Family Reunion and Other Tidbits

We went to the family reunion held in Niagara Falls this past weekend and it was a nice sunny, hot day which lent perfectly to Makenna enjoying the pool all afternoon. Since she barely slept on the way up I was incredibly nervous about how she would be attitude-wise but with the pool to distract her from any grumpiness – she was completely fine. Plus she had her cousins Brittanie and Stephanie to help keep her occupied in the pool while I mingled and talked with relatives and had way too much food.

I was also surprised when she didn’t immediately crash in the car on the way to the hotel. She actually stayed up and waited for me to turn off the light. I keep forgetting my little book light so that I can read so I had to cut my usual reading time way down so that she could sleep. I guess I should be glad that she’s not afraid of the dark and actually prefers no lights on when she sleeps.

An unwilling Makenna

I also wish she was a bit better behaved at the falls. After attending a morning church session where Chris’s dad was preaching (they had gotten married at the church 50 years ago in Niagara Falls,) we went to a relative’s house to change and grab a quick bite to eat. Then we were off to a Crocs store.

The moment I heard about the store I had to go. I realize some people think their ugly shoes but they are so darn comfortable. The only bad thing is that I have stumbled in tripped and even slipped in them but I lend that to my clumsiness more than the shoe.

The store definitely had some of the newer style shoe and not just the boat-looking shoe. The hard part to swallow was the prices. I looked at the discounted shoes which were anywhere from $5.00 - $30.00 but all they had was size 12. So off to the regular priced shoe and I couldn’t bring myself to buy another pair like I already have as they are still wearable, even if the bottoms have no tread any longer. So I opted for a sandal type shoe which I can wear to work and have done so about three days so far. And Yes…they are comfortable and somewhat stylish.

I also wanted to get Makenna a pair but considering it would be just as much as my shoes and again, no size in the sale rack would fit her, she had to go without. I thought I had found a cute pair of Winnie the Pooh ones but then realized they were close to $30 and I just can’t spend that much on a shoe that she’s going to outgrow in a few months.

So off to the falls we went and that’s when all her tiredness kicked in. We only stayed for about an hour and a half and that last half hour was eating an ice cream, or in her case, wearing one.

She seemed to like looking at them but couldn’t grasp why it was called Niagara Falls. The fall part kept tripping her up. She wanted to go on the other side of the railing and all I could picture was her falling all the way down and my heart just kept sinking. So it was probably a good thing we only stayed for an hour.

She was arguing with us in the car about how she wasn’t tired and in less than two minutes, she was sleeping. Good thing, she needed it!

The rest of this week has been our usual ups and downs but on Tuesday we enjoyed going to the CFJ Park again to ride the carousel horses and enjoy the spray park. It was definitely a day to go as it was so darn hot and I enjoyed watching her run around and getting wet. I even got in on it myself a little bit.

She shocked me yet again as I was changing her from her swim suit into her clothes again so that she could ride the horses again when she pointed out Wal-Mart to me. She said, “Hey mom, look, it’s Wal-Mart.” My immediate response was, “How do you know that!?”

It’s not a store that I frequent very often and I think I can recall taking her once before we left for England and once again before she was three. Maybe I took her there recently but I honestly don’t recall and it’s not a store we talk about since we don’t really go. I’m flabbergasted at how she knows that store is Wal-Mart. The only thing I can think of his maybe ads on the TV between her shows but I really am not sure. This doesn’t bode well for when she grows up and sees ads on TV of things she “must” have.

We also still have an attitude problem a lot of days and last night brought it to light once again why…”Mom, you’re not the boss!~ I’m the boss!” This just frustrates me to no end. I have to realize she’s exerting her independence but somehow she has to get it through her head that, that’s just not the case.

I know one way to help this is to try and be more firm in our discipline. I was so happy with my mom’s advice but then I have been slipping on it in a lot of instances. I even found myself counting to three this past week and Chris yelled up to me, “I thought we weren’t counting to three anymore.” That helped….Not!

So as hard as it is, I just have to be firm and not give three or more chances to get her to do something or stop doing something. Now on to practice it.