Firsts and Lasts

So year one seems to be all about the firsts...
first steps, first words, etc, etc.

Year two has some firsts in it as well...

First time in a boat/bike trailer
We took E out on the Kayaks a few time this year.  She seems to enjoy them, but doesn't like having to sit down all the time.  It's pretty hard to paddle with her in your lap but she really likes to chase and look at birds.

She LOVES the bike trailer and her helmet.  She gets excited every time she sees them in the garage and asks to go for a ride.  She's finally tall enough to reach the peddles on her tricycle, but hasn't yet figured out the motion required to make it move, and she still has to use her very tiptoes to reach the peddles at full extension.

first time using the potty
E has been working on potty training for a while.  She's pretty much there but still has her accidents. She may well kill me for posting this one day but currently she wears superhero training pants. When she has an accident, she lets me know by saying "Sad superheros mommy"

She's the first kid at her daycare to potty train.  They seem to think it's going well.  I honestly didn't think we'd start before 2, but she one day just asked to sit on the potty and we went from there.



first climb onto the bathroom sink/highchair/table/anywhere
I can't count the number of times I've found E up on something high.  I swear I turn my back for a second and she has climbed up onto something.  One of her favorites is to climb up onto Mommy or Daddy's chair and then into her highchair from there.  Another is to climb up onto the bathroom counter so that she can "wash-a-feet"

first time sleeping in a big girl bed/first time falling out of a big girl bed at 3 am
no more big girl bed for a while...especially not one that is taller than she is.

but it also seems to be the start of the lasts.
Last ride in the "pumpkin" car seat - I really miss that one when she's asleep in her car seat.
Last binky - E still gets sad when we mention her binkies...but it's very short lived
Last diaper - we only wear big girl "underwear" now (training pants)
Last bottle - that was tonight.  Tomorrow will be...rough, especially since she refuses milk from anything but a bottle...though the other day she did take a few sips from a horizon milk with a straw (I got photo proof I was so shocked)

It has been such an amazing year.  I can't believe my baby is 2.  I know she has so many, many more firsts and lasts ahead of her and I can't wait to celebrate them alongside her as she continues to grow and become more independent. Despite that, there is a small part of me that is sad tonight.  Sad because at some point along the year, and it was so gradual I can't put my finger on when, I had my last snuggle with my baby.  Despite the fact that she will always be my baby girl, my actual baby is gone.  She is 100% a little girl now.  Sometimes she still wants to be wrapped up and pretends to drink milk from her dolls bottle but even then it's just pretend.  So, on this last night of E's 2nd year I will let myself be a little sad for the baby she used to be, and at 529 tomorrow (which hopefully I won't actually be awake for...but E still doesn't like to sleep, so you really never know) I will begin the celebration of the first day of her third year.

We live in your heart

E has been having some separation anxiety issues. It started after Daddy and I went to Board Game Geek Con and left her with Grandma and Granddaddy.  We saw her every morning but weren't there to put her to bed.  Apparently she had some strong feelings about our absence.

Ever since then, she's gets upset when we leave.  Over Thanksgiving we went on a movie date after she was in bed.  However, earlier in the day we made the mistake of talking about it in front of her and when E heard us talking about going she started to wail. This made bedtime very clingy.

It makes daycare drop-off very clingy and cry-y as well but once I'm out of the room she stops crying within seconds.

Fast forward to tonight.  E had a MASSIVE meltdown, so massive that she took her "I'm so angry I'm going to hold my breath until I turn purple" meltdown routine to a new level where she got so overwrought that she actually started choking.  Once she was able to breath she proceeded to melt down rampantly.  It took a good bit to get her calm but once we were actually able to talk to her she told us she was scared.  We thought at first it was because we took her to see Santa today and she was a little timid with him but she laughed at that and said "silly mommy".  Eventually we got to the fact that she was scared of mommy and daddy leaving.

So, we had a good snuggle and a family chat about how we live in each other's hearts.  That even when we are not in the same room we are still with her and she is with us.  She touched her heart and ours.  We reminded her that she could use the mommy and daddy in her heart to pretend with when she is scared.  That she can close her eyes really tight and imagine mommy and daddy are there with her to help her feel better because we live in her heart and are always with her.

It seemed to help her calm down.  She snuggled up tight and was calm and ready for bed so I told her:

"Mommy is going to leave your bedroom now, but you don't need to be scared because you know where mommy will always be.  Where will mommy always be?"

She snuggled me tightly and said "In the bathroom"

Halloween!

I think I consider this E's real first Halloween.  Yes, last year she won her first costume contest, but she didn't really react to the decorations and she was too shy to trick or treat past our 4 neighbor's houses.

Totally different this year.  E is in love with all things Halloween.  I decorated the yard with skeletons and tombstones and a flying bat.  I was a bit afraid that it would scare her but she was enthralled with them.  At first she called them "ooo,ooo's!" (monkeys) but corrected herself after hearing me talk about them and started calling them "skeltens!"  We spent hours "flying" around the front yard like the bat and making the bat fly by tossing it around the yard.  She also loved burying the skeletons in pine needles and singing "where or where did the skeltens go?"

Every time she saw anything Halloween related she gleefully pointed it out and shouted "pumpin!" "skeleten!" "wich!"  "pider!" "goes!" "bat!"  She is still obsessed with the laughing, light up pumpkin card from last year and is very proud that she can push the button herself this year.  We made a pumpkin for her felt board and she loved decorating it into a jack-o-lantern with black felt.

Unfortunately, Ken's job scheduled him to go to Brazil for actual Halloween.  But we didn't let that stop us from celebrating!

We went to her Little Gym Halloween Party this year, she didn't sweep the costume contest two years running, but that's okay, there was a SUPER cute SCUBA baby who won (and I'm totally writing it down so that I'll remember when/if we have another kid).  But this year she actually understood that she was supposed to play games.  She loved kicking the soccer ball into the goal and using the baseball bat (even if she used it more like an ax).  We did the dorky family theme costumes since we know we have very little time before she decides that's not cool.

We went to Houston Zoo's ZooBoo just before Ken had to leave for Brazil (as in we got home and he left for Brazil a few hours later).  It was a pretty toasty day so we nixed the full fur cat suit (especially since it sheds ALL over her.  When we left Little Gym she had hairy armpits, hair legs, black hair that stuck, clung and went everywhere)  While we were getting ready to go she asked to take Stitch with us. Lightening bolt moment!  We dressed her up in her green Hawaiian print dress and let her take Stitch along, instant Lilo!

She was fascinated by the dance performers who were dressed in animal costumes, some even on stilts.  She loved watching the other kids who were all dressed up.  She liked the pumpkin patch and painting the pumpkin with Daddy. We really only went to see the elephants and the komodo dragon, the rest of the time we spent watching other kids, but she loved it.

And then Daddy left.  And E was sad.   And E sang herself "Grown ups come back" to make herself feel better. And E spent the week saying "daddy go bye bye"  "Daddy in Brazil"  And E was naughty.  So much so that her daycare sent home a note that she wasn't following directions in class.  I asked her if she was said and she said "'es"  and I asked her why and she said "Dada bye-bye"  I think we are both glad Daddy is coming back tomorrow.  I told her she'd see him tomorrow when I put her to bed tonight and she got all squealy and giggly and super happy.  I'm excited to see how she reacts when she sees him tomorrow.

Despite the naughtyness, I tried to make today as good and Halloween-y as possible.  She had gym class this morning and we went out for lunch then she got to play on the playground.  While we were there another kid threw a toy car up the tube slide while a younger girl was sliding down and the car hit her in the face.  E got super concerned about "baby's cryin!"  E helped me get some ice for the other girl but spent the rest of the afternoon talking about "baby cryin!"

To help distract her we went to the grocery store and looked at pumpkins.  We decided to pick one up to carve while we we waited for time to Trick-or-Treat. She was not about touching the pumpkin guts at all.  She tried a few times but just wasn't into it "mama do it!"  But, when it came time to cut out the face much to my terror E wanted to help cut the pumpkin.  so we cut the pumpkin together (carefully!).  And then it was time to go Trick-or-Treating! E can switch between happy and chatty to clamed up and shy so I was worried about how she'd react to talking to complete strangers.

I'd planned to take her just to our 4-5 neighbor's houses and then come back...but E had different plans.  She LOVED Trick-or Treating.  She loved ringing the door bells.  She loved saying "trik-o-tree"and "happy haoween!"  We ended up going all the way up and down the block.  She loved, loved, loved it. Lots of people wanted to take pictures of E because she was so cute.  We were out pretty early so most of the costumes were not scary, we got to one house where she saw a scary clown from far away and as we got closer she started to cling to me and hide her face.  The person took the mask off when they realized she was scared but after that she kept asking about it. Despite the clown we spent over an hour trick-or-treating!

Then when we got back home all she wanted to do was pass out candy to the big kids.  We had to sit in front of the door and eat dinner.  She'd eat a few bites of dinner and then say "big kids knock door and byebye!" "big kids are comin!"
There were a lot of costumes she recognized and some that she (thankfully) mis-interpreted.  There was a big kid dressed up as Chucky who she called a tiger, and a girl carrying a baby doll that was bloody and mutilated who E just happily called a baby.

After she ate dinner, I let her pick a piece of candy from her basket to eat, and she picked the raisins.  Once she went to bed I switched out most of her candy for her favorite fruit snacks, pretzel packs and other healthy snacks....because, yes, I am THAT mom and she's only 1.

Overall it was a pretty fantastic day and the cherry on top is that  Daddy comes home in a few hours!

Imagination, independence, empathy and song

I drive the fire truck!

 We are in the midst of a phenomenal visit from Oma and E is loving all the attention!  She is going a million miles an hour and having a blast.  She's been doing some wonderful imaginative play and showing a great deal of independence, some surprising empathy and through it all there has been songs!!

E loves to play with her "babies" she swaddles them and feeds them milk and changes their diapers.  She also loves to cook in her kitchen.  Her current specialty is "yummy sauce"  which she makes by pretending to mix everything on her spice rack into a pot, putting the pot in the oven, then on the stove and stirring it then proudly serving it up to us and declaring it "yummy!"    

I climb the rock!

She also loves to play with her "people" which are little knock off duplo people.  We build parks, houses, zoos all sorts of wonderful things out of the duplos and she plays with her people.  She has little conversations between people, she has them play on the equipment at the park, the animals escape the zoo and have to be caught by the people.  It's wonderful.

I swing monkey!

Recently she watched an episode of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood where the characters hosted a birthday party for stuffed animals.  E was already obsessed with birthdays from reading her Elmo's Birthday book and singing to relatives who have had birthdays lately  but this took the obsession to a new level.  She has a birthday cake toy that she's played with a few times, but after seeing the cartoon she took it out, brought her monkeys to the table and then requested "party hat?" from me. We then had cake, sang the birthday song, played birthday games, and even wrapped and opened presents for the monkeys.  She was in heaven.   We have revisited the game several times.
She has been taking "friends" to the playground.  When she takes her monkey she makes it hang from the monkey bars and play.  It's adorable.

I play dragon!

E's most common phrase these days is "BABY DO IT!" usually shouted at the top of her lungs, hence the caps.  She is becoming fiercely independent.  She is most stubborn about brushing her teeth, getting into her highchair.  She will quite often work herself into frustration at whatever task but refuse help when offered with an indignant "baby do it!"  She also loves to help whenever she can.  She loves to help cook for real in the kitchen, so much that when I start cooking she will go to the dining room and drag a chair into the kitchen so she can stand on it to reach the counter to help.
She also likes to tout her accomplishments.  whenever she does something (and sometimes only midway through) she will shout "I did it!" with gusto.

I oo-oo (monkey)

 E is also showing a great capacity for empathy.  She has always been bothered when she hears other kids crying but her empathy is reaching new levels.  Last weekend gootball was on TV and a commercial came on where a toy robot falls down because it has a dead battery.  At the end of the commercial E started screaming bloody murder.  We didn't realize she'd been watching the commercial so it took us a while to get her to calm down to tell us what was wrong.  Eventually she blurted out "SAD ROBOT!" and we put 2 and 2 together.  It took showing her the first half of the commercial again on my phone to show her that the  robot was ok to get her to completely calm down.  Occasionally she will still get all flustered and sad and say "sad robot" and needs reassurance that the robot got new batteries.

Mew, mew, I'm cute and
I know it

We went to the Renfest to celebrate our 4th anniversary and took E to the joust!  She was very engaged until the lances started shattering and riders started falling off their horses, then she started flipping out, screaming bloody murder.  "SAD HORSIE!" thankfully the riders got back up and we were able to show her they were all okay.  We took her to a pony ride that day and she kept saying "no fall down" I had to show her that the horsie had a seatbelt to reassure her she wouldn't fall off the horse.  After that she rode the horse like a champ. She was the smallest kid there and on the biggest pony but she did great!

And through it all she sings.  When she sees a barn in a picture book she starts to sing "Old MacDonald"  When she has new food on her plate she sings "Try a little bit" from Daniel Tiger.  When she's bored she sings "Wheels on the bus"  When it's raining she sings "rain rain go away" and she sings, and sings and sings, and it is the sweetest sound in the world!

Not Enough....

Some days you just feel like you are not enough.

on those days....I write stream of consciousness blog posts at midnight.

It has been a month of stress, but today E didn't cry when I dropped her off at day care and when I picked her up she ran to me with such joy...and that is enough for today.

Moments

So this is just me writing out things I want to remember that I should put into some eloquent blog post about 20/21 months since I really haven't posted in forever...and yet this is what I have time/brain space for so hopefully it will suffice

E "cooking" in her kitchen, which consists of pretending to pour out all of her condiment jars into one bowl.  And then bringing it to me and declaring it "yummy sauce" and being SO thrilled when I pretend to eat it and ask for more

E singing "Old Macdonald had a farm" well enough that I was able to figure out what she was singing.  And singing it to her Abby Cadabby book on the page with the picture of a barn and a haystack.

E giving hugs to random kids at the playground or zoo.

E going over to a crying boy at the zoo and trying to comfort him.

E pretending to be a baby and asking to be swaddled up.

E playing "night night" with her baby dolls and her doggie, and the fact that she always covers up their faces with the blankets

E devouring spinach and chimichurri steak and detesting quinoa

E using her chopsticks to eat

 E getting so frustrated because she wants to be independent and "baby do it"

I call this painting
"Arctic carnage"

E being obsessed with Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and always singing "neighborhood" in the intro song when Daniel sings "could you be mine, would you be mine, won't you be my neighbor (hood)"

E being silly and flipping the phone around with Chichan on Facetime.  "silly chichan, upside down!" and just laughing and laughing and laughing with him.

E being obsessed with "meow, meow"s every time we draw I have to draw a cat...multiple cats

The fact that almost all animals are know by their onomatopoeia
"meow, meow!"
"woof, woof"
"hoo, hoo"
"awoo!"
"turtle!"

E being enamored with the elephants at the zoo.

E remembering her friends names from gym class, and being excited to see them

E putting her monkey boots on all by herself

E's stinky little toes, seriously, how does someone so small have such smelly feet?

E using the Daniel Tiger strategies if I sing her the songs.

E wanting to help cook so much that she drags the dining room chair into the kitchen and climbs up onto it

E getting completely into her highchair by herself

E spilling on the floor and then going to get a towel from the draw and cleaning up the mess by herself

E being so proud of being a "bi heper" (big helper)

Purple and rule number 1

*this is not a proud parenting moment.  But I'm trying to document the good and the bad.*

Purple is one of my favorite colors to dress E in. Today she was wearing a purple monkey shirt with jeans that had purple gingham cuffs and purple flowers.  I love purple.

But not the purple I saw today.

I was working in the kitchen, E was eating cashews and kefir at her kid table in the breakfast nook.
I was sorting rambutans to wash them when I heard a gagging noise.

I turned around to see E rigid, standing at the table her face turning a deep purple.

She has eaten cashews countless times before.  The cashews were pieces and halves so I didn't bother to break them up more.  It didn't matter.  She was choking. I broke Rule number 1.

Ensue baby Heimlich.  And terror.  And more Heimlich.  And more terror.  And so much purple.

I know it must have been only seconds before she spit out the cashew but it felt like an eternity.  There was so much terror.

I'll keep dressing her in purple, but I would really love it to NEVER see purple on her face again.

A picture of E at 20 months

Tonight's after dinner/bedtime went something like this:

E: all duh(hands her frozen yogurt stick to Daddy)
Me (cutting up a cheese stick for her lunch tomorrow): are you ready for a bath?
E: CHEE!  CHEE PEAS!!!
Me: Can you use your big girl words?
E: haaaaa chee peas
Me: okay (gives her the small end of the cheese I'm cutting up)
E (on the verge of meltdown): Uhside chee!  (uhside or "other side" is how she asks for something different)
Me: eat what you have before you ask for more
E: HAAA BIG CHEE PEAS!
Me: is your little cheese all gone
E: 'es
Daddy: is it all gone or is it in your hand?
E: han
Daddy: eat it all gone if you want more cheese
E (chews up the cheese, spits it back out for me to see, then resumes eating it) Haa big chee peas?
Me: is your little cheese all gone
E: 'es
Me: (checks) okay here's a big cheese for you! (gives her new cheese stick)
E: YAY! CHEE!
One minute later
E: All duh! (hands the cheese stick back to daddy, with one bite out of it...right of the middle)
Me: are you ready for your bath?
E: NO! NO BATH!  NO! PWAY?  PWAY? (on the verge of meltdown)
Me: It's not playtime.  do you want to go straight to bed or do you want your bath?
E: BEH PEAS!
Me: okay, do you want milk?
E: DADA MUK PEAS!

Fastfoward past milk and potty time (mostly because dada took that duty, pun intended)
Daddy: E come wash your hands
E (runs starkers out of the bathroom right to me)
Me: time to wash hands and brush teeth (picking her up and taking her back to the bathroom)
E: Hi Momma
Me: wash hands, brush teeth (putting her on the step stool)
E: peek-boo? (ducks down below the counter)
Me: peek-a-boo after teeth.  (picking her back up)
E: Baby do? (going limp like a spaghetti noodle)
Me: Momma ABC then E ABC.
E: NO! (drops limply to the stool)
Me: (guiding her to the floor and brushing her teeth laying down while singing the ABC song twice) Thank you for brushing your teeth

Take her into her room for pajamas.  Lay her down on her changing table that has a frog on it...
E: See Froby?
Me: after diaper and pajamas
E: SEE FROBY PEAS?!?! FROBY! FROBY!
Me: after diaper and pajamas
E: FROBY!? FROBY!?! (meltdown imminent)
Me: (puts on diaper tries for pajama pants)
E: Seelee mama (kicks wildly, trying to prevent the pants)
Me: (puts on pajama pants and top)
E: (giggling like evil incarnate and wiggling like an octopus in a sac)
Me: Love you, now you can see Froggy.
E: (rolls over and snuggles the frog on her changing table)
Me: (picks her up and hugs her) love you
E: Uhv ooo (hugs me tight and just happens to smack my glasses into my nose, very painfully)
Daddy: ready for lullabies and snuggles
E: NO! (squirming rampantly despite daddy's snuggles and calming song, manages to headbutt daddy across his nose, very painfully)
Daddy: goodnight. (puts E into her crib)

Cue the impending meltdown....13 minutes of screaming in the crib and then...silence.

E is very independent.  She wants what she wants.  Right now that's any phone or tablet, and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. (really shouldn't have let her watch it when she was sick)  She is very, very stubborn.  She already pretends to not hear us when we say something she doesn't want to hear.  She likes to have any modicum of control of the world around her.

She is also very loving and sweet.  She likes to be a "big girl" and use her big girl words.  She likes to help with everything from sweeping and mopping up spills to making dinner and folding clothes.  She uses her polite words more often than not.  She gives great hugs.  She loves to play with her duplos, especially the cat and dog figurine.

Big girl

Where did my baby go?

I'ts official, my baby is gone and despite the fact that she still refers to herself as "baby" has transformed into a big girl.  While a part of me is mourning the loss of the helpless baby most of me is reveling in the fun that is toddlerdom.  A song that keeps coming on E's pandora station has a lyric "How did you grow so big over night, how did you get so strong and bright, yesterday you were asleep in my arms, today you're growing off the charts, I'm so proud of you"  and every time I hear it I tear up a little bit (still going to blame the hormones)

This age is so much fun!  E is becoming more playful every day, she plays with her toys using her imagination.  Her favorites are her animals and her people and anything having to do with the potty.  Today she put her baby doll on it's potty in front of her alphabet toy and proceeded to show him alphabet letters while making peeing noises.

She "reads" her favorite books and sings along to more songs that I can remember.  Her favorite song is "Wheels on the Bus"  she will sing that song all day.  Her favorite book is her Star Wars Colors book, which requires me singing the Imperial march and the cantina song when I read it.  She loves, loves, loves Sesame Street (especially Count, Elmo and Cookie Monster) despite never seeing a full episode. She knows them from her books. She calls Count "Ah, ah!" which makes me laugh every time.  She sleeps on a nap mat at daycare.  She uses her potty fairly regularly.  She hates clothes, diapers, and car seats.  She has her security items (Ellie, her musical elephant, LinLin her stuffed panda, babypada, and Rexy her t-rex pillow pet that goes to day care with her).  She threw a fit when I washed her daycare blankie over the weekend.

She gets sad when people go away, even complete strangers like waiters and such; and likes to call for people or things "reesa? weh are ooo reesa?"  (she really likes our neighbor Ms. Teresa, and calls for her when we go check the mail, but she'll also call for inanimate objects the same way)

She's curious about the world. Her favorite things to say seem to be "isit?" (what is it) and "do?" (what is he doing) and "eredidhego?" (where did he go?)

fearless!

She loves to tell us what color things are and "count"  For a long time everything was yellow and there were always 3 of everything.  But she's getting better about her colors, there are still usually 3 of everything though.  She loves to climb, swing and tries to jump.  She's a very physical kiddo, but also can be very focused and still.

We went on vacation to California (eventually I'll post about that, I swear) and it was such a different trip than a year ago.  

She's starting to assert her independence more (ie. more temper tantrums).  Her most common tantrum currently is about going to school.  If I even mention school she starts whimpering or crying.  She's also starting to be picky about her food.  Tonight she had a full meltdown about eating, all she wanted was grapes and she made a huge show of spitting out her bite of quinoa.  Between that and kicking dada earlier in the evening, she ended up going straight to bed after dinner for the first time ever.  To be fair she was REALLY tired because she didn't nap at daycare so her behavior had an explanation, but there is still no excuse.  I know it's important to be firm and fair about these things but it's still hard.  Thankfully she went almost straight to sleep with only a few minutes of crying once she was put to bed.

 Thankfully the good days still outnumber the bad, and hopefully that trend will continue as we delve down the path of the terrible twos.

She's my big girl, and she lets me know in her own funny way.  Tonight at dinner she asked for my fork "mama fork?" so I got her, her own adult fork to which she proudly declared "baby big girl!"

Yes baby, you are a big girl; but you're still my baby.

Sweetest Lullaby v.2.0

When E was just a little bitty one I wrote about the importance of lullabies to me and how much I love hearing Ken sing to her.

I've got a new favorite lullaby, but it changes every time I sing.  It's because E now sings along with them.
Granted it's an attempt to delay bedtime/naptime, which she is getting better and better at each night.  But it still melts my heart.

I'll be singing and she'll pipe in, in her super cute little baby voice, just on a few of the words, usually at the end of a verse or the chorus and give me this little happy smile as if she knows just how completely it melts my heart.  

18 months!

full force cute!

 The toddler tornado is in full force! At a year and a half this child runs circles around us (literally sometimes) but is such a sweet, good girl 90% of the time!  She really keeps us busy, nearly every day I think to myself "oh! I should blog about that!" or "Oh, I really want to remember that she did that!" and by the time bed time rolls around I've forgotten or I'm too exhausted to actually sit down and write.

full force smart!

 One of the things I constantly want to blog about is how much E absorbs every day.  She's a little sponge.  At her 12 month check up her doctor was worried about her verbal development.  Her 18 month check up will be on Tuesday and I'll be happy to report that she has a vocabulary of so many words I've lost count.  She says new words every day.  Of course you still have to be well versed in E-speak to understand everything (and sometimes I don't even understand it) but she's really talking.  Even full sentences.  The other day she spilled her water down her front then wiped her hand across her shirt and said "isiwet" (This is wet).  She'll assert her independence verbally now "Isee" (I want to see it) "babydo" (I want to do it) "nome!" (let me do it!).  Her current favorite phrases are "uh-sigh" (other side), "uhkay" (okay) and of course "mo" (more).

full force curious!

She is also absorbing knowledge at a phenomenal rate.  The other day I drew shapes on the ground with chalk and she ran up to the circle, danced around inside it and said "ro, ro, siruhl" (roll, roll, circle).  She sorts her "High Ho Cherry O" fruits by color, though she finds it hilarious to put the wrong color in a basket and shout "uh-oh!, Uh-no!" She names her colors frequently (though she still thinks most things are yellow on first try).  She's even beginning to count.  She can reliably do "uh, tooo, teee" (one, two, three) and "helps" mommy count to ten by saying every other number.  He favorite number book is her  Star Wars 123 book.  She especially likes the 7 bounty hunters and the 100 storm troopers (we don't count those) but she starts singing the Imperial March when she turns to that page. (why yes, I am raising a nerd, thank you)  Her favorite page is the 1 Yoda page.  She asks for that book by saying "wee, weed, oda peas!" (read, read, Yoda please!)

She likes to sit at her "desk" and "write her letters" (pictured above).  She has taken over the end table.  She climbs up, puts her feet under the drawer so she can scoot up to the the top shelf and then uses the travel Scrabble dice and pencil to trace the letter on the die with the pencil and then scribble on the paper.

full force spaghetti monster!

She also loves to sing.  We are starting to get snippets of "the ABC song", "Twinkle, twinkle", "the imperial march", "Farmer in the Dell" and of course "row, row, row your boat"  she asks for music to be put on almost constantly and will play with her musical toys while the music is playing (this drives mama a little bit nuts).

She also, still, LOVES to eat.  I think her favorite foods currently are yogurt, blueberries, grapes, peas, pasta, ham and cheese.  But she still eats nearly anything.  She eats raw onions and lemons!  She devours Italiano's spaghetti with reckless abandon.  She calls tortillas "nana" which makes me laugh though I have no idea why she thinks a tortilla and a banana are the same thing (she does use the same word for banana).  She has stopped eating yellow squash, tomatoes and mushrooms.  They get nibbled and then she shakes her head and says "no" and then hands them back to me.  She did the same thing with a raspberry tonight.

full force play!

 Summer has brought about several big events.  The first being E no longer goes to daycare!  Mommy has the summer off so we took E out of daycare to save money.  We will be returning to daycare once school starts back up in August but she will no longer be in the infant room, she'll be in the toddler room where they no longer have cribs but instead sleep in cots (scary!) and they do more formal lessons (awesome!) and lots more crafts (excellent!).  Oh and they can do part time rates in that room too (YAY!).    Not being in daycare means mommy gets to take E on playdates more!  Many of which involved water which suits E just fine.  She would spend all day, every day at the pool or a splash pad.  She LOVES the water.

participation medals
taste good!

 Summer also meant the end of E's season at Little Gym.  She's been in the same "Birds" class since she was 8 months old and both she and mommy made some friends in the class.  She had her "show" the last week of class.  Her teacher's praise was that "E always does what I ask her to do" and then she asked E to stand up and E promptly sat down.  I laughed.  E has such a strong will.  Thankfully we are getting good at finding ways to make what we want her to do something she wants to do, but be wary if you butt up against that will!  We enrolled for summer session and E had her first class, she was a little taken aback when all the other kids were new. She's still in the Birds class because of her age but most of her friends moved into the "Beasts" class.  I know that one of her friends is supposed to be there, but was out last week for some reason, hopefully she'll be back this week.

full force passed out!

All this fantastic development and endless energy result in a pretty tired kid.  She has her bedtime routine down pat.  She knows that after dinner we have a bath, then pajamas, then she runs to daddy for milk and books, then she runs to the bathroom to brush her teeth and then she calls for daddy to sing her to sleep.  Usually she goes down with no problem.  Even now with the binky weaning she goes to sleep well.  However, she's having a hard time staying asleep.  I think it may be a combination of separation anxiety, binky weaning, 18 month sleep regression and teething.  This past week has been a tough one.  Everything I read says the 18 month regression can be tough...and can last up to 2 months.  I hope E gets this out of her system a lot faster than that or Mommy might need a vacation.  Her pattern for the last week has been sleep from 8-11ish, wake up and scream until mommy comes to get me, scream until mommy lets me sleep with her (on the floor, in the bed, wherever), fuss and cry every few hours, then get up sometime between 5 and 530.  Coming from the baby who slept from 8-7 with maybe one or two fussy points during the night where she self soothed most of the time this change is killing me!  I know it will pass, I know it will get better, and I'm hoping it will happen quickly.  I haven't been this much of an irratable zombie since she was a newborn!

I hope E keeps me busy, though I do hope I can sit down and blog a little more, between my blog and facebook I have some hope of eventually sitting down and scrabooking her baby book, but at the rate E is running these days that won't be until she's in college so I need to take the time to document what I can, when I can!

full force love!

Big Girl(s)

Sunday E went through a bit of shell shock. She woke up and did what she'd done for the last nine days, she asked for "Ah-ee, Shar" but for the first time in nine days I had to tell her they were gone.  She spent the better part of the day asking for them and "Uh-Sha" and trying to find them in their usual places.

Our family friends stayed with us for 10 days to see some graduations and E loved having the built in playmates.  The 'big girls' are 8 and 6 and have a 2 year old sister so they were phenomenal with E.  E loved copying them and being a 'big girl' like them.  We went out to dinner one night and the girls were telling knock-knock jokes.  E spent the better part of dinner shouting "nah-nah!" to anyone who would look at her.  Unfortunately that's where her knock-knock expertise ends and no matter how hard the girls tried she wouldn't say any more of the joke.

E became very attached to A and C during their stay.  She watched them like a hawk and followed them around like a puppy.  Another point that sticks out was sitting in E's room with all three girls sitting and reading their own books.  E picked up one of her picture books and sat with it the whole time that the big girls were reading.  She also had a hard time understanding when they were roughhousing.  She got very upset when the big girls were shrieking or play fight tickling.  She'd start crying and trying to stop the person tickling the girl.  Or if the big girls were crying E wanted to go to them and comfort them.  It was very cute to watch.

Her obsession with the big girls also allowed us to start on another big step for E...weaning off the binky.  Sunday after she got up all of her binkies "broke".  I cut a slit in the end of each binky so that she doesn't get good suction on them anymore.  We explained to her that she was becoming a big girl, and big girls don't use binkies, so her binkies all broke.  We talked about how A and C were big girls and they didn't use binkies.  E was so mad at nap time that it took over an hour and three visits from mommy and daddy, with mommy eventually laying down with her to get her to go to sleep.  Riding in the car she was getting so mad at her binky that she she was trying to throw it away from her, but it's attached to the car seat, so she just got more frustrated and mad.  Bed time was rough too, once she was asleep she'd wake up every so often and whine.  At one point I went in and she whined and cried so much with such a pained expression on her face that it just broke my heart.  If there had been a non snipped binky in the house I probably would have caved in and given it to her.  Thankfully there wasn't and eventually despite tears from both mommy and E, angry cries and screams of frustration from E, and a lot of rocking and singing E went to sleep and did about the same as a normal night.  It's so hard to remember that she's becoming a 'big girl'  When she fell alseep at nap time she was curled up close to me, her hands folded and her face looked so much like it used to when she was a tiny baby.  Part of me longs for her to stay my little baby but the other part is dosed in the reality that she is nearly 18 months, has all her baby teeth except her 2 year molars, and needs to go through these transitions, no matter ho much it hurts my heart.

Nap time today was better, it only took 25 minutes of crying and so far bed time has been a breeze.  Hopefully this is a sign that my baby is really becoming a big girl.






Update:

Discipline

So apparently it's common knowledge among veteran parents that the "terrible twos" actually start around one.  Why no one tells us rookies this is a mystery to me but when I tell my veteran parent friends about E's misadventures in tantrums, mischief and being generally naughty limit testing they all just smile and say something along the lines of "yeah, terrible twos start early"

So Ken and I have been working on a discipline system that works for us.  For now, when E gives us her little 'I'm going to test you right now' smirk and deliberately disobeys what we just asked her to do we do the following:

-remind her that big girls make smart choices
-tell her what a good choice would be
-give her another chance to make a good choice
-warn what the sad consequence will be (it's a 'time out'* right now)
-enforce the sad consequence

*our version of 'time out' is that we take her to her room, sit in the rocking chair with her and talk about the choice she made and why it was a sad choice and what she should do next time.  This is all happening while she is screaming her head off for her binky or to be read to, or to be let down in general.  Then we sit with her until she has calmed down, ask her to say sorry, then give her a chance to do the smart choice, with lots of hugs and praise when she does.  It's also usually accompanied by a short session with the binky after she has calmed down and said sorry.

On Monday we got a note from her daycare:

I had to recreate the note, I lost the original

Her normal teacher was gone by the time I picked her up.  I thought it might be just because she's teething and got over excited.  I got the details eventually:  she and another child were fighting over a toy and she leaned over and bit him!

I have NO idea where she learned biting, but learned it she has.  So Ken and I have been on the look-out for biting behavior.

Tonight during dessert  Ken was petting her hair and she was pushing his hand away and saying "no"  We are working with her to try to get her to say "no thank you" so I reminded her that we say "no thank you" and Ken pet her head again and she grabbed his hand and started guiding it to her open mouth.

Breaking what I just told her moments before I let out a very loud and stern "NO!  No biting!"  She looked stunned and dropped his hand.  We took away her frozen yogurt and I reminded her that it was okay to be mad but not to be mean, and biting is mean because it hurts people and asked her to say sorry to Daddy.  Her face crumpled into the realization that she was in trouble, she tried a few times to continue eating or playing, completely avoiding looking at Ken.  Eventually we had to enforce the sad consequence.

I brought a friend to time out with us, her Cookie Monster snack keeper. It's basically Cookie Monster's head and the mouth opens and closes.  I sat her on my lap and we talked about how biting hurts.  Then I had Cookie Monster bite my finger and I made a big dramatic show of saying "ow!"  And that's when she started wailing.

While she was crying on my lap I had a conversation with Cookie.  He apologized for biting me and I gave him hugs and kisses (sometimes being a parent makes you look nuts) but E kept crying and crying and crying.  She immediately said "sorry" to Ken and gave him hugs and kisses, and kept crying and crying and crying.

I think I made my point...though I may have traumatized my child against Cookie Monster in the process of doing so.  As we were getting ready for bed she saw Cookie on the dresser and said "no!no! ow!"  and started crying again.  I tried to show her that Cookie and I were friends by giving him lots of hugs and kisses and having him kiss her and promise no more biting, but she would have none of it.  She wouldn't stop crying until I put Cookie Monster in a toy bin out of sight.

I guess he'll stay there....until the next time she bites someone.

My day take 2

Last year I used today to update E's followers on my life and well being. I like that idea and so shall continue it this year... No guarantees for making a tradition though!

I do it!

So....how is momma?  Momma is good.  Momma is loving life.  Momma is amazed every day at this little person who sings and dances, runs and climbs, plays in every little puddle of water as if it were a swimming pool, talks and signs, eats and eats and eats, wants to cuddle and be independent, entertains herself and wants to be read to all the time.  She is so much fun to be around.  Momma is also lucky to have Daddy around.  Daddy helps so much and makes everything so much more enjoyable.

Momma is less tired than a year ago!  Working part time has allowed me to get a little more sleep (no more getting up at 4:30!) E still doesn't sleep through the night regularly.   But we have gotten to the point where we don't turn on the baby monitor most nights. She sleeps, but will cry in the middle of the night just enough to wake me up, even without the monitor.  She usually puts herself back to sleep but lately has been teething her canine teeth.  So she's pretty sad and woeful. (see ode to teeth).  She helped me get my Mother's day off to an early start this morning.  We got back from one of Ken's co-worker's wedding around midnight and E had already thrown up in bed for the baby sitter, who had thankfully cleaned up the baby.  Around 3:30 E woke in full woe and needed cuddles and a bottle of water.  Then again around 4:15.  At 5 she woke and demanded yogurt, then milk and didn't actually eat either, well she fell asleep mid bite of yogurt.  So I tried to lay her back in bed...big mistake!  so we ended up sleeping in the chair and eventually the guest bedroom bed until 7 or so when she woke up and actually wanted yogurt.
Thankfully this is a strange occurrence.  Most nights it's only one wake up with no mommy intervention needed. A few nights before the teething set in she actually slept through without making a peep.  Hopefully once these teeth are through we will have more of that!

Super girl!

Mommy is also loving working part time.  It's hard to give up science and my students but it's so worth having those extra hours in the morning with E and Fridays are awesome.  E has become so much more fun than a year ago.  I think I love this age the most yet (I'll probably say that for a while)  We go to Little Gym on Wednesdays and she just loves it.  We've made some good potential out of class friends.  We even wen to an Easter Egg hunt with one of them.

first Carousel!

Fridays we are starting to have Mommy and E adventures!  We go to the Children's museum or the Zoo or even just shopping or to the playground.  Soon the pool will be open and Mommy will be home full time for summer.  I do worry about going stir crazy, I will still need adult contact and time away from my E to maintain my sanity but I'm looking forward to having more Mom-ventures with her, despite the horrible summer humidity.  I've joined a meet-up group that has something almost every day. I haven't been able to go to many because they pretty much all start at 10 and I have to leave for work around 10:30 so I'm looking forward to exploring those playdate options a little more come summer!

Mommy and "sissy" on
their adventure!

Mommy is also taking more "me" time.  I went away from E over night for the first time.  I thought it would be terrible but it wasn't.  My mentee (E calls her "sissy") and I went and explored a college that she was considering.  It was wonderful to spend time with her and while I missed E and Ken it was okay.  It's good to know I can be okay away from them (and they were just fine without me!).  Ken and I are also leaving E with baby sitters that aren't family occasionally!  We actually have had 2 date nights without having to have family come to town!

In honor of the first Mom's
day post, here is E with
something random on her head!

Momma is also working on getting in shape.  We are making much smarter food decisions as a family and it's helping a lot!  We also got fitbits for Christmas and I've been loving making sure I get my goals every day.  Running around after E in the morning certainly helps with it!  So does the fact that my classroom is across campus from the rest of the school and I have to walk students to and from class at least 6 times every day!

out for a hike!

As a family we've gone on a lot more walks since the weather has been wonderful.  E loves her push tricycle, her stroller and even her backpack.  We also recently got her a bike trailer.  She's still a bit small for it and needs to be propped up with a pillow behind her so that her helmet isn't shoved into her eyes but once we figured that out, she loves riding in her trailer!  We went to the pool as a family today and I used E's nap time today to finally clean up half of the front garden bed and lay down the mulch that has been sitting on the driveway for the last 2 months.  I will probably be sore tomorrow but it's a good thing.  I'm still not as strong as I was pre-pregnancy but I'm better than where I was a year ago.  Nowhere to go but up!

helmet!

We are not looking forward to the increase in humidity, but we are going to try our hardest to still get outside.  Mostly because E loves it out there.  All day long she'll ask for "side?" "side?"  and she'll cry when we come in.  She's an outdoor girl and we want to encourage that!

So all in all, Mommy is great.  Loving this mommy business, even when it's so hard I want to cry.  It's so worth it too.

Happy mother's day!

an ode to teeth

Oh teeth, oh teeth,

You are so much woe

You bring it

Every time you grow.

You make my baby

Scream and wail,

Telling such a woeful tale.

You steal away

My precious sleep,

As all night long

E wants to weep.

We love you

Because you help E eat,

But growing you

Is such a feat.

When you are done

We will be so glad,

Oh teething makes

The world so sad.

Little things

I have been lax in posting updates, not for lack of material or desire, it's just that we have been so busy!!! That is the one word I would use to describe E currently. Busy, busy, busy!  I think this is my favorite age so far. At least 3 times a day I think to myself 'that is so awesome, I want to remember that, I should put it in my blog' and then we are so busy that it never happens.

In this brief and early moment (it's 4am, E had been waking up and asking for milk since 2am. She had 8 oz at 2, but is still demanding more, I am withholding it because 8oz should hold her for much longer than an hour. She did require a clothes change as she had over filled her nighttime diaper for the second night in a row. At least thus time I didn't have to change the sheets) since I have a tension headache and am waking for the Tylenol to kick in, I figured I would jot down some of the things I wanted to remember

- E had hand, foot, and mouth. It was woeful, but it meant I got to spend a week at home with her, which was fun, but made me very glad for my job.

- E loves eyes. She points them out frequently and says 'eye' in a very cute way. She had Easter window clings and she kept putting the Easter eggs over the bunny's eyes like glasses.

-a few nights ago E gave daddy a post dinner kiss, then leaned over to kiss mommy and let out a burp instead, hilarity ensued.

-E makes herself laugh, she tries to tickle herself 'tick-uh!' And cracks up. She also plays peek-a-boo with herself in the bathroom mirror. 'Peek! - Boo!'

-E is obsessed with her water table, if she figures out how to turn on the spigot outside we will never, ever do anything but play with the 'ishees' (fishies).

-E is climbing everything. when she gets up she has a super proud look on her face that is priceless.

-E likes 'reading' her Kimochi book. We look at the pictures of the different emotions and I ask her what each emotion says. She whimpers for sad, says 'yay' for happy etc. My favorites are silly abs cranky. For silly she makes a silly noise with her tongue that I can't really describe, but any time you ask her if she is being silly she makes it. For cranky she hits the book and says 'no!' While violently shaking her head.

-E likes to pretend to feed things... Anything,.. her stuffed toys, dolls, the bird outside, the monkeys on the wall, etc. She does this by holding up the food item in the general direction of the recipient and then saying 'nom nom nom'.

-E loves animals, especially birds and dogs. She refers to all animals with sign language and/or the sound the animal makes.

The Tylenol had kicked in and the milk monster is quiet. So I'll end this here with more to come as soon as Ms. Busy let's me!