15 Years Ago…

Mister LK was at the Roosevelt Field Mall with a bunch of cheerleaders…eating Johnny Rockets & being silly.  On the way home, he was dropped off last … and his life was changed forever (hehehe).  That’s right….that was our first date, and our first night as boyfriend and girlfriend.  Our journey since then has been long and windy and sometimes complicated, but we’ve been best friends ever since that day!

We don’t really celebrate this day, but I happened to notice it on the calendar today so I thought I’d just say I love you to my Mister.  Thanks for being a great husband and dad.  I’m not sure I expected to get a husband out of that date, but I’m sure glad I did!

The LKs circa 1997

The LKs @ prom after party June 1998

 

THAT Day…Again…

12 years gone.  I still miss you everyday.  I’ve gotten used to living without you, but it isn’t really easier.  And it is definitely not fair.

Mom & I were talking about you yesterday…how I am amazed when I think of all that you did for everyone, for your home, your children, your grandchildren, and you never ever looked exhausted, or complained about doing it.  I probably have 1/3 or less of the responsibility that you had and I am completely drained at the end of every day!

This horrible anniversary falls out this year on our new year, and in light of that, I think I am going to make a conscious effort to be more like you in my everyday life.  To get more done around the house & spend more time with Miss A without feeling so much stress.  I know that it is impossible that you were not stressed while you were going through it, but no one ever knew it when they looked at you.  I don’t want Miss A to think I’m always stressed out!

I miss you so much.  I hope that you are looking down and are proud of us here at the LK house.  You were my best friend, my role model, my support and my sounding board.  You told it like it was, if I was right or wrong.  As I said last year and will say every day of her life, I hope Miss A and her Grandma have as special of a bond as we had.  Right now she refers to her Grandma as “My best friend Gramma” so I think we’re headed in the right direction!

I love you…

 

 

Happy New Year!

Wishing our friends and family a happy, healthy, sweet new year!  We are looking forward to lots of new things here at the LK house and we can’t wait to share them with everyone we love!

 

School….Glorious School!!!!

It is day 2.  Day 1 went much better than day 2, but I thought that would happen!  My little girl does not like change…especially when it involves Mommy leaving her at school all day!

The teachers say she’s doing great & her daily reports have been glowing!  Her separation from me in the mornings are rough, but we expected this.  She’s also SUPER attached to me in the evenings…she won’t let Daddy near her without a meltdown, but I’m guessing that this is part of the adjustment and she’ll be back to her Daddy obsessed self in no time!

Today’s big deal was that she got her whole class to have a dance party!  They told me when I picked her up that she made everyone take their shoes off and get dancin’!  I love my little dancing queen!

I also love being a SAHM to a kid in school!  Even if I have a ton of things to get done during the day….doing them without a toddler attached to my tushie is so much easier!

Day 3 is tomorrow.  She went to bed tonight saying that she doesn’t want to go to school tomorrow.  She’ll be sad when I drop her off, but she’s gonna have a good day!  I just know it!

The Longest Week Of My Life…

Miss A was born 9 days late.  Most people would assume that last week of pregnancy was “the longest week of my life”, they’d be wrong.  We moved into our house during the blizzards of 2010-2011, during which time we had an ant infestation that movies are made of…leaving me stuck in the house for a week straight with thousands of ants on every floor surface with an 8 month old.  Some people would think THAT was “the longest week of my life”…wrong again.

The Friday before Labor Day we took away Miss A’s bobo…and THIS my friends has been the LONGEST WEEK OF MY LIFE.  This will continue to be the longest month of my life until she hits puberty…I’m sure of it.

The disappearance of these little F*ers has, in 1 week, reversed so many of the forward steps we’ve been making with Miss A over the last 2 months!  She has been angry…and sleepless…and that is a lethal combination!  For posterity…here’s how the last week went down.

We removed all bobos from the crib, house, car (that I could find) on Friday morning after she woke up.  We boxed them up & “sent them to the babies in the hospital”.  I started psyching her up for her trip to Toys R Us later that day where she was going to get a big reward for being so generous to babies in need…she could get ANYTHING she wanted in the store.  And we’d get her a donut too!  We then got the hell out of the house!  Distraction is key.  We walked around the block, ran some errands, went out to lunch…and somewhere on that afternoon drive, she fell asleep.  (She hasn’t napped in her crib since)  When she woke up, we went out for a donut to hold her off until Daddy got home and we went to the toy store…and took another 12 walks around the block to collect rocks and smell the flowers and look for more puppies!

When Daddy got home we went to the toy store…where she had the choice of anything in the store.  We pushed a bike, we pushed a hot wheels….she chose a bed.  A TODDLER BED!  A Minnie Mouse, made Mommy get hives from the plastic toddler bed.  After the 20th “are you sure you want THAT one?!” she finally told us to shut up.  And we did.  And home we went to take down the crib & put up the bed.  Thank you Mister LK.  Thank you & I’m sorry.

Stupidest decision ever.  In our defense, we thought it might make more sense to her that there were no bobo’s allowed in big girl beds….and so….we went to bed Friday night like this…

Can you spot the sneaky dog

She slept that night from 9pm to 7am.  Pretty darn good Miss A.  If only it would have lasted!  Her routine for the following 2 nights was to wake up at 2-3am, turn on her lights, walk out of her room to check that Mommy & Daddy weren’t having some secret party she wasn’t invited to.  She’d walk back into her room & play…loudly…until 5am…when she’d hop back into bed for an hour & come out to get us at 6am.  6AM?????? NOT A CHANCE!

Monday…the crib was back up & she was back in it.  Through trial and error we realized that she needs to learn how to self soothe herself back to sleep, but that won’t happen if she can get up and turn on her lights!  She’s been doing really great in her crib & although she’s been crying herself to sleep for longer than she used to, it’s been about 2 days since she’s mentioned the bobo & I am so proud of her!

This has been a really difficult change for Miss A & for Mommy.  I am glad we stuck with it & we’re working hard to get over this habit & help her to soothe herself from within!

This has definitely been the longest week of my life so far, but there’s a light at the end of this tunnel.  Miss A starts school tomorrow!  While I’m sad to see summer leave…I can’t wait for the fall & all the wonderful things coming our way … especially 3 days a week of school 9-3.  That sounds awesome to me 🙂