Holy Crib Batman, This Can't Be Happening!

A few months back Jay asked me if I thought we'd need to move Georgia out of the crib into a bed soon. After staring at him blankly trying to processes the rationalization behind that thought I finally replied, "I think I'll leave her in there until she starts Kindergarten as long as she doesn't climb out." I meant it. I didn't want to face moving her into a bed for as long as I possibly could.

That time ended Saturday night.

By the way, she's 20 months old.

In one fatal swoop she learned to climb out of her crib, pull out the drawers in order to make a ladder to the top of the dresser, and open doors using the knob.

Saturday night she was up till ten climbing out of her crib. It was too late to take the crib down when she first started climbing out and I don't know why I didn't just take her mattress out of the crib and put it on the floor except for shock and denial! She finally fell asleep and we put a gate on her door so she couldn't get out. We don't shut her door and we have 15 straight down stairs outside her door so the gate keeps her safe. When she woke up the next morning she climbed out of her crib and played in her room. I could hear her in there taking apart puzzles and dragging toys all over the room.

Yesterday we took the front piece off her crib and attached a bed rail. I also raised her crib so we could add the crib skirt back. It looks semi grown up but not too much! She slept that way last night and did very well.

Today for nap time she started in her bed with a book and played quiet for a few minutes then she started getting loud but was still in her bed. I went to the door and said, "Not so loud." She sat down and all was well. A few minutes later it was quiet so I checked. This time her door was shut. I love that she got out of her bed and shut her door so I wouldn't "know" she was out of the bed. She was playing sweetly in the floor but I put her back in the bed and said she had to sleep. Not two minutes later she was lights out. Don't you just love this about children? She was tired but still playing. The playing didn't mean she wasn't tired but was what SHE wanted to do. As soon as I told her what was best she listened. I shepherded her down the right path just like God does with us. Do we always listen? No but he knows best. Same with parenting. What a responsibility we have. REVELATION!

Like most transitions is way worse for us than her. She's really taken to her new sleeping arrangement and is doing well with staying in her bed. I'm sure there will be some setbacks but for now it's working out pretty well. Down the road we'll put the girls in a room together but for now this is enough change!

Oh, and don't worry about the dresser being used as a ladder. We bungee corded the knobs so they can't be opened by anyone except for us. **UPDATE** I ended up taking off the knobs because the cords were going to be a huge nuisance. Hopefully this will be fool proof. Or she may just end up showing us who the fool is! :)

Last night in the crib

First night in the new toddler daybed

Las Vegas Trip 2009

A little background:
Last summer my friend Dina told me about a trip she takes every year with friends to Vegas for a jewelry show. Dina's SIL, Hollis, owns a store so they go out there as "buyers." The prices are wholesale so you can load up on jewelry for gifts and yourself (and technically for a store). So then she says I ought to come along on the next trip in March. I told her I'd think about it.
Then, in September we were all at a football game when I asked Dina about it in front of my friend Kayci. Kayci wanted to go too and Dina said we'd all go so then it was tentatively planned.
In January we started getting serious with saving money, making plans, and deciding the exact dates. We got our tickets in Feb. and there was no turning back. We flew out on Friday, March 13th and came back (at midnight) Tuesday, March 17th.

Some more background:
My friend Kayci has never flown. Correction she HAD never flown! She's 31 years old. There's nothing wrong with this except that her first flight wasn't with her spouse, her sister, or a family member but with ME. And we were to fly out together as Dina didn't get the same flight. So needless to say I was anxious about the trip, about leaving my family, but especially about having the responsibility of providing support for Kayci and making sure we navigated the airport and connection with no problems.

Vegas Trip:
We flew out Friday afternoon and it was so clear we were able to see everything from the window in our plane. We first flew from Charleston to Cincinnati. Kayci did very well and we were on a VERY small plane so she kind of got baptized by fire, so to speak. Our next flight was from Cincinnati to Vegas and that was a four hour flight! It was long but we had some beautiful views of the snow capped Rockies and the amazing terrain of Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. When we landed we got our bags and waited. Dina flew in from Atlanta with her friend Kim. They got there about 30 minutes after us and we were on our way.
Dina has a time share and we were able to stay in a resort about 2 miles from the strip. This was great as it allowed up to stay in a condo with amenities we wouldn't have had in a hotel room.
After unpacking and changing clothes we caught the tram to the strip. Our tram dropped off at Cesar's Palace which was a great location. We ate at Margaritaville that first night and had a terrific time laughing about the trip out and it gave Kayci and I a chance to get to know Kim (she lives in Alabama). Afterwards we headed over to the Mirage to check out the JET nightclub. Long story short we got a pass into the club and bypassed the line and cover charge. We had a fun time dancing until midnight when we realized it was 3 o'clock our time and we needed to call it a night!

Kayci and I

Dina and Kim

Saturday we didn't do a whole lot. Dina was very sick and didn't let us know until she decided she had to get some meds. She had a terrible sinus infection and ended up going to an Urgent Care Center to be seen. She was able to get a prescription and ended up feeling better by that night. While she was out and about taking care of that, Kim, Kayci and I explored some.
Vegas is the most I've walked since traveling to Europe. It's crazy how close you think you are to something and you keep walking and walking and walking. The casinos are crazy big too and you'll walk forever just looking around and site seeing. We walked over to the Wynn and had a lovely lunch then walked down to Sephora and shopped for makeup! Afterwards we headed back to the condo to get ready for our night on the town.Saturday night we had dinner at Prime Steakhouse in the Bellagio casino and then walked to the New York, New York casino for our Cirque du Soleil show. It was an fabulous dinner. I had fried mac and cheese for the first time. The show was amazing as well. Those performers do some crazy feats with their bodies and props. It's very artistic and acrobatic. What I have failed to mention is how that was the night we all ruined our feet. All the walking we did that night (and it was probably a total of 2 miles) was done in heels. I had a blister on each big toe that had to be bandaged the rest of the trip. Was it worth it? Absolutely!

Sunday was the first day of the jewelry show. I was so tired when I woke up that the only energy I could muster was from the sheer anticipation of the baubles we were getting ready to encounter at prices that would make you smack your mama!
There were two shows to look around at. They were in HUGE ballrooms. One was the fine jewelry and one was the costume jewelry. We hit the fine first and it was all downhill from there.
I've said all along that one of the things I wanted to do on this trip was find a ring for each of my girls with their birthstones (an emerald and a ruby). The point is for me to wear them now and when the girls turn 18 they get it passed to them. I found them along with a couple of rings for myself. I lost my mind but I'm glad because I'll never have a chance to buy that kind of jewelry at those kind of prices again. It was amazing to have booth after booth of fine jewelry laying out for you to look at and try on as you pleased. The vendors didn't even stand over you while you tried on. It was a great chance to try on jewelry you could never afford just for the fun of it! Want to see what I bought?

An Emerald ring for my May baby, Katie Jo

A Ruby ring for my July baby, Georgia

A smokey Topaz for myself

And my birthstone Peridot

Prior to this trip Kayci had found an old high school friend on Facebook and then found out she lives in Las Vegas! Unfortunately the friend has terminal cancer and has not been given much longer. We were able to meet her for lunch and it was nice to have a fun lunch together and laugh. She is in constant pain but for that hour or so I think she got a chance to be free from her pain and let loose with the girls. It would be greatly appreciated if you could pray for her. Her name is Heather. She has been saved but had several spiritual questions when we had lunch with her. I feel like our time with her was very God directed and his hand was certainly in the whole process of Kacyi finding her and being able to get together.
After our lunch we ventured over to the costume jewelry. We shopped for a while but by that time we were all so tired and ready to get a NAP! After resting we decided to take it easy that night. We trammed into town and ate dinner at Carnevino owned by Mario Batali in the Palazzo casino. After that we just walked around and enjoyed the sites. And we went back to Sephora to look at more makeup!
Monday Kim had to travel back to Alabama so Dina hung around to say goodbye to her and Kayci and I headed back to the jewelry show. This time we had our game faces on and got serious about looking for good finds. We split up and navigated the hundreds of booths. I was able to focus and found some cute things. I didn't end up getting as much as I thought but was happy with what I purchased. I can't show you everything since there are gifts waiting to be given but I'll show a few highlights.

A colorful cashmere scarf

A couple of bracelets. The lady told us the silver bracelet is usually sold in The White House/Black Market store. All I heard was $3 and that was enough to sell me.

This watch was one of the things I brought back to Katie Jo. Of course she won't wear it!

Aren't these cute little animals?

Presto! Open them up and there is a cute little necklace inside. I got my girls one each but bought several others as birthday gifts for the 8 and under crowd.

During our trip we found out Treasure Island had a deal where if you got a spa treatment you could stay a night for free so we decided to forgo the last night in the condo and stay on the strip. Monday after Kayci and I got finished with the show we headed over to the Treasure Island Spa to meet Dina. It was great! First, we hung out in the sauna and steam room for a few minutes and then we each got called back for our massage. Mine was divine and it was a welcomed hour of relaxing after a very busy vacation! Afterwards we all met up again and hung out in the sauna. These moments are my favorite on a vacation when you're not doing anything but having good conversation and relaxing. After a while we finally peeled ourselves out of there and headed to the room to get ready for our last night.

Views from our 30th floor window

We decided to get gussied up and go eat. We didn't know where to go but finally decided to try TAO in the Venetian. It's an Asian restaurant and very swank. Of course they were booked but they said we could sit at the sushi bar if there was room. Thankfully there was and we settled in with some sushi for our last night. About 10 minutes into our meal I noticed a commotion between Kayci and Dina. I looked over and settled in front of Kayci's plate was a ROACH. Long story short we got a bus boy's attention and he took care of it for us. The manager soon followed and after two additional appetizers and two desserts our bill was taken care of and we were out the door. I've never been so full in my life and conceded that free food is harder to eat than paid for because you feel so obligated. Needless to say we had a big laugh about the whole thing and it's one of those stories that no one else would think was funny unless you'd been there.
We headed over to the Bellagio to catch the water show. I was determined to see this before leaving as "Ocean's 11" is one of my favorite movies. If you've seen it then you know why seeing the water show is in relation to the movie. It was all I thought it would be and the music they played along with it was incredible. We headed back to our hotel and called it a night.

Kayci and I with Whoopi outside of Madame Tussauds

Kayci and Nic Cage
All us girls together on our last night after our very filling free meal!
Kayci and I waiting on the show to begin.
Dina and Kayci letting me take one last picture of them.

Tuesday was our day to fly out but thankfully had some time to do last minute shopping for Vegas souvenirs. We headed to the airport at 1 and flew out at 2:50. We didn't arrive back into Charleston until midnight and thankfully it was an event less flight. I was exhausted and Wednesday thankfully I didn't have to work so I enjoyed all day with my girls as they had missed me very much. It's taken about a week to get back on track. Between the jet lag, fatigue, settling back into being the mom/wife/math coach, and trying to get back to real life I have felt like my train was off it's track.

A view of the hotel we stayed in with one of the pirate ships out front (left bottom corner).

Me in front of the other pirate ship. Think it was getting ready to be the site of a wedding? Only in Vegas! I would hate to have seen who officiated!!!
This was as close as we got to gambling. We didn't have time!
This was a souvienier cup I bought. Truer words have never been spoken.
Kayci wanted to do this photo pose. It was perfect. It was right before the cab picked us up for the airport. I think I literally had $20 more dollars to make it home on.
These were a couple of views we had going home of the outer edge of the Grand Canyon.

This was the longest post in history but the trip was just so filled with "stuff" I couldn't leave anything out. It's fun to go somewhere with girlfriends and it was a much needed break. Vegas was WAY more expensive than I'd figured but we had such a marvelous time and laughed so much that it was worth it. So, if you got this far then you deserve a chance to win a prize. Below is a picture of a super cute black beaded evening purse that I bought while there. If you leave a comment then I will enter your name for it. I'll draw on Wednesday April 8th at high noon.