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!

Time out

We just started doing time outs with R.

So far they have only happened on two occasions after she'd started flinging food off her high chair during a meal. We've found that when we look at her sternly and say "No!" she thinks it's hilarious.

She doesn't think time outs are hilarious, though. We do them following the advice of our pediatrician, where we hold her in our laps facing the wall, don't look at her at all, and keep her there for about a minute.

So far I don't know how effective they are as a deterrent but we've only done 2 so far.

Words, words, and more words

R is at the point where she will repeat a word even after only hearing it once. We've been having tons of fun asking her to say names of different family members and she is learning what feels like hundreds of new words (and signs!) every day. I broke down and bought her Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever and we've had tons of fun talking through the pictures and pointing at things and saying what they are.

But.

The downside to this, of course, is that I can no longer say words that I don't want her to repeat. The other day I was getting her out of the car and trying to pick up a couple of bags and a blanket and my keys, all of which were hard to get while holding a squirmy R, and I said, "Crap, crap, crap" kind of under my breath. The next thing I know, she's saying, "Cap, cap!"

Oops.

She's also picking up words and pronunciations that J and I use around the house and aren't directly saying to her. For instance, I often call J from the other room-- Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaay-meeee. I'm not yelling, but I'm saying his name and stretching it out. Yesterday I was holding R and out of the blue she goes, "Jaaaaay-meee! Jaaaaaaaaaaay-meee!" exactly like I do when I'm calling for him.

She's also become very wily, using her words for all kinds of stalling purposes when she doesn't want to do something. For example, a month or so ago she suddenly decided that post-bath was the perfect time to have a snack, and she insists on it, so forcibly that it's not worth the struggle to try and put her to sleep without it, so just about every night we go downstairs and she has a few O's right before being laid down to bed. She now will say, "O's! O's! O's!" or "downstairs! downstairs! downstairs!" anytime she doesn't want to sleep. Or sometimes it's "diaper! diaper! diaper!" even if she doesn't need a diaper change or has just had one. Or "play! play! play!"

She's putting some phrases together but mostly it's still single words, or clusters of words-- like when she says potty, she almost always says poo-poo or pee-pee too, but not as a sentence. More like, "potty!" and then a little later, "poo-poo!" as if she's just remembered that word.

The best laid plans of mice and men

This weekend so far has been a little rough. R had her doctor's appointment on Wednesday and came down the next day with a cough. J and I weren't too worried until she threw up twice. Then I came down with the flu, which sucked a lot.

It was such a disappointment to get sick right now because it threw a wrench in our plans to travel up to visit Grammie and Grampie and get to see Little Frog, who, we hear, is about to start walking on her own!!! They grow up so fast! I can hardly believe that our gorgeous little baby niece is turning into a toddler already.

But the good news is that I'm definitely recovered and R, while still coughing, is generally happy and playful, so we think she's on the upswing as well, too.

50-25

For her last two doctor's appointments, R has been 50th percentile for height and 25th for weight. Yesterday she got her latest round of vaccinations and was 32" long and 23 lbs on the scale. She also got her last flu shot-- yay! She cried a lot but recovered quickly, thank goodness.

Hot

In this video, R is careful when feeding Linny, a stuffed guinea pig she got for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa, to be sure the food isn't too hot for Linny to handle.

(be sure to note the new "purrfect" plate from Great-Aunt K and Rapunzel!)

Favorite Holiday Photos: Delaware, Part 2

I just couldn't resist adding two more pictures.

First, Grammie and Grampie got R a plasma car for Christmas. These things are awesome. They require no pedaling or any motorized source. Simply by twisting the steering wheel, the car moves. They can hold people up to 200 lbs, so all of us can join in on the fun with R. J and I first discovered them in a teacher supply/toy store right around the corner from our house in Texas and had to buy one for our nephew G for his first Christmas. Grammie and Grampie tried them out at the store when they visited us and loved them, too, so they got one for R. Here she is trying it out for the first time. Unfortunately, our house doesn't have a lot of wide open flat floor space so the car's hard to use in the house, but we'll definitely find more places for her to use it come warmer weather!
I mentioned in my 19 month letter how much R likes wheeling around her babies in the new strollers she got for Christmas. I neglected to mention how much she also likes riding in them herself. They're really not designed for children to ride in them, so DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME, and we don't let her do this when we are playing with her and the strollers. However, Grampie has a hard time saying no to R (after all, what are grandparents for, if not giving in to indulgences now and again?), and he gave her a few turns around the kitchen and dining room in the stroller. Despite the look on her face, she is loving this. When I tried to take her out of it she howled until we let her get back in for a few more minutes.
Maybe it would even be fair to say this was the Christmas of the stroller, because J and I got a jogging stroller that Grammie and Grampie found at a consignment store (thank you!!!) and R also loves that stroller. It's like her chariot-- she loves to be wheeled around in it.

19 months

Dear R,

At 19 months, you are continuing to expand your vocabulary with new words and signs daily. One of our favorite books these days is one we've checked out from the library, Maisy's Amazing Big Book of Words. You love looking at all the pictures and learning words for them. You also love that the book has flaps on a lot of the pages that you can open and look underneath.

You babble and talk all the time around people you're familiar with but get shy around strangers-- you tend to watch them for a bit before warming up to them and then chattering as always. The other day when Great-Aunt K and Rapunzel visited, you fell in love with Great-Aunt K and spent a good bit of time working on your bead maze with Great-Aunt K while J, Rapunzel, and I visited a bit in the other room.

You got a new doll from Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas, as well as two strollers--one from Grammie and Grampie and one from Grandma and Grandpa, both of which you use on a regular basis around and around our living room. You love to put your dolls in and out of the stroller and wheel them everywhere.

You've started getting very interested in the toilet and diaper changes. You ask us to give you new diapers all the time-- just about anytime you lay flat on your back you say, "diaper, diaper" and then when we say, "do you need a new diaper, R?" you look very serious as you nod your head up and down. When you're poopy, you walk up to us and say "Poop" while pointing to your butt. It's kind of nice to have you announcing it to us instead of having to figure it out with our noses.

You frequently lay your dolls on their backs on the floor and say "diaper, diaper, diaper" over and over again very insistently. I use whatever cloth may be laying around-- sometimes laundry that's being folded, other times cloth wipes or napkins-- to make a makeshift diaper for your dolls. You then take whatever "diaper" I've made on and off repeatedly.

You got a new potty and have been practicing sitting on it, even though you're not very excited about it yet. We've been focusing on telling you what it is and having you learn to sit on it and relax. You always pee before your bath, and that's when we've been trying to teach you how to pee while sitting on the potty. Thus far you've preferred to pee directly on the bathroom floor, though or right after you get in the bath.

We're looking forward to discovering more new words and having more adventures in potty training in the months ahead!

Love,
Mama

Favorite Holiday Photos: Delaware (Finally!)

At long last, here are my favorite gems from Grammie and Grampie's visit to Delaware and our first Christmas at home with family besides just the two of us there! (Yes, last year, R was with us, but J and I opened gifts by ourselves while she was sleeping, so it wasn't quite the same).

R loves having Grammie and Grampie read to her. The book they're looking at in this picture was one of her favorites this year-- it's a Christmas in Connecticut book that J's great-uncle gave me the first time I went to Connecticut for Christmas with his family. It has lots of pictures of snow, various holiday celebrations around Connecticut, wreaths on doors, and festively decorated homes. She especially enjoyed saying "Tee! Tee!" every time there was a pine tree or a Christmas tree in a picture.
On Christmas morning, she got up and saw all of her presents. She really wasn't quite sure what to do with them all at first, but she seemed to really enjoy her chair. Here she is looking at her new stroller all wrapped up-- it was the first thing she unwrapped, and as you can see in the next picture, she immediately wanted to play with it!I just love those antlers!This is just after she's pulled everything out of her stocking-- other than the house and the chair, everything we gave R fit into her stocking. She got the hang of the click-clackers right away, although she's not particularly rhythmic with them yet.When I found out Grammie and Grampie were going to come, I baked a few additional kinds of cookies-- sugar, peanut blossoms (with squares of vegan chocolate substituted for the Hershey's kisses), and applesauce bread. Grammie brought these delicious vegan bars-- a layer of graham cracker with other assorted grains (oatmeal, stuff like that) topped with a layer of melted chocolate, with a peanut butter drizzle on top. J loved them. And then a few traditions from J's side of the family: clementines and mixed nuts in a bowl.
Grammie and Grampie with their favorite gifts: M&Ms and a magazine about various opportunities for making money. J's dad got a real kick out of reading this magazine while visiting us.

Favorite Holiday Photos: Ohio (Part 2)

Here are more of my favorite holiday photos--this time taken from Surf & Cali's camera.

I love this shot of me and Li'l Tyke. Reminds you of how little they are--and how quickly they aren't so little anymore!
My family has a weakness for smokies from the market--and it looks like Li'l Tyke has caught the bug, too!
It wasn't always easy to get both cousins together-- R would sometimes get very angry if J or I was holding Li'l Tyke (even if the other one was holding her!), but other times, all she would do is demand to be held too. Here are some photos of a few times that happened. Isn't the cuteness just unbearable?
I think R liked her presents, don't you?

Hush Little Baby

Two books we've been reading--and loving-- recently.

Hush, Little Baby by Brian Pinkney. The first day we checked this book out from the library, R had me read this book to her 10 or 15 times in a row (I genuinely lost track.) Every time we got to the last page, she would sign and say "more, more, more" until I started reading again from the beginning. The pictures are wonderful-- lively, vibrant, and lots of fun to look at.

She also loves a different Hush Little Baby book-- this one written by Sylvia Long. It's a board book Grandma and Grandpa gave her shortly after she was born, and J and I have sung this version of the song to her hundreds and hundreds of times before putting her to bed. She often pulls this book off of the shelf in her bedroom and requests it as her before-bed story. This version has mama showing her little baby different things around their house and backyard--appreciating the evening sky, a falling star, the crickets' song, worn teddy bear, and warm quilt, among others. The pictures are so sweet, and R loves to point out the hummingbird and lightning bug when they appear in the book.

Ow, Ouw, Ouch, Ooch!

Grammie and Grampie gave R a "Muppets" CD for Christmas. It's got a lot of the classic songs that Kermit et al have sung. But it also has a number of cute, strange, and random bits from the show and movies. One such song has only one word for lyrics: "Ow." When R hears this song come on, she joins in the singing: "Ow, ow, ow, ow. Ow, ow, ow. . . OW." The other night at dinner she spontaneously broke into song. The video doesn't capture the best moments of her singing, but you get the idea. It's hard to make out because she also has a mouthful of grape.

(For the curious, on the CD the track is called "The Amazing Marvin Suggs and His Muppaphone Play 'Lady of Spain'.")

Forks

R's gotten very interested in eating utensils lately. She sometimes insists on having her own spoon in the morning while eating cereal. Unfortunately, because we always feed her hot cereal-- either Cream of Wheat or oatmeal-- we can't let her try eating it on her own. But sometimes I give her her own spoon and we trade off-- her giving me her empty spoon in exchange for the one loaded with cooled-down cereal that I hand her to feed herself.

In this video she's eating grapes with a fork. She tries to eat lots of things with her fork, not always successfully. But she's definitely got the hang of grapes and forks. This is great fun for her--and even more fun now that her Great Aunt K and Rapunzel gave her her own set of pink "purrfect" dishes (plate, bowl, cup, spoon, and fork) to use. I'm sure they will be appearing in mealtime pictures very soon!

Buh-bulls

R loves bubbles.

She loves them in the bath.

She loves them when she washes her hands and sees bubbles in the sink.

She loves them when there are bubbles in a drink-- like soda or just water that has a bubble in it.

And, on the suggestion of my friend M, we bought R bubbles for her Christmas stocking. She loves them. She points to the container and says "buh-bull, buh-bull" whenever she notices it.

I haven't actually looked up the correct sign for bubbles yet, but R signs it like she is washing her hands, for what is probably an obvious reason. I should look up the correct sign, but so far we haven't had a lot of luck correcting some of her incorrect signs.