Monday, February 28, 2011

Almost a birthday girl

E's first birthday is tomorrow, we can't belive how fast this first year has gone.  We are amazed every day with the little person whose personality is developing before our eyes.  We've watched her learn to walk, run, and jump; turn the pages in a book; use a spoon; push buttons; and so much more. 

February 28-  In the last few days this has become E's new spot, its a little nook, about a 18 inches by 18 inches between the door and our dvd case.  I think she likes it because she can "hide" behind it and play with her toys, its a little E room of her own, but she can still peek out and see us, always with a grin.  She's taken to leaving a few toys, usually her wooden rattle, in her nook. 



February 27- Like most kids her age E is facinated by stacking and nesting things.  She trys to nest everything she has.  As you can see, her book won't fit into her cup, no matter how she tries it.  Fortunatly, the Cheerios on the floor behind her will fit, and she put them in and then spilled them out again.  Although it has nothing to do with nesting, she also learned to hit her baseball with her bat today.  And, don't worry, the diaper on the floor is unused, E liberated it from the diaper bag.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Solidary, part 2

Our lives continue to be dominated by the attack on public worker rights here in Wisconsin.  As a family with two public employees, we are watching these events unfold with a great deal of fear for our future and E's future.  It is pretty much all we can think about and all we can talk about.  We've been participating in demonstrations and having a great many discussions, but we are trying to keep the disruption's to E's life as little as possible.  She will however feel the effects in two weeks when she goes from five days a week in daycare to three.  She will see Miss Chris, one of her favorite people in the whole world less, which once she realizes it will be pretty upsetting.

 February 26-  E and Grandma and Grandpa all survived the sleep-over, although E didn't sleep the whole night, they said everyone got enough sleep.  Its clear that E's favorite toy this week is an empty puff container, she's even taken to putting her shape-sorter shapes into it.  She practices opening and closing the lid and reaching her arm in as far as it can go (it goes up past her elbow).  She carries it around with her, and even uses it for teething.  Given that her second favorite toy of the week is an empty tissue box we wonder why we need so many toys.

February 25-  Eat your veggies!  Getting E to eat is always a struggle, she has favorite foods, and then suddenly changes her mind.  For a while she loved Gerber turkey sticks, now she could take or leave them.  She used to love finger food peas, now she will only occasionally eat them, same with sweet potatoes.  She refuses to eat small carrot pieces, so to try and trick her, I gave her a whole carrot.  It worked for a few bites, but then she figured it out.  Today also marked a milestone, she had a sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa's.


February 24-  Getting ready for bed, E and dad read "Tall" by Jez Alborough, its one of E's favorite books.  Its also one of her dad's favorites to read to her, there aren't many words, so he gets to improvise quite a bit of the story.  E gets a story or two every night, its almost her favorite part of her night time routine.

February 23-  Sleep is really all I can say about this day.  E woke up so many times during the night we lost count.  She slept everywhere, her bed, our bed, and being held all for about an hour at a time.  My clearest memory of it all was waking up to a little girl giving me a love bite on my nose.

February 22-  Mommy snuggles!  E is always on the go, and from a young age wanted to be independent.  In the past month, she's become more and more willing to slow down for a few minutes for a hug, cuddle, or sitting on a lap.  We love the change, we used to have to wait until she fell asleep in our arms for cuddles, now we get them while she is awake.

February 21-  E's other favorite non-toy of the week, bowls.  She is very interested in stacking and nesting things, and her bowls work perfectly for nesting.  She also likes to bang them like drums.  You can't see it here, but she also used a spoon to play with her bowls, "stirring" the air inside them and using the spoon to teeth while carrying bowls.



February 20-  E and her blocks, the blocks were a Christmas gift and they were one of her favorites.  She likes to knock down towers, stack two on top of each other, and throw them.  Fortunately her blocks are rubber so they bounce funny when she throws them.  That is half the fun though, she goes chasing after them and does it all again.

February 19- A future chef?  We spend time looking and E's favorite activities and pretending that we can guess her future career based on what she does as an 11 month old.  We've guessed pretty much all the careers a person can have.  Here she is modeling the apron my parents brought me from Hawaii.  Her dad got an apron too, and once he put his on, she was very interested in wearing mine.  She walked around in it for quite a while, and even found a way to chew on something while wearing it.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Solidarity!

It has been quite a week for us here, the protests at the Wisconsin capitol have been in our minds.  Although we've kept E away, most of her family has been supporting our unions at one time or another.  We are struggling with the future here, but E has been our bright spot.  We hope we've been keeping the stress away from her, and keeping her life as normal as possible.  We feel so lucky to have E, she makes coming home is bright.




February 18-  E has been starting to slow down a little, she still spends most of her time moving around, but she will sit down and play from time to time, and for the last two days, she has actually played while laying on her back.  We were thinking today that we don't have any pictures of E laying down since the moment she learned to sit, so this is the first in about 5 months.

February 17- This picture combines three of E's favorite things:  playing in her diaper, the remote control, and puffs.  The puffs have been particularly fun this week.  For the first time, I let E put her arm in the puff container and take some.  She loves playing with the lid, and I love seeing her put her arm in.  To reach the bottom, she reaches in almost up to her shoulder.

February 16-  After protesting for 8 hours, A returns home to a delighted E.  He brought her a flag, which she promptly tried to chew on the flag staff.  E's wearing her red for solidarity.

February 15-  It was a girls evening as A protested at the capitol.  Tonight was notable because E spent a good 30 minutes playing with her bowl and spoon.  You can see the results here.  It was messy, but she cried when I took away her spoon.  Unfortunately, she didn't really eat anything while playing, but I'm telling myself that the more she uses her spoon, the more likely she will be to use it to eat at some point.

February 14- E's first Valentine's Day!  At daycare she made Valentine's for us, and one for grandma and grandpa.  They made red feet prints on pink hearts.  Today was also the first day that E when to visit grandma and grandpa after their big trip.  She had a great time at their house and rediscovered her favorite toys.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Staying at the Grandparents, Girl's Day, and visiting Great Gramma





February 13-  Today E got to wake up in her own crib for the first time in a few days, she actually slept better then usual, I’m sure she was glad to be home.  E had lunch at Culver’s with Great Gramma and was a great eater.  She was a perfect little girl at lunch, sitting in her high chair, and even eating from a spoon.

 
February 12- Today was girl day, dad was busy at mock trial, so E and I were on our own.  We moved back home, we’d stayed at Grandma and Grandpa for several days, and it was the last day that E found the recycling basket which is her absolute favorite thing to play with at Grandma and Grandpas.  After a nap E went along on some errands.  We bought a sling carrier, decorations for E’s 1st birthday party, and picked up her portraits.  I was feeling sentimental today since one year ago today her dad and I went to the hospital for an external cephalic version.  So, it seemed fitting to me that she and I had a whole day together and that one of our activities was getting ready for E to turn one.

 
February 11-Still staying at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  E’s sleeping continues to be a problem, most likely because she’s not used to sleeping away from home.  I kept thinking how strange it was to be staying in my childhood room with my little girl.  We had dinner and a movie with our neighbors, and we discovered that E doesn’t eat well without a high chair.  We also watched E play with racquetballs, which was fun to watch, her favorite part was the tube, which she liked listening to herself speak into it.

 February 10- We didn’t go to play group today, I figured things were confusing enough without driving across town.  E went to school with her dad this afternoon, and she was a hit.  E was invited to all future meetings.  Today was also the pajama day at daycare and the daycare Valentine’s Day party.  I missed the party since I had to work, but they told me it was a great party.  

 
February 9- our first night staying at grandma and grandpa’s house so that our bathroom tile could be fixed.  E wasted no time getting down to business, playing with her favorite walker and Grandma’s measuring cups.  She enjoyed stacking and unstacking the cups, and eating cheerios out of them. 

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

A "normal" day and Grandpa's birthday

February 8- Today things were back to normal, we got to spend the evening at home and play.  As you can see E was very into her nook tonight, her teeth were bothering her.  She spent the evening chewing on the sides, and on the tab on the back.  Tonight she also discovered the noise-making button on her toy van.  Its the first time she's really been into that button and spent a good 10 minutes pushing it.  We are hoping for a better night sleep tonight, the last two nights have been brutal.

February 7- We celebrated Grandpa N's birthday tonight and didn't get home with enough time to do anything but take a bath.  I forgot the camera, so no birthday shot of E and Grandpa.   E gets a bath each night, and you can see her favorite tub toys here, the yellow octopus she is chewing on, the orange dinosaur floating behind her, and by her right hand her blue bowl.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Superbowl Sunday!

February 6- Superbowl Sunday!  E is back in her Packer outfit and we hope it brings our team luck like has for the last few games.  Today E's friend L came over and the two of them played.  The last time L was over he was only a few months old, so it was fun to watch the two of them play a little more together.  Each always wanted to play with the toy the other had, E's zoo was the hit of the day.

February 5- E went over to grandma and grandpa N's today so that mom and dad could get some work done around the house.  First, she had some cheerios, out of her favorite snack cup.  E had a good time with grandma and grandpa, although she didn't eat much lunch with them.

February 4- dancing with Dad, E and her dad are waltzing across the living room.  E and I were dancing the other day and it made her giggle, so on Friday she and her dad danced around the living room.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Snow days

February 3- This is E's favorite part of her meal, choosing her vegetables.  Because E doesn't like to eat off of a spoon we always make her finger food veggies.  She loves broccoli, peas, and green beans.  She doesn't like carrots or cauliflower.  We cook them in a little bit of water, we cut them small and put them on her tray.  As E gets tired of eating, she always wants to choose her veggies from the cup.  Today she chose a huge piece of broccoli and actually managed to take a bit.  After she removes a few vegetables, she starts putting them back in the cup.

  February 1- A huge blizzard today, schools were closed and I stayed home from work rather then brave the roads.  If you look behind E, you can see the snow drifts in our patio.  We spent the day playing a home, E loved pat-a-cake.  I learned that singing the pat-a-cake is guaranteed to make E smile. 

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

11 months old!

February 1- E turned 11 months old today! I absolutely can't believe it, she's changed so much since we first met her.  I tried and tried to take this picture in front of the window to show the snow, but as usual E wouldn't hold still.  Her nose is red in this picture, since she was running on Sunday and fell on the rug, she's got a little rug burn on the tip of her nose.  

Sick, friends visit, and technical difficulties

I don't like to get so far behind, but its been a busy couple of days, combined with two different technical difficulties.  Yesterday the computer couldn't get online, and over the weekend our car broke!

January 31- E is reading.  In this case, she is reading Pampers coupons.  For some reason, any time E finds a piece of paper, empty envelope, or coupon on the floor she needs to have it.  No matter what it takes.  We had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa and E is finally starting to get her appetite back after being sick.  She ate several cheese crackers and some veggies. And, she has a new favorite, Arrowroot cookies.

January 30-  We were lucky this weekend to have Titi Willy, her daughter cousin A, and uncle S come and visit.  E learned a lot from her older cousin, her new favorite is running in circles at Grandma and Grandpas.  Both girls had a great time playing with E's pop together bugs, and I got some nice jammie snuggles.

  January 29- E and her Titi Willy.  E is wearing a shirt that Titi knit her for her first birthday.  This was our first time seeing them since November.  Both girls have changed a lot since then! Last time we saw them E was just learning how to walk, now she's got that down. 

January 28- E had her first tummy bug today.  Fortunately it only lasted one day.  It was the strangest illness, she acted just like her normal self, but would get sick every once and a while.  I left work early to pick her up from daycare, and we spent some time playing.  E learned to push her cheetah, which was one of the first times she managed that.