All You Need is Love

Not a whole lot to tell you about this weekend. Abby-Grace www.thejujucrew.blogspot.com had her first birthday party. I brought my camera but put it down somewhere and ended not remembering where until near the end. I took a lot of pictures but they were all with Julia's camera. So if you want to see the sweetest little 1 year old, check out her blog.

This is all I've got from the party. Eating pizza with her cousin Reese.

The big news in our house is that we switched Mackenzie's crib to a big girl bed. Last night was the first night. She only got out of the bed a few times. We could tell she was out because we could hear her knocking on her door.

You might think that switching here now is a bit too early considering she's not even 2 yet but what you don't realize is that she rarely even used her crib. I don't think she liked the confinement. She never liked her pack-n-play either.

She would sometimes go to bed in her crib and by 2 or 3 in the morning wake up screaming and end up with us for the rest of the night. Sometimes, more times than not actually she would go to sleep in our bed and I'd try to move her to her crib and she'd wake up in transport so I'd take her right back to our bed.

I know, I know, I know.........I always said I'd never let my child sleep with me. And she didn't always do this.... around 9 months we started to put her down for the night awake and she would stay in her crib until morning. No problems unless she was sick.

But when we lost the baby and the whole mood in our house changed and I swear to you people, she could sense it. I know she could tell the immense change in her mother. She started waking up a lot and crying without consolation. I was in such emotional pain that I wasn't able to deal so Daddy would get up with her and she only wanted Mommy. So he would bring her to bed to calm her down and there she would stay. And to tell you the truth.....I didn't mind. I wanted, NEEDED in fact, my sweet baby snuggled up next to me. It took away some of the pain. And if I'm gonna be honest here....I still don't mind but I know it's not healthy for her. But I do enjoy my cuddle time. With a busy toddler, snuggling isn't something that there's an abundance of during the waking hours and I was taking it whenever I could get it.

I know, pretty selfish. But darn it......I love her so much...I really just can't get enough.

Now tonight is the second night. And when we put her in her bed I knew it would not take long because she didn't nap today... 5 minutes of whimpers and she was out. Then an hour later -SCREAMING coming from her room. Daddy went upstairs to make sure she hadn't fallen out of bed (we put pillows on the floor). We were going to get that thing that clamps onto the bed so they don't roll out but that just made her daybed look like a crib so what was the point.

Anyway-an hour later (when I started this post) she was still crying, sobbing, whimpering, generally making me feel like the worst mother ever.....but now my friends all I hear is the sweet sound of the wave machine.

Here's hoping it lasts until at least 6:00 am.

Oh one more thing....we already put the door knob thing on the inside so she can't escape but a friend of mine told me to anchor all her furniture to the wall. Is that really necessary? Seriously, I'm asking. Please advise.