Spoiler Alert: This post is about bodily functions if you haven't figured that out already. If you can't handle bathroom talk, you probably should just stop here before you get pissed off (Yup, I went there!).
The Baby 411 book helped us survive Billa's infancy (OK, one of the TWO books that helped us – the other was The Happiest Baby on the Block by Dr. Harvey Karp) so when we passed the one year mark, I checked out Toddler 411 from the library. The one piece of information that really stuck with me from that book was about potty training. In a nutshell, co-author Dr. Ari Brown thinks that potty training should not take months on end, but no more than one or two days. She also went on to say that the definition of a potty trained child was a kid who not only understood how to use the potty, but was able to use it MOST of the time. Her theory behind this was because you would not even think about potty training until the child was ready and really showed the signs of readiness, thereby shortening the amount of time spent on potty training. If a kid isn't ready, she theorizes, they'll fight you on it and it will be a long drawn out process.
I have to admit, having watched my friends struggle and fight their kids on potty training, she might be onto something. I know that a lot of folks start potty training because they're a) tired of diapers b) the kid has passed the age of two c) another baby is on the way d) they want to hit the next milestone or e) all of the above or any combination of those factors. Hell, there is probably more that I didn't touch on, but you get the idea. It seems like the majority of reasons are for convenience, IMO.
I'm not going to lambast other parents and say that they're wrong or right because each family is different and if a potty chart and long drawn out process works for them, then so be it. I personally, am not in any rush to potty train. I don't have another baby on the way, and the Target diapers are cheap enough and sturdy enough that I don't have a problem spending $22 a month on "panties" for my daughter (seriously, I heart Target brand diapers. We stopped paying for Pampers and Huggies months ago when we ended up having the buy the Target brand out of necessity and we've never looked back. That extra cash in my pocket went towards new clothes since my kid is growing like a weed!). So Dr. Brown's theory behind potty training is right on par for me. I'm usually a very high strung person, but on this issue, I am taking the slow route because I can and because it seems right. If Billa is really ready to potty train, great! If not, no big deal.
I also really appreciate Dr. Brown's definition of what a potty trained child is. We all say we won't do it, but every parent I knows is in some sort of subconscious competition with the other parents they know. Who's kid will walk the soonest, talk the soonest, be potty trained the soonest. We all want to be the parents of the next Mozart or mathematical whiz, so we all play up how awesome our kids are while harboring a deep seated jealousy for any kid who does something better than our own. And we all know it's silly, but we do it anyway. Can you blame us if we feel pride and love for what we've created?
As a result of all these "Baby Games," our competitive natures have set in place some ridiculous expectations for all parents. We think we should be getting a full night's sleep by the time Junior is 3 months old (Ha! Once you become a parent, you will NEVER have a full night's sleep again...and if you do...don't tell me about it), that all kids should be walking by one year, and they should be talking in complete sentences with proper grammar by the time they're two. So being told by a pediatrician who is mom to two kids that potty trained means MOSTLY accident and diaper free makes me feel loads better about my job as a parent. I've got plenty of ridiculous expectations that I've set for myself; I don't need them from other parents!
Armed with this knowledge, we figured we'd really begin talking about potty training sometime after Sybilla turned two. Until then, we'd just expose her to the world of the potty. READ: potty field trips. Anytime Mama or Daddy goes to the potty, Billa goes too. We tell her what we're doing, point out the parts of the process, the um, results of that process and make it a learning experience. She's been doing the same thing at daycare so it's been consistent all around. Some days she would run around the bathroom, or make noises to hear the echo, but most of the time just generally tune in and out to what we were telling her. There was in no way any pressure to ever use the potty or any frustration on our end, just simple explanations followed by "Someday you'll use the potty like Mama and Daddy too!"
Lately however, Billa has become increasingly aware of her bodily functions and of the potty process. For instance, the other day, she was squatting and grunting and I asked her what she was doing. "Poo poo!" she told me proudly. Ok then! Good to know (And boy did she ever). Another time, she grabbed her crotch region and told Michael, "Wet! Wet!" in her little Texan accent. Sure enough, her diaper was full and needed changing. And she loves to help us flush the tee tee and poo poo away in the potty. In fact, that's her favorite thing; she'll flush that potty several times just to make sure it's all gone. Good to know she's efficient!
The biggest eye opener however, was when she tried to be helpful today and tried to WIPE me! I tell you what, that was certainly an experience. There I am, merrily doing my thing and my child is ripping off toilet paper and trying to shove it next to my lady bits. Yeah. That was a little awkward, if not highly amusing in hindsight. While I was grateful for her enthusiasm to help, I was quite content to take care of my potty business on my own, thankyouverymuch!
In all, this tells me that Billa is *almost* ready to try potty training on her own. I know some parents would get waaaay excited about this and just head on out to their local discount megamart and pick up every potty tool in the world, but not us. Not that the yucky weather today would have stopped me; I just feel that a little bit more time needs to pass before I actually spend some money on a potty seat (if we actually decide to go that route...we may not!).
While the 'wait and pee' approach might not work for every parent, it's working for us thus far, and seeing the progress that Billa has made in the last two months in regards to it tells me that we've made the right choice for our family. Everyone tells me "they grow up so fast!" and children do. I'm content to let her grow and explore on her own. No need to speed that along. There may be days when I wish she was three years older so I could understand the words coming out of her mouth, or so that we could do bake or craft together, but we'll get there. I wouldn't want to miss out on her word explosion or her learning how to use crayons or graduating to a big girl bed just to achieve understanding and save myself some trouble. I don't want to look back when she's an adult and wish I had spent more time watching her grow. She'll be past toddlerhood soon enough. Until then, we're just going to go with the flow [snicker].
Happily flowing,
Kelly
Showing posts with label Baby development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baby development. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Billa Babble: Yes, Shoe, Table, and Chair
They say the "word explosion" hits between 18 and 20 months. We didn't think we had hit it, but since we have stopped using the paci so much, our child just babbles away like the Energizer bunny! She has been saying a lot, but it's still taking us some time to figure out what she's saying. She's been working on her ch-, sh-, and hard k sounds, so some words seem to meld or morph into something else which makes it hard to understand. She definitely has the m- and b- words down.
YES: It sounds more like 'yeah' but when you ask Sybilla if she would like ___ she will usually respond with a 'yeah' or 'nah' (we're having trouble shaping our 'o' vowels).
SHOE: We were visiting the Marino family on Wednesday and Billa came inside with one sandal on her foot, the other in her hand, and very distressed over her "schew, schew [whimper]" (and yes, there is a slight ch- with her sh- sounds). She was almost in tears over this. I decided that since we weren't going to be leaving for a bit after all, I would just take the other shoe off. I told her to sit down, which she did, and then took the other sandal off. Tears transformed into happy chatter and smiles and off she went. [sigh] Glad that disaster was easily averted!
TABLE: This morning we were eating break fest and enjoying homemade pumpkin spice cake and Billa climbed up into a chair to get at my latest puzzle, which was still on the table. She climbed up and then patted the table top and said "tay-buh" and then pointed to the puzzle. She only said it once, but we knew what she meant!
CHAIR: This sounds mostly like "schar" which has been confused with "share", so you'll only catch it when it's in correct context. But usually she will say it if she wants to get into the computer chair or a dining room chair.
Other things that we've randomly heard here and there is a better pronunciation of cheese, milk, and we're working on actually saying please, which she did this morning when she said "Plee, Dah-da" when he took my puzzle away from her. And speaking of puzzles, she says that quite often too, especially since they've become a big passion of mine. Which if anyone has some random 1000+ piece puzzles laying around (missing a couple of pieces or not), lemme know...I just might like to take a crack at them!
Well, that's all for now folks! Nighty night,
Kelly
YES: It sounds more like 'yeah' but when you ask Sybilla if she would like ___ she will usually respond with a 'yeah' or 'nah' (we're having trouble shaping our 'o' vowels).
SHOE: We were visiting the Marino family on Wednesday and Billa came inside with one sandal on her foot, the other in her hand, and very distressed over her "schew, schew [whimper]" (and yes, there is a slight ch- with her sh- sounds). She was almost in tears over this. I decided that since we weren't going to be leaving for a bit after all, I would just take the other shoe off. I told her to sit down, which she did, and then took the other sandal off. Tears transformed into happy chatter and smiles and off she went. [sigh] Glad that disaster was easily averted!
TABLE: This morning we were eating break fest and enjoying homemade pumpkin spice cake and Billa climbed up into a chair to get at my latest puzzle, which was still on the table. She climbed up and then patted the table top and said "tay-buh" and then pointed to the puzzle. She only said it once, but we knew what she meant!
CHAIR: This sounds mostly like "schar" which has been confused with "share", so you'll only catch it when it's in correct context. But usually she will say it if she wants to get into the computer chair or a dining room chair.
Other things that we've randomly heard here and there is a better pronunciation of cheese, milk, and we're working on actually saying please, which she did this morning when she said "Plee, Dah-da" when he took my puzzle away from her. And speaking of puzzles, she says that quite often too, especially since they've become a big passion of mine. Which if anyone has some random 1000+ piece puzzles laying around (missing a couple of pieces or not), lemme know...I just might like to take a crack at them!
Well, that's all for now folks! Nighty night,
Kelly
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The Po Po Popo Face has got to go...
Popo, Paci, Bubba, Mimi, Mamon...it has so many names and right now, it is the bane of my existence. We are now officially on Day 2 of Restricted Bubba use and I gotta tell you, I am gonna toot my own horn here! At Sybilla's 12 month checkup I had sworn that I wasn't going to buy anymore pacis, but seven months later, the old ones were looking pretty nasty, so I bought one last package. I even said as much to Sybilla. But I knew deep inside that I shouldn't have bought them. Not because I couldn't afford them, but because the Bubba habit had gotten out of hand.
Sybilla had actually been doing really well for a bit using only when she was in the car or going to bed/nap. But as time went on and she started teething molars and gaining an independent streak, we got lazy and started letting her have it whenever she wanted. And it probably would have been fine except that all of the Billa Babble that she had learned was now getting muffled or thrown to the wayside altogether. We've gotten tired of hearing her shriek, grunt, grumble, and whine from behind the pacifier and getting her to tell us what she wants now could be considered an Olympic sport. Her sign for "please" is actually "more" and no matter how much we bribe, cajole, plead, beg, order, yell, etc, she won't actually say the damned word. GRRRRR!
The camel's back broke yesterday and in a fit of massive irritation, I took it from her. She was not pleased with me and let me have the full brunt of her displeasure. I ignored it and blogged instead, although it was really really really hard. She didn't get it back until bedtime and this morning, I endured seven minutes of crying and pleas for "Bub-ba!" in the car on our way to school. Thank God it wasn't a minute longer or I *might* have given in! It can be very disconcerting to drive in the rain with an unhappy child...
Daycare lady doesn't allow the kids to suck on their pacifiers at school while they're awake, but she lets them bring them in and use them during naptime if mom and dad are ok with it. I did not leave Bubba with Billa today, so there was no option to use it. I instead kept it in my purse, just in case, but as it was, Michael picked Sybilla up from school so again there was no option to use it. PHEW! She didn't get it at all when she got home and we did have a fit just before dinnertime where she begged us for it and then cried the biggest ol' crocodile tears you ever saw, but we held firm. As soon as we announced it was bedtime, she asked for it, and we gave it to her...once she was laying down in bed.
So at this point, we are very proud of ourselves for sticking to our guns and not giving in. We shall see what the future holds, but for now the battle has begun!
Cheers,
Kelly
Monday, August 24, 2009
18 Month Wellcheck and PTO
What a day! Today was the first day of school for Austin, it was Billa's 18 month old wellcheck and Mama's day off. One of Michael's coworkers asked to trade days off with him at the last minute, so both of us enjoyed a lovely day of PTO together sans the baby most of the day.
We took Billa to daycare and then Michael and I headed home to have a nice leisurely breakfast of eggs, toast, and coffee. Seeing as how we're avid bibliophiles, we snagged the opportunity to read and just laze about. Then we took Sybilla to her well check and took her back to school, whereupon we then ate lunch, read some more, and then took a two hour nap before picking Sybilla back up from daycare. It was a lovely day off!
And actually, when you look at her growth chart, her weight is actually WAY above the curve, but while that might seem overweight, if you saw how much Billa moves you wouldn't be worried. Which Dr. Patil isn't, thankfully. In fact, Billa showed off all of her tricks, like "jumping", her touchdown arms (football season here we come!) and she also showed what a skilled and clever climber she was, which really impressed the doc. She also showed off some great vocabulary skills and identified some bubbles in a picture and "read" a book, which she then told us "all done" when she closed the cover. Here are some pictures of her at the doctor's office:
Billa's favorite thing to do at the doctor's office: look out the window from the exam room!
Oooh...what's this? Something good to chew on?
Oh wait, you have to do what with it?!
Dr. Patil sure knows how to make us laugh!
One thing is for sure, we are extremely grateful for a healthy and happy baby! We got two shots today, one of them being the flu vaccine. We were told to check back on the pedi office website around October/November, since the current flu vaccine does NOT include the swine flu vaccine. That one isn't available yet and Dr. Patil told us she wasn't even sure if it was going to be formulated yet for kids that young. So if we don't end up getting the swine flu vaccine or have a sick visit, it'll be six more months before we see Dr. Patil again! [sniffle] It reminds us of how much she's grown.
Anyway, it's time for dinner; tune in later this week for Recipe thuRsday and some more Billa videos. We got some good ones of her in a bubble bath the other night :o)
Love,
We took Billa to daycare and then Michael and I headed home to have a nice leisurely breakfast of eggs, toast, and coffee. Seeing as how we're avid bibliophiles, we snagged the opportunity to read and just laze about. Then we took Sybilla to her well check and took her back to school, whereupon we then ate lunch, read some more, and then took a two hour nap before picking Sybilla back up from daycare. It was a lovely day off!
Sybilla's well check stats were:
Head: 48 cm - 75th to 90th percentile (big head!)
Height: 33 in - 75th to 90th percentile (she's now 2'9"!)
Weight: 32 lbs - 97th percentile+
Head: 48 cm - 75th to 90th percentile (big head!)
Height: 33 in - 75th to 90th percentile (she's now 2'9"!)
Weight: 32 lbs - 97th percentile+
And actually, when you look at her growth chart, her weight is actually WAY above the curve, but while that might seem overweight, if you saw how much Billa moves you wouldn't be worried. Which Dr. Patil isn't, thankfully. In fact, Billa showed off all of her tricks, like "jumping", her touchdown arms (football season here we come!) and she also showed what a skilled and clever climber she was, which really impressed the doc. She also showed off some great vocabulary skills and identified some bubbles in a picture and "read" a book, which she then told us "all done" when she closed the cover. Here are some pictures of her at the doctor's office:
Billa's favorite thing to do at the doctor's office: look out the window from the exam room!
Oooh...what's this? Something good to chew on?
Oh wait, you have to do what with it?!
Dr. Patil sure knows how to make us laugh!
One thing is for sure, we are extremely grateful for a healthy and happy baby! We got two shots today, one of them being the flu vaccine. We were told to check back on the pedi office website around October/November, since the current flu vaccine does NOT include the swine flu vaccine. That one isn't available yet and Dr. Patil told us she wasn't even sure if it was going to be formulated yet for kids that young. So if we don't end up getting the swine flu vaccine or have a sick visit, it'll be six more months before we see Dr. Patil again! [sniffle] It reminds us of how much she's grown.
Anyway, it's time for dinner; tune in later this week for Recipe thuRsday and some more Billa videos. We got some good ones of her in a bubble bath the other night :o)
Love,
Friday, August 21, 2009
Happy 18 months Sybilla!
Today Billa is officially 18 months old. Now Daddy can tell people she is "a year and a half old"...because she really is! The last 18 months have seen our little monkey grow tall and smart...and heavy! Just look at all the things she can do:
Jumping Billa
Silly Billa
How can you resist this face?
Mommy sure can’t!
Lookit all this hair…
I can brush it all on my own!
Your turn Mommy!
Say cheese!
Happy 18 months, sweet baby girl! We love you!
Love,
Jumping Billa
Silly Billa
How can you resist this face?
Mommy sure can’t!
Lookit all this hair…
I can brush it all on my own!
Your turn Mommy!
Say cheese!
Happy 18 months, sweet baby girl! We love you!
Love,
Monday, August 3, 2009
Sunday, Billa Babble, and More
Since we had a pretty busy weekend, I didn't make it to the grocery store until 10 pm last night and I only got enough things to last us for a day or two since I was so tired. I wouldn't have gone at all except there was no coffee, no coffee filters, no coffee creamer, and god forbid, no milk in the house to be had. Our little munchkin is quite the dairy fiend and having no milk would have been bad news bears indeed. I remembered last minute to grab some more cheese sticks and when I got home, I just threw the cold stuff in the fridge without thinking about it.
This morning Billa was with her daddy getting some milk when she saw the package of cheese sticks. I am not joking when I tell you that she loves these things, because as Michael tells it, "she went apesh*t when she saw them in the fridge!" She started jumping up and down and making her excited little monkey sounds, so Michael decided to give her a cheese stick for breakfast. Hey, at least it's not a donut! So she ate cheese stick to tide her over until she got to school and had second breakfast with her friends.
I'll share with you a random moment of Billa Babble: Sybilla decided that she wanted Daddy to read her a book before she and I left this morning, so while I was making my lunch, she and Michael were sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor reading from one of her books about colors. Just before we left, she opened the book and pointed to a picture on the page and shouted "Donkey!" I find this funny for two reasons: 1) she really was pointing to a donkey and 2) we watched Shrek and Shrek 2 at my parents house yesterday. I guess she watched more of the movie than I initially thought!
Anyhoo, she greatly enjoyed visiting her Mamo and Papa, who love to do all the things Mama and Daddy won't let her do, like: let her pig out on waffles and everything else, climb stairs, push buttons, play with power tools and get dirty in the garden. She was so excited by all of this mayhem that she didn't take a nap until almost 3 o'clock! I did manage to sew the curtains for her room and my mom finished the cute little footstool to match.
In other news, Mama and Daddy reclaimed a headboard that someone in our complex had thrown out. I've been admiring this headboard on a resident's balcony for the longest time and when I drove into the complex yesterday evening, I saw it and the matching footboard sitting next to the dumpster. I immediately dialed Michael, who measured our bed and then rushed out to meet me to measure the headboard while I stood guard over it. Perfect match and we carried it home, wiped it down, and Lysol'd it to make sure it was nice and clean. And it looks so gosh darn pretty.
But the best news yet? We FINALLY got our washer and dryer...YAY!!!! Now all we have to do is get a dryer vent and hook it all up. No more climbing up and down the stairs with the laundry, no more trips to people's homes once a week to do our laundry, no more digging through dirty laundry trying to decide what smells the least offensive when we haven't made it to do laundry yet. Huzzah! Now I'll drink to that...
Cheerio, mates!
Kelly & the Gang
This morning Billa was with her daddy getting some milk when she saw the package of cheese sticks. I am not joking when I tell you that she loves these things, because as Michael tells it, "she went apesh*t when she saw them in the fridge!" She started jumping up and down and making her excited little monkey sounds, so Michael decided to give her a cheese stick for breakfast. Hey, at least it's not a donut! So she ate cheese stick to tide her over until she got to school and had second breakfast with her friends.
I'll share with you a random moment of Billa Babble: Sybilla decided that she wanted Daddy to read her a book before she and I left this morning, so while I was making my lunch, she and Michael were sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor reading from one of her books about colors. Just before we left, she opened the book and pointed to a picture on the page and shouted "Donkey!" I find this funny for two reasons: 1) she really was pointing to a donkey and 2) we watched Shrek and Shrek 2 at my parents house yesterday. I guess she watched more of the movie than I initially thought!
Anyhoo, she greatly enjoyed visiting her Mamo and Papa, who love to do all the things Mama and Daddy won't let her do, like: let her pig out on waffles and everything else, climb stairs, push buttons, play with power tools and get dirty in the garden. She was so excited by all of this mayhem that she didn't take a nap until almost 3 o'clock! I did manage to sew the curtains for her room and my mom finished the cute little footstool to match.
In other news, Mama and Daddy reclaimed a headboard that someone in our complex had thrown out. I've been admiring this headboard on a resident's balcony for the longest time and when I drove into the complex yesterday evening, I saw it and the matching footboard sitting next to the dumpster. I immediately dialed Michael, who measured our bed and then rushed out to meet me to measure the headboard while I stood guard over it. Perfect match and we carried it home, wiped it down, and Lysol'd it to make sure it was nice and clean. And it looks so gosh darn pretty.
But the best news yet? We FINALLY got our washer and dryer...YAY!!!! Now all we have to do is get a dryer vent and hook it all up. No more climbing up and down the stairs with the laundry, no more trips to people's homes once a week to do our laundry, no more digging through dirty laundry trying to decide what smells the least offensive when we haven't made it to do laundry yet. Huzzah! Now I'll drink to that...
Cheerio, mates!
Kelly & the Gang
Thursday, July 16, 2009
God grant me the serenity...
Sybilla has certainly been keeping us on our toes this week.
On Monday, she tore up a library book because I wasn't putting dinner on the table fast enough. I just about freaked out over the damage to the book and then really lost it when I couldn't find any tape to fix it with. After yelling at no one in particular and slamming drawers and enduring a lot of crying from both parties, Billa and I had a little chat about the importance of books and I subsequently removed them all from within her reach. God help the rest of our books should she fly into a hunger induced rage...
On Tuesday, she bonked heads with another child at daycare seconds before I walked in the door to pick her up. When the door opened, there was my child making this awful yipping noise and crying mightily. I've seen big ol' crocodile tears a lot lately, but this was genuine, honest to goodness "I'm hurt" crying. A switch flipped inside me and it was like the red alert in a submarine. All I saw was red and my brain was screaming "SEEK AND DESTROY, KILL KILL KILL!" It took every bit of strength to calm myself down and comfort Sybilla. Fortunately, everyone was alright in the end although my poor husband almost got his head torn off when he dared to cross me when I got home. That mama bear bloodlust feeling takes a while to dissipate, apparently. I never understood how some moms could get all crazy when they felt their kids were threatened, but I get it now!
On Wednesday, she decided to be Little Miss Selfish and got her just desserts for it too. Billa had developed an affinity for the sink footstool at daycare screaming at anyone who dared to get near it. Bless his little heart, one of the boys decided to cross swords with my fierce warrior and paid the price. She got so worked up that she whipped the stool out from under him as he was stepping on it, knocking him onto his rear end and popping herself in the face with the stool in the process. Daycare lady decided enough was enough and banished the aforementioned footstool to another part of the house and replaced it with a chair to prevent anymore fights. Of course, I received a phone call at work to tell me all of this, so I was incredibly embarrassed and amused in equal turns. My child now has a little goose egg above her eye where she hit herself and we had yet another chat on behaviour.
Today being Thursday, I really hope that Billa decides to behave herself because I have some cakes to bake tonight, but if not, well, I won't be surprised. I just hope I can make it through the rest of the week alive!
Counting white hairs until then,
Kelly
On Monday, she tore up a library book because I wasn't putting dinner on the table fast enough. I just about freaked out over the damage to the book and then really lost it when I couldn't find any tape to fix it with. After yelling at no one in particular and slamming drawers and enduring a lot of crying from both parties, Billa and I had a little chat about the importance of books and I subsequently removed them all from within her reach. God help the rest of our books should she fly into a hunger induced rage...
On Tuesday, she bonked heads with another child at daycare seconds before I walked in the door to pick her up. When the door opened, there was my child making this awful yipping noise and crying mightily. I've seen big ol' crocodile tears a lot lately, but this was genuine, honest to goodness "I'm hurt" crying. A switch flipped inside me and it was like the red alert in a submarine. All I saw was red and my brain was screaming "SEEK AND DESTROY, KILL KILL KILL!" It took every bit of strength to calm myself down and comfort Sybilla. Fortunately, everyone was alright in the end although my poor husband almost got his head torn off when he dared to cross me when I got home. That mama bear bloodlust feeling takes a while to dissipate, apparently. I never understood how some moms could get all crazy when they felt their kids were threatened, but I get it now!
On Wednesday, she decided to be Little Miss Selfish and got her just desserts for it too. Billa had developed an affinity for the sink footstool at daycare screaming at anyone who dared to get near it. Bless his little heart, one of the boys decided to cross swords with my fierce warrior and paid the price. She got so worked up that she whipped the stool out from under him as he was stepping on it, knocking him onto his rear end and popping herself in the face with the stool in the process. Daycare lady decided enough was enough and banished the aforementioned footstool to another part of the house and replaced it with a chair to prevent anymore fights. Of course, I received a phone call at work to tell me all of this, so I was incredibly embarrassed and amused in equal turns. My child now has a little goose egg above her eye where she hit herself and we had yet another chat on behaviour.
Today being Thursday, I really hope that Billa decides to behave herself because I have some cakes to bake tonight, but if not, well, I won't be surprised. I just hope I can make it through the rest of the week alive!
Counting white hairs until then,
Kelly
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Spoonbill(a)
We've been trying to get Billa to use utensils while eating. Yesterday for breakfast she had English muffin and applesauce. Here are some photos of that experience!
The right handed approach
The left handed approach
The "oh-screw-it-I'll-do-it-my-own-way" approach
And now the video version, along with some congratulatory action (now Billa's favorite game):
The right handed approach
The left handed approach
The "oh-screw-it-I'll-do-it-my-own-way" approachAnd now the video version, along with some congratulatory action (now Billa's favorite game):
Happy Sunday!
Kelly & the Gang
Kelly & the Gang
Sunday, June 7, 2009
"Can't you explain to Lady about Sundays?"
Just like the scene from Lady and the Tramp, we must teach Billa about Sundays. It is now 8:10 in the morning as I write, but it feels like 10 in the morning. I have been awake for 57 minutes, made my daughter breakfast, had my first cup of coffee and written out my to do list for the day. [sigh] Such is the life of a toddler's parents.
I think I may have written about this prior (or not, it requires navigating away from this page to check) but we converted Billa's crib to a toddler bed recently as a result of her new sleep habits. Billa had been waking up at about 5 am and wouldn't go back to sleep unless she was in bed with us, which isn't that big a deal, but it was really frustrating to have to get out of bed to go get her (that wasn't the only reason we converted her bed, mind you, but it was a big deciding factor). While she has gotten better about getting out of bed and coming into our bedroom at these times, it hasn't come without a price: she has fallen out of the bed twice now (even with the toddler railing--it doesn't hurt her, just startles her BTW) and some nights she just sits in bed crying until one of us comes to walk with her to our room.
I have to laugh though; we've definitely come a long way in 15 months! I remember those long nights of getting up every one to two hours to feed Sybilla and desperately promising myself that my next cup of coffee would be my last (this was of course repeated several times throughout the day). By the time she was 8 months old we had her sleeping through the night and I was no longer experiencing black outs. And I remember naively thinking that we were golden and would never have to sleep train again. WRONG. Apparently sleep training is forever!
We have also reached another landmark in 15 months: it has now been 2 weeks since I have breastfed. Surprisingly, all four of us are doing well. (Four, you ask? Kelly, are you sure that coffee has kicked in yet? Yes, it has and yes, you read that right. Four: Billa, me, Elsie and Daisy, my two breast friends.) Occasionally Billa will pull on my shirt in the very early mornings and say "Beebie? Beebie?" and I gently tell her that Mommy has no more milk, that it's all gone and she ceases and desists. I didn't think it would be that easy, but it was. Out of all the things we've endured, stopping breastfeeding was the easiest. However, the process has resulted in a new name for her pacifier, which at times ranges from Popo to Paci to Bobie. It took us forever to realize that the sound she was uttering when she wanted it was "BOOBIE." Yeah, we never saw that coming.
This morning, she called it Bubba and I am content with that. Personally, I think Bubba is a hilarious name for one's pacifier. I am starting to think that each one of the remaining three pacifiers has an individual flavor, personality and name because she has referenced each of them with different sounds. And yes, we only have three left. Well, technically four if you count the one that lives at daycare. But we have not bought new pacifiers in months and are currently working on getting rid of them after our visit with Dr. Patil on Friday, who harped on us about the paci usage (we were actually prepared to hear this--some of our friends are also patients of hers and they too have received the paci lecture).
Which brings me to well check stats! Billa is healthy as a horse. Unfortunately, she is eating like one too. Because of her weight growth curve, we're now cutting the whole milk down to 2% and increasing the protein and fruit/veggie intake and working on good eating habits. It's not that Billa is fat, it's just that she sits in the 97th percentile for weight now, which is out of sync with her height and head circumference curves. Billa is incredibly active causing Dr. Patil to be concerned with her eating behaviours as opposed to her eating habits and weight. Billa would eat all day if she could and she puts the food in her mouth fist over fist when she eats. To make it worse, Daycare Lady actually told me on Friday that Billa has been stealing food from the other kid's plates when they're not looking! Grrrreat...
Learning our first lesson on inertia
So there's the latest update. We're now on a family mission to eat right and get more exercise, we're working on eating like a lady, and once we have all that down, then we can start to teach Billa about Sundays... because fielding an angry neighbor's complaint about "owning a rooster" is not on my list of things to do today!
Toodles!
Kelly
I think I may have written about this prior (or not, it requires navigating away from this page to check) but we converted Billa's crib to a toddler bed recently as a result of her new sleep habits. Billa had been waking up at about 5 am and wouldn't go back to sleep unless she was in bed with us, which isn't that big a deal, but it was really frustrating to have to get out of bed to go get her (that wasn't the only reason we converted her bed, mind you, but it was a big deciding factor). While she has gotten better about getting out of bed and coming into our bedroom at these times, it hasn't come without a price: she has fallen out of the bed twice now (even with the toddler railing--it doesn't hurt her, just startles her BTW) and some nights she just sits in bed crying until one of us comes to walk with her to our room.
I have to laugh though; we've definitely come a long way in 15 months! I remember those long nights of getting up every one to two hours to feed Sybilla and desperately promising myself that my next cup of coffee would be my last (this was of course repeated several times throughout the day). By the time she was 8 months old we had her sleeping through the night and I was no longer experiencing black outs. And I remember naively thinking that we were golden and would never have to sleep train again. WRONG. Apparently sleep training is forever!
We have also reached another landmark in 15 months: it has now been 2 weeks since I have breastfed. Surprisingly, all four of us are doing well. (Four, you ask? Kelly, are you sure that coffee has kicked in yet? Yes, it has and yes, you read that right. Four: Billa, me, Elsie and Daisy, my two breast friends.) Occasionally Billa will pull on my shirt in the very early mornings and say "Beebie? Beebie?" and I gently tell her that Mommy has no more milk, that it's all gone and she ceases and desists. I didn't think it would be that easy, but it was. Out of all the things we've endured, stopping breastfeeding was the easiest. However, the process has resulted in a new name for her pacifier, which at times ranges from Popo to Paci to Bobie. It took us forever to realize that the sound she was uttering when she wanted it was "BOOBIE." Yeah, we never saw that coming.
This morning, she called it Bubba and I am content with that. Personally, I think Bubba is a hilarious name for one's pacifier. I am starting to think that each one of the remaining three pacifiers has an individual flavor, personality and name because she has referenced each of them with different sounds. And yes, we only have three left. Well, technically four if you count the one that lives at daycare. But we have not bought new pacifiers in months and are currently working on getting rid of them after our visit with Dr. Patil on Friday, who harped on us about the paci usage (we were actually prepared to hear this--some of our friends are also patients of hers and they too have received the paci lecture).
Which brings me to well check stats! Billa is healthy as a horse. Unfortunately, she is eating like one too. Because of her weight growth curve, we're now cutting the whole milk down to 2% and increasing the protein and fruit/veggie intake and working on good eating habits. It's not that Billa is fat, it's just that she sits in the 97th percentile for weight now, which is out of sync with her height and head circumference curves. Billa is incredibly active causing Dr. Patil to be concerned with her eating behaviours as opposed to her eating habits and weight. Billa would eat all day if she could and she puts the food in her mouth fist over fist when she eats. To make it worse, Daycare Lady actually told me on Friday that Billa has been stealing food from the other kid's plates when they're not looking! Grrrreat...
Billa's stats were, BTW:
Weight: 28 pounds, 97th percentile
Height: 31 inches, 50-75th percentile (Ha, she's 2' 7"!)
Head Circ: 47 cm, 75-90th percentile
Weight: 28 pounds, 97th percentile
Height: 31 inches, 50-75th percentile (Ha, she's 2' 7"!)
Head Circ: 47 cm, 75-90th percentile
Learning our first lesson on inertiaSo there's the latest update. We're now on a family mission to eat right and get more exercise, we're working on eating like a lady, and once we have all that down, then we can start to teach Billa about Sundays... because fielding an angry neighbor's complaint about "owning a rooster" is not on my list of things to do today!
Toodles!
Kelly
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Billa Babble: Billa, Snack, Go and Puzzle
Who wants some more Billa Babble? You know YOU do! So here we go...
First up, BILLA. Yep, folks, the child knows thyself. I was in bed trying to catch a few more z's on Sunday morning listening to Billa and Michael play in the living room. One of Billa's new pastimes is to pull the framed pictures off the bookshelves and arrange them elsewhere. One of these is her from Valentine's Day. Michael started pointing at her picture and told her "Billa!" She then repeated it, but it sounded like "Bil-ya!" She said it several times and when I came out of the room I tried to get her to say it but all she wanted to say then was "MAMA!" Go figure.
Our next word is SNACK. FINALLY, we are getting somewhere. Typically when Little Bit wanted a snack, she'd run in the kitchen and scream "MAMA!" until I guessed correctly. This ordeal often ended in a meltdown from one or both parties. Yesterday our problems were solved! I asked Billa if she wanted a snack and she responded, "Nach? Nach?" It sounds like 'snack' without the s and k, but hey, I'll take it! Phew!
Our third word is GO. It's funny when kids learn words but even funnier when they actually use it in the right context! We were driving home today and Billa started chanting "Go, go, go, go!"
Our final word is PUZZLE. Michael was watching Noggin with Billa this evening and she loves Puzzle Time, which if you're not familiar with PT on Noggin, it's basically a little commercial-like segment that has a simple puzzle for the kids to solve. Example: Which one of these three cats is different from the others? And one of those cats will have stripes and the others don't. When I say our child loves Puzzle Time, she LOVES Puzzle Time. She screams and yells and jumps up and down. Tonight, she yelled "Puh-yuhl!" when it came on. Smartie pants...
So there's your Billa Babble fix. Until next time!
Kelly
First up, BILLA. Yep, folks, the child knows thyself. I was in bed trying to catch a few more z's on Sunday morning listening to Billa and Michael play in the living room. One of Billa's new pastimes is to pull the framed pictures off the bookshelves and arrange them elsewhere. One of these is her from Valentine's Day. Michael started pointing at her picture and told her "Billa!" She then repeated it, but it sounded like "Bil-ya!" She said it several times and when I came out of the room I tried to get her to say it but all she wanted to say then was "MAMA!" Go figure.
Our next word is SNACK. FINALLY, we are getting somewhere. Typically when Little Bit wanted a snack, she'd run in the kitchen and scream "MAMA!" until I guessed correctly. This ordeal often ended in a meltdown from one or both parties. Yesterday our problems were solved! I asked Billa if she wanted a snack and she responded, "Nach? Nach?" It sounds like 'snack' without the s and k, but hey, I'll take it! Phew!
Our third word is GO. It's funny when kids learn words but even funnier when they actually use it in the right context! We were driving home today and Billa started chanting "Go, go, go, go!"
Our final word is PUZZLE. Michael was watching Noggin with Billa this evening and she loves Puzzle Time, which if you're not familiar with PT on Noggin, it's basically a little commercial-like segment that has a simple puzzle for the kids to solve. Example: Which one of these three cats is different from the others? And one of those cats will have stripes and the others don't. When I say our child loves Puzzle Time, she LOVES Puzzle Time. She screams and yells and jumps up and down. Tonight, she yelled "Puh-yuhl!" when it came on. Smartie pants...
So there's your Billa Babble fix. Until next time!
Kelly
Sunday, May 31, 2009
She's a Big Kid Now!
Our little bit is growing up! Saturday we converted her bed from a crib to a toddler bed. Because we had bought it off of Craig's List, we never got the hardware needed for toddler bed conversion which consisted solely of two bolts. So I went online, did a little bit of research, got the bolt size, made a trip to my local Lowe's, bought the bolts for a whopping 39 cents total, and then proceeded to convert the bed all by myself! This little red hen is quite proud of herself :o)
Billa was very excited by this change and loves being able to climb in and out of her bed. This means however, that we must now remember to crack her door open each night so that she can leave her room if need be. We had originally hoped to wait until Billa was 18 months old before Conversion, but we changed our minds after she *almost* climbed out one day and given that we got really tired of having to go rescue her every morning when she woke up at the buttcrack of dawn. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, kids are way smarter than we give them credit for.
We figured it would take a couple of weeks if not days to adapt to this new change and figure it out, but without showing her, our little engineer figured out in one night how to sleep in her bed without falling out (or playing all night as we thought she might). In addition, she also figured out that the door was cracked enough for her to exit the room and make her way into our room, which she did precisely at 6 am Sunday morning. It was a bit of a shock for all of us, especially since she didn't cry at all when she woke up, like she normally does and we hadn't shown her what to do.
I am a little bit saddened by this change, as it means my baby isn't that much of a baby anymore. Everyday she is growing into a little person with personality and while I love seeing her learn and grow, part of me doesn't want her to get too big that I can't hold her in my arms...at least not yet anyway!
Anyhoo, I should sign off now as it's been a long day of baking and cleaning and playing; I will have to post on some new Billa Babble later this week as Billa had many new words this week and weekend!
Until then,
Kelly
Billa was very excited by this change and loves being able to climb in and out of her bed. This means however, that we must now remember to crack her door open each night so that she can leave her room if need be. We had originally hoped to wait until Billa was 18 months old before Conversion, but we changed our minds after she *almost* climbed out one day and given that we got really tired of having to go rescue her every morning when she woke up at the buttcrack of dawn. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, kids are way smarter than we give them credit for.
We figured it would take a couple of weeks if not days to adapt to this new change and figure it out, but without showing her, our little engineer figured out in one night how to sleep in her bed without falling out (or playing all night as we thought she might). In addition, she also figured out that the door was cracked enough for her to exit the room and make her way into our room, which she did precisely at 6 am Sunday morning. It was a bit of a shock for all of us, especially since she didn't cry at all when she woke up, like she normally does and we hadn't shown her what to do.
I am a little bit saddened by this change, as it means my baby isn't that much of a baby anymore. Everyday she is growing into a little person with personality and while I love seeing her learn and grow, part of me doesn't want her to get too big that I can't hold her in my arms...at least not yet anyway!
Anyhoo, I should sign off now as it's been a long day of baking and cleaning and playing; I will have to post on some new Billa Babble later this week as Billa had many new words this week and weekend!
Until then,
Kelly
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Playtime at the Park
I finally got our camera back! Yay! I promised to post some pictures so here we go! I've got spring fever BAD, so Michael and I took Billa to the park next door and played for a few minutes after dinner. The weather was perfect and we all had a great time. Enjoy!
Love,
K & Co.
Love,
K & Co.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Striptease, Stacking & Vocals
With each day that Billa gets older, she amazes us with what she learns and does. Take for example, our wake up call on Saturday morning.
Michael and I had had a date night the evening before to go see a movie while Billa stayed with her Gigi (Michael's mom). So we got home WAY late and so we were all very tired the next morning. Usually on weekends we pull Billa into bed with us when she wakes up at about 7:30 to try and reclaim a few minutes of precious shuteye. She scooted off the bed and started rummaging through stuff and pulling things out. I finally got up and was headed to the shower when Billa brought me a diaper. "Where did you get a diaper from?" I asked her. That was when I noticed that she was naked from the waist down. Whoops! Looks like Daddy's diaper change at 4 am didn't go so well! Fortunately, it was not a poopy diaper, but it certainly was an eye-opener for sure.
Billa has also started to learn how to stack things. We got her a musical star stacker for her birthday and since she has learned how to stack the stars on it, EVERYTHING gets stacked. She's been pulling the DVD's off the shelf and stacking them, books get stacked, the puzzle boards get stacked, etc. We've been trying to get her to replace them when she's done and I guess it's starting to sink in... she placed her paci in the empty space on the DVD shelf!
Vocally, Billa's babble has been morphing into more complex sounds with quite a range. Sometimes she likes to growl and roar, and others she trills and squeals. We've also noticed that she is starting to associate certain words with certain objects, which is really exciting. It's hilarious to ask her where Gumerry is and watch her hunt the cat down.
Anyway, I've been meaning to post some pictures except that a certain someone (Daddy) left our camera at his cousin Stephen's house on St. Patty's Day and we have been unable to retrieve it since. [sigh] I'll definitely post lots of them when I get it back!
Until then,
Kelly & the Gang
Michael and I had had a date night the evening before to go see a movie while Billa stayed with her Gigi (Michael's mom). So we got home WAY late and so we were all very tired the next morning. Usually on weekends we pull Billa into bed with us when she wakes up at about 7:30 to try and reclaim a few minutes of precious shuteye. She scooted off the bed and started rummaging through stuff and pulling things out. I finally got up and was headed to the shower when Billa brought me a diaper. "Where did you get a diaper from?" I asked her. That was when I noticed that she was naked from the waist down. Whoops! Looks like Daddy's diaper change at 4 am didn't go so well! Fortunately, it was not a poopy diaper, but it certainly was an eye-opener for sure.
Billa has also started to learn how to stack things. We got her a musical star stacker for her birthday and since she has learned how to stack the stars on it, EVERYTHING gets stacked. She's been pulling the DVD's off the shelf and stacking them, books get stacked, the puzzle boards get stacked, etc. We've been trying to get her to replace them when she's done and I guess it's starting to sink in... she placed her paci in the empty space on the DVD shelf!
Vocally, Billa's babble has been morphing into more complex sounds with quite a range. Sometimes she likes to growl and roar, and others she trills and squeals. We've also noticed that she is starting to associate certain words with certain objects, which is really exciting. It's hilarious to ask her where Gumerry is and watch her hunt the cat down.
Anyway, I've been meaning to post some pictures except that a certain someone (Daddy) left our camera at his cousin Stephen's house on St. Patty's Day and we have been unable to retrieve it since. [sigh] I'll definitely post lots of them when I get it back!
Until then,
Kelly & the Gang
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
One Year Wellcheck, Early Mornings, and Look Ma, No Hands!
Daycare was closed last Friday so I took off from work for a much needed day of rest and to take Billa to the doctor for her 12 month checkup. She got three shots (Dtap, MMR, and Hep A) and did really well with them. She only cried because we held her down and then stuck her, but once she was allowed up to run around, she was good to go. Dr. Patil was impressed with her mobility and Sybilla even performed her Happy Feet for the good doctor! Dr. Patil is also glad that Billa is not a juice fiend, is no longer using bottles (we've been using sippy cups for about 3 months now), and is eating relatively healthy.
Sybilla has been sleeping a lot better lately and has adjusted well to being weaned off bedtime nursings. We're still nursing in the morning when she wakes up and I had considered weaning her off of those now that she's a year old and getting her nutrition from other sources. However, Michael and I have noticed that she really looks forward to these feedings as evidenced by her morning behavior as of late. Usually she would wake up about 4 or so and Michael would go in to give her a pacifier and put her back to sleep. The last couple of mornings however, he's walked in to find that she still has her paci in her mouth! She sees him, makes a disgusted noise and then throws herself down on her pillow to go back to sleep. Apparently Daddy is not what she wanted! This morning was even funnier. Michael went it to find her with TWO pacis—one in her mouth and one in her hand! He put her back to bed and when I went in a bit later, she still had them both and promptly dropped one and spit out the other to get her wake up snack. Too funny!
Sybilla 1 year old, Gardening with the Marino's!
We've also recently discovered that Billa is a little daredevil. She has taken to climbing just about everything she can and she just about gave me a heart attack this weekend when I caught her banging on the wall in the living room. This wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the fact that she was standing on a swivel chair doing it! She had pushed her little wicker rocking chair up to the swivel chair and climbed from the floor to her chair, and then into the swivel chair. We've since had to start teaching her to sit down on her bottom in her chair, which she's getting very good at. Lord only knows what she'll learn next!
Until next time,
Kelly & the Gang
Her stats are:
Height – 29" (50th percentile)
Weight – 25# (95th percentile)
Head – 46cm (75th percentile)
Weight – 25# (95th percentile)
Head – 46cm (75th percentile)
Sybilla has been sleeping a lot better lately and has adjusted well to being weaned off bedtime nursings. We're still nursing in the morning when she wakes up and I had considered weaning her off of those now that she's a year old and getting her nutrition from other sources. However, Michael and I have noticed that she really looks forward to these feedings as evidenced by her morning behavior as of late. Usually she would wake up about 4 or so and Michael would go in to give her a pacifier and put her back to sleep. The last couple of mornings however, he's walked in to find that she still has her paci in her mouth! She sees him, makes a disgusted noise and then throws herself down on her pillow to go back to sleep. Apparently Daddy is not what she wanted! This morning was even funnier. Michael went it to find her with TWO pacis—one in her mouth and one in her hand! He put her back to bed and when I went in a bit later, she still had them both and promptly dropped one and spit out the other to get her wake up snack. Too funny!
Sybilla 1 year old, Gardening with the Marino's!We've also recently discovered that Billa is a little daredevil. She has taken to climbing just about everything she can and she just about gave me a heart attack this weekend when I caught her banging on the wall in the living room. This wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the fact that she was standing on a swivel chair doing it! She had pushed her little wicker rocking chair up to the swivel chair and climbed from the floor to her chair, and then into the swivel chair. We've since had to start teaching her to sit down on her bottom in her chair, which she's getting very good at. Lord only knows what she'll learn next!
Until next time,
Kelly & the Gang
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Happy 1st Birthday Billa!
One year ago today we were on our way to the hospital where our Little Bit made her appearance at 11:27 and weighed in at 8 pounds, 14 oz. And ever since then, our lives have been all the better for it!
Sybilla Kathleen, 1 day oldBilla, the road here hasn't been easy sometimes, but it sure was worth it. In one year you have taught us more about patience than our parents could in a lifetime. In one year, you have tested our endurance, our sanity, and our limits. In one year, we have laughed until we cried and cried until we laughed. In one year, you have have amazed us with your talents, helped us rediscover our inner child, and melted our hearts with your fierce, all encompassing love. In one year, you have not only inspired us to be and do greater, but changed us for the better.
Sybilla Kathleen, 1 year oldEvery day we love you more and more and thank God for choosing us to be your parents. You light up our lives and make each day worth getting up for. Thank you for the smiles, the laughs, the tears, the joy, the three a.m. wake up calls, and most of all, your love.
Happy Birthday little love!
Love,
Mommy & Daddy (& Gumerry the Gray, Destroyer of All Things Paper, Q-Tip, Hair Tie, and the newly conquered Laundry Bag)
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Nine Days and Counting...Milestones!
Billa's first birthday is rapidly approaching and with it have come some milestones for her:
Milestone #1: Exhibitionism - Yesterday our daycare lady walked in to pick her up from nap and found Sybilla topless! She'd managed to pull her shirt off all by herself. Lucky us...
Milestone #2: Hilltopper - Like the mascot of mommy and daddy's alma mater (yay St. Edward's!), Billa has managed to climb mountains...er, stairs anyway. I let her down at the base of the stairs of our apartment complex and after taking my hand, she lifted her leg and stepped up to the next step, just like grownups! She did it for several steps too, although her short little legs kept tripping her up. We're sticking with crawling up the stairs for now.
Milestone #3: Sleight of Hand - she's really good at this one. Now you see it, now you don't. Particularly evidenced by the small silvery object sailing down three stories to magically appear in front of a tree. This forced Mommy to go down three flights of stairs to retrieve our shoe, which she swore up and down was on Billa's foot and not in her hand. We still have not found the match to her other pair of shoes...abracadabra isn't working on that one!
Milestone #4: Defiance - she's a redhead, enough said. [sigh]
Milestone #5: Tech Support - Billa has become quite efficient at pushing buttons on the DVR, the amp, the Xbox, and the dishwasher. She has managed to disrupt many an episode of CSI and she's oh so helpful at starting the dishwasher at the most inopportune times. And just like Tech Support, you don't understand a word of what she's telling you (oh yes, I went there!).
Milestone #6: Laundry Sorter - Billa is very good at helping us sort laundry. She separates the laundry and creates piles for us...all over the house. Of particular interest are undergarments and pajamas. She even likes to help fold laundry too. On the way home from doing the laundry this past weekend, she decided to get started while still in the car; she pulled out a pair of Mommy's undies and looped it over one arm and was stretching it back it forth with the other. I've never pulled off the road faster!
Yes, our little girl is quite smart. Lord only knows what she'll get into next, so stay tuned!
Love to you all,
Kelly & the Gang
Milestone #1: Exhibitionism - Yesterday our daycare lady walked in to pick her up from nap and found Sybilla topless! She'd managed to pull her shirt off all by herself. Lucky us...
Milestone #2: Hilltopper - Like the mascot of mommy and daddy's alma mater (yay St. Edward's!), Billa has managed to climb mountains...er, stairs anyway. I let her down at the base of the stairs of our apartment complex and after taking my hand, she lifted her leg and stepped up to the next step, just like grownups! She did it for several steps too, although her short little legs kept tripping her up. We're sticking with crawling up the stairs for now.
Milestone #3: Sleight of Hand - she's really good at this one. Now you see it, now you don't. Particularly evidenced by the small silvery object sailing down three stories to magically appear in front of a tree. This forced Mommy to go down three flights of stairs to retrieve our shoe, which she swore up and down was on Billa's foot and not in her hand. We still have not found the match to her other pair of shoes...abracadabra isn't working on that one!
Milestone #4: Defiance - she's a redhead, enough said. [sigh]
Milestone #5: Tech Support - Billa has become quite efficient at pushing buttons on the DVR, the amp, the Xbox, and the dishwasher. She has managed to disrupt many an episode of CSI and she's oh so helpful at starting the dishwasher at the most inopportune times. And just like Tech Support, you don't understand a word of what she's telling you (oh yes, I went there!).
Milestone #6: Laundry Sorter - Billa is very good at helping us sort laundry. She separates the laundry and creates piles for us...all over the house. Of particular interest are undergarments and pajamas. She even likes to help fold laundry too. On the way home from doing the laundry this past weekend, she decided to get started while still in the car; she pulled out a pair of Mommy's undies and looped it over one arm and was stretching it back it forth with the other. I've never pulled off the road faster!
Yes, our little girl is quite smart. Lord only knows what she'll get into next, so stay tuned!Love to you all,
Kelly & the Gang
Friday, February 6, 2009
Out of the mouths of babes...
She said it! She finally said it! No, not some awful swear word although I am working on that little problem of mine... she said MAMA!!!! YES! I am vindicated! Sybilla's added the syllable "ma" to her vocabulary and toddles around babbling mamamamama or nanananana everywhere she goes. And this afternoon, while Mommy was trying to work from home (more on that in a minute) she reached her little arms up to me and screeched "mama!" and waited for me to pick her up. [happy sigh]
Fairy Billa after Madeleine's birthday party
Things have been a little hectic the past couple of weeks as we are in prime birthday party season. Two weekends ago we had TWO birthday parties to attend and Madeleine's was last weekend. I've attached pictures of the cakes I made for Madeleine and for Ben Courville, one of the birthday boys from two weeks ago. I also made his brother Conner's cake back in October. I am especially proud of both of these as I utilized 3D techniques I hadn't used before. I also made marshmallow fondant (MMF) which is WAAAAAY tastier than regular fondant and totally easy to make. Very messy, but worth it. Madeleine's cake was the guinea pig and it turned out beautifully. I have realized as a result of both Ben and Madeleine's cakes however, that I must practice some more with my writing and detail work. Even though I know how, I'll probably enroll for the Wilton Level 1 class to relearn the techniques.
Ben's 6th birthday Cake
Madeleine's 4th birthday cake (the pins are sugar cookies, the ball is a rice krispie treat covered in MMF, and yes, the inside was hot pink as requested)
Billa at her friend Jack's birthday party at Goin' Bananas...she LOVED the bouncy toddler area!
And speaking of Madeleine...our friends Caroline and Matt George finally had their baby! Madeline Annslee George was born this past Sunday at 4:19 am and she is a sight to behold. Her mom went to 42 weeks, can you believe it? We are very happy for the George's and can't wait to meet our new friend Madeline. Although the spelling is going to be an issue only because we now have two Madel(e)ines in our circle! Yikes! Madeline's middle name, in case you are wondering, is very special as it is a combination of her maternal grandparents' names. Madeline won't have the pleasure of knowing her granddaddy Train in this life, although we are sure that they got to know and love each other quite well before she came!
Well that's pretty much it for now. Billa's birthday is in 15 days and we are gearing up for it! We have another birthday party to attend this weekend and then Valentine's weekend gives us a bit of a break before we have Billa's party! Invitations are going out this weekend and I finished her cake design (to be unveiled later!). We've decided to get her this way cute pony rider thing made by Fisher Price to go with her cowgirl themed birthday party. It has four wheels and a little backet and is shaped like a horse. We can't call it a trike because it has four wheels, but you will get the idea when you see below. They make one in yellow and blue which is what we will be getting for her.
Anyhoo, that's all for now! We're off to get some Mexican at the Winchester and will see you all soon!
Love,
K & Co.
Fairy Billa after Madeleine's birthday partyAs for working from home today, Billa threw up during the night and couldn't go to daycare as a result. So Mommy stayed home and tried to work from home. I say try because Billa will occupy herself for about 20 or 30 minutes and then decide that what Mommy is doing is way more interesting and screech until I hold her in my lap. That's all fine and dandy, but then she tries to BE mommy and that's no good, especially when I need to test a link or do some very important financial paperwork. Grrr. So about midmorning, we took a break and got some lunch while picking up a few items from Target. I managed to actually get quite a bit done today, and while I feel terribly guilty about allowing my almost one year old to watch so much Noggin, I am grateful for the brains behind it. Thank you Nick Jr for making preschooler TV that is commerical free and very educational!
Bowling for Billa's! At Madeleine's bowling party (the same party where the birthday insisted on a bowling cake because "a Tinkerbell cake won't match my bowling party!" Four year olds...[sigh])
Bowling for Billa's! At Madeleine's bowling party (the same party where the birthday insisted on a bowling cake because "a Tinkerbell cake won't match my bowling party!" Four year olds...[sigh])
Ben's 6th birthday Cake
Madeleine's 4th birthday cake (the pins are sugar cookies, the ball is a rice krispie treat covered in MMF, and yes, the inside was hot pink as requested)
Billa at her friend Jack's birthday party at Goin' Bananas...she LOVED the bouncy toddler area!And speaking of Madeleine...our friends Caroline and Matt George finally had their baby! Madeline Annslee George was born this past Sunday at 4:19 am and she is a sight to behold. Her mom went to 42 weeks, can you believe it? We are very happy for the George's and can't wait to meet our new friend Madeline. Although the spelling is going to be an issue only because we now have two Madel(e)ines in our circle! Yikes! Madeline's middle name, in case you are wondering, is very special as it is a combination of her maternal grandparents' names. Madeline won't have the pleasure of knowing her granddaddy Train in this life, although we are sure that they got to know and love each other quite well before she came!
Well that's pretty much it for now. Billa's birthday is in 15 days and we are gearing up for it! We have another birthday party to attend this weekend and then Valentine's weekend gives us a bit of a break before we have Billa's party! Invitations are going out this weekend and I finished her cake design (to be unveiled later!). We've decided to get her this way cute pony rider thing made by Fisher Price to go with her cowgirl themed birthday party. It has four wheels and a little backet and is shaped like a horse. We can't call it a trike because it has four wheels, but you will get the idea when you see below. They make one in yellow and blue which is what we will be getting for her.
Anyhoo, that's all for now! We're off to get some Mexican at the Winchester and will see you all soon!Love,
K & Co.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Eleven Months Old!
Yesterday Billa hit the 11 month mark. My, how time flies! She's learning new things every day and her personality is really starting to develop. She doesn't have any words in her vocaublary but she definitely has a lot to say. She babbles constantly and we love making phrases out of what she says. I asked her the other night if she wanted milk, and her response sounded a lot like "Heck yeah!" We certainly got a kick out of that!
She's also discovering things around the house which means it's time to step up to the next level of baby proofing. She opens cabinets and drawers and love to open and close doors. She wants to play with everything that isn't a toy and she is fascinated by things that make noise. She loves to dance and squeal and chase the cat. She loves snuggling with mommy and daddy in the early morning for a few minutes before we all get up and get ready. And she definitely loves playing with her friends! She's starting to pitch a fit when I pick her up from daycare and all of her friends are still there.
With her birthday being a month away, birthday season has begun! We have a party to attend this weekend for her friend Jack from daycare, next weekend is Madeleine's party, and the weekend after that is a party for another friend from daycare! Then a free weekend and then it's HER birthday! Phew!
Anyhoo, I'll post some more pictures and videos soon. Things have been chaotic since Michael got his surgery done two weeks ago, but his hand is healing much faster than they anticipated. I am very excited by this because it means things will be back to (relatively) normal sooner than we thought.
Until then,
K & Co.
She's also discovering things around the house which means it's time to step up to the next level of baby proofing. She opens cabinets and drawers and love to open and close doors. She wants to play with everything that isn't a toy and she is fascinated by things that make noise. She loves to dance and squeal and chase the cat. She loves snuggling with mommy and daddy in the early morning for a few minutes before we all get up and get ready. And she definitely loves playing with her friends! She's starting to pitch a fit when I pick her up from daycare and all of her friends are still there.
With her birthday being a month away, birthday season has begun! We have a party to attend this weekend for her friend Jack from daycare, next weekend is Madeleine's party, and the weekend after that is a party for another friend from daycare! Then a free weekend and then it's HER birthday! Phew!
Anyhoo, I'll post some more pictures and videos soon. Things have been chaotic since Michael got his surgery done two weeks ago, but his hand is healing much faster than they anticipated. I am very excited by this because it means things will be back to (relatively) normal sooner than we thought.
Until then,
K & Co.
Monday, January 12, 2009
What a week!
It's been a crazy past week! Michael ended up having surgery after all to repair the nerve damage in his thumb. The doc later told me that about 2 cm of his nerves were missing, so he used a vein to repair them. I had no idea you could do that. You learn something new every day! They needed to do a skin graft after all and they took the skin from the palm of Michael's hand to do it. I spent all day Thursday reading every single magazine the waiting room had (quite a selection I might add) and thinking about all of the things I should/could be doing and wishing I had a laptop computer with internet access. I could have at least kept my nerves down by working! Note to self: I should ask for a laptop for my birthday... Oh well, c'est la vie. Michael's hand is in a lot of pain still and Michael sees the surgeon today to remove the dressings and find out what the next step is.
On Saturday, Gigi Judy took Sybilla for a day of fun and shopping so that Mommy and Daddy could get some things done around the house and have some alone time. We figured she'd get tired of her by dinner time, but instead Judy told us to go see a movie and she'd bring her home when we got back! Yes! Score one for Mommy and Daddy :o) We chose to see Twilight, which turned out to be a very good adaptation of the novel, but I felt that some of the technical and directorial choices were poor. Michael disagrees with me on some of them, but personally, I think the reason the director isn't coming back to the second film is mostly due to her ridiculous use of face close-ups. There's only so much detail of one's face that you can handle in a two hour stretch and this movie exceeded my limit. I guess I also don't relate to teens anymore as some of the acting was eye-rolling for me. But despite what I think on the technical stuff, I enjoyed it overall and it was a great date!
The birthday countdown has reached T minus 40 days (or roughly 6 weeks) until Billa is One! I made her birthday invites and they are super cute. You'll just have to wait to see them, ha ha ha! I am so excited about planning her party. It's silly I know, but I LOVE planning themed parties and putting everything together. Now if only I could make a living doing it!
Billa doesn't bother to crawl much anymore and she started figuring out how to stomp this weekend. Mommy and Me tap dance classes, here we come! She's also doing this thing where she moves her jaw in time to music, like she's singing. Her vocabulary is expanding and I like to make sentences out of what she's saying. Sometimes I hear stuff like "I go!" or "Ohboyohboyohboyohboy" and other times I hear "I said dojo, Daddy!" Last night she said something that sounded like "Now I get what I want" when I finally let her have some more food. (She has a really bad tendency towards chipmunk cheeks... she stuffs everything you give her into her mouth and then proceeds to try and swallow it all. Needless to say, the choking and gagging noises freak us out horribly!) I don't know how much she really understands of what we say to her, but she understands 'no' for sure. She loves to pull the DVD's or books off the shelves and when we tell her 'no' she runs away from us screaming with laughter and then runs back to cause more havoc, a look of malicious glee on her face. Little stinker!
Well, that's our week wrapped up! Stay tuned for more!
Love,
K & Co.
On Saturday, Gigi Judy took Sybilla for a day of fun and shopping so that Mommy and Daddy could get some things done around the house and have some alone time. We figured she'd get tired of her by dinner time, but instead Judy told us to go see a movie and she'd bring her home when we got back! Yes! Score one for Mommy and Daddy :o) We chose to see Twilight, which turned out to be a very good adaptation of the novel, but I felt that some of the technical and directorial choices were poor. Michael disagrees with me on some of them, but personally, I think the reason the director isn't coming back to the second film is mostly due to her ridiculous use of face close-ups. There's only so much detail of one's face that you can handle in a two hour stretch and this movie exceeded my limit. I guess I also don't relate to teens anymore as some of the acting was eye-rolling for me. But despite what I think on the technical stuff, I enjoyed it overall and it was a great date!
The birthday countdown has reached T minus 40 days (or roughly 6 weeks) until Billa is One! I made her birthday invites and they are super cute. You'll just have to wait to see them, ha ha ha! I am so excited about planning her party. It's silly I know, but I LOVE planning themed parties and putting everything together. Now if only I could make a living doing it!
Billa doesn't bother to crawl much anymore and she started figuring out how to stomp this weekend. Mommy and Me tap dance classes, here we come! She's also doing this thing where she moves her jaw in time to music, like she's singing. Her vocabulary is expanding and I like to make sentences out of what she's saying. Sometimes I hear stuff like "I go!" or "Ohboyohboyohboyohboy" and other times I hear "I said dojo, Daddy!" Last night she said something that sounded like "Now I get what I want" when I finally let her have some more food. (She has a really bad tendency towards chipmunk cheeks... she stuffs everything you give her into her mouth and then proceeds to try and swallow it all. Needless to say, the choking and gagging noises freak us out horribly!) I don't know how much she really understands of what we say to her, but she understands 'no' for sure. She loves to pull the DVD's or books off the shelves and when we tell her 'no' she runs away from us screaming with laughter and then runs back to cause more havoc, a look of malicious glee on her face. Little stinker!
Well, that's our week wrapped up! Stay tuned for more!
Love,
K & Co.
Monday, January 5, 2009
One Smart Cookie!
The birthday countdown has begun! It's 48 days (or 6.8 weeks) until Sybilla turns one! Yay! She's definitely come a long way so far and to recap some of the things she's accomplished in 2008, here is a short list!
1. WALKING. She doesn't even bother to really crawl anymore. Before you know it she'll be driving. Eek!
2. DANCING. Sybilla has started to dance to music! The baby doll stroller that Uncle Zander and Aunt Sarah gave her has a little bear that has "sweet strolling tunes" (as per the package) and she bounces up and down to them when she hits the button. She now does it when we play music from iTunes or on the radio and even in stores! I'll have to get a video if I can and post it…
3. BABBLING. Ok, she's done this one for awhile, but now it's starting to take on more meaning. We're working on trying to improve her vocabulary (read: say mama!) and I know she totally understands me when I tell her no because she proceeds to do it anyway with an evil grin on her face and then laughs hysterically over it. [sigh] I'm doomed!
4. PROBLEM-SOLVING. I noticed this when she started pushing everything across the carpet. If it slides on carpet, she's behind it pushing as far as she'll go. But then she gets stuck against the couch or the bar or something else. Then she tries to pull an Austin Powers and moves it around until she's unstuck. She gets tired of it after awhile though and then begins to screech at me, which leads to number 5…
5. THE SOPRANO RANGE. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree and Sybilla's vocal range definitely applies. Like her mum, she too is a soprano, as evidenced by the screeches, howls, and squeals that she emits. Yes, they are ear-piercing. Yes, she enjoys them. And yes, I am praying like hell she finishes this phase soon before my ears bleed and I stab my eyes out with a pencil.
6. CHOWTIME. Sybilla has now decided that SHE wants to hold the spoon when we feed her. Since she can't scoop things out on her own yet, I load it up, hand her the spoon, she slurps off food particles, then hands it back (or drops it, whichever suits her devilish fancy). She also LURVES her some tamales and enchiladas and can eat a whole one of each on her own. I mastered an awesome chili gravy which she and her daddy just adore, so we'll be having enchiladas quite frequently. And some day I will master tamales, but I digress! She is also drinking almost exclusively from a sippy cup which means that don't have to buy any more bottles! Woo hoo!
7. MILK. We've started her on lactose free milk, and she occasionally has some juice, although she loves milk more, thankfully! She had the lactose free at my parent's house a couple of weeks back and ever since, she hasn't wanted formula. Since it's so close to her birthday, we're slowly going through the last of the formula and will then move her completely to whole milk by B-Day. They say you're not supposed to do regular milk until AFTER the baby's first birthday, but Sybilla is 23 pounds, she gets a VERY well rounded diet, and she is drinking lactose free milk, which doesn't have the allergen in it. She's had regular milk before with no issue, but I figure I'll play it safe on this one. My mom is lactose intolerant, so it wouldn't surprise me if Billa is too, but I don't think she is.
So there it is! It wasn't nearly as short as I thought it might be… but oh well! I'll post some more videos and pictures soon!
Love,
K& Co.
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