"That" mom

That's right, I'm "that" mom. I'm sorry, I really didn't think I was going to be, but I am so incredibly proud of Emily's crafting skills that I'm posting pictures of what she can do.  I've been drawing animal faces and she cuts them out:

Then I sketched out some headless, tailless bunnies for her to paste her cut-outs to.  She found some stickers and got carried away with them, too:

That's all her cutting!!  She was pretty proud of herself, too, and quite silly, of course.

Emily was singing with me at the piano this morning.  She and I sang Brahms' Lullaby together, and it was really quite nice, and then she requested Mary Had a Little Lamb.  Of course, I didn't have sheet music for that, so I did my best, but her singing was SO pretty!  I loved it.  Highlight of my day/week/whatever.  Awesome.

Audrey was quite expressive at dinner tonight.  She's been doing great at feeding herself bits of things, particularly pears, peaches, and plums.  But tonight she didn't like the cooked carrots and bread that I'd put on her tray, or the babyfood I'd processed for her, and she howled at me until I found something she found tolerable.  It was ridiculous.  But it's still fun to see her coming into her own person.  When she does like what she's gotten, she twirls her feet around and her hands, and sings.  She can rock on her hands and knees now, but still isn't brave enough to move her hands or knees to get going crawling.  She sure wants to, though, and I'm hoping she figures it out soon because her random flopping tends to get her into trouble.

I am thinking I will sign Emily up for Spanish classes.  I found a program in Johnston that looks like it'd be fun for her, although I still need to do more investigating on it.  I haven't seen a reply from the email I sent asking for more info, so I guess I'll call tomorrow.  It could be something fun to get Emily going in another direction before she qualifies for preschool.  It's tough to keep her entertained sometimes... and therefore sometimes infuriating at how mature and capable she can be versus how much she likes to just scream when she's unhappy.  It's totally in line with a 2-year-old to do that, but I sometimes wish she had chosen a different 2-year-old behavior to hang on to until she turns 3.  Then again, most mornings she greets me with a huge smile and tells me that she had sweet dreams. 

Keeping up with this and that

This weekend, the girls got to see all their grandparents, and lots of friends.  My parents were here on Friday, and Saturday we went to Barnum.  Apparently, two nights of being put to bed by Grandma (first my mom, then Trav's) was enough to throw off her ability to put herself to sleep.  I didn't think that was too much spoiling, but the past two nights she's had a rough time. Or maybe she's overtired?  She's sure not under-tired!!  We've all been run ragged by the weekend, and we all slept well last night.  I'm hoping another good night tonight will help me get my feet back under me again.  And then tomorrow, off to work.

Once again, my work schedule has changed, this time to working Tuesdays and Thursdays, still 10-hour days.  I'm getting more frustrated by things at work.  You know how the biggest complaint of stay-at-home-moms is that their work is not appreciated by those who benefit?  I feel MUCH more appreciated at home than I do at work, which really tells you something.  Half of the things I do are necessary as a part of my job responsibilities but are never viewed by anybody else (worthless by definition), another 25% are necessary and should be viewed by anybody else (worthless by other people's inadequacy), and the other 25% is something that I think is necessary but the few people who think it's worthwhile can't reward me for it.  I'm suspicious that someone is planning to take some of this latter category and present it as his own work at a conference coming up in a few weeks, but I have yet to confirm that.  It's pretty discouraging.  It would all seem more tolerable if I were truly happy with my daycare, instead of just okay with it.

I went to the garage sale for the end of Amanda's daycare, and I picked up lots of good stuff.  Not just toys - several curriculum books and a book of songplay ideas, a plastic kiddie pool, and a really awesome wall calendar.  I got a couple of things for Baby Johannsen, and, okay, some toys too!  Emily was so happy to see Emma and Brady, and they were so sweet to her.  I know there are some nice kids who could be good friends for Emily at Janet's, but it's so sad to say goodbye to such a good situation.

Audrey is on the verge of crawling, finally able to get her little bottom up in the air and rock a little.  She mostly goes backwards, though, and I had to rescue her three times today after getting her legs stuck under the coffee table or couch.  Her 9-month pictures last week went really well, and we got some good pictures.  She's getting to be pretty persnickety about things, like she really has a preference for one thing or another.  And she's getting more and more expressive, which is absolutely beautiful.  She's really enjoyed the "new" pool, which is pretty funny considering she always hated it at Amanda's!

We went to the state fair last week, and our whole family had a great time.  Emily really enjoyed the experience, even though she's still afraid of cows.  She saw tractors, ate a bunch of junk food, and went down the giant slide twice!  I'm wishing I could think of some of the charming things she's been saying lately.  She's so mature; it's funny to see in such a little person.  She's very polite, saying "thank you" easily, like it's just what she does.  My mom was marveling at the things she does like her preschoolers would do, like cutting out shapes with scissors, drawing closed shapes, copying letters, and standing on one foot.  It was kind of neat to realize just how amazing that all is ... and then to realize that she's not even 3 yet and it's totally normal for her to be loopy and incapable of rationally communicating with me when she's tired, or for whatever reason she chooses.

It's bedtime here.  I'll try to blog sometime when I'm in more of a glowing mood, because there are tons of great things to report about my kids but I'm a bit beaten down by the day to relay them all.  Look at the updated pictures - they're beautiful!

Staying afloat

Travis is still out for "dinner" with his new boss, and it's almost 9 PM.  It's been a long day without him, so to get out of the house, the girls and I went for a walk tonight in the "dribble" stroller, and boy it's a workout pushing that thing!  I came home and found an online calorie calculator, and I basically burned off 3 of the many, many oreos I've had today.  I rounded up on the numbers because of how hot it was outside. :)  It was still discouraging to see the numbers, but a very fun evening activity.  Emily sang the whole way - lovely!
I am sure hoping that one spinach leaf is considered a full serving of vegetables for a toddler, cuz that's all Emily got for veggies today. I'm not doing so well with her healthy eating lately, although she will scarf down a whole peach or pear if you let her... it's not all bad, I guess.


Audrey has mastered clapping, and it is ADORABLE!  It also makes it hard to feed her when her hands are flapping in front of her, but it's still fun.  Her stats at her 9-month appointment yesterday were impressive:  almost 21 lbs (60th percentile), and head size and height (30") both above 95th percentile.  She may not look as much like Travis as Emily does, but she seems to have his build!  She's still not crawling, although she's wanting to move more and more now.  I'm trying to let her work that frustration into some progress instead of just picking her up whenever she howls, but wow, it's a lot of howling.  And Emily wants to help her, so she'll go over and lift up her head in an attempt to help her sit up, and then drop it back on the ground when I tell her to stop touching her sister.  Gah!  Audrey can feed herself pretty well now, though, which is nice.  It's so cute to see her use her skinny little fingers, just her thumb and forefinger, to chase around pieces of pear, cheese, or bread.  And, I think she's starting to catch on that we're giving her signs for things, associating the signs with the words even if she's not using them back just yet. I am so crazy about this little girl!

We went to Ashby Park today, and Emily showed how she can blow bubbles in the water.  She really does great!  Even if her nose isn't in the water yet, at least she's not drinking it like she used to.  The water was a bit murky today, but I figure if that's the only effect I see from all this rampant flooding, I'll take it.  My parents were supposed to come visit today, with Jenny's girls, but couldn't because I-35 was closed at Ames due to high water.  Three nights in a row of wicked thunderstorms delivering several inches of rain each night have caused all kinds of problems, even in our neighborhood which is on really high ground.  There are streaks of grass in nearly every yard that are pelted down because they've become temporary streams at night.  The worst is to the west of our house - a good 3 feet wide all the way through to the street! - and water is just streaming into our sump pit from the rework we had done in the SW corner of the house.  But, I'll take it!  We have fresh water to drink, a dry basement, and nothing critical has been disrupted, which is more than I can say for a lot of people I know!

Applying my "adaptability"

Okay, if I'm so adaptable, how come I'm so displeased with this whole daycare changeover thing?  Because it affects my girls, and I'm a real Mama Bear when it comes to that.  And no, that's not Mama Grizzly - they're not justifiably protective, they're unjustifiably naive.

They did okay today, though.  I went to Janet's last Thursday, and the girls played for about an hour while I was there.  I didn't pick up any red flags then, and things today went fine, so it'll be all right.  I cried when I dropped the girls off at Amanda's last Friday for their last day, and then again when I picked them up and said goodbye.  I'm sure they wondered what the heck was making me so sad, but if they knew, they'd cry too.  The hardest part about today was after we got home and Emily saw her swimsuit that had been at Amanda's for her to play outside in.  She got REALLY upset and insisted that we take that suit back to Ms. Amanda's so she could go swimmin'.  I'm hoping that wearing that suit to Ashby Park on wednesday with her cousins and grandparents will make her feel better about things.

It was really nice that there was only one other kid at Janet's today, a 7-month-old baby, so the girls weren't completely overwhelmed by things.  It's in the same neighborhood as Amanda's house, so if they go to the park it's the same park.  And I'm working shorter days for a few weeks so they're not faced with 10-hour stretches in a strange place all at once.  We'll get it figured out, I think.  Staying at home sure is looking like a nicer and nicer option, though.

Of course, this kind of major transition wouldn't be complete without an appliance failure - our stupid dishwasher is flashing a number all the time now, and it's actually the same cost to replace it as it would be to get it fixed, due to the fact that it's on a safety recall anyway for something that could start the house on fire (we haven't been running it overnight or while we're not home since we learned about that!!).  So, something else to have to figure out.

Tomorrow is Audrey's 9-mo checkup, and I'm sure they'll say she's growing great and that we shouldn't worry that she's not crawling.  She's eating great, has really good fine motor skills, and I'd swear she understands a lot of what we're saying.  I've started signing with her a little, and I think that she'll catch on to that pretty quickly here, since she seems to understand the signs even though she doesn't make them back.

And of course, The Haircut!  Emily's first!  Saturday night, Audrey was exhausted in the bath but Emily had just had a long nap, so we put Audrey to bed and kept Emily up for a while.  She was SO excited, but doesn't seem to particularly care how long her hair is anyway so I think the thrill was in the event only.  She had a hard time keeping her head still, because she wanted to turn and watch the scissors.  I'm also a little worried that my industrious daughter will take scissors to her own hair independently, so I was very careful to tell her it was my job to do it, and with special scissors only.  All in all, her hair looks fantastic (just don't look at the uneven ends - I did my best, but like I said, holey wiggly!!!) and it's much easier to brush, dry, and put in pony tails.  But she looks so grown-up now!!  Where did my little baby go? 

All in all, I am tremendously proud of my daughters for handling this whole change as well as they have so far, keeping in mind that the transition will undoubtedly last a few weeks or more.  As others we talked to predicted, they're doing better than their parents.  Travis and I both have had bouts of "I can't make this better for them!!"  We're supposed to be all-powerful and all-knowing, and yet I feel completely powerless (and stupid, but that's kind of an ongoing thing with parenthood, I think!).  I suppose this is just the beginning.