Work, work, work

Seems like my days lately have been filled with more work than anything else. I had to work this weekend and missed tons of fun with DH and Miss C. She has defnintely gotten her land legs! Here's a super cute video taken the week before. Just keep in mind, she gets better by the day!




When i got her from school today, the teacher mentioned a seat in the bigger kid class should be opening in August so we are preparing for Miss C's transition to the new class. I am sure she will have a blast!

Before I forget, Miss C seems to have settled back into her regular sleep routine. No more crying when we lay her down, thank goodness! And, thanks for all the words of wisdom!

Other than that, not a whole lot going on just yet. DH's folks and sister are coming in town later this week so hopefully my subtle hints of leaving the camera out will help remind us to take loads of pictures. I will do my best at least! During that delay, I have uploaded some newer photos (read: from the past couple of weeks). Hasn't she gotten big? :)

Well, have to get back to, yep, work. I have 2 more weeks in my class then I am done with my Masters, yea! Its just been a very long summer session and these last couple of weeks aren't going to be easy. I wish Poobou good luck in her upcoming move and Alphagal a safe and smooth journey with her newest news!

Sleep issues

Ok, all of you out there with toddlers, help me out here, please. Since my last string of eve watches (those are when I get Miss C until the afternoon then work until midnight so DH has to get her dinner, bath and bed), Miss C has been having some sleep issues. Specifically, she will fall asleep in your arms but when you move at all or go to lay her in her bed, she opens her eyes and starts to cry. Its heartbreaking.
She is also a little clingy right now. She is my very independent little girl but when she gets tired, she is on me like glue. Our only recourse right now is to lay her down when we know she is tired and let her cry a little. It usually only lasts a couple of minutes if that, but what i was wondering is if this is a phase they all go through and if you have any other recommendations. Please help!

Parent-Teacher Conference Recap

Who would have thought I would be going to a parent-teacher conference when Miss C was a mere 13 months old? Not me. We did have our first one today though.

It was interesting to get the teacher's perspective on how Miss C is doing. I have pretty much kept ya'll up to date on her activities. Recently she has taken a greater interest in building stuff and putting those little rings on the ring sorter (you know which ones I am talking about). She also plays with "Dolly" all the time. Miss C is also quite adept at following directions, to the point that the teachers are recommending we move on to more complex directions already.

It seems that Miss C is kind of shy around other grownups (other than Mama and Daddy and a few select relatives, that is). When she first started this school, though she signed quite a bit at home, she really didn't start signing for a couple of weeks. Getting her bearings and all that. Once she started to sign and realized they understood and would sign back, whoa nelly! You can't stop her. She also figured out the "head, shoulders, knees and toes" stuff from the song. She can find any part of the song on herself, you or even her stuffed animals.

Speaking of animals, she is getting even better at telling us "what they say." During our conference she was showing off to the teacher that she knew elephant and monkey and a few others they hadn't seen. She also tends to practice a lot at home before trying stuff out at school. Walking is a prime example of this. This weekend Miss C decided it was time to let go and just walk all over the place. I mentioned this at school since they were telling me they got asked if Miss C was ready to move up to the next class. Among other requirements such as sitting in a
chair and sleeping on a cot (things Miss C got used to upon arrival as she was deemed too tall to use the high chair or a crib), Miss C must demonstrate a mastery of walking.

Well, today she gave the teachers a taste of our weekend. They even got to see her walking backwards (on purpose, apparently you generally don't do this until around 2) and even make a 90 degree turn (she was walking to DH and decided to go to me instead).

In all, the teachers are thrilled with her progress, going so far as to state that she is developmentally at 18 or so months! Wow! We are going to give her a couple more weeks before we revisit the changing classrooms discussion.

I asked about a transition period and was assured that there is a week long transition period so Miss C isn't just thrown into a foreign environment. Needless to say, I hope all of our future parent-teacher conference go so well!

Oh, about the #2 issue we discussed last time. DH and I decided to cut her off from blueberries to see if that was the issue and wow, she is definitely doing better on that front. Apparently her body has a tough time processing blueberries. she isn't quite back to normal (we still have a Dr's appointment tomorrow anyway) but she is well on her way there. Bummer though, she really seems to like blueberries. Oh the plus side, she adores watermelon and doesn't seem to have any gastro issues with that so that's nice.

Miss C is 13 months old today!

For her 13 month day, Miss C gave herself a neat gift, extra sleep. As I type this, at nearly 8am, she is still asleep. Hard to believe since we usually get her up at 630am for school. I have eves today so i am letting her sleep in. Little angel.

Ok, quick updates on her stats: (read: Proud mama talking):

1. Walking! Miss C has decided its time to really walk. She started taking more than 2 steps at a time around Father's Day (a gift for DH?) and hasn't slowed down since. She walks to everything now. She even likes to climb the stairs, now that we let her when we are going upstairs for any reason. Don't worry, we still have the gates in place for all of our safety. She hasn't taken too many headers while walking and is getting more confident every day. In addition to walking forwards, Miss C is already walking backwards (on purpose!) and turning.

We have a parent/Teacher conference on Monday to discuss her moving up a class. Wow!

2. Talking! Miss C's vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds. Most of her oral words are words she has been signing for a while like fan, fish, Mama, daddy (yep, Daddy not Dada), kitty, etc. Her signing has grown exponentially as well. We were teaching her "light" to explain the difference between the light over the dining room table and the fan (they both hang from the ceiling so it can be tricky) but yesterday she totally got it. She even got it to the point that when we turned on a table lamp she said and signed light! She also loves the word "car". She says "car", signs "car" with both hands moving up and down (that circular motion is tricky) and adds a "vroom, vroom" because that's how Daddy does it (look, [Miss C}, car, vroom, vroom)! She also has a couple of made up signs that I mentioned in the last post (patting her chest to mean come here and putting her index finger in the palm of her hand to mean (?) put it here).

3. Blowing her own nose! i know i mentioned this before but holy moly! She loves to blow her nose now. Unfortunately, she will do it with or without a tissue so Mama has tissue patrol now!

4. Imaginative play. I know i mentioned Miss C has a dolly but she is so cute with her! She feeds her (she comes with a bottle) and even puts her down for naps. At school, she took a rolling pin and tried to feed one of the babies! She also rocks Dolly and her bears in her pooh rocking car. so cute! She has also started building stuff with her blocks instead of just destroying stuff. Lots of fun to be able to do both.

5. Teeth. Apparently a year was the point where Miss C was going to get more teeth. At 12 months she had 3 teeth with a couple more coming in. She now has 8 teeth in and is getting in her bottom eye (?) teeth. She is taking it like a champ though and chews the heck out of her teething toys and a couple of frozen wash cloths.

6. Eating with a spoon or fork. We've been working on this for ages. It wasn't until she realized how much more food she could get in her mouth at a time did Miss C really go for the spoon. She eats her cheerios with milk using a spoon and loves to use her spoon and fork when she has rice. Yummy!

I guess that's about it. Plenty for 13 months though!

Oh, before I go, Miss C has been having a tough time with her #2s. We would give her prunes, but she refuses to touch anything remotely resembling baby food. I can get her to drink some juice but do you think that will be enough? I am worried that she is having trouble due to the fact that she is drinking milk.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Happy Anniversary DH!

Well, today is 11 years since DH and I took our vows. talk about a change.

In the past 11 years we have done at least 8 deployments, lived in no fewer than 6 states, visited no fewer than 8 counties both for work and pleasure, got a cat and had a baby. Whoa.

As a gift to ourselves we went to dinner, alone. Yes, you heard me correctly, alone.

This is the first time that we went to dinner alone. This is the first time we had a babysitter over at the house. Wow.

I found our sitter from a flyer at work, of all things. She is the daughter of one of the guys I work with, a recent college graduate who is going to teach English in Korea at the end of the summer.

I was worried. Boy, was I worried. I mean, aside from the time she spent with Mrs J and a few visits with the grandparents, Miss C has never had a sitter at night.

When our sitter got here, a half hour before I planned to leave in order to give them time to acclimate, Sammy (our cat, remember) ran over to her like she knew her. She mewed and purred and loved all over her. Once the cat was in awe of her, Miss C decided, heck, she must be alright and walked over to her.

In less than 15 minutes, Miss C got comfortable enough with the sitter, a girl, young lady, whatever, she just met, to let her carry her up and down the stairs during the quick house tour.

I was flabbergasted. It made me think about what it was like when I was baby sitting and how I could get the kids to just glom on me. It made it easier to enjoy our anniversary dinner.

We only spent a couple of hours out but by the time we got home, Miss C had already been in bed an hour (long days walking and all that!). The sitter told us she was incredibly easy and asked us to explain a couple of the signs Miss C uses that aren't on the chart (example, Miss C pats her chest when she wants someone/something to come to her. She also points to her palm when she wants you to give her something. Neither sign is on the chart so we guess she made them up).

What a relief.

Oh, and, we really did enjoy our dinner.

I love you, DH!

A Miss C tale

So life gets more interesting when you have kids, right?

That's what I was told and yea, I agree. I thought that Miss C wouldn't be able to blow my expectations away as quickly or consistently as she has and continues to do. Today is a prime example and the aforementioned tale in the title.

After a busy day at school of walking, signing, and talking at school with her teachers and little friends, Miss C came home to let her Mama and Daddy get some time with her. While waiting on milk to warm up in the kitchen, Mama gave Miss C a piece of paper towel to keep her busy because Miss C really enjoys the sound it makes when you rip it and that gives Mama a little time to put stuff away. While ripping the paper towel, Miss C realized she had to blow her nose. Rather than let her nose run or simply wipe it on Mama or Daddy like normal, she chose to put her little paper towel to her nose and (I kid you not!) blow her own nose! Sounds and all!


This should serve as a lesson to never lower your expectations of what someone can do regardless of age. I don't know when I thought Miss C would do this but it sure wasn't at 12 months!



Oh, I chose this picture because it just makes me smile. Imagine that, our little girl reading a book at snack time! (And, yes, she does say "snack", more like "nack") :)