This weekend was much better than last. We had a really nice time together, all four of us, with no plans other than just having fun and doing a few things around the house. I feel especially bad now for being such a grump last weekend, but at least I got through it. Emily has only a slight remnant of her cough left and we're just finishing out the antibiotic. *phew!*
I captured a hilarious moment on camera tonight, and a super-sweet one this afternoon. After Emily woke up from her nap, she came over to Audrey on the floor and was giving her "snuffs" (little fake nibbles that I do to Emily's neck - her only hint of ticklishness!). Audrey almost giggled!! It was so adorable, because she was clearly having fun playing with her sister! and so was Emily, they were both just grinning and in stitches. I caught 2 seconds on video, and decided that was enough, just enjoy the moment. Tonight I snagged a picture of Emily as she tore through the dining room / living room / kitchen / hallway circle, being chased by Travis with a wrapping paper tube. They would each randomly shout out "hot dog!" and laugh their heads off. They must've done 50 laps, it was so funny. I guess that's one way to encourage distance running in your child - actual chasing??
And then I thought to myself, will I really want to go back and look at these pictures and videos?? I am finding each day to be bittersweet enough, realizing how fast this early-childhood parenting is going, and how much I will miss those giggles and smiles and snuggles. I think I might cry to look at all this captured joy, instead of reliving it!
Audrey was apparently quite demanding on Friday at Ms. Amanda's - when she was eating from her bottle (doing much better at that now that we've tried a new brand), she didn't like it at all when Amanda would make faces at the other baby who was waiting his turn to eat. She needed Amanda's full attention! Funny girl. And Emily sang her ABC's with me today -- right on pitch and with nearly every letter. I knew she could sing the song, because she sings strange combinations of it with twinkle, twinkle, and baa baa black sheep. But I had no idea she knew the letters in the song that well, because she usually says she can't do it and just listens to me. So today, she tried it, and she can do it! Amazing.
In one of Emily's books, there's a line about how "when the snow was gone, and wind was soft and warm again..." and it makes me hate winter a little more every time we read it. Someday, we'll be able to go outside without coats and boots. Someday, we'll see the sun after 6 PM. Someday we'll see green grass again... right??
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Literary fun
My girls both have notable things to write about from a literary perspective. I think I already posted about how much Audrey likes looking at books. We've started setting them up at the dinner table so she can look at pictures in board books while the rest of us eat. It's pretty fun.
Travis pointed out tonight, after supper, that Emily was reading Knuffle Bunny by herself, and reading it out loud. It was adorable - and she had so many of the phrases right! "Dad, Trixie... through the park, past the school, in laundrymat!" So cute. After bath the other night, I was trying to get Emily's attention to put her pajamas on, so I started quoting from a book where a little girl is putting her pj's on. I said, "Where's the baby? Where's she gone? Is she putting her pajamas on?" She continued with, "Soft and comfy, warm and snug..." it wasn't even the line that rhymed, it was the next line! Tonight, from the same book, I said the line "Having supper, filling her cup," "Smacking her lips and eating it up!" she said. She's memorizing poetry!!
We've had a rough couple of days lately. I stayed home from work with Emily on Friday because she had a fever the night before. She was awake most of that night, slept til 10 AM, and slept a monster nap in the afternoon. We cancelled our obligations for Saturday, as she was still a little feverish, with a cough and bit of a runny nose. After being awake for an average of 2-3 hours in the middle of the night each night since then, with one girl or the other, I was about as ragged as I could possibly be. Last night was better, which was good because today she developed an ear infection. On the way home from teh doctor, she peed in her carseat. This morning - pooped pants. It's been a rough day, but with the sleep I had last night and the SUN FINALLY COMING OUT, I've been able to handle it much better than this weekend. Let's just say I was a little grumpy on Saturday.
Tomorrow is PJ day at Ms. Amanda's, so I'm sure Emily will be excited. She loves wearing her pj's - and did all day on Saturday. I sure wish I could wear pj's to work!!
Travis pointed out tonight, after supper, that Emily was reading Knuffle Bunny by herself, and reading it out loud. It was adorable - and she had so many of the phrases right! "Dad, Trixie... through the park, past the school, in laundrymat!" So cute. After bath the other night, I was trying to get Emily's attention to put her pajamas on, so I started quoting from a book where a little girl is putting her pj's on. I said, "Where's the baby? Where's she gone? Is she putting her pajamas on?" She continued with, "Soft and comfy, warm and snug..." it wasn't even the line that rhymed, it was the next line! Tonight, from the same book, I said the line "Having supper, filling her cup," "Smacking her lips and eating it up!" she said. She's memorizing poetry!!
We've had a rough couple of days lately. I stayed home from work with Emily on Friday because she had a fever the night before. She was awake most of that night, slept til 10 AM, and slept a monster nap in the afternoon. We cancelled our obligations for Saturday, as she was still a little feverish, with a cough and bit of a runny nose. After being awake for an average of 2-3 hours in the middle of the night each night since then, with one girl or the other, I was about as ragged as I could possibly be. Last night was better, which was good because today she developed an ear infection. On the way home from teh doctor, she peed in her carseat. This morning - pooped pants. It's been a rough day, but with the sleep I had last night and the SUN FINALLY COMING OUT, I've been able to handle it much better than this weekend. Let's just say I was a little grumpy on Saturday.
Tomorrow is PJ day at Ms. Amanda's, so I'm sure Emily will be excited. She loves wearing her pj's - and did all day on Saturday. I sure wish I could wear pj's to work!!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Updates
I have several fun things to share about my girls, and I'm hoping that I can remember them all, now that I have a chance to sit and write. It's been pretty crazy around here since I started back at work last week. I'm pretty much as tired as I was back when Audrey was first born, except I have lots more to do now!! Today has been good, though, so I am starting to feel a little more caught up.
Audrey has the most beautiful baby smile! She smiles all the time, and she smiles really intently, like she's really conveying how joyful she feels. It's almost in two stages: the pleasant casual smile, and then she unleashes this incredible grin. A lot of times there's a little waist-wiggle with it, too. She's playing next to me in her fish gym right now, looking at a couple of fish as she kicks her feet. She seems to be as expressive with her feet as she is with her eyes. :) This morning, she and Emily and I were reading books on the floor, all laying in a row, and Audrey LOVED it. Emily was only half-interested, with a severe case of Can't Sit Still, but Audrey wasn't going anywhere. All the way through "The Little Engine That Could," she stared intently at each page, kicking, holding her little hands together almost in front of her face. I'd turn the page, and she'd let out another "Ggggggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!" It was great. The butterfly on the last page of the hungry caterpillar just about put her over the edge. :) She's had a little bit of trouble taking a bottle while at Amanda's during the day, so she had just been deciding to not eat at all until I came to get her, so I was pretty worried. But yesterday she had a lot of success with it, so I'm hoping she'll continue to do well. The next battle is getting her sleep and naps figured out. She seems to sleep so much at Amanda's that she's awake more often in the night, and not because she's hungry. I figure she doesn't like the noise there, and is fussy, so Amanda gives her her pacifier and she goes catatonic for a while. Not sure how to figure that one out; I'm sure she'll outgrow it, but I want to do everything I can to prevent her from being reliant on the pacifier. She generally never has one at home, but I will give her one when we're out and about if she's fussy.
Emily had us laughing this weekend, playing with her dolls. She'd come into the living room, announcing that "Baby went poopy in her diaper." she'd pick up a clean diaper, and leave to go put it on Baby. Then she'd come back in, say her line, take another diaper, and leave... and then I wondered where all these diapers were going. I found them, perfectly folded as used diapers are, in the garbage in the kitchen!! I convinced her that Baby wanted to learn to use the potty, so she took her doll and sat her on her "liddy" potty, and then left the bathroom and closed the door to give Baby some privacy, I guess. She entertained herself with baby for probably half an hour, at least. Her own progress in this area is still iffy sometimes, and other times she totally takes care of things herself. I would describe the whole process as "one step forward, 90% of that step back."
This weekend was a busy one, with BRR ride, the Super Bowl, and a visit from my grandfather and my cousin, unexpectedly. The girls and I spent Saturday in Ames at my sister's house, playing with cousins and friends while Travis and others biked, and then Sunday we went to a small gathering of Travis's co-workers to "watch" the game. There are two other babies Audrey's age and two other toddlers, so there was a lot going on besides the game!! And my extended family was here mostly because of weather that complicated their plans for attending a meeting here in Des Moines. Now that things have settled down, I've finally got the kitchen cleaned, I've got plans for supper, and I even picked up a few of Emily's toys. I may have as much as a full hour of naptime left, so who knows how productive Audrey and I will be in that time!
And since I have a minute, I'd like to voice my displeasure with "The Little Engine That Could." It's supposed to be all motivating, but the more I read it, the more I hate the little dolls and toys. Yeah, the passenger engine and the freight engine don't have to be so full of themselves, but their guilt-trip into "but the children will be sad if YOU don't help" just drives me nuts. How come it's the Little Blue Engine's fault that their train broke down? She didn't have anything to do with it. And how come all the other trains are male but Little Blue is female? Women have to help out, no matter how much it may hurt them, but men are exempt? They may be jerks, but at least they are still functioning trains. And they're important trains, too. I guess, after this weekend, I have found at least one reason to like it. Emily wanted my grandfather to read it to her while he was here, and he said he remembered his mom reading it to his little brother when he was about 12 years old. He said it was the same illustrations as the book we have, which I wrote my name on when I was probably 4 or 5. For Emily, that little memory goes back to her great-great-grandmother. How cool!
Here's another little something funny - Poppo remarked today at how well Audrey is able to shift her focus. I laughed and told him that's the first time she's ever received that compliment! He has spent the past 60+ years as an expert in child development, though, so he knows what he's talking about. :)
Audrey has the most beautiful baby smile! She smiles all the time, and she smiles really intently, like she's really conveying how joyful she feels. It's almost in two stages: the pleasant casual smile, and then she unleashes this incredible grin. A lot of times there's a little waist-wiggle with it, too. She's playing next to me in her fish gym right now, looking at a couple of fish as she kicks her feet. She seems to be as expressive with her feet as she is with her eyes. :) This morning, she and Emily and I were reading books on the floor, all laying in a row, and Audrey LOVED it. Emily was only half-interested, with a severe case of Can't Sit Still, but Audrey wasn't going anywhere. All the way through "The Little Engine That Could," she stared intently at each page, kicking, holding her little hands together almost in front of her face. I'd turn the page, and she'd let out another "Ggggggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!" It was great. The butterfly on the last page of the hungry caterpillar just about put her over the edge. :) She's had a little bit of trouble taking a bottle while at Amanda's during the day, so she had just been deciding to not eat at all until I came to get her, so I was pretty worried. But yesterday she had a lot of success with it, so I'm hoping she'll continue to do well. The next battle is getting her sleep and naps figured out. She seems to sleep so much at Amanda's that she's awake more often in the night, and not because she's hungry. I figure she doesn't like the noise there, and is fussy, so Amanda gives her her pacifier and she goes catatonic for a while. Not sure how to figure that one out; I'm sure she'll outgrow it, but I want to do everything I can to prevent her from being reliant on the pacifier. She generally never has one at home, but I will give her one when we're out and about if she's fussy.
Emily had us laughing this weekend, playing with her dolls. She'd come into the living room, announcing that "Baby went poopy in her diaper." she'd pick up a clean diaper, and leave to go put it on Baby. Then she'd come back in, say her line, take another diaper, and leave... and then I wondered where all these diapers were going. I found them, perfectly folded as used diapers are, in the garbage in the kitchen!! I convinced her that Baby wanted to learn to use the potty, so she took her doll and sat her on her "liddy" potty, and then left the bathroom and closed the door to give Baby some privacy, I guess. She entertained herself with baby for probably half an hour, at least. Her own progress in this area is still iffy sometimes, and other times she totally takes care of things herself. I would describe the whole process as "one step forward, 90% of that step back."
This weekend was a busy one, with BRR ride, the Super Bowl, and a visit from my grandfather and my cousin, unexpectedly. The girls and I spent Saturday in Ames at my sister's house, playing with cousins and friends while Travis and others biked, and then Sunday we went to a small gathering of Travis's co-workers to "watch" the game. There are two other babies Audrey's age and two other toddlers, so there was a lot going on besides the game!! And my extended family was here mostly because of weather that complicated their plans for attending a meeting here in Des Moines. Now that things have settled down, I've finally got the kitchen cleaned, I've got plans for supper, and I even picked up a few of Emily's toys. I may have as much as a full hour of naptime left, so who knows how productive Audrey and I will be in that time!
And since I have a minute, I'd like to voice my displeasure with "The Little Engine That Could." It's supposed to be all motivating, but the more I read it, the more I hate the little dolls and toys. Yeah, the passenger engine and the freight engine don't have to be so full of themselves, but their guilt-trip into "but the children will be sad if YOU don't help" just drives me nuts. How come it's the Little Blue Engine's fault that their train broke down? She didn't have anything to do with it. And how come all the other trains are male but Little Blue is female? Women have to help out, no matter how much it may hurt them, but men are exempt? They may be jerks, but at least they are still functioning trains. And they're important trains, too. I guess, after this weekend, I have found at least one reason to like it. Emily wanted my grandfather to read it to her while he was here, and he said he remembered his mom reading it to his little brother when he was about 12 years old. He said it was the same illustrations as the book we have, which I wrote my name on when I was probably 4 or 5. For Emily, that little memory goes back to her great-great-grandmother. How cool!
Here's another little something funny - Poppo remarked today at how well Audrey is able to shift her focus. I laughed and told him that's the first time she's ever received that compliment! He has spent the past 60+ years as an expert in child development, though, so he knows what he's talking about. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)