A little bit of everything

I have soo much to say, but don't know really where to start. This week has been hard, and kind of surreal. Allen has now been gone for a whole week. This has been good and bad. Good that I got caught up on everything around the house, and can now finally start packing some stuff up, and getting other stuff ready for the city wide garage sale next month. I think this past week I've cooked more than I could ever remember, and loving making new dishes and experimenting with new recipes- even pre ordering  a new cookbook, "The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From My Frontier." 


We got all of the Easter stuff up, and have even made eggs with our names on them for the fridge. We are planning on dying eggs next weekend, when my sister comes home- so she can help Hayleigh with it, and I can sit back and enjoy watching. 


The bad- Allen not being here- both Hayleigh and I really miss him, and I kind of hate having the whole bed to myself now. We haven't even been downstairs for the past week, except to put the dogs in their crates, feed and give them fresh water, and to do laundry. Hayleigh and I have just kind of adopted snuggling on our bed, watching tv in there instead. 


Allen is transitioning very well- we skype every night on the computer- I really think it makes it soo much easier to be away from each other with seeing each other on the computer. He has been very busy, now getting moved into his 1st man camp, and learning more and more every day. 


This next week will be even harder I'm afraid- I am going back to work, and the time changes this weekend as well. At least we got our original sitter back that has watched Hayleigh since she was 3 months old. I had lost soo much sleep over this- where Hayleigh was to go. I even contemplated taking a leave of absence from work so I could watch Hayleigh. But, thankfully that did not have to happen. We have had a lot of great friends step up, and refer us to some really good people as well. Our sitter just happened to call the last minute, and happened to have a spot until school is out in May- PERFECT. I doubt if Hayleigh will still be going by then- probably until mid-April would be my guess. But, what a sense of relief that was! Hayleigh knows the sitter and her family well, as well as the kids that go there, and the surroundings, plus it is on my way to work as well. I am soo thankful for this. 

Tidbits:

Hayleigh now finds it is necessary to find any pot of mine with a plant in it in our house, and dig dirt out of it, only to try to vacuum it up with her mini toy dyson vacuum. Of course, she always retreats when I come around, and leaves her vacuum running by the dirt mess. She wants to clean up stuff- just like her mommy. She also now tries to help me fold laundry, and do the dishes- in fact if you want to know where she is hiding, just turn on a water faucet, and she comes running. 

Baths.... Hayleigh now demands baths as many times a day as she can- turning into a little mermaid... I now cannot even take a bath or a shower when she is awake- she pounds at the door yelling "no" and "Honey", trying to get me to open the door, and let her in the tub with me. 

Trouble...when Hayleigh now gets into trouble, she tries to tickle you and laugh, making the trouble disappears. This usually happens when I catch her doing something she knows she should not be doing- digging in pots, grabbing stuff off of tables- EASTER DECOR... sigh... terrible twos..

Potty Training.... I am now armed and ready to fully take on this whole potty training bit, it is just where to start. We have let Hayleigh get comfortable with her potty- I just don't think she likes sitting on the floor- and to be honest, I would rather her go in our potty- less mess. So, I am really thinking of putting her potty insert into the seat of our bathroom upstairs, and make our downstairs potty mine, and other guest's potty. Her potty doubles into a step, and I think this will work a whole lot easier than using the small potty setup. I have found a toilet seat on pinterest- it has a built in seat for small children, that flips up with the lid, leaving the adult seat down. Very interesting. As far as Pull Ups go- the first pack I bought, will be the last. They are nothing but diapers without velcro straps. This past week, I purchased training pants, with the rubber pants shield that goes over them. My mom also had some, so we now have a really good supply of them. I realize this means a lot more laundry, BUT, Hayleigh will know what it feels like to dirty her pants, and hopefully not like the feeling, making potty training much easier and faster. I understand accidents, and know that when we go on long trips, diapers might have to be substituted instead. I believe the longer we dabble with it, the longer this will all take. Our goal is to be potty trained by end of summer, and paci free, and bottle free by the end of next month. We would be bottle free now, if Hayleigh would actually drink milk more. She hates it, and I have to force her to drink it- she will not drink it out of a sippy, and we are working now on a transition sippy/bottle for that. It just really worries me she is not getting enough milk, and that is why the bottle issue has not been pressed very much.