Swimming Lessons & Pacifiers

First of all, to all of my fans (I've always wanted to say that) I apologize for not posting in a while. I know you all have missed out on my very exciting life.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy. Meredith just finished two weeks of swimming lessons which she enjoyed. A little friend from her preschool class was in her swim group so they had a great time together. I'm not really sure if Meredith is ready to go swim the English Channel yet but hopefully there was some improvement. I think next year we're going to have to sign her up for a little more intensive type lesson. However, she did learn the phrase "Chicken, T, I" which I finally understood the next time we took her swimming. It's a very effective way for them to learn how to float on their back and the placement of their arms. We thought it was funny to say too.

My sister, Staci came to stay with me for a few days this week as well. She starts college (TU) on August 20th, the same day Meredith starts kindergarten (boo hoo). I can't believe my baby sister is going to college and my baby girl is going to kindergarten on the same day. Anyway, we had a great time with Staci and Meredith was more attached to her than ever. Aunt Staci stayed with her every night, which she loved, and played Webkinz on the computer with her too. Meredith now seems obsessed with it and I'm wondering what I've started by buying those little critters for the girls. They are awfully cute though.

Here's the traumatic news of the week. I took Alli's pacifier away from her yesterday (Friday). She took it mainly for sleep times but it made it no less traumatic for her. I bought her a Groovy Girl and told her it was for her not using the pacifier anymore which she seemed okay with. However, apparently it didn't actually "hit" her until bedtime. Needless to say, she was furious. (unfortunately she seemed to inherit her mother's temper) She probably screamed, kicked, hit, and hollered for over an hour nonstop. (Oh yeah, did I mention she threw the Groovy Girl across the room?) I purposefully didn't give her a nap in hopes she would fall asleep easier without it but this was to no avail. She finally conked out at 11:15 p.m. However, she then woke up at 2 a.m. screaming at the top of her lungs again. I'm talking about blood curdling screams and I'm not exaggerating. I don't know how long this went on but I fully expected the police to be knocking on my door investigating child abuse at any moment. It was that loud. I had already planned out that when the police did arrive I was going to ask them for any suggestions (I had destroyed all pacifiers so that wouldn't have been an option). Well, she finally fell back asleep and woke up this morning before 7 a.m. I was completely exhausted today. Thank goodness my parents came over to pick up Staci and let me take a nap. (Michael had to work today.) So, I changed my strategy tonight and just drove around until Alli fell asleep in the car and I laid her in bed at about 8:30 p.m. and she's still there, thank goodness. Now I probably just need to go to bed and pray that she sleeps through the night. I guess if I don't show up at church tomorrow you'll know what happened. I think if I make it through the next two nights we will be through it. UGH! (Yes, I know I should have done this a long time ago, but I didn't, so there.)

Good Night!