I’m having one of those weeks where I stay up much too late and then ask myself in the morning, “Why did I do that?”  So all day I’m super tired, but once the kids go to bed all of a sudden I have this burst of energy and there is so much I want to do! So the cycle of going to bed late continues… Anybody with me on this?

Usually we are pretty good about going to bed early (and I’m a major proponent of this), but with the kids waking up around 8am lately I have been pushing bedtime for myself.  Well, then Hyrum pulled a major switch and started waking up a few times at night and now gets up for good at 6:30am.  So needless to say, I was pretty tired the first morning that he did that.

Ava could see how tired I was (probably because I wan’t getting out of bed,) so she got Hyrum out of his crib, grabbed a box of crackers and some bananas from the kitchen, and before closing my door said, “We’ve got to close mom’s door so she can sleep.” (Angel!) For the next hour, she put on a movie and played with Hyrum in the playroom. It was amazing! I was so happy and so grateful! I made sure she knew that.

So, when Ava requested chocolate cake for breakfast, we had chocolate cake for breakfast.

And we gave her two “good attitude rocks.”

Ava has had more than her fair share of sass and complaining lately, so we started this thing where we put “bad attitude marbles” in her glass jar for poor attitude choices and if those are all gone, we put “good attitude rocks” in.  Once she reaches ten good attitude rocks, we give her something special. So far, it has worked so well! It’s a great reminder for her to think before she reacts, and it’s also a great reminder to us to recognize her for all her good choices! She received her first “special thing” the other night, and it has only made her more motivated to make good attitude choices, and it seems the good attitude choices are becoming more prevalent (that’s our hope at least!) If you know of someone (kids I mean) who may be struggling with this same thing, maybe this could work for them too! Sometimes we just need ideas.

I was sitting on the couch when Ava came over and asked, “Can my baby sleep by you?”

“Sure,” I said.

She set her baby’s crib next to me and for the next five minutes she walked in and out of the room bringing me things and giving me specific instructions. “Ok, so these are the rules,” she said.

“If she cries, just give her her bottle.
And these are her toys and her diapers. She’ll need a change when she wakes up. 
And this is for her in case she gets sick. 
And these are for when she needs to wash her hair.
And this is for her in case she needs to throw up. 
And I have these over here for when she goes camping.
And here are raisins. The kitchen is right there for when you need to get food.”

“Sounds good,” I said.

With that she peaked under the baby’s blanket and whispered, “I’m going to be right back, ok?” Then she pulled two photobooks from on top of the piano and headed downstairs.

I really adore her. 

#mamanotes