Afternoon Sprinkler Session

8 / 14 / 129 / 19 / 12

I’m not going to lie… It wasn’t all rainbows and sprinkles in Mama.Bubba.land today. Our morning was pretty good, save the minor screaming incident that occurred when leaving the toy section at Superstore… (Ugh. Must admit, these occurrences are brand-spanking new to us and I have to come up with a plan to better handle/minimize them asap.) But our afternoon? It was rough.

I’m not sure what it’s all about, but in the last couple of weeks, nap times have started getting tricky. Not all days, but some. The majority of the days of the week, I lay our little lady down in her crib, give her a kiss before closing the door, and she puts herself to sleep and stays asleep for 2 to 3 hours. She wakes up rejuvenated, happy, and ready for the rest of our day’s adventures. But the other days? She just doesn’t fall asleep. She talks and plays in her crib for a good long while, then the jumping and chucking things out of her crib begins, and then crying, calling for Mama, and “No more sleeeeep! Play – yaaaaaa!” stage kicks in after that. This all could be driven by one of about a million things… Our house regularly being 30 degrees during the day, her two year molars just finally finishing pushing up through her gums, her sleep needs changing…. Who knows? I’ve {very reluctantly} given thought to the fact that she may be starting to get ready to drop her nap, but her behaviour sans nap tells me otherwise. Although she’s happy to be retrieved from her crib, without a nap, she’s off for the rest of the afternoon. She’s less independent, quicker to tears, and a little irritable, quite frankly.

Today was one of those days. I knew she needed a nap {despite what she was telling me} and I was feeling up to the challenge, so we tried for 3 straight hours. THREE. WHOLE. HOURS. I thought for sure that we’d succeed in the end… We didn’t. Instead, I was exhausted, she was upset, and the nap didn’t happen. Frustrating. But what do you do? I brought her out of her room, fed her a snack, she played while I cleaned house and made dinner, and then we ate. Life goes on.

Both needing a little pick-me-up after a long afternoon indoors, we retrieved a treat from the freezer and headed outside. I sat on the front porch and she ran circles around our yard, popsicle dripping everywhere, before we turned on the sprinkler.

There’s something about a little girl clad only in a hat, panties, and popsicle drips, happily splashing through sprinkling water that can turn your whole day around…

And thank goodness for that.

♥

Photos edited with Instagram. Find me under jkossowan.

Grumplestiltskin

5 / 18 / 125 / 20 / 12

Today was just one of those days… Despite her usual 12 hour nighttime sleep and usual 2 hour midday nap, Gracen was out of sorts. Unfortunately, we had a beach play date planned for the day, and not even that cured it. Being little miss routine, she wanted the morning to go as it always does when we visit the beach (playground, walk, optional hot drink, beach play) and that’s just not how it happened today. Grae’s little friend was actually getting over a sickness and she wasn’t quite her usual self either. Not going to lie… It wasn’t a great combination. Luckily, we did manage to have many good moments too.

But after a long day, I must say that I’m perfectly happy having the evening to clean my house, work on some Littlest Lulu orders, and unwind while my wee one peacefully sleeps the night away (and hopefully the grumpiness off). Days like today sure make me appreciate the “easy” days with my happy-go-lucky little lady. Here’s hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Kerrisdale Carnival Days

4 / 28 / 124 / 29 / 12

This morning we headed down to Kerrisdale for their annual Carnival Days. Not going to lie – what was supposed to be a fun, low-key morning turned out a little rough. On top of Grae waking up at 5:00 a.m. in a freezing cold room due to her window accidentally being left open overnight (parenting fail) and running very late (such is the case when 4 people are trying to get ready and get out the door in a teeny tiny one bathroom house), I was grumpy, Brad was grumpy, and Gracen was grumpy. Poor Grandma Charlotte was the only one in a good mood and she was stuck with us 3 crab trees.

Either way, Gracen enjoyed the parade. She plunked herself down on the street to watch the tame parts (like baseball teams walking by) and then jumped in someone’s arms when horses or a loud band marched past.

The good news is that our day, which got off to a rocky start, got better after some lunch and a nap… It’s amazing what some good food and rest can do.

Thank Goodness

4 / 20 / 124 / 20 / 12

Ugh. What a day. It’s never a good sign when you fly out of your house, race down to the highway, and suddenly find yourself in gridlocked traffic, crawling so slowly that the speedometer remains at zero, with no end in sight. And that was just the beginning of my morning. By the time things got moving, it was already ten minutes until the time I wanted arrive at the school I was subbing at in Surrey, and I was still only a few kilometres from our house. Needless to say, I was a little panicked. I hate being anything less than 35 minutes early when I’m subbing. (There’s nothing worse than walking into a random classroom full of expectant students, unknown routines, and never-seen assignments without having time to devise a game plan for the day.) Well imagine my surprise when I race up to what was supposed to be my destination, only to realize that, in fact, it was not. I may have cussed out Google Maps right then and there. It’s now ten after eight, the warning bell rings in 25 minutes, and my phone Map app is now telling me that I’m 18 minutes away. I wanted to scream. Desperate, I put in an SOS call to Brad’s cell, and there’s no answer. You’d think I’d know my own house number for moments just like these, but ridiculously, I do not. What are you going to do? As I aimlessly race around Surrey side streets in search of school signs {blinded by the insane sunshine no less}, I madly scroll through my recent calls in search of my phone number. Jackpot! Found it. Bradley picks up. Desperate, I bark, “Hi babe. I need your help!” And then just like that, he’s gone. My phone is powering down (this has been a problem recently – my phone just decides to shut down – and at the most inopportune times might I add). Sweet Jesus. So now I’m left, lost on some side road in Surrey, without an address, phone, or GPS. FML. The kicker? It wasn’t Brad I called. It was my father-in-law up in the Okanagan. And with my insane plea for help and subsequent disappearance, he’s now worried. (Of course, I had no idea. I didn’t find any of this out until I had happily taught half of the day away in a classroom full of the most lovely grade seven students I’ve ever met.) So after several failed attempts to get ahold of Bradley, he wakes Brad’s brother (who also lives in Vancouver) and sends him over to our house to investigate. DI.SAS.TER. All caused by me and a slip of my finger.

Of course, he walked into our house to find out that everything was fine. I had eventually made it to my school, Gracen was busy playing, and Bradley was cleaning the house. False alarm.

All I have to say is that on days like today, it’s a good thing I get to come home to this happy little bean.

David Gray’s Greatest Hits and the generous glass of red wine I’m currently consuming helps too.