an unpleasant milestone

Well, I just had a motherhood first..... (a little gross...don't read if you have a weak stomach!)

I went in to check on our little one before I went to bed. I walked in there and it smelled really bad. At first I thought she must have a stinky diaper, but then I realized it wasn't that smell, it was throw-up smell. Then I remembered that after I put her down at bedtime and left the room I heard her cough a really loud, hard cough. But then she coughed just a little regular cough, so I didn't think much of it.

Well I went to get a flashlight and sure enough, at one end of her bed, there it was. She was asleep at the other end. So I got my husband (who was up all night last night at a lock in, mind you, and really wanted to go to bed!!) and we went in and got a clean sheet and matress pad out of the dresser, then I picked her up--she woke up but was really groggy. It was all matted in her hair--nasty!!!! So I took her into the bathroom and started a bath--she was quiet and still, just staring at the water, probably wondering what in the world I was doing, waking her up and giving her a bath in the middle of the night! (okay, so it was 10 pm, but that's the middle of her night, anyway!) She was SO good the whole time...getting her undressed, putting her in the tub... except when I rinsed her hair, when she cried pretty hard. She normally hates that anyway, and being half asleep and probably not feeling great made it 10 times worse. I had trouble getting all of it out of her hair, and she was crying...that part wasn't fun at all. I got her out and she was shaking she was so cold and crying. I held her for a long time as she calmed down and I tried to warm her up. Then I got her dressed and she started covering her eyes playing peekaboo with the two of us (he had just finished changing her bed and was talking to her), so she had cheered up.

Can you imagine if I hadn't gone in--she would've slept in that all night! Poor girl!!! She ate a TON for dinner (because she hadn't eaten much earlier in the day) and I think when she coughed so hard that time, some of it must've just come up. I don't think she's sick--at least I hope not. She did feel kind of warm when I first put her to bed and I gave her some tylenol just in case.... she wasn't acting sick, though.

I sat down with her in the rocker and offered her water, but she didn't drink it. I rocked her a bit in the dark and she was yawning. I said, "Are you ready to go nigh night again?" and she said "Okay," (remember, I said last night she doesn't answer "okay" to that question?!?!? I guess in this circumstance she does!) so I put her back in bed with her other blanket and she didn't make a sound. I cleaned the bathtub and am washing the load of the sheets, blanket, PJs, etc. now.

So that was my first throw up experience as a mother--not a particularly fun milestone, I have to say! Won't be the last, I'm sure. And Daddy was a good sport and didn't even throw up himself from the smell, even though he did feel sick to his stomach (I did too a little bit, but I was so concerned about her that it didn't really bother me too much).

Now I can't sleep....worried that she might be sick. I hope it was just a full tummy.

good news, bad news

Good news: Our little one has gone back to taking one nap a day again. Before Christmas when she was sick she started waking up really early because of her stuffy nose and then needed a morning nap. This kind of stuck all through the Christmas season. This week we were out one morning and she didn't get a morning nap, and did just fine. The nap she did get was longer and she was happy the rest of the day. This means I can be gone in the mornings and not have to worry about getting back in time for a nap. Another added bonus is that because she's only getting one nap, she's sleeping in later in the mornings! Yippee!

Bad news: Only one nap means only one time a day to myself to get things done.

Good news: She continues to love her bathtub letters and knows T, O, S, and A. She even recognizes them on her leap frog caterpillar.

Bad news: I've searched all over town this week for magnetic letters for the refrigerator. Who knew they were so hard to find!? I found a set at the teacher store but they wanted an arm and a leg for them. I looked on ebay and have a few that I'm watching, so maybe I'll get some soon. But by that time her fascination with letters could be gone.

Good news: She's so fun to communicate with these days. When you ask her a question she almost always answers with, "ohhh-kie," which is her version of "okay."

Bad news: This only works if it's something she wants...."Do you want some milk?" "Ohhh-kie." "Would you like to watch The Wiggles?" "Ohhh-kie." "Are you ready to go nigh-night?" Silence..... It doesn't work like a charm, unfortunately.

Good news: Today she ate pizza, yogurt, graham crackers (LOTS of graham crackers), apple, french toast sticks, cheerios.... that's a lot of food for her in one day.

Bad news: Today she ate pizza, yogurt, graham crackers (LOTS of graham crackers), apple, french toast sticks, cheerios.... that's a lot of carbs in one day, very little fruit, and NO vegetables! She's been pickier than normal these days. I'm lucky if I can get her to eat anything.

Good news: Her cold and cough are getting better.

Bad news: Her nose is running like a faucet as she gets rid of everything. Her little nose is raw and red underneath from Mommy wiping it so much.

Good news: She's in bed, Daddy's gone for the night (at the middle school lock in at our church--there's nowhere on earth I would rather NOT be!), and I have the whole evening to myself!

Bad news: Daddy will come home in the morning very tired and want to sleep most of the day.

Good news: He loves it and will come home happy, though tired.

playtime

Just thought I'd post some pictures of playtime these days. We got her some beads, after her introduction to them on New Year's Eve, and she's loving them!

Yesterday she decided to share the wealth with her baby doll.

She became a little monkey a few weeks ago and learned how to climb on the kitchen chairs, the couch (sometimes....sometimes she can't make it up on her own), and the piano bench. Sometimes I'll open the piano and let her play when she climbs up there (with one finger...she's not allowed to pound), which she loves.

midnight musings

Well, it's not quite midnight, but I can't sleep and it's only 44 minutes away as I begin typing this, so I declare it close enough to call it midnight!

Our little one is sick again. It seems one of us always is these days. My husband and I are both better, so that means it's her turn to get sick. She's coughing a lot and I'm going to keep her home from church tomorrow--no use passing all of those germs along to the other innocent toddlers (though that's where many of her germs seem to originate!). A friend of mine said recently that her son is sick every Tuesday, after being in the church nursery on Sunday! Then he gets better, goes to church again and gets sick again on Tuesday! Our situation isn't quite so predictable, but I can understand her point.

Spinning has become a popular dance move for her lately. She's been getting into The Wiggles a lot lately (and I mean a lot....I pretty much know every song and dance by heart. Move over, Laurie Berkner! --though she still loves those CDs, too). She's been watching Wiggles videos from the library, though--right up her alley with all of the music and dancing. Well, somehow she got the idea to spin around to the music, in addition to her usual repertoire of dance steps. She turns and turns around until she nearly (and sometimes actually does) start to fall down, frequently dangerously close to the coffee table, so I'm trying not to encourage the spinning! It's cute and all, but a big bump on the head wouldn't be worth the cuteness of it.

I hope you all don't mind, but I just have to brag for a minute about her....not that this whole entire blog isn't one giant brag-fest about our daughter, but this is blatant bragging at it's best! For Christmas we gave her this set of foam letters and numbers for the bath tub. She's in love with them and gets even more excited than usual about taking her bath every night because of them. Well, several nights ago while she was holding up letters one by one, I started telling her what letter they were and what sound they made. For some reason she became really excited about the letter "T" and its sound and kept repeating it over and over: "t, t, t, t, t, t" (the sound, not the actual name of the letter). So the next night I found the T and did it again. We did this for a few nights. So the night before last I asked her, "Can you find the letter T?" and then made the "t" sound for her. She looked and looked all around the tub--mind you, there are 26 letters floating around and the numbers 0-9. She couldn't find it, so I pointed in the general direction and she found it. So last night we asked her again, and without any prompting about where it was, she found it and held it up proudly! She picked it out of all of the letters of the alphabet! I couldn't believe it. Then she proceeded to do the same thing with "O!" That's another one we had worked on and that she seems to like a lot (why you like one letter over all of the others, I'm not sure, but she seems to have her favorites--she likes to play with the W and M a lot, too--I think because they look almost identical and she likes having two of everything--one in each hand. Incidentally, those are my initials! She also likes the B and 8--again, because I think she thinks they look the same! Funny girl!). Looks like it's time to go buy some magnet letters for the fridge--that's how I learned my letters and learned to read. Can you tell I'm a teacher? Already pushing my not quite 2-year-old to read!!!!

Well, it's not midnight yet, but I don't think I have enough musings to make it for another 19 minutes, and my eyes are now getting sleepy, so I'll say goodnight!

my very favorite people

This was taken Labor Day weekend after a rousing game of wiffle ball. We all got together at my parents' because my younger brother, Jack, and his wife were in town from NYC, and they don't get home very often. I had totally forgotten about this picture until my mom sent it to me just recently. These are my very favorite people in the whole wide world!

Top Row: Megan (Jack's wife), Jack, Ted (my older brother), my grandpa

Middle Row: Leslie (Ted's wife), my dad, my mom, me, our little one, my husband

Bottom Row: Ted's kids--Alex (2 1/2), Emma (5), and Ethan (7)

We saw all of these people at Christmas (and lots more) but we didn't get a group picture. So I'm posting this one instead.

outer banks, anyone?

I've talked to a few of you about this already, but for everyone else, have you ever been to the Outer Banks? We think we're headed here in June for vacation (with our little one this year!) and I'm in information overload as I research options online. So I've been turning to those I know to give me more specific advice, rather than trying to weed through it all myself, though I've already done a fair amount of that! I think we've narrowed it down to a couple of oceanfront condos in Duck, but I'm up for advice from anyone with experience--restaurants, the best beaches, things to do, etc. So if you have some experience to share, write me a comment (in case you don't know how to do that....click under my post where it says "O Comments" or "1 Comment" or whatever it happens to say at the moment).

On the home front, I'm finally starting to recover from the never ending party going on in my sinuses--it started way back in mid December, and hasn't stopped. Ever see the Mucinex commercial with those germs who don't want to leave? Well, that's what they're doing inside of my sinus cavities. I don't just get colds, normally. I get full blown sinus infections of epic proportions. I haven't tried Mucinex, actually, and maybe I should've to see if their commercial really does what they say it does! But it's finally starting to clear up and I've probably only used about 20 tissues today as opposed to the usual 47 or so! I've gone through two of those huge boxes of Puffs since this all started. And today at dinner my husband informed me that he's felt a cold coming on all afternoon. Wonderful! More germs to pass around our little family.

Mama continues to be a favorite phrase for our little one, which is such a wonderful thing to hear! Tonight in the car on the way home from dinner (we went out, which was a nice treat), she was saying it over and over (mamamamamamamamamamamamama.....like that). Daddy says she's making up for lost time! This morning he got up (very early) with her while I got a little extra sleep, since he got to sleep in yesterday. After an hour or so I woke up to get ready for church and heard "mama" coming from outside my closed bedroom door. Usually we don't close our bedroom door because then I couldn't hear her if she wakes up in the middle of the night, but it was closed after he got up with her so I could continue sleeping. So anyway, I open my door and there she is at the top of the stairs saying "Mama," all by herself--Daddy was still downstairs and didn't know she had climbed upstairs by herself to find me, the sneaky little stinker! Sweet.....but dangerous. She's not allowed to crawl up the stairs by herself, because I'm terrified of her tumbling down again.

home alone

I can't tell you the last time I was at home, alone in my own house. Until right now, that is! Oh my, it's such a strange, free-ing feeling! This morning I was up really early with our daughter, then couldn't go back to sleep after I put her back to bed, since my husband was snoring. So I got up and read, and by the time I was ready to go back to bed, guess who was babbling and ready to get up for the day, saying "ma ma" in her crib (for only the second time....who can resist her when she's finally calling my name???) So she got up and I was playing Mommy for a few hours while Daddy slept in.

Around 8 he finally came downstairs and I was sitting on the floor "playing" while our little one was whipping up some delicious concoction in her play kitchen. My playing involved sitting with my eyes closed and my chin in my hands trying to rest until she came bouncing over to me for me to taste what she had made and say, "Mmmmm!" He told me to go back to bed, so I did! He got her dressed and took her to his woodworking store, which is on the other side of town and always takes a long time. I slept for almost two hours, got up and took a shower, and they're still not home.

Uh oh, I take that back. The front door just opened. But boy, was it nice while it lasted!

little drummer girl

Did you have one of these drum sets when you were little? We did. My mom found this one, like new, on ebay for her for Christmas. It even says "Fisher Price 1979" on the bottom. Ours got lots of use growing up, as I'm sure this one will, too.

She loves the harmonica inside, though all she can do is hum when she puts it up to her mouth to make it "play." She loves it when I play it, but when she tries it herself, it's just her singing. I'm sure she'll get it someday! It also has maracas and cymbals inside, which are lots of fun, too.

happy 2008

We rang in the hours before the new year with lots of friends (and their children) last night. It was lots of fun, especially for our little social butterfly. She had a great time and seemed to be the life of the party. How she ever came from my husband and myself, I'll never know, because neither of us would EVER be the life of the party!

She found a box of beads that belonged to the little girl whose parents hosted the party. She decided to beautify herself by putting on as many as she could (then taking them off, putting them on, taking them off, putting them on....you get the idea). Pretty soon about every girl in the room was wearing at least one strand of beads, and even the one boy, her best friend, Kaden. She's such a little trend setter!

Toward the end of the evening we took a group picture of all of our kids (there were about 8 or 9 couples there, and upwards of 12 little ones--some had left and one had gone to bed by the time we took the picture). There wasn't room for our little one to sit on the couch, so she, Kaden, and another little girl sat on the back of the couch while the other two moms and I hunched down behind the couch and held them up there. The rest of the parents were standing out in front either taking pictures or clapping and trying to make everyone smile. Well, our daughter, the life of the party, decided she was a super star or something, and started cheering, squealing and smiling like crazy.

She's the only smiling one in the bunch! I think Leah, the little girl below her, is crying because she got kicked in the head by my little one's foot! We're sorry, Leah!

She put up a fuss when we had to leave; she was having such a great time. We got home around 8, a little bit past her bedtime, but not too late (Yeah, I know...we're quite the party animals, aren't we? But everyone else was leaving too, so we weren't the only ones. That's what happens when you have kids, I guess). After we got her in bed we put in a movie, but I was asleep on the couch within a half hour! Some date I was! I was in bed and sound asleep well before the new year, but that's just fine with me!

Happy New Year!

pictures, as promised

I finally uploaded them to the computer and can post them now.

The present opening began on Christmas eve with the traditional Christmas PJs. We always got to open one present on Christmas eve growing up, and it was always PJs. I'm continuing the tradition, and here she is.

A tradition Daddy wanted to start was to read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and the real Christmas story before she goes to bed on Christmas eve, so he did that as well.

He was pointing up to the star on the Christmas tree and showing her the star above the stable in Bethlehem in the story.

After she went to bed, Santa's elves got to work putting things together and getting them all set up. He made me get in here to pose for this!

Here is is all put together.

And here's the big gift this year: a table and chairs that Daddy made for her by hand. He worked soooooooooooooooo hard on these. He started in September!

The day before Christmas eve he had a catastrophe while trying to stain them--the type of stain he decided to use didn't work right and it ruined the table. I was crying because I felt so bad for how hard he had worked, and now it was ruined. But he was able to strip it off using bleach and use a different kind of stain he had used before, and it ended up looking just gorgeous.

Here's one of her favorites...

And then it was Christmas morning. A lot of it we got on video, so we don't have as many pictures as we normally would, but here are a few.

Enjoying her new playhouse

Sitting at her new table (with her ice cream....another favorite)

Enjoying the playhouse and her play food (and grocery cart) all at once!

At Grandma's house (we did video at Granny's house, so

I'm afraid we don't have pictures of that)

The day after Christmas I went up in the attic at my parents' and found my old dolls and high chair. I loved watching her play with dolls I once played with. This is "Baby Heen." Her real name was "Baby Ann," but I couldn't say that, so she became "Baby Heen."And this is our little family....before Christmas we had our picture taken, but I couldn't put it on here because it was a Christmas present for our parents! Her hand looks so funny because she was throwing a ball to the guy who was there helping the photographer to make her smile! I had to scan it in, so there are some lines and things in the picture that aren't actually there, but you can get the idea.

holiday highlights

Whew, it's been a busy week! I've been wanting to update for days, but we've been out of town since Christmas day, and there are always other things to do than sit around with the computer, so I haven't had a chance.

So....Christmas morning.....what a blast! It was our first year in our own house to wake up Christmas morning and go downstairs to open presents. I woke up really early with so many things on my mind (we were leaving around 10:00 for several days and I still didn't have everything packed at that point, and didn't know how I'd get it done with the present opening and everything we had to do). Finally around 6:00 our little one started stirring, and instead of letting her talk awhile and maybe fall back asleep, we went ahead and got her up. I gave her her milk upstairs instead of going downstairs like I usually do--I wanted to make sure she drank it, and knew she'd be WAY too distracted if I took her down and she saw all of the presents! So after the milk, Daddy filmed us coming down the stairs. She had a huge smile on her face as she just stared around the room at everything--she knew things were different but I think it must've taken awhile for it all to register, because she just stood there. Finally she took off running across the room for her new kitchen. She immediately turned on the burner, which makes a sizzling noise, and turned it on over and over again.

I couldn't believe she hadn't noticed her playhouse yet by this point, though, so I rang the doorbell on it to get her attention. She then came over to see that. She enjoyed ringing the doorbell over and over and opening the door. Her stocking was inside the house, but she was too busy that she didn't even notice it, so we had to take it out and get her interested in that. She immediately pulled out the chocolate santa on top and wanted me to open it. She was allowed a little tiny piece of that before we moved on to other things.

After her stocking, we opened our stockings while she continued to play with the kitchen and house. We then let her open her first present--a huge box of play food. She got the hang of opening presents right away, and had to get every little scrap of paper off and put it in a certain place before she could look at the present. We took the food out of the box and she just went to town touching it all, putting it in her mouth, and carrying it all around the room. Her favorite were the ice cream cones ("ice," is what she calls it). She carried those around for hours.

We had to pull her away from the play food to open another present, and another, and another. Eventually we gave up, let her play, and opened our own presents! It worked much better that way. And every so often she'd come over and want to open one, so we let her, she'd play with it a bit, and then go back to the food! It was definitely a hit! She just had so much fun all morning and was so happy.

After presents, breakfast, and packing, we got on the road and headed for Granny and Papa's (Daddy's parents' house). She slept almost the entire way, and was a perfect angel. When she got there she was so excited to see their tree (she has fallen in love with our tree, and therefore any tree!). She had a good time exploring things at Granny's house (especially the snow globe, which she kept turning over and wanting us to wind it up to play music, like hers, but this one didn't play music! Apparently every snow globe is supposed to have music, if you ask her!). We had lunch and opened presents at Granny's, and she was such a good girl all afternoon.

We headed to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner, and again she was an angel in the car, which isn't usually the case. So this was quite a treat for us! She was happy, looking at some new books she had gotten in her stocking, and playing with the ice cream cones. When we got to Grandma's she practically jumped out of my arms when she saw Grandma standing at the bottom of the steps by the back door. She was so excited to be there, and everyone was so excited to see her, too.

Next came a whirlwind of presents and chaos, as we all tried to open presents, but also help our little ones open presents and get those confounded toys out of their boxes, with the fifty zillion twist ties. Ugh! But it was all lots of fun.

She continued to be so happy and well behaved the whole day and even went to bed really easily, even without her usual bathtime routine (it was past her bedtime and I didn't want to make it later by giving her a bath). All of that changed around 11pm, just when we were thinking about heading to bed, when she woke up crying. We let her cry awhile, but it kept getting worse and worse. We got her up. She pointed downstairs, so we took her downstairs, but as soon as she got down there and saw people she didn't know very well (my aunt, uncle, and cousins were still there), she decided she didn't like that, and wanted to go back upstairs. I got her calmed down and put her back in bed, but before long she started crying again. After she wouldn't calm down on her own, I went and got her again....this went on for quite awhile. Eventually everyone went to bed, but she wouldn't stop crying. This was so unlike her--I'm sure she was just so overtired and stimulated from her busy day of people and presents. Well, I finally sat downstairs in the dark with her, rocking her back and forth, singing, "Go to Sleep, my Baby," over and over and over and over until my throat hurt! Everytime I'd stop she'd start to fuss, so I'd start again. She fell asleep, so I was transferring her to my shoulder, when she woke up and started again.....so I started the rocking and singing again, and kept it up for probably a half hour. Finally she was asleep (and snoring softly, so I knew she was really asleep), and I carefully transferred her to my shoulder so I could take her back upstairs. I laid her gently in her bed and collapsed in bed myself at 2:30. Oh my, was that a long night!

But every other night was a breeze....as was every day. She was as good as gold the whole time we were gone. She loved being surrounded by so many people who love her so much and was just as happy as can be every minute! We couldn't have asked for better behavior from our little girl.

The most exciting thing for me was that she's finally, finally, in the last day or two, started calling me "Mama!!!!!" My mom kept pointing to me and saying, "Who is this?" and she'd say, "Da da da da" like she always does. And my mom would correct her and tell her no, that I was "ma ma ma ma ma." So she finally started saying it. She'll say "da da da da" sometimes, but if you ask her again, she gets it right. Hooray! I'm finally Ma ma!

Pictures will be forthcoming. I haven't uploaded them yet, and will get to it soon. We still have toys to unpack, clothes to unpack, and more toys to unpack. And we thought we had a lot of toys before.....sheesh! That was nothing!

When we got back today it was like Christmas morning all over again as she saw her presents again after several days. She played for hours with the food and kitchen again. Definitely her favorites, I think!

Pictures later...check back soon! Merry Christmas!

ho ho ho

We just got back from seeing Santa. I'm not sure it was the best decision to go on December 21st at one of the most popular shopping venues in the city, but we didn't decide until just a couple of days ago to actually go, and we chose this particular Santa because on their website it says they allow you to take your own pictures without buying a huge, horribly overpriced package of a poor quality photo (we know....we did it last year, on a whim because we went to a mall back home that's now almost empty and we felt sorry for Santa, who had no one visiting him).

So we decided a few days ago, like I said, but I was sick, then my husband was sick, and today was the first day we could actually do it. We had decided to meet during his lunchtime on a week day, thinking it would better than trying to go on the last weekend before Christmas, when this shopping area would be packed. Me and my bright ideas.... I knew as soon as I had to wait in a huge line just to get into the parking garage that it was probably not a good idea, but we had gotten this far.... I found a parking place (no easy feat with my monster truck I have to drive), got everything unloaded and into the stroller, and made our way into the area where Santa was. The line was miles long, with millions of parents and dressed up children of various ages and temperaments, waiting for their turn with the man in red (okay, millions is probably not an accurate number, but there were lots, and lots were excited, lots were crying, and lots were dancing around pulling on their parents' hands). We saw Daddy make his way down the stairway to where we were, shaking his head at the scene before him. We got in line, but were seriously second guessing ourselves, especially when our little one started throwing a fit when I wouldn't let her get out of the stroller when I took her coat off. But we had gotten this far....

After awhile (and lots of cheerios for our little one, who had cheered up), we decided to take turns waiting in line while the other one took her around the mall to look around. This worked rather well, as she was very happy to run around and let off some steam. At one point she was up on the second level with Daddy and he was trying to point to me, to show her where I was. For awhile she couldn't see me, but all of a sudden the look of recognition flashed across her face as she smiled a huge grin, let out a very loud squeal, and waved and waved to me, like I was the biggest celebrity in the world. It was too cute.

As I got closer to the front of the line, I saw everyone with envelopes describing the packages you could buy (the cheapest being $20, which is outrageous, if you ask me), and though I did see a couple of people take a few pictures themselves, it was always when Santa's elves were also taking a picture, so I was doubting whether they would really allow us to take pictures without buying anything. There were several times I thought about getting out of line, afraid I would've waited in line all that time for nothing, because I did not want to spend $20 for a silly picture with Santa. But once again, we had made it this far....so I decided to stick it out.

As I neared the front, Daddy brought her back and she could finally actually see Santa from our place in line. She was very excited and waved and waved at him, saying "hu hu," which is her own version of "ho ho ho." She started getting impatient as we got closer because she could actually see him and wanted to go to him, so we passed the last few minutes by asking her animal sounds and body parts (Where's your head? Where are your feet? What does a lion say.... you get the idea). This kept her occupied well enough until it was finally our turn.

The elf asked us, "Do you know which package you'd like to purchase?" when we got up there. I said, "Online it says we can take our own pictures," to which she nodded and said, "Okay! Go ahead!" Hooray!!! So we approached Santa and our little one had a smile on her face, but I wasn't sure how long it would last, as she's sometimes a little leery of strangers for a few minutes (but not usually for long at all). But she went right up to him and said, "hu hu!" to which he answered, "Ho, ho, ho!" I put her on his lap, and though she wasn't quite sure she wanted to stay there, she did, and actually smiled at me when Santa pointed to me, after I went over by Daddy so he could take some pictures. Of course, she had to point to me too, so there's a lot of pointing in the pictures, but oh well!

Mission accomplished!

two steps forward, one step back

Things have improved since I last wrote...she's been tantrum and terror free for two days. Those are the two steps forward.

The one step back is that now Daddy is sick with the flu. So we've got Mommy with a cold and Daddy with the flu. We're a picture of health here! I'm actually feeling better, though my cold's still hanging around, but it's a good thing, because I have to take care of him! Hopefully our little one won't catch germs from either of us. She's had an ongoing cough, runny nose thing going on for a long time, so she's had her share of germs....I just don't want her to get any more.

But despite the sickness, it's been a more pleasant place here for the last couple of days without any tantrums and a full night of sleep. She's back to her usual happy, funny self. Her newest thing to say is "moon, moon, moon." It's a song on her favorite CD, but she also says it when she sees a picture of a moon. She doesn't just say "moon," though. It has to be "moon, moon, moon." What's strange is that she can say "moon," but she can't say "moo" when you ask her what a cow says. Instead she says, "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" for a cow sound.

She's also started nodding, which is quite helpful in communicating with her. I can say, "would you like some crackers?" and now she actually answers me with a nod (and her own little language, too---not that she would ever answer "no" to that question. The girl would live on crackers and milk if I would let her.)

tantrums, terrors, and trucks

Seemingly overnight my sweet, funny girl has turned into a tantrum-throwing toddler. I don't know how or when it happened, but for the last few days we've been seeing at least one tantrum a day. Where do they learn these things? She's not around other children very much to see them do it....I guess it's innate, but that's a little frightening. She's thrown them when a puzzle piece wouldn't go in the way she wanted it to, when she couldn't carry three toys at once and kept dropping them, and when she couldn't brush her teeth before her bath, like she wanted to (that one was quite a doozie, lasting all through the bath, while we put her clothes on--because it took two of us to do that with a screaming little tantrum thrower, and even through the usually pleasant milk drinking and rocking before bed). It was very, very frustrating. And I'm sure this is only the beginning. It's so puzzling because it's such a difference from her normally sweet and happy disposition.

In addition to this, she's also having night terrors, waking up screaming in the middle of the night without being consoled. It's scary and exhausting. Anyone have any advice about these?

To top this off, I'm sick with a bad cold, and hardly feel like dealing with a tantrum throwing toddler, and yesterday I tried to go through the new drive through pharmacy window lane at my local grocery store, in order to prevent having to take my fussy daughter in and out of her car seat one more time and discovered that the turn to get into the lane wasn't designed for an extended cab truck like I have to drive....and I proceeded to bang the back end of the truck into a pole (a pole that is padded, indicating that other people have had this same issue). The icing on the cake of my frustrating few days. I've always hated driving that truck....this just adds fuel to my fire and I've had it! I had to call the insurance company today to open a claim and we have to have it looked at on Saturday. Just what we want to be doing on the Saturday before Christmas. Ugh.

When it rains, it pours, I guess.

funny girl

Here are just a few of the times I laughed today at my funny, funny girl....

...She was playing with her little people nativity set. She took Jesus out and said, "baby." Then she took off for the dining room, where most of her toys are. I figured she was getting a baby doll, since she was saying baby. A few minutes later she comes back pushing her doll stroller with the tiny little baby Jesus figurine taking a ride. Isn't it strange to think of baby Jesus being pushed around in a stroller by Mary? (that is, if they had had strollers back in that day....even so, it's strange to think of Him being a regular little baby at all who cried and had stinky diapers and didn't sleep through the night!)

...I was reading "Five Little Monkeys" to her. When I came to the part, "no more monkeys jumping on the bed," instead of me wagging my finger like I usually do, and her joining in wagging her finger like she normally does, she took my finger in her little hand and wagged it for me and said it herself, except it sounded more like "nnnooo mmmmoooo mmmmmkkkssss asdf ;lkj asdflajsdf ja;lksjdf." The first three words were pretty clear (especially for her, who doesn't speak clearly at all.) I had to do it over and over just so I could hear her do it a bunch of times because I thought it was so funny. My husband wasn't here so I didn't get so share in my laughter with him. He'll be sorry he missed it.

...While looking at an animal book she found a spider and pointed to it. I said, "spider." She then got a wide grin on her face and she put her little fingers together (think "itsy bitsy spider"). She waited for me to sing the song and then grinned all the while when I complied.

...We were watching her Laurie Berkner DVD (she loves that thing and sits still for the entire half hour!) and the song, "Moon, Moon, Moon" came on. We've heard the song a zillion times and she loves it, but this time, she heard the first line, smiled a big smile, and ran into the dining room (her toy room). She came running back with the book, "Goodnight, Moon!" Amazing!

And those are just a few of them. I can't remember the others. I just know that she keeps me laughing and amazed all day.

I love my sweet, funny girl.

four for four!

Ha! I didn't even realize that title was all the same words...just spelled differently...until after I wrote it. Hmmmm....

Anyway, here's what it means. Tonight Daddy was quizzing her on pointing to the right colors of Christmas lights. "Where's the blue one?" She pointed to the right one. "Where's the pink one?" Correct. "Where's the green one?" Right again. "Where's the yellow one?" Hooray! She got all four right! We were amazed. She can't say Mommy, but she can point to her colors! We'll see how consistently she can do it, but for tonight, anyway, we're proud parents. Let's not think about the fact that it could all be a fluke and she could get them all wrong in the morning!

o christmas tree

We finally took a few Christmas tree pictures today. Told you it was very, very large!! It continues to be the number one toy in the house, along with the Christmas snow globe (I think I mentioned her love of snow globes in the Thanksgiving post, since she's obsessed with the one at Grandma's house!). She's learned that there are two ornaments that play music, and constantly wants to hear them--both at once! I draw the line there....I'll play them one at a time over and over again, but I don't want to hear them both at once, which is what would really float her boat, for some reason. She also likes it when the wind up Santa plays his music at the same time as the stuffed Frosty the Snowman plays his song. Cacophony, I guess, is a pleasant sound to her.

Anyway, here she is, caught in the act of touching the tree....a big no-no.

And here she is being a good girl, doing what she was taught to do--pointing with one finger at what she wants to touch, whether it's a light bulb (her favorite), or an ornament. She touches a bulb and I tell her what color it is. Eventually I quiz her. She gets them right maybe 30% of the time! We have two more weeks 'til Christmas to practice!!!

And here she is posing while Daddy was testing different settings on the camera. I just like the picture and wanted to post it.

a Griswold family Christmas?

This will be our first Christmas ever being in our own house on Christmas morning since we've been married. We're both really excited to start our own Christmas morning traditions with our daughter like we both had growing up. And since it's our first, my husband had this idea, or a dream, as he put it this morning, to have an old fashioned family Christmas, including going to a tree farm to cut down our own tree. Neither of us had done this before, though I always grew up having a live tree every year, and used to be adamant that I needed to have a real tree (after about three or four years of an artificial tree in recent years, though, I started re-thinking my predisposition for live trees and recognized the benefits of a perfect looking, non-sticky, no-standing-out-in-the-cold-to-find-it kind of tree). The last few weeks as we've been discussing this, I've been skeptical, both about the prospect of having a really heavy real tree for our daughter to pull down on herself and also with the whole process of going out in the cold to find a tree we agree on, having my husband cut it down, and then dragging it back to the parking lot....all with a not quite two year old in tow.

Yesterday he informed me that he had taken the day off today, and this was the day we should go get our tree. I have to confess that I had a very doubtful attitude going into the whole day.... mostly afraid that we'd be cold, frustrated because we couldn't find a tree, arguing, and trying to juggle a cranky toddler as well. But I got up, put my long johns on (yeah, I actually have some, which I had to dig out of a trunk of clothes I haven't touched in years!) and a smile on my face, hoping for the best. We had a list of tree farms from the newspaper from a few weeks ago, and chose the closest one that was open on Fridays, which happened to be about a half hour away.

We woke up to a fresh coat of snow, to which my husband cried, "Yes! It's perfect!" All part of his dream.... It continued to snow lightly most of the morning while we were out....again, ideal for my husband. We gathered together everyone's warm clothes, a saw, the camera, the video camera, and some snacks for our little one, and were on our way.

All along I wasn't sure how we were going to tote our daughter throughout the aisles of trees--the snow is at least 6 inches deep, after all. I don't think our stroller is all-terrain! But when we arrived we found out that they provide you with a sled (a BIG sled!) with which to drag back your tree, so it was perfect for transporting a little tiny eskimo girl with short legs around, too!

We started out in the sections closest to the barn where we parked. We didn't want to venture too far, not knowing how our little one would fare out in the cold. But all of the good ones close by had already been taken and the ones left were pretty sparse. We wandered around there for awhile, retraced our steps because we dropped and lost our saw in the midst of picture taking, and after finding it, started on to another section. My husband decided to go on ahead without us, though, to scout things out, so we wouldn't have to drag her all over if there wasn't anything good, so she and I stayed where we were and played in the snow for a little bit.

After awhile he motioned us over and I dragged her to his section. When we reached him, he told me to get in the sled too and he'd drag us both. I told him it wouldn't be as easy as he thought, but he said it was no problem. Actually, it was easier than I thought it would be for him, and I had fun riding in the sled with my little girl--can't tell you the last time I'd been in a sled!

So he showed us the trees he found, and after much debate, we decided.

We were both a little nervous that it would be way too big for our living room, but it was the only one we found that wasn't sparse and had a nice shape and a straight trunk. We decided to go for it. There's not a lot of furniture in our living room anyway, because we don't use that room much, so we decided if it took up a lot of room, it wouldn't matter too much. The whole time, though, I was having visions of Clark Griswold's tree in Christmas Vacation, which, when they cut the ropes, broke the windows and caused all kinds of damage as it filled up their entire living room!

He cut the tree down without much problem--I thought it would be lots harder, but it didn't take but a minute. We put it on the sled and carried our little one back, as the tree needed the sled this time. They bound the tree for us and we were on our way. It didn't take as long as I thought, it wasn't as cold as I thought (I had my down filled "recess coat" on, which I bought for recess duty when I first started teaching and have only ever worn for recess because it's so darn hot to wear anywhere else, so I was toasty warm!), and our little one was soooooo happy the entire time. She loved the sled ride, loved playing in the snow, loved watching Mommy walking behind the sled....just loved it all.

So we had fun and fulfilled my husband's dream, all in one morning. A good ol' old fashioned family Christmas outing. A beautiful thing.

When we brought the tree inside (after naptime had begun, so as not to have a toddler running around while we did the hard parts), we found it was almost the exact height as our ceiling without the stand, so we had to cut off several inches from the top. After putting it in the stand we had to cut off even more to get the star to fit on top! When we cut the ropes we found that it was, indeed, very big, and it overwhelmed the room, but we trimmed some of the branches and it began to look better. As we put on the lights (ugh....the worst part of the day....I hate that part and definitely see a pre lit artificial tree somewhere in my future, but there were no tears involved, as there have been in previous years, and no arguments, either...just frustration), then the garland, and finally the decorations, it began to look more like a Christmas tree and less like a very large bush in our living room. I'm happy with the way it turned out. And of course it's the newest, hottest, toy in the house now for our little girl....I'm not looking forward to that battle every few minutes for the next two weeks. My nephew learned his colors when he was about my little one's age at Christmas time because he loved pointing to the Christmas lights. She's doing the very same thing, so I'm hoping it leads to her learning her colors, as well! You'll have to wait for the decorated tree pictures, though. We decided not to take any today. That'll be another fun post for some other day.

Now I'm in the mood to watch Christmas Vacation....and be thankful that ours didn't turn out like theirs!

a snowy day

It started snowing overnight--our first real snowfall of the year. We have about four or five inches right now and it's still coming down! I debated all morning about whether I should bundle us both up and let my little one experience her first snow (last year doesn't really count since we just carried her back and forth from the door to the car). Finally I decided, why not? So what if it's a lot of trouble....it'll be fun. She was watching one of her favorites, Jack's Big Music Show, so she didn't notice that I was busy digging coats, hats, boots, gloves, snow pants, and the camera out of the closet. She didn't mind getting all bundled either, because it involved her precious BOOTS (she still is so in love with those things!).

Here she is waiting for Mommy to finish getting her snow gear on, still enthralled with her show.This was her first time in her snow pants--they're humongous on her, but it didn't bother her one bit.

She was so excited when I opened the back door--up until that point I don't think she realized what we were doing. We ventured outside into the winter wonderland. The snow came up to her knees! She just stood there....not sure what to make of the whole experience. It was still snowing, so she was feeling the snowflakes fall on her cheeks as well as walking in this weird white stuff. That's a lot to take in for the first time! Yes, she's standing in this picture....that's how much snow there was!
I took her out into the yard and she walked a little bit (well, walked is a generous term....she really wobbled her way through the snow!) and then just stood and surveyed the situation. Then she started singing "B-O-O-T-S!" (well, her version of it, anyway) and stomping her feet. I made some snowballs for her, which she enjoyed throwing up in the air, shouting, "wheeeeeee!" I tried starting a snowman, but it didn't pack very easily, so I gave up before too long. We'll save the first snowman for another day....

After about 10 minutes we came back in, unbundled ourselves, and she resumed her usual day-in-the-life-of-R activities....in this case, going for a drive in her car.

on the curve again

We went to the pediatrician today for a weight check. I'm proud to announce that she's back on the growth curve. Of course, she's at the absolute bottom of the curve--3rd %ile, but hey, it's better than not even being on it at all! She now weighs 20 pounds, 12 ounces, which means we can now officially turn her car seat around (nevermind that we actually did that months ago. Shhhh.......don't tell the car seat police, please!).

You'd think I'd have all kinds of news since I haven't written in a few days, and I got so used to posting every day during November, but I really don't! Right now her newest favorite toy is her first Christmas present of the year--her best friend, Kaden, gave her the Fisher Price Little People Nativity Set a few days ago. She LOOOOOOOOOOOVES the animals....there's a sheep, cow, donkey, and camel. She has subsequently learned how to make the donkey sound, which is quite funny to hear (she already knew a sheep and cow), and always waits for me to tell her what the camel sound is, but I keep telling her, "Sorry, sweetie, but Mommy doesn't really know what a camel sounds like!" I told my husband maybe it should be a spitting sound!? Don't camels spit a lot?? She likes the rest of it, too--she can point out Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus when you ask her to. She likes to take the angel off the top of the stable. She's a bit confused by the final three characters, though, since Daddy calls them Magi and I call them wise men, but I'm sure she'll figure it out.

Today she was listening to her favorite Laurie Berkner music--this was a song about fish swimming. I started singing the song and making swimming motions with my arms. As soon as I said the word "swimming," she went in the guest room and found her blow up floaty toy from the summer when we used to go swimming, which she hasn't used in months and months! I was amazed. A few days ago we were looking at a book and there was a picture of a spoon. She ran in to her toybox and I knew she was going to find one of her play spoons. But she decided to do a few other things first, like go down her slide, play with the ball popper, and a few other diversions, but sure enough, about five minutes later she came back with the spoon. I had put the book away, but she got the book back out and proceeded to flip through the pages until she found the spoon picture and brought them both to me. Again, I was amazed. Her memory is a steel trap! (except, of course, when it comes to following the rules and not touching things she knows she's not supposed to!)