A short, neutrally told, anecdote

We were sitting at breakfast this morning, Kate and I and a friend. Kate looks out the window and sees a large billboard on the street. She says, "papa" (i.e. Grandpa) and points. I look at this billboard and see it is a giant ad for McDonalds.

'Nuff said.

Momma Day

I was off today, so I decided today would be my unofficial birthday since my real birthday is going to be filled with work and errands. So, we started our day at the park. When it got to hot we stopped for a snack. Yum.

Next up was nap, and then... IKEA! Kate spent about 20 minutes at the demo kitchen. I kid you not.

Then she noticed stuffed dogs. Lots of them. She pet and kissed each one until this one was destined to go "home." I kept trying to distract her from it with other less cute toys but she was determined. I heard a lot of "woof. home." talk until I caved.

Then another snack break. I'm skeptical there is really any cheese in their Mac N Cheese but damn she loves it.


And finally... home... with new toys in tow. My grandma gave me some birthday money, so I spent it on some fun toys: a doggie, a train set, an easel and a small purse. I never get to splurge on Kate since money's a little tight right now, so it was truly a treat. We had a blast.

Unfortunately, the blast ended around dinner time. Kate is having a hard time with Daddy P out of town (he's been working 60 hour weeks before he left so was mostly gone then, too), and Miss K was up until 10pm tonight with me rocking, reading, singing and finally just letting her fall asleep on me. She is now slumbering in my bed and I am soon to follow. We will see how that turns out. All other times we've tried this she wakes up and freaks out in the middle of the night because she doesn't know where she is.


Here she is with her new train. She loved taking the track apart and putting it together in new weird ways. She hasn't figured out the whole polarity thing on the cars yet, but hey... she isn't even two yet!

One word: Epipen

Yep, that's right. We are the proud owners of an epipen. That little reaction to egg that we thought was just a teeny deal? The allergist didn't agree.

Kate and I went in to the doctor's office on Thursday and he told us that yes, Kate does have an egg allergy, but that 85% of kids grow out of it by the age of 4 or 5. He said to come back in two years.

Hilarious, right? Take this epinepherine and go home. Come back in two years.

You know what they do in two years? A blood test, and then if things look like her allergy is getting better they make us stay for 2 hours so they can feed her an egg and monitor her. They say it is the only way to know for sure. Sounds fun, right? Sitting at the doctor's for two hours, watching a movie with a four year old. Ah well. Better than having to test my epi skills at home.

I figure this isn't going to change our lives much. The biggest change is not being able to find easy breakfast options at restaurants that are egg-free. But everyone wants oatmeal when they go out to breakfast, right?

Aspiring Artist

I have been having a blast painting with Kate. She has been fun figuring out how the colors mix, and what the water does to the paper. We've even put some of her artwork up in the house. It's been a nice summer activity since she can strip down and do it outside on the patio. Plus there is inevitably some rinsing off involved in the process.

21 Month Update

I know, July flew by without hardly a post. Two things contributed to that: 1) a broken computer, and 2) a lack of childcare.

We finally have childcare under control (man, am I getting tired of singing this song), but the computer is still stone-cold dead so don't get too hopeful. But for now, my husband is still at work (yes, it is 10pm) and the baby is asleep, so here I am.

Little Kate is doing well. She's positively hilarious. I cherish every moment I get to hang out with her. Even the ones where I think I'm going to pull out my hair because she's driving me nuts. Friends have been nudging us that it is time for #2, but I have the hardest time imagining losing these moments. I remember the last few times I breastfed her in the morning before she weaned, I just would rock her and try to soak in the moments. Those mornings were my favorites. She'd wake around 5 and I'd drag myself into her room to be rewarded with the sweetest moments. In a quiet house with the dark slowly lightening we got to be just mom and baby for a few minutes before we both retreated back to sleep.

We have different versions of those moments now. In the morning, one of us grabs her and brings her into bed to cuddle and read a book as everyone gets going. Some afternoons when the day is just feeling too much we'll build a tent and hunker down with books and blankets and just read. My favorite lately has been getting to paint with her. She's quite the little artist and we've even put a couple of her paintings up on the wall. Those moments of creation and experimentation with her are so joyful. I know another baby will be amazing, but right now I'm so in love with my little life it's hard to want to change it.

One of my favorite new activities with her is yoga. She and I have been doing yoga in the morning for several months now but she went to her first yoga class this month! There is a "Crawlers and Toddlers" class that we go to. It's basically Kundalini with kids in the room. The teacher is amazing at helping you to practice balancing taking care of yourself and taking care of your children. An amazing and necessary skill to be sure, and so fun to do in the context of yoga.

I think her favorite part is tea. At the end of every yoga class this studio serves tea. At home she and I have morning tea from time to time. So, the first time that we went to the class she was so excited about the tea she started repeating "tea tea tea" over and over. It was super cute. She wasn't too sure about the rest of the class. Not too used to little kids running all over the place... but she did learn to do Bridge pose.

21 months

So far July has held a lot of fun. Here's Kate taunting the ball with laughter.

Kate's joyous spirit.

Getting horsey sitting just right...

Sitting in the big girl seat with horsey.

Water Fun

This weekend we headed to the outdoor mall to walk around. There's a splash pad there so Kate enjoyed playing in the water a bit.

We've also been enjoying having a free pool literally one block away from us. We've walked there a couple times a week, and Kate is slowly getting used to the water. She's pretty unsure of the whole thing, but seems to like the get-up.

Here she is trying out the "big girl" pool. There's a wading pool that she likes much much better, but we're trying to also get her used to kicking her feet and getting immersed (up to chin) in the water. We've learned she is obsessed with climbing the ladder to get out, and will do anything for the privilege of climbing the ladder. Don't you love how anything can be a "privilege"??

And our indoor pic of the weekend: Kate's insane, insatiable appetite for raisins. She sneaks them out of the pantry no matter where you hide them. This raisin obsession is making potty training a bit harder (er...) if you get my drift. She is now on a ration of both raisins and oranges every day. Some kids have a sugar ration... my kid pigs out on raisins...

Phone Girl

Yesterday, as part of our celebrating pooping and peeing in the potty, we called Daddy P to relay the good news. So as soon as she was done today Kate promptly said, "Call... Daddy!" We got out the phone and she called him (I think she calls him more than I do at this point). He picks up, and I can tell because she loudly proclaims "POOPS!" which cracks me up. But the reason that this conversation was my fav ever was because she then goes on to tell him about how we took Elly for a walk earlier that morning. Just hanging out, sharing her day with Dad. Killed me. I missed the "poop part" but here you can hear her "ack" for "walk" and her try at "Elly"...

(Sorry for the crappy quality... our camera is dying...)

O Potty

I get bored. You probably know this about me by now. I get bored and find projects. Your kid is not supposed to be your project.

Oh well.

I read this article about potty training cold turkey. Kate had been grabbing her diaper when she was going so I knew she was starting to make the connection. So cold turkey we went. Bought a bunch of panties, and stopped using diapers. Said it would take about three weeks all in all, expect a lot of accidents, expect discouragement, but that it can work if you keep at it.

The first day there were a lot of messes. Let's just leave it at that.

By the second day, she had figured out the whole feeling and event connection and went potty and poop on the potty (with Mom grabbing her and running her into the bathroom).

Third day, she was going just a teeny bit on the potty to make it play music (when the urine finishes the circuit at the bottom of the bowl it plays a song) and then stopping so that she'd be able to repeat the whole thing a couple more times. Daddy P didn't believe it at first when I told him this. Probably partly because that's such a girl skill. But at that point we knew she had the ability. She just might just be lacking the desire.

Then... the rash...

I tried to keep it going but she was so uncomfortable and miserable she wouldn't tolerate suggestions to go sit on the potty. At first we reverted to diapers but they were too itchy, so we went bums-bare a few days and then reverted to cloth diapers.

Then what? Try to go back? Just forget it? She had regressed while she was sick and also got tired of the whole thing, so it was becoming a struggle which I knew would lead no where good.

So, we compromised. Cloth diapers, the occasional pull-up for friends and family who are not cloth-diaper friendly and, when she wants them, Elmo panties. Reminders to use the potty, and a freaking ton of dance-filled, applaud laden praise when she goes.

At this point she is holding her urine throughout the morning until she either goes in the potty or during nap. On most mornings she will go in the potty when reminded. Sometimes she'll poop too, other times she asks for a diaper so she can do her business there. We don't even try during the night (crib and lazy parents).

She gets excited about Elmo panties (plus) but if I forget to remind her to use the potty I end up cleaning the floors more than I normally do (minus).

Unfortunately, the bottom line here is really that I would consider this "project" a success and reinforcing this project-mindedness is very very bad. Oh well.

Toddler Free House

The Grandparents have Kate. We are trying to figure out what we used to do before we had a kid. So, we cleaned the house.

Not quite what I had thought we'd do but hey, it works.