Beware the pretty days in March

Eliza took a break from her frolicking for a second in front of this pretty yellow bush in our yard. March seems to be teasing us with just enough spring days to make us starved for the winter weather to finally be gone. I can't wait.

We've introduced a big change into our lives and especially Eliza's-- The Big Girl bed!! AKA- We installed the toddler bar on her crib.

Steve was not very excited about the idea, but I pointed out that if we didn't do it now, we would have to wait until mid-July probably, so as to not overwhelm Eliza with too much change all at once with our move.She's done a lot better than Steve expected, haha. Here's him putting her down for a nap. He's such a sweet dad. Lots of times on his lunch break, he takes Eliza up to her room and he reads her stories and puts her down for her afternoon nap for me. Love it!

But despite the relative success with the institution of the Big Girl Bed, some set backs have included Eliza waking up in the middle of the night knocking on her closed door and calling to us, "where are you?" and we go in and find her crouched by the door in a fetal position moaning quietly to herself. Sooo sad. So now my idea is that we leave her door open a crack because apparently when she's half asleep, she can't manage to open her door like she's usually able to.

The whole thing has left her a little bit tired:

(takin' a break from fun in the driveway. She decided to lie down on the cement just a second after this too.)

Another one of Eliza's most recent obsessions (besides calling for Abby, Grandpa, and Oma) are to "drive" the car and press all the buttons, change the clock time, adjust the radio and air settings and turn on the wipers. It's funny, and she'll do it for like a half hour at a time.

Also her favorite song right now is London Bridges, ands he LOVES for me to rock or swing her back and forth while singing it, not just during the "lock her up" verse (By the way, how creepy are the lyrics to that song??). She usually has me sing it at LEAST 5 x's in a row. She also loves to have me sing the ABC's. She's been learning tons of letters and also can now count to six without help! Sweet!

I'm starting to get stressed about our move and also a little sad about some of the things we'll be leaving or PEOPLE and FRIENDS I'll be leaving behind. I went to the gym and then lunch with some of my friends who I know from work. I'm gonna miss them a LOT a lot a lot!

(Acacia and Donna. Acacia's my gym buddy and Donna's Eliza's best friend/babysitter)

(Amy K., Acacia, Donna)

(Tired Eliza, Me, and Amy K! Amy's the best! She makes me excited to go to work. She has one of the most amazing personalities of anyone I've ever met. She's awesome and rocks the roller derby scene in Charlottesville, and is an amazing counselor/art therapists)

I was worried Eliza wouldn't last long at the restaurant since she was so tired from her Big Girl Bed. Instead, she gobbled up some Thai rice soup and fell asleep in my arms after a verse of London Bridges. Incredible! She NEVER falls asleep in my lap. I enjoyed it, though, because I got to hang out with my friends for hours instead of minutes. Fun!