This is almost embarrassing

We went to my parent's yesterday for a combination Easter / early Widget birthday. Easter stuff was fine (although it's a weird holiday thing for me. I'm not religious, and I really feel like this should be kept as a religious holiday. I'm not a big fan of the easter bunny schtick, and I'm not sure I want to raise Widget with it. Maybe I just need to get over it.)

The birthday celebration was... excessive. It was my parents, my grandparents, and my two brothers. That's it. Kidlet walked out with *EIGHT* new puzzles, a doll bed, a stuffed bunny, a Raggedy Ann, a DDR-esque music toy, and bead necklace making kit (a big one, with a bazillion letters and shape beads), and $cash$. God! All this stuff!

Definitely time to crate up some of the older toys she's outgrowing. I'm debating doing the hard-ass mom thing and adding a few of the new puzzles into the donation bin, especially if I can find a kid's program that can use them. After we have a discussion about what we're doing and why. I don't want her thinking that she somehow entitled to all this stuff. But I don't want to traumatize her over it, or insult any of the gift givers either.

Good grief.

Mean mommy and bed tales

I had to wear the mean mommy hat the other day. I hate the mean mommy hat.

Widget got a bottle of Yoohoo with lunch, and hadn't finished it all at lunch, so she was going to get to have it with dinner. I poured it into her cup, told her she had to wait until we sat down to eat to have it, and set the cup on the counter. I turned around to tend to the food, and heard the tell-tale slurp-slurp of the sippy cup. Turned back, and there she is, holding the cup she'd grabbed off the counter!

Now, her grabbing things off the counter is already an issue, we're trying to drum into the stubborn noggin that she needs to ask first, since *most* things on the counter are mommy and daddy's things. AND I had told her she had to wait until dinner for the Yoohoo. So I had to take it away from her. She got her best mad face on and yelled "Wait a minute! Just WAIT a minute!" over and over. She drank milk with dinner, and was none too pleased. She got lucky though, I saved the Yoohoo, and she got to drink it later. Next time, it goes down the drain.

So, we got the big girl bed, and she's adjusted to it easily. Until this morning, she hadn't realized that she could get out of the bed without me or Daddy being in the room. Both weekend mornings, she yelled until we came to get her, just like when she was in her crib, even though she insisted on actually climbing out by herself. This morning, she yelled for me, and I yelled back that I'd be there in a minute as I tried to wake myself up. Then I hear rattle rattle *thump*, thump thump thump thump as this little voice calls out, "Mama! I'm coming to see you!" and my bedroom door opens. Guess I should have gotten up more quickly, eh?

Time to stop latching the gate at the top of the stairs!