good news and good weather

So she does have an ear infection (no, that's not the good news....). The doctor's appointment was an exercise in strength--she hollered and screamed while the doctor tried to look into her ears. Holy cow, you would've thought she was getting shots. I had to hold her down with my legs, arms, and hands, and even then it was a struggle. But even though she does have the infection, the doctor thinks her waking has to do more with wanting my company in the middle of the night than about being in pain. She agreed, though, that I can't let her cry it out while she's sick, so I have to wait until that's over before I can start getting her back on the right track.

She took her first dose of antibiotic yesterday afternoon. Last night I gave her ibuprofen, put Vicks on her feet (I wrote about that in a previous post if you're thinking, "Huh? Why?"), and gave her a very small dose of children's Benadryl. She had never had that before and I didn't know how she'd react to it, but I thought it might make her sleepy as well as having the benefit of drying up her sinuses.

So, here's the good news..........she slept all night!!!! Thank you, Mr. Children's Benadryl Inventor, whoever you are! Well, I should rephrase that. She sort of slept all night, actually. I hadn't heard her, so when I woke up abruptly at 4:00 AM I was worried because I thought she might've had some reaction to the Benadryl and that's why she wasn't waking up. I laid there worrying about her, so finally I went in to check on her. I very lightly put my hand on her back to make sure she was breathing, and immediately she jumped up and screamed, "Mommy!!" Stupid me!!! So we did the now familiar routine of sitting in the chair and she fell asleep in my lap almost immediately. I put her back to bed, but then I was wide awake. You'd think with all of the sleep I've lost in the last couple of weeks I wouldn't have any trouble sleeping, but it wasn't happening for me. I was up until 6:00, and then slept an hour more until she woke up at 7:00, and she was so happy when she woke up! It's amazing what a full night's sleep will do. She's still stuffed up, but she's in a good mood today.

Yesterday was my husband's birthday. We were supposed to go out to dinner and a movie and she was going to go play with Kaden and go to sleep there until we came to pick her up, but I didn't want them getting sick or her to have to try to go to sleep in a strange place when she's already having such a hard time sleeping, so we had to postpone our date. He was disappointed, but we decided we could still all go out to dinner. My parents are going to be here next weekend so we'll go to the movie then.

Today was a gorgeous day. My husband's been wanting to go down to the state park about an hour from us where there is nice hiking. We usually go at least once a year for a few hours. So even though we had a huge list of things we wanted to do, we decided to do those another day this weekend and take advantage of the beautiful weather and go down there today. On the way down we tried out the car DVD player we borrowed from my brother to use for our vacation (we leave two weeks from today, which is hard to believe!). It worked like a charm--our little one was entertained the whole way with The Wiggles and we had an adult conversation (with an occasional comment from the peanut gallery about Captain Feathersword wearing a hat or Anthony being dressed up like a cat!).

We hiked and saw waterfalls and caves. Our little one loved riding on Daddy's back and playing with the sand and rocks at the bottom of the cave.

And posing with Mommy wearing our glasses.

We ate a picnic lunch and drove back during her naptime. She slept the whole way. When we got home she woke up and played a little bit, but then asked if she could go nigh night! We were trying to pick up the house, so we weren't going to argue with her. I put her in bed and sure enough, she fell back asleep for another hour! We got our cleaning done and he started mowing the grass all before she woke up. It was a productive day. Now we're all ready for another good night's sleep.

the plot thickens...

So now she's sick! How is a mother supposed to let her daughter cry it out when her nose is completely blocked and crying only makes things worse?

And she's fooling with her ears.

She has an appointment this afternoon to confirm, but we're of the opinion that this whole not sleeping and much screaming problem has been ear infection-induced.

Last night was the worst of them all. We decided I couldn't be the hard nosed "let her cry it out" mother after all because the poor thing was sick and miserable. That meant I was in her room every time she woke up screaming. I lost track of how many times that was. Upwards of 8, I think. She fell asleep in my lap each time....so sleepy, but unable to breathe laying down. Poor girl. I'm exhausted, but I'm more worried about her.

Here she is in a happier time......playing outside last week, contemplating the many sounds she was hearing.

fun for a rainy day

What can you do with a bag of beans, some bowls, measuring cups, spoons, and an empty egg carton?

Entertain a two year old for nearly an hour!

It was raining early this morning and though the sun came out, I didn't want to take her outside because her playclothes are mostly all dirty, so I put some clothes on that I didn't want getting dirty (which she's bound to do, especially just after the rain) before we go out this afternoon to get her hair cut. I had bought this bag of beans last week just for this purpose, since I was recently reading ideas for rainy day activities for two year olds. So I thought today would be a perfect opportunity to use them.

For close to an hour she moved the beans back and forth from one bowl to another, from cup to cup to egg carton, stirring them now and then with the spoon. She was so quiet, just concentrating on what she was doing. I'd put the video on for you to see for yourself but video clips and I don't work well together, so I'm not even going to try.

Last night went a little bit better. She woke up at her usual time of 9:50 (for some reason it's pretty consistent that this is the first time she wakes up). I didn't go in for quite awhile, and she worked herself up into quite a frenzy, calling for me. I finally went in (and she stopped crying IMMEDIATELY--she's learned to turn it off like a switch!) and reassured her. Daddy brought a night light in, thinking that maybe she wouldn't be so scared when she woke up if the light was on. She went back to sleep and I didn't hear her again until 5:30, and instead of screaming for me like yesterday morning she was talking and playing (probably because of the night light). She talked for 15 or 20 minutes and then went to sleep again until the respectable hour of 7:00 AM. Much better. We'll see if the night light prevents any other screaming episodes tonight.

crying it out

Last night was a little better than the previous ones have been. She didn't wake up until 5:02 this morning, so I got almost a full night's sleep, which I definitely needed to try and catch up. She did her crying and calling me, I went in, reassured her, sat with her a couple of minutes, and put her back to bed. She was quiet for about 10 minutes and then did it again, but this time it was a fussy calling for me, not crying in fear or pain or whatever it is. So I didn't go in that time. The first time I could tell it was genuine. This time she just wanted my attention. She went on for about 20 minutes and then was quiet. Before long she was at it again. At 6:00 I finally went in and got her up for the day. It was getting light out and I couldn't fool her anymore saying it was "nigh night time" because she could see it was light outside.

I did some reading this morning both online and in a sleep book I have and almost everything says that if you want it to stop you have to let them cry, as long as you know they're okay, which I know she is. I did that when she was a baby and it was torture, but it worked eventually. It feels even more tortuous now, since she's calling me by name, and every instinct in me says to go to her, but I know it's not going to help her learn to put herself back to sleep. Something I read said that if you knew a babysitter was giving your child candy every day you'd tell them to stop, and the child would cry and protest for awhile, but eventually they'd give up when they realized they weren't going to get it anymore. It said that my continuously going in to comfort at night when I know she's fine is more or less "social candy," and she's going to cry harder and protest for awhile, but eventually she'll give up when she sees that I'm not coming. But oh, I'm not looking forward to it until that realization happens. I dread going to bed now, because I never know how much sleep I'll get. And now I have the added dread of knowing I need to lay there and listen to my poor child cry.

As to why this is happening, I read that nightmares are common, as their imaginations are growing, or it could be separation anxiety, or developmental leaps (potty training, vocabulary explosions....both of which she's going through at the moment). It also said an earlier bedtime could help. We start bedtime at 7:30 and she's in bed by 8:00. I wonder if going back to a 7:30 bedtime would make it any better.

Time will tell, I guess.

it's been a hard day's night

We've had several rough nights lately. For some unknown reason our daughter is waking up at all hours of the night crying and calling for me. She's not sick. She's fine at all other times of the day. She could be teething, but we don't know. She could be having nightmares, but we don't know. It's so frustrating and so exhausting. I have seriously contemplated not going in to her and letting her cry it out when she does this, like I had to do early on (especially when it's the fourth time of the night at 3:30 AM or whatever awful hour) but it's so hard to hear her crying "Mommy, Mommy!" and not responding. Usually I go in, pick her up, reassure her, and she quiets down. We sit in the rocking chair for a few minutes and she either falls right back to sleep in my lap or she's wide awake, asking me for books, milk, going downstairs, and a whole litany of things she'd like. I always tell her no, it's nigh night time, and we just sit quietly for a few minutes. Finally she says, "Nigh night" and I put her back in bed. It never takes very long, but usually within twenty minutes or a half hour it happens again.

I don't know what to do. I feel like I'm the mother of a newborn again. Exhausted.

learning and growing

A few months ago I was worried about her speech. Not anymore. It improves by leaps and bounds every day. My mom saw her this weekend and couldn't believe how much more she was saying than a couple of weeks ago when she saw her last. But in the last couple of days particularly she's made some huge strides:

-she started saying "Bye Bye" instead of "Dye Dye!" Finally!!!

-she started saying "up" instead of "ut!"

-she's saying two and three word phrases regularly now: Daddy's home, Mommy's jacket, Faffles good, mmmm! (that's her word for waffles, one of her favorite breakfast foods), More Wilk (milk), and so forth.

She surprises me every day with words she knows. Today she was doing her shape puzzle that she's had for quite awhile. I usually don't do this, but I asked her, "Where's the square....where's the triangle," and so on. She knew all but one, including octagon and oval, which I didn't even know she knew. The one she didn't know was pentagon.

Small steps, I know....but very exciting for us.

I was just looking in her baby book. Not only does she look SO different,

it's just amazing to me how much she has learned in two short years. She went from helpless infant to mobile, playful, communicating, daring toddler in the blink of an eye.

It's hard to believe.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful mom.


And to all of you who read this and are moms.

(And to my good friend who reads this blog and really, really, really wishes she were a mom, I really, really, really hope that next year you ARE a mother on Mother's Day.)


My mother's day started out not so good....I woke up at 2:40 AM sweating to death (aren't I a little young for hot flashes???) and with bad heartburn (ever since pregnancy I've been getting regular heartburn. I thought that was supposed to go away once you had the baby!? She's two for goodness sake!). I opened the window, turned the fan on, took Pepcid, and tried to go back to bed. Didn't work. Got up and read, got tired, went back to bed, still didn't work. Got up, watched TV, tried to go to sleep on the couch. Nope. I was up the rest of the night. My little one got up at 6:00, and my husband was going to get up with her so I could sleep in on Mother's Day, but since I wasn't sleeping, I decided to get up with her and let him continue to sleep (Maybe on Father's Day he'll let me sleep in to return the favor!?). Finally around 7:00 I felt like I could go back to sleep, but it was too late! I had to get ready for church.


So we went to church and then out to brunch. We got there at the perfect time and didn't have to wait. It was jam packed when we left, so I was very happy that we had made it in time. Our little one was as good as gold the whole time and ate a TON of her hashbrown potatoes. My husband swears she's a camel... she eats and eats one day and then nibbles the rest of the week, living off of the stored food in her hollow leg or something. So yesterday was her eating day, it seems. She ate cheerios at breakfast, more for her snack in the nursery, more as we waited to eat, the lots of potatoes and some of her scrambled egg.


After we ate we came home and she went to bed. She talked for a LONG time. I went to bed, too, but had trouble falling asleep because of her talking up a storm in the next room. Finally we both fell asleep, but my husband woke me up about 15 of 20 minutes later by telling me we had water in the basement (did I mention it had been pouring down rain all morning?). When we moved into the house several years ago we discovered water damage on the walls in the basement that wasn't disclosed to us and wasn't found by the inspector (they had just painted prior to us seeing the house, so we couldn't see it, but once they took the dehumidifier out of the basement it came back). We paid lots of money then to have a company come in and waterproof the basement. It was a mess and a huge headache, but they have a 100% guarantee that you won't have any water in the basement. EVER. Yeah, well, so much for that. It was pouring in the crack on the wall and was all over the floor. So they will be receiving a call today (thankfully the repairs should all be covered--we just have to put up with the mess again! YUCK!!).


So anyway, so much for my nap.


Before too long our little one woke up crying. She had only been asleep a little over an hour. I went up to see what was wrong. I still have no idea what was wrong, but she just kept crying and crying. While attempting to calm her down the tornado sirens started going off! We turned the news on to watch the weather and sure enough, a tornado had been spotted across town and was heading our way. I took our screaming toddler to the basement and my husband stayed up and watched the news. At first she was interested in being down there--all of her old toys are down there. But before long she started up her screaming again. Ugh.


The tornado appeared to be heading north of us so we came back upstairs and I whipped out the play doh, the only thing I could think of to calm her down. It worked. We were just passing time, waiting for the tornado warning to expire so we could take off for my brother's house, where we would be celebrating my niece and nephew's birthdays and Mother's Day--my parents would be there, too, so I'd get to see my mom for Mother's Day. The warning expired but the storm was heading straight for the town where my brother lives! We left anyway--my husband thought we could beat it. We listened to two things the whole way there: The radio, where they kept warning the people of my brother's town, where we were heading, and our little one in the back seat yelling, "Gada, Gada, Gada, Gada," over and over and over, very anxious to see her Grandma (Gada is her name for Grandma, in case I haven't mentioned that before). It was a stressful trip, trying to outrun a tornado, trying to pay attention to the news, trying to get my little one's mind on something else ("Look R, there's a cow! What does a cow say?" to which she replied, "No! Gada! Gada!"). Plus it was pouring down rain for half of the trip.


We made it to his house and the storm never materialized, so that was good news. Daughter and Grandma were reunited and they spent the afternoon playing together. We hung out there for a couple of hours and had birthday cake. My daughter, the camel, continued her eating binge, and ate lots of my cake and then a whole cupcake of her own! We stopped for a quick (and completely unhealthy) fast food dinner on the way home and she then ate almost her entire Happy Meal! We got home in time for bath and bedtime (which my husband did for me in honor of mother's day) and I got ready for bed, completely exhausted from the night before. We watched about an hour of a movie and then stopped it so I could go to bed. I don't even remember my head hitting the pillow, and that never happens for me. I don't think I moved all night long and didn't even hear my husband come to bed.


So I forgot to take pictures this morning when we were semi-dressed up for church. Argh. It was pouring down rain all morning and we were all soaked when we got home, so we changed clothes and then I just didn't feel like it. While at my brother's house my mom attempted to take one, but my daughter wouldn't cooperate, so this is what we got.

I didn't have to cook all day--that was a treat, and I was with the people I love most. I got a gift card to a local salon for a massage (from my husband and daughter), so I'm very excited about that. So despite being tired and wet and stressed about a tornado and a whining toddler, it was a good day.

it's a bird...it's a plane...

...yeah, it's a plane.

She points them all out. And we only live about 5 miles from the airport, so we see and hear plenty of them!

Today was a much better day. It's been sunny and gorgeous all day, so we've been outside for most of it. She's in her element. Dirty as can be (look at those knees!), but also happy as can be. I think we've got a tomboy on our hands. (Well, at least at this age she is.)

Her Daddy told me that I have to write that she used the potty again the other night. I was out for the evening with a friend of mine so he gave her her bath. I told him to make sure she sat on the potty first, which he did. And she went! That's two times out of about twenty....ten percent for the first week? Not so bad.

rain, rain, go AWAY!

My little one needs to go OUTSIDE!!!!! It's been raining for a couple of days, but it feels like weeks with a little one who has a constant need to be outside. I've never felt it as severely as I do today. She's beyond fussy, which makes me beyond frustrated.... In fact I had to come upstairs and leave her downstairs with Daddy (who took the day off today) just so I wouldn't blow my fuse. I have a pretty long fuse when it comes to her--I don't lose my patience easily with her, but some days I just can't take one more fuss.

We did go outside a bit this morning. I put her rain boots on her, which she loves, but don't fit her very well, and she proceeded to kick them off. So we didn't last outside that time. We tried again awhile later with her shoes instead, with the plan to just stay in the front on the sidewalk. That idea didn't work. She was in the sopping wet grass in seconds. She sat in it, kneeled in it, even layed down on the wet sidewalk (yes, she stopped what she was doing and just layed down on her stomach for no apparent reason). She was filthy and wet. We came in for lunch--an early lunch because I couldn't stand one more minute of her getting so wet and dirty (even though she was having a great time). She was excited for her Dora yogurt. After about five bites she dipped her hands in it while I wasn't looking and started clapping them together yelling, "Uh oh! Uh oh!" This is when I had about had it. I cleaned her hands and the spoon and gave it back to her. She tried to do it again--I caught her in time that time. I tried to feed it to her instead. She shook her head "no" and said, "All Done, All Done, ALL DONE!!!!!!" over and over, louder and louder. That's when I snapped (she's hardly eaten anything in days, which is why I got so frustrated about that). I told my husband I was going upstairs and he was in charge for awhile.

I took a deep breath and told myself she's only being two. But sometimes I just need a break from two. I'm surrounded by two. Most of the time I'm glad I am, but there are moments I wish I could go off to a job somewhere just for a little while for some freedom! Who knew work could be freedom!?

Anyway, Daddy proceeded to bring her up to bed about 2 minutes later. I guess he couldn't take her either (I heard her continuing to fuss and cry about something, though I don't know what). This is an hour before she's supposed to take her nap, but bed's really the only place she belongs when she's acting like this. She went right to sleep, so she must need it, but this is going to make for a very long afternoon and evening, because she's bound to wake up early. AHHHHHH!!

Tomorrow it's supposed to be nice outside. I can guarantee we'll be outside for almost all of it. It's the only way we can all be sane. I think I just need to let her get wet and dirty and forget about it.

pictures for Kaden

Here are some pictures, requested by Kaden, my little one's best friend. His mom says he always asks to see her whenever she sits down at the computer, so since I haven't put many on lately, here are a few random pictures, just to make him smile.

Daddy and Daughter sitting on the swing--I took this out the screen, so that's why it looks a little weird.

"Yee-ha"--that's what she says when she rides her horse!

Sitting in the mulch--Grandma took this one a couple of weeks ago when she was here watching her so I could go to that market research thing. She loves sitting in the middle of the mulch digging out acorn tops.

This is what we do every single morning now. She starts asking to go "ow-side" from the moment she gets downstairs. I make her wait until after breakfast at least. We go to the sandbox. Then the swing. Then the slide. Then back to the sandbox. In between times she asks, "gake?" which means gate. This means she wants to go out the gate into the front yard, where she then asks for "gike?" which means bike. She wants her tricycle out of the garage. I usually say no because she never ever stays on it for more than about 10 seconds. Then she asks, "wawn mow-ah?" which is lawn mower. She wants her play lawn mower out of the garage. That one I usually agree to because she actually plays with it for a little while. Until she moves on to acorns. And listening for other people's lawn mowers, to which she yells, "Gass! Gass!" (grass, grass--she's obsessed with listening to and watching other people cut their grass!). At some point we return to the backyard through the "gake" and she resumes her swing/slide/sandbox ritual. Is this going to go on all summer? Because it's already getting really old! But she's happy--much happier than if she was in the house playing with anything else, so it makes me happy.

And here's a crazy story for the rest of you. R was sitting on the potty before I got her dressed this morning (yeah, the potty is quickly becoming a very big part of our lives....) She looked at her book for a long time and then said she was all done. She hadn't done anything in the potty, which was fine. I was gathering things up from the bathroom that needed to be put away and went into her room to put them away, thinking she was following me into her room so I could get her dressed. While I was in there she (with her naked little bottom) stood in the bathroom and went "ugh" and a rather big piece of you-know-what fell out onto the floor! She got a very strange look on her face, then turned around to look at it. When I saw it fall I took off toward her. She started bending over to touch it. I said, "NO NO, Don't touch it!" and grabbed some toilet paper. She just barely got her finger on it when I pulled her hand away. I picked it up with the toilet paper and put it in her potty. I said, "See, it goes in the potty." At that point she ran out of the room. I'm not sure where she ran, but I had just read that sometimes the first time they do that outside their diaper it can scare kids, so I thought maybe she was afraid or something. I let her go for a few seconds and I cleaned everything up quickly. But then it dawned on me that she might be going to do it somewhere else! What if there's more!!! But then she came back. I couldn't find any anywhere, but was wondering, what if I start smelling something in a couple of hours!?!?! Then she proceeded to wet the floor a little bit on her carpet in her room. This all took place within just about a minute, but it felt like hours like it was in slow motion. I got a diaper on her and got her hand and the floor and everything cleaned up, but gosh, what a minute or two! It's going to be an interesting year or so as we figure this out together....

odds and ends

*Potty update: nothing. nada. zilch. She sits on it at least twice a day now, willingly, so I guess that's a positive step, but she hasn't been successful other than that first night. And I've read that potty book to her about 47 times since Sunday night.

*Today we added a potty time because she got an extra bath after lunch today. For lunch she had a hot dog, which I cut up and put on a paper plate with a little ketchup for her to dip it in, because she's been very into ketchup lately. After she finished her hot dog, while I wasn't looking, she tipped her plate upside down, put it on her head, and said, "Mommy, hat!" Her hair was covered on one side in ketchup. I tried to comb it out to no avail. She was also covered in sand from our regular morning foray in the sandbox, so I decided to just put her in the tub and get it all taken care of. While we were at it, she sat on the potty. She loved it.

*Her new word today is "cycle," which is short for motorcycle. She has super sensitive ears and notices every little sound around her. She wants to identify every airplane, truck, lawn mower, and siren she hears, and there are LOTS. Today she heard several motorcycles and said, "tuck?" (truck) I said, "No, that's a motorcycle." Later in the day we were walking into Joann's and there was a motorcycle parked close to the door. She pointed to it and said, "cycle." It's cool to see it all come together and she makes those connections.

*I mentioned her sense of direction the other day.... Well, tonight we were walking at the park (she was in the backpack on Daddy's back) and she pointed out the river Daddy had shown her several days ago before we even had it in sight. She remembered where it was, pointed in the right direction, and said, "River!" I didn't even know she knew the word, river!

There are plenty more stories, but I'm tired and can't think of any at the top of my head, so that's enough for today.

potty time

It's a momentous evening in our house, folks..... our little one went potty for the first time in her "big girl potty."

We marked the occasion with claps and cheers from both Mommy and Daddy, who we called upstairs after it happened. I emptied it and she flushed it down the big potty, and then we called Grandma. I said, "Can you tell Grandma what you did?" and she said, "Potty!"

It so happened that one of the books I bought at a garage sale yesterday was this children's book about going to the potty.

I hadn't shown it to her yet. So I got that out and that was her bedtime story. She loved it and when I asked her what book she wanted next she asked for that one again.

So it's been a very potty evening around here. She loves it and was smiling from ear to ear all night and kept saying, "Potty!" and we'd tell her she was such a big girl. We'll see if it continues or if it was just a one night stand with the potty. She's been showing more interest in the last week or so (it's been sitting in the bathroom and every night I ask her if she wants to sit on it before her bath, and she always says no, but tonight she said yes).

Stay tuned. I know you'll all be waiting on pins and needles. Exciting stuff, huh?

(Okay, I've just used the word potty way more than I ever wanted to....first talking about it all evening, now blogging about it....what's next, a scrapbook page about using the potty? I think I'll skip that one--she'd kill me when she's 14 if I had pictures of it).

dressin' up

I've been looking for some dress up clothes for her but didn't want to pay much for them. So I was excited to find a few this morning at a garage sale--they were three items for 50 cents. There weren't many to choose from, but I chose these three....a furry hat, furry scarf/boa sort of thing, and a fuzzy purse. She fell in love with them immediately when I brought them home to her. She wore them around many times throughout the day. I wished I had caught a picture tonight when she was running around for a few minutes with just her diaper on, just before her bath, dancing and wearing these same items! Priceless!

Here's a freaky story from my garage sale experiences this morning. I went to a neighborhood sale nearby where there were many houses with sales going on. At one house I picked up something with Mickey Mouse on it to see what it was. I realized it was a rain poncho and thought, "She'll need a poncho someday, but this one's probably too big." Then I turned it over and written on the side of it with permanent black marker was my little one's first name and our last initial! Obviously the owner's daughter had the same first name as my daughter and their last name starts with the same letter as ours....so creepy!!! I bought the poncho--I figured it was made for her, with her name and everything on it! It will fit her in a couple of years and someday it will come in handy.

(You can hum the Twilight Zone little ditty to yourself now......)

By the way....she woke up from her nap happy yesterday and was happy most of today (except for the HOUR we were stuck on the highway on our way home during lunch/nap time today because they closed it due to an accident). The drama queen is gone for now, anyway.

moodiness

She hit two years old and all of a sudden she became a moody female (seen here, a picture of modesty, trying to take off her socks because it's one of her favorite things to do: take them off when Mommy just put them on, the little stinker!).

The day after her birthday she fussed and cried for no reason. Not at all like her. I thought, "No way, she just turned two. How does she know she's now in the supposed, "terrible two" stage?" (In a young mother's Bible study I was in soon after she was born I learned not to call them that, because there are plenty of happy times during the twos, too, and I shouldn't label them, but sheesh, did she really change that much over night?) The following day she was completely back to normal, my almost always happy girl.

Most days since then she has been that way.

But then we have days like today. Mommy pinched her thumb in the cart while at Target this morning. She screamed and carried on for a good 5 minutes. I felt terrible, because she normally doesn't cry at all if she gets hurt unless it's really, really bad. My husband just said last night, "I wonder sometimes if she's capable of feeling pain," because she really doesn't cry much when she gets hurt. So then the finger pinch this morning, and OH MY GOODNESS--you would've thought I'd broken her thumb. So I felt just awful, knowing I had caused so much pain that she was screaming and carrying on so (in the middle of checkout line at Target, no less--I'm sure I get the award for Target's worst Mom of the day). But then she saw something that caught her attention and she immediately stopped crying and started talking about it. So I knew she was okay. Whew, I felt much better. So I put her back in the cart to walk out to the car and she started in with her crying again. It was then I knew that she was practicing her drama queen act. I didn't know she was capable of it until I saw it for myself, because she's never tried it before. So I ignored her. It's not a behavior I wish to encourage, so I wasn't going to give her attention for it. I put her in her car seat, got in the car, and left the store. She eventually stopped.

However, I wasn't heading home. I had other errands to run, so instead of turning out of Target in the direction of our house, I turned the opposite way. OH MY GOODNESS, once again, you would've thought the world was coming to an end, because she immediately started screaming even louder. She knew we turned the other way, and she didn't like it one bit. "House....house....house!" she kept yelling in between screams. (Smart girl, huh? Already has her daddy's keen sense of direction!) Again, I ignored her. I kept on toward my destination, but really didn't want to go anywhere else with a screaming toddler, so I started rethinking my plan. Should I add to my frustration by taking her into a public place in this mood, or should I give in to what she wants and go home (where I could deal with her attitude privately)? I decided I'd better go home. But because we had already turned away from home, we had to go home the long way. Gave her more time to be mad. That was a fun ride.

By the time we got home she had stopped crying and was on to something else (I think it was pointing to a UPS truck, which, incidentally, she calls, "moun tuck"--brown truck).

Several other times in the next hour or so I experienced more drama for no real reason. I know it's just a phase and she could very well wake up from her nap this afternoon full of smiles and cheer (please, oh please, let it be so!). She could also very well wake up grumpy and full of more drama, so I have to prepare myself.... Ugh. I want my sweet daughter back, please.

P.S. In case you were wondering, whatever bug caused so much trouble the other night passed through her quickly, and she's back to normal now, so at least I know that's not the reason for her moods.

a rough night

A little after midnight I woke up to my crying girl yelling, "Mommy! Mommy!" I thought she was having one of her night terrors, which don't happen very often anymore, but that's kind of what they sound like. I ran in, turned the light on, and picked her up. I went to wipe her nose/mouth, which looked very snotty, and realized it wasn't snot, but she had gotten sick all over herself (and therefore it was all over me, since I was holding her....and all over her bed, too). She was burning up and wouldn't stop crying, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy," over and over. We gave her a lukewarm bath to get her clean and try and bring the fever down and gave her tylenol. She screamed "Mommy" the whole time. It was heartbreaking.

Eventually we got her dressed and everything cleaned up, but she wouldn't calm down. I tried to get her to drink some water, but she wouldn't. I read her some books, which got her to stop crying, and she started falling asleep in my arms. I turned off the light and got ready to put her in bed and as I stood up with her, she got sick again, all over herself and me. The crying and "Mommy, Mommy," started all over again. Thankfully it hadn't gotten in the bed that time. We got the pack and play set up in our room, cleaned her up, and finally put her to bed in there next to us, so I'd be able to jump up and get her right away if she got sick again. Which she did....about an hour and a half later.

It was a LONG night with lots of tears, lots of clothes changes, lots of trying to get her to drink (which she wouldn't), lots of trying to calm her down, lots of scrubbing really nasty laundry at 3 AM and lots of worrying. I hardly slept all night.

She's better today, but still not really herself. She alternates between being her happy, normal self, and being fussy and irritable. She still has a bit of a fever and is sleeping more than normal (who blames her--she was up a long time last night!) and won't really eat or drink much--a couple of saltines and a little bit of water and milk. I'm concerned about the drinking part. She only wants her "wilk," which I knew wouldn't be good for her stomach. I talked to the nurse at the peditrician's office and she said if she'll only drink milk then to water it down (yuck!). I also just went and got some pedialyte--we'll see if she drinks it. She's not big on juice, so who knows. I'll try it when she wakes up.

One of the many times I came back to bed exhausted last night my husband said, "You're doing a good job and being a good mom." I started crying and said, "But I can't help her!" It's so hard to see your little one hurting and not be able to fix it. Then I told him thank you for all of his help cleaning up. He said, "Yeah, I'm just here..... Here to clean up the puke!" What a guy!

Let's hope tonight is better.....for all of us!

random facts about my random girl

*Tonight after seeing Ruby on "Max and Ruby" do ballet, she decided to start dancing on her toes. I wish I had caught it on video: she puts her arms up like she's trying to be a ballerina (but they're in front of her chest instead of up in the air) and she walks around in circles on her tip toes.

*She ate about four handfuls of sand at various times this weekend. Every time she does it the sandbox gets closed up and she's not allowed to play in it, which she hates, but you'd think that would teach her not to do it. Nope. Next time she eats it again. She even makes a face like, "This is really nasty." Then WHY????

*Her favorite word now is, "Ow-side?" I hear it non stop if we're inside. Then she runs to the back door and says, "baa doe," which is, "back door," which means she wants to play in the back yard and not the driveway or sidewalk, where we sometimes play if it's wet in the back.

*Her second new favorite word is "Ready?" Like in, "Ready, set, GO!" Grandma taught it to her last week when she was here, and now she says it before she does just about everything..... swinging, tickling, whatever.

*The first words out of her mouth this afternoon after she woke up from her nap were, "Swing? Park?" The park is her new favorite hang out. Thankfully there's a nice one close to our house. We have to drive there, but it's only a few minutes away.

*Last week when my mom was here I did some cleaning upstairs, as I mentioned before. I confess that the vacuum hasn't yet made its way back into the closet since then, and is sitting in the hallway outside our bedroom door and not far from our little one's bedroom door. As soon as she wakes up every morning and afternoon (after her nap), she pops up, peeks out the doorway and sees the vacuum, and says, "Hi, Seer," which is her word for sweeper. Then she makes a noise which is her impersonation of a vacuum. When we go downstairs she waves and says, "Bye, Seer," just before we go down. She's terrified of the thing when it's on, but she's still so friendly to it... isn't that nice?

*Bagels are her new favorite food. Cinnamon Sugar bagels, to be exact. She's also quite fond of chicken. Her drink of choice? "Wilk." You know, the white stuff that comes from cows. She can't get enough of the stuff. I used to be able to give her water instead sometimes when she asked for more (have you seen the price of milk these days? And she goes through a gallon in just a few days), but now she complains and asks for "wilk" when I try the switch--sometimes she drinks water fine, but when she wants milk, she wants milk. Doesn't like juice either. She loves her wilk.

*Last night we found a tick stuck to her scalp after her bath while we were brushing her hair (why we didn't find it in the bathtub when washing her hair, I'm not sure--I'm just glad we found it at all). We both freaked out a little, and there was lots of crying involved (her, not us) as we tried to hold her head still. We got it off, calmed her down, read stories, and she went to sleep, but then I spent the next 30 minutes reading everything I could find online about ticks and lyme's disease--and looking at gross pictures of the same thing we'd just pulled off our daughter's head. I'm going to call the doctor tomorrow just to be safe.

*A couple of weeks ago at the park there were a ton of pine cones on the picnic table near the playground. She found them and fell in love with them, carrying them all around and making rows of them on the ground. I told her, "Those are pine cones," several times, and she'd practice saying it. Then I noticed that she started putting them up to her head like she was combing her hair. It dawned on me that she thought I said " pine comb!" Hmmmm....no wonder she has ticks on her head!!!

the girl with the golden shoes

If you've read my blog for very long or know me very well you know how much I enjoy a good bargain. A little too much, in fact. I love this time of year because of the sun and warmth and all of that, but one of my favorite things is getting started at garage sales! Part of my love of bargains is born out of necessity, since I stay at home and we live off of just one income, but even if I worked and we had extra money floating around, I'd still go--bargain hunting is just a hobby for me! I especially love a good kids stuff garage sale. I actually hadn't been to any garage sales in quite a long time (growing up we used to go to them sometimes, but I never liked them much) until my little one was born and I realized what great shape so much baby stuff was in that I'd find at garage sales for a fraction of the price of buying it new. Around the same time of rediscovering garage sales, I discovered kids consignment sales. I've gotten so many great deals on stuff for her through these different sales.

Sadly, my luck hasn't been so good so far this year. But it's only April, so there's plenty of time for that to change. Last weekend I went to two consignment sales. I guess my luck hasn't been as good because I've been looking for very specific things--summer PJs and sandals, mainly. When you go into the sales looking for certain things, it makes it much harder and disappointing when you don't find what you want.

At one sale I found some PJs, but they're long sleeved, and I really need some short sleeved ones for her. No sandals either.

At another sale I didn't find a single thing! Drove all the way there (about 30 minutes away--how much money did I waste in gas?!) and didn't buy a single thing. Very disappointing.

Yesterday at a consignment sale I got several cute things, but nothing on my list...good deals, but just things I liked and not pressing needs.

Today at a garage sale I found a couple of other things, but again, nothing on my list.

The most immediate need was sandals. There have been several very warm days this week and I've wished I had sandals to put on her. But every time I try a pair on her in a store, they're too big and too wide. The smaller size is too short (and still too wide--she has narrow feet like me). This left me with two choices. One: go without sandals for awhile and hope I found a pair of Stride Rites (the only kind that fit) at a garage sale, which sometimes happens, but not likely, or Two: actually buy a pair of Stride Rites (gasp....at full price.....unheard of in my world--I don't pay full price for anything!). After striking out at every sale and every store, I decided to suck it up and actually get them for her. At Nordstroms of all places--my husband can't believe I actually set foot in the store, let alone bought anything there. But they didn't have her size at the Stride Rite store, and they did at Nordstroms.

And at the price I paid for a pair of shoes for a two year old who loves to get dirty, and that will last her (hopefully) through one summer, I'm wondering if they're lined with gold???? Here's what they look like....cute, yes, but worth about a week's worth of groceries???? Not sure about that. But they stay on her feet...more than I can say about every other pair I've tried.She's really only ever had Stride Rites, with a couple of exceptions, but I've always found them either on ebay at a fraction of the cost (trust me, I looked this time, but her size must be very rare or something, because there's NOTHING!) or at a consignment store/sale, so I've never actually paid full price for a pair. I'd better have my head examined.

Mommy

She's finally calling me Mommy. Wow, it's taken two years to hear it. Mama was nice, but Mommy is so much better.... Now, of course, I hear it about a thousand times a day (I think she just must like saying it because often she'll just say it over and over and over...."Mooooooommmmyyyyyy....Moooooooommmmmmyyyyyy..." and on and on. But I love hearing it.

One of her favorite things to say, though, lately, is "Hi" to every single person (or inanimate object) she sees. And not just once....she says it over and over and over until you just want to bury your head in the sand because the other person really doesn't want to say hi one more time to a little girl who they've already said hi to fifteen times! Often she'll do this when we're out playing in the yard, so it's neighborhood kids who are walking by and she's telling them hi. Of course, once you reach a certain age it's not "cool" to say hi to people, especially two year old little girls, so lots of the teens will ignore her and keep right on walking. But she just keeps on saying hi. Poor, innocent little thing. One of these days her sweet little friendly bubble will be burst as she realizes that not everyone thinks she's as fabulous and ridiculously cute as her Mommy, Daddy, and grandparents do!!!

This morning I took part in another market research panel (every so often they call and I fit the profile and I join a panel to discuss something and get paid a ridiculous amount of money for a very small portion of my time). This time, though, instead of sitting at a table with a panel while interested businesses watched behind a two way mirror, we were at a table in front of a live audience while people asked us questions about what we're looking for in a cable company. It looked and felt very much like a press conference, with myself and about 7 other customers, up in front, and about 100 cable business executives, sitting in the audience. Not in my comfort zone in the least....but at least I was compensated well, and I really only had to answer a few questions, since lots of the questions didn't apply to me (we have a very basic cable and high speed internet bundle, and lots of their questions were about all of the extra stuff we don't have).

My mom was here keeping me company for a few days while my husband was gone on business, so she was able to babysit, which worked out perfectly. My little one and I had lots of fun with Grandma, and the weather was beautiful for her visit. Yesterday the two of them played while I worked upstairs cleaning and organizing all morning. It was so nice to get something accomplished and not have to worry about my little one running around getting into things or needing me. I told her if she came more often my house would be a lot cleaner! But it was hard to make myself go up and do it....I would've much rather have played with the two of them! But now that it's done and I have a clean, organized room and bathroom, I'm glad I did. Now if I could only do that in EVERY room!

"ut" and "noun"

In my daughter's language, "ut" means up and "noun" means down.

She likes very much to be picked "ut." Especially when I'm trying to cook dinner. Or fold clothes. Or get anything else done.

This morning I was folding clothes while she was watching, I think, Mickey Mouse. She came over and said "ut," with her arms stretched up to me, wanting to sit and cuddle with me while she watched. I told her no, that I was folding clothes and would pick her up in a minute.

And then I thought of this poem.....

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton


Whenever I'm trying to get something done and she's asking, "Mama, Mama," and wanting me to do something with her or pick her up, this poem comes to mind....particularly the last line, "I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep." It always makes me think, "Which is more important, that I get this done or that I spend time with my little girl?"

She usually wins.

Someday will come a day when she doesn't want "ut" anymore and only wants "noun" and doesn't want to play with me anymore. I'll wish for these days....

Of course, my house isn't always the cleanest as a result....

But I think she'll forgive me, don't you?

like father, like daughter

The first lawn mowing of the season....

(oh my, did I just get a video clip to work????) If you listen carefully over the lawn mower noise you can hear her talking--she's saying "suck, suck," which means "stuck, stuck!" She couldn't get her lawn mower to move anymore.

And this is what a sandbox picture is supposed to look like....

...short sleeves and sunshine...unlike the pictures we took at her birthday party. She's been loving getting filthy in her sandbox, and even sampled some for a snack this morning. She didn't like it, so I was thinking that she probably wouldn't try it again. Wrong....tonight after dinner she took a whole shovel full and tried to put it in her mouth. Thankfully I caught her before much of it got in, but gosh, that's gross. We need to work on those taste buds--acorns and sand? At least she's getting lots of fiber.

play doh

So this morning she learned how to play with play doh. Or rather, I played with play doh while she watched with fascination and played with the tools that came along with it.

She didn't like feeling it--I tried to get her to squeeze it in her hands, but she would mostly just poke it and take her hand away. She liked patting it down with her hand, and she liked trying to use the scissors, though she couldn't really figure them out and just ended up using them to stab into the play doh.

I got one color out at a time, and when she'd say she was all done I'd put it away...but then she'd say, "boooooooo" and want the blue can out, or "wewllwo" and want the yellow can, and so forth. We eventually played with every color, though I only got them out one at a time (so the colors wouldn't mix). She especially liked it when I used the garlic press looking tool to make "spaghetti." She didn't even try to put it in her mouth! We're making progress in that department (though she still does put the occasional acorn top in her mouth!).

But she enjoyed it, and I'm sure she'll learn to like touching it before long.

the final installment

I promise this is the last you'll hear of her birthday! It's been birthday week around here, not just a day. Yesterday was her party--my parents, my husband's parents, and my brother and his family came. There was a change in plans a couple of weeks ago--I mentioned before that I was making a lady bug cake. Well, I realized that she really wasn't that excited about ladybugs anymore, so I was only making it because I wanted to, not because it was something she'd love. What does she love right now? Pooh. So we had a Pooh party instead. She loved it. She had a fabulous time--mostly following her cousins around and running from one grandparent to the next to be held for a minute before wanting down and finding out what the cousins were up to.

Before I forget, we finished our project I mentioned a few days ago. I can't take much credit--I helped paint it, but my husband did almost all of the work. I saw one of these bookshelves in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog when I was pregnant and talked about how cute it was, but of course it was so expensive. He decided to draw the plans himself and build it from scratch. I think it's beautiful. This was her main present from us, though she also got some more beads, play doh (she hasn't ever played with it, so just think of the fun....and mess....that we're in for!), books, a toy lawn mower to push around outside, and an outfit. Now we have to find room for it!

At the party we opened presents--with anxious helpers, cousins Emma and Alex--She got puzzles, books, clothes, and sand toys for the sand box, which is now filled with sand!), cake and ice cream, and then dinner a little later.

She loved having everyone sing happy birthday!

And eating cake was a highlight (this picture was taken right AFTER she tried putting her whole face in the piece of cake--we didn't have the camera ready for that, unfortunately!!!)

After cake and ice cream her cousins wanted to go out and play in the new sandbox. It was sprinkling and freezing, but we decided to let them for a little while. They had a ball.

The rest of the day was playtime. She and Emma had fun together, and Emma taught her how to have a tea party!

She went to sleep a tired but happy girl.

portrait problems

We went to get her two year portraits taken today. Oh my....making a two year old sit still and smile on cue isn't an easy task. Daddy took the day off work and went with me, which helped a lot, but she was not very interested at all in smiling for the camera. She would've much rather spent her time playing (which is what she did with every single prop the photographer tried to use to get her to smile). It was quite a challenge, and I'm sure the photographer wasn't very happy with us, since after all of the time and frustration spent to get our little one to smile, we only bought the special $9.95 package!

There were some cute ones and we had trouble deciding, but this one was the best picture overall...even though her hair is messed up. The smile was the most genuine and looked the most like our girl.

I don't think we'll do pictures again until she's three. Maybe she will have matured a bit by then.

just sharing more birthday pictures....

Kaden and Allecia came over to bring her a present.... sandbox toys and a Cleveland Indians hat (which goes perfectly with the Cleveland Indians outfit she has!).

I made cupcakes (froze most of them since we'll have cake again for her party but left some out for eating last night) and she devoured it. We sang to her and did candles, but we only have that on video.

She opened a couple of presents, but will get the majority of them on Saturday at her party. She opened Leap Frog Fridge Phonics, an animal puzzle book, and a Pooh doll.

in this picture she's making Pooh dance to the ABC song that is playing on the Leap Frog toy

After dinner we played outside (for about the fourth time that day--they got the weather totally wrong and it was a gorgeous day!) and then went back to my favorite ice cream place and she had her very own dish of ice cream (usually she just eats from ours, but Grandma was paying!). They still didn't have Strawberry Chip, but I enjoyed my Black Raspberry Chip almost as much.

Here she is in "the birthday chair." I took her picture in this chair every month on the 9th of her first year of life, and then on her first birthday, and now on her second birthday. She's filling up the chair more and more each time!

Today she had her two year check up at the doctor. She's up to the 8th percentile in weight! Woohoo!!!! The doctor was really excited and called her a "big girl!" She's always been a tiny girl, so that was quite a compliment from the doctor! She's 22 pounds 14 ounces and 33 1/2 inches long (that's the 50th percentile for height). I just read yesterday that if you double their height at 2 years old it predicts their adult height. That would make her 67 inches, or 5'7"--I guess time will tell about that one!

my birthday girl

Happy Birthday to my sweet TWO year old!

It's been a fun day so far....

*woke up to Mommy and Daddy singing "Happy Birthday"

*ate a birthday muffin for breakfast (which she kept calling "cake")

*excitement over Grandma's arrival around 9:30

*first present--Pooh chair (she's obsessed with Pooh these days)

*shopping with Mommy and Grandma to a children's book store and Toys R Us

*second present--sandbox (to be filled with sand this weekend--right now it makes a good slide!)

and more fun to come....

*pizza for dinner--her favorite

*cupcakes and blowing out candles

*more presents

I can't believe my baby is two years old. This morning as I laid in bed I started thinking about two years ago today...the greatest day of my life. It makes me cry when I think about it-mostly happy tears, but also a bit of nostalgia as I realize that she's growing up so fast.

Here's a picture from yesterday...she got new rain boots and was SO excited to wear them. Once she got them on, though, she couldn't walk in them! In the last 24 hours I think she's had them on and off about 24 times! She puts them on, can't walk, then says "all done," and kicks them off. I think it's the heel--she has to get used to walking with them. She's better today than she was yesterday.

Her birthday party is Saturday. More pictures then.

it's really spring!

The last two days have been just beautiful-I just want to bottle it up and have some of it every day! It's almost 70 today (it may actually be 70..I haven't checked recently) and sunny and gorgeous. You'd better believe we spent almost the whole weekend outside. Saturday we did yard work. Okay, let me rephrase that.... Saturday I took our little one outside, got the rake out, and attempted to rake, but she saw her bike in the garage and wanted that, so I stopped raking and got that out. Started raking again....she wanted a ride. I stopped raking (oh, I probably should mention that we have a pin oak tree in our front yard, which apparently doesn't lose its leaves in the fall like every other tree in the world, but in the spring, which means we have to rake leaves not only in the fall but also in the spring....lucky us, huh? Remind me to never buy another house with a pin oak tree!). I pushed her on her bike for a bit and Daddy came out. He took the rake and started raking while I gave the bike ride. This officially passed the torch on to him to do the yard work--I spent the rest of the time playing with our little one and keeping her out of Daddy's way. "I thought you were doing the raking?" he asked once. I said, "But you're the one who took the rake from me, so now you're in charge!"

After he finished we went to Home Depot to get grass seed (last fall they redid our sidewalks and messed up our yard in the process, so we have lots of grass to replace) and paint for her birthday project, which is almost finished (more on that in a few days when it's actually finished and I can post a picture....until then you'll just have to wonder!). Came home in time for lunch and naptime, and during her nap he and I painted the project. We spent the afternoon outside and inaugurated our grill for the season by grilling steaks for dinner. After dinner we went to the best ice cream place in the whole world (I won't say the name because it's fairly local, and I don't like to give hints about where I live, but those of you who live around here will know where I'm talking about when I say it is "graet"). Online it said their Strawberry Chip ice cream was in season--that's my all time favorite ice cream and I was THRILLED to go get it. But when I got there, they didn't have it yet! I was very dissapointed....though having ice cream there is never a disappointment for me, so I got over it quickly and enjoyed my Peanut Butter Chip instead. The whole way there our little one was saying over and over again, "I Dee! I Dee! I Dee!" because we had told her we were going bye bye to get ice cream. She had a great time.

Then we went to a nearby park I'd only been to once before. It had a very tall tunnel slide that our little one decided she wanted to try. We were the only ones there, or I wouldn't have let her because it was very big and I'm generally not a fan of tunnely things for little kids because I'm afraid she'll get stuck and then I'd have to climb up in there to get her, but since we were alone, I decided to let her try. Daddy was with her at the top and I waited at the bottom and I could see up into the tunnel so she could see me and had a huge smile on her face. Daddy let go and down she came toward me VERY fast, but she was grinning from ear to ear with her hands up in the air. As soon as I got her she scrambled to the ground and ran to the steps to do it again. She loved it, and I've never seen her so excited about a slide. She did it over and over and over, running back up to the top each time. We finally had to tell her it was time to go, because it was almost her bedtime, but she would've stayed forever!

Yesterday after church, lunch, and naptime, we set off for another new park. We found out when we got there that there wasn't much to this park, but we went for a walk in the woods with our little one in the backpack on Daddy's back. She loved it, and I don't think she remembered it from last year, because she acted like it was a totally new experience, and said "pack pack" over and over again, so excited. She also got to play on the playground there and loved the big tall slide. It had really high sides so we let her go on it, with Daddy at the top and me at the bottom again. She kept running back for more. But there were a lot of big kids there playing and she came close to getting trampled a few times, so we didn't stay very long.

We came home and broke out the bubbles. She spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the yard "blowing" bubbles (this consisted of putting the wand in her mouth, mostly). This was the first time it had been dry enough to play in the backyard for any length of time, and it was so nice to just sit and watch her play and not have to worry about any "no nos." Anywhere else she plays it seems like there's so much I have to watch that she doesn't do, but in the backyard, since it's fenced in, she pretty much has the run of the yard, and it was really nice to not have to play policeman for the afternoon! She had a great time, and so did I, just watching her.

We grilled out again (hamburgers this time--we've gotten our red meat fix for awhile!!) and even ate outside on the deck, which was so nice.

This morning we ran errands and were going to come home and play outside, but I decided to take her to the park instead. We have a nice metropark very close to our house and we hadn't been yet this spring, so we went there. Before too long a friend of mine from church showed up unexpectedly with her little boy, who is just a couple of months younger than my little one, so we had an impromptu playdate, which was lots of fun. They really enjoyed chasing each other and swinging together and I enjoyed talking to my friend, who I hadn't seen in quite awhile. My little one fell in the mud toward the end of the morning, though, and her jacket and bottom were caked with mud. I hadn't brought the diaper bag so I didnt have a change for her....I just had to let the mud dry a little, take her jacket off, and let her ride home in muddy pants. It was dry by then, though, so it didn't dirty the car seat. Figures that I had just washed her clothes this morning, so I couldn't add these to the wash....doing a separate load now of random things of the same color.

I'm sure this afternoon we'll be back outside after she wakes up. We've got to soak in all of this springiness that we can because it's going to rain the rest of the week. Yuck. Wednesday is her birthday and I was hoping to go to the zoo, but it looks like that probably won't happen. We'll have to do an indoor activity instead that day to stay out of the rain.

It's going to be a busy week for the birthday girl.... Grandma's coming to visit, she has her two year check up, birthday portraits (that is, if the huge welt under her eye heals that she managed to get on Saturday due to a fall--if not I'll have to reschedule the pictures!), and her big party (well, not really so big....both sets of grandparents, my brother and his family, and maybe one of Daddy's sisters). So it's a busy week for me, too, with lots of cleaning and cooking and preparing to do. I'd better go get busy. I've been taking a break while the freshly mopped floor dries, but I think it's dry by now, so it's back to work.

Happy Spring!

random pictures

Last week we went to the local science museum with our friends Allecia and Kaden. We didn't realize it was spring break for most schools....HUGE mistake! It was a zoo, not a museum! We had to wait in line over a half hour just to get in. There's a special room for toddlers--it was mobbed with people, so I was so stressed trying to keep a close eye on her. She was constantly running from one place to the next and it's a lot easier for her to zip through a crowd of people than it is for me to weave my way in and out to keep after her! She and Kaden had a great time, though. I didn't get many good pictures, but this is one I like. She was playing in a little house with the kitchen sink.

Note to self....don't go to the science museum during any school break or holiday.

Last week on the day of the acorns I also got her tricycle out for awhile. She rode on it while I pushed for a little bit, but before too long she kept telling me "ah dah, ah dah," which is all done. She got off and decided she wanted to be the one pushing instead.

Lately she's begun staying in her crib to play for quite awhile after she wakes up from her nap. I go in there to get her and she's content just to talk and play for at least a half hour, sometimes more. I'll often put clothes away or some other job while she happily chats away. Once last week I went in to get her and found her socks off and one on her hand like a mitten. I happened to have the camera nearby and took a picture.

her latest news

Last night we went out to dinner (always exciting because it means I didn't have to cook!!) and our little one was playing with the crayons they gave her. She started scribbling little curly cues and saying "circle, circle, circle," quite clearly. We both looked at her in amazement, since we didn't even know she knew what a circle was, let alone know how to draw them!!! Of course then we tried to teach her "square" and "triangle." She liked saying the new words, but couldn't point them out when we asked her, "Which one is the square?" and so forth. So that didn't work as well...after that we stuck with circle.

She is repeating EVERYTHING we're saying now. It's taken a verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry long time to get to this point, it seems, but she's now talking up a storm and saying lots of new words. This has us both very happy. Her biggest thing to say now is "yeah." If you ask her a question she'll answer, "YEAH!" with much enthusiasm. I'd rather have her say "yes," but I realized the other day that I say "yeah" and that's where she got it. Hmmm...maybe I'd better rethink the things I say.

Yesterday when we picked her up from the nursery at church they said that she was talking non stop, saying everything she had in her hand or that someone was playing with. And they understood her! Hooray!

I stumbled upon a couple of preschool games online last night and was trying to see what she could do. There was this game where they put the shadows of different people on the screen and you have to pick out which one is Santa Claus. They're kind of tricky, in that several have on hats similar to Santa's, several are "round and jolly" like Santa, so it's not always clear which one he is. She got them right every time! I was impressed. Later she kept saying "ho ho ho," and pointing to the computer, wanting me to find that site again.

I'd be remiss if I didn't share the less successful games....like the one where they have to point to the correct shape. She got the circle right, but not the other shapes. Oh well! At least she knows one!

She redeemed herself with the color game, and knew all of her colors!

Oh, and I had another shopping "high" yesterday. I did my weekly CVS trip where I get the free stuff using ECBs. It's become a bit of an obsession. Anyway, yesterday I got three bags of stuff (body wash, ibuprofen, face soap....TONS of stuff) for $1.01, and earned back $25 in ECBs for next time.

So that's the news around here.