breakfast, a little bit of sunshine and a new bed

Morning friends! I feel like I've gotten so behind on this blog. I don't necessarily have fabulous things to say, just little things I wanted to talk about, since I do write this blog mostly to remember the simple things we do as a family.

This little girl in the picture above, has entered what I like to call, "the terrific two's"! She is a mess, and sometimes it's a lot of fun and sometimes it's extremely challenging. One thing she likes to do that I am not very fond of, is constantly scream the word "NO". I always say "no ma'am" to her, when she is in to something she shouldn't be, in hopes that she will not just say "no", but follow my lead and also say "no ma'am".  However, we do have a dog, y'all remember Gus? and I have a tendency to say "No, Gus" A LOT during the day. ;) I'm thinking that's where she is getting it from. Because, besides screaming "no" she also just walks around the house saying "no, Gus". Isn't that lovely? :)

(just so we're clear, I drew this smiley face, she is just trying to draw over it. :)

I do know that all toddlers go though this stage, so I am just trying to stay consistent and be positive and not make a big deal of it when I know she is doing something for attention. For the most part, she is very good and already obeys really well. And believe me, I make a big deal out of it when she does the right thing!

When I was in high school and college, I babysat for a family with 3 children. A lot of times, I would babysit at night and put the kids to bed before their parents were home. The youngest was a girl, and at bed time, she would always request a song by saying "peace, peace". You probably know the song, it says:

"Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
Coming down from the Father above!
Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray In fathomless billows of love!"


I remember loving that she requested it at bedtime and knew one day I would sing it to my own babies too. So, a few months ago, I started singing it to EC at night and before long, she started requesting it all the time the same way, just by saying "peace, peace". It makes me so happy inside to hear her say that. I know she doesn't understand the meaning of the words, but one day she will and it is so precious to hear her say it. Now she even tries to sing it. Just the other night, Jeremy walking by her room and she was sitting in her glider singing it to herself. Those are moments I want to remember forever.

We've been playing outside in the sunshine a lot lately. Ella Claire get's really thirsty...

We've been writing with sidewalk chalk, even writing on things other than the sidewalk.

We've been pretend driving to pretend places. She is such a little climber. She refuses to enter by using the door, and instead insists on climbing through the other side. 

On the mornings when we have no where to rush off to, we like eating a warm breakfast. Sometimes, EC even puts on her matching apron and cooks beside me.

(yeah, I need to clean my oven door. I'll get to it one of these days.)

One morning, we even made these yummy pancakes. Only thing I did differently was substitute all purpose flour for the cake flour. I just didn't have any on hand. It's not an even substitute, so if you substitute too, make sure you know 1 cup sifted cake flour = 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons of sifted all purpose flour. They turned out nice and fluffy, but I imagine if you use cake flour they would be even lighter. So good!

I even gave EC a special treat and let her enjoy hers like this...

They were pretty yummy, you should try them.

She deserved a nice treat, because she has been a very big girl lately (besides screaming "no" of course.) Jeremy and I made a decision and officially took EC out of her baby crib. This was a big deal to me, and way earlier that I anticipated, but it was necessary. A few months ago she went through that phase where she hated sleep and tried to climb out of her bed. I was still sick at the time and not feeling well enough to pick out big girl room furniture, so we decided to let her sleep in her pack n play. After about a week she outgrew that stage and started loving sleep again so we put her back in her crib. In the mean time, I began the long process, (for me anyway, I'm really picky and it will take me a while to decide on just what I want) of picking out furniture and bedding for her new room. However, she decided once again she hates her crib, and attempted to escape, so we had no other choice but to take the crib down. We put her mattress on the floor in her room, moved the camera up high so the entire room is in view and bolted her bookshelf to the wall, just incase she gets the grand idea to climb it too.  We also put a child proof safety lock on her door knob so she can't escape and wander around our house at night unsupervised.

So far, so good! She cried a little bit the first two nights, and even slept on the floor by the door for a few hours, but by the third night she was a pro.  She goes right to sleep and sleeps all night without trying to escape! :) Here she is the first morning after a full night's sleep on her floor mattress.

This is just a temporary fix until we can complete her new room. I'm glad she is okay with change, because ordinarily we would have transitioned her right to her new room and not had so many adjustments in between. We're hoping she adjust to a new room just as well and she did to this change. Time will tell!

Okay, well I am off to start my weekend. Hope yours is nice and relaxing! See ya soon!