Lots. Of. Fun
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Jumping to conclusions
Teena texted me today with news that someone from the daycare had called her, saying Aylin had thrown up, but wasn't running a temperature. She also told me that Aylin had thrown up because she'd thrown a temper tantrum after breakfast. I got all ticked off, of course, because Aylin had been hitting people yesterday, and I saw this as a sign that Aylin was starting to turn into a little tyrant. Based on my understanding of what Teena's told me in the past, I've been concerned that the ladies at daycare were spoiling Aylin. So my immediate reaction was, "We are, by God, gonna put a stop to that right now." As it turns out, the teacher who called Kristina was a substitute or temporary teacher, and she hadn't told either of the directors -- like she was supposed to -- that she was calling a parent. It also turns out that Kristina just assumed -- incorrectly -- that Aylin had thrown a fit and made herself sick. What actually happened was that she'd been spinning around and dancing like mad to some fun music shortly after breakfast and just spit up a little bit. It also turns out that I've misinterpreted the way the ladies at the daycare are treating Aylin, or -- more accurately -- that I've misunderstood what Teena's been saying about how they handle her. So, while it's good that Teena and I found cause to sit down and talk about discipline at home for Aylin, we both learned a lesson or two about jumping to conclusions.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Aylin's rapidly expanding vocabulary…
I (Jeff) went outside with Aylin this afternoon (which makes me wonder, at what point does "unseasonably warm" become the new norm?). As she was toddling off to the edge of the yard, I was just sort of moseying along behind her. She stopped, turned around and jabbered something at me that I interpreted to mean, "Will ya hurry up already?"
So I said, "I'm coming!"
To which she replied, "I cummeem!"
For the most part, she's been learning to identify objects (though this weekend's marked a move into some different stuff, including the "I cummeem!"), and she remembers them later. Anyway, "I cummeem!" has been today's phrase of the day. It's stinkin' cute. I love seeing how hungry she is to learn, how quickly she learns and how sticky these new things are.
Yesterday's phrase of the day was, "I d'no! [I don't know]!" That came about after she dragged me into her room — "clay [play]?" — sat us down in the floor, and kind of flopped her hands on her lap. I said, "Whatcha doin'?"
"Doin'?", she repeats.
"I don't know!", I say.
"I d'no!". Repeat ad infinitum all day long — and not a few times today — with lots of variations in tone and inflection, shrugs and hand gestures, to boot.
Pretty amazing stuff. It also serves as a constant reminder to be careful of what I say and what she might hear. That's good for me.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The girls have been sick a few days…
Kristina's been saying for a week or more that she thought she was coming down with something. Aylin has been tossing her cookies off and on since Saturday. She went to daycare on Monday and Tuesday, ran a bit of a fever on Tuesday, then came home with 101° F temperature Wednesday at lunch. Kristina was really not feeling well Wednesday night, and they both stayed home all day today, fighting the stomach bug.
Aylin — unusually, if you know her at all — fell asleep on the living room floor about 6:45 tonight. Kristina put her to bed, and now she's in bed herself.
Fun times around here!
Sunday, October 3, 2010
General Update
From This: 
To this:
All in what seems, as a blink of the eye.
Wow, I love that kid. It's been such an amazing trip. Lots of laughter and tears. It's hard to believe she is now 19 months old... Going on 5 years. :D She now (finally) weighs around 22 lbs, and at her 18 month check up she was 31" tall! She's long and skinny. She has 12 teeth (4 top, 4 bottom, and 1 set of molars on each side.) She's too tall for 12 month clothes, but the 18 month are too wide. I have to find the jeans with the expandable button waist on the inside of the pants and cinch them all the way down. She eats all big people food now. She loves to be given a whole apple and just munch away at it. And she makes good progress on it too!! She also likes dried fruit of all kinds. Raisins, craisins, mixed dried fruit. She loves pretty much all fruit. She also likes plain sour cream... I was making dinner one night, and had the sour cream out. She wanted a "bite" so I gave her a little on a spoon just to see what she would do. Well, she loved it. So then I had to keep giving her more. Until I finally gave her a good dollop in a bowl and let her have at it. She finished it all, and was Num Num! the whole time she ate it.
She loves to climb on to things. She is now tall enough to climb on the kitchen chairs, so she'll push them to where she wants to be and get to the kitchen counter. She loves to help me cook. She gets her own bowl and spoon, or some kind of utensils and she plays while I cook. Usually with lots of Mmmm! involved, and I have to "taste" what she is stirring up. :D
I finally put away all of the little baby stuff (Swing / Jumperoo / Infant Car Seat). It's crazy to think of how quickly they grow out of those things. But I can't see how we ever would have gotten any sleep without that wonderful swing, and the Jumperoo was awesome right up until she could walk. She's such a busy little bee, that it was great when she wasn't able to be mobile and could keep herself occupied.
But now the little monkey is in to everything!
We think it may be time to start a little potty training. She is becoming aware, anyhow. For the last month or so every time I change a diaper I tell her pee pee (for wet diapers), and Poopy (for dirty diapers). Now she's started coming to her dad and I and grabbing her crotch and saying "Poo" when she makes a dirty diaper. And today she actually did it before / while she was making one... So she's getting the idea anyhow. We'll see what happens. We're going to go ahead and get a potty seat and see where it goes...
She still loves bath time, but washing her hair is a struggle. She hates the water in her eyes. But she refuses to tilt her head back, or to hold still for me to use the nice little soft sided water bucket to rinse her hair. I got one of the water bucket things at Walmart that has a soft / flexible side to it so you can put it up to the child's forehead and dump it down. But she just hates it so bad that when it comes to that time, she won't hold still. The best I can do it hold my hand up so that most of it is shielded away from her eyes, and I make the Brrr (motor boat) type noise so that she repeats me, and doesn't snort the water in. Sometimes it goes ok, other times we get hysterical after. Aside from the hair washing though, she loves her bath. And probably only twice in her life has fought even going in to the tub for a bath.
Her vocabulary is growing by the day. She no longer only says words that she has heard repeated over and over. Now she tries a new word after only hearing it once! And some of her constant words are becoming for defined. She calls me Mom-mom, Jeff is DA!, Bela is Na-lllla (somewhere along the way she changed, she did call her Be-da at one time), Angel is something I can't quite make out yet. But it's not at all like Angel. The cats are Kie! her Blankie is also Kie! Of course all food is "Bite", she does sometimes ask for a "sip" now, or a "dink", or even "Mook" for milk. She says "Ni-nite", and "bye-bye". Hiiii is said alot, many times followed up with "do-in?" or "sup" for what'cha doin? or what's up? She has all of the Pooh character's down, "Pooh", a funky noise for piglet and tigger, "Eeewwww" for Eeyore, "BaBAT!" for Rabbit, "Ooww" for Owl. and Bi-BI! is Big Bird. Those are the most common words, but there are so so so many more. She is quite the jabber box these days. She loves to communicate.
Aylin and I are going to get to take our first Air Plane ride together on the 23rd to go see Grama Jeanne (And My Grama Gracie!) in Charlotte, NC! I'm very excited about the vacation. But I hope the plane ride goes well. Anyone that has traveled with toddlers on a plan - PLEASE!!! - provide insight / thoughts / tips / tricks / watch out for / or definitely do not do... Any and all kinds of advise is welcome. Thankfully we will have a direct flight both there and back. From XNA to Charlotte, and it will only be a little over a 2 hour flight. So it should go well, but you never can tell... I am definitely a little nervous.
Crazy things have happened over the last several months. Our water heater quit on us (thanks Whirl Pool for making crappy water heaters). It was only 4 years old... Boo. That was a nice hit to the check book. Then just after we recovered from that fun mess, I hit a lovely Doe on my way to work a few weeks back. Turned out she was a $2,700.00 Doe. She was at a full run when she hit my front driver side quarter panel. Thankfully the car was drivable, because I was out in the boonies w. no cell coverage where it occurred. Also thanks to my brother-in-law Bradley for letting me borrow his Rover while my car was out of commission. The car is now back together again, and good as it was before. Thankfully we only had to cover $500.00 of the $2,700.00 bill.
I've been feeling pretty good lately, slowly but surely I'm getting the house re-organized. Which is really hard to do with a toddler around. But I've purged a lot of things, and and starting to feel better about the junk that we do have left... :) The house isn't feeling nearly as claustrophobic.
Work is slowly but surely starting to get better. I have been working longer hours than what I would like to, still. But I've been getting better support, and the problems that I had been having aren't happening as often. And (knock on wood) people seem to be learning from their mistakes so they aren't causing me as many problems. I'm also seeing better communication (which is half the problem), so I'm hoping over the next several months, things will continue to improve and maybe I'll finally get to a point where work doesn't make me so crazy.
Well, that's 'bout all I got for now. Lots going on, but I'm certain I didn't remember to include half of it. ;) Maybe it won't be another 3 months before I update again... But I wouldn't hold my breath. :D
To this:
All in what seems, as a blink of the eye.
Wow, I love that kid. It's been such an amazing trip. Lots of laughter and tears. It's hard to believe she is now 19 months old... Going on 5 years. :D She now (finally) weighs around 22 lbs, and at her 18 month check up she was 31" tall! She's long and skinny. She has 12 teeth (4 top, 4 bottom, and 1 set of molars on each side.) She's too tall for 12 month clothes, but the 18 month are too wide. I have to find the jeans with the expandable button waist on the inside of the pants and cinch them all the way down. She eats all big people food now. She loves to be given a whole apple and just munch away at it. And she makes good progress on it too!! She also likes dried fruit of all kinds. Raisins, craisins, mixed dried fruit. She loves pretty much all fruit. She also likes plain sour cream... I was making dinner one night, and had the sour cream out. She wanted a "bite" so I gave her a little on a spoon just to see what she would do. Well, she loved it. So then I had to keep giving her more. Until I finally gave her a good dollop in a bowl and let her have at it. She finished it all, and was Num Num! the whole time she ate it.
She loves to climb on to things. She is now tall enough to climb on the kitchen chairs, so she'll push them to where she wants to be and get to the kitchen counter. She loves to help me cook. She gets her own bowl and spoon, or some kind of utensils and she plays while I cook. Usually with lots of Mmmm! involved, and I have to "taste" what she is stirring up. :D
I finally put away all of the little baby stuff (Swing / Jumperoo / Infant Car Seat). It's crazy to think of how quickly they grow out of those things. But I can't see how we ever would have gotten any sleep without that wonderful swing, and the Jumperoo was awesome right up until she could walk. She's such a busy little bee, that it was great when she wasn't able to be mobile and could keep herself occupied.
But now the little monkey is in to everything!
We think it may be time to start a little potty training. She is becoming aware, anyhow. For the last month or so every time I change a diaper I tell her pee pee (for wet diapers), and Poopy (for dirty diapers). Now she's started coming to her dad and I and grabbing her crotch and saying "Poo" when she makes a dirty diaper. And today she actually did it before / while she was making one... So she's getting the idea anyhow. We'll see what happens. We're going to go ahead and get a potty seat and see where it goes...
She still loves bath time, but washing her hair is a struggle. She hates the water in her eyes. But she refuses to tilt her head back, or to hold still for me to use the nice little soft sided water bucket to rinse her hair. I got one of the water bucket things at Walmart that has a soft / flexible side to it so you can put it up to the child's forehead and dump it down. But she just hates it so bad that when it comes to that time, she won't hold still. The best I can do it hold my hand up so that most of it is shielded away from her eyes, and I make the Brrr (motor boat) type noise so that she repeats me, and doesn't snort the water in. Sometimes it goes ok, other times we get hysterical after. Aside from the hair washing though, she loves her bath. And probably only twice in her life has fought even going in to the tub for a bath.
Her vocabulary is growing by the day. She no longer only says words that she has heard repeated over and over. Now she tries a new word after only hearing it once! And some of her constant words are becoming for defined. She calls me Mom-mom, Jeff is DA!, Bela is Na-lllla (somewhere along the way she changed, she did call her Be-da at one time), Angel is something I can't quite make out yet. But it's not at all like Angel. The cats are Kie! her Blankie is also Kie! Of course all food is "Bite", she does sometimes ask for a "sip" now, or a "dink", or even "Mook" for milk. She says "Ni-nite", and "bye-bye". Hiiii is said alot, many times followed up with "do-in?" or "sup" for what'cha doin? or what's up? She has all of the Pooh character's down, "Pooh", a funky noise for piglet and tigger, "Eeewwww" for Eeyore, "BaBAT!" for Rabbit, "Ooww" for Owl. and Bi-BI! is Big Bird. Those are the most common words, but there are so so so many more. She is quite the jabber box these days. She loves to communicate.
Aylin and I are going to get to take our first Air Plane ride together on the 23rd to go see Grama Jeanne (And My Grama Gracie!) in Charlotte, NC! I'm very excited about the vacation. But I hope the plane ride goes well. Anyone that has traveled with toddlers on a plan - PLEASE!!! - provide insight / thoughts / tips / tricks / watch out for / or definitely do not do... Any and all kinds of advise is welcome. Thankfully we will have a direct flight both there and back. From XNA to Charlotte, and it will only be a little over a 2 hour flight. So it should go well, but you never can tell... I am definitely a little nervous.
Crazy things have happened over the last several months. Our water heater quit on us (thanks Whirl Pool for making crappy water heaters). It was only 4 years old... Boo. That was a nice hit to the check book. Then just after we recovered from that fun mess, I hit a lovely Doe on my way to work a few weeks back. Turned out she was a $2,700.00 Doe. She was at a full run when she hit my front driver side quarter panel. Thankfully the car was drivable, because I was out in the boonies w. no cell coverage where it occurred. Also thanks to my brother-in-law Bradley for letting me borrow his Rover while my car was out of commission. The car is now back together again, and good as it was before. Thankfully we only had to cover $500.00 of the $2,700.00 bill.
I've been feeling pretty good lately, slowly but surely I'm getting the house re-organized. Which is really hard to do with a toddler around. But I've purged a lot of things, and and starting to feel better about the junk that we do have left... :) The house isn't feeling nearly as claustrophobic.
Work is slowly but surely starting to get better. I have been working longer hours than what I would like to, still. But I've been getting better support, and the problems that I had been having aren't happening as often. And (knock on wood) people seem to be learning from their mistakes so they aren't causing me as many problems. I'm also seeing better communication (which is half the problem), so I'm hoping over the next several months, things will continue to improve and maybe I'll finally get to a point where work doesn't make me so crazy.
Well, that's 'bout all I got for now. Lots going on, but I'm certain I didn't remember to include half of it. ;) Maybe it won't be another 3 months before I update again... But I wouldn't hold my breath. :D
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