Love and Hate

These two girls crack me up, they either love each other or hate each other. It is very rare that you get them together and for the whole playing date, they love each other. The other night was an exception.

They played great! My sister Hollie and I are always doing babysitting trade offs, it makes life a lot more easier when you know you can call someone and they will be more than happy to tend, it goes both ways for us. So, Kate and Peiton get some good, quality time together and I love it when they have a good time because that means I have a good time and I don't have to break up any fights.

(Ignore Peiton's dirty face, it seems like my kids are getting messier by the day, I swore I would ALWAYS have clean kids...not happening)

They are so much a like that is is kind of crazy. When Kate was a baby, Hollie would tell me the things that she was doing (the crazy things) and I just thought to myself that is just like Peiton and good luck. As Kate gets older, I still think she does things that Peiton did. They are both just sass and cuteness mixed together. Love them both.

Future basketball star!

Need I say more.

Bedtime!

Bedtime is not a fun time at the Richards home! Isn't bedtime suppose to be nice, relaxing, quiet, etc...not here, it is quite opposite of that. It is mean, stressful, loud, screaming (by mom and kids) and I have really about had it. Cooper goes to bed great, but Cooper simply is great and obedient, not anything like the other two. Bode and Peiton will put up a fight, literally a fight, until mom is at her wits ends and ready to walk out the door!

Well for the last 3 or 4 months, our darling Peiton has NOT wanted to go to bed. She use to beg to go to bed, get in her crib and ta-da, she was a sleep. So nice. Not so nice now. There were a few nights that she would scream for over 2 hours before she would stop and she stops because Collin would go in and get her. Well we thought we would put her on the floor, worked wonders, for two nights, then it was back to crying and screaming and mommy or daddy having to lay by her until she is asleep. I don't know about you, but I am not one of those moms that can lay by there kid until they fall asleep, I want bedtime to be quick so I can get on with all the fun things I am going to do when they are asleep, okay not really fun things, but things that need to be done. It wasn't happening. About 2 weeks ago I thought I would just leave the door open and see if that helped a little bit, it did, but nothing to be ecstatic over, but she did fall asleep on her own, on her own floor. Progress.

Well last week my good friend Allison mentioned that she had a spare twin size bed that we could use to get her off the floor, we took her up on that offer! We thought that this is going to work, she just needs a bed! Well it has been better, she kind of whimpers a little bit, but then after 10 minutes she usually will fall asleep. Some nights are better than others, last night was not a good night, but I see progress. The bad thing is she comes into our room EVERY night about 1:00 and falls asleep on our floor. You know, I am fine with that, but she is not getting in my bed, it is my bed and plus there is no room, Bode is already in there, which is a whole new challenge. I love bed time!

So here is a happy little Peiton in her big girl bed that we are just praying she will soon LOVE and just want to crawl up and put herself to bed. I know, not going to happen, but I can dream right?

Sweet Email

Okay this post is a little random, but clear back in November or December, I got the sweetest email from somebody (I don't even remember her name...sorry) but it was really nice and she said some very great and encouraging things to me and mentioned another ladies blog that she follows who also has a child with Down Syndrome. Well, I got the email and was starting to reply, then got interrupted by kids...crazy I know, but by the time I got back to it, I had deleted it somehow or lost it when my computer crashed just after that. I have been meaning to make this post to see if she still reads my blog and if she could shoot me another email to bode1110@msn.com, I would love to reply to her and continue to look at the blog of the mother going through similar things that I am.

So, if you are out there and didn't determine that I was a very rude person because I never responded to you, please email me back! I would love to chat with you!

Thank you!!

Green?

Talk about slacker! It has been almost a month since I have posted last! That tells you how exciting the Richards life has been..nothing more than potty training, no sleeping, stuck in the house because of the yucky weather (besides the last couple days), pretty boring!

Well we did have a holiday yesterday, which means I must make a post! I hope everyone had a great St. Patty's Day, we sure had a green one around her (I am sure Collin wished it was a little greener...ha, ha, catch my drift, I pulled a funny!) Anyway, this is what our day entailed....

Waking up to a box of Lucky Charms for breakfast!

Peiton was in heaven. This girl loves Lucky Charms, not the cereal part, but the marshmallows. Cooper thought they were pretty yummy too and Bode stayed clear (not surprised).

I usually make green pancakes but nobody really touches them, Bode won't eat anything he is not familiar with and the other two could really care less to have them.

Cooper went off to school and enjoyed a great day of fun festivities, the same with Bode and Peiton and I hung out at home, I even forgot to dress Peiton in green. How lame am I?

When Cooper got home there were some footprints left by the clever little Leprechaun leading to a pot of gold!

Dinner wasn't too fancy, usually I put a little more effort into it, but my kids are pretty picky, so why? Well, they didn't really eat what I made anyway, so why do I cook? We had chicken and broccoli stir fry, green Jello (no one ate), green apples, and green lemonade... scrumptious!

I hope everyone had a super green St. Patty's day!