Catching Up

It's been a week since I've been able to get much time on the computer so I am behind on a lot. When you work away from home, things just have a way of piling up - laundry, dishes, housework...its all still there and must be done in addition to spending quality time with the kiddos...which always comes first in my book.

Jaiden has been having a tough time with me working. She is doing fine at daycare but comes home and has a meltdown from the moment I put her into the car seat until we get her to sleep each night. I'm not sure what is going on with her but I'm sure she's expressing her anger at my being away all day. She is whiney and tired alot and doesn't sleep well but I'm hoping that this will improve when we get into a routine.
Jared will start going to daycare next week and he is very excited about that. Cody went to stay with cousins for the week and after that is considering seeking summer employment. He needs something to do other than playing video games and chatting online...

We had a garage sale yesterday - it was in the 90s and sunny (which I was enjoying) but the garage was in the sun so it was baking! Not many people were out and there wasn't even a dent made in the amount of stuff we have to get rid of. Guess that is why we usually donate but I thought I'd give it a go since we have lots of very gently and barely used baby items and they are stinkin pricey brand new.

We are thinking of re-landscaping our yard so today we are making a trip to the local Menard's to get bricks. Hubby wants something low profile that he can mow around and not have to edge with the weed eater...I get more yardage for my gardening :) so we are all happy!

The "strawbebbies" are certainly June bearing - they are keeping me hoppin! I need to go pick em' now - a thunderstorm ran me back inside this morning when I went out to check them but it has cleared up now. I am going to attempt to make some freezer jam (MIL recipe) so far I have saved up and frozen two half full gallon sized bags. That's cleaned and capped. Another project I am considering is putting the strawbebbies along the fence and giving up the playhouse location to hubby for building a larger storage facility for his man tools... and them out of our garage. When is the best time for moving them? Fall or spring?

*I am starting to wonder - is Jaiden bipolar? She swings moods so quickly and often that I can not keep up. It makes things very complicated to say the least when she goes from flopping down on the floor screaming to a full throttle belly laugh within seconds. Is there a such thing as baby psychiatrist? She understands our language a lot better than we understand hers and I desperately want to reach her and understand what she is feeling. I'm completely perplexed. Yes, I know I am a moody person myself but even I don't bounce around this much and frankly I am worried. I want her to be happy all the time - is that wrong?

Our week

It has been a very exciting week for us. On Saturday our driveway was finally completed - we now have concrete all the way to the road thanks to Scott and his brother Robb. They did an awesome job and saved us thousands by doing it themselves. We celebrated the achievement with dinner at the Texas roadhouse.

Monday I went to work at my new job and Jaiden went to her first day of daycare. It went much better than I had expected and there were no tears. Jaiden waved bye bye and sent me on my way. I was nervous to start another new job in another new town but it turned out to be a pleasant experience. The folks I work with are great and they made me feel very welcome. I think it will be a great place to work, yet I do miss that feeling of being with family that I had at my last job. I know that will come in time as I get to know everyone but I miss the familiarness of before. Getting to know a new job in a new town is never easy.

Summer finally arrived on Sunday - if only for a moment. We blew up the kiddy pool and let the kids enjoy the water. I had to bring bucket after bucket of boiling water to dump in because the city water is ICE cold! Jaiden was starting to turn blue so I had to take her out within just a few minutes even though the temps was 80 degrees. Mon and Tues were near 90s and then on Tues the rain came and it's been raining the rest of the week. Everyone keeps talking about how bad the mosquitoes are here and I am starting to get very afraid....

The strawberries have begun to ripen this week and we have gathered them every day. yesterday Jaiden was following me around stealing them from the bucket as I picked - just like my brother used to do when we were kids. The kids have really enjoyed the fresh berries from the garden and they certainly are a nice surprise each day to find new ones ready to be picked. I hope eventually to have enough to make up a batch of homeade jam...but with the way Jaiden eats them I may be waiting a while ;)

The saga continues...

This morning at 0600 Jaiden took her blankie and lay down in the hallway and fell asleep. At 9 I put her in her bed to nap and at 0955 I heard one of her toys so I go to check on her - she is sitting at the door playing! I put her back into bed and get her tucked in with her blankie, give kisses (she blows kisses when she goes night night) and slip out quietly. Well she pitches a fit and a few minutes later stops crying but I hear a soft thump, thump so I go to check on her and she is sitting up in her bed bumping her head against the wall. I lay her back down and repeat the tuck in procedure but she starts screaming again. This time she falls asleep within a few minutes and is now sleeping peacefully. She has been on an uninterupted schedule for a while now so I don't understand why she is suddenly fighting naps...is this because she doesn't need a morning nap anymore? She gets grump and rubs her eyes when she hasn't had a nap so I know she is sleepy. Could she be overtired?

Test video

Just trying to see if the video works

So much love!

I feel so loved after reading your comments on the last post! How sweet!

It's been a busy week with family trips and visits. My mom came to Grand Forks all the way from Mena Arkansas the day after we returned from a visit to my hubby's family so it's been a long time since I've had much computer time and when I am on it I've been obsessing over building a new neighborhood on my Sims2 game. With my life being so out of control I needed a "happy place" to go to (details on another blog - this one is for cutie pie) My simulated little world takes my mind off the endless cold here. I am a summer girl and the lack of is driving me bonkers in spite of my life being showered with blessings.

Ok, enough of that - I'll catch up with all the details eventually on my other blog. I created this blog for Jaiden and its dedicated to watching her grow...which she has been doing by leaps and bounds! She is a Daddy's girl, when he comes home she squeals "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" at the top of her lungs and then runs around saying "Daaad, Daaaaaa, and Daddddda" it's soooo cute! While my mom was here, she said "Mammaw" plain as day too. My mom made her some adorable little summer dresses (will try to post some photos of that soon too) it rained most of the week but in between rains we got to get out and plant new flowers. My stepdad and I planted a red peony which I am dedicating to Jaiden. It looks like it is about to bloom - I so hope it doesn't drop the buds from the shock of transplanting. I bought 3 other peonies which I wound up giving to my mother in law because we just didn't have enough room to cart back with us last weekend. It was pretty packed in the SUV with 3 kids, 2 adults and a puppy plus all the goodies I had found while shopping with my SIL and niece. (I was taking advantage of the no sales tax on clothes) since I will be going back to work soon...also another story for the other blog. There will be many tears. I have an interview with a daycare center tommorrow. This will be Jaiden's first time in that kind of place (Gasp) it breaks my heart to even consider it but...that's another long story I'm afraid no one would like to hear.

So can I ask you something my bloggie buddies??? What do you do when a small child has temper tantrums? I've never had to deal with this with my boys - they are very mild tempered. The only times they ever cried as babies was when they were wet or hungry...when this was taken care of they were content and sometimes they were content even when they were wet. With Jaiden I have been initiated into motherhood 101 without a clue to what the world of tantrums was all about. I am afraid that she is going to hurt herself somehow with the fits that she throws. She will be in the midst of a tantrum and I can get her to laugh out loud and then she resumes her blood curtling screaming and thrashing fits. What's a mommy to do? She pulls her hair, scratches herself and kicks and flops around something terrible during these instances. I try to calm her down but she doesn't want to be held or even touched and while leaving her alone to let it pass sometimes works, she usually can scream for a long time - or she can just shut it off like a switch. I'm confused at what to do and how to teach her to express herself without anger. Am I wrong? Is this just part of her that we need to let her express? We are trying to wean her from the night night bottle and this has triggered the latest of the trauma. She doesn't want a sippy cup in its place but I suppose if she did we would have to wean her from that too. I know this is a deep subject but I'd really appreciate any advice on this matter. She is about to go to bed now and I gave her a bottle of water to compromise. We took away her binkie (pacifier) a month or so ago and she had no problems with that but seems to be more attached to the bottle. What do your children sleep with? She has her blankie too - should we just take the bottle away cold turkey? I am such a softie and her tears just breaks my heart even though she can stop them on a dime and start laughing in the midst of a full blown fit. What should I do???

Lots of cuteness here

I've been away so long I almost forgot my login name...sorry about that! We've had family visiting and been very busy this past couple of weeks.

download is pretty slow and I can't figure out how to get it posted directly to the blog but if you go to this link you will see the cutest video of Jaiden ever