We’re tired. We’ve had a lot going on (I know, our fault). But with some sleep issues, buying a new place, staging our current place, starting a new job, transitioning to one nap, traveling a bit, working with daycare to transition to the toddler classroom, and trying to maintain some sort of communication/relationship with our families/friends, I’ve been a downer recently. I’m emotionally exhausted and beyond the point of physically exhausted. That being said, these are all great problems to have!

Recently, Delaney has been loving school and there’s nothing more I could have hoped for than to see pictures of our smiling, laughing girl every day from her teachers. They love her there! She eats better, sleeps better, and from what it seems, behaves better at school than she does at home. As you can imagine, being my sensitive self, it’s sometimes hard to digest.

Now that I get less time with our girl, I’ve internally put more pressure on this time. On Wednesdays and Fridays, I want her to be at her best! She’s a toddler though and she’s smart. She is SO MUCH FUN – I laugh with her all the time. But, she’s also extremely unreasonable (again, she’s a toddler). She demands ridiculous things, throws herself on the ground over almost anything, and within minutes of being awake or finished with a meal, she is carrying everyone’s shoes around the house pointing to the door and says “Shhsss! Hat!” as in, she wants everyone to get their shoes and hats on so we can get the heck out of here. It’s adorable and really funny – but exhausting. When we tell her “in a little” or “after I drink coffee” or “let’s put some clothes on you first”, she loses her mind.

So, this morning I cried. I cried because she was up from 2-4am last night. I cried because she had the best day at school yesterday. I cried because she slept for 2.5 hours at school yesterday. I cried because I can’t remember the last time she’s taken a nap longer than 1 hour at home. I cried because her teachers got to see her hop around the movement matters zone and say “WHOOOOAAAAA” after she kicked the balls around. I cried because by the time she got home last night and we got off of work, she was so tired and hungry for dinner that she was grumpy.

Today, I simplified. I made some rules: No running on the couch, no snacks out of her highchair or outside of her two snack times, and for myself, once she started showing signs of not wanting to be out or being whiny, we would go home.

So this morning, we played for a full hour with our three favorite Green Pinata toys. I put everything else away and we just played with these. She loved it! I pulled out the yoga mat and Delaney practiced her downward dog (and complimentary woofing and panting). We went to music, she had a snack in the stroller, we played at the market with her friends, and for once, got lunch to go instead of eating it there. She ate her entire lunch in one sitting, she drank actual water,…and I don’t remember what else because I apparently stopped writing this post without finishing it.