Last night we tried, the operative word is tried, to watch Avatar. I put Aleyah to bed at 9:00 and she was calling for me at 10:30. Put her back to sleep and twenty minutes later heard her calling for Dah-dee, yes, we graduated from Danny to Dah-dee. We played this game until 12:00 and said, "Forget it, I'm going to bed and I'm bringing the kid with me." I knew she would not let us sleep if I hadn't. I was getting used to the non-interrupted sleep. Arrrg! I put her to bed just a while ago and went through the whole ritual, "Sleep in Aleyah's bed, not mommy and daddy's bed. Alexa sleeps in Alexa's bed. Aleyah sleeps in Aleyah's bed. Mommy and daddy..." well you get the picture I'm sure. I told her that I would see her in the morning and we would say "Good morning" to each other. She of course smiled and said, "No more, 'mommy, mommy, mommy.' She added. "Say, 'Good morning.' So that is how the day ended. We will see how the night pans out. Steve and Alexa are finishing up Avatar and me, well I'm here keyboarding away. You sometimes have to just pick your moments.

Alexa and I planned to do some school shopping today. We wanted to get an early start and thought that we could get ourselves ready at 9:00 so we could leave by 10:00. We planned on going to the Fox Valley Mall, which is about an hour away. While Alexa and I were getting ready, Miss Aleyah decides she is going to get ready too. You see, Steve and I talked about having our traditional Mother/Daughter Day and Father/Daughter Day with Alexa before he went back to work. Since school will be here before you know it, Alexa and I were going to do shopping and lunch. Steve and Alexa were going to do lunch and a movie. Not very exciting in terms of summer break, but hey, we are still recovering from our adoption.

Anyways, I realize that Aleyah is doing everything I'm doing. I thought I would include her in the getting ready part because, well because she needs to get ready for the day too. I put on lotion and put some on her. I put on my make-up and she puts on her Lip Smacker lip gloss. I put on my bracelet and she puts on her six bracelets. I put on my earrings and she puts on her necklaces since her ears are not pierced yet. I put on some perfume and she gestures to me to spray some on her too. I'm done, Alexa is done and Aleyah is done too. I grab my purse, slip on my shoes, grab my keys and sunglasses and say, "Bye!" Like that was gonna work. What was I thinking? Aleyah of course, thinks she is going with us. She starts crying. This is not going to be good. Tension starts to build in me and I think maybe I better stay home because Steve is not gonna know what to do if she continues with the crying. But my wonderful husband says, "Go. Everything will be fine. I'll take care of it." I look at him nervously and say, "I think we should stay." Alexa looks a bit disappointed but is more distraught over Aleyah's crying. "Will you guys just go. Everything will be fine." Not wanting to disappoint Alexa we walk out the door and Aleyah cries louder. Alexa and I pull out of the driveway while I say a quick prayer for God's care over each of us and we go on our way. Of course I'm feeling guilty as we leave our neighborhood. I call before getting on the interstate to see if Steve needs me to come back. Steve reports that she stopped crying as soon as we pulled out of the driveway. Thank you God. Now it was okay to really enjoy this day with Alexa. Shopping and lunch with a seventh grade girl. This should be fun!