Happy Labor Day

We had a fun and busy weekend! I love 3 day weekends. First, we get an entire day off! Second, my office closes early on Friday so I get several bonus hours off.

Saturday Ella and I took a trip to Target…the perfect start to a holiday weekend. It felt like we were out of everything! We were down to our last roll of paper towels, our last napkins, our last box of Kleenex and worst of all, our last roll of toilet paper (actually we had 2 rolls, but we have 4 bathrooms so 2 were off limits). Ella and I stocked the shopping cart full! The good news is that I’m on a new coupon kick, so we saved $22 just in coupons! GO ME!

Ella did pretty well in Target, but close to the end she started having a mini meltdown. This called for drastic measures…I promised her French fries. Yep, I totally bribed my kid. So for the last 5 minutes of shopping I kept saying, “Yummy French fries! Yummy to my tummy!” We took the gear to the car then walked to the McDonald’s next door to Target (how convenient) and got Ella a Happy Meal with chicken nuggets. Those fries and orange drink kept her happy the whole way home. When we got home she finished her lunch and went down for a nap.

Speaking of naps…Ella skipped her nap 4 days last week and so far she has skipped them both Monday and today. I wouldn’t mind this except for when she skips her nap, her nightly sleeping is even worse. It doesn’t make sense to me, but it’s true. If she gets a nap she’ll only wake up once at night. If she skips her nap then she tends to wake up every 2 hours all night! So all week she has been waking up every 2 hours. On Sat night we got up with her 5 times…that’s ridiculous! Last night I almost reached my limit. Both Joe and I were exhausted and when she woke up for the third time at 3 am I thought I was going to lose it. I went in to comfort her and was on the brink of tears because I was so tired. Finally I got her calmed down and as I was walking back into our room I said to Joe, “God and I are about to have a SERIOUS talk!” Sometimes I think we should look into hiring an overnight nurse to come a couple of times a week just so Joe and I can get some sleep. I really don’t want to complain because the truth is that all in all Ella is a pretty easy kid. I know that sounds weird with all that we have to deal with, but it’s true. I don’t mind the bandage changes. Sure it would be nice to just throw her in the bath then toss her in bed, but we have never been able to do that, so we can’t really comprehend what that would be like. And she’s really very compliant during her bandage changes. We sing songs and Joe will read books to her and we talk a lot. Even Joe and I are able to spend that time talking about our day and things that happened or family business that needs to be taken care of. And all in all she’s really pretty easy to deal with. She’s not the kid that is running all around at restaurants, and she doesn’t climb up on stuff or grab things that she shouldn’t (our house isn’t even baby proofed) and she is a pretty good listener and if we tell her not to touch something she typically listens. But this sleeping thing can really wear on a parent. Joe and I share the load, which is helpful, but even though only one of us is up, the other one is always awake. Sometimes I wonder how this impacts our mental production during the day. It can’t be good. All this to say, if our prayer warriors out there could pray for Ella’s sleep, both Joe and I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

Ok, back to the weekend. Saturday night we went to the 1 year birthday party for Millie Benson. When we got there they had balloons! Ella was beyond excited for that. Then add Roux, the dog, to the mix and the night just got better. Next came a Dora the Explorer bag which Ella kept looking at, and the night was topped off with the discovery of a Barney doll. When we left Ella had almost as much stuff as Millie had gotten. We had 3 balloons, a rubber duck, a box of birthday knick-knacks and a brand new (used) Barney doll. We were concerned that Barney would replace doggie, but no, he has just joined the party. Now Ella sleeps with both Barney and doggie, and in the morning she wants both to come downstairs with her. Barney is about 3 times bigger than doggie, so it takes a lot of effort to hold on to both of them, but her little arms just wrap around them and squeeze. It’s really cute.

Sunday morning we went to church and afterward we went to lunch with 2 other families, the Grubbs and the Crockett’s. Both have children close to Ella’s age, so it was nice talking to them and hanging out for a little while. After lunch I begged Joe to take me to Walmart. I’m typically a Target girl. I maybe go to Walmart once a month…if that. But, there are some things that are available at Walmart that aren’t at Target, namely bows. So I wanted to go and check out their selection. Unfortunately I didn’t find anything. We left with 2 pair of tights, a Minnie Mouse bowl and a couple of other little things.

Monday was family day! I love family day! The weather was beautiful last week, so Joe and I planned a family outing to Mt. Vernon. It was rainy on Sunday so I was a bit nervous for the weather on Monday, but luckily the rain held off for us. The weather was perfect! Not too sunny and cool but not too cool. We got to Mt. Vernon around 10:30 and were able to walk the grounds and check out GW’s home (although we didn’t tour the mansion since the line was ridiculously long). Ella got to see some of the animals and we found some acorns for her to play with. She’s very into acorns right now because she has a book about an acorn and an oak tree. Very exciting stuff for a 2 year old. We ate lunch then headed out to go to the mall.

The mall was not on our original list of things to accomplish on Labor Day. Unfortunately Ella has outgrown her shoes, so we are on a quest to find something she can wear. We went to Stride Rite to see about getting her foot measured and fitted with some shoes that will work. We did get her foot measured, but I didn’t feel like the sales lady really listened to me when I was telling her about Ella’s feet. The store was packed and I felt like she had other things on her mind. She brought us several different pair of shoes, but none of them worked. We went to Baby Gap and got some socks and luckily found a pair of Converse that fit (pink…of course) so we at least came home with 1 pair of shoes that Ella can wear. Now we need to find some dress shoes. Her other ones have caused blisters around her ankles, so she can’t wear them anymore. If anyone out there is in the shoe making business I would love for you to make some EB friendly shoes…extra wide to accommodate the bandages please. Thanks. :)

After the mall Ella was done for the day. She was tired and cranky, yet wouldn’t take a nap. And within minutes of us getting home the rain started pouring down. We huddled inside for the rest of the night. That’s it for our weekend. Wow, this post is long, but our weekend really was packed full. We had a lot of fun though.