Binky Intervention....day 1

I am not ashamed to say that my 3 1/2 year old still has/had her binky. Some people are disgusted to hear/see such a thing. Had you asked me about this before I had kids, I might have had a different answer, heck even when my twins were this age I might have thought different. They were attached to theirs as well, but they "fell in the potty" (well one really did, the second one...well she just thought since her sisters did, hers did too...so we went with it) They were 2.
Then we had Kale and said there is no way we are giving him a binky... but when he wouldn't stop crying the day we took him home, he got the binky. However after the girls being attached, we took his away around 8 months, and he didn't even flinch. Bam done!
Then comes baby number 4...we went back and forth with the binky concept. Obviously we have nothing against them, and I for one feel they need that something to sooth themselves. We just thought we would see if maybe she would be fine without...well... no... she wanted to suck all the time, and thats all well and good in the hospital, but when you go home to 3 other kids, that just isn't going to happen...so, you guessed it...she got the binky. AND... it was love at first sight! She has been attached to that thing ever since.
Now honestly, like I said above, this doesn't bother me. Yes she is 3 1/2, but if I tried to lie and say it bothered me that she still had it...well... i would be doing just that... lying. It really bothered others more than me. There were a few times I thought, ok, it's time to think about getting rid of this. However she only used it at night. Every now and then she tried to sneak it out, but really, for the most part, she knew it only belonged in bed.
Then came our big move.... I had been rolling the idea of taking it away around. We would talk to her about it, and she would say things like "ok, I will give my binky to another baby ok mommy"... but of course she wanted it at bed time. So whatever, she got it. She is the "baby"! like I said though, the big move... not a good time to take a child's security away. So she got to hang onto it a lil' longer.
Well anyway... to cut to the chase... today was the "Big Day". Nap time rolled around, and I decided, WELP..nows as good a time as ever. So...... no binky.....YEEAAAHHHHHH..........That did not go over very well! And to tell you the truth, it broke my heart to have to stand my ground and not give in. Seriously though, it didn't bother me that she had it. There just comes a time when it is just going to get harder to break the habit, the longer we wait... so why not today?
The shaking! The tears! the screams...and pleads! Oh my gosh....tear my heart into a million bits why don't you child! Getting out of bed at nap time, over and over and over....so exhausted. The yawning, the hyperventilating...the kicking. I literally had to hold her down with all my might, to try to rub her back and calm her down. Good grief..you would have though I took this kids crack cocaine away! This went on and on...I stuck to my guns, not giving in, knowing she was so, so, sooooo tired, she would eventually fall asleep....right!? It went on...the tears, the boogers, the tissues, the drool.... oh my goodness. Finally she calmed down a bit. I held her and rocked her...although at this point it was getting later, and I knew the nap was out the window. So I gave up.
Bed time rolled around and I was not looking forward to this. I actually told my neighbor, "Don't be surprised if you see me load the kids into the car, and not come back for at least a good hour after she falls asleep, just so I know she is Really asleep and I can sneak her into her bed".
So she got out of bed a few times. I put her back....then she cried and yelled for me a few times...I went in and laid her back down. I pleaded with her to just suck her stinkin' thumb. I honestly don't care. Let's just get over this binky thing. There were so many moments I wanted to just get it out of my dresser drawer where i hid it, because I knew it would sooth her and she would sleep. I hated seeing her so upset over it. Again, though....it would just be hard later...so let's just do it. It didn't take long before she actually calmed down and asked me to rub her back. So I sat on her bed and rubbed. She then slowly and so sweetly rolled towards me and said "Mommy, look...." She was sucking her thumb..... :) This was so sweet to me, she was smiling so soft and happy like she knew she was going to make me happy. She kissed me, said "I can do it" **tear** and rolled back over, sucked her thumb and fell asleep. Within minutes the thumb wasn't even in her mouth (much like the binky) she just needed the initial comfort and then was fine.
Fingers crossed for the middle of the night wake up. My little baby is getting too big :(  And yes, that's part of the reason I didn't care so much about the binky.... Just let her be little!

Sleep tight my love

Irish step dancers

I am so proud of my girls tonight! They absolutely rocked their dance recital this afternoon. After leaving their Irish step dance class back in NH, making a HUGE move, and missing about a month of dance classes before we could get back into routine again, they jumped right into this new class and worked so hard to learn all the new routines for the recital. They practiced all the time, showing us every new step and jigging through the house constantly. I believe a few skype viewers also got a sneak peak at some of their recital routine. ;)

The down side, daddy wasn't able to be here today to watch :( He is (like I mentioned in my last post) away for a lil' bit at one of the flight school courses. It is one of those things we just have to be ok with, it is all part of this lil trip we are on...We are just thankful for cameras and video. I was only able to get a short video on my camera (Shhhh! Don't tell anyone.. it's not really "allowed") but my video cut out a lil shorter than i wanted, plus I couldn't get the whole thing because I wanted pictures too. It's ok though, we spent the extra money on the professional DVD. So hopefully that doesn't take too long to come in, and maybe we'll have it for when daddy gets back. I know they are dying to show him already!

It was a little harder this year, Daddy was deployed during the 1st recital, BUT I had family and friends all around to help. It is QUITE the process getting all ready for the recital..... hair, makeup, eating without ruining your million dollar costume!! Mom managing to get herself ready and presentable. Meanwhile the rest of the gang runs circles around you....screaming, fighting, refusing to nap, needing food every free second mom gets because Lord knows I usually starve them... or at least that's how they make it seem in those moments! So with daddy being away this year, and family being FAR away... it was an interestingly insane morning. I will say I am very thankful the recital started at 2 and we didn't have to leave the house until around 1pm... gave me a lil more time to prep all these crazies on my own!

My next dilemma...How am I going to manage to make a 3 & 5 year old sit silently for 3 hours straight!?!?! We have found a wonderful teenage girl here who has been great with our kids and watched them a few times when we needed to attend things for Ryan's courses. Just so happens, she is also the girls dance teacher!! So now what do I do with the two littles? Thankfully I found 2 teenagers (who are sisters) through a facebook group page for Fort Rucker. I just happened to be looking one night when someone else asked about babysitters. The girls mom posted about them. I quickly sent her a private message, and scored myself 2 new sitters!! One of the girls came over and spent the afternoon with Kale and Bryn and they adored her. PHEW!

SO the girls and I were able to enjoy the 1st half of the recital together before they headed back stage at intermission...then I sat and watched the rest...and I enjoyed every second of watching them up their just glowing and having a blast! Job well done my lil dancers!

"When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance..."

back at the hershey kisses

We are at it again....

At least this time it is shorter and our jar doesn't look as bad! Even if the past 24 hours have been CrAzY!!! I can do this.... I can make it.... I swear we will not be down a child (or 2) when he he gets back!!! Although yesterday...and so far today... it will take bedtime to make me feel sane again!! And some chocolate...some ice cream... maybe some wine........ maybe all of the above, but we will        

Survive. Evade. Resist. & Escape!!! And Im talking me here.. me.... (But I know he will too!)

Little Mermaid

Our lil Missa had her first dance recital on Monday night. It wasn't quite the stage she has been dreaming of. She even asked me that night as I was tucking her in "Now can I dance on a big stage momma?" Awwww..... yes baby, soon you will. She is such a lil' performer, and despite the lack of a "real stage", she absolutely loved every second of it. She must have asked 100 times through out the day... "Is Daddy coming? Are you coming?...... Is Emma coming, what about Bella and Kale??....." Making sure we would all be there to watch her. She hammed it up all evening for pictures, even while getting all dolled up before we left the house.

Her class danced to "part of your world" from Disney's The Little Mermaid and it was adorable! Their teacher made the costumes and she did a great job, they turned out so sweet! Missa made the perfect little mermaid.

Getting ready as everyone looks on

Hamming it up of course!

This was her "serious" face..she was making this face a lot while waiting her turn..so focused on her upcoming performance! 

 So Proud of her award and medal!

Love our mermaid princess

blog slacker....

Uggg I'm such a slacker!!!! I haven't touched my blog in weeks. I said I would do better.... I don't want to be a liar... so I really need to get back into it!!

Anyway.... a few up dates... we went to the Montgomery Zoo a few weeks ago. It's a nice little zoo, very clean. It was perfect zoo weather, not too hot and not humid at all. We had a pretty good day and after we had lunch at one of our new favorite places, Moe's Southwest Grill. I find myself craving it all the time now and it's bad, because they just opened a new one right outside the post. Anyway, here are a few pics from our Zoo trip..

This past weekend we decided to take a drive to Atlanta GA. It was our 10 year anniversary on Friday May 3rd and since helicopters kinda got in the way of our original 10 yr plan, which was go to Vegas and re-new our vows with Elvis, we thought we would do something with the kids. It was fun. I booked us a room in down town Atlanta for the night (using hotwire.com for the first time ever I might add!... and Im very happy I did.) Saved us a lot of money and stayed at the Hilton. Bought our tickets for the GA Aquarium here on post through the MWR travel office and got a discount and a free dolphin show included in our package. Not bad! The GA Aquarium is quite impressive! I recommend anyone who is ever in the Atlanta area to check it out. We loved it. It is HUGE, and the tanks they have in there are pretty amazing! We spent a few hours walking around checking everything out, then had some time before the dolphin show, so we ran across the st. to Johnny Rockets and had some burgers and shakes Mmmmmm.......

The tropical tank & the Beluga Whale tank

The VERY Impressive deep ocean tank & tunnel going through it

 This Jelly fish tank had such beautiful colors!

 Daddy & Kale petting sting rays in the hands on tank

Shakes and Burgers!

And then it was time for bed!

It's nice to be able to see new things down here in the Deep South... go to places we probably wouldn't go if we were not living here.... We look forward to exploring some more!