exhausted

So Natalie has not taken a nap in 3 days. I am beat!! I forget how much I rely on her down time. I use that time to clean, scrap, return emails, blog, whatever. And now I am so behind! And she so NEEDS her naps. Without them she is such a pill! She puts the *Terrible* into Terrible Twos. And she normally not like this.

I am racking my brain trying to figure out why she is just not napping. Is is because Sissy is at school, and Natalie is just out of sorts? Probably. Or is it because she working on some new skill? Likely. I also wonder if it is because she is tired of being trapped in her crib? Maybe. I have tried everything that I can think of to make her nap: wear her out playing, running errands, pushing naptime back an hour or so, giving her milk, what ever I can think of. But to no avail. I am so frustrated.

My last idea was to transform her crib into a daybed. So yesterday, we made a big production out of taking the front of her crib off, and we went to Target to get a big girl pillow. She didn't take a nap, grrrr, but she did go right to sleep last night, and she slept all night in her new *big girl bed*! I hope this is a good sign! I know it is just a phase, but I am so ready for her to be back to her sweet, pleasant, napping self!

Natalie SLEEPING in her Big Girl Bed! Aahh, a sight for sore eyes :O)


And speaking of getting back to normal, my mom and dad finally have their electricity. They had lost it initially last Wednesday when the first storms rolled through. But it came back on about 3 am Thursday morning. Then about 10 am that same morning, my mom saw the transformer blow, and they were dark again. Friday, of course, brought a new round of storms and damage, and they didn't get any power until last night. They were out for one week! Yuck. And with the temperatures as high as they have been, things have been pretty miserable for them. Not to mention the fact that my dad relies on his computer for business, and my brother needs his for school. I can only imagine how long it will take for them to catch up with what they need to do. Some 43,000 customers in the area still don't have power. I hope the powers that be see this as a wake up call to do something to prevent this from happening again. The most widespread outages occurred where there are older lines that are not run underground, and are near large, older trees. What a mess this has been for our area.