I don't know what I'm doing and sometimes it works

I am realizing more often than I'd care to admit that I have no idea what I'm doing! Today being no exception. My oldest daughter just turned two in December and we are in transition. She has been all over the map these past couple months with if she will take a nap or not. We have recently transitioned her to a toddler bed which has only compounded the problem.

Today I tried repeatedly for two hours to get her to stay in bed and take a nap. Following the steps I had once seen work successfully on the show SUPER NANNY (yes those are the resources I rely on for some of my parenting tips), but alas, for me, failure. So after all my valiant efforts she never slept and instead I decided we should go to the beach. I was going to wear her out so that come bed time she would be too exhausted to put up a fight.

I packed up towels, the umbrella, buckets, balls, and snacks and headed out. Did I pack these things up in a beach bag? Of course not. Isn't it more fun to juggle all those things separately plus two little girls under the age of two? Thankfully my mom is in town to help me be a pack horse. Annoyed that I didn't have a bag, we headed down the hill (that should belong in San Francisco it was so steep) from the car to the beach to build some sand castles and stay out of the water since it is January and the water is freezing. It was a gorgeous afternoon and my mother and I enjoyed watching the dolphins (I say enjoy...but I do not like dolphins which I will address properly in a later post) that were swimming close to the shore, as Lainey played in the sand and Katie laid in the shade on the towel. 

I should have known better than to leave home with out Lainey's swimsuit or a back up outfit. Where there is water she wants to be in it. It doesn't matter how cold it may be, she will run right in. Today was no exception. Grandma took her down to the water to "dip their toes in" and we left the beach today with her wet from head to said toe. 

But she had a blast and I was grateful to find an extra pair of dry underwear in the diaper bag and a faux fur lined suede coat of hers in the car for her to wear home.

While she was getting wet I was trying to figure out how to take a self portrait with Katie using my iPhone. I thought it would be so easy with the camera feature the newer iPhones have that allows you to see yourself as you take the picture. But again, FAIL! I kept looking at the potential photo instead of the camera and was trying to get Katie to look at the phone as well.

Attempt #1 - We are both confused

Attempt #2 - Didn't know I even pushed the button

Attempt #3 - still don't get that I need to look at the camera

I have to say that my beach idea worked like a charm at bed time. I still had to put Lainey back in bed about 5 times before she finally decided to let me win one today. But she was in bed, sound asleep by 8pm. That is the earliest it has been by hours since we switched her to her toddler bed. In my book this counts as a victory and a successful day!

Today I ripped off the "wear out" tactic from my amazing neighbor. She has two kiddos ages two and under with a third on the way. She is constantly on the go and will be at the park, the pool, or walking three miles to the library with her kids to wear them out for nap time, so that she has a few hours of quiet to complete a project for her masters program! Thank you Maria for being a rockstar mom that I can duplicate your methods.