Sign/English/Spanish conundrum

Kate definitely mixes her sign and talk. She has very few words, but does occasionally create a "phrase" by pairing sign and spoken English. We are a little interested to see what is going to happen now that we've hired a Spanish (only) speaking nanny. While we're hoping for a bilingual baby girl, we realize this is going to further confuse the already confused muddle of learning to talk poor Kate is trying to figure out. Oh, and yes, once again we decided to keep Kate home instead of sending her to daycare. I couldn't give up my loveydoveycuddly mornings home with Kate just because the daycare wants her there by 10:30am. And when chance (really. totally chance. tell you later) threw us a Spanish-speaking nanny we had to give it a shot. She starts this summer, so we'll see! In the meantime, I'm brushing up on my Spanish and buying more kid books in Spanish.

The battle of the schools

"Hook 'em"

The battle over the schools has begun. Rice v. UT

I've been trying to get video or pictures of Kate for a while now using her signs. It's tricky. She's a fast signer so I don't often get them. But here we are hanging out in the yard having a snack and she heard a bird and signed "hear."

Here she is signing "phone." She often wants to call people these days. Especially "paw paw." My mom has been watching her a fair amount lately and lets Kate call my dad on the phone, so now every day we see the phone sign while she says "paw paw."

Prom Date

So, Daddy P and his best friend have already matched up Kate with A for prom. This picture actually makes me think it might work. Just got this pic from last Christmas and am in love with it. What dolls!

Girl's Day Out

After a long day, I decided that what Kate and I needed was fun, not chores. So we packed up and left for the mall. The afternoon began with fun in the play area. I learned my daughter inherited her father's pacifist ways. She let anyone go in front of her on the slide. Okay, that's not quite true. There was one boy that she'd make wait. Then there was another boy (who shoved her) who she kept a good 5 foot distance from at any given time. Wise girl.

It took her a while to loosen up and explore without me nearby, but she did!



Eventually we needed what all girls need on their day out: yummy food. I had packed a peanut butter sandwich which we supplemented with a smoothie. Yum. Check out those feet. The sign of a happy relaxed girl.



Kate also went of the "merry go round" for the first time. She was so curious about it, and another boy had already started it so we got a free go round. She loved it.



Asking for "more" which, of course, I kinda obliged to (one buck though! insane!). It was girls' day afterall.

She was very very curious about the Easter bunny. We watched from downstairs for a long time, then she wanted me to sit with her so she could continue to watch. Then, later, she asked where he had gone. When we finally walked back by and he was on a break she decided he was napping (since that is my excuse for anyone being gone: "they are probably tired and home napping").



Bad mom peer pressure moment:
You should have SEEN the kids at the play area. Hm, maybe these are YOUR kids. They were impeccably dressed. Better clothes than I own. Fancy shoes with real leather. Bows in all girls' hair. A BLAZER for goodness' sake on a little boy. So in one of my weaker moments, I looked at my daughter in her long sleeve, stained onesie with a neck so stretched out that it kept slipping off her shoulder, and black pants that were somehow both too long and too short, and I decided we would shop. I walked into the Gap for kids, found a cute little dress and picked it up. Then almost spit. Twenty dollars! MY dresses aren't much more than that. And yet, I was still frozen by some twisted sense of guilt and propriety and ended up at the Children's Place (?) and bought her a cute little outfit (TWENTY BUCKS STILL).

Oh well. It's technically her birthday present from her great grandma that I haven't spent yet, so she's allowed to be spoiled. Yet, I think if I'd spent the twenty on the merry go round she would have been happier. I think it was actually Children's Place in this scenario that ended up being spoiled...

Huh....

Outdoors Woman

Kate has been enjoying our warmer weather by spending time romping in the yard and playing in the dirt. Here she is asking for a snack during a little break.

Hanging out at our favorite coffeeshop on the weekend, helping them with plant maintenance.

I threw this one in just because she's so darn cute.

Always helping to clean up after herself. Even when the mess was intentional. It's all learning, right?

Kate's had a runny nose for over a week now and we're all tired of it. I'm switching to cloth hankies because we've already gone through two kleenex containers just for her one little nose. I guess the upside is that it's running and not blocked up. But since it's still going I'm afriad I see a doctor's appointment in our future...

Our nanny/childcare search is continuing/closing. She was accepted into a child care about five-ten miles away. We like it but are still (and I know you all are tired of hearing about this) struggling with the decision. We have again realized how awesome our nannies are, after interviewing folks who were less than stellar. We have one more interview we want to do and then the decision will be made for us I think. My hold out is that this woman is fluent in Spanish and this would be her only job (Second income) so she could work whenever we need which would make our lives amazingly more flexible and less stressful. So we will see. Maybe my daughter will be bilingual afterall!

The Magic Trick

Dear little Kate has been reminding us what it is like to have an infant these past few weeks. She's had trouble sleeping through the night, and when we finally cave and go in she won't ever let us leave again. It's like some bad horror movie. Trapped, in the baby's room.

This sort of thing has also led to high conflict in our house triggered by lack of sleep and different tolerances for crying. Three in the morning isn't a time that you feel really rational and as though you can give your spouse the support and attention they deserve when the baby's been crying on and off for four hours.

But, luckily, one of my bestest friends is a pediatrician, and she's always awesome with the advice. I need her to start up a Q&A blog. Anyway, her theories were that Kate is at the age when kids start getting afraid of things they used to be okay with, and when she should be getting her molars. Molars we have now suspected for literally a month, but haven't seen signs of. I wrote those off because of the time elapsed, but Kate's favorite activity is chewing on her toothbrush so there's definitely support for that one. And, fears! Totally! Kate's suddenly really fussy in the tub about getting water on her face and head when she used to be totally fine with it.

Doctor's orders: put in a bright nightlight (ours was a blue LED one) and give her Motrin before bed.

Results: Three beautiful nights of all-night sleep. She wakes and cries out once, but goes back down. Before she would wake, cry out, and continue to cry, and continue... and continue...

Fingers crossed this works for a bit more and the teeth finally give her a break so we can stop the meds before bed... Love those doctor's tricks!

The life of a 17 month old

We pretended the time change didn't happen. Well, as best we could. She'd been going to bed between 6:30 and 7pm, and getting up between 6am and 6:30am so we were eager to just move that back an hour. So far it seems to have worked, but has been complicated by the fact she has her first honest-to-nose-rushing-goodness cold. So gross. I have a high gross tolerance but this is just really grossing me out. Mucus is gross.

A happy girl eating her "big girl" apple. She has learned how to move the Learning Tower to her goal and climb up in it without help. It's been a game changer in the kitchen. But look what smiles it produces!


Wanted to get a picture of Kate's cute blond curls. Here she is in the morning just out of bed. She's started a slower morning routine involving gathering up her three loveys (the two horseys and her puppy dog named "Woof"), and then asking for Daddy. So we wander over to the window to look outside where Daddy is at work and to watch Elly. Once she does that for a while and talks about them both ("Elly!" and "woof!" and signing "where's daddy?" and "Daddy work") we finally get around to getting dressed and wander out for some breakfast.

We are slowly learning to differentiate overwhelmed emotions from the normal tantrum. Not easy. The whole when to calm her vs. when to ignore ain't easy. She's a kid that needs comfort, but who is trying to assert herself. My solution has largely been to be really choosey about my battles and then to ignore/distract when it is clearly just her wanting her way. She's good at fighting for what she wants, though.

I have to eat what?

Kate is the victim of a mom playing with food trends. Daddy P and I have been weekend meat-eaters for a few weeks now (although Daddy P has been caught twice eating fast-food behind my back to satisfy a meat craving). Although it has been said that being a vegetarian on weeknights only is like "being a virgin during the week" it seemed to make sense for us. We wanted to only eat local meat that was raised as free as meat-raised-to-eat can be, and hormone free what-not. But that's expensive. Thus the meat on the weekends. Kate doesn't eat meat (although my mom continually claims to feed her chicken successfully, I have never seen it), so this was almost easier in some ways.

And, as is often the case, once you start down the road of crazy you get going deeper and deeper. Two words: Kale chips. Yes, I actually bought Kale in order to toast it into chips. After reading a local food blog with a picture of a child happily munching away on these Kale chips I decided this was the key to getting Kate to eat greens that were not pureed with cream and butter.

What did I get for this experiment? A bag full of Kale chips and a baby who turned them into Kale crumbs.

Luckily, my carrot experiment went much better. After eating carrot butter at a vegetarian restaurant in SLC, I was hooked. I bought a bag of frozen baby carrots, boiled them for a half hour, pureed them, added in a few teaspoons of tahini and a few teaspoons of agave and a half teaspoon of cinnamon. And voila! Carrot butter! We smear it on toast, or use as a dip with crackers. Kate gobbled up about a quarter cup today. It's really yummy, and a nice way to get some carrots in ya (since we all know carrots are gross).

It's hard to speculate what food craze Kate will be the next victim of. I think things will go better if I stay away from toasting greens or thinking that Kale could be junk food.

This vege experiment is looking like it is coming to an end. After blowing almost $200 at the grocery store I don't know if we can afford this lifestyle... unless I learn to be a cheap vegetarian soon I'm pretty sure Daddy P is going to put his foot down.

Our Kid Is Smart

So, if you are one of those people who hates those parents who keep you updated about how many words their kid knows, or tells you all the cool tricks their kid does, well, then you probably hate me. But if you don't hate me and you hate those parents, skip this blog post.

Kate is really freaking smart.

We're sitting at the table having a snack and Kate sees a gnat. This is really her first gnat/flying insect spying and she's intrigued. She's watching it and pointing. We have not taught her the sign for gnat though (if we had then you'd really think we were nuts) so when this little gnat flies out of sight she signs "Where" and "plane" choosing the only sign she knows that involves a flying object.

Good association skills that girl. Creative and smart. I think I'll be well taken care of as an elderly adult. I can sleep easy tonight.

The exploitation of the stay at home Daddy.

In the wonderful realm of toddlerdom, my daughter uses all her will to decide when, where and how her diaper is changed. So yesterday when I saw the pooping signs I knew I was in for it. The previous two BM diaper changes had resulted in a lot of kicking, screaming, writhing, and consequently, poop all over the changing pad, her clothes, her stomach and feet, my clothes, and the new clean diaper. It used to be that giving her the option of where to lie down was enough to solve the struggle. No longer. "If" she lies down is all that matters now. And with a sensitive body she gets diaper rash easier than you can imagine. As a result fast diaper changes are crucial to everyone's happiness and wellbeing.

So what did I do? Did I brave the crazy independence of the toddler and risk poop flying?

Hell no.

I took advantage of the wonders of stay-at-home-daddy-dom.

Ring ring.

"Uh, so, Kate has a poopy diaper."

"(Pause). Do you want me to come change it?"

"Puhleeeeze?"

"Okay, give me five minutes."

Daddy P comes in the door. Kate rejoices. Smiles, cooes, and babbling ensue as Daddy P is able to change her diaper as she lies there calmly smiling up at him.

A little gardening

Yesterday we hit up the local gardening store to get a truckload of dirt for our garden beds. While there, Kate enjoyed watching the goats climb and the chickens peck at each other. Well, the chickens kinda freaked her out, but she was fascinated by the goats. True to form, the thing she loved doing the most was hunting for cool looking rocks and moving dirt around.

She was then especially thrilled when we started putting the dirt in the beds today. She added her own little contribution to the endeavor but putting dirt in little piles here and there. Especially noteworthy was when she started taking it out of the flower beds to put in the compost bin. A bit backwards but the right idea. She also got to hold her first worm which she thought was hilarious.

Notice she has climbed up on the wheelbarrow in order to reach the dirt...

17 months

Hm, noteworthy aspects of raising a 17 month old...
- She continues to try to say words. Her closest are probably "truck," "car," "cracker" and "elly." But you pretty much still need to know her if you want to understand anything besides "yeah" and "hi"...
- She is a good tantrumer. Very persistent and loud being the key requisites to a good tantrum.
- She is going through a waking-up-multiple-times in the middle of the night spell (going on two weeks). Last night we were up from 1am - 4am on and off with her. Part of our problem is she isn't eating meals consistently and is going to bed hungry which means she's been waking up at midnight or 4 in the morning wanting to eat...
- She has the most terrific laugh.
- She loves to observe people and usually tries to engage them with a "hi"

"That ain't my horsey"

Oh parents. We think we know what we're doing. We pretend we are smarter than our offspring. Yesterday I got home from work and horsey looked filthy. Horsey gets a lot of love generally, but today he was dingy and covered in blue (chalk I think?). We decide horsey needs a bath and it is time to trade out to the clean horsey. Ha. Yeah right.

Later Kate signs for horsey and we hand her the clean horsey as though nothing had happened. She looks at him, clutches him to her chest and... you guess it... signs for horsey.

Apparently "Horsey" is not "a horsey" but "the horsey"...

Meanwhile horsey is now in the laundry room waiting to be washed and dried. Kate, always the clever one, walks into the laundry room and points at the washer until horsey is removed and returned to her.

(For those of you saying, "Awww she gave IN" I will have you know that horsey -- "the" horsey -- is drying on the drying rack as I type...)

Going Home

Our vacation time with the fam is ending. Kate has been thoroughly entertained for five days now so I am wondering how she will adjust to not being held or played with constantly. She has certainly loved the attention! She mastered a slide her aunt and uncle bought her.

We went out to dinner one night at this yummy Italian restaurant and they seated us in the basement area by the restrooms. There was one long booth/bench table and two small tables. Which meant, our party of ten were the only ones downstairs. It was perfect. The first dinner we have had in a long time where I didn't have to do anything! Between the eight other loving adults to play with Kate, and being in a safe and isolated place, she could wander around, play on the floor, and eat at her own pace without any problem. Now we just have to find a restaurant with a basement back home...

We fly home tonight and I am hoping this flight will go better than the last. It's an evening flight so I don't know if that means she'll sleep because it's close to bedtime, or freak out because she's exhausted and not in her crib. Ah well. And since we are leaving... Kate's finally adjusted to her new crib and new "home" and has slept 11-12 hours the past two nights. I feel like a living breathing human again. I'm starting to think I'll never willingly go on vacation again though... at least until the toddler years are over...