Lovin' the outdoors

So I've been a little lazy the past week.  And a little busy trying to finish reading my book for book club last night, which I barely finished yesterday afternoon during nap (B was actually up and crying in his crib for 15 minutes while I finished the last few pages).  So here's my somewhat lazy effort to get an update on here.

We had some nice weather last week and Kaelyn asked to play outside almost every night.  Here's a beautiful sunset from one of those nights.  Much prettier in person.

On one very blustery day we took a nature walk at the park.  Thank goodness Kaelyn is over her fear of the wind.

We collected leaves and threw them in the river.  Kaelyn likes watching them come out the other side of the bridge.

Our walk was interrupted by three emergency trips to the bathroom (two false alarms).  Luckily this particular park has flushy toilets because Kaelyn refuses to use port-a-potties because she thinks they are all dirty.  Unluckily for me, those toilets are at the entrance to park which is quite a hike from our bridge destination.  This mama got a much needed workout that day.  I even broke into a "run" pushing the stroller at one point (I use that term loosely).  Fortunately there was no one else at the park at that time to witness this.  If there had been I'm sure you would have heard their laughter clear across town.  But it was such a beautiful day we didn't let the wind or bathroom runs ruin our fun.

Oh, did I mention Jake came with us?  Yeah, he and Rapunzel have been hanging out with us a lot lately.  In case you're not familiar Jake is from "Jake and the Neverland Pirates," Kaelyn's current favorite show on Disney Junior.  We watch it every morning after we do "routine chart" and before we can leave the house.

The park day was made even better when I discovered a new trick at nap time.  Kaelyn's naps have been somewhat sporadic the last few months.  She often comes out several times and just can't seem to settle down enough to fall asleep.  So, when she was having trouble settling down once again (I was sure she was exhausted from our day at the park and having been up for several hours in the middle of the night) I tried out this tip I'd recently read somewhere.  After her third time out of the room I asked if she wanted me to tuck her in.  Then I asked if she wanted a "special" tuck.  You can tell Kaelyn taking out the trash is "special" and she'll get excited about it.  So, she laid down and I very dramatically straightened her covers and tucked her in tight and then I told her she had to stay very still so she wouldn't ruin the "special tuck."  Magic!  She didn't move!  And she slept for at least two hours!  And so did Brennan!  It's worked several times since.  One morning she even came into our room in and told me, "I was just crying because I didn't have my special tuck anymore."  She crawled into bed with me to snuggle and asked to have another special tuck.  We'll see how long this works but I'll take whatever I can get!