Change is hard, Mama Kelley

The past two months have been... difficult. Lots of changes. Katelyn gives STRONG definition to "terrible twos." And, our routine was disrupted when I lost my job. Then, for a host of reasons, we decided to switch daycares. Here's a picture of Katelyn with her wonderful former teacher, Ms. Lauren:

We love you, Lauren!!!!!

Touching the rose outside the building one last time

While unemployed, I've been slammed (blessed!) with freelance design work, so keeping Katelyn at home with me every day just wasn't an option I could logically make work eight hours a day. Katelyn just completed her first week at her new school, so before that she spent time with Annabelle and Zoe, a week with Nana, and some time at home with me. I don't have photos of her time with Nana, but Katelyn's vivid descriptions of Chuck E. Cheese, swimming, and other fun memories paint quite a picture. Thanks, Nana (and everyone else in the family who helped)!

With Tia Christy, Katelyn learned Spanish and developed a love for all things gluten-free. :) She and Annabelle played hard, fought, and sweetly made up like sisters. Here are a few highlights with Annabelle:

pretending to sleep on the stairs

pretending to sleep on the "boat" they made

(Side note: I find it amusing that these two pretended to nap when reality was quite the opposite.)

Beautiful Zoe... such a good sport.

Obsessed with stickers much?

This one was actually taken several weeks later but I love it!

Tantrums have been BAD lately. But between the dozens of them Katelyn throws each day, she has her sweet moments. One particularly challenging day, after escaping time out to go bite Annabelle (!!!!!), she crawled in my lap, spotted a heart-shaped magnet on the fridge and said, "Look, a heart! Mommy, I love you." That single, tender moment might just have saved her from reform school.

To make things even more fun, for almost two months she has boycotted naps and refused to sleep in her bed at night. Let me paint a picture of what bedtime used to be: rock, tell stories, say prayers, play music, lights out. The end. Usually asleep by 8:15. 

Instead, she defiantly claims, "No music! No Jesus! No prayers!" (and I cry a little inside). Night after night, she has insisted on sleeping on a blanket on the floor and would only fall asleep if I was lying next to her. And when she would stir in the middle of the night and notice that I had slipped away to my own bed, she would angrily scream, "Mama Kelley! Mama Kelley!!! I mad that you leave!!" (Side note: lately she's into saying first and last names of everyone. "Mama Kelley" is usually said in vain when she's mad. It's hard not to laugh.)

The thing is, she's super sweet when I'm lying next to her trying to get her to fall asleep. She literally takes the pillow from under her head and gives it to me because "Mommy needs pillow." She gives me her favorite dolls, puts a blanket over me, and pats my back. And when she's not being sweet, she's really funny. If I open my eyes a little to see if she's asleep yet, I catch her silently making silly faces at me. Or, I'll open my eyes to find her nose-to-nose with me and she whispers, "I pet a goat at the zoo." Glad that memory stuck.

But as I type this, Katelyn is asleep and I THINK we're turning the corner on the sleeping issues. I'll explain more in the next blog post... I don't want to jinx it now!