Growing Up Is Hard To Do

This has been a big week for our big girl. On a few separate occasions, she's told me that she doesn't want to be a big girl. And I get it. I get how hard it must be to have all your decisions made for you. Grant it, we prep her and encourage her. We hurt when she hurts, but we know the outcome is what is best for her, and she doesn't realize that yet. Thankfully, she's flexible and moves on quickly, but that doesn't make the transition to being a big girl any less difficult.
On Monday, Aubrey started swim lessons. My girl was EXCITED! She marched her cute little hiney right into the swim lesson place and was ready to go. She was even super brave as her teacher walked away with her and a SCREAMING set of twins. She sat so brave on the steps between the two crying kiddos...until...until the teacher took them one-by-one and started dunking them. Sure, she'd count to 3 first, but still, dunking 2-year-olds in the first 10 minutes of swim lessons is a recipe for disaster. I used to teach swim lessons, and I feel that building trust and excitement is the most important part of the teacher-student relationship. Her teacher threw that out the window. She was no longer excited and proceeded to scream WAY louder than the other two kiddos. Thankfully the relief instructors came to the rescue and each of them took one of the other kids in Aubrey's class. Aubrey was with her teacher...who proceeded to dunk her 2 or 3 more times. She was no longer a fan of swim lessons.

Wednesday, Aubrey was not happy when it was time to get dressed for swim lessons. She BEGGED to not have to do. She didn't like Miss Kaitlyn. She wasn't a big girl. Against every bit of my softy side, I got her dressed and loaded into the car seat. We did our best to calm her down. My sister gave me some good advice. She told me that I paid for lessons, so I needed to tell the teacher what I wanted her to do. Imagine that, asking for what I wanted. I politely told the teacher that Aubrey really was the type of kid who needed to know what to expect and it was important to build trust with her. I told her that I thought if they started off with some games, they could work up to the underwater and swimming part. It worked...like a charm. The lesson started with fear and crying, but ended with high fives and a big huge smile. I was so proud of my girl for being so brave.

Wednesday was a great day all around. My cousin Michelle, who lives in Portland, was visiting her mom in Porterville. I took Aubrey and Reagan up for a day visit with her sweet family. It was my first time meeting her handsome little man, Grady (bummed I didn't get any pictures of him). We also enjoyed a nice visit with little miss Brooklyn. She just turned four, and she and Aubrey are two peas in a pod. Besides looking alike (in my opinion), they also remind me of each other because they aren't big fans of new people. I loved getting to catch up with Michelle. I sure wish they lived closer. My dad met us at the park that we used to play at as kids. He brought my cousin Ryan who was working with him and we had a little mini family reunion right there ;) I LOVE family and the required connection that comes with the title. I'm bummed that I didn't get a picture of Michelle and I, but at least I got the girls.

That brings us to the final, and most difficult part of the week, today. Today was the day that we (Aubrey...well and technically me too, because I really did like how easy they were) turned the pacis over to the Paci Princess. We went to Build-A-Bear and put all the pacis we could find into a sweet, velvety bear. Aubrey was such a big girl when we went there. She handed them over willingly, proclaiming, " Aubrey doesn't need them. I'm a big girl." On the way home from the mall, she asked for one. I reminded her that they were in the bear, and she seemed satisfied with that answer. Really, I was beginning to get really optimistic about bed time. Well....it wasn't quite as smooth as I hoped, but overall it only took an extra 45 minutes or so for her to fall asleep. She kept wanting to go to different rooms, desperately searching for a lost paci. Once again she let us know that she didn't want to be a big girl, but finally my big girl gave in and went to sleep paci free, probably, for the first time since she was a day or two old. WOW! Kinda makes me sad to write that. ;) I sure love my girl, even though all this growing up stuff is hard on both of us.