What a great thanksgiving!! We spent a day in Barnum, a day in Rockford, and most of today travelling home. We stopped in Ames to have lunch with my grandparents, too. Despite some difficulty in getting girls to sleep (which is to be expected, I suppose), we had an easy time travelling with the girls, and they were lovely, amazing girls the whole time. It was possibly the most low-key holiday I've ever had, with almost no stress and lots of fantastic food wherever we went. We also got a Christmas tree this afternoon, and Emily was really excited to put her ornaments on it.
A highlight from today: As we were leaving Mommo's house, Audrey was crying because she was overtired, late for her nap. So we got her buckled in, and I was buckling Emily into her carseat. Emily was asking why Audrey was crying (because Emily asks why to absolutely everything these days), so I told her she wanted us to sing to her. Emily and I started singing "Golden Slumbers," and Audrey immediately stopped crying, and stared at us with her big blue eyes still full of tears. Then Mommo joined in, right next to Audrey, and then she stared at her, just taking it all in. It was a wonderful, wonderful moment for me, all of us singing together.
Audrey also figured out how to climb up into her little rocking chair (see picasa). She was SO proud of herself. I took a whole bunch of pictures of her with the camera held vertical (portrait), and then turned it sideways, and she turned her head when I did that! I noticed immediately because my very first memory is of watching my dad take pictures of me, turning the camera and I turned my head so my face would be right in the picture. Audrey did exactly the same thing! I told my mom about it and she thinks I was probably the same age as Audrey, so it's weird to think that she's storing away memories from things that happen, and I may never know what's impacting her long-term... anyway, the pictures are adorable and she totally caught on that I knew why she did that. So we took a bunch more pictures, both directions. What a cutie.
Thanksgiving was also made fun because I learned about friends of mine who will be having kids next spring! Hooray! This will be a fun spring. My cousin and his wife are having a baby in January, my coworker is having twins in February, I get a new niece or nephew in March, and I just learned about a friend who's expecting the end of May (yay!!!). Several other friends are expecting this coming spring and summer, too, so apparently it was a busy fall for some people!! Class of '29 is going to be full of interesting people, if they're anything like their parents!
I've noticed lately that my blog gets more traffic than I expect or can identify based on Feedjit locations, so I will be changing this blog to be password protected after this entry. Please let me know if you'd like the password, and when I do my next posting in a week or two I will email you the info you need. I want to do a better job of staying personally connected with my friends, so this will make me feel a little less like I'm enabling casual stalking. :) If you want to hear what I'm up to, I want to hear from you, too, really! I may not be able to form coherent sentences when I attempt real conversations, and you may not have time to write me a book, but I miss my friends. What's up with you?
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
My sweet, sweet Emily
So for some stupid reason I seem to post mainly about accomplishments and frustrations, when I should be sharing amazingly sweet stories like what happened at bedtime tonight.
Emily likes to "hide" a book under her bed during the day, and then have a Surprise Book (or Purrize Book, as she calls it) for her story to go to sleep. Sometimes I sneak one in that she's not expecting, and that's fun, too! Since she's been sick, she's been napping in the afternoons, and then staying up late, and it's not a good system for us. Today, we didn't let her nap, and lucky for us, Sullivan grandparents were here for dinnertime so she was a happy girl on her best wiggliest behavior. But last night, she didn't want to sleep because she wasn't tired yet, and she was mad that I was putting her to bed at 8:30 instead of 10 like the night before. I tried to give her a hug, and she pushed me away, hand to my throat, so I hugged her anyway, kissed her head, told her I loved her, and said goodnight sweetie, and went downstairs. She howled for nearly an hour after that, and my awesome hubby took care of all of it. After a while, she was upset because she did want to give me a hug, but he said that I was downstairs, and if she wanted to hug me, she should do so when I'm tucking her in. In retrospect it seems harsh, but at the time, I was just too tired to deal with it. I had spent the day getting her glasses of water she wouldn't drink, dressing her in clothes she immediately removed, serving her food she wouldn't eat, trying to read her stories that she wouldn't sit still for, and finally putting her in a bed where she wouldn't sleep. And Travis was tired of the howling.
Tonight, she was exhausted, and I read her one book, turned off her light, sang her a song, and offered her a hug. She gave me the biggest, most wonderful hug, and said, (unprovoked), "I sorry I pushed you away. Don't cry, Mom, it'll be all right. You a nice mom." I got all teary anyway. :) I asked Travis what he had told her last night, to make sure he wasn't guilting her or upsetting her into thinking I was mad at her, or anything, and he said he had barely mentioned it. What a sensitive, sweet girl! I will have to be more and more careful what I say when I'm frustrated, because she is digesting every single bit of what she hears, and taking it to heart. Which is insane because i can say other things to her a million times and they just go whizzing right by; complex things like put your shoes away, or take another bite. But yeah, she's a wonderful little girl. I love her!!!!!
Emily likes to "hide" a book under her bed during the day, and then have a Surprise Book (or Purrize Book, as she calls it) for her story to go to sleep. Sometimes I sneak one in that she's not expecting, and that's fun, too! Since she's been sick, she's been napping in the afternoons, and then staying up late, and it's not a good system for us. Today, we didn't let her nap, and lucky for us, Sullivan grandparents were here for dinnertime so she was a happy girl on her best wiggliest behavior. But last night, she didn't want to sleep because she wasn't tired yet, and she was mad that I was putting her to bed at 8:30 instead of 10 like the night before. I tried to give her a hug, and she pushed me away, hand to my throat, so I hugged her anyway, kissed her head, told her I loved her, and said goodnight sweetie, and went downstairs. She howled for nearly an hour after that, and my awesome hubby took care of all of it. After a while, she was upset because she did want to give me a hug, but he said that I was downstairs, and if she wanted to hug me, she should do so when I'm tucking her in. In retrospect it seems harsh, but at the time, I was just too tired to deal with it. I had spent the day getting her glasses of water she wouldn't drink, dressing her in clothes she immediately removed, serving her food she wouldn't eat, trying to read her stories that she wouldn't sit still for, and finally putting her in a bed where she wouldn't sleep. And Travis was tired of the howling.
Tonight, she was exhausted, and I read her one book, turned off her light, sang her a song, and offered her a hug. She gave me the biggest, most wonderful hug, and said, (unprovoked), "I sorry I pushed you away. Don't cry, Mom, it'll be all right. You a nice mom." I got all teary anyway. :) I asked Travis what he had told her last night, to make sure he wasn't guilting her or upsetting her into thinking I was mad at her, or anything, and he said he had barely mentioned it. What a sensitive, sweet girl! I will have to be more and more careful what I say when I'm frustrated, because she is digesting every single bit of what she hears, and taking it to heart. Which is insane because i can say other things to her a million times and they just go whizzing right by; complex things like put your shoes away, or take another bite. But yeah, she's a wonderful little girl. I love her!!!!!
The sickness continues
Back in September, Travis stayed home from work with a fever and chills, then had a lingering cough for almost a month after that. Near the end of that, we both came down with a stomach flu, and then I caught the cough. That's almost done, but earlier this week I caught something else and my head has been congested, my sinuses were on fire. After a chiropractic adjustment and a good night's sleep (that took me 3 nights to achieve, no thanks to my girls), I'm finally on the mend. I think it's gotten into my inner ears, so I'm all woozy and still very weak, but at least I was able to function today. Will I ever feel good again???
Emily has been a handful lately, asking WHY to absolutely everything I say to her, whether it makes sense to ask why or not, and sometimes just flat-out saying No. I usually ignore those and that seems to work well, but the Whys are really grating on me. She's also really getting tired of Audrey being in her space. We have time-outs almost every day for taking toys out of her hand, knocking her over, pulling her legs, or excessive hugging. Yes, I'm that mom that you hear in the grocery store, hollering at her kid to stop hugging her sister. Audrey generally doesn't protest that one much, but I'm suspicious that it's only because Emily goes right for her windpipe and there's not much she could say if she wanted to. And with everyone in our house sick and overtired for one reason or another, I'll admit I haven't handled it as well as I could. But, I'm learning as best I can, and we've made good use of the portable jail and other deterrents to keep the girls happily playing. Emily is just so earnest and clever that I sometimes can't even get her attention to change her actions at all. A new rule in our house, though, is that she cannot ask Why if i say Stop, Let Go, or NO!! Anything else, I'll try to explain if she really wants to know why, but those she has to just do immediately. Gah! so annoying!!
I challenged Emily the other day to stand on one foot, and she really did pretty well for only trying it for her first time. Audrey can pull herself to standing using just about anything now, and I've seen her let go in order to concentrate on whatever treasure she's found, so that's pretty cool. Nice that my girls have some balance even if I'm too dizzy myself!!
And Audrey is babbling so sweetly now. Her "Mom Mom Mom"s are more purposeful and she tells me stories: "Shzuzzzshuzzshuzzshuzz, dju dju dju dju..." It's funny to think that that's what we sound like to her!
Emily surprised me the other day, on the way to the park, by singing along with me all the way through "Mr. Sun." What a good singer she is!
My neighbor has gotten me interested in the Montessori school in Des Moines. Usually the most common factor to Montessori schools is that they are prohibitively expensive, but this is actually a public school, a part of the Des Moines Public Schools. I sent in Emily's application already, so hopefully the waiting list for 4-year-old preschool in Fall 2012 isn't too long to include her! (I would hope not, but they said they'll accept names as soon as the child turns 1. yikes!) My neighbor has sons in 1st grade and 4YO preschool, and she has spoken so highly of her experiences there, I figured I'd throw my name into the hat. One of the biggest advantages, I think, is that the Montessori philosophy is to play off of the child's inherent love of learning, and not try to mold them all into the same kind of learner. They will put kids into whatever age of learning group they're ready for (Kindergarteners reading with 1st graders if they're ready, etc.), and focus on student-discovery over teaching memorization. I can remember learning about the multiplication table in 4th grade, and studying how the numbers added and looking for patterns and figuring out how multiplication was related to addition, groups of numbers and such; and then I failed the multiplication test because I had been essentially deriving the table instead of just memorizing it. In Montessori, that's good learning; in traditional methods, that's failing. Since both my girls will be on the older end of their classes, I'm excited to think that this might keep them from feeling like they spend their days waiting for other kids. It sounds really arrogant of me to say so, but that's how I felt all the way through elementary and junior high. Spelling tests were just agony, waiting for the next word... and then I'd miss words completely because I was trying to entertain myself while waiting. I read novels under my desk, I practiced fingering for pieces I was learning on piano or violin, I bit my fingernails, and I daydreamed a LOT, all day long. Wouldn't it be great if my girls could learn what they're ready for, when they're excited about it? And I know that it's not fair to assume they'll be like me (or Travis; he's said he felt the same way), but still, isn't that a great way to learn?
This past week of daycare dropoffs and pickups went just fine, with no tears. Emily was a little apprehensive on Tuesday, but she got into it just fine. Travis was gone in Dallas on Tuesday and Wednesday, and for some reason I had a really hard time with this trip; lucky for me, he was able to come home on Wed instead of the Thursday that he'd planned on. He switched his flight, and surprised me by showing up with a bottle of wine and a few other treats that we enjoyed after the girls were in bed Friday night. (They weren't asleep; they didn't konk out for good until almost 1 AM. Little stinkers!) Anyway, Emily's class is giong on a field trip in a few weeks to a local gymnastics place, so that's going to be pretty cool! I'm tempted to go along with them, but, if I wanted to do that, why don't I just take her on a day I don't work, right? I thought it was nice that it was scheduled for a day when Emily was there. And Audrey gets lots of 1-on-1 snuggles with one of her afternoon teachers, who is thoroughly smitten with her (but really, who wouldn't be, right? have you seen her big blue eyes??) This place is going to be just fine; not ideal, but since that doesn't exist, this will work.
Emily has been a handful lately, asking WHY to absolutely everything I say to her, whether it makes sense to ask why or not, and sometimes just flat-out saying No. I usually ignore those and that seems to work well, but the Whys are really grating on me. She's also really getting tired of Audrey being in her space. We have time-outs almost every day for taking toys out of her hand, knocking her over, pulling her legs, or excessive hugging. Yes, I'm that mom that you hear in the grocery store, hollering at her kid to stop hugging her sister. Audrey generally doesn't protest that one much, but I'm suspicious that it's only because Emily goes right for her windpipe and there's not much she could say if she wanted to. And with everyone in our house sick and overtired for one reason or another, I'll admit I haven't handled it as well as I could. But, I'm learning as best I can, and we've made good use of the portable jail and other deterrents to keep the girls happily playing. Emily is just so earnest and clever that I sometimes can't even get her attention to change her actions at all. A new rule in our house, though, is that she cannot ask Why if i say Stop, Let Go, or NO!! Anything else, I'll try to explain if she really wants to know why, but those she has to just do immediately. Gah! so annoying!!
I challenged Emily the other day to stand on one foot, and she really did pretty well for only trying it for her first time. Audrey can pull herself to standing using just about anything now, and I've seen her let go in order to concentrate on whatever treasure she's found, so that's pretty cool. Nice that my girls have some balance even if I'm too dizzy myself!!
And Audrey is babbling so sweetly now. Her "Mom Mom Mom"s are more purposeful and she tells me stories: "Shzuzzzshuzzshuzzshuzz, dju dju dju dju..." It's funny to think that that's what we sound like to her!
Emily surprised me the other day, on the way to the park, by singing along with me all the way through "Mr. Sun." What a good singer she is!
My neighbor has gotten me interested in the Montessori school in Des Moines. Usually the most common factor to Montessori schools is that they are prohibitively expensive, but this is actually a public school, a part of the Des Moines Public Schools. I sent in Emily's application already, so hopefully the waiting list for 4-year-old preschool in Fall 2012 isn't too long to include her! (I would hope not, but they said they'll accept names as soon as the child turns 1. yikes!) My neighbor has sons in 1st grade and 4YO preschool, and she has spoken so highly of her experiences there, I figured I'd throw my name into the hat. One of the biggest advantages, I think, is that the Montessori philosophy is to play off of the child's inherent love of learning, and not try to mold them all into the same kind of learner. They will put kids into whatever age of learning group they're ready for (Kindergarteners reading with 1st graders if they're ready, etc.), and focus on student-discovery over teaching memorization. I can remember learning about the multiplication table in 4th grade, and studying how the numbers added and looking for patterns and figuring out how multiplication was related to addition, groups of numbers and such; and then I failed the multiplication test because I had been essentially deriving the table instead of just memorizing it. In Montessori, that's good learning; in traditional methods, that's failing. Since both my girls will be on the older end of their classes, I'm excited to think that this might keep them from feeling like they spend their days waiting for other kids. It sounds really arrogant of me to say so, but that's how I felt all the way through elementary and junior high. Spelling tests were just agony, waiting for the next word... and then I'd miss words completely because I was trying to entertain myself while waiting. I read novels under my desk, I practiced fingering for pieces I was learning on piano or violin, I bit my fingernails, and I daydreamed a LOT, all day long. Wouldn't it be great if my girls could learn what they're ready for, when they're excited about it? And I know that it's not fair to assume they'll be like me (or Travis; he's said he felt the same way), but still, isn't that a great way to learn?
This past week of daycare dropoffs and pickups went just fine, with no tears. Emily was a little apprehensive on Tuesday, but she got into it just fine. Travis was gone in Dallas on Tuesday and Wednesday, and for some reason I had a really hard time with this trip; lucky for me, he was able to come home on Wed instead of the Thursday that he'd planned on. He switched his flight, and surprised me by showing up with a bottle of wine and a few other treats that we enjoyed after the girls were in bed Friday night. (They weren't asleep; they didn't konk out for good until almost 1 AM. Little stinkers!) Anyway, Emily's class is giong on a field trip in a few weeks to a local gymnastics place, so that's going to be pretty cool! I'm tempted to go along with them, but, if I wanted to do that, why don't I just take her on a day I don't work, right? I thought it was nice that it was scheduled for a day when Emily was there. And Audrey gets lots of 1-on-1 snuggles with one of her afternoon teachers, who is thoroughly smitten with her (but really, who wouldn't be, right? have you seen her big blue eyes??) This place is going to be just fine; not ideal, but since that doesn't exist, this will work.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Birthday completed
So, we did have a small gathering on Sunday, even though Emily was feeling horrible. Travis's parents and his brother and girlfriend came and braved our sick household, and I'm so glad they did. We had a nice lunch, opened presents, ate Very Hungry Caterpillar cupcakes, and took care of Emily, who snoozed and threw up off and on all day. She felt good enough to sing Happy Birthday to Audrey and help blow out her candle, which was very important to her, so that was really special. Emily is quite the singer, even when she's sick! It was great to hear her little voice singing so earnestly.
And we continued the party yesterday afternoon. My sister and her girls, my parents, and my grandparents came to eat the leftover cupcakes and play with Audrey's new toys. We had dinner together, and it was a nice small celebration. I suppose it was nice to have fewer people at a time, not so overwhelming for Audrey, so that's the silver lining to all this.
Emily woke up Monday morning, singing to Audrey and then bouncing into my room saying, "Audrey's AWAKE! I sleeped well! I don't need to throw up aaaaanymore!" She didn't eat well until Tuesday or so, but she did go to daycare and did just fine. After three weeks at the new daycare, they still are having a hard time being dropped off. When I left them today, they were both in tears. I figured they recovered quickly; I don't get much feedback, though; the limited information I get is filtered because Travis picks them up. The good side of that is that he gets to spend special time with them, and I get to come straight home from work and be greeted with big smiles and hugs when I walk in the door. And, Audrey gets to ride front-facing in his car because there's not enough room for the carseat to be rear-facing, and that's quite the thrill for her.
Trav told me that just before I walked in the door tonight, Audrey was working on standing up. She was crawling, straightened her legs, then threw her hands up in the air, standing up! Then she fell over, of course. But then she was working on standing and walking with a walker toy after supper tonight, and totally loving it. She seems so tall when she gets up and going, and she sure thinks she's hot stuff! We measured her on the wall for her birthday, and she's exactly as tall as Emily was at 1 year. They're growing up so fast!
And we continued the party yesterday afternoon. My sister and her girls, my parents, and my grandparents came to eat the leftover cupcakes and play with Audrey's new toys. We had dinner together, and it was a nice small celebration. I suppose it was nice to have fewer people at a time, not so overwhelming for Audrey, so that's the silver lining to all this.
Emily woke up Monday morning, singing to Audrey and then bouncing into my room saying, "Audrey's AWAKE! I sleeped well! I don't need to throw up aaaaanymore!" She didn't eat well until Tuesday or so, but she did go to daycare and did just fine. After three weeks at the new daycare, they still are having a hard time being dropped off. When I left them today, they were both in tears. I figured they recovered quickly; I don't get much feedback, though; the limited information I get is filtered because Travis picks them up. The good side of that is that he gets to spend special time with them, and I get to come straight home from work and be greeted with big smiles and hugs when I walk in the door. And, Audrey gets to ride front-facing in his car because there's not enough room for the carseat to be rear-facing, and that's quite the thrill for her.
Trav told me that just before I walked in the door tonight, Audrey was working on standing up. She was crawling, straightened her legs, then threw her hands up in the air, standing up! Then she fell over, of course. But then she was working on standing and walking with a walker toy after supper tonight, and totally loving it. She seems so tall when she gets up and going, and she sure thinks she's hot stuff! We measured her on the wall for her birthday, and she's exactly as tall as Emily was at 1 year. They're growing up so fast!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Nevermind
So, Audrey is 1, but we won't be having a birthday party because Emily has spent the day throwing up. I feel so bad for her, because she was so excited about everybody coming to celebrate for her little sister. But, she probably has the same bug that Travis and I both had earlier this week, and it is NOT FUN. Fortunately, her stomach is rejecting things straight-off so I don't think she'll have problems at the other end like Trav and I did, but it was not a fun way to wake up this morning, at 5 AM.
We wasted a perfectly good Saturday afternoon on a stupid football game when we could've been celebrating Audrey's birthday. I have a cake ready, I have presents ready, I have decorations, I have party clothes for the birthday girl, but I COULDN'T GET ANYBODY INTERESTED at the time that it was relevant so there is no party. Audrey misses out, Emily misses out, and I MISS OUT. Goddammit, the first birthday is really more about moms anyway. Hallelujah, I made it through the first year, up all night, carrying her everywhere, worrying about every little thing, and now she's not a baby anymore and we made it!! Yay.
So, we'll see how we make the most of this day. I'm obviously annoyed, and I just wanted to make this announcement:
I AM NEVER SCHEDULING ANYTHING IN MY LIFE AROUND ANY KIND OF FOOTBALL GAME EVER AGAIN.
It wasn't worth it for my senior recital and it wasn't worth it for Audrey's birthday and, you know, it's just not worth it for me to ever say that I'll allow something for someone else because I'll get it back later. How stupid am I that I keep expecting that to happen???
So If you never see me at a tailgate, that is not my problem. If you want to see me, come see me! call me! email me! don't expect me to change my plans and my life so i can shout over loud music in the cold or heat or sun or rain or whatever stupid weather they've decided to be out in. I will never again disregard what's best for my kids' schedule, or pretend to care about a bad football team who plays well once in a while. I care just enough to maybe watch them on TV or check the score later if it happens to be convenient, and say "yay" or "rats" - that's it! And if you aren't okay with that, well, you can re-evaluate your own priorities or make an effort to see me. Enough.
We wasted a perfectly good Saturday afternoon on a stupid football game when we could've been celebrating Audrey's birthday. I have a cake ready, I have presents ready, I have decorations, I have party clothes for the birthday girl, but I COULDN'T GET ANYBODY INTERESTED at the time that it was relevant so there is no party. Audrey misses out, Emily misses out, and I MISS OUT. Goddammit, the first birthday is really more about moms anyway. Hallelujah, I made it through the first year, up all night, carrying her everywhere, worrying about every little thing, and now she's not a baby anymore and we made it!! Yay.
So, we'll see how we make the most of this day. I'm obviously annoyed, and I just wanted to make this announcement:
I AM NEVER SCHEDULING ANYTHING IN MY LIFE AROUND ANY KIND OF FOOTBALL GAME EVER AGAIN.
It wasn't worth it for my senior recital and it wasn't worth it for Audrey's birthday and, you know, it's just not worth it for me to ever say that I'll allow something for someone else because I'll get it back later. How stupid am I that I keep expecting that to happen???
So If you never see me at a tailgate, that is not my problem. If you want to see me, come see me! call me! email me! don't expect me to change my plans and my life so i can shout over loud music in the cold or heat or sun or rain or whatever stupid weather they've decided to be out in. I will never again disregard what's best for my kids' schedule, or pretend to care about a bad football team who plays well once in a while. I care just enough to maybe watch them on TV or check the score later if it happens to be convenient, and say "yay" or "rats" - that's it! And if you aren't okay with that, well, you can re-evaluate your own priorities or make an effort to see me. Enough.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Audrey is 1
Today is Audrey's birthday, and we are celebrating with extended family tomorrow. today, we had a nice morning together and then Travis went up to Ames to get his heart broken by the ISU football team. They could've been blown out by the #7 team in the nation, and instead went into overtime and lost by 1 point on a trick play. i could've punched him in the gut and saved him the trouble, but he loves this, for some reason.
Speaking of football, I have a fun story about the first time that Emily watched it on TV. She watched for a little while, asked a few questions, and we told her simple things about how there are two teams wearing different colors, and they're trying to move the ball back and forth down the field. After a while, and a few commercial breaks, I was shouting at a guy to "Go go go!!" And Emily concluded, basically, that because the guy was not going, and Mom told him to, that now he had to go to time out. Isn't that great??
But, I'll post more later. Audrey has a birthday diaper for me to change - yikes!
Speaking of football, I have a fun story about the first time that Emily watched it on TV. She watched for a little while, asked a few questions, and we told her simple things about how there are two teams wearing different colors, and they're trying to move the ball back and forth down the field. After a while, and a few commercial breaks, I was shouting at a guy to "Go go go!!" And Emily concluded, basically, that because the guy was not going, and Mom told him to, that now he had to go to time out. Isn't that great??
But, I'll post more later. Audrey has a birthday diaper for me to change - yikes!
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