Weekend Recap

Update: I've been trying to write this post for 3 days, and Blogger keeps giving me errors about uploading videos. I don't know why it still won't let them post. So we'll have to do without some really cute ones in this post. Boo! You can check some of them out on my Instagram feed.

We were all finally home for once in a while on the weekend, and it was good to be in town and doing things around here.

Friday:
Ashley hosted a play date for several of us, so we went over there after Cara and I ate breakfast. Cara, like usual, was hesitant in a new situation, so I held her for a bit while Ashley, Britni and I talked. Cara wasn't ready to play with the big kids, so she played with us and ventured into the other room with Benjamin, Hunter and Ava occasionally. The kids ran around for more than 2 hours while we talked and ran after them too. We wanted to get a picture of the kids together at the end, but Cara was really upset about sitting by herself next to some big, scary boy. :) So I held her and we did what we could do.

We both got naps that afternoon and then ran a few errands. I do like playing at home, but my favorite thing is to be on the go with my girl. We stopped by Chance's bank again to say hi, and then it wasn't too much longer before he came home! We grabbed dinner to go, watched Cinderella (again!), played in Cara's room and put her to bed. It was a great day.


Saturday:
I had a Mary Kay show at a friend's house--a ton of other direct sales reps (Premier, essential oils, Jamberry, Tastefully Simple, Pampered Chef, etc) were all there at a booth, and we just saw friends and customers all morning. I saw some old friends, saw lots of other businesses, got fun samples, etc. It was a good morning.

Chance took Cara to watch Cari and Cayce at the CG games, and Cara LOVED running around the track with her cousins. I may have a future marathoner on my hands! {no video... ugh!}

When I got home, Cara was still napping, so I unpacked and rested for a bit. When we checked the mail, we discovered a "Cara package" from Mimi! Mimi sent Cara a new Cinderella shirt in honor of our new favorite movie that we watch almost daily (at least in pieces). Mimi called her "Cara-rella". Ha! Cara was so excited and immediately demanded her shirt be taken off and the new one put on. She loved it so much.

Love my cheesy toddler with SUCH LONG piggie-tails. :) We ran errands around town for a while and came home for dinner. Cara asked to watch "Cinderella on a TV", so we watched some of it. I don't know if she was really into it or what, but I told her, "Tell me when you have to go potty," and she said, "No." Then about 5 seconds later she said, "Go potty" and had an accident. That hasn't happened at home since she potty trained initially, so I was surprised. We cleaned her up and made her a couch pallet for safety. :)

Bedtime has started to be difficult again because she is experiencing fear/anxiety about abstract things ("the big truck get you" or "monkey [from the zoo a month ago] get you", etc.). It's hard to reassure her and rationalize with her at this age. It takes lots of tears, lots of cuddles, a nightlight, some "happy spray" (water in a squirt bottle), some essential oils, and lots of time. It's really sad for her, frustrating for us and difficult to deal with the fear/anxiety. It's not just at bedtime--she will hear a loud noise like the air conditioner and be scared of the "truck"... From what I've read, this is a totally normal phase, but that doesn't make it any easier. Hopefully we can keep being consistent in reassuring her and teaching her about her world so that she can get used to it without fear. So bedtime Saturday took a while, and afterwards, we crashed on the couch.

Sunday:

We went to church, and I put Cara in one of my favorite fancy dresses. It's amazing to see how much she has changed in just 4 months.

It's the same little girl, but her face is older, her posture is taller, and her hair is longer.

After church, we spontaneously decided to go to lunch with our friends. We haven't eaten out with Cara in quite some time, and I remembered why. She wasn't bad at all, but she's just more demanding on our attention, so it's almost counterproductive because we can't chat with friends as much. But we all had our kids, so we were all in the same boat. Cara was adamant that she wanted a chair and not a high chair, so that became our motivation if she tried to get out of the chair--she had to sit in the high chair. She stayed put the whole meal! We gave her coloring papers, our phones to look at pictures and tons of chips and salsa!

Halfway through lunch, Cara said, "Need potty!" We have not yet done the public potty thing yet, but I'm not going to back down, so we went. I explained to her about the big potty, the loud flush, etc., and she did so good! She asked to go back twice more in the meal, but she didn't really have to go. :)

We left lunch with a few hugs from our friends and went home for naps for everyone!

For the rest of the day, we got out for a bit, grabbed dinner and tried our bedtime routine again. This night it was successful--no crying after we left! It's still been hit or miss, but I know it will get better over time.

There aren't many more summer weekends, so we have to make them count! We've already got plans for the next one too!