Andbabyequals3's Blog

28 months

andbabyequals3 — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:47:02 +0000

What a busy summer it’s been! You have grown by leaps and bounds in the words you say and the things you do! It’s so funny how you repeat everything we say especially when I’m talking to daddy and if we’re talking about you, you get a bit embarrassed as you repeat it You say all kinds of things like HOME and WHAT IS IT and OH GOODNESS! You love watching movies and for a while it was Over the Hedge, Lion King 3, Bugs Life and Rio. Now you like Madagascar 1 & 2 and Up and Nemo which you call MEMO! So many of the movies you watch you have memorized and quote them word for word! You have really starting showing your imagination now, playing with small furniture and dolls and giving them and us, imaginary bites You set the dolls or animals on the furniture or in the little horse carriage you have and can have quite the imagination sometimes!
You use the iPad like nobodies business, watching all kinds of videos on youtube like singing in French, barney in spanish and sometimes even asian languages. It’s crazy cause whenever we watch a new movie you somehow find it on youtube! you also love annoying orange among other things! You play with all the different apps in and out like Angry Birds, hair salon and dr, your little puzzles and books and back and forth like a pro! you like thomas the engine and curious george on pbs, dora and mickey mouse clubhouse and of course still like baby einstein! Being outdoors is definitely your favorite, you can be grumpy and you name it but if I take you outdoors you will run and play, no mention of a whine until its time to go back indoors!
You got your 2 year molars this summer which made you more cranky. The last one actually just came thru so I’m thankful we’re almost past that! You get along with konstantine pretty good until he knocks thru your play area or tries to play with “your” iPad! Then you guys tussle and you push him down and things but otherwise you get along good. You’ve bitten him several times until I bit you back to show you how much it hurts and since then its been good! I only did it once and that fixed it after you had been biting his hands and what not quite a few times.

22 month milestones

andbabyequals3 — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 06:10:36 +0000

What a difference one month makes in the life of a toddler! You use three times more words and are much more likely to repeat words we say. One of your storybooks has a clock on the front cover and every time we look at the book I would say clock and point to the clock on the wall. Now, daddy says “clock” about a dozen times a day just to see your eyes go up to look at the clock. He’s overdone it to the extent where you just kinda look at him like “seriously?” when he asks you “Where’s the clock?” LOL
Sometimes at night you stand up in your bed and say “milk” as you hand us your bottle rather than just crying for it That gives us both a laugh the next day as we remember it. You also sleep with every big stuffed animal we own….and a few small ones! I’m thinking we need to put a cap on the amount of toys we allow in your bed. I can’t tell where you are laying sometimes, especially at night in the dark.
You also say “please” now when you want to do something. Not without being prompted though.
You love helping put the clean clothes in the dryer as I hand them to you a piece at a time You then close the door and motion for me to turn it on by looking up at me and pointing. You absolutely must help put the clothes away, handing me hangers and then walking into the closet with several hangers with hanging items on them! More often than not you just lay them on the floor and start playing behind the pants hanging on the bottom of the closet but I’m sure you feel like you just did me a great favor by carrying them there. You try to run off with whatever you feel you can get away with like daddys underwear or a stack of washcloths as well.
You also have to help unload the dishwasher if at all possible. You hand me the plates out of the bottom rack and any cups you can reach from the top rack. You also know just how to start the dishwasher and where the soap goes. You’ve known that for a while but I had just recently switched to using the soap packets for the dishwasher and you just pick up on everything so quickly. This week I let you take a packet out of the bag and you promptly put it into the right space and tried to slide the cover over it before quickly closing the door and spinning the dial!
Since we have such a small kitchen floor, I always just do the floor on my hands and knees and you certainly caught on to that quick. Now, whenever you see a cloth, you’re apt to run off with it and try to clean the floor somewhere. It doesn’t matter if its carpet or tile, you’re wiping away!
When we go for walks, you “have” to push the stroller! And please!!! Do not try to help me guide it MOM! You keep batting my hand away whenever I steady the stroller or try to keep it going the way we want to go or on the sidewalk! And when you aren’t pushing the stroller, you are running everywhere. There is a small hill out in front of our condos and you run up and down and up and down, time and again. You run around the back and pick your flowers and back and forth and it’s almost exhausting to watch you. Meanwhile, Konstantine just sits in the stroller, content as can be for the most part
You get along very good with your brother. We haven’t had any real issues come up yet and I try to make sure that you get enough attention to not feel like he is intruding in your time with us. There are times when you are tired or don’t feel the best or your toothies hurt that you act out but overall I feel like you are a very good girl Your hugging still consists of laying on top of him and he usually doesn’t mind. You do take away his toys sometimes, especially if he is playing with “your” toys. But you will also load him down with toys more often so that he has more than he can handle. You like to put your blanket over his face for whatever reason and he just isn’t real fond of that. You bit him once or twice but you’ve been biting everything so I’m not sure how intentional it was. You love spinning him around as he jumps in his jumper and have tried so hard to feed him some of your snacks. Sure keeps mama on her toes!
You had your first visit to the dentist a week ago and that went ok. You have two broken teeth and need crowns put on them but I am not sure what to do about that yet. We are going to call around for a different dentist to hopefully find someone who will do it so that we can be in the room with you. I so dread that and am sure you do as well but the front tooth is pretty bad and you won’t lose them for another 3-5 years and we don’t want you in pain from the decaying tooth either. Somehow we have got to take away your bottle but that is a problem we still haven’t conquered.
I bought you some small animals to play with and was going to save them for your birthday but you saw them and wanted them in the car so I guess the that plan is off. You have been playing with them nonstop since we got home from the store. You put them in your barn and take them to the bath with you. You wanted to take them to bed with you and have them on your highchair tray but I had to stop the madness somewhere! They are also great chew toys :0 And great things to step on in the middle of the night….ouch!
You LOVE Aunt Dena! No matter what, if I say lets go see Aunt Dena you are ready to go. You’ll literally put on your shoes and go wait by the door. You also drag your stuffed animals everywhere, in the car, to the store and just around the house. You hug them, kiss them and pat their backs….hehehe. You are a little sweetheart. Full of fire, plenty of anger but also so loving. You are usually the first one to hear your brother cry when he wakes up from his nap. You run over to the door yelling baby! baby! You also have a shrill scream and scare him to death with it! Especially if he’s just woken up and you run in there by his bed! I think he’s getting a bit skittish around you because you’ve whacked him or hurt him one too many times. You like to bare your teeth for kisses and really scratched his head one day. Now that he can sit, you have pushed him over, try to lay in his lap and other things but he’s started pulling your hair so then the fun ends so you’re learning what you can’t do! I imagine it won’t be long before he will start really wholloping you back!

Oh the Words!

andbabyequals3 — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:04:51 +0000

You are getting to be such a big girl that its easy to forget that just a year ago today you were taking your first steps and walking on your own! Over the past year you have passed so many milestones I almost don’t even recognize your baby pictures anymore! Thank goodness for pictures!
You have started saying so many words just in this past week. We went out one night and you just looked up and said “star” You’ve said moon for a while now but now you’ve got both! While looking at your books one night you pointed to a frog and said “frog”! You now point to the clock on the wall and say “cock” You have to take that huge “muck” monkey and teddy bear to bed with you for naps now. You say “cat” if you see the cat in the window downstairs and then “meow”. You say “dog” now, though it sounds more like “gog” when you see a dog rather than just oooh and aaah. You also look out the window and say “cah”, car You’ve also said “milk” for a while now even though it sounds more like mook and “baba” for bottle. You also yell “peepee” whenever I go to the bathroom and almost always come running in there to flush the toilet for me And then you want to wash your hands of course!

You LOVE to color! Every time you think about it you come to me and say “cu-uh”? I make you sit in the highchair to color and make sure all the crayons are up before you get out but I must have missed one yesterday because you scribbled all over the door and the windows in the spare room You usually try to suck on the crayons and end up with a ring of color around your mouth :0 I haven’t seen you eat one yet and you always go “yuck”! so hopefully you keep that state of mind about crayons
I can’t wait to hear what you have to say next. With every new word you’re a little bit more grown up, a step closer to independence and a little farther from being my baby. I miss the baby you but I love the now you. I enjoy seeing every new thing you do and rejoice with every new word and action that you learn. It makes every day something fun to look forward to and something that makes life worth living. You get so excited over every little thing and are always exclaiming over this and that that I never know what I’ll find when I go see what you’re exclaiming over! Keep learning my baby, I love it!

Mama’s Little Helper

andbabyequals3 — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 06:08:33 +0000

Abby is getting more and more curious by the day about things that go on. And, it only takes her once to catch onto things Around 20 months she figured out how to close doors behind her so now everywhere she goes, she tries to close the door. I’m afraid that she will lock herself in once she figures out how to lock them ……Today she got her little skirt caught in the door when she closed it and got very upset about that. If she hadn’t been so tired it would have been okay but her tiredness definitely made it that much worse. So far she hasn’t pinched her fingers or anything and I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
She still likes to take all the pots and pans out of the cupboards and stack them up and carry them around the house. I finally got a childproof lock for the doors as it was always a clatter and bang and seemed especially loud when I was trying to put the baby to sleep. The one good thing that came from it was when she got sick a while ago while playing with the pans and through up in the pan instead of on the floor! And….I also don’t need to wash them before I use them now Now if I can just wean her off of the rubbermaid dishes
She loves to help me clean, or what she thinks is helping….LOL. Which in essence is making it take twice as long. She tries to get to the brush and clean the toilet whenever she has a chance and I forget to keep the door closed. And if for some reason I do forget to close the door and she can’t get to the brush locked under the sink she would just as soon wash her hands in the stool :0 And she did give one of her stuffed animals a bath but I was lucky enough to catch her in the act so I could rescue it and give it a real bath in the washing machine!
She loves helping put the clothes into the dryer. It takes a bit longer but she has so much fun doing it! I giver her the pieces one at a time and she throws them in and then closes the door She also loves helping when I’m putting the clothes on hangers, handing me a hanger and saying “there you go” and then “thank-you”. If I’m not careful though she runs off with the clothes on hangers, undoing all my work. Especially when I have stacks of baby pants or folded underwear and socks!
She has a little backpack that she just loves to wear! It’s part of a leash type thing that grandma got us when little brother joined the family. We used it several times as a leash but she usually does pretty good when I need to take them both places that I haven’t used it in a while. She will wear it all day sometimes and has spent hours just closing the clasp and asking me to open it and over again and again. I think she definitely has an affinity for puzzles and how things fit together.

17 months

andbabyequals3 — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:30:37 +0000

At 17 months, Abby I swear is becoming computer savvy. When we leave or what not, she always knows to pause her Baby Einstein if she is watching it. If we tell her to pause her video she runs over there and hits the space bar, LOL And upon coming home, she runs right over there and starts it back up again Of course, that did not come without its issues as well as we had to punish her time and again for pushing all the buttons and trying to carry the computer around.
Grandma was here for a month after her baby brother arrived and Abby just loved her to death. Grandma put her down for her naps and got her meals and baths, you name it and Abby just loved it! She showed off and did all kinds of things just for grandma.
Abby has some chipped front teeth that we are not sure what happened but they don’t seem to bother her. She’s fallen several times and maybe that is what happened but we just don’t know. She also has all her pointy teeth now and even though they are still coming through and she has her days where it seems like her teeth are really bothering her and she doesn’t eat but that is another story altogether. For her good start off eating, she sure gives us issues now by not eating. It drives me kinda crazy sometimes but what can ya do but just keep offering her different foods and try not to go crazy. One day it’s all about the noodles and mixed veggies, the next she doesn’t want to see a noodles and wants eggs instead or blueberries. One day at a time, offer lots of variety and don’t give up because eventually she does eat

A New Baby to Love

andbabyequals3 — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 19:09:36 +0000

So much time has passed since I last posted, very busy time! September 15 we added Konstantine to our family. Abby has been a very good big sister, being gentle with him and loving on him from day one. Only occasionally does she try to hit his head and that lets me know that she just wants some more “Mom” time
At 16 months, she is the crazy little child, a constant bundle of energy going, going, going. She opens all the drawers in the kitchen and then closes them again and again. She discovered that there is a light in the oven and turns it off and on and off and on again, and again. She also knows “Hot” and says it again and again if I am using the oven. She notices every airplane that flies overhead points to it and tries to say airplane! She loves all the flowers growing outside and we come back from our walks with her hands just loaded down with flowers. When we go past the bushes she reaches our her hands and begs for them and I just can’t deny her that! She loves playing with small sticks and rocks and sticks them into any small space that she can see. Whether it be a panel on the floor covering gas valves or whatever they may be hiding.
When we brought the baby home, she ran out to meet us and just jumped into my arms and held me tight. I had missed her so much and couldn’t wait to get home to see her again. She was curious about the baby and tried to kiss him and touch him. She kept climbing up into my chair as I was feeding the baby and just watching him like she might want to try breastfeeding as well. Her form of hugging him is laying on top of him but she has done so good with him and we are so proud of both of them.

More teeth!

andbabyequals3 — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:32:19 +0000

I guess as an adult you just never really think about all the teeth kids get in their first few years of life! And us poor mommy’s are usually just left to guess at what is going on all the time since they can’t just say, “my tooth is owwwie”. In the past month alone, Abby has gotten 4 teeth and has a 5th one almost through. When you see one has broken through you kind of breathe a sigh of relief that now she will have some relief but for her there has been none On top of it being a very warm summer that has kept us indoors a lot more that I have liked, and being pregnant, plus her teething, it has made for a pretty miserable summer for both of us.
As part of her teething, Abby has taken to grinding her teeth. Talk about a hair-pulling sound! I’m afraid that she may not have any teeth left up front by the time her back ones grow in if she keeps on at the rate she has been grinding away! I know that it is normal and everything but I still worry that she grinds away too much.
She has also been chewing on her thumb as a chew-toy. She will have these little red teeth marks all over her thumb and hand and I just want to hand her a toy and say, please just chew on this! She chews on everything though from her blankie and bottle to any toy small enough to fit into her mouth. She is constantly trying to chew on her shoes, bottles of nail polish and oh the joy if she can find a bottle cap or half of an easter egg! Her books are all tattered, not so much from reading them as from her gnawing on the edges. Have I mentioned before that she chews on her bedrails so badly if we are not right there to get her when she wakes up?
One of the worst things about teething for her at least in the past few weeks has been a red bottom. It has cleared up a lot due to extra soaking in the tub and a lot more vigilance with wet diapers on my part. Why do they have to poop so often just because they’re teething? Ach vell. A few days ago, I caught her in the middle of what looked like a mess but I changed her anyhow and let her play in the kitchen sink while I was cleaning up the kitchen. After drying her off, I decided that I was going to let her run around for a bit without her diaper and see if that would help with the redness. Well, I guess the bit was a bit longer than I should have waited but I was cleaning up the kitchen and here she comes with poop all the way down her leg . I quickly grabbed her and set the picture of water that had been sitting in the sink she recently vacated onto the counter only not far enough on the counter and it fell off onto the hard tile floor and shattered (it was hard plastic) leaking its contents all over the floor, waking up daddy and scaring Abby. (sunday afternoon) Needless to say, I washed her hiney off in the sink and put her diaper on before grabbing the cleaner and a towel and went to clean the rug in front of the fireplace where she had obviously stomped the poop into the carpet. When will I learn?
When will the teething end? I guess when she’s 20 years old and has her full set of permanent teeth :0….Until then, we just keep trying to interpret the signs of teething and when she really eats something, we breathe a prayer of thanks that today, she has eaten and is not whining because she is hungry. So far we’ve gotten through the teething just fine and hopefully will continue to do so. Wish us luck!

More Firsts :)

andbabyequals3 — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:07:36 +0000

It’s been a week of firsts again, fun fun! Abby got her first cold, runny nose etc from a playmate Supposedly it was just from teething but not if Abby got it so….we are dealing with that on top of her getting her own teeth and being a bit crabby.
She flushed the toilet for the first time this week :0..I’m not sure she really realized just what she did because she flushed it right after I did so I’m pretty sure that she thinks it was just part of my flush and I’m ok to just let her think that! I’m pretty sure when she realizes that she can flush, flush, flush, she will try to do it a whole lot more on her own!
She also climbed on a kitchen chair this week and up onto the table :0….not so ok. She carried her little stepstool over to the chair and up onto the chair and from there onto the table where she had spotted a strawberry, leftover from lunch. MMmmmmm. She played with the lightswitch for a while making it a bit unhandy for me in the kitchen making dinner and if she were a bit older, I’m sure I would have shooed her right off there but, I let her play. Of course, daddy was on his computer on the other end of the table and never even saw her…hehehe…how typical! I suppose for now I will just keep the chairs pushed in under the table since it is on carpet and she can’t move them and when she tries, has afraid they’ll fall on her so that works to out advantage for now It doesn’t take them long to figure things out but until she does, we’ll bask in the unknowing
She LOVES playing with lightswitches which I am sure that every child goes through that phase but she will literally stand under the switch and beg for me to pick her up so that she can turn the light or fan off and on. Not likely with my 39 week pregnancy! I have taken to setting up the stepladder under it, (3 steps, and good handgrips) and letting her go to town with those 3 switches. Since we have no steps for her to practice crawling on, she absolutely loves it! I try to supervise as close as I can but she has never fallen so I guess she is fairly skilled at it She loves to have her small bucket with a few blocks with her and just stack, restack and then restack the blocks again on every step! LOL! Funny how stuff like that can keep them amused for the longest time! She can also reach the switch to the light/fan in our bedroom from her crib and that proves to be fun for her after naps for a bit as well.

A Little Friend

andbabyequals3 — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:17:42 +0000

This weekend we had a friends one year old son over when she had to work on Saturday morning. Abby had a great time even though she is not used to being around other kids that much. I was worried that she might be a bit apprehensive about sharing her toys etc, but she was very indifferent about the matter. She was very much the sharing older sister type even though he is only 3 months younger than she is. And that gives me a lot of hope since she is about to become a big sister
She kept giving him his bottle when he dropped it and fed him her Lucky Charms (after she ate the marshmallows, of course!). She showed him how to use her toys the “right” way and didn’t fight back when he took them away from her or stepped on her toes and grabbed her clothes. She really just watched him to see what he was doing with her toys They chased each other back and forth throughout the house and she tried to get him to climb up onto the bed and couch like she does.
It just really reaffirmed to me how much I need to get her out some more and give her more supervised playtime with other kids. I think it will help her development and also social interaction and let her know that she is not the only child out there. She sure loves attention but when she is around other kids she really just hangs back and watches rather than to get in there and really play and I’d like to see that changed. So, in the next few months I really hope to get her out more and change her little social life

Toys for 15 month old

andbabyequals3 — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 05:20:40 +0000

What is not fascinating to a 15 month old discovery machine? Nothing! Everything must be explored and felt and tasted if at all possible. And the oddest toys/non-toys will do when it comes to finding things to play with.
Today she was playing with a roll of toilet paper, she does love that when I let her, LOL! First she stacks them up as high as she can, then she moves on to pulling off a few sheets and ripping them into the smallest pieces she can. Today she added a new trick that I couldn’t help but just laugh at. She was pulling off sheets and stuffing them into the center! When the center was packed she just pulled some out of the other end and started stuffing in back in! I just sat there and watched and laughed as I snapped a few photos to commemorate the occasion
Anything will do when it comes to pretend phones. A shoe, remote, computer mouse, tube of toothpaste or deodorant, you name it, she has put it to her ear and said “Hello?” into it! It doesn’t even have to look like a phone and I am super excited to see her start pretending about things like that as I know that is just the beginning of her little pretend world
At 15 months, she is into a lot of different toys. She loves balls! Pretty much any size will do as long as she can play with it. When we go to the store and happen into the toy section, its almost funny to see the toys she goes for but ultimately the half-sized balls seem to be her favorite. She also loves anything with buttons that she can press. A cash register with a scanner attached of course becomes a phone A dolls bed becomes her own personal couch as she pulls it out into the middle of the aisle and has a seat right there She loves just running up and down the aisles as she plays with her balls so we try to go when there aren’t a whole lot of people in the store. It sure helps us beat the heat without being outdoors!