Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
April 28 - Pasta!
Katie loves helping out in the kitchen (thanks to Grandma!) Here are some pictures of Katie "helping" break up some spaghetti for her pasta dinner. She was really more interested in eating the dry pasta than she was breaking it up and putting it in the bowl.
Her language skills are growing by leaps and bounds. But it takes some figuring to get her intent. For instance, she will say, "Katie help me?", which means, "Can Katie help you with whatever task you are working on?"
The other night, she said she wanted to read this book called "5 Little Ducks". I told her it was upstairs and she could read it when she goes to bed. She said, "Mommy go upstairs--get book?" I was impressed by the sentence, but didn't like the bossy :-)
Her language skills are growing by leaps and bounds. But it takes some figuring to get her intent. For instance, she will say, "Katie help me?", which means, "Can Katie help you with whatever task you are working on?"
The other night, she said she wanted to read this book called "5 Little Ducks". I told her it was upstairs and she could read it when she goes to bed. She said, "Mommy go upstairs--get book?" I was impressed by the sentence, but didn't like the bossy :-)
Sunday, April 26, 2009
April 26 - nice weekend
Not much to report this weekend (maybe because Mommy didn't keep track well)
I have NO idea what we did on Thursday, but maybe something will come to me. Oh, Katie and I were solo, because Daddy was in Salt Lake. I took Katie over to Grandpa's so we could go golfing. Kevin managed to make an early flight and was able to join us for golf. My driving off the tee was great, but everything else I did after the first hole (except for driving) was mediocre, and I was kinda bummed about my score (though, really... it was a good score for me, especially at 9 months prego AND this early in the golf season!)
Friday, Katie and I had a lovely time at story time. The 3 stories were all about monkeys, so she enjoyed that very much. There were lots of kids there, including a bunch I hadn't seen before (from a local day care) We again were the last ones lingering after story time. Katie loves playing with the toys (especially the plastic fruit) and hanging out with the kids.
I was pretty amazed how easily she followed me to the car, especially since we were parked across from the local kiddie park. I think she was kinda tired. She had a very late nap and in the evening, we went to Costco. We weren't sure how that was gonna go, as she's been fairly fussy / assertive these days. Makes for some long afternoons!
Saturday, we mostly hung around the house.
Sunday, Katie worked in the yard with Daddy while I rested. In the afternoon, we went over to the g'rents. Katie played in their back yard while I ran some errands. She ended up staying the night over there, since it got to be pretty late. That's wonderful. I stayed there for nearly an hour after she went to bed and visited with my folks. This will work well, as now Kev nor I don't have to try racing her over Monday morning.
no pictures this weekend, but we did take some fun video. one of these days, I'm gonna have to figure out how to post pics.
This is kinda cute... For a few weeks, Katie has been saying, "See you later, alligator". Now, she's attaching names/objects to the end of that phrase. I talked with either my mom or my dad several times today on speaker phone, and when I'd hang up, she's say, "See you waiter, alligator Grandma" or "Grandpa" or whatever. Pretty darn cute.
I have NO idea what we did on Thursday, but maybe something will come to me. Oh, Katie and I were solo, because Daddy was in Salt Lake. I took Katie over to Grandpa's so we could go golfing. Kevin managed to make an early flight and was able to join us for golf. My driving off the tee was great, but everything else I did after the first hole (except for driving) was mediocre, and I was kinda bummed about my score (though, really... it was a good score for me, especially at 9 months prego AND this early in the golf season!)
Friday, Katie and I had a lovely time at story time. The 3 stories were all about monkeys, so she enjoyed that very much. There were lots of kids there, including a bunch I hadn't seen before (from a local day care) We again were the last ones lingering after story time. Katie loves playing with the toys (especially the plastic fruit) and hanging out with the kids.
I was pretty amazed how easily she followed me to the car, especially since we were parked across from the local kiddie park. I think she was kinda tired. She had a very late nap and in the evening, we went to Costco. We weren't sure how that was gonna go, as she's been fairly fussy / assertive these days. Makes for some long afternoons!
Saturday, we mostly hung around the house.
Sunday, Katie worked in the yard with Daddy while I rested. In the afternoon, we went over to the g'rents. Katie played in their back yard while I ran some errands. She ended up staying the night over there, since it got to be pretty late. That's wonderful. I stayed there for nearly an hour after she went to bed and visited with my folks. This will work well, as now Kev nor I don't have to try racing her over Monday morning.
no pictures this weekend, but we did take some fun video. one of these days, I'm gonna have to figure out how to post pics.
This is kinda cute... For a few weeks, Katie has been saying, "See you later, alligator". Now, she's attaching names/objects to the end of that phrase. I talked with either my mom or my dad several times today on speaker phone, and when I'd hang up, she's say, "See you waiter, alligator Grandma" or "Grandpa" or whatever. Pretty darn cute.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
April 16 - 18 Go In Car, Go Beach?
We went to Lincoln City for the weekend and the weather just couldn't have been better (well-- it would have been nice if the Sunday - Tuesday weather had hit Friday - Sunday instead, but oh well!!)
Katie and I went to story time Friday morning, and I told her all morning long that we couldn't stay to play after because we were going to the beach. Katie would say, "Go in Car? Go Beach? YEAH OCEAN... YEAH BEACH!!!" So funny.
We got out of town around 12:30 on Friday and arrived between 3 & 4 PM. Katie did an awesome job in the car. I don't know HOW many times Mommy had to sing the ABC song (or, the ABCD song, as Katie sometimes calls it), but trust me, it was a lot!!
We went down to the beach pretty much as soon as we unpacked the car. We brought her toy wagon and a few beach toys down. Katie LOVED shoveling sand into the pail and dumping out again. And, of course, she LOVED finding rocks of all shapes and sizes in the sand. That and pulling weeds are 2 of her favorite pasttimes, I think!
Friday night was pretty rough. Katie went down around 7:45 and cried for maybe 10 minutes. Kevin checked on her around 9 and discovered she had poo'd. That was unexpected, as she'd just done her business 2 days before (she's been on a 3-4 day cycle lately) So, we had to change her diaper, and it stirred her up a little too much. BUMMER!!!!!! We tried putting her down and she wailed and wailed. By then, it was 9:15, and we couldn't let her cry it out, because we had neighbors.
Long story short, we brought the pack'n'play out to where Kev and I were sleeping, but she freaked out in it. So, we tried letting her sleep in our bed, but that didn't work-- she kept tossing/turning (which, with a toddler is not rolling side-side, it's shifting head to toe!!)
I finally picked her up and held her while I sat in a chair in front of the window. I watched the surf and could see stars in the sky. It was very pretty but fairly uncomfortable. It didn't take her long to fall asleep. Unfortunately, I was in a tank top, so she had sweaty head pretty quickly. I put her into the P&P around 2-ish. Then I made a big mistake. I had to use the restroom, and after going back and forth in my head on whether to "do it", I did it. I flushed. And Katie immediately woke up wailing again. Dumb move, mommy.
I picked Katie up again and, after I put on a long sleeve shirt, I propped myself up in bed and held her again. Of course, she wanted me to walk her ("Pull Mommy up!!!"), but I held firm. She fell asleep, and when I just couldn't stand holding her any more, I laid her down between Kevin and me. That was 4:15, and she slept until around 7 AM.
Kevin and I spent the morning telling each other and Katie that we were going to all have to be very patient and gentle with each other, because we were all exhausted. :-)
On Saturday, after a yummy pancake breakfast, we went down to the beach. Again, Katie loved playing in the sand. She got a really big kick out of going down to the water’s edge. The waves would get JUST in front of her, and Daddy would scoop her up and run away to avoid getting wet. I couldn’t hear it, but I guess the giggles were near deafening! :-)
After a nice nap and some lunch, we drove down to Otter Rock to look at a condo/the grounds at the Inn at Otter Crest. The place is BEAUTIFUL, and the condo is stunning. It's a tad small, so we're trying to figure out if it's the right decision for us to buy a deeded share. I think the girls will protest in a few years if they don't have a bedroom to sleep in. Can't say as I'd blame them!
We left the resort and headed back into town. I thought we were supposed to look at some condos near where we were staying, but there was some miscommunication, and that was Sunday instead. We had dinner at McMenamins in LC. That was interesting. We ordered Katie a PB&J with veggies. She could care less about the PB&J and instead just wanted to eat carrots. After a time, she started dipping them in our Tartar sauce. Yummmmmm?
We figured that wasn't enough for her to eat, so we went to Safeway to pick up some essentials. She handled a diaper change and shopping in Safeway like a champ.
We let Katie stay up a tad later than usual, after sunset, in the hopes that she'd be so worn out she'd sleep. She did a great job falling asleep and slept really good and long that night (WHEW!!!) Kev and I relegated ourselves to the noisy back bedroom and watched "30 Rock" on Hulu for an episode we accidentally deleted from our DVR.
Sunday morning, we enjoyed French Toast and some Bubble play time at the beach. Daddy and Katie took off their shoes and socks and enjoyed a foot dip in the ocean. The water was SHOCKINGLY cold. Katie started to cry each time her feet felt the water. But, she fussed even more when Daddy took her out of the water. Talk about mixed feelings!!
After we were done at the beach, we went back to the hotel and finished packing up. I wanted Katie to be prepared for the morning, so I kept saying, "Ok Katie, in a little while we're gonna go across the street and look at a couple condos." After a bit, I'd say, "Katie, what are we gonna do?" She'd respond, "Go cross street, look at condos?" I thought that was pretty good. I don't think I had any interest in looking at condos until I was in my 30's! :-)
We looked at 2 condos that we'd considered investing in, until we found out we couldn't use them as a vacation rental. That's just too much money and too much work to get it nice for us to not be able to rent out (to help defray the cost)
So, that was disappointing. After, we went to the Pig'N'Pancake and had, guess what? :-) Well, Kev had clam strips, and Katie and I split some of her favorite foods... Fresh Strawberries and Blueberry pancakes. Katie got curious about Daddy's tartar sauce again and started dipping her Blueberry pancakes in it (YUK!!) After a few tastes, she said, "I don't like it"... BUT-- she kept right on dipping. silly kid!
She was excellent in the car ride home. Slept for probably 1.5 hours and then we sang a lot of songs until we got to Uncle Ross/Aunt Lynn's house. We stopped by there for a visit before picking up the dogs and heading back home.
A lovely weekend!
Katie and I went to story time Friday morning, and I told her all morning long that we couldn't stay to play after because we were going to the beach. Katie would say, "Go in Car? Go Beach? YEAH OCEAN... YEAH BEACH!!!" So funny.
We got out of town around 12:30 on Friday and arrived between 3 & 4 PM. Katie did an awesome job in the car. I don't know HOW many times Mommy had to sing the ABC song (or, the ABCD song, as Katie sometimes calls it), but trust me, it was a lot!!
We went down to the beach pretty much as soon as we unpacked the car. We brought her toy wagon and a few beach toys down. Katie LOVED shoveling sand into the pail and dumping out again. And, of course, she LOVED finding rocks of all shapes and sizes in the sand. That and pulling weeds are 2 of her favorite pasttimes, I think!
Friday night was pretty rough. Katie went down around 7:45 and cried for maybe 10 minutes. Kevin checked on her around 9 and discovered she had poo'd. That was unexpected, as she'd just done her business 2 days before (she's been on a 3-4 day cycle lately) So, we had to change her diaper, and it stirred her up a little too much. BUMMER!!!!!! We tried putting her down and she wailed and wailed. By then, it was 9:15, and we couldn't let her cry it out, because we had neighbors.
Long story short, we brought the pack'n'play out to where Kev and I were sleeping, but she freaked out in it. So, we tried letting her sleep in our bed, but that didn't work-- she kept tossing/turning (which, with a toddler is not rolling side-side, it's shifting head to toe!!)
I finally picked her up and held her while I sat in a chair in front of the window. I watched the surf and could see stars in the sky. It was very pretty but fairly uncomfortable. It didn't take her long to fall asleep. Unfortunately, I was in a tank top, so she had sweaty head pretty quickly. I put her into the P&P around 2-ish. Then I made a big mistake. I had to use the restroom, and after going back and forth in my head on whether to "do it", I did it. I flushed. And Katie immediately woke up wailing again. Dumb move, mommy.
I picked Katie up again and, after I put on a long sleeve shirt, I propped myself up in bed and held her again. Of course, she wanted me to walk her ("Pull Mommy up!!!"), but I held firm. She fell asleep, and when I just couldn't stand holding her any more, I laid her down between Kevin and me. That was 4:15, and she slept until around 7 AM.
Kevin and I spent the morning telling each other and Katie that we were going to all have to be very patient and gentle with each other, because we were all exhausted. :-)
On Saturday, after a yummy pancake breakfast, we went down to the beach. Again, Katie loved playing in the sand. She got a really big kick out of going down to the water’s edge. The waves would get JUST in front of her, and Daddy would scoop her up and run away to avoid getting wet. I couldn’t hear it, but I guess the giggles were near deafening! :-)
After a nice nap and some lunch, we drove down to Otter Rock to look at a condo/the grounds at the Inn at Otter Crest. The place is BEAUTIFUL, and the condo is stunning. It's a tad small, so we're trying to figure out if it's the right decision for us to buy a deeded share. I think the girls will protest in a few years if they don't have a bedroom to sleep in. Can't say as I'd blame them!
We left the resort and headed back into town. I thought we were supposed to look at some condos near where we were staying, but there was some miscommunication, and that was Sunday instead. We had dinner at McMenamins in LC. That was interesting. We ordered Katie a PB&J with veggies. She could care less about the PB&J and instead just wanted to eat carrots. After a time, she started dipping them in our Tartar sauce. Yummmmmm?
We figured that wasn't enough for her to eat, so we went to Safeway to pick up some essentials. She handled a diaper change and shopping in Safeway like a champ.
We let Katie stay up a tad later than usual, after sunset, in the hopes that she'd be so worn out she'd sleep. She did a great job falling asleep and slept really good and long that night (WHEW!!!) Kev and I relegated ourselves to the noisy back bedroom and watched "30 Rock" on Hulu for an episode we accidentally deleted from our DVR.
Sunday morning, we enjoyed French Toast and some Bubble play time at the beach. Daddy and Katie took off their shoes and socks and enjoyed a foot dip in the ocean. The water was SHOCKINGLY cold. Katie started to cry each time her feet felt the water. But, she fussed even more when Daddy took her out of the water. Talk about mixed feelings!!
After we were done at the beach, we went back to the hotel and finished packing up. I wanted Katie to be prepared for the morning, so I kept saying, "Ok Katie, in a little while we're gonna go across the street and look at a couple condos." After a bit, I'd say, "Katie, what are we gonna do?" She'd respond, "Go cross street, look at condos?" I thought that was pretty good. I don't think I had any interest in looking at condos until I was in my 30's! :-)
We looked at 2 condos that we'd considered investing in, until we found out we couldn't use them as a vacation rental. That's just too much money and too much work to get it nice for us to not be able to rent out (to help defray the cost)
So, that was disappointing. After, we went to the Pig'N'Pancake and had, guess what? :-) Well, Kev had clam strips, and Katie and I split some of her favorite foods... Fresh Strawberries and Blueberry pancakes. Katie got curious about Daddy's tartar sauce again and started dipping her Blueberry pancakes in it (YUK!!) After a few tastes, she said, "I don't like it"... BUT-- she kept right on dipping. silly kid!
She was excellent in the car ride home. Slept for probably 1.5 hours and then we sang a lot of songs until we got to Uncle Ross/Aunt Lynn's house. We stopped by there for a visit before picking up the dogs and heading back home.
A lovely weekend!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
April 12 - Happy Easter!!
Despite a restless night's sleep (probably Mommy's fault, as I was just remarking last night about how well Katie's been sleeping), Katie had a really enjoyable Easter Sunday.
She woke for good around 7:15 or so and came downstairs to a surprise! The Easter Bunny had stopped by and left some eggs for Katie to find as well as a wonderful Easter Basket full of Sesame Street books, playdough, Strawberry Shortcake stickers, crayons, a Minnie Mouse coloring book, and a stuffed lamb.
After a pleasant morning where Katie pretty much ate Mom's egg bagel sandwich (mostly the bagel part), we all went over to the g'rents' house for Easter Brunch.
The whole way over, Katie kept saying, "See Brittnee?" She really loves her oldest cousin!!
It was really nice getting the family together again. We were together a few weeks ago to celebrate my 40th birthday. We probably won't see them again until after the baby arrives. Which won't be long. Wow.
Katie crashed on the car ride home despite our best efforts to keep her awake. She was pretty upset when we put her down for a nap, and she ended up taking a fairly short one (under 90 minutes). She and I watched some "Maisy" and "Heffalump" while Daddy watched the Masters (he'd DVR'd it)
Of course, I screwed up and gave away part of the surprise ending (the sudden death play-off at the end) At least I didn't mention it was a 3-way :-)
Katie had a few "opportunities" to sit in her thinking chair today. We had to improvise one at G'ma's... Katie kept kicking me in the belly when I was trying to change her diaper. She'd leaked through, which made it even worse (wardrobe change). I enlisted Kevin's help (once he found me in my folks' bedroom) to finish undressing her while I found some clothes for her to wear. I came back in, and she was getting some "curtain" time, because I guess she continued kicking him. She got chair time once more before we left Grandma's bedroom. She also got it a few times at home in the late afternoon. It was a little rough when I gave it to her for throwing food/wash rag/spoon on the floor. BUT-- it was effective. After she finished, she did go and pick up the wash rag she'd thrown on the floor, so that made me happy.
Ah-- I nearly forgot. I almost wish I would have had a camera for this. While I was getting ready in the bathroom this morning, Katie had been in my closet. I called for her and she came into the bathroom, and her mouth was completely green inside and out-- she'd been eating a Crayola. ARGH!! I kinda snapped at her, ("KATIE, NO!!!") and then I had to lay her in my lap while I grabbed a bunch of tissues to try to wipe out her mouth. Thank goodness crayons are (allegedly) non-toxic (let's hope they're not made in China!!) Once I got over my irritation, I had a really hard time not laughing. She was not very happy about me wiping her mouth out over and over, but gimme a break... she had crayon stuck in her molars!! I wish I would have had a camera to capture the moment. I'm afraid she will probably provide us with other opportunities later.
She did fairly well with the cleaning until she heard Daddy coming, and then she lost it. Boy, I felt like the bad guy! She went with Daddy and allowed him to brush her teeth, so he got *most* of the crayon out. :-)
I'm hopeful she'll have a good night's rest tonight so that we will all have a good night's rest.
Speaking of... bed is calling.
She woke for good around 7:15 or so and came downstairs to a surprise! The Easter Bunny had stopped by and left some eggs for Katie to find as well as a wonderful Easter Basket full of Sesame Street books, playdough, Strawberry Shortcake stickers, crayons, a Minnie Mouse coloring book, and a stuffed lamb.
After a pleasant morning where Katie pretty much ate Mom's egg bagel sandwich (mostly the bagel part), we all went over to the g'rents' house for Easter Brunch.
The whole way over, Katie kept saying, "See Brittnee?" She really loves her oldest cousin!!
It was really nice getting the family together again. We were together a few weeks ago to celebrate my 40th birthday. We probably won't see them again until after the baby arrives. Which won't be long. Wow.
Katie crashed on the car ride home despite our best efforts to keep her awake. She was pretty upset when we put her down for a nap, and she ended up taking a fairly short one (under 90 minutes). She and I watched some "Maisy" and "Heffalump" while Daddy watched the Masters (he'd DVR'd it)
Of course, I screwed up and gave away part of the surprise ending (the sudden death play-off at the end) At least I didn't mention it was a 3-way :-)
Katie had a few "opportunities" to sit in her thinking chair today. We had to improvise one at G'ma's... Katie kept kicking me in the belly when I was trying to change her diaper. She'd leaked through, which made it even worse (wardrobe change). I enlisted Kevin's help (once he found me in my folks' bedroom) to finish undressing her while I found some clothes for her to wear. I came back in, and she was getting some "curtain" time, because I guess she continued kicking him. She got chair time once more before we left Grandma's bedroom. She also got it a few times at home in the late afternoon. It was a little rough when I gave it to her for throwing food/wash rag/spoon on the floor. BUT-- it was effective. After she finished, she did go and pick up the wash rag she'd thrown on the floor, so that made me happy.
Ah-- I nearly forgot. I almost wish I would have had a camera for this. While I was getting ready in the bathroom this morning, Katie had been in my closet. I called for her and she came into the bathroom, and her mouth was completely green inside and out-- she'd been eating a Crayola. ARGH!! I kinda snapped at her, ("KATIE, NO!!!") and then I had to lay her in my lap while I grabbed a bunch of tissues to try to wipe out her mouth. Thank goodness crayons are (allegedly) non-toxic (let's hope they're not made in China!!) Once I got over my irritation, I had a really hard time not laughing. She was not very happy about me wiping her mouth out over and over, but gimme a break... she had crayon stuck in her molars!! I wish I would have had a camera to capture the moment. I'm afraid she will probably provide us with other opportunities later.
She did fairly well with the cleaning until she heard Daddy coming, and then she lost it. Boy, I felt like the bad guy! She went with Daddy and allowed him to brush her teeth, so he got *most* of the crayon out. :-)
I'm hopeful she'll have a good night's rest tonight so that we will all have a good night's rest.
Speaking of... bed is calling.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
April 11 - Nice weekend so far!
We had our 34 week appointment on Wednesday. Baby T seems to be head down, which explains why I have to go even MORE often :-) I thought Margaret was more active than Katie, but I mentioned this to the midwife, and she said Katie had stretched the uterus, so Maggie has more room to move around. It's so trippy. I feel like I have an alien in my belly, and there's frequently a tushy shoving its way out, making my tummy completely lopsided! I don't know if I find it fascinating or just plain creepy. Probably a big mix of both!
Other than my being sick with a cold this week (bad enough that I missed work Wednesday), we've had a pretty good weekend. SO much stuff happened, and I'll be darned if I can remember any of it. Katie was very good for me on Thursday, which I greatly appreciated.
We skipped Story time at the library on Friday, in case my cold was still contagious. Katie and I spent the morning playing with play dough and getting in Daddy's hair. In the afternoon, after a great nap and late lunch, I called Grandpa to see if Brittnee and Austin were going to be at the house. G'pa confirmed, so I
asked Katie if she wanted to go see Brittnee. She kep repeating over and over, "Go see Brittnee?" "Go Outside, see Brittnee?"
It was a good motivator to get her dressed, her shoes on, her coat, etc. Most of the way to the g'rents, Katie would say, "See Brittnee?" and occasionally "See Austin?" She even brought Brittnee a carnation (the last living flower from my beautiful birthday bouquet) We were happy to see Grandma was at home as well. It's funny, when Brittnee is over at the G'rents, it's like Grandma doesn't exist. Now G'ma knows how I feel when I'm over there and Katie favors the g'rents instead of me :-) We stayed there through dinner and got home late.
Gosh, there are SO many new developments verbally with Katie... things that just crack us up, and Kevin and I tell each other we gotta put it in the blog, and then I forget to write it down. Really gotta keep my phone nearby and do some notes in it. One thing that impresses us is Katie now seems to be able to put 4 & 5 word sentences together pretty regularly. Another thing that makes us try not to laugh is her response to a question... It's usually, "No, No" and she'll repeat our request. Example:
US: "Katie, do you want to take a bath?"
KATIE: "No, no take baff"
This has morphed into:
US: "Katie, do you want to take a bath?"
KATIE: "No, no take baff"
US: "Yes, Yes"
KATIE: "No, no 'Yes, Yes'"
We have a pretty hard time keeping a straight face with that.
We are also trying harder to employ Love and Logic techniques. Katie is pretty smart, though, and if she does something she shouldn't, she beats us to the tag line of "What a shame" In the last few days, we've started to institute a 'warning' sound. L&L calls it the "Uh Oh Song". We use "Uh-oh" too often, so we're trying out, "Ah Ah Ohhhh" or something like that. Well, twice at least, she's done something like through her fork on the floor and has beat us to the "Ah Ah Ohhhhh" punch.
She has also started to get some "chair time" We have a camp chair that Grandma and Grandpa gave her last year for her 1st birthday. It's in the living room, and she doesn't use it very often. So, if she does something like ignores a request (diaper change, pick up toys, lay down to put on sleeper, etc), she gets a little chair time. It's sort of like a time-out, and it is easier to use that than getting her over to the stairs or up into her crib (which I think is a terrible place for a time-out!!)
So, a couple of times today and yesterday Katie got a little chair time. It has been fairly effective so far. Yesterday, she through a bunch of diapers on the floor, and I asked her to pick them up. She said, "No, no, Mommy pick them up" She didn't pick 'em up, so she ended up with a little chair time. I counted to 10 verbally. Katie counted along--MUCH faster than I did! After she was done with chair time, I asked her to pick up the diapers. She hesitated just a bit, but then she picked them up. I was so pleased!
One more L&L thing we're doing is stopping an activity when she knows she shouldn't be doing something. We've been lax on allowing Katie to throw utensils, food on the floor. But no more. Starting Friday, when Katie does that, we will say, "What a shame, looks like breakfast (or dinner) is over" I did that Friday morning, and she had a hissy. L&L says you should not explain why you took the food away (just employ empathy and say something like, "perhaps you can join us for lunch later" or something like that) I think she's still a little young, so I say something like, "What a shame, looks like breakfast is over. When you throw your spoon on the ground, we think maybe you are done eating. Perhaps you can have a nice lunch later. I love you" and take her out of the high chair. She wasn't pleased on Friday, but I was able to distract her with an activity. I did make sure she had a LARGE snack that morning so she didn't go down for a nap hungry. Probably not an L&L sanctioned reaction (the extra large snack), but at this point I'm not willing to let her go down to sleep hungry. She wouldn't sleep, and it's not worth having a cranky baby in the house!!
One thing Katie LOVES is being outside. Katie gets a LOT of time at the g'rents. When the weather was REALLY nice early this week, she spent nearly all day outside. Even had multiple meals outside (easy clean up!!) On Saturday morning, ALL morning long, she kept saying, "Go outside, pull weeds?" I mean ALL morning long!! So, by 9:30, she had Daddy outside pulling weeds. I was kinda surprised, because it was chilly outside (upper 40's) She was very good about keeping her hat on.
Around 10:30, Daddy brought Katie in, and she and I decorated Easter eggs. She only broke 1 egg (we had just 10 to dye). I was a bit of a control freak with the eggs, but I sure wish we would have had more to dye :-) Maybe we'll try it again in a few weeks... after all, who says we can only die eggs at Easter???
Katie had a great nap today, and I got to get my hair cut while she was sleeping. I got home and she & Daddy were back in the yard again, pulling weeds. I brought groceries in and then I mixed up some liquid bubble stuff from a recipe I found on the internet. I brought that out, because, of course, Katie was asking for bubbles. Katie and I played bubbles while Daddy pulled weeds (daddy got the raw end of the deal!)
After playing for what seemed like forever, Katie decided she wanted to take a walk, so I tagged along. She was so funny-- reminded me of "Navin Johnson" (from The Jerk) She had a container of bubbles in 1 hand, and she had a drip line from our back yard in the other. She's always doing that. She'll have the remote control, a teddy bear and 3 crayons or something, walking around the house. Silly :-)
Daddy met up with us, and he fortunately had the wagon with him. We had a very nice walk, with Katie collecting quite the bouquet of Dandelions. We finally had to put Katie in the wagon and drag her up a rather large hill. The walk was really nice, but my back paid the price. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.
One more thing about Katie. She loves to sing. A few weeks ago, she was singing something that I vaguely recognized, and I realized it was "Baa Baa Black Sheep" She learned that at Grandma's. She has also started singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (or how she seems to sing it: "Crinkle Crinkle, Widdle Star")
She loves singing the alphabet and is really good and in tune with letters A - G. Then I think she glosses over HIJKLMNOP (that LMNOP can be tough on the tongue, ha) She does pretty well at the end of the alphabet, too, and she does a good job completing the "Now I know my (A, B, C) Next time won't you (Sing With Meeee) She also loves to sing/dance the Hokey Pokey (which we have on video-- I really need to post) and "I'm A Little Tea Pot"
Couple Last things... Katie is really funny about her loyalty to who gets her in the morning. If Daddy gets her first and I walk into her bedroom, she'll say something like, "BYE BYE Mommy", the moment she sees me. Same thing if I'm the first one to get her in the a.m. or at nap time or something.
And, speaking of getting her out of bed in the morning and singing. At Storytime, Katie learned a "Good Morning To You" song, to the tune of "Happy Birthday" Sometimes I'll sing it to her. The other morning, she was looking around the room for objects for me to sing good morning to. She'll sing 1 phrase and want me to sing the song, (Good MORNING to Pooh", etc. She had me sing good morning to her Pooh nightlight, the bee on the pooh nightlight, her Pinky Bear, and then she said, "Good MORNING Yellow Blanket" For some reason that made me laugh out loud.
That's about it. I gotta do better about updating the blog, because there is so much fun stuff to document, and my brain can't seem to retain it. Besides, the blog entries will be much smaller/more manageable if I do it more often, right???
Other than my being sick with a cold this week (bad enough that I missed work Wednesday), we've had a pretty good weekend. SO much stuff happened, and I'll be darned if I can remember any of it. Katie was very good for me on Thursday, which I greatly appreciated.
We skipped Story time at the library on Friday, in case my cold was still contagious. Katie and I spent the morning playing with play dough and getting in Daddy's hair. In the afternoon, after a great nap and late lunch, I called Grandpa to see if Brittnee and Austin were going to be at the house. G'pa confirmed, so I
asked Katie if she wanted to go see Brittnee. She kep repeating over and over, "Go see Brittnee?" "Go Outside, see Brittnee?"
It was a good motivator to get her dressed, her shoes on, her coat, etc. Most of the way to the g'rents, Katie would say, "See Brittnee?" and occasionally "See Austin?" She even brought Brittnee a carnation (the last living flower from my beautiful birthday bouquet) We were happy to see Grandma was at home as well. It's funny, when Brittnee is over at the G'rents, it's like Grandma doesn't exist. Now G'ma knows how I feel when I'm over there and Katie favors the g'rents instead of me :-) We stayed there through dinner and got home late.
Gosh, there are SO many new developments verbally with Katie... things that just crack us up, and Kevin and I tell each other we gotta put it in the blog, and then I forget to write it down. Really gotta keep my phone nearby and do some notes in it. One thing that impresses us is Katie now seems to be able to put 4 & 5 word sentences together pretty regularly. Another thing that makes us try not to laugh is her response to a question... It's usually, "No, No" and she'll repeat our request. Example:
US: "Katie, do you want to take a bath?"
KATIE: "No, no take baff"
This has morphed into:
US: "Katie, do you want to take a bath?"
KATIE: "No, no take baff"
US: "Yes, Yes"
KATIE: "No, no 'Yes, Yes'"
We have a pretty hard time keeping a straight face with that.
We are also trying harder to employ Love and Logic techniques. Katie is pretty smart, though, and if she does something she shouldn't, she beats us to the tag line of "What a shame" In the last few days, we've started to institute a 'warning' sound. L&L calls it the "Uh Oh Song". We use "Uh-oh" too often, so we're trying out, "Ah Ah Ohhhh" or something like that. Well, twice at least, she's done something like through her fork on the floor and has beat us to the "Ah Ah Ohhhhh" punch.
She has also started to get some "chair time" We have a camp chair that Grandma and Grandpa gave her last year for her 1st birthday. It's in the living room, and she doesn't use it very often. So, if she does something like ignores a request (diaper change, pick up toys, lay down to put on sleeper, etc), she gets a little chair time. It's sort of like a time-out, and it is easier to use that than getting her over to the stairs or up into her crib (which I think is a terrible place for a time-out!!)
So, a couple of times today and yesterday Katie got a little chair time. It has been fairly effective so far. Yesterday, she through a bunch of diapers on the floor, and I asked her to pick them up. She said, "No, no, Mommy pick them up" She didn't pick 'em up, so she ended up with a little chair time. I counted to 10 verbally. Katie counted along--MUCH faster than I did! After she was done with chair time, I asked her to pick up the diapers. She hesitated just a bit, but then she picked them up. I was so pleased!
One more L&L thing we're doing is stopping an activity when she knows she shouldn't be doing something. We've been lax on allowing Katie to throw utensils, food on the floor. But no more. Starting Friday, when Katie does that, we will say, "What a shame, looks like breakfast (or dinner) is over" I did that Friday morning, and she had a hissy. L&L says you should not explain why you took the food away (just employ empathy and say something like, "perhaps you can join us for lunch later" or something like that) I think she's still a little young, so I say something like, "What a shame, looks like breakfast is over. When you throw your spoon on the ground, we think maybe you are done eating. Perhaps you can have a nice lunch later. I love you" and take her out of the high chair. She wasn't pleased on Friday, but I was able to distract her with an activity. I did make sure she had a LARGE snack that morning so she didn't go down for a nap hungry. Probably not an L&L sanctioned reaction (the extra large snack), but at this point I'm not willing to let her go down to sleep hungry. She wouldn't sleep, and it's not worth having a cranky baby in the house!!
One thing Katie LOVES is being outside. Katie gets a LOT of time at the g'rents. When the weather was REALLY nice early this week, she spent nearly all day outside. Even had multiple meals outside (easy clean up!!) On Saturday morning, ALL morning long, she kept saying, "Go outside, pull weeds?" I mean ALL morning long!! So, by 9:30, she had Daddy outside pulling weeds. I was kinda surprised, because it was chilly outside (upper 40's) She was very good about keeping her hat on.
Around 10:30, Daddy brought Katie in, and she and I decorated Easter eggs. She only broke 1 egg (we had just 10 to dye). I was a bit of a control freak with the eggs, but I sure wish we would have had more to dye :-) Maybe we'll try it again in a few weeks... after all, who says we can only die eggs at Easter???
Katie had a great nap today, and I got to get my hair cut while she was sleeping. I got home and she & Daddy were back in the yard again, pulling weeds. I brought groceries in and then I mixed up some liquid bubble stuff from a recipe I found on the internet. I brought that out, because, of course, Katie was asking for bubbles. Katie and I played bubbles while Daddy pulled weeds (daddy got the raw end of the deal!)
After playing for what seemed like forever, Katie decided she wanted to take a walk, so I tagged along. She was so funny-- reminded me of "Navin Johnson" (from The Jerk) She had a container of bubbles in 1 hand, and she had a drip line from our back yard in the other. She's always doing that. She'll have the remote control, a teddy bear and 3 crayons or something, walking around the house. Silly :-)
Daddy met up with us, and he fortunately had the wagon with him. We had a very nice walk, with Katie collecting quite the bouquet of Dandelions. We finally had to put Katie in the wagon and drag her up a rather large hill. The walk was really nice, but my back paid the price. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.
One more thing about Katie. She loves to sing. A few weeks ago, she was singing something that I vaguely recognized, and I realized it was "Baa Baa Black Sheep" She learned that at Grandma's. She has also started singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (or how she seems to sing it: "Crinkle Crinkle, Widdle Star")
She loves singing the alphabet and is really good and in tune with letters A - G. Then I think she glosses over HIJKLMNOP (that LMNOP can be tough on the tongue, ha) She does pretty well at the end of the alphabet, too, and she does a good job completing the "Now I know my (A, B, C) Next time won't you (Sing With Meeee) She also loves to sing/dance the Hokey Pokey (which we have on video-- I really need to post) and "I'm A Little Tea Pot"
Couple Last things... Katie is really funny about her loyalty to who gets her in the morning. If Daddy gets her first and I walk into her bedroom, she'll say something like, "BYE BYE Mommy", the moment she sees me. Same thing if I'm the first one to get her in the a.m. or at nap time or something.
And, speaking of getting her out of bed in the morning and singing. At Storytime, Katie learned a "Good Morning To You" song, to the tune of "Happy Birthday" Sometimes I'll sing it to her. The other morning, she was looking around the room for objects for me to sing good morning to. She'll sing 1 phrase and want me to sing the song, (Good MORNING to Pooh", etc. She had me sing good morning to her Pooh nightlight, the bee on the pooh nightlight, her Pinky Bear, and then she said, "Good MORNING Yellow Blanket" For some reason that made me laugh out loud.
That's about it. I gotta do better about updating the blog, because there is so much fun stuff to document, and my brain can't seem to retain it. Besides, the blog entries will be much smaller/more manageable if I do it more often, right???
Saturday, April 4, 2009
April 4 - Easter Egg Hunt
We took Katie to my office for an Easter Egg Hunt this morning. I kept building it up, how we were gonna go to Mommy's work and see the Easter Bunny and how we were also going to see Renae and Alyssa.
I asked her before we left who we were gonna see at Mommy's work, and Katie said, "Santa!" I was impressed-- She remembered that she saw Santa at Mommy's work nearly 4 months ago!!
Katie didn't really know what to do regarding the Easter egg hunt (shame on Mommy-- we should have practiced), so she only ended up with 3 eggs-- mostly because I handed them to her. She enjoyed playing there with several girls, though.
Here are some pictures from that event.
If I remember right, the day just plum wore her out, and she took about a 3 hour nap!
I also have some pictures to post from later that afternoon when we were outside enjoying the beautiful weather and playing with bubbles. That's a whole 'nother slide show, and I'll get to that soon.
I've not been great at updating the blog lately. I still have posts from the weekend of March 18 to update. I have it written down on a Steno pad but haven't managed to type it up. Ah well. Hopefully this week!
I asked her before we left who we were gonna see at Mommy's work, and Katie said, "Santa!" I was impressed-- She remembered that she saw Santa at Mommy's work nearly 4 months ago!!
Katie didn't really know what to do regarding the Easter egg hunt (shame on Mommy-- we should have practiced), so she only ended up with 3 eggs-- mostly because I handed them to her. She enjoyed playing there with several girls, though.
Here are some pictures from that event.
If I remember right, the day just plum wore her out, and she took about a 3 hour nap!
I also have some pictures to post from later that afternoon when we were outside enjoying the beautiful weather and playing with bubbles. That's a whole 'nother slide show, and I'll get to that soon.
I've not been great at updating the blog lately. I still have posts from the weekend of March 18 to update. I have it written down on a Steno pad but haven't managed to type it up. Ah well. Hopefully this week!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
April 2 - play time
Here are some pictures of Katie doing art on the chalk board and practicing her "upside down"
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