Bye-Bye To Our Passys

Wednesday August 6, 2008 the girls said goodbye to something that has been very special to them for their whole life, their passys. Their passy comforted them the first day that they were born, their first day of school, at numerous "scary" Dr. appointments (including when they were casted for their DOC Bands, above Ella Cate circa December 2006), and so many nights when it was so hard for them to fall asleep. Passys saved Sam and I from loosing our minds on more than one occasion, quieted noisy girls in restaurants and shopping centers, and made many car rides bearable. The passy was good to have around!
However, the girls will celebrate their 1/2 birthday one week from today, and they will be big 2 and a half year olds! ; ) Their Dr. told me 6 months ago that we should get rid of the passy a.s.a.p., and I have watched as the girls have seemed to become more attached to the passy over the last couple of months. I knew that this needed to be a battle that we conquered before I started back to work on August 18.
Here are some more old pictures of the girl/passy relationship!

Emma Claire at her 18 month old Dr appointment August 2007...lovin that passy

Ella Cate at the same 18 month old Dr appointment comforted by passy AND Raffi

The girls at their 2 year check up right after the Dr recommended getting rid of the passy!
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While Cade and I were watching Super Nanny together of months ago we saw a great little strategy at work. Super Nanny had a 3 year old boy that needed to give up his passy so she had him gather up all of his passys and put them in a large envelope addressed to "The Passy Fairy". They then put the envelope in the mail, and overnight The Passy Fairy came to get the passys and left the child a prize. I immediately knew that this would be what we would do to take the girls' passys away. After a couple of months of procrastinating the Passy Fairy strategy went through (with quite a few hitches) last night.
Sorry that the girls are shirtless...they were hot so they took their shirts off and I didn't bother to put their shirt back on...if you think that it looks tacky my husband agrees with you!

After gathering all the passys Carson held the envelope so that Ella Cate could drop a passy in.

Emmy saying goodbye to one of many passys

The envelope addressed to The Passy Fairy

The girls getting ready to carry their envelope to the mailbox

I thought that they looked so sweet...they were being SUCH big girls!

Emmy lifting the envelope into the mailbox

Ellie lifting her passys into the mailbox...our neighbors found out what was going on, and they were all cheering for the girls. ; )

Saying "bye-bye" to their passys

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Fast forward an hour or so to bedtime...Ella Cate was having a mega-meltdown that lasted quite awhile.

Daddy explaining that Ellie would have a surprise when she woke up...Carson was very into this whole experience.

Ella Cate finally calmed down and held onto Raffi for dear life. She kept biting him. I think that she did this because she is used to sucking her passy while putting Raffi up to her nose. This made me sad. ; ( I had almost given them their passys back at least 5 times by this point.

Emmy's look sums up her feelings about going to bed without her passy.

Here is what The Passy Fairy found in the mailbox

...and what she left for my sweet big girls...they were sooo excited this morning

The Passy fairy also left Beanie Babies in the mailbox, and "fairy dust" all in our yard.

Emmy was very proud of her scooter and Beanie Baby...

and so was Ella Cate.

The girls have done pretty good with all of this. They had a few times today when they fussed for their passy. They especially missed it while we were en route to The Colony to meet Chels at Hawaiian Falls. The car was always a place that I let them have their passys. At one point Ella was fussing so badly that I told her that if she got her passy back she would have to give back her prizes. She threw me a curve and told me she didn't want the prizes, she wanted her passy. Hopefully tomorrow will be better, and I'm pretty sure that by this time next week they won't remember what it felt like to suck a passy!

Mama-Ann

We met the girls old sitter, LilliAnn, at the mall today. She is the sitter who has watched them (with Nana's help) since they were 6 months old. They both have lovingly referred to her as Mama-Ann since last winter (their own name choice..I had no influence). This school year we are not going to have LilliAnn as their sitter because their preschool is extending its hours to offer before and after school care. It will make our daycare situation a little easier and cheaper, but I know that they are going to miss Mama-Ann.
When they saw her today they both squealed with delight and ran to her. We spent some time playing at the mall's playground, and then we let them roam around Build-a-Bear for awhile. I tried to get as many pictures as I could because sadly I have no pictures from the 2 years that the girls spent with Mama-Ann. I would have loved a comparison photo of the two of them with LilliAnn when she started and now! LilliAnn will start with a new family after Labor Day, and I know she will do a great job!
We will miss you Mama-Ann!

soaking up playing with LilliAnn (Emmy is in LilliAnn's arms)

fun on the computer at Build-a-Bear...FOR NOW they are still at the age where we can leave Build-a-Bear without buying anything!

Looking in the window with Mama-Ann

Holding hands with Mama-Ann (Ellie was posing for the camera great...Emmy was being a tad bit stubborn)

Standing in the Sun With Superheroes

A local comic book store recently got a new paint job on their windows. Every time we pass the comic book store the little ones ooohhh and aaahhh over all of their favorite super heroes. Since we were in that part of town today I decided to stop and let them look at the paintings and snap a few pictures. Cade decided to stay in the air conditioned van and not brave the 100+ degree heat to stand face to face with the painted super heroes, but the little ones loved it! Oh the simple things that please them!

Car, Emmy, and Ellie

Carson and Hulk...one of his true faves...he does a pretty good Hulk impression when he is angry!

Ellie and Wonder woman

Exploring the mural

For The Record

I just wanted everyone to know that I am being paid back for my many antics that I pulled on those around me as I was growing up (I was not an easy toddler, child, or teenager...my mom will vouch). My Carson that I will love dearly forever and always is testing the waters. I guess I should say that he has tested the waters from day one, but these last 48 hours are not to be reckoned with! Here is a running record of a few of our incidents. Please know that I type this with a slight grin, but know that Sam and I have our work cut out for us!

1. After we bought big kid beds we headed to Braum's for ice cream. There Carson accidentally spilled an entire coke in my brand new Coach purse that was not even an entire week old. I know the spill was an accident, but he laughed as my head nearly exploded, and he told me that I could just throw it away and go buy a new one. Total toot...we dealt with him, and I felt like we made some headway.

2. Fast forward to Sunday afternoon. I am driving down the road talking on my phone not really paying attention to what Carson is doing. During my phone conversation he reached into my purse (on the seat beside him) got gum, chewed it, took it out of his mouth, stuck it ALL OVER the seat in front of him and blamed it on poor Emma.

3. Today we had a stealing incident (and Chels I'm not speaking of the Jibbits experience). He stole a Leapster game from the classroom where he is having VBS...a church. I'm not sure if it belonged to the church or another child in VBS, but it is definitely not his. He pulled it out of his pocket on our drive home, and said that it just "got in his pocket". We will deal with taking the game back tomorrow, and I know that it won't be pretty!

Please nobody get me wrong I love this little man with every inch of my being, he has personality beyond measure, and I would not trade him for the world. I think maybe he might just be alot like his mama, and that can be dealt with! ; )

Back to School is in the Air

I know that we are still nearly 3 weeks away from the first day of school, but everywhere that I go I am nagged by the reminders that it will be here before I know it. Today the boys were at VBS, so the girls and I headed to the mall to get their new school shoes. Stride Rite is having a "Buy One Get One 50% off Sale" so we scored the pink Mary Jane's, which by the way light up. I like that they are Mary Jane's, and the girls were sold because they light up. The little white ones were on sale at Gap for a real steal. There is NO way that I would have bought them full price...they are white and they will get filthy. However, they will look sweet with a few of the outfits that I plan for the girls to start school in. We still have lots to do to get ready to go back to school, but I feel better knowing that we can check off on new shoes for the girlys!

We Are Cribless!

After 3 years and 10 months we have no cribs set up under our roof! Since the girls were born we have had 3 cribs, Carson's, Emmy's, and Ellie's! All 3 are proud to say that they are now owners of "big kid beds".
Saturday we embarked on an adventure to Ikea to find the perfect toddler beds. I had done a little research on their website and thought that Ikea had just what we needed. However, when we got to Ikea I learned that their toddler beds do not take a standard crib size mattress. They use some random Swedish size of mattresses for their toddler beds, therefore we would have had to have 3 new mattresses plus beds. We were not willing to spend that kind of money since these toddler beds are temporary until we move and have more bedroom space. So over to Babies R us we headed. We found the perfect little beds. Two white beds for the girls, and a natural wood look for manly Carson. ;) Sunday was the first day that they all slept in their "big beds". I will be honest and say that they have their fair share of getting out of bed, but they were also all climbing out of their cribs. At least now they can climb out safely! ; ) Excitedly watching Daddy putting the beds together

The girls sweet little beds...they remind me of doll beds.

Carson ready for his first night in his big boy bed.

The girls settling in for their first night in their new bed

This was nap time today...it took them over an hour to go to bed. They get out and play, and there is really not a whole lot I can find to do about it. I'm thankful that at least they are staying in their room. After plenty of play they were finally tired out and ready to take a decent nap. We will be working on staying in bed! ; )

Brothers Are Fun

Believe me this does make me nervous, and I was fussing at Cade to put Carson down while I was snapping this picture, but these boys have so much fun together being "rough". I am glad that they have each other to "be boys" with!