The Easter freeze plus any thin new growth from the previous growing season has spelled out a problem for lots of our local CMS. Earlier in the spring many of them that had about one inch thick trunks even had to be pruned all the way down to almost ground level. In those situations, the CMs reprouted and have regrown to a point where they are now able to be pruned back again, leaving the strongest growing main leader trunks to continue growing and hardening off. Those newly grown trunks are now only about a quarter of an inch thick, and we are very concerned for their need to at least double in thickness and hardened off again so they will have a chance for survival this coming winter. For that reason we do not plan on dead heading the spent flowers to force new growth and more freqent than normal reblooming. If your Acoma CM is not struggling as much as what I just described has happened to many of our locally Grown CMs, then it must be a very good CM Cultivar. It is good that you are going to fertilize it. While you are doing that make certain that the root flare of your Acoma is just at ground level, and that any mulch, which may be covering the rootball, is pulled back at least 4 inches away from the rootflare. If you can not find the root flare when you pull back a little bit of the soil around the trunks of you CM, that could be indicating, you CM may now be situated too deeply into the soil. If that is the case continue removing the soil until you do find the root flare (that topmost place where the roots begin to grow out of the trunk) and slightly taper the soil. Then cover the entire planting bed with mulch, but like mentioned above, Keep the mulch at least 4 inches away from the trunk. When you reported that your Acoma has grown some, did you mean that you have seen new growth this spring and early summer? Is it fully leafed out? Have you avoided doing the "crape myrtle murder" pruning on it, except where the trunks and branches may have frozen already from winter and Easter freeze kill? If your Acoma has been "CM murder" pruned it could take even longer for your CM to recover, just like it slowes the CM down from forming the bloom buds, if you have not pruned back, to the first set of three leaves, the freeze killed dead ends of the branches. At any rate do not give up on your Acoma just yet. The trunk, foliage, and root developing that it has been and is currently doing should make it a much more resiliant shrub or small tree, once it finally does begin to put forth large amounts of its energy for blooming.

Hug's to both of you.......Your taking me way back into time with your daughters art work LOL. It could be a lot worse let me tell ya. My son who was quite the busy little boy went through a time of waking up in the middle of the night at the age of 3 yrs' old and he had woken me up with many sounds that did not sound right. I slept with the TV on (this was before the had a sleep timer) I was awaken to the sounds of snap, crackle and pop, he had poured a cup of water into the back of the TV. Other time I was awaken to the sounds of crunch.....crunch crunch........crunch crunch crunch.......when I opened my eyes I could see his shadow doing a dance in the middle of my bed room, getting up to see what was going on I found a whole bag of potato chips empty out on the floor and he was stomping on them. Then there was the time he had gotten out sugar, cool aid, cereal and who knows what else and grounded it into the carpet, never did get the cool aid out. Then there is my daughter she picked on cat's, she was only 3 yrs' old at the time but I was in the tub getting ready for my son's birthday party when all of a sudden my son burst into the bathroom yelling moma,moma, Julie, Julie she has the cat, well my daughter had the cat by the tail swing it around in a circle. Poor cat was never the same and would not go around the kid's at all and I had to find him a new home. I loved that cat he was so sweet and so pretty.....but I could not put him through the torture and to think that cat loved them kids he slept with them every night till DD got a hold of him.

I presume there's a reason why this child is in fulltime daycare? You and your husband both work? Any chance one of you could change their schedule so the need for putting your child in daycare would be reduced? I'm all for children socializing with others, but truly, NO ONE teaches or cares for a child like a parent does. You're seeing that now. Children of that age do need a lot of time with their parents. As to naptime--your child must need the sleep or he wouldn't be napping so long. You say bedtime is a challenge. As a parent, and a family living teacher, I have to ask--do you know what the most common reason for difficult bedtimes is? It's that the child is OVERtired. what a lot of young parents don't understand is how a child's body works. When we get tired, we wind down and get sleepy. When toddlers get tired, their bodies release loads and loads of extra adrenalin--hence you have a hyper child who is too wired to go to sleep. There has even been a very reputable study that shows that many (not all, mind you, but about half) the cases of ADHD in children are NOT legitimate ADHD, but simply lack of adequate sleep. Does your child get a full 12 hours of sleep daily (adding up the naptime and bedtime?) Even if he is, it's possible he's one of those who truly does need a little more sleep than 'average'. However, what you're describing about the daycare is totally unacceptable. You're describing a facility where the workers don't care about the child or parents, where they're there just putting in time to collect a paycheck, where they're happy doing as little as possible (a sleeping child is one they don't have to: care for, amuse, watch, etc). The problems you've noticed all come down to the same thing--the daycare workers DO NOT WANT to do their job. I wouldn't allow someone with that attitude to dogsit my pet, let alone care for the most precious thing in my life. It may be time to look into other alternatives--as I suggested, perhaps a schedule change at work. Or maybe there's a family member you trust who would be glad to watch your child for the same $$$ you're paying the daycare. Or you may have to go further afield and find a different daycare center (even if you have to drive some to get there) or a retired person in your neighborhood who is more responsible than the place you're currently using. Good luck! You mentioned your husband--if you are both working, I urge you to sit down and crunch the numbers. Unless you're a really high-end executive, or in some other high paying job, you may find, when you do the math, that you're going to work for just a few cents an hour. Add up: the cost of daycare, the higher taxes you pay, the cost of transportation, the cost of going to work (clothes, union dues, buying lunches out, work parties, gifts for coworkers, etc), the cost of being out of the house hours a day (buying more takeout/prepared foods, hiring others to do stuff around the house like yard work, painting, repairs, etc). When I got pregnant, we did the calculations--and we figured that I'd be going to work for $2000/year or less. Add to that, the fact that you're turning the care and raising of your child over to strangers--it wasn't worth it to us. It made sense financially for me to stay home. It made even more sense to use for me to be the one caring for our daughter, teaching her academically, being the one to educate her in morals and ethics--no one does all that like a fulltime mom. There's a reason why this country is having a lot of the problems it is (crime, irresponsibility, unwed parents, abusive relationships), and IMO, a big part of that is that children are NOT being raised by their parents, the way they have been in the past. Good luck

Kids are funny. My DGS turned 2 in January, and he's just as happy playing with sticks and retractable tape measures as he is with his toys. Electronics are something else entirely and his parents have had to curb his enthusiasm with that. Here are some gifts that were hits with him since he loves school buses and Thomas the Train Engine. Fisher Price Little People School Bus. Thomas train set and the Brio train set. My daughter got him the trains and track for Christmas. I'm not sure if both sets of trains will work on the same track. There was some question about that at Christmas. I'm not sure they do. I bought him Playhut's Thomas the Train Engine Play Hut. He loves that when they put it up. Mega Blocks First Builders Big Building Bag. He's had that for a while now and plays with it all the time. They're kind of like the old Duplo blocks but more colorful. They make artificial fruit and vegetables that can be "cut" with a plastic knife on a cutting board. His other GM gave him that. I was a bit leery of the knife idea but he really loved it. Get the fruit/veggies that are joined together with velcro. It makes a neat sound when you "cut" into them. I think the others use magnets. I bought him a bright yellow slinky last week. He liked that. Good Easter Basket item. He has a baby doll, plastic head, hands and feet, but a soft body that's he's had for over a year now. It was really cute when he was smaller and would cover the doll and pat it to sleep. The pats were pretty hard. He still takes it and his teddy to his crib every night. I bought him a little kite which I think he'll really like, but we haven't flown it yet. One book that I got him which I think is cute is Even Firefighters Go to the Potty. I bought something called the Kaboost Portable Chair Booster to have at my house in lieu of a high chair. That's been working out fine now that's he's bigger. Just something to think about so you don't have to deal another high chair. Amazon sells them.