I was supposed to volunteer at Anna's school this morning but the babysitter didn't show up. Sarah was really disappointed, too, because she really liked this sitter. She was supposed to come every-other-Thursday but it looks like I'm now looking for a new daytime sitter or possibly sending Henry to a one-day-a-week Mother's Day Out program if I can find one! Anna was also disappointed but Henry was probably glad that it was me that came to get him from his nap and not the sitter.
He was napping during Build-a-Bear but he did get to eat some yummy grilled pineapple later!
Sarah has been working on six weeks of sleep charts since right around her birthday (about 13 weeks!). Her sleep rules have basically been to: STAY IN BED. She has been getting up in the middle of the night since we moved here and I grew tired of it pretty fast! At the end of each week she would get to go to the store and pick out a stuffed animal (Anna did, too, since she was following the sleep rules, too. Henry didn't care.). I told her from the start that at the end of the sixth week we'd go to Build-a-Bear (where she got her beloved Jacques the cat). Sarah & Henry got longhorns and Anna got a purple bear to go with her other purple bear. Let's hope there aren't too many interrupted nights from here on out.
This is Henry's second carousel ride. I didn't have my camera last time. He loves it!
Her face doesn't show it here, but she loves it, too!
The original carousel-lover.
Sarah is having a hard time staying in bed all night long (right after we got Henry to sleep through the night!) so we are working on a reward system with her. She gets a sticker each morning she follows the Sleep Rules (stay in bed, stay very quiet, close your eyes, and go to sleep) and after she collects seven stickers she gets to pick out a new stuffed animal (she falls in love with one everywhere she goes). I have discovered that she needs a little incentive around day three or four though so last night she was told we would go on the carousel if she followed the rules and that got us through last night!
Sarah jumped/fell from a platform on the playground last night and hurt herself. Craig didn't actually see how she landed but she had a bloody nose and was pretty upset. However she pulled herself together relatively quickly so we thought she was fine. When she went to stand/walk, her legs were super shaky and she said her legs hurt so we picked her up and kept her off her feet the rest of the night (we checked for anything that felt broken, bent her legs, etc.; it seemed only when she was standing that she complained).
This morning she didn't say her legs hurt but her right leg was pretty stiff when walking. Then she didn't want to walk to school with Anna and wanted the stroller. She didn't want to walk up the stairs, just to be carried. And she was crawling a bit on the playground at school. So, instead of going to my 28-week check-up this morning I took Sarah in to the pediatrician to let him check her out.
Sarah didn't complain when the doctor felt around her leg, but just said, "That guy is touching my leg!" (in an interested tone). The pediatrician drew a map on a post-it and said to go to the "bone doctor" down the street for an x-ray. I called Craig for assistance because I have a tendency to get flustered in these situations! I'm also glad I called him because I shouldn't be hanging out around x-ray machines right now anyway.
Sarah really didn't like getting her x-rays and I really didn't like sitting outside the door listening to her scream ("I want my skirt on!", "I want my shoes on!", "I'm ready to go home now!"). Knowing Craig was in there was comforting but I had to force myself to not run in, take her in my arms, and race away without looking back!
There is a small fracture on her right heel and we are to "keep an eye on her" this week and bring her back next week to make sure it looks better. I have been giving her Motrin but when I do, she walks more so I kind of don't want to give it to her to keep her off of her foot! She does not complain (verbally) that it hurts but still walks with a stiff leg and wants me to carry her and chooses stroller over walking almost every time. (She has been walking all throughout Okpo lately so this is very unusual for her!)
I guess it's pretty good that we made it over four years (and that Sarah made it two, I really would have predicted she'd do something like this before now!) without a "big" visit to the doctor. I'm not cut out for it, that's for sure!
Craig & I went to the driving range again for date night. We got there at 7:35 and they closed at 8 so Craig convinced the lady at the front desk to give us a two-for-one price. We might start doing date-night twice a month. Since we didn't spend as much time at the driving range as we had planned we decided to drive to Gohyeon and go to Starbucks instead of going to the local coffee house. While there we did a bit of shopping (I got the last super-stale baguette for French toast—really, Home Plus is not the place to buy bread—in the morning and we got a new side table for the family room to better store our laptops).
This morning and tomorrow morning I arranged for a babysitter so I could take portraits at Playschool. Anna doesn't usually go on Thursdays so she stayed home with Sarah and the sitter today but just Sarah will be with the sitter tomorrow. I specifically asked for an English-speaking sitter and Amelie was able to find someone. The girls were alive when I returned and neither were crying, but...
Sarah freaked out when I set her down or handed her to the sitter, as predicted. Anna was just shy, as the best-case-scenario-predicted. What actually happened after I left I don't know because when I got back at 11:45, Sarah was still sleeping (she is usually up by 10:30 at the latest) and Anna had locked herself in her room (she was singing to herself).
I asked the sitter multiple times if she put Sarah down at 9 AM as instructed and she claims she did. I don't know if Sarah cried for a very long time or what happened because she slept until 1 PM. (I didn't know what to do with her so I figured she was going to be messed-up sleep-wise no matter what I did, why not let her get as much sleep as she can.) Anna says she did play-doh and stickers with the sitter but she didn't get a snack. Because I said that the girls have a snack when Sarah wakes up from her nap (but Sarah didn't wake up from her nap!). But, Anna had a Capri-Sun (which I had said she could have with her snack, so why wasn't a snack distributed?) and Sarah had some soy milk (which I also talked about in relation to the snack)...
I have no idea how long Anna was in her room but I was surprised that the sitter hadn't picked up any toys that Sarah had (obviously) strewn about when she was awake. Anna said that she went to her room because she "wanted mommy to be here."
Anyway, maybe I'll get a better story out of the sitter tomorrow but I don't think I'll be calling on her again at this rate (she was also 10 minutes late getting here this morning).
I took the ferry to Busan this afternoon and did some shopping and relaxing all by myself. It was pretty awesome but the best part was that I hopped in a taxi and went to the airport to meet my mom. Craig had arranged for a driver to take us back to Geoje Island which worked out really well. Of course the only things I bought were for the kids but it was a nice break from my usual routine.
Craig & I went on our second date-night last night. This time we went to Mabin's here in Okpo. Steaks again and they were about equal-goodness to VIPS. This is closer so that is a plus. We went into town after dinner and had coffee and hot chocolate at Dunkin' Donuts. It feels very strange to me to be out with Craig without the girls since it happens so very rarely (I felt strange out on my hike, too). We didn't get Sung Hee again but her friend came and since the kids are in bed by the time we leave that's fine.
We had Anna's friend Eleni and her older brother Kostas over this afternoon to play. Anna stuck to me like glue but, thankfully, Sarah was a little more self-sufficient. At the end Anna did give Eleni a hug goodbye (Eleni gave Anna a kiss!). I just hope Anna gets more self-confidence as she gets older because it is going to be hard for her to be this shy when she is on her own in the world. Anna's friend Kristin is coming over tomorrow morning and Sarah & I might go up to one of our neighbor's houses next week for a playdate with kids her age (one is 3.5 months the other is 7.5 months) while Anna is at school.
One of my goals this year is to have friends over more for the kids since we really haven't been doing that at all since we've been here (especially since we're downstairs and don't "run into" people much when we do pass through the parking lot) . I guess it's hard for me to coordinate and we are all in our routines. Eleni & Kristin both have older siblings (so afternoons are harder) and Eleni & Gwenn both go to school five days per week (so mornings are out) which leaves little time for us to get together with more than one of her friends at a time, I guess. It's also hard because I just don't know many people with kids our kids age because I don't get out!
Anna talks about Kristin, Eleni, & Gwenn when I ask her about school and today I saw Gwenn, Kristin, & Anna all holding hands on their walk up to the playground (I've only seen Anna hold her teacher's hand on the way to the playground before). I would have loved to have gotten a picture of this but then Anna would have seen me and I had to run to the Import Lady and the bakery before I could get Anna & her things from school.
I arranged for a babysitter (through Amelie again) for tonight. Sung-Hee was supposed to arrive at 7 PM and last time she came fifteen minutes early so when she wasn't here by 5 after 7 we realized something was wrong. Luckily I had saved her cell number in mine so I called her. She said she was babysitting somewhere else. I could only assume that somehow she got double-booked. So, she asked her friend to come here and it was all working out fine. (Sung-Hee and her friend are probably in their mid-forties.) We got upstairs after the new sitter arrived and there was someone who kind of looked like Sung-Hee in our parking lot on the phone. It turns out our reservation had been mixed up somewhere along the line and she had written down another apartment in our complex for 8 PM. So, Sung-Hee and her friend had a nice visit at our house while we went out.
All this to say that we have decided to try to go on a date night at least once per month and tonight we went to VIPS for dinner. The steaks were really good (I'm not sure if they were actually good or if we just haven't had steak in a long time!) and the salad bar had a good selection (even a taco bar!). Before we went to dinner we were talking about all of the different restaurants we were going to hit each month but when we were done we joked we might just go to VIPS each time. It's in Gohyeon (same building as Home Plus) so it's really not convenient to go during the week with the kids but we might try to brave the weekend crowd sometime for lunch.
Now that we have kids of our own we need to start some of our own holiday traditions. One that I wanted to be sure to do was go to the Christmas Eve service at church like I did when I was a kid but there was no service at the English-language church in town. One fun thing we did last year at Christmas dinner at Craig's co-worker's house was to have Christmas crackers. We had to wear the crowns that came in the crackers throughout the meal and then everyone gets a fun little surprise gift. I ordered these from Sur la Table but surely I can figure out how to make my own in future years; it's the how to make the crackers "pop" that I need to figure out. Hopefully we can add some other things to our list of traditions for Christmas, other holidays, and every-day stuff as the years go by.
Anna has earned a lot of stickers on her chart for sitting on the potty this past week and she earned a stuffed pig and a magic wand for pooping on the potty (I won't go into any more detail than this, don't worry). No pee yet but I'm learning when her best chances are and I think it's just a matter of getting used to the routine and being relaxed enough to go. I ended up not really liking the No-Cry Potty training book and I'm not sure why I bought it because I didn't like the No-Cry Sleep training book by the same author. I really do like the Diaper-Free Before 3 by Jill Lekovic though and am going to figure out my plan and implement it.
Right now is a great time because Anna is out of school for a couple of weeks. However, I noticed over the weekend that we had a harder time being consistent when Craig is around but now I know this so will be more aware of it. My feelings are reminiscent of making a plan to wean Anna from breastfeeding and the pacifier-elimination plan we did last year. Both of those were not nearly as bad as I had imagined (both went really well, actually) so I'm hopeful that this will go smoothly as well (of course I expect accidents; I'm not naive!).
The parent with child sign is also on the men's room so I assume it's the same set-up in there.
There's the pink potty seat hanging on the wall of the bathroom.
Anna in the play area just before you enter the store. She didn't like the little Korean kids coming up to her and trying to interact.
Boxes off to the left and a table with tape and scissors. There is another table off to the left here so plenty of people can pack up their stuff at one time.
Anna & I drove up to Lotte Mart to check out what they're selling these days (nothing too terribly exciting or different than Home Plus but they do have the nice Daiso (Japanese dollar store) section that is always fun to go through. I helped Anna pick out a Christmas present from Anna to Sarah and to Craig from Anna & Sarah. She pointed out several things that she would like and I told her I'd take Sarah later to pick out something for Anna. It's just too bad that the thing she wants most is a giant Minnie Mouse. I'm not excited about it but I guess it's not for me. What's really too bad is that I haven't seen it at Home Plus so, if I decide to be nice and get that for her I'll have to drive all the way back to Lotte Mart (45 minutes away).
In an Anna-update we have been dabbling in potty training this week. I bought her a cute book called Time to Pee by Mo Willems and a few books for me (Diaper Free Before 3 and The No Cry Potty Training Solution) since I don't have a clue what to do here. We've had quite a few false starts so I hope this time we can get right. I think the Time to Pee book helped because there are a lot of mice in it and potty chart with mice stickers (although they are running out and I got some, apparently, equally-exciting star stickers at Lotte Mart today).
Right now Anna is getting a sticker every time she sits on the potty because that's just where we're at. She has peed a few times in the past (in March and October) and gotten rewarded but nothing has stuck. I'm remembering to ask and trying to make it part of our routine. It's frustrating because I feel like we could have done it last fall but I didn't want to because of our moving around. In hindsight, it would probably have been worth it to risk back-tracking a bit because of our move. (She's been waking up dry for over a year now and I think she's just set in her ways now as far as going in the diaper...)
Anyway, as we walked in from the parking garage I noticed the bathrooms and pointed them out to Anna, took her in and showed her around the public bathroom. Lotte Mart has a little potty seat you can use which is really nice. They also have a kid-level sink for the kids to wash their hands. Anna said she wanted to try the potty when we were shopping so we did a dry-run in one bathroom. Then when we packed up the car I said it was her last chance to try before we went home and she tried again. I was just really surprised that she was willing to try in the public bathroom, actually, but I think it helped that the seat was pink.
I'll report back after we've made some more progress.
The girls had their first Korean babysitter experience last night. Craig's work Christmas party was last night so we put the kids to bed and Sunghee watched TV while both kids slept. Anna met Sunghee and knew that she would be there and we'd be out. I was a little worried she'd freak out when we said goodnight but I think she was too scared that Sunghee would be the one to come into her room so she stayed quiet. (The last time Anna had a non-family member babysit her aside from the time I used the co-op in Texas was the time she screamed the entire time while we were at a museum exhibit downtown.) Since this went so well, we might try to get out once a month (to start) and take it from there.
The party was really nice and it was held at the Samsung Hotel in Gohyeon. It was smaller than any of the other holiday parties I've been to for Craig's work which was kind of nice.
We had a playdate this morning with one of Anna's new friends at school, Mia. I happened to talk to Lorraine (Mia's mom) during drop off and we decided to get together today. Lorraine was nice and came here because of Sarah's napping but it turns out it might have been just as easy for us to go to their apartment because Lorraine doesn't have a car so had to take a taxi, there weren't any taxis to be had, and then Sarah didn't take a good nap anyway... Oh well. Mia was a nice little girl and Anna says she likes her and even offered her some "pig tea" while she was here (pig tea was simply a pig from her Little People barn inside one of her tea cups).
Sarah & I went to coffee morning two weeks ago to try to find out the scoop on where the moms hang out with their kids. I met the woman I ran into at the grocery store when we first got here (the one with a son the same age as Sarah) and she said (as Julie had said) the moms met at Pinnochio on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So I took the kids to the playgroup and Pinnochio was closed. I tried again on Tuesday but Pinnochio was closed! So frustrating! I've been planning to go back to Coffee Morning (or try the playgroup that meets at the Foreigner's Club on Monday & Friday) to see what the deal is but today Lorraine told me that the same thing happened to her and the other moms decided to stop going to Pinnochio because even though they had a set appointment with them, they kept not opening! They are now going to another place in town... We'll see if we ever make it there (I only have tried to go on the days when Sarah's nap ended early enough to attempt it).
This is part of the reason I was sad to leave Doha (and why I was sad to leave Texas)... it is hard getting out there and making new friends (and I liked the ones I had already made)! I've got two handicaps right now: those stairs (we only go up once per day) and Sarah's need for sleep (whether she has a good nap or a bad nap is out of my control). I know it will all work out in the end though.
Anna set these books up for Sarah to look at this afternoon.
You can see Sarah has almost gotten herself onto her tummy here.
Craig had a business trip this week to Ulsan so I am proud to report my first two overnights on my own went well. I had both kids in bed by 7 PM both nights. However, Anna fell out of bed last night and had a hard time getting back to bed after that.
This morning Sarah woke up just about on her tummy and was working really hard at getting there all day today. She did a couple of tummy-to-back rolls (hasn't done that since Colorado) but never did make it completely on her tummy on her own today. She got super close though!
I took the kids into town to get "a big carrot" and to pick up some lunch. Basically, we needed something "to do" and I haven't gotten a system down for carrying much more than Sarah (I've been wearing her in the Baby Hawk which is working really well) and holding on to Anna's hand as we come down the stairs so I just bought two big carrots and a bag of onions at the market today.
It was fun to hear the reactions of people when they noticed Sarah in the back of the stroller today. I switched her to the back so she is more visible than she was before. She seems to like this position better, too, since she can see out a little better.
Anna (unintentionally) hit Sarah this afternoon and I told her she had to apologize. This was pretty agonizing for Anna and it took about five minutes to do so (the threat of not getting to eat popcorn and watch a movie if she didn't do it was the big motivator). I think this is really the first time she's had to say "I'm sorry" so I gave her the choice of saying it or giving Sarah a kiss on her tummy (where Anna hurt her). She chose a kiss and we talked about it later on when Craig came home so hopefully Anna gets what happened.
Last night was the first night I had to put both kids to bed on my own (Craig had gone on a field trip with work) and it actually went really well. Both kids were in bed and asleep not later than 7:10 PM (goal was 7 PM but Sarah decided she needed to cry for a bit before giving in to sleep). This was something I had had major anxiety about when Sarah first was born, but Anna is so great as a big sister and Sarah is so easy that it was not bad. Sarah even nursed for 15 minutes (10 minutes longer than usual) and Anna just read some books to herself and was patient.
Testing out the new Baby Hawk on a walk.
Anna riding Craig's old horse (Anna calls it the "broom-horse").
Anna had fun helping Nana make some popcorn this afternoon.
Anita went to book club this morning so the four of us decided to take a walk. It's quite obvious we haven't been left to our own devices yet as it took us longer to get everyone ready for the walk than it actually took us to complete the walk!
I am officially counting down the hours until my mom gets here tonight (nine more hours!). The funny thing is that the last couple of days have gone really well. So well that I've gotten some down-time in the middle of the day and no major battles (Anna is sometimes not the best listener when it's time to go upstairs for her afternoon rest and Sarah sometimes doesn't want to fall asleep when she's "supposed" to). Sunday was so bad that Craig stayed home on Monday to help me and ever since then I've been feeling better and things are going better, too. At any rate, I know Anna's going to have fun with my mom and I can stop feeling guilty about splitting my attention between the two kids. Now, hopefully my dad can survive a month without my mother (it's not too late to come out for a week, dad!)...
Lowercase alphabet puzzle.
"G is for Gloves" (but that's what I get for shopping at a British toy store). Not a real problem in my book.
I mentioned the G is for Mittens thing to my friend Claire from the UK and she said that yes, they do call them gloves; I didn't ask if gloves are also called gloves though.
I found another puzzle at Giant that looked good last week but am really bothered by one of the pieces.
Oh yes, "X is for X-mas!" of course!
I actually saw this same X is for X-mas description at the Japanese one-dollar store today. The puzzle I bought was made by an Indian company. I am planning to take a picture of a xylophone and tape it over the Christmas tree because it bothers me so much. It just doesn't make sense!
Today was the second playgroup and only two other moms were there. The others had legitimate reasons for not coming (family in town, previously scheduled doctor's appointments, child up all night, etc.) so I hope it was just a fluke and that next week has a better turnout. Of course people will start traveling for the summer soon, so I'm just hopeful we can keep the group together come fall!
Anna had a good time and I think it was helpful that there were only three other kids there so it was a little less chaotic than last week at our house (and she didn't have to share any of her toys which is always easier!). She talked about it a lot on the way home so that is always the best review for an activity (she's still talking about Family Fun Day and riding the camel and the pony).
The mom who hosted today is due two weeks before me so I'm really counting on her labor & delivery experience to go well to psych myself up for the same (she is delivering at the same hospital with the same OB). I think now that I'm definitely having Baby Girl here I'm beginning to panic ever so slightly about unknowns due to delivering in a foreign country. It will be OK, I know, but sometimes the imagination can get the best of you. (Besides I can't really base my anticipated experience to Kirsten's because this is her third, she is going for her second VBAC, and she is planning to use drugs for pain-relief: basically nothing at all like my situation!)
Anna & I hosted our first playgroup today with a new set of moms & kids. Anna was a little leary of sharing her toys with the first kid who came, but once there were more she got over it. Seven moms (including myself) and seven kids with five of the moms expecting another between April and August! Because I find it interesting, I just want to note where each of the moms are from: Scotland, England, Russia, New Zealand, Germany, Morocco, and USA (me).
Overall, I think it went really well and we are planning to get together again next week (that's the best indicator I have that it went well at this point!). I really hope this works out and Anna, Baby Girl, & I make some good friends in the end.
There was a TV playing Tom and Jerry in the pediatrician's waiting room and Anna thought the show was exciting. Of course she loves mice & cats so that makes sense. The funny part of the doctor's visit was that her doctor said she was going to look for "Barneys" in Anna's ears and Anna has no clue who or what Barney is.
I do need to introduce her to some of the popular kids characters at some point, I guess, because right now Tigger is just some tiger (she has gotten Tigger stamps on her hand at music class twice now and I just say "oooh, a tiger stamp!) and Mickey & Minnie are some mice.
I don't want her to feel left out of kids conversations about popular culture just because I have a thing for not exposing her to licensed characters, television, and marketing in general! (She does know who Elmo is and who some other Sesame Street characters are because they are on her diapers and on some of the Earth's Best products we used at home, but she has no idea that they have a show on TV!)
I'm not saying that we're going to start plopping her in front of the TV or anything (I'm sure that will happen more often when Baby arrives and the grandmas leave, but even so, my lovely Librarian sister has pointed me in the direction of movies based on books (so far she only watches three Dr. Seuss "soft animation" books on the computer a few times per week) that I'll start with before going down the Walt Disney trail) but I might start choosing some books that feature these characters so she has a clue who they are. I'll have to scour Amazon and see if there is anything decent. Winnie the Pooh stuff should be easy enough so I might start there; I'm sure she'll love Piglet!
Anna & I had another playdate over here today and it was so much more enjoyable than the playgroup we have been going to each week. I really want to set up a playgroup like the one we went to in Texas but am not sure about the timing (first, I don't have that many toys right now but will when the sea shipment gets here; and second, I'm hesitant to get something started just to drop out for several months when Baby arrives and everyone goes home for the summer). The more I think about it though, the more I think I ought to just try to set something up through the local mom's monthly newsletter.
Two cloth diapers and two leaky diapers so far. I haven't determined if I needed to wash the diapers more to get the absorbency right (I just washed the diapers & cotton inserts twice but the hemp inserts four times) or if I needed to have more inserts. Anna is using one cotton & one hemp insert now so we'll see how that turns out (I'm trying to use as few inserts as possible because they are bulky and I'd like to have less laundry, if possible. I imagine it will take several days for me to figure out the right combinations for each diaper and some unrealistic-eternally-optimistic part of me thinks "maybe all of these leaks will make Anna want to potty train right away" since she really freaked out with both leaks. It's always nice to have a dream!
We hosted playgroup at our house today—presumably the last time we do so. Anna did a really good job. She still sat on my lap a lot, but she was definitely better about it this time than last. She had no problems (as far as I could tell) with the other kids playing with her toys.
Amelia & Bryan were playing with her Little People Zoo at one point, and she announced "someone playing with zoo!" Not in an annoyed or possessive way, but she wanted to let me know. I thought it was funny because she knows who Amelia & Bryan are but she chose to say "someone."
Poor Caroline couldn't make it because she was sick, but after everyone left, Anna said, "Caroline likes stroller" because when we hosted in August, Caroline was really into the stroller (so much so that we had to put it away because she got mad when other kids played with it!). I just find it amusing the things that kids hold onto in their memories and the (seemingly) random stuff that they say throughout the day.
Anyway, I really hope we can find a group as good as this one when we move to Qatar. Anna talks about Caroline & Bryan a lot so I know it's important to get out there and make some new friends when we arrive (both for her and for me!).
I finally got off of the waiting list and into the Babysitting Co-op. I had to use it for the first time today so I could go to the ultrasound without Anna. Craig was unable to get out of work early today so this was really the only option since the ultrasound appointment would take so long.
I was super nervous about it and didn't sleep well the night before, but Anna did a great job (so the mom reports). I dropped Anna off at the mom's house and the mom said the hardest part was keeping her boys (ages 3.5 years and 8 months) away from Anna. (Anna is pretty big into personal space—especially around strangers). Anna didn't cry or otherwise freak out.
Craig picked her up and they went out to dinner and I got home shortly after they did. Such a relief to know that Anna will be able to survive in the wild if she needs to!
I ended up coming back home almost at bedtime on Monday and I don't think that that timing worked out well. Anna acted kind of nervous and went to grandma! But she did let me & Craig put her to bed without question. I think it was kind of like those movies where the husband is presumed dead for 20 years but shows up on his wife's doorstep and expects her to have waited for him... I think Anna had given up hope of her mother & father returning and had latched on to Grandma. So when we came back on Monday she had to rearrange her thoughts. At least she didn't cry when she saw me!
Photos by Craig
Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms, moms-to-be, and moms-at-heart out there!
Grandma & Grandpa came in for a visit this weekend. They babysat for us last night while Craig & I went out to a potluck with Lesley's Babysitting Co-Op group. There isn't room in teh co-op for us right now, but another couple that was there last night is interested in starting a new one with us (and some others that have expressed interest). I even scored the names of two babysitters while I was there so maybe Craig & I can get out more often more regularly!
I missed some exciting stuff yesterday when I went upstairs to get ready for the potluck: Craig, Grandma, & Grandpa asked Anna to point out different parts of her body and she was able to point out her: arms, hair, eyes, ears, nose, toes, elbows, and hands. I'll have to ask her again sometime (hey, maybe even for the camera--although she usually shuts off fo the camera!).
New Spoken Words: mirror, dark, squirrel, bag, Target®, paper, CD Player, couch, bed, turtle, dolphin
New Signed Words: big
New Un-prompted Phrases: "big duck"
I've been meaning to write about this for some time, but never get around to it... I have often felt like I am at the bar trying to pick up a date when Anna & I go to the park each day. Lately there isn't anybody there at all (which I don't understand because we go when it is still relatively "cool" outside), but often, especially when someone has a child near Anna's age, I find I get particularly excited and think this could be a potential friend (for both Anna & myself) but it never turns into anything but a pleasant one-time chat at the park.
I am lucky that Adrianne caught up with me that day last fall so that Anna has a couple of little friends in the neighborhood, but they are really the only other kids we know that are her age. Until today... today is our first playgroup wth the mom's group, but I still feel like it's a bit like dating: I'm hoping that they'll like us and we'll like them. I know Anna has a lot of social-skills to learn (sharing, and just generally being around other kids who may push her out of the way, take her toy, etc.) I imagine it will be kind of like when we joined the kid's gym and it took a few visits to get her comfortable with the idea.
About the mom's group: I am finding myself almost frustrated that I didn't find them earlier. I really needed a group like this at this time last year (and I looked--hence the web site work I'm helping them with: no one knows about this group!). I know I joined MOPS but since those meetings were right during Anna's nap time we never went, and the few times we did go, I guess it didn't really feel like what I was looking for. I felt bad about putting Anna in the nursery and knowing that she was having a miserable time for over two hours. (We are thinking of gasp starting to attend a church now that Anna has given up her morning nap, so she will "get" to experience nursery-life again, but just for an hour each week (that we attend!).)
Another great thing about the mom's group (especially the playgroup) that I've joined is that the kids are all around Anna's age (oldest in the playgroup is 17 months and the youngest is just under 11 months) so these moms are all going through about the same stages as I am--this is why I so wish I had had this resource last year at this time! But, I have them now so I am going to enjoy it and I'll know where to turn next time around as well!
Wednesday I decided that, even though Anna was still a bit on-edge from teething, we were going to get out of the house. I gave her some Tylenol and we went to the UPS Store and then to the local coffee house. We got a seat outside and I had a mint-chocolate-chip-mocha and Anna had a chocolate chip muffin. She was much happier with her life by the time we got to the coffee house and much more chocolaty (?!) when we left!
This (a special food treat) is something I struggle with, espcially with having a daughter. I don't want to make food an "issue" (and I know she's only 13.5 months) so I had a hard time convincing myself that it was okay to go out for a muffin when she wasn't feeling well. I think she knows it was a special one-time thing so I'm really not worried about creating a comfort-eating habit at this point, but it is on my mind.
Yesterday she was acting normally (no Tylenol, no teething gel!) so we went to Target to make some returns and then hit the outdoor shopping area to hang out at the park, buy me some new shoes (to replace my Birkenstocks from 1994 or 1995!), a new HTML/XHTML/CSS book (for my mom's group web site project) at the bookstore, and get some lunch. It was a fun little mother-daughter-day-out and she was really great in the stores & restaurant because we got to get out and run around in the park, too.
This week we've been trying out the one-nap thing and I'd say it is definitely going well. Anna goes to bed around 7:30 PM and she sleeps in until 8:30 or 9 AM! Then she takes a three hour nap starting around 1 PM. This has mean all sorts of productivity for me (in the book-making department, anyway--I just have December-March to complete right now) since I've been getting up at 6:30 when Craig gets out of the shower.
I can tell that Anna gets a little fussy mid-late morning but I'm sure this is part of the adjustment period. Before she was taking a short nap or no-nap in the morning and then her afternoon nap was only an hour or hour-and-a-half.
This is great timing since I just found out about a mom's group in town that is all about arranging playgroups (they have a moms-night-out, book club, and other stuff, too). We will start going to a playgroup next week and I'm interested to see how Anna does. James & Claire came over yesterday and Anna was a little skeptical about having to share her toys (she had no problem going to their house and using theirs though!).
OK, really, I don't understand why she is so loud. Anyone who knows us knows that we are quiet people. I hope this passes soon because she really seems to be getting louder each day. I almost felt like I needed to leave Target this afternoon it was so out of hand; she almost lept out of the cart when she saw a bin of balls (BA! BA! BA! BA! BA! BA!).
New YELLED! Words: Heart, hot, bob (as in "the red, red, robin comes bob, bob, bobbin' along")
I decided to buy Anna some drinkable yogurt (YoBaby) last week and she loves it. Little does she know that I've been mixing in some whole milk in the yogurt the past two days and she still loves it. I'm hoping to keep increasing the milk contents each day until she is drinking mostly milk. I feel kind of sneaky, but I think in this case the ends justify the means. For now I am still calling it "yogurt" for fear that she'll reject it if I call it "milk." (Like the time I made homemade macaroni & cheese and called it "macaroni & cheese" and she looked at me like I was trying to feed her poison until I called it "pasta" and then she thought it looked pretty good!)
Please someone tell me that my child will one day be able to use an "indoor" voice sometime soon in her young life. Anna yells everything she says and I think she's getting louder each day. It is not an angry-yell, it's just an announcement-yell, but it can get loud.
The other thing that is currently driving me nuts is that she still swipes (or drops, but never throws) a good amount of food onto the floor. And she'll do it while she's still eating (although usually not at full-pace). At what age do I start enforcing a "you're done eating when you start swiping/dropping food on the floor" rule? She's gotten a lot better about keeping her cup on the table, but she does still have her moments.
New Spoken (YELLED!) Words: jeans, pop (as in "pop goes the weasel")
New Signed Words: happy, please, duck*
*duck & keys are the only words that she speaks and signs.
[Since I wrote this, Anna has stopped with the excessive swiping/dropping of her food (she's still doing it, but sweeping up after mealtimes is significantly less intense). -Becky 4/6/06]
I very rarely change Anna's diaper anywhere but at home (a few times in the car here and there) so I haven't experienced this too often, but when we were traveling this weekend I was really frustrated by two lack-of-changing-table incidents.
The first was on the airplane: I'd really like to know why there isn't a changing table on a plane that is taking hundreds of passengers on a four-hour flight. I would understand a shorter flight, but Anna truly needed her diaper changed on the flight out to San Francisco. The flight attendant suggested I could lay a blanket down over the toilet seat (and they'd throw out the blanket) to change Anna. First of all, I brought my own changing pad; and second the toilet seat is not a flat surface to lay your child down on to change her diaper. So, I sent Craig to the back and I changed her diaper on the seats (on my changing pad, of course). Thankfully it was only wet and not dirty otherwise I would have felt a little bad for our neighbors. [Obviously the solution to this particular problem would have been to change the diaper just before we boarded, but that wouldn't have solved a dirty-diaper problem, if we had had one in-flight--not sure what we would have done then!]
The second was in some public bathrooms at Fisherman's Wharf: a family tourist trap. This also did not add up--it seemed to be a relatively new building, so I can't figure out why they didn't install a simple changing table. I ended up having to lay the changing pad on the driest part of the floor (near the entrance) that I could find. (Again, she had a really wet diaper and we couldn't make her wait to change it.)
There are a lot of things a child needs to learn: colors, shapes, vocabulary, animal sounds, etc. I've got the colors, shapes, and vocabulary down and I can do a handful of animal sounds (mostly barnyard and household animals, but don't ask me to do an elephant or a giraffe (???) or a lot of other zoo animals). I don't usually worry about it too much, but tonight as I was giving Anna her bath, I decided to make a noise for one of her toy boats. Now I'm worried that her Naval Architect, Ocean Engineer father will come home and tell me I did it all wrong. It's too late though since for some strange reason Anna really picked up on the noise I was making and repeated it non-stop for the rest of her bath. I'm sure I'm making the wrong noise the more I think about it (because Craig & I did have a conversation about it a while back), but I guess Craig will have the rest of his life to set her (and me) straight on that particular noise.
Here is an interesting article on kids & TV (specifically babies & Baby Einstein videos) at mothering.com. Anna hasn't watched much TV in her first year since we have felt it wasn't necessary/providing anything useful--she won't sit still for it unless she's not feeling well (as exhibited last week with our PBS mini-marathon (1.5 "Sesame Streets" & an "Everyday Food"). I'm interested to see how this issue plays out as she gets older.