So ignore my previous post o' frustration. Apparently my child was coming down with the flu. Oops. Thanks to this little miracle drug, she's on the mend (and napping quite well.)

Nap Time

Nap time. You've heard of it, right? It is that hour and a half to two hours of your day when you can breathe, relax, do laundry, shower (for more than 5 minutes and without a small child opening and closing the shower door 5 times), or read a book. You look forward to it, I know you do. The fact that we cherish that time doesn't make us evil parents either. I used to feel sort of bad about it, but not now, I'm over that.

So why is this post entitled, "Nap Time"? you ask. Well, at 3 apparently (which, I know I have been warned about) there is a power struggle that occurs between parent and child. You say stand, they sit. You say quiet, they scream. You say the sky is blue, they ask "WHY?" no less than 200 times. There are also random tantrums that come out of nowhere, and in our house at least, a LOT of back talk (as my father used to call it). It is a new phase that came literally the day Lucy turned 3 (ESPECIALLY the asking why). And now there is a battle of the wills over nap time.

THREE is NOT old enough to stop naps. I firmly believe that (and it isn't because I so cherish my few hours alone in the middle of the day either). Four is probably more appropriate for ending the naps, but let me tell you, this child will still have some quiet time in her room each day. Anyway, back to the ORDEAL...Lucy has been off and on just flat out refusing to take naps at school about once a week for about a month now. However, last week, she went three days with no nap. You could say that her teachers were less than pleased with her when I came to get her each day. They sort of "swarmed" me when I showed up. Not fun. Much like her mother, when Lucy doesn't get good sleep, she tends to whine and cry and make mountains out of molehills. She also knows that when she skips nap, she goes to bed early. No fun for any of us.

After much threatening, as well as her teachers videotaping her having a meltdown after no nap and then showing it to her, Lucy finally gave in to the nap on Thursday. Took a TWO HOUR bad boy! Then Friday, she took another good nap. Yesterday, it was only an hour. Today it was 25 minutes. Oh, did I mention she's sick too? So she REALLY needs the rest. I even told her that we'd go to get ice cream, play outside, and watch her favorite show "The Fresh Beat Band" if she took a good nap today. 25 minutes into it, she told me (through incredibly red, sleepy eyes) that she was all done. OH! She also told me it made her happy that I was sad and that her Mumsy (who we were going to get ice cream with) was sad. She also informed me that she probably made her Grandy, Mimi, Papa, and Daddy sad too. Isn't that so nice? She was saying it with a look on her face like, "Yep, I'm testing you mom. Let's see how you do." Needless to say, she's in her room and is NOT to come out until I tell her to. That could very well be next Wednesday.

I felt like today she should be wearing a shirt that says, "Yep, I'm a bad_ _ _." Or perhaps this outfit:

Either one makes my point that she thinks she is going to be in charge this year. Not cool, or true.

So today will be slightly miserable for me. I am stuck inside, with no t.v. OR ice cream. Sometimes it is hard to punish the child, especially when your sanity is slowly draining from you exhausted body. However, if we want her to be a successful, well-balanced, "normal" adult, I'll do without the ice cream today. My waistline probably needs a salad more anyway.

Below are a couple of pictures from last month. Valentine's Day came and went, and she got a cute little leotard to play around in. It's days like this I tell myself, "Remember when she was two, and so cute?" Surely she'll do something redeeming tomorrow...

Ahh, parenthood. There's never a dull moment.

We Saw the Wizard (But there were NO flying monkeys!)

It is amusing to me the difference between being a "mom blogger" in year one of your child's life vs. year three. When they're newborn, you blog about everything you can and each time they sneeze you think it is new and cute and you just HAVE to tell someone. Even though you should be napping while they nap, you are writing things down in the baby book, scrapbooking, blogging, taking pictures of them sleeping, etc. By year three, they're doing so much all the time and you are so busy that TWO WEEKS AFTER your child's birthday, you finally get around to posting about it. Such is life.

So if you know us well, you know on most Friday nights we can be found at some Mexican restaurant. I was raised in a Mexican restaurant on Friday nights, why should we NOT carry on that tradition with Lu? Her favorite place to go is a place to eat is a place called "Don Gallo" which I think means boss rooster????? Anyway, she told us she wanted to eat there for her birthday and (I QUOTE) "I want to have the cookers sing to me." So, after her little birthday party at school (thank goodness her Mumsy could go, as I had the stomach flu that week and am rapidly running through my sick days), we headed for Don Gallo with all the grandparents in tow. I was so looking forward to a margarita, avacado salsa, and some steak tacos, but since I'd puked my guts up earlier in the week, I settled for a water and two tortilla chips. Everyone else ate well (I am now done with my pity party, but I had to get it out). After we finished eating, the "cookers" did come out and sing to Lucy.

When they first came out, they came from behind her and just plopped a sombrero on her head. She got a look on her face and I thought we were about to have a crisis on our hands. However, she recovered nicely and began throwing her hands in the air and dancing to the "cookers" singing. Cutest thing EVER. She devoured her ice cream all by herself too!

After the wild time at Don Gallo (I should be getting SOMETHING from them for this free advertising shouldn't I?) we came back home to a "Wizard of Oz" decorated house.

Nothing too out of control, but there were a few balloons, a banner, and cupcakes with ruby red slippers in the top. It was pretty cute, but awfully hard for mommy to pull off. Believe me, I tried for months to get her to do a Hello Kitty or Dora or Princess party, but NO. It HAD to be Dorothy. Now, we aren't sure how this obsession came to be, especially since the movie scares the bejeezus out of both Bryan and I. She will NEVER see it on our watch. You may recall she was Dorothy for Halloween and still refers to herself as Dorothy on occasion. So I had a shirt made for her (as I have no clue where her Halloween costume is-whoops!) and we celebrated some more. The kid got way too much loot, but hey, you're only three once, right?!? (THANK THE LORD).

Lu has also been obsessed with ice skating for a long while now. My parents take her to the rink by their house, and she watches it any time it is on t.v. The rink rules say that you have to be 3 to skate, so we've been promising her we'd take her as soon as the day came. Well, the time had come. We knew that Lucy would either love it or hate it when her feet hit the ice. We (along with all the grands in tow) ventured to the Icearium and got the kid her own set of skates. First of all, let me tell you little kid skates are just about the cutest thing you've ever seen.

Bryan and I used to ice skate all the time, so we planned on lacing up and taking her out on the ice. NO problem. Well, let me tell you, I sure felt OLD when my feet hit that ice. 16 years makes an incredible difference in how you feel when you are on ice. You begin to notice how far you actually are from the ice, you think about how you'd do your JOB with a broken leg, you wonder if a fall would be covered by short or long term disability, etc. You don't just jump out there and do a triple toe loop like you used to! We were a bit wobbly. However, Lucy loved every minute of it. It is quite difficult to hold yourself up, pray you don't fall, drag a kid along between you and the other person who you hope and pray isn't about to fall as well. I wouldn't call that experience "FUN" for Bryan and I, but for Lucy, she thought it was a great day.

I will say that I have done a good job at taking pictures with this child. Good thing we're stopping with one, because I am not sure I could keep this up with a second. So, it is a new year and a new age, which means-time for pictures!!!!! I have a student in my class who for Christmas gave me a free photography session with her mom (a professional-inhisimagephotographers.com). Jessica did a FABULOUS job with Lucy for her 3 year portraits. I cannot believe how cute these pictures turned out. Below are my favorites!!!!