"The Switch"

Ever since Guiliana's 1st ear infection back in November, she has slept with us on and off. As the months went on and she continued to get her ear infections the sleeping with us became ON almost all of the time. She finally got her tubes and has not had an ear infection since. I have to say... I think 8 in 6 months was about all we could handle!! At this point she HATES the crib. We tried that whole "tough love" thing back at the end of May, let her cry for 45 min and then fall asleep. Well, she made herself SO upset that she pooped herself!!! When I found that out, I changed her (her poopy pants woke her up) and then put her back in bed with us, as I was SO upset, and she had been sleeping with us every since! The funny part is.... I swore (ask my friend Sandra) that I would NEVER get into the habit of letting her sleep in our bed. She said, watch, wait till she gets sick, blah! blah! blah! Needless to say... she was right!!
Anyways, Greg and I knew that once she started walking we could do the switch from the crib to the toddler bed. She sleeps in a cot at school for nap time and she sleeps for almost 3hrs some days. Since this was one of our only free weekends till maybe October, we would do the switch this weekend. We ventured out to Walmart Supercenter yesterday to get the goods. On our list, a VERY SECURE gate for the top of the stairs and a toddler bed set. She is so use to our bed that I wanted to do whatever I could to try and replicate that. We ended up picking her out a Tinkerbell Bed set, not the old school tink, but the new movie Tink. Her room is all butterflies and flowers and I thought that this would match the best. Plus, I am a little bias as there is one of Tink's friends who is a sunflower (and we all know I am obsessed!) It was a great choice because she got excited and when I put the comforter and pillow on her bed she gives Tink a kiss.
So, after the pain of the ass gate installation and the crib conversion, we were set! Oh!! I forgot one key point... her current obsession is with WALL-E, so we thought that we would buy that (as our only copy is a taped version on tivo) and put it on for her in her room. We put it on and she got into bed and laid down. I laid by/with, whatever she wanted and stayed with her till she fell sleep. This took almost all of WALL-E but she finally fell asleep. She didn't cry or fuss or move all around, she just wanted to lay and watch the movie. She only woke up once and that was for her pacifier.
Of course, I think that she got way more sleep than I did!!! Every little sound I woke up! I think it was because I know that she can get up on her own now and we are not quite sure how she would handle it. Would she come right into our room??? Every time I checked on her she was sound asleep. She never even made a peep. After the lost pacifier incident, I had to lay by her for a bit and apparently fell asleep and Greg had to get me. She was very comfortable because she slept till almost 8am and this is a kid who is a 6-6:30am kinda gal.
I was a little nervous for nap time today but we did it!!! She didn't cry but did wanna stand up, jump, and play around. After about 30min dedication, I got her to fall asleep. As we speak, that was almost 2 hours ago and she is still sleeping! She woke up about 10min ago, looked around and fell back asleep. She seems to be comfortable. I think it will be a long week of getting her to sleep in her toddler bed but by this time next weekend, I feel confident that she will be a pro at it!!!!




Taken this morning at 7:45am (still sleeping!!)

Curly hair moment

I love that Guiliana's hair gets curly when it air dries. Wanted to try and see what it would look like with a little "product" help. I have some curl enhancer spray that I tried on her and loved how it came out. The facial expression isn't the best but her hair looks super cute!! I even twisted her bangs back with a bobby pin. What a girly!!

Pizza w/the Patersons

Last Saturday, we met up with one of our favorite families, The Patersons. Joel, Sandra, Violet, and Xavier, met us at Chuckie Cheese so the kids could play. I have to say that Guiliana, the new walker that she is, is still very much intrigued with walking and not so much for the toys. A lot of our time there was spent following her but she was so happy to be getting around that it was well worth it. Guiliana did really like the Stage show that they had and wanted to dance around.
After pizza, the sun had gone down so we thought it would be fun for the kids to play in the water. We took them to the fountains at Desert Ridge and all 3 kiddos had a good time. Guiliana enjoyed it the last time but this time was different. She is walking and she has so much to explore. She felt the need to keep walking in circles and running her hand through the fountains. Violet was a big helper in walking with Guiliana too. Those two got along great. Little Xavier sure is adorable! We haven't seen them since G's birthday party and boy has be grown into one cute little boy!!! We ended our evening with some yummy ice cream from Coldstone. We sure did miss the Paterson Family and look forward to seeing them again in a couple of weeks!

All of a sudden she grew up!

This post is a tad bit late, but now that we have a "walker" in the house my time for blogging has been limited. A week ago last Monday, Guiliana started in her new class at school, Toddler A. This move came after she started walking. Its amazing how much they really grow up when they are walking!! It really hit me when one day that first week when she walked into her class and sat down to eat breakfast with the other kids. She sat in a little chair at a little table and she just looked so grown up! She is having a blast in her new room. The first week she started they had water day, a pizza party, and a special McDonalds lunch party!!! Her new interests are going to the school library, playing in the atrium, and of course arts & crafts. She also has taken an interest in BIG building blocks, so we bought her some yesterday. I have had it in my mind to post this because that moment I realized she grew up, really hit me hard, and the thought has stayed with me ever since. After dropping her off and heading to work I found myself with bittersweet feelings. I was both very proud of my little girl, but sad that she really now is now longer a baby. She has really become an independent little thing, but still insists on needing her Mommy. I am proud of our baby girl!!

Guiliana LOVES babydolls

Guiliana has shown some interest in baby dolls at school recently, so we thought that it was time to put together her baby doll stroller that she got for her birthday. We were saving it till she could walk and we thought now was a perfect time. She likes to hold her dollies and rock them. Oh, and she also tries to get in the stroller too!! Here are some pictures of G and her new stroller.

4th Of July Weekend 2009

Our 4th of July weekend started off Friday with a girls only shopping day. It was just me, Guiliana, and Grandma. Guiliana and I treated Grandma to lunch at the Olive Garden and it was VERY YUMMY. Then we did what girls did best... SHOP!! We decided to go to PV Mall because they have the kiddie play area and now that Gules is walking we thought she would like to play with the other kids. She seemed to be more interested in walking around than the actual playground. She walked for awhile and we did some shopping. Grandma bought Guiliana her very first pair of VANS and they are so cute!! Monday, Guiliana graduates to the next room at her school now that she is walking full-time which requires all the children to wear shoes. She also got a new pair of sandals for the weekends and a new dress (Grandma is TOO good to her, oh and to me too! She hooked me up with a few goodies too!)
Grandma treated us to some ice cream before it was time to head home. Guiliana spent the evening along with Brooklyn at grandma and grandpa's house while daddy and I went to a movie. It turned out to be a very nice day.
Fourth of July started out with an early breakfast back and Grandma and Grandpa's. Then as usual the day included swimming, BBQ, ice cream sundays, and ended with a nice fireworks show within walking distance. It turned out to be a nice and VERY much needed 3 day weekend!














Watching Fireworks :)


I guess she had a good weekend :)

Helping Grandma sweep her floors

This video gets off to a rough start but then she gets the hang of it: