First night Cooper requested not to have You Are My Sunshine sang to him as part of our bedtime routine. He requested the Thomas theme song!!!!! I sang him You are My Sunshine too, I can't bare to drop that from either Ella or Coops nighttime routine!

Trying a new Pinterest recipe for dinner. Cheesy Orzo with peas and sausage, hope it's good!

Fun prenap activity....trying on all the shoes in their closets...we got rid of 4 pairs!

Attempting to watch my favorite princess movie, "Beauty and the Beast" with Ella. Attempting because she is afraid of the Beast....we read the story in one of her storybooks last night and she heard the explanation of the Beasts ways and why he is the way he is. She thought he stole the red rose from Belle and that was the reason she thought he was mean. She's captivated right now...see how long she lasts.

Day #2 with a clogged ear, as if this awful cold hasn't been bad enough. Trying my best to focus on the positive and remember there are so many with issues and problems much bigger than my cold and clogged ear.

Listening is an ongoing challenge and an ongoing work in progress in this household. I often find the children not listening because they are doing something else, leading up to what I have asked of them. Today I tried to use myself in a senerio explaining how I would handle the situation. Ella seemed to understand and I told her that when I ask her to do something if there is a reason she can't do it or didn't want to, to explain that to me rather than just ignore what I am asking. Ignoring someone is hurtful and often times I think she just isn't listening which may not be the case and I'd know that if she would talk to me. When we were getting into the car to leave for Costco I asked both of them to get into the van and into their seats. Ella turned to me and said "Ok Mommy. I'm going to put my stuff down before getting in my seat." I praised her and told her that was very helpful to me as I then understood why she wasn't getting right up into her seat. I knew she heard me and would be getting into her seat as soon as she was done putting her stuff down. Oh parenting...the on going challenge ....

I honestly feel badly for Cooper. He has lost so many toys because of not listening and not cleaning up when asked. He has two small match box cars left that he is rolling around on a portable Thomas train track. Prior to locating those two small cars he was trying to roll a larger Thomas engine on the small track, which obviously didn't work. He's walking around asking for Santa to come....probably hoping for more toys. I'm determined that he will get this whole clean up thing sooner or later. He may end up having an empty train table, a book and a block before he "hits rock bottom" and starts to clean up. If he continues to refuse he'll be forced to play with carpet fuzz cause that is all that will be left for him to play with!