the big lake or playground.

After feeding the ducks, we headed over to the playground part of the park. I have to say that the playground was really really nice and was very well rounded as far their equipment. The equipment seemed to encompass a pretty wide spectrum of ages. We have a playground in our neighborhood, however the equipment is a little advance for Madison, so we haven't visited it too often.

Needless to say Maddie loved swinging and had absolutely no fear with how high she would go.

The park even had misters, so you could go stand under them and cool off a bit. All in all, we loved the park and look forward to many more trips there. I think next time we may pack a picnic lunch and maybe even invite Daddy!

P.S. Sorry the pictures are so big...still trying to figure out the best way to do them.

After finishing up a "number 2" in her Potty Seat, this is the conversation we had as I transferred over the "goods" to the toilet.

Me: Okay Maddie, lets put the poop into the toilet.

Maddie: Okay

Me: Say Bye-bye to your poop.

Maddie: Bye poop! See you Monday!

**Flush**

What can I say? At least she knows the concept of what a "Monday" is.

This is the term we hear all the time from Maddie. That girl has been loving the pool this year.. I guess she is now old enough to enjoy it. She asks us on almost a daily basis "I go pool at Gammie's House?" Well Gammie just got home from 8 weeks of traveling. So today we went over to Gammie's House and went into the pool.


We all had such a great time. Maddie loves to go around in the pool with her water wings on... however she has always made sure she was holding on to you or you were holding onto her. Well today on several occassions Rick and I were both able to let go of her without her realizing we were not holding her. She would go for a few seconds then get a little freaked that we were not holding on. Then all of a sudden at one point she was on the steps and wanted to go out into the water on her own. I was at an arms reach the whole time, but our brave little girl eased herself off the step and managed to kick around and manuver herself to Daddy and then to Gammie and then back to the steps. What a big, big brave girl!


We then came inside and it took Maddie all of 3 minutes of rocking with Gammie and she was asleep. The pool sure does wipe you out!


Then, per request I made Jagerschnitzel for dinner. We had that over Mashed Potatoes..talk about comfort food! Then a side of fresh green beans. Dinner was a Big Hit. Maddie even had almost 2 whole pork chops!

I found this Jagerschnitzel recipe when I was looking for a new way to make pork chops a few months back. I don't think our family will ever eat pork chops any other way! If you are looking for something else to do with porkchops, click here for the Jagerschnitzel recipe. We use boneless, thin cut, pork loin chops and it comes out great!


After we left Gammies house, we went to Baskin Robins for a treat!

All in all, we had such a great day! I can't wait for many, many more like it.