Thursday, July 19, 2012

Babies

E is fascinated with babies, people growing babies in their tummies, and babies having a "got born day."

So, when we went to our neighbor's baby shower, E was in heaven. She asked to feel the baby kick and was thrilled when it kicked her hand, she patiently waited for several more kicks.

E was so excited to give the baby the monkey teether she picked out for her, and was happy to be at a party for the baby.

It wasn't until after the party that she said to me in a little voice "it no come out." It was at that moment I realized, she thought the baby was going to "get borned" at the baby shower. Apparently she had mentioned this belief to dada earlier, and he hadn't been able to convince her otherwise. Although E has heard her "E got born" story many times, and has heard that the doctor got the baby out of mommy's tummy, her new belief is that babies "pop right out of the belly button." She also thinks they start walking and crawling right away. She's in for a big surprise when she meets her friend A's baby sister!

Minnesota

We headed back to Minnesota to visit Titi and her family, baby E and her family, and Nate and Annie. E does pretty well with the car rides at this point, although we try to time then so that she will nap part of the way. On this trip, she saw me knitting and asked me if she could knit too. I handed over some yarn and she spent the ride pushing the ends of a circular knitting needle in and out of it.

The first stop on our trip was the Minnesota Zoo. Dada went to this zoo lots as a kid and was really excited to take E to it. They had a special dinosaur exhibit, with both dada and E were really looking forward to.


The dinosaurs turned out to be a little to scary for E, at one point she even pulled her hat down over her eyes so that she didn't see them. She loved the bears, tigers, and aviary. She even to to "play" with a lynx that was pawing at the cage.

We left the zoo in a rainstorm and headed to Titi's. For several days, E had been talking about watching the Chipmunk movie and eating Trix cereal (both things we did last time we were in MN) so I was curious to see how she would react if things went differently. She made herself right at home with Titi's toys and loved her Abby Cadabby present. She got to go swimming with Titi which
made her very happy even though the pool was a little loud.

The next day, the kids played in a slip and slide to beat the heat and E got to play with Titi's cousins P and P.


She also got to visit with uncle Nate and Annie. We had to wake her up a little early from her nap, and she didn't appreciate it!

That evening, the kids got to watch a movie, they decided on Smurfs, and E got to eat Trix and watch. She loved it. She also used the movie time to serve "tea" to all her friends. Watching the movie, having Trix, and serving tea are the things she talks about most from Titi's house.

Jobs and a Loud Museum

I try and let E help around the house and kitchen as much as I can. Finding jobs that keep a 2 year olds interest can be tough, but as long as it involves water, she is always interested!

So, I asked her to help clean some cherries. She carefully pulled the stem off each one, put some soap on it, and brushed it off with a little brush. Disaster struck though when she accidentally tipped over the colander that was holding them, its not often that she get so alarmed.



Dada also took E to the "loud museum" the loud museum is actually the entertainment portion of the Kalahari Hotel. E had a great time looking at all the games, watching the baby tigers drink bottles, and seeing the baby kangaroos. She is itching to get back to the "loud museum."


Sunday, July 8, 2012

Sleep


I assumed the sleeping would get better as E got older. At first, it was pretty much as I expected. She ate ever three hours, and it took an hour each time. That meant, she and I were up most of the night. As she got a little older, we saw some progress. She’d sleep for a four hour stretch, and right about three months old, she went a week of sleeping through the night. At that point, I thought we had it figured out.

Little did I know. Soon, she started getting up two or three times a night. By her first birthday she was sleeping less then she’d slept as a newborn. It’s one thing to be totally sleep deprived when you have a newborn, it’s another thing to go a full year without a night of sleep.  We got tough, she cried it out, I read every sleep book the library owned, we googled sleep related topics relentlessly. Sometimes she’d sleep, sometimes she’d be up two or three times. Finally, we weaned her. E was completely not ready, she was miserable during the process. But, remarkably, she started sleeping. Mostly. Only now, we don’t have the magic milk to put her to sleep when she wakes up. But, about December 2011 we’d hit our stride. I finally thought she was sleeping through the night. Her dada and I felt human again, now that we too were sleeping through the night. 

Then the other shoe dropped. Suddenly E was two and asserting her independence. Now bedtime is absolutely a battle. Getting her to bed involves at least: three books in our bed, some “cuddle buggles,” laying on the “milks,” moving to E’s room, hearing two “once upon a time” stories, three songs (Rubber Tree Plant, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Twinkle Twinkle), putting her in bed, and two more once upon a time stories.  We usually have to get a new water cup (the one she chose at the outset of bedtime has become horrible. At this point, she usually asks “pass me to daddy” and I have no idea what they do. If she don’t ask to be passed, she goes into bed and hears the “E born day story” and I leave the room, usually to sobs and screams. We alternate comforting her until she sleeps.

Its 11:00pm and she’s still not asleep. The other night, she didn’t go to bed until 1:30 AM. This schedule may work for a two year old, but her parents are too old for this stuff!

Foolishly, I never thought that sleep would be as hard at 2 years old as it was with a newborn. But, when she was a newborn, everyone told me it would get better (and I believed them). But, no one tells us that about a two year old!

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

4th of July

We celebrated the 4th of July with a parade around our association. Its been unbearably hot lately (100+ degrees today) so the parade route was a little shorter then anticipated. E and R decorated their bikes, but by the time the parade started, E was tired of riding and ready to be carried.

After the parade, we headed over to dada's old neighborhood for a picnic, and some playtime at a park.

At home, E played with her baby. She has become very interested in taking care of babies lately, and today she created a carrier for her baby. The baby kept falling out, and she eventually stated that "the stroller is easier." 

She told us she and the baby were "going on vacation" they were headed "up north" to the "hospital where E was borned and got vernex."

By the end of the night, she was so tired of being inside, that she couldn't stay away when I was playing with the camera.

The end of June

The end of June was a busy one for us. We had lots going on.


 Of course, we celebrated dada's birthday, for some reason we didn't take any photos of the celebration part, just of E helping dada fix the door knob. But, E did go see her second movie in the theater (the first was when she was 3 months old). She, and dada, loved Madagascar 3 on the big screen.

 Uncle Jay came to visit, we went to the zoo and had a picnic, as well as some nice visiting time. E hasn't seen Jay in over a year, so it was nice for him to see the big girl she is now.

We also proved that momma lets stuff that happen that would never happen on dada's watch. Like, using a bag designed to cook a turkey to pack up a kitchen Cabinet and carry around. She was pretending it was trash.

E finally got an easel, although we haven't let her use what she calls "kid paint" on it yet, only chalk.

She also got goggles, I promised her some a long time ago if she did well using the potty, since she was making progress, she got Dora goggles.