Tuesday, October 14, 2008

No more Passies


Okay, not to make every post about my kids, but here is something big.

The passey (binkie) has been a very important part of Alyssa’s life, until yesterday that is.

That’s right. She is a big girl now. She no longer needs a passey. A year ago she gave up passies all except for sleep times.

I always told myself that as long as she was younger than three it wasn’t completely ridiculous that she still sucked a passey for naps and night time. Her third year is rapidly approaching so yesterday we did the deed. Here’s how it happened.

When she woke up yesterday I told her we could go to the store and trade her passies for some new toys. I suggested that we get some new friends for Kiwi (her BFF cat stuffed animal). She was excited about that.

We headed off for the Target which again as it always does…disappointed us. Nothing there worth trading passies for.

So we went to Ross. I mentioned to the cashier upon our entrance that we were here to make a special exchange, passies for toys. The cashier was happy to be in on it. Then we went and scoured the toy section where she found and fell in love with a little baby doll that came with her own car seat carrier, a bottle, a toy and a change of clothes all for the bargain price of less than $10.

She decided that it was worth trading her passies for and we headed to the front.

We waited in line for quite a while (standard procedure for Ross). I kept asking her if that was what she really wanted to do. I wanted to make sure she understood what was about to happen. She really seemed to.

While we were waiting in line she looked up at me and said… “But I can still keep my yellow blankie?” (her favorite blankie) I told her yes, of course she could. ( we all know how I feel about special blankies.) I told her she could always have her yellow blankie.

When it was our turn we approached the counter and the cashier said.. “That will be two passies please…” and held out her hand. Alyssa put her passies in the cashiers out stretched hand, then took ownership of the baby doll and proudly carried it out of the store. We opened it when we got to the car and she was tickled to have it.

The test.

When nap time came around, she gathered her doll and scurried into bed. We read our stories sang our song said our prayer and then she quite calmly informed me that she would indeed cry for her passies. I then informed her that if she did, she would not be able to sleep with her new dolly and that was that. She didn’t cry.

When night time came around she did cry a little for her passies but again I informed her that she would lose her doll and again she stopped and settled for another sip of milk, then went to sleep.

So there you have it. Alyssa is a big girl now.

SideBar: You should know that last year about this time we attempted this whole process and failed. I was so nervous about how she would react and what our life would be like without passies. I attempted to tell the cashier my plan but burst into tears and couldn’t get it out. The cashier put her arm around me and told me that if she still needed it, she was little and should keep it. I still attempted it, but Alyssa started crying and wouldn’t hand her passies over. I cried too and we both left the store crying with passies in hand.

Then that same day Dr. Laura had a caller asking how to take her passey from her two year old and Dr. Laura said to let her keep it, saying two year olds are little and need comfort objects. So we bagged that plan and instead just went to passies are only for sleeping, which was a good transition.

So this attempt was much better than our last, no tears from either of us.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Happy Birthday Dear Momma...


My mom is Sixty! That’s right, 60 years old. To celebrate her birthday my brothers and I ( mainly me) threw her the surprise party of the century, mom style.

It was the hippest party ever thrown at Marie Callendars restaurant, there were balloons and everything.

(My mom and her Sisters) The guest list included everyone who’s anyone in the world of Darla. Siblings, childen, and friends. No grandkids though. Can you imagine the mayhem if we had invited all 17 grandkids to come party.


We had a great time celebrating our awesome mom, wife, sister, friend and grandma. You can tell by the awesome pictures.


Anyway, just wanted everyone who reads this blog to know how much I love my mom.

Friday, October 10, 2008

New Three year old, and six month pictures

We had a great time taking these pictures. The girls were very cooperative especially considering how chilly it was.

Photo credit goes to Heather of Aya Photography. Isn't she talented?








Wednesday, October 8, 2008

And the winner is...

Steve took the girls to his mom’s house the other night while I was at yet another compelling city council meeting.

During their visit they watched the Town Hall Presidential debate. The adults watched rather intently as Alyssa played in and out of the room while the debate was happening, appearing to pay no attention to it.

After about an hour she popped up in front of the T.V. and said… “I don’t like him (John McCain), he’s grouchy.” Then the cameras went to Barack Obama to which she said… “Yeah…he’s okay…He’s fun!!”

Everyone’s jaws dropped.

So there you have it. Alyssa has called the 2008 Presidential Election. Congratulations Barack….you’re fun!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Get ready, get set, Conference!

Who doesn’t love conference weekend.

A lot of people look forward to spiritual upliftment, as do I. I also look forward to not having to get dressed and ready for Church.

But what I REALLY look forward to is….All the lame-o commercials directly before and after the session ends.

Trips to Navoo (have you ever been there, lame). Pills you swallow instead of eating food( What the?). Food storage systems, LDS art, LDS music, LDS Movies, all white clothing, Joseph Smith Statues (I thought we weren’t supposed to be into idols and stuff) Book of Mormon Trivia Games and all the other strange products that only Mormons need to have.

I find it all very irritating for some reason.

On a more positive note. At least I don’t have to get two other people besides myself ready for church. I’ll have time to make and eat warm muffins. Eight hours of church is almost worth hot lemon poppy-seed muffins.