When to Stop Laughing

My daughter can be a bit of a punk. That being said I am having a hard time trying to discipline her. I tell her "no" and I try to be stern but I can't even look at her because she's so adorable and she has this mischievous grin; so when I'm trying to be serious and get her to understand that clawing off my face is bad I just want to scoop her into my arms and laugh at her expressions.

She really isn't a bad toddler. For only 14 months she's very smart. That just means that she knows what she is doing is wrong and she's trying to come up with ways to get away with what she is doing. I love her so much and I know that I need to break these habits and set the boundaries now but for goodness sake it is hard to stop laughing!

Kai likes to throw herself backwards. I'm talking the trust exercise throwing yourself into the arms of a loved one without looking type of throw yourself backwards. This little girl doesn't just gracefully fall back either. She puts power into it so that her whole back is arched and she's leading with her head. Now, I LOVE that she trusts me and Richie to catch her, and most of the time we do. Only, Kai doesn't make sure we're behind her all the time and once or twice she has hit the floor. Its gotten to the point where we're considering a helmet for her just so that she doesn't hurt herself!

Now that is the perfect time to say "no". And I do! Every single time I tell her no and try to look serious and slightly menacing to get the point across that it is a bad idea to throw herself back. But she has this adorable smile and a mouthful of teeth and she just looks to happy and innocent and the reaction I get to the word "no" is the same every time, she laughs. Big old belly laughs from my little girl and it is a fight for me to look stern.


I have learned to look away. I tell her no and don't make eye contact with her dancing little eyes. I love her trust and her spunk but I need her to learn what is right and wrong too. Its hard to love someone so much and know that you're the one they're going to learn how to behave from and just want to laugh instead of punish them. Please somebody tell me this gets easier!!

Packing and Praying...

Life always has its ups and downs and just when you think you are prepared for everything life throws you a curve ball. We were told that we need to be out of our house in less than a month now. This is a scary prospect when you have a family to take care of!

Now I am lucky. I have an amazing support system of family and friends so I know that we'll never truly be without a place to stay. But that being said its hard to struggle through each day not knowing where you'll be in a month.

I know I'm not the only one struggling right now. When you're the one going through a hard time its not so easy to remember that there are plenty of people out there who have it worse than you. Still, I have to be thankful for a happy and healthy family and all of the blessings that we've received thus far.

So we're currently packing up our house with no idea where we'll be unpacking our things. Oddly enough I'm okay with all of this at the moment....

Not A Fan Of Being Sick!

Last Wednesday I got home from an awesome day of hanging out with Kai and Sebastian to find out that my little girl was not being cranky just for fun but rather she had a fever! My little girl has never gotten sick before. Sure she's had the occasional flair of the fever when her teeth were bothering her, but nothing worth seeing the doctor over. The thing is this time we just couldn't get her fever to break!

We tried running a warm bath, we let her play in it and slowly added cool water until she was playing in a cold tub. The temp dropped from 101.4 to 100.6 nothing exciting enough for us. I ran to the store and got her some baby meds to try and tame the fever and yet it simply helped her to sleep through the discomfort.

Thankfully my doctor's office is amazing and at ten the next morning I was rocking her in my arms and waiting for the doctor to come in and see her. As a testament to how unwell she was feeling she fell asleep in my arms as we were waiting. She had an inner ear infection!

I can't handle watching my daughter in pain and here she was with something that I couldn't instantaneously make better. I got the medicine and a new toy for her and we went home. The next 48 hours were spent rocking her to sleep and bathing her to cool her down and simply doing anything we could to make her feel better. When Richie would get home he would take over rocking her and soothing her just so that I could take a quick break.

Thankfully the fever broke as the medicine the doctor prescribed worked and she has slowly gotten back into her playful self. It is a hard thing to watch someone you love in pain and its doubly hard when they can't tell you what's wrong. I am glad to say that she is happily asleep now and looking forward to all the excitement that tomorrow holds!!