Exactly a month ago (and I know this because of twitter), we got a twin bed for Isabelle to sleep in. Wait for it…

To sleep in, IN HER OWN ROOM. BY HERSELF!

She was quite excited. We let her choose her own sheets, pink of course. We got her some wall stickers. We got her a special little mushroom night light. And she actually went to sleep in it! Unlike her first move from our bed to her toddler bed.

And yes getting her to sleep involved me laying down next to her until she fell asleep. Then I crept away and went to my bed to co-sleep with Nathan. And, yes, Alan did spend the night on the floor in her room. We just wanted to be sure she’d be ok and didn’t wake through the night wanting us.

As I said, she did sleep through the night just fine. However she woke up in the morning a little sad and on the verge of crying looking for me. Oh yeah…woke up at freaking 7 a.m., which she NEVER or rarely ever does.

So, yep. Slept on her own. Is that the end of the story? Nope. More for another time.

I can see how jumping on a poofy sheet is fun.

Video on Flickr

But sitting in a sink? Umm…I don’t get it. And no it’s not the mirror. We have a full length mirror that Nathan looks at himself in. But for some reason he WANTED to sit in the sink. He got mad when I tried to take him out.

I don’t get it.

The other day, out of the blue, Isabelle asked for marshmallows. And since we don’t regularly eat marshmallows, we didn’t have any fresh ones. I may have an opened bag that’s old and as a consequence has a weird texture. Do marshmallows go bad? When they’re all weird and stale is that not a good idea to eat them? I should just toss them. But never mind that. Let’s just pretend I don’t have old creepy store bought marshmallows in my cupboard.

So, anyhoo, Isabelle asked for marshmallows and I lied and said we didn’t have any marshmallows in the cupboard (because they are creepy and old). I said, “Let’s MAKE some!!!!” And so we did! We made marshmallows. Real marshmallows from scratch!

Happily we had all the ingredients in my cupboard. It really pops my little happy we’re going to bake something mood balloon when we are missing an ingredient and I need to go to the store. That usually means the sudden urge to bake disappears. But not this time. We had everything we needed!

We used this Smitten Kitchen recipe. Halfway through, when we needed a separate bowl with clean beaters, I sat there trying to figure out if I could switch over to this Alton Brown recipe. Why? Because I was fazed by needing clean beaters. I only have one bowl for my mixer and I didn’t know how clean the beaters needed to be. I debated on transferring my sugar mixture to a different bowl and washing everything. But somewhere in my foggy memory I recall that I need to have them super clean or else they won’t whip up.

So, what did I do? I ended up mixing my meringue powder by hand with a good old non-motorized whisk. It wasn’t fast but it worked. And how did the marshmallows turn out? They were yummy…the next day. Yep, the next day because we put them in the fridge and forgot about them!

When I remembered them I cut them up (not very neatly by the way, why can’t I cut straight, should have used a ruler or something, and that’s why the marshmallows are different sizes) and dipped them in chocolate to surprise Isabelle.

She said, “you’re the best mommy ever!”

When I saw all the marshmallows it made, I thought a lot of them would end up being chucked because I don’t really care for marshmallows. But these are much better than store bought marshmallows. Maybe it’s just store bought marshmallows I don’t like. These were springy and fluffy just like Smitten Kitchen said. And I could gobble them up and did.

Everyone likes them.

In fact, Isabelle was helping herself to them when I wasn’t looking! Mmmmm….I think I’ll stop typing now and help myself to a couple right now.

I’ve almost been missing for a week, been busy. I had every intention of posting on Monday but woke up with a crick in my neck. It’s feeling loads better today. So, onto what I was going to say.

On the second night Isabelle slept in her own room…

Yes. We could not handle it. Not Isabelle. But me and Alan. So, we moved her new twin bed into our room and now we have a big family bed! Bwa ha ha!

But maybe you guys already figured that out from the kids jumping around on the sheet in that video the other day.

Today, and it’s not even close to being over, has been rough. R.O.U.G.H. Nathan must have woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. Just tears and whining and more tears.

Even Isabelle started with tears this morning. It wasn’t bad though because it was the morning and I hadn’t endured hours of a big tear fest. I could find the funny in it.

Why the tears from Isabelle? I brushed her teeth with teeth soap from my sister. Isabelle was crying because she didn’t like the taste. She was being so dramatic, it was funny. Minutes later she was still crying saying that taste was in her mouth. And on top of that she wasn’t happy because as she said, “I was laughing at her.”

And from there it went downhill. Nathan crying all morning over nothing. NOTHING. I can’t even remember all the tiny little things that were setting him off. The only one that comes to mind right now is, he wanted Isabelle’s little ufo toy that was sitting up high on a shelf. The not sturdy, not meant for toddlers, ufo toy. I said no. He responded with big old fat tears.

And the morning kept going on like that. At one point I ended up GIVING him the ufo toy just to get a break. But that didn’t work. I’d make the ufo toy fly and then it’d run out of charge and you try to explain the concept of charging to a toddler. I’d put it on the charger and…big, big, tears.

My head is starting to hurt. And my neck, which had practically been feeling like normal, is starting to ache.

So, let’s look at something that’s making me happy today. Soap!

Tangerine soap. We made it last night. We only meant to make one bar of soap. I read that these don’t last very long without preservatives, like vitamin E oil, which I do not have. But I melted too much glycerin. Since I had extra I poured some into a heart mold.

Now I’m looking outside at my azaleas. Think those would make nice soap?

And so that I’ll remember next time, some notes for myself:
* I only needed one cup of glycerine. That’s all that would fit in the mold I was using, a chocolate soy milk container. Next time, I’ll aim for the exact amount, 7 oz with the tangerine puree in there. Yes, I just weighed my soap. Is all glycerine the same? If I weigh it next time I should be in the ball park?

* Add your own fragrance. That nice tangerine smell doesn’t seem very evident in the finished bar.

And now Mr. Big Fat tears has started up again. Off I go.

But wait. If my soap is going to go bad before I can use it, anyone want my heart one? I added a little grapefruit fragrance to that one (what I had on hand). Oooh a giveaway!! I’ve never been organized enough to do a giveaway. So yeah. If you want the heart soap, leave a comment telling me what you have planned this weekend or if you’re like me and read posts late, tell me what you’re doing next weekend. I’ll randomly pick someone next week. Last day to enter: May 1st.

Ok whining, tears, here I come. Ok change my title of my post to say giveaway first and now here I come big baby.