In a rut...but there's still plenty to be thankful for

This past week felt like it had more downs than ups. 

Some days I feel like I'm failing at being the mother of two children. Lila wouldn't take a nap at least 3 days this past week and it was obvious to me that she wasn't getting enough sleep. No naps equals no good. The days she took her nap felt 10 times better than the days she skipped her nap. I just feel helpless when I'm trying to get her to take her nap, but then Walt needs me and I have to abandon my attempt.

I'm hoping that I can keep a grip on nap time and have her continue napping every day. 

Lila has also been difficult to get on the toilet. I remind her constantly throughout the day to go have a "potty break," but she always resists. Then the next thing I know she's dancing around about to have an accident and begging me to come to the bathroom with her. And this is conveniently happening while I'm feeding the baby or rocking him to sleep, of course. Then when she's finally on the throne I can't get her off of it! She sits and asks for me to bring her book after book (again, very convenient for me).

I've realized in the past week that I haven't been fair to my Lila-girl the past few weeks. It's funny how having a little baby in the house makes her seem so big and so old to me. I sometimes forget that just three months ago it was just me and her and she was my baby. I feel like I expect too much of her right now and sometimes forget what my expectations of a three-and-a-half-year-old should be. Or maybe I'm so distracted by my new baby that I don't even know what my three-year-old needs from me anymore. 

My thoughts reveal that I'm kind of in a rut. I have some ideas about how to get out of it, we'll just see how quickly I can make it happen. Despite my feelings of inadequacy, I still have a list of things I was thankful for this past week:

• I baked 3 loaves of bread on Monday morning with Lila's help at the rolling pin.
• We went to the park and Lila surprised me by climbing all over the playscape like she never had before. She did awesome and said she wasn't afraid. I was so proud of my brave girl.
• I took 15 minutes to myself to go for a much needed run one evening after a rough day. It felt good.
• I exercised 5 days this week and it felt great. I've thrown Jillian's 30 Day Shred into the mix and my muscles have been sore and that makes me happy.
• I made some good recipes this week. (One of these days when I have a moment I am going to share some of those recipes on here! Although if you follow me on Pinterest you'll probably find them all there.)
• Listening to my favorite music genre, bossa nova, while doing the dishes. Bossa nova just calms me down and makes me happy. Listening to music while I do the dishes has been a favorite of mine since I was a teenager (Clarissa might remember this :o)
• The return of the nap! I was so happy when Wednesday rolled around and Lila took a nap.
• Visiting teaching. I was able to go on a visit with my new companion and get to know a new sister.
• Prayer. I had a prayer answered in an unexpected way, which I think I will share more about next week.
• Relief Society night. I love going to Thursday night RS activities and socializing with the sisters in my ward. I especially needed it this week.
• On Friday I took Lila to an indoor bounce house place with some other Sunbeams from our ward. She was far more adventurous than she'd ever been at one of these places. I'm happy to see her having more fun at physical activity!
• I got the meal planning and shopping done on Saturday for the new week. Whew. 
• Walt slept for 7 uninterrupted hours on Friday night. He's so nice to his momma :o)

Here's some pictures, mostly from the previous week.

This picture is of the Monday before last when I was SUPER productive. That morning I made three loaves of wheat bread, three mini loaves of lemon zucchini bread, and roasted strawberry vanilla bean freezer jam. Mmmm.

Blowing bubbles in the front yard.

Can I tell you how I can't get enough of her sweet dutch braids with ribbons in them?? She just looks like a darling little girl from a by-gone era when I put those ribbons in. I'm in love.

Walt enjoyed being outside for the bubble blowing too.

Lila being silly. You see Walt behind her in the basket. The basket has been a favorite hang out spot for him the last couple of weeks.

Again, I can't get enough of this girl a her pigtail braids!

Me and Lila did some watercolor paintings a week and a half ago and I think I may have had more fun than she did. That's my painting of a banana. Some day I'd like to dabble more in art, maybe take a class.

The day before Mothers' Day we were shopping for Darren at Banana Republic. As soon as we walked in the store Lila grabbed this headless mannequin's hand. Weird. She always does this at Old Navy too!

These last two pics are all I really took from last week. We were just at the park across the street.

How sweet, Lila is giving her brother bunny ears (haha).