I am reminded of that since she is currently screaming her head off and won’t go to bed. THIS.HAPPENS.EVERY.NIGHT!!

She listened well today and avoided a time out by listening to me and making better choices, but tonight she got a time out after her bath was cut short for bad behavior. She was ready for a bath and sleep (so she said) at 7pm. That’s early for her, but I think the time change is affecting her partly. 3 hours later, she’s still screaming and trying to rule the house. B and I have been so patient and it’s just not working. We are sitting downstairs while she has her fit upstairs. It’s surprising that she doesn’t come down the stairs. She is at the top of the stairs, but doesn’t usually come down, just gets hysterical and screams for us to tuck her in and then to stay upstairs. I’m done playing her game and have told her no. She knows our rules and they are nice and fair. Even though we’re trying to be as strict and consistant as we can with her, both of us have gone up once to tuck her in (this in not counting the times that we were still upstairs). Once she’s tucked in she wants us to stay and then she’s up again and wants to be tucked in.

I hate hearing my baby all worked up and sad, but she knows better, she really does, and we are done playing games here. We have been going over with her, every day, how lucky she is. We are filling a shoebox (or more) at church for Operation Christmas Child and trying to explain to her each day, with each fit that there are kids with NO food, NO toys, NO Mommy’s and Daddy’s to keep them safe or tuck them in. She is really excited about making another child happy by giving them toys, drawing pictures for them and writing notes. Reminders of how lucky she is has helped with her fits but not tonight.

Until now. I spoke too soon, she was just standing next to me in our living room… promising over and over to stay in her bed if I would tuck her in one more time. But, she also wanted me to stay upstairs.  I started to compose an email to our friends and family and told her about it. It read:

Dear everyone,

R will not be getting any Christmas presents this year. She is behaving badly. Please save your money or donate it to children who need it.

Of course I wasn’t planning on sending it… well only to B but she didn’t want that, she chose to listen and make a better choice and now she’s finally in bed and quiet. Only 3 hours and 20 min. after she said she was sooo sleepy and had to go to bed. It’s no wonder why I’m exhausted every single day. No matter how much sleep I get, and I don’t get much, I’m emotionally exhausted.

I do see a light at the end of the tunnel, really, I just wish I knew how to speed up the train!

Right before that a commercial for the WowWee Alive Lion Cub came on and she was beside herself with excitement…she REALLY wants this one!! She jumped up and down saying “please put that on my list Mommy, I really would love to have that!” I casually told her “yes, honey it’s already on your list. We’ll just have to wait and see till Christmas!” The truth is, I know it’s already been checked off her list by a wonderful relative.

One other item off her list… this one will come from Mommy and Daddy but might be held off till her birthday. It’s the SpinMaster Bugville Butterfly Treehouse …… say that 10 times fast… :-0  She has wanted this very badly since the summer. It was supposed to be a reward from her reward chart, but she never earned it and it lost its power of being a reward when she said, “that’s ok, well I’ll just get it for Christmas.” (we had said to her that she could have had it by so and so a date if she had more stars that week but at this rate it won’t be till Christmas!! So that suited her…lol )

There are many more but I’m surprised I’ve had time to get that much written today… back to organizing, cooking and phone calls before the hubby gets home for dinner and a rousing game of Hullabaloo!!

Ok…background on that quickly… last night we completed a project that was due today at her preschool. She needed to draw a picture (or bring a photo in but it was more fun to draw it…) of something she enjoys doing with her family. What did she pick? Playing Hullabaloo! So, she drew a very nice pic (or “drooring” as she says) of the three of us. I had on a costume…Rapunzel hair and a witch hat. She said it was Halloween, but I was the only one dressed up :)  On the back of the drawing, she wrote “Daddy, Mommy and Me playing Hullabaloo.” So what happened after coming home from preschool… 6 to 8 games in a row of Hullabaloo with just me. Maybe after dinner it can be Daddy’s turn We’ve had this game since last Christmas although it’s geared for 4 and up.

R already has a running list on my iphone…she knows that it’s just a list and that she’ll have to narrow it down and even then, can’t expect everything she wants. She already needs NOTHING, we hope to be moving soon if all goes well, and we don’t want to move any more then we have to. Also moving is going to be tough on finances and we are trying to cut back everywhere we can.

I still have a bunch of gifts from last Christmas that she’s never seen and additional things since then that I’ve collected but held off on (for rewards etc). I bought a bunch of stuff on clearance at our local Disney store before our Disneyworld trip this summer and half of that…she’s never seen. So, Christmas is pretty much covered, but I haven’t even started shopping for it this year!

I’m going to start keeping a list here with links so I can check things out in the same place and figure out what we may be able to get her. We’re trying to keep gifts small this year too since we’re over-run with toys now anyway and in keeping our house ready for showings it’s hard to have to keep moving the large things (like her art easel, table, horsey etc..) out of the way. B still has her mini futon in his car

As I mentioned in a previous post, we’re thinking about Blu-ray in the future so any DVD’s will have to be in that format. We never buy DVD’s but of course now that there are some we’d like to get for R, we will go the Blu-ray route. I’m thinking Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid and Peter Pan… I know SB is available, haven’t checked into the others.

I got it back around her b-day in Feb. and she loved it but then it was put away and re-introduced a little while ago. It’s so cute. It’s one of those extra gifts that she really didn’t need but I thought was just adorable and very handy, convenient and well… adorable!

This is the art folio  I got her. Hers is Pretty In Pink. It’s great for traveling, visiting and restaurants. Looks like there’s some other cute stuff on the website too I bought hers at a local boutique and haven’t seen this there but how cute is this lunch tote?  Of course she already has a lunchbag and doesn’t need this, but I can dream!

My girl’s going to be Ariel for Halloween. She requested that I should be Ursula, the sea witch, and that Daddy should be Sebastian the crab. Well, my mom made my costume, so Ursula I will be! I bought makeup yesterday to turn my dh’s face red and we’ll figure out the rest. I haven’t seen any adult Sebastian costumes so we’ll improvise.

R and I wore our costumes once already to a momsclub Halloween party. That was fun. There were two other Ariels there but R was the only one with the red wig she loves so much

It’s supposed to clear up and be semi-warm by Friday so Halloween should be fun as the Little Mermaid family…

I just put a pile of her clothes away. There’s no room for it. I’ve sorted and sorted and it’s just multiplying like rabbits. Rabbits, everytime I think of the word rabbits, I think of my daughters word list. It’s usually on the fridge, although our fridge is naked now (for showings). I need to get that list out and add a bunch of words. We don’t add them until she can spell them.

The other night we were reading her books before bedtime and taking turns reading the words. They weren’t books she’s read before but she was recognizing and reading tons of new words. I’m very proud of her. It’s fun when I don’t have to read because she knows all the words…sometimes it might slow it down a bunch while she sounds things out but she totally rocks reading right now!

Anyway, this started about spackle but I am unable to speak/talk/type about one subject alone. Off to get spackle etc… whoo hoo! Grr…argh.

Just a random thought that keeps popping in my head….my daughters Christmas wishlist! Argh. The girl has too much already and wants everything she sees. Of course since we’re planning on moving soon, we don’t want to buy any new things and can’t afford to. I do have a running list for her on my phone though…it keeps the whining down when she wants something. I tell her “I’ll add it to your list.” She knows that she will have to pick her favorites eventually and won’t get everything. It’s just frustrating since I do want to give her everything.

Anyway, Blu-ray… My dilema is that Sleeping Beautycame out today and she has never seen it since it’s just hard to get. My library has non-disney versions and Blockbuster doesn’t carry it. Her favorite Disney Princess is Aurora, although she loves them all, yet she’s never seen the whole movie. That’s probably a good thing since it’s probably too scary, but I think she’s old enough now. She’ll tell me if she doesn’t want to watch or fast forward. Thing is, even though I don’t want to buy gifts now, I’m not sure how long it will be available…ya know Disney’s vault and all…oy.

My hubby tells me not to buy any dvds (I never do, we just rent, borrow from the library) until we get a Blu-Ray player. Well, with buying a house etc, who knows when that will happen. Do I buy the Sleeping Beautymovie on Blu-Ray and just hang onto it without telling R we have it until we can play it? I really don’t want to buy a dvd and then not be able to watch it or want the Blu-Ray version. Technology is great…but a PAIN!!!

She also wants Peter Pan and Little Mermaid… decisions. LOL.

I need to get back to my “clean sweeping”. We’re having an open house on Sunday. Sell house, sell!!!

So…I thought I’d start it out slow and backtrack!

Speaking of someone calling me… B (dear hubby) just called me down for dinner. Oh how I love when he cooks!

More soon, I hope!!

We’ll be meeting up with friends this weekend who were just there a few weeks ago. Another friend just returned from her family trip this past weekend and yet another friend leaves for her family’s trip tomorrow! We go in June! It’s fun that so many people I know are going or have gone at practically the same time!  R’s VERY excited but she’s 3, I want her to just relax and enjoy…sometimes that’s hard when I keep telling her “Mommy is trying to plan our vacation, I can’t play right now.” She has NO idea how much planning is going into this (and she shouldn’t). I just hope I can get through this week’s yard sale prep and sale, continued vacation planning, R’s summer camp starting tomorrow, and a board meeting I’m holding in my currently messy house on Thurs!

This week is also my mom’s b-day and B’s b-day!!! My parents may be coming over on Sunday to celebrate both. So, sometime I’ll be baking a cake too! Honestly, I can’t wait to use my Kitchen Aid mixer!! I have yet to use it…it just sits and taunts me each day. Back to yard sale fun!

I am trying to get ready for a huge yard sale on Sat. and in the process clean/organize etc. So the glasses are just one more obstacle to deal with. Well, as I came online to write this and check some other things I learned about the earthquake in China. So many natural disasters happening lately. I will be thankful that it’s just a rainy day here and keep pushing up my glasses.