Monday, November 28, 2011

Thankful

November 28- Yesterday when Becca was over, she helped E build this house, E has been improving on it ever since. Much to her frustration, we don't have any more legos. E only likes the single legos or the doubles, so we run out pretty quickly. But, tonight E substituted with some other building blocks. She's in her Bucky shirt again, which she insisted on wearing today. During the Thanksgiving weekend, I wanted to put E's hair in pig tails, but she kept yanking them out. I don't know why daycare can style her hair and I can't.

Tonight, E was also a cleaning machine, for some reason at bath time, her favorite game was scrubbing the tub, I guess we'll have to put her to work.

November 27- Teddy Michigan was visiting for Thanksgiving, unlike last time he was here, E wasn't scared of him at all. She had a great time paying with him, and even gave him some stickers. She did call him Nate occasionally though. We spent the morning at Ama and Ada's house visiting with Ted and Danielle, and the afternoon playing around the house. We were lucky to get to visit with Anne, Becca, and Carrie, and baby L. Although baby L isn't much of a baby any more. E had a little trouble sharing her toys, whenever L would pick something up, she'd try to take it. In the end, her favorite was building a lego house with Becca and running from our kitchen to our living room.
November 26- Today was another busy one. We started out the day with a walk at the mall with Ama and Ada. It seems that E has to get out of the house every day for a change of scenery, fortunately, she likes the mall walking. We spent the afternoon at Ama and Ada's house celebrating Thanksgiving. E didn't want to eat turkey, she asked for macaroni as soon as she got in her high chair, but she loved playing with my cousin's daughters. The big girls were really good about playing with E and helping her, and they were a great audience when E got wild and starting running and "falling" on her bottom.

November 25- Day care was closed today, so the family got to spend some nice time together. We took E Black Friday shopping (at 8 in the morning when the stores were empty). She got some of her Christmas shopping done, but still has more. Then, E and I walked over to the park, and on our way back saw some football guys. Unfortunately, the game hadn't started yet. We spent the afternoon and evening visiting with Ama, Ada, Teddy Michigan, and Danielle. E loved seeing Teddy, and particularly loved that Teddy would share his Chex Mix with her.

E had a milestone today, a successful poop in the potty. She got lots of cheering, and a cookie. It was two cookies in two days, she had no idea what to think. 

November 24- We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year. It made me think back to last year. Thanksgiving last year was the first time we gave E meat to eat. She didn't like it then, but has come to, usually, like it this year. Today we were lucky to spend the day with fiends and family. We had brunch at A's house with her family and R's family. I'm so happy that we live in a neighborhood with other kiddos.

We had lunch with both of E's sets of grandparents, Norma, and Great Grandma, one of the most touching parts of the dinner was when E pointed next to herself and said "great grandma" with absolutely no prompting. The funniest part was when E saw a plate of krumkake (a Norwegian dessert) being passed and said "chips" and grabbed one. E's favorite part of the day was the fact that she got to have a "chip" and a cookie. She never gets cookies at home, so she talked about it the next day as well.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

November 23- It was PJ day at day care today and E wore these great monkey jammies, I was hoping she sill fit into the hedgehog jammie from Titi, but the pants were just a little too short. They made pilgrim hats today, and E is modeling hers. This goofey smile is what she did when I told her to smile and then she could see the baby in the camera.

Tonight's dinner was a disaster, E threw every bit of food offered to her. Just during dinner she had two time outs. She'll throw food, then look at her dada or I and say "time out?" and while we count off her time, she'll contribute numbers.

Dada tried a new tactic at bed time today that seemed to work. After the stories, he just let E talk and talked back with her. She finally said "nite nite" and then got into her bed. It worked tonight, maybe this is the new technique.

November 22- Here is E on the phone, she is calling her carseat. As soon as he picked up the phone she said "carseat." She's back in her Bucky shirt, and even had to sleep in it this night. Tonight was the first time I've ever heard E properly address someone on the phone, she was talking to Ama and said "hi Ama." This morning, E was impossibly sweet. I had to wake her up, and she was having a tough time. We ended up in our room, and she said "cuddle" so we got to take a few minutes to cuddle to kick off our day. What a great way to start the day

Monday, November 21, 2011

November 21- I was reading today how it is important for toddlers (and adults) to sit for their snacks. Parenting fail! We try to make E sit in her Dora chair at an old end table while she eats applesauce (her new, absolute favorite) but this is pretty much how it goes. Tonight, she'd sit in her chair, scoop up the sauce with her spoon and then walk over to the (new) rug to eat it. She didn't spill, but you can see her "football shirt" isn't doing so well. Speaking of the football shirt, she asks to wear it every day, and has been known to say "all dirty" when she knows its in the wash.

Tonight on the way home from day care she started asking for "Loki kitty" and as luck would have it, she had a play date with her friend A. The girls played with Loki, ran around like wild things, and played with playdough.

November 20- E had discovered this hiding spot months ago, and then forgotten about it. In the last couple days she's rediscovered it. She hides and waits for you to ask "where's E" and pretend that you can't find her. Then she peeks out. Today was a day around the house for us, although E did help shop for Thanksgiving, we mostly played around the house. We took a little trip to the swings, but its getting cold, and we can't play as long as we'd like. Bedtime has also become a bit of a disaster lately. For a while now, E's gone to bed awake and fallen asleep on her own without crying. Now, its all out screaming, and even with many trips up to comfort, bedtime has been taking an hour and a half. When we get up stairs she asks for "cup of milk," "milk and Os," "animals," and "cup of water." When I go up, she says "lay down" and wants me to lay on the floor next to her bed. We don't know what is bringing this on, but hope bedtime goes back to normal soon.

November 19- E didn't sleep last night, she was up several times, and then got up at 4 with momma. When she woke up, she was hardly awake and strained against being held. So, after a LONG night, we got up for the day. She helped me with some shopping and even rode in the shopping cart, as long as I was pushing fast. I left to go to a Recall Walker rally, and when I got home, this is what I found. After refusing to nap for an hour, she conked out with dada, and then he followed suit. E spent some time with Ama and Ada and loved being at their house. It made me wonder if she's getting bored with her toys, good thing Christmas is coming.

November 18- This pretty much summed up the early part of Friday night. After I picked E up from day care, I asked if she wanted to go see the fish, like we do every day. She said no, so we started out the door. Suddenly she threw herself on the ground saying "fish, fish" so we headed over to the fish. After the fish, there were several more tantrums just on our way out of day care. When we got home, she wanted to see Natie Annie, but lost interest once the computer was on, when I turned it off, we had the picture above. Because dada was in Chicago for work, we had dinner with Ama and Ada, E had only a little bit of pizza, but loved running around the mall. She covered a lot of ground, her favorite part was the steps.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

November 17- My favorite part of this picture, which, of course can't come through, is the fact that the whole time she was pushing the ball around, she was whispering "purple ball, purple ball." E spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa and they took her on lots of errands. They are braver then I am, I try to never take her on errands like that. E also got to go to the park, and when we asked her how many times she went down the slide she said "ten!" Her communication is so good, it amazes me, she knows words and context that I can't figure out how she knows it. Tonight, she was playing with some clothes in her room and asked for a "hanger" and help to "hang it up." But, her communication has a downside, for the past few days she has been telling us "V [her classmate] sad, V office" and we have no idea what happened.

November 16- With dada's injury, there has been lots of time for E to sit on his lap. She's taken to watching her new favorite program Dinosaur Train while sitting there. Tonight we had A over to play for a bit, now that it is getting dark so early, its hard for the girls to get the chance to play.

E has stopped sleeping through the night, she now always wants to sleep with her dada and I, specifically on my chest. She's also stopped going to bed relatively easily, so I'm hoping its just a phase.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011


November 15- We have a new routine when I pick E up from daycare. We run down the long hallway of the Princeton Club to look at the fish. On the way, we stop and look at the animal bookshelf, and the people exercising. We pause at the fish, and then run over to look at the exercise class. After that, we try to get onto the hair salon’s armchair, and then run back to the door. We then finally get in the car. E helped make noodles for dinner tonight and added the mushrooms to the sauce.

She is also learning to play pretend, and has been pretending to cook for us with her play kitchen, as she is doing here. 
 
November 14- Was  a pretty normal day at our house. E helped me cook dinner, every time she sees me in the kitchen she asks for her “helping chair” and wants to do something to help make dinner. It can be challenging to find things for her to help with. Tonight, we had a funny experience. We never have the TV on to a non-kids program  while E is awake, but we tried last night. She immediately noticed that one of the characters wasn’t wearing a shirt and talked about it for the whole show. Now we know she pays attention, and we need to be careful.

We couldn't keep a diaper on E for anything tonight, she was either taking it off for fun or taking it off to sit on the potty. She thinks that she'll get a piece of candy every time she sits on the potty. At one point, she managed to remove her diaper from under her onesie.


November 13- E and I started the day at Target to get dada a long overdue birthday present. E and I spent a lot of time together this weekend since dada was recuperating. Then, we headed over to Ama and Ada’s to have brunch with Nate and Annie. E loved showing off for them, and was so happy to see them. She’s been talking about them, and their dog, Coco Puppy, for weeks now. After her nap, we went for a nice long walk with R, who we hadn’t seen in a while.

 
November 12- Today quickly took a turn in an unexpected way. We were at urgent care by 8:00 am to get stitches in dada’s foot. E was so well behaved while we waited for dada, and given the situation, I was so grateful to her. We passed the time coloring, looking at the fish, playing with her dolly, and running around. Once we got home, Ama and Ada came over to watch E while momma did some work to get ready for our new furniture. E and I went to my friend’s house warming party, E was the only little kid there and charmed the adults, even better, the party had cherry tomatoes and chips as appetizer, so she was happy.

After the party, we went to Ama and Ada’s house to see Natie and Annie. We had dinner and did some wild playing with Natie and Annie. Natie even brought E a chocolate dinosaur, which she absolutely loved! 

Here is E “helping” Ama hold the old carpet in place before we moved it out, and she’s also enjoying the new sofa.

Friday, November 11, 2011


November 11- We didn’t do anything with E today to celebrate 11/11/11, even though I thought we should, there really isn’t any way to make a 20 month old appreciate it. So, instead we took her out for dinner, which went pretty successfully. She ate a little, colored two pictures, drank from a big cup, and then was all done. After dinner, she showed off by running around a few stores. At bath time tonight, I was really impressed with E’s pouring, she’s figured out how to go from cup to cup and only spills a little.
Above, E is on her phone. For my birthday, E got me cases for an ipod touch, fortunately it came with one extra so that E could have her own.

 
November 10- E and Ama spent the day together again today. They went to open gym at Hoyt School, and E really enjoyed the shopping cart. Ama also took E out to look at the snow, and E figured out how to pick up and eat ice. At home, E was her usual playful self, clowning around with the pillow, watching Dinosaur Train and dancing.

E was being a goofball in each picture I took, she kept scrunching up her eyes like this.



November 9- The most memorable thing about today happened at bedtime. We put E down at her normal time, and I could hear her moving around and throwing her toys out of her bed. Then I heard her “owie” and start to cry, so I went up to check on her. I walked in and she said, “uh oh, diaper.” E was standing in her crib, completely naked, with her lovies, jammies, and diaper on the ground. I couldn’t believe that she managed to get her jammies off. We added an onesie to her jammies, and put her back to bed. After about 5 minutes, dada went to check on her, and found her without her jammies, and her onesie unsnapped. In a new set of jammies, she managed to fall asleep.

Here, E and I are looking at pictures of NatieAnnie on Facebook, this has been her abosolute favorite activity this week, and we’ve looked at every picture posted. I’m not sure why she put the glove on, but I certainly added to the activity.

November 8- I celebrated my birthday today, my second one as a momma. E started the morning by bringing me the card she picked out and colored for me. She chose it because of the ducks on the front. E was thrilled with my gift, fortunately, it came with a cardboard copy, which has become E’s “phone.” After daycare, we went to dinner. It’s the first time we’ve taken E out to eat in a long time. She gets board so quickly, that its really, really hard to enjoy eating out. Since she had both sets of grandparents, she lasted at the table pretty well. She also had her baby to play with, which helped. 

E has gotten really good at opening presents, she’ll be fun to watch at Christmas.

 
November 7- E has discovered how fun it is to climb up on this pillow and try to stand. She likes the uneven textures, and usually has a few funny collapses on to her bottom while playing. She has also enjoyed being naked lately, and insisted on having her pants off.