Since it has been some time since I posted, I thought I update you, my faithful reader(s), on the general household news. Mainly this is a ploy to put off cleaning the bunny cage, which is reaching critical mass as we speak. But anyway. *cough cough*
I passed my CNA test and am now a board-certified Certified Nursing Assistant. Whoopty-do! It's a requirement for nursing school, so I had to do it. I looked into an on-call job at one of the area hospitals in the mental health unit just for grins, and it pays to start about what I make working on-call in residential mental health. But goes up from there, whereas I am about topped out in residential. Something to think about.
Speaking of nursing school, I am crossing my fingers that I will be receiving a letter in about a month, telling me I've been accepted into the program that starts in January. I had been all in a lather about getting my transcript to the college in time for selection (April 1st) and then gotten this confusing letter from the Credential Evaluation dept., so I called them to clarify (all was well, no reason to panic) and then asked them oh so casually about my points... I was told by advising that I had 46 (out of 53) and just wanted to confirm this. The friendly and helpful young lady on the phone asked which class they had used to figure up this or that point total etc, and it turned out that I actually have 49 points. Oh, she says, you stand a good chance this time!
So yeah. The mailbox. Haunting. Every day. Even though the theoretical letter wouldn't come for another month or so.
Okay, so you know all the hoopla about the terrible two's and how awful they are? Don't you believe it! The terrible two's got nothing on the almost-3's. Suddenly everything we do is a struggle -- "Baby, come get dressed, we have to leave soon." (Baby runs down the hall laughing. I pursue and capture. Baby cries angrily and kicks her feet. Repeat ad nauseum.) "Baby, come eat your lunch." (Baby refuses and has a tantrum, then demands chocolate milk.) "Baby, don't pull the cat's fur." (Baby then kicks at cat, usually missing, but still.)
Mainly it's the refusal to cooperate when I'm trying to get her out the door that really fries me. Then once we are out she's generally fine. It's just dirty and wrong.
Another fun tradition: lingering in doorways. Like, throwing open the door exposes a brand new world so exciting and beautiful that she can't take it all in and must move so-o-o-o slo-o-o-o-owly as she exits the house (or wherever we are) that I trip over her and no amount of encouragement will expedite this process. This is especially fun at places where there might be others behind us waiting to leave also. Fortunately she is fairly adorable and most people's hearts explode as soon as they look upon her, so we get relatively few dirty looks. But still! Is it so hard to pick up your feet, little girl?!
Nice weather today, maybe I'll get to paint the shed ...
Showing posts with label Baby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baby. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
A Prodigy. No, seriously!
It's official: Baby is a potty-training prodigy.
Yesterday we just stayed home all day and worked on the whole potty concept. I put her in a pair of sweatpants and reminded her to use the potty occasionally and -- drum roll please -- she did it! All day with no diaper and no accidents! She went all on her own a few times even, would just run over and yank her pants down (or yank her pants down and then hobble over; she's a little unclear on the order of events) and yell to me, "MAMA! I'm going PEE PEE!" I even dragged the potty outside so she could avail herself of it while playing (mostly just to spare the carpet from her muddy boots).
Then, we went to the floor store to make our final decision about flooring, after which we went to a local Mexican restaurant that we like a lot. Baby always eats like a horse there. Well, more like a pig really. I had not taken a diaper bag with me (she was in a Pull-Up) so had no baby wipes with which to clean her up, so I took her to the restroom to wash her slimy, bean-encrusted appendages. Before we left the table I asked if she would like to use the potty and she said Yes!, but I wasn't that sure if she'd come through in the clutch. Woah! I put her up there on the big, scary, adult-sized toilet and she made it look like she'd been using one of these old things forever. Not only that but I was hanging on to her so she wouldn't have to balance and she told me, "Mama! Let go of me!" Now I think she's just showing off...
You know they say that one day it just clicks for them and they just potty train like a dream if you don't push it, and for crying out loud, it looks like it's really true. We just offered some incentive and she was all over it like a duck on a junebug. Go figure.
An amusing anecdote involving the cat: Baby's potty is a Fisher-Price "Royal Flush" potty that makes a fanfare sound when it is sat upon or when (ahem) a "contribution" is made therein. Well, the resident doofus cat Ringo (the Doofus King is his new title I think) discovered that if he stuck his paw into the bowl of the potty, he could trigger the fanfare sound. Yeah, so for several days he could be found leaping around the potty sticking his foot in it and listening intently to the noise. Repeatedly. Over and over again. Until the battery wore out.
Yep. Probably a good thing he's neutered. We wouldn't want any of those genes passed on.
Yesterday we just stayed home all day and worked on the whole potty concept. I put her in a pair of sweatpants and reminded her to use the potty occasionally and -- drum roll please -- she did it! All day with no diaper and no accidents! She went all on her own a few times even, would just run over and yank her pants down (or yank her pants down and then hobble over; she's a little unclear on the order of events) and yell to me, "MAMA! I'm going PEE PEE!" I even dragged the potty outside so she could avail herself of it while playing (mostly just to spare the carpet from her muddy boots).
Then, we went to the floor store to make our final decision about flooring, after which we went to a local Mexican restaurant that we like a lot. Baby always eats like a horse there. Well, more like a pig really. I had not taken a diaper bag with me (she was in a Pull-Up) so had no baby wipes with which to clean her up, so I took her to the restroom to wash her slimy, bean-encrusted appendages. Before we left the table I asked if she would like to use the potty and she said Yes!, but I wasn't that sure if she'd come through in the clutch. Woah! I put her up there on the big, scary, adult-sized toilet and she made it look like she'd been using one of these old things forever. Not only that but I was hanging on to her so she wouldn't have to balance and she told me, "Mama! Let go of me!" Now I think she's just showing off...
You know they say that one day it just clicks for them and they just potty train like a dream if you don't push it, and for crying out loud, it looks like it's really true. We just offered some incentive and she was all over it like a duck on a junebug. Go figure.
An amusing anecdote involving the cat: Baby's potty is a Fisher-Price "Royal Flush" potty that makes a fanfare sound when it is sat upon or when (ahem) a "contribution" is made therein. Well, the resident doofus cat Ringo (the Doofus King is his new title I think) discovered that if he stuck his paw into the bowl of the potty, he could trigger the fanfare sound. Yeah, so for several days he could be found leaping around the potty sticking his foot in it and listening intently to the noise. Repeatedly. Over and over again. Until the battery wore out.
Yep. Probably a good thing he's neutered. We wouldn't want any of those genes passed on.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Swellness!
Not only did we learn this morning that J gets a bonus at work, but the baby got up and used her potty! It just doesn't get any better than this, folks.
Last night we went clothes shopping. I got a couple pairs of capris and a shirt and a sweater, J got some pants and shirts, and we got the baby some new water shoes, you know the kind you wear in the water. They are great for your natural environment type water play, like where there is gravel, and I like for her to wear them at the pool so she does not get foot-rot from the showers. Baby has undergone explosive foot growth lately and last summer's pair no longer fits her massive gunboat feet.
Initially I selected a pair in a festive bright blue and green (i.e. kind of "boys") color scheme but as we prepared to depart from the rack they were hanging on, Baby's tiny little girlish voice pipes up, "I want the pink ones!" Followed by a sigh from J, who cannot believe that our daughter loves pink more than any other color in the whole world. We got her the pink ones, but J retaliated by buying a Tonka dump truck for her to play with in the dirt in our garden.
You know, while wearing her pink kitty cat rubber boots. :)
Last night we went clothes shopping. I got a couple pairs of capris and a shirt and a sweater, J got some pants and shirts, and we got the baby some new water shoes, you know the kind you wear in the water. They are great for your natural environment type water play, like where there is gravel, and I like for her to wear them at the pool so she does not get foot-rot from the showers. Baby has undergone explosive foot growth lately and last summer's pair no longer fits her massive gunboat feet.
Initially I selected a pair in a festive bright blue and green (i.e. kind of "boys") color scheme but as we prepared to depart from the rack they were hanging on, Baby's tiny little girlish voice pipes up, "I want the pink ones!" Followed by a sigh from J, who cannot believe that our daughter loves pink more than any other color in the whole world. We got her the pink ones, but J retaliated by buying a Tonka dump truck for her to play with in the dirt in our garden.
You know, while wearing her pink kitty cat rubber boots. :)
Sunday, March 04, 2007
A Very Big Girl
So, I have been trying not to get anxious about potty training. For the baby. I myself have been successfully trained (more or less) for years, but the baby has been happily soiling diaper after diaper since birth, oblivious to my urgent attempts to influence her behavior via psychic messages. "Magically develop the urge to use the potty!" I would beam to her with my mind, "Suddenly eschew even the Pull-Up!" .... Alas, to no avail.
You know, to motivate someone you have to figure out their particular currency. We tried personal competition by holding up one of her little friends as an example: "Look, Julia is going to go use the potty! She doesn't wear diapers anymore. She uses the potty!" This was met with complete indifference. She could care less! Look, the diaper afforded her total freedom -- why, she could continue playing right through those pesky bodily functions with no interruptions. Sure, changing time was kind of irksome, but it probably took less time than constantly having to run off to the restroom. No thanks.
We tried a minor reward in the form of a Pull-Up. See, these have cartoon characters on them! But the catch is you have to sit on the potty to earn the right to wear them. She decided it wasn't worth the personal toll it took on her to sit on that potty. Thank you but no.
Finally I tried what Julia's family used as a motivator: the garbageman. He was so happy to haul Julia's binky away he gave her a present! He was so happy to stop taking dirty diapers away that he brought her another one! So, we told the baby that the first time she went pee in the potty, The Garbageman would bring her a neat present!
She mulled this over for a day or so and suddenly last night she became extremely focused. For two solid hours she sat on the potty or played near it, bottomless, and anytime we tried to dissuade her because it was getting late, she very emphatically informed us that she wanted to Go Pee-Pee! In! The! Potty! ALL BY MYSELF!!! So, we let her be until it got so late we just had to pack her off to bed with promises that she could resume in the morning.
This morning she was back at it within minutes of getting up. She continued for about an hour in the same vein, bottomless, lingering on or near the potty as she played and watched a cartoon, until finally just as I was dozing off on the couch I heard J shouting joyfully, "You DID it!" I sprang up to witness the first peeing in the potty. Jubilation! Huzzah! Etc.! And then ran to fetch the wrapped gift from The Garbageman, as promised. A little miniature post office with letter carrier figure, scooter, mailbox, and tiny letters to mail. She grooved on it. I was just glad I had bought and stashed that post office toy last year, intending to give it to one of the nieces.
After this momentous occasion we told her that the first time she went, uh, you know, in the potty, The Garbageman would bring her another present. And then I raced to the store to buy it just in case she pulled it off anytime soon. She didn't even really want to stop for breakfast until we plied her with frozen waffles topped with blueberries.
Go baby! Yay!
You know, to motivate someone you have to figure out their particular currency. We tried personal competition by holding up one of her little friends as an example: "Look, Julia is going to go use the potty! She doesn't wear diapers anymore. She uses the potty!" This was met with complete indifference. She could care less! Look, the diaper afforded her total freedom -- why, she could continue playing right through those pesky bodily functions with no interruptions. Sure, changing time was kind of irksome, but it probably took less time than constantly having to run off to the restroom. No thanks.
We tried a minor reward in the form of a Pull-Up. See, these have cartoon characters on them! But the catch is you have to sit on the potty to earn the right to wear them. She decided it wasn't worth the personal toll it took on her to sit on that potty. Thank you but no.
Finally I tried what Julia's family used as a motivator: the garbageman. He was so happy to haul Julia's binky away he gave her a present! He was so happy to stop taking dirty diapers away that he brought her another one! So, we told the baby that the first time she went pee in the potty, The Garbageman would bring her a neat present!
She mulled this over for a day or so and suddenly last night she became extremely focused. For two solid hours she sat on the potty or played near it, bottomless, and anytime we tried to dissuade her because it was getting late, she very emphatically informed us that she wanted to Go Pee-Pee! In! The! Potty! ALL BY MYSELF!!! So, we let her be until it got so late we just had to pack her off to bed with promises that she could resume in the morning.
This morning she was back at it within minutes of getting up. She continued for about an hour in the same vein, bottomless, lingering on or near the potty as she played and watched a cartoon, until finally just as I was dozing off on the couch I heard J shouting joyfully, "You DID it!" I sprang up to witness the first peeing in the potty. Jubilation! Huzzah! Etc.! And then ran to fetch the wrapped gift from The Garbageman, as promised. A little miniature post office with letter carrier figure, scooter, mailbox, and tiny letters to mail. She grooved on it. I was just glad I had bought and stashed that post office toy last year, intending to give it to one of the nieces.
After this momentous occasion we told her that the first time she went, uh, you know, in the potty, The Garbageman would bring her another present. And then I raced to the store to buy it just in case she pulled it off anytime soon. She didn't even really want to stop for breakfast until we plied her with frozen waffles topped with blueberries.
Go baby! Yay!
Sunday, February 04, 2007
So Fast
It all happened so fast, today. We painted her room yesterday and today we were talking about what kind of bed to get her eventually and I fired up craigslist and the next thing I knew, I was driving to some stranger's house to buy the perfect little toddler bed, which he had listed mere moments before for twenty bucks.
I thought we'd ease her into it but she saw it and wanted to know what it was, so I told her and she "helped" me assemble it in her room, and given the choice between the crib and the bed, she chose the bed. Maybe it helped that she had spent the night before with me in my big bed (where she slept sideways and wiggled a lot and I got very little sleep). She has slept in regular beds when visiting my mother or my father and taken it completely in stride. Tonight she gave us the usual song and dance around putting off bedtime ("one more" book, "one more!" stuffed animal, etc) but settled into her bed with nary a complaint.
Where is my baby? Who is this big grown up bed-sleeping girl?!
I thought we'd ease her into it but she saw it and wanted to know what it was, so I told her and she "helped" me assemble it in her room, and given the choice between the crib and the bed, she chose the bed. Maybe it helped that she had spent the night before with me in my big bed (where she slept sideways and wiggled a lot and I got very little sleep). She has slept in regular beds when visiting my mother or my father and taken it completely in stride. Tonight she gave us the usual song and dance around putting off bedtime ("one more" book, "one more!" stuffed animal, etc) but settled into her bed with nary a complaint.
Where is my baby? Who is this big grown up bed-sleeping girl?!
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Snow Day!
We had some decent snowfall last night -- first real snow since we moved across the river, really first real snow I can recall since January of 2004, when we returned from spending New Year's in Alaska to find the weather in our fair city colder than it had been in Nome. Our noble housesitter was stuck with us for three more days of snow and ice before things thawed enough to navigate the roads again. We were lucky the power didn't go out, since our house was 100% electric, and also lucky to have a mini-mart one scant block away. It was three solid days of Yahtzee, dvd movies, and snacks galore. It was also the week that J. felt the baby move for the first time. I had been feeling her for some time but she finally got big enough for J. to feel. It was a glorious week.
At any rate, it snowed last night for about three hours, snow that stuck and stayed with us until midday today. No school for the kiddies and the neighborhood was lousy with red-nosed hooligans pelting one another with snowballs.
Then it melted, but we have an arctic front moving in and it's supposed to be 18 or 19 degrees F. tonight, which is butt-cold for us. I made sure to clean the chicken hut and give them ample fresh shavings, adjust their crummy 60 watt bulb for optimal warmage, and snug the extremely attractive blue tarp over the whole mess with a festoon of bungee cords and rope. And I just finished taking out the garbage and recycling for what we affectionately call Garbage Man Day. All is cozy and the hatches are battened.
The point of all this reminiscence and smug preparedness, other than to describe the unfamiliar warm feeling of virtue to you, my dear reader(s), is to bring you pictures of an adorable child cavorting in the snow! Enjoy!
She is a little over 2 1/2 now and this was her first real snow. Her first instinct was to eat it, but once she got over the novelty of Edible White Stuff All Over Everything, we managed to get her onto a sled.
At any rate, it snowed last night for about three hours, snow that stuck and stayed with us until midday today. No school for the kiddies and the neighborhood was lousy with red-nosed hooligans pelting one another with snowballs.
Then it melted, but we have an arctic front moving in and it's supposed to be 18 or 19 degrees F. tonight, which is butt-cold for us. I made sure to clean the chicken hut and give them ample fresh shavings, adjust their crummy 60 watt bulb for optimal warmage, and snug the extremely attractive blue tarp over the whole mess with a festoon of bungee cords and rope. And I just finished taking out the garbage and recycling for what we affectionately call Garbage Man Day. All is cozy and the hatches are battened.
The point of all this reminiscence and smug preparedness, other than to describe the unfamiliar warm feeling of virtue to you, my dear reader(s), is to bring you pictures of an adorable child cavorting in the snow! Enjoy!
She is a little over 2 1/2 now and this was her first real snow. Her first instinct was to eat it, but once she got over the novelty of Edible White Stuff All Over Everything, we managed to get her onto a sled.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Happy New Year
Also, Happy Anniversary To Us. Seven years. Can you believe it?! I selected a scrapbooking organizer thingy for the office closet as my gift (plastic organizers being the traditional seven-year gift, right?).
Spent last night watching "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" and making pumpkin pies, just because we like pumpkin pies, and went to bed promptly at about one minute after midnight. Actually we were watching some home & garden show and I surfed over to the New Year's Eve broadcast from New York with a whopping three seconds to spare. I had thought that the show we were watching would end before midnight but evidently I was mistaken. There were some random fireworks outside as we crawled into bed, but nothing too spectacular. Not that it would have kept me awake anyway.
Today, made turkey soup and loafed around the house all day. The baby, as of this very moment, has been in the tub for about two hours. She loves to play in there and if you try to extract her without adequate reason (i.e. some fun activity to attend or other urgently entertaining thing) she will protest vehemently. By yelling things along the lines of "NO! I CAN'T! I DON'T! WANT! TO!" She's singing and splashing around in there very happily. Two hours, in water that I'm certain has been cold for a good while, and without a thrilling paperback. How does she do it?!
Her newest thing is to exclaim, "Poo poo!" and whoop it up, laughing maniacally, or else "Tartar sauce!" (courtesy a SpongeBob game on her Leapfrog that she got for Christmas; that's what SB says instead of "dammit!"). She sings songs like "Jingle Bells" but inserts "poo poo" or "tartar sauce" into them, i.e. "Poo poo Bells, Poo poo Bells, Poo poo all the way," etc. It's funny but yet getting tiresome...
School starts on Friday. Am actually looking forward to going back, esp. as I have only one class this term. Hoping for another A! So far I have gotten all A's, because I am smart and also because I have taken all this before, albeit years and years and years ago. Still, human anatomy has not changed much since then. :)
Spent last night watching "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" and making pumpkin pies, just because we like pumpkin pies, and went to bed promptly at about one minute after midnight. Actually we were watching some home & garden show and I surfed over to the New Year's Eve broadcast from New York with a whopping three seconds to spare. I had thought that the show we were watching would end before midnight but evidently I was mistaken. There were some random fireworks outside as we crawled into bed, but nothing too spectacular. Not that it would have kept me awake anyway.
Today, made turkey soup and loafed around the house all day. The baby, as of this very moment, has been in the tub for about two hours. She loves to play in there and if you try to extract her without adequate reason (i.e. some fun activity to attend or other urgently entertaining thing) she will protest vehemently. By yelling things along the lines of "NO! I CAN'T! I DON'T! WANT! TO!" She's singing and splashing around in there very happily. Two hours, in water that I'm certain has been cold for a good while, and without a thrilling paperback. How does she do it?!
Her newest thing is to exclaim, "Poo poo!" and whoop it up, laughing maniacally, or else "Tartar sauce!" (courtesy a SpongeBob game on her Leapfrog that she got for Christmas; that's what SB says instead of "dammit!"). She sings songs like "Jingle Bells" but inserts "poo poo" or "tartar sauce" into them, i.e. "Poo poo Bells, Poo poo Bells, Poo poo all the way," etc. It's funny but yet getting tiresome...
School starts on Friday. Am actually looking forward to going back, esp. as I have only one class this term. Hoping for another A! So far I have gotten all A's, because I am smart and also because I have taken all this before, albeit years and years and years ago. Still, human anatomy has not changed much since then. :)
Monday, December 25, 2006
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