What J Gave Me for Valentine's Day

Happy (Belated) Valentine's Day!

Love,
R

Happy Birthday, Little Frog!

Love, R.

Alphabet Soup

More of R's day care artwork!

Adjustment

I think R is adjusting to her day care-- it's taken about a week, but she's really settled down. For the first week she was very upset when we dropped her off. Today, though, she settled in happily with her teacher as soon as she saw her and didn't cry at all when I left.

We're working up to having her nap at day care (currently we pick her up and bring her home to nap right after lunch) and J has been picking her up a few minutes later each day. Today when he went she was actually laying down with the other kids although she eventually saw J talking with one of the teachers and got right up. But it looks promising! We hope by the end of the month she'll be happily napping at day care.

She seems to LOVE all the toys and activities they have there. I have to admit I am very impressed with how well-stocked the room is. There are just tons of awesome toys, fun arts and crafts, and books and dress-up and imaginative play items. Just tons of stuff.

We're also really impressed with the teachers. Both of them are amazing with the kids, and seem so knowledgeable about children and what they are capable of doing and what they should be aiming for. We really loved both of the teachers from the first time we met them.

R is the youngest child in her room-- I think the oldest is almost 3 and that most of the others are close to 2 if not already 2-- but the teachers think she's doing fine and learning a lot from watching the other kids.

Diapers

We used cloth diapers almost exclusively on R until she was about 14 months old and we moved from Texas to Delaware. I thought we'd get back into the cloth diapering after the move settled down. For awhile we kind of did, but we pretty much exclusively use disposables now. Part of the reason is because she uses disposables at day care and we didn't use up enough dirty diapers in the half-day she was home to warrant all the effort of diaper laundry. Part of it was also just laziness.

So I was pretty excited to hear about this alternative:

UPDATE: There was a video here but I've deleted it because it's no longer available. It was actually under copyright and taken off of YouTube, and I checked on the NBC website and couldn't find it there, either. Oh well! For those who didn't get to see it, it was a Saturday Night Live fake commercial for "Chewable Pampers", diapers that are totally ecofriendly because they don't get thrown away-- they transform into edible biscuits after being used. YUM!

Twice

Twice, now, R has told us she needed to poop on the potty, and then proceeded to actually poop! It's pretty exciting!

Baby Names for D

My friend D is expecting her first baby (a boy!) in June. Because I love talking about baby names, I am always sending unsolicited name ideas to D. At dinner tonight, J and I were asking R what names she thought would be good.

Here are her suggestions for D and her husband, Aviator, to consider.

Emmy
Dappy
Brett (or maybe this one was Bread?)
Brat
Birthday!

Visiting Grammie and Grampie

We visited Grammie and Grampie the other weekend. R had a great time. She loves running all around their house and playing with their toys. Grampie especially enjoys finding things for R to play with, like Grammie's ski equipment.
R got a belated Christmas gift from GiGi and PopPop. It's a little stuffed cat in a purse. Cutest thing ever, and R loves to carry it around the house.
This is the first thing she did with the cat once she got it out of the purse. (You can't really see it very well because she's laying on top of it).Grammie and Grampie also gave R an early Valentine's Day raincoat.

Grandma and Grandpa's Latest Visit

My parents came out a couple weekends ago to visit. It was great--we always love having visitors, but especially grandparents who love to spoil R. She just eats up all the attention.

On Saturday, we went to a really good Asian restaurant in town. Thank goodness we went early because by the time we left the place was so crowded we had to literally push through the crowd so we could get to the door.
On Sunday we had a really good breakfast out and then spent time hanging around the house. My mom and I went shopping briefly.

R was sick most of the weekend, so she spent a lot of time cuddling up to all of us, especially Grandpa. Here she is with Grandpa and all of her dolls. Grandpa named them "G", "Trucker", and "Tyke" even though they're mostly wearing pink clothes.
(Speaking of doll names, I don't know what R will end up naming hers, but whenever I think of doll names, I think of Ramona Quimby and her doll Chevrolet. The blonde-haired cabbage-patch style doll I had when I was little I named Megan, and I had another preemie Cabbage Patch named Bruce Trevor. I don't remember any of my other doll names. What did you name your dolls when you were little?)

Red and Silver on Black

R started a new day care today (more on that in another post, but we LOVE this place and her two teachers!!) and when we picked her up, this is what she brought home.

Nordic Princess

Grandma and Grandpa brought this new outfit for R when they visited two weekends ago. I love it. I think it makes her look like a Nordic Princess.

And, to make it even better, Grandma found it at the Goodwill. I wish our Goodwill here was as awesome as the one right by my parents' house. Theirs is really big and always seems to have a good selection of stuff.

First Haircut

I finally got sick of R's mullet (no matter what anyone says, she did have a mullet, and it was not the cutest hairstyle once it got too long to curl up anymore) so we took her to Kids Kuts to get a real hair cut.

The stylist was great. Funniest thing-- after the hair cut, we're standing around putting coats on, and R grabs the stylist's hand and walks over to the little toy area and starts playing with her. J and I just looked at each other and back at R and the stylist a few times.

R loved the toy area and we let her play for about 15 minutes. The salon was empty so we chatted with the two stylists for a bit and then headed out.

lots of updates coming soon

once I get photos uploaded to the computer, we'll have lots of updates, including R's first official hair cut, a visit from Grandma and Grandpa, and a visit to Grammie and Grampie's. Stay tuned--although updates probably won't come until early next week.

Nephew updates!

G got a new hair cut, courtesy of M-- who did an amazing job. It's sad to see his curls go. Boy, doesn't he look all grown up all of a sudden?
Li'l Tyke is 5 months old and doing all kinds of acrobatics now, we hear. Check out that push up in the first picture!and Trucker is now a week old. Here's a tiny little baby picture. Isn't he adorable? (and how many of us can remember when our babies were that tiny? I swear, every time I say, "I'll never forget..." a few months later, I'm like, "ooh, I've already forgotten what it was like when...")

Winter's really here, isn't it?

We finally got some snow that looks like it might stick on the ground for a day or two.

Unfortunately, this also means I have to clear off the car in the mornings before taking R to day care. Not my favorite part of the day!

Introducing Trucker!

As promised, here are some photos of Trucker from the day he was born. Everyone says he's the spitting image of A as a baby, down to the cleft in his teeny little chin!
Is this not the cutest pregnant lady you've ever seen? Obviously she was all belly!The happy family-- G, M, Trucker, & A.
G meeting Trucker. I love the happiness radiating from M's face in this photo.

Is this her 'get out of jail free' card?

Today I'm holding R and she rips my glasses off of my face. This is not something entirely new-- she liked to grab glasses when she was just a teeny little thing learning to grab things-- but we've worked hard on not allowing her to grab people's glasses and redirecting her and that sort of thing, and it's not really something she does often.

I put my glasses on and she grabs them right off again and throws them on the floor before I have time to react.

This time, I'm not so patient, and I say "No!" to her quite sternly. She starts to fuss because, well, who knows why-- because I didn't laugh? because I was stern? because she wants to grab glasses? because she doesn't want me to be wearing my glasses? because she wants my glasses on the floor?-- and I put my glasses on and am prepared for her to try and grab them again.

Sure enough, she lunges for them. But I'm ready. She still gets my glasses, but I am about to really lay down the law, and I'm looking right at her, prepared to say something along the lines of, "No, R, No grabbing glasses!" in my stern, no-nonsense voice.

Before I can get into my little speech, though, she comes back with her biggest smile and says "HUG!" with her arms widespread. She lunges again, but this time for my neck and wraps her arms around me as tightly as she can.

We all start laughing. "Hug" is kind of her "get out of jail free" card. If she's adorable and cute right when we want to be angry with her... well, it's nearly impossible to keep from laughing. She didn't get her scolding. But she also stopped grabbing my glasses.

I still don't know what brought it on or what exactly stopped it.

Annnnnd....

it's a BOY!

He arrived around 2:30 p.m., according to my mom, and was 7 lbs 9 oz.

We'll call him Trucker. Photos to be added once they start coming in.

Congratulations, A&M! Well done!

Our new niece or nephew is coming... soon!!

A&M are going to the hospital this evening to start their induction. According to M, my sister-in-law, the doctor says they may have a new baby by lunch tomorrow.

Good luck to everyone! We are sending you all good new baby vibes and can't wait to hear the news as soon as possible!