Monday, February 28, 2011

Caricature and Carousel

My mother had a little Valentine's Day gift inspiration.   At the mall, the 2010 ArtPrize winner, Chris LaPorte, has been doing 3 minute caricatures. Better than a toy, because it'll last longer, right? 

So we met my mother at the mall, and got the kids captured in no time flat...


Parker

Maia

Ray thought they were kind of funny, and thought it would be even funnier to get one of himself.  Yeah. We think it turned out much funnier!

We also took a little time to have some lunch and go on a couple carousel rides before it got too busy.  Maia and Grandma went once.
And I went with her once.  And she giggled. A Lot.  And asked a lot of questions about the horses...
... and the music, and the people, and giggled some more. 
(Love how she's actually mugging for the camera here.)
And after an hour or so of fussing, Parker finally did this.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Maia at 30 months

At her 2 year exam, Maia's BMI was in the third percentile, at 14.  She was 34 3/4" tall and 24 1/4 lbs.  While the pediatrician wasn't in any way concerned about her health or development, but she wanted to see her back at 2 1/2 to make sure she continues to grow on her track.

So we did that on the 17th.  Maia got to stand on the big kids' scale (27 1/4 lbs - 34 %), and stand up against the wall to be measured for height (35 1/4" - 45%).

Her BMI has increased to 15.5 and is now in the 32%ile. Since September, she's grown 1/2 an inch and gained 3 pounds.

Her pediatrician asked Maia lots of questions.  Maia told her lots of things.  Maia made sure to tell everyone she didn't want any pokes. But she did want a sucker and a sticker. And Parker got a poke instead (flu shot number 2).  He did great, and Maia was very intrigued with his band-aid.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Pardon the Interruption

Parker has teeth coming in.  The top 2 middle have arrived together, and I fear the next two are not far behind.   Also, Parker has discovered "object permanence" and "separation anxiety" particularly as it relates to me. This has lead to sleepless nights for Parker and me, and usually by 8ish, I'm doing all I can to stay awake to get things ready for the next day.

I've got updates. Parker is 8 months old. EIGHT MONTHS!
Maia is 2 1/2. That's 30 months old.

Me? I'm 36, and that's too old for all-nighters, much less nearly a week of them.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Potty Training 2.0

2-3 accidents per day this week. At home, at school.  On Thursday we had a scheduled trip to the pediatrician for Parker's 2nd flu shot, and Maia's 30 month exam.  More on that in a moment.

Since we had the doctor's appointment, we didn't have to rush off to school/work first thing, and so Ray got to get to work a little earlier and didn't help Maia get dressed.  While I was dressing Maia, she was refusing to wear undies.  "No. Not today..." she told me. "No thank you. I wanna diaper."  Finally, I thought: Fine. I'm not interested in fighting her.  She knows everything she need to be successful at being potty trained, but she's not going to do it until she wants to.

So I let her wear a diaper to the pediatrician's and then to daycare.  I let them know she was choosing to wear a diaper, but that there were undies in her cubby if she changed her mind during the day. 

When I picked her up from daycare, she was in undies and the same pants I'd put on her in the morning. YAY! Here's the story I got from her teacher:
Shortly after Maia got there, the class was going to head out for a walk. That means potty tries before everyone before they go.  Maia's best bud, Ellie, is potty trained.  When it was Maia's turn for her potty try, the teachers asked if she wanted a clean diaper or undies.  She said diaper.  Ellie looked at Maia quizzically and asked "You're wearing diapers?"  Maia finished using the potty, asked for undies, and was dry the rest of the day...

AND all day today. YAY!

A little positive peer pressure apparently does wonders.  I joked with her teacher about her susceptibility to the peer pressure, and she said Oh, I wouldn't worry. She is usually the leader.  She and Ellie are good for each other.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Valentine's Day

Valentines Day started on Saturday night  with a gift of ooey, gooey chocolate marshmallow creme candy from Grandma.  Which Maia ate as soon as she remembered it in the morning.  Thanks again Grandma. That candy was yummy!
 On Valentine's Day at school, Maia's friend, Claire, walked across the hall (Claire moved up to the next room at daycare a month or so ago, and Maia will be moving up soon).

Claire presented Maia with this cute little valentine...
 And said:  "Look!  It's Me and You!"     How sweet is that?
 Meanwhile, a package was arriving from Aunt Tara. So a bit before bedtime, we opened their gifts.  Parker liked the wrapping paper best.
Maia was very excited about her new doggie.  She named him Fudge after a dog on Nick Jr.  However, she says it "Fiyd" (as in Fido, without the O).
She made sure to help Parker unwrap his gift, and then took it away  to check it out for him.

Thanks again, Aunt Tara!

Is there anything sweeter...


... than a sleeping baby?  LOVE!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Potty Training 1.2

Week TWO. Day one (Thursday)
A few accidents today, of both varieties.

Day two (Friday)
Just a few pee accidents.

Day three (Saturday).
Wakes up, doesn't want to wear undies today. Wears diapers half the day (I'm not going to fight her on it), and undies the other half.  Went out to the Chinese Buffet with my family, and Maia decided she didn't want to wear undies there.  So I relented, and was really glad we did.  One bathroom out of order, and the other was occupied all three times we checked (because she did ask to go).   That said, she held most of it until we got home.

Day four (Sunday)
Again, doesn't want to wear undies today, but she relented.  One pee accident when she was watching The Wiggles and didn't want to leave.  But mostly dry diaper after naptime. Says she doesn't want to wear undies to school anymore. 

Now what do I do?  Oh well.  I'm sure she'll be in undies by the time she goes to kindergarten, right?

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Snow

Maia really is a much happier camper if she can get outside, or at least somewhere she can run and play for a while every day.  So even though there is a TON of snow in the yard, I thought I'd see if it was possible to go play in it.
Turns out it was a little difficult for Big People, much less Small People, to walk though.
She tried and tried to get up the steps to the deck...
Then finally sat down and said:
I'm in trouble, Momma.
So when all else fails, sometimes sand toys are the way to go.
Although she did keep asking to swing on her swing.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Scissors

We thought we'd give scissors a try last weekend.  We've got some more practicing to do before we're cutting like a kindergartener... but she really liked trying!


Thursday, February 10, 2011

Potty Training 1.0

Maia's daycare teachers have been assuring me that they think Maia has all the skills she needs to get over the hurdle, she just has to want to do it.  She needs to make up her mind that she will do it, and she'll get it pretty quickly.  They've assured me that they're ready to take the plunge when we are:
Just send her with a pile of underwear and some spare pants and we'll power through!

We had such a great day during Snowmaggedon, I asked Maia if she thought she wanted to wear undies to school.  She said yes, so we prepared accordingly.

Day One (Thursday):
She peed in her pants within minutes of getting to daycare. I think she forgot she was wearing them.  She did pretty well the rest of the day. One more change, just because she couldn't get her pants down fast enough.  She can get her pants off and on (slowly) without help if she tries. Diaper for nap time: two changes there.
Evening was pretty good.

Day Two (Friday):
Getting into car seat to go to school: I hafta go poootteee!!  Made me a bit late for work. Sigh.
A little more struggle today.  A couple accidents related to distraction. And in one case, she actually threw her undies in the toilet after she went. Not sure what that was about.   Lots of time sitting in the bathroom together, reading, in the evening.

Day Three (Saturday):
Pretty good day. Eager to wear undies. One accident while distracted. All poops on the potty. Diaper pretty dry after her nap and 1/2 an hour of play time.

Day Four (Sunday):
She starts out NOT wanting to wear undies in the morning, but eventually (after a little reverse psychology) decides she's really excided about them.  No pee accidents, but one poop accident where she's yelling that she needs to poop, but can't really stop herself to run to the potty.   Again, she is able to stay dry for hours.

Day Five and Six:
Mornings at daycare are pretty good, but she usually has an accident or two in the afternoon.  All-in-all, pretty good.  Most of her accidents have to do with her being distracted or forgetting to take her undies off. 

Day Seven (Wednesday):
DRY ALL DAY!!!
I am so excited, but she seems unimpressed.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Messy Face

How can you not love this happy, messy face?


Sunday, February 6, 2011

Rockin

We are still waiting for Parker to start crawling, but we're definitely seeing some of the signs that he's getting ready.  He's rocking on his hands and knees.  This is most often seen when he wakes up in the morning: he'll rock and babble. 

He does this sometimes too - he'll go from sitting, to leaning forward and sometimes he'll leave a leg behind (or in front as the case may be).


We'd been giving him the opportunity to stand up, too.  We position him this way, and he'll contentedly play for a few minutes.
But tonight, while sitting in his rocker watching the Superbowl, he turned around and pulled himself to standing, and rocked himself.  He was quite pleased.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

First Crush?

Today, while eating (or not eating) her lunch, Maia told me an elaborate story. It started with her driving a car along the kitchen table "To Gabbaland!" where that car was to meet up with the friends from Yo Gabba Gabba. So we identified little toys from around the house that matched the color of all the characters.

A Red pop-bead for Muno, a yellow spoon for Plex, a blue pair of scissors for Toodee , and a set of teething toys that had pink, green and orange butterflies on a ring made up Foofa, Brobee and DJ Lance Rock. She thought that was pretty cool.

Then she started talking about DJ Lance Rock.  She's fascinated with his radio.

M: Dee-chay Lance is comin ovuh!
Me: He is? Why?
M: He's comin in his cawr! He's gonna bring his big, um... big, ummm, way-di-oh!
Me: What's he going to do here?.
M: And he's gonna sit on the caaooowch and we're gonna watch a lit-ul bit TV.
Me: That sounds like fun.
M: Yup. And he's gonna rub my back. That will be fun.

Goodness. A man sporting an orange Q-Tip on his head is coming over to rub her back?  Yikes! I'm so not ready for that!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Snowpacolypse 2011


We had the best idea.  Let's just take a day off in the middle of the week and go skiing together.  We'll send the kids to daycare, and get someone lined up to pick them up until dinner time. Ray even found a great deal on lift tickets: $17 for BOTH of us. Fantastic. 

But in the news... alas. Snow. Lots and lots of snow.  Blowing, drifting. Snowmaggedon.  The Great Blizzard of 2011.  Ray and I aren't too worried, initially... It's Michigan. It snows here. Forecast north isn't as bad as locally... if we can get out, it'll probably be GREAT skiing.

Daycare tells me if the YMCA closes, they will close too.  It occurs to me if daycare closes, and the school system closes, then my sister will have a snow day and could take the kids anyway, right?  We'll wait and see.

By bedtime, the storm has started. Ray does a first pass, snowblowing the driveway.  By morning, we wake and look outside.  Yeah.  So instead of having a nice date day... I spend the next two hours calling my staff, closing the office, changing the outgoing voicemail message, and calling as many patients as I can to cancel.  Guess I'm not going to take this as a PTO day after all!


Ray gets started on the driveway.



So the news is comparing it to The Great Blizzard of 1978. I remember that blizzard. I have a very specific memory of my dad opening the garage side door and the snow drift extending up to within 1 foot of the top of the door. I was 3. I may have been barefoot in the garage, in my pajamas.

So, back to this morning:
There's some drifting, but it doesn't look THAT bad to me.

Well. As it turns out... we got about 17 inches.  The Great Blizzard of 1978 - 19 inches.  Huh.

I wanted to send Maia out to burn off some energy, but it occurred to me I didn't bring her snow pants home from daycare. So we've got two options. Her 12 month snowpants or some 3Ts. Surprisingly... those 12 mos pants fit fairly well. A bit short, but not actually bad!


We also had an extra winter coat, as Ray had picked one up earlier this year for $15 at Macys.  Fantastic.

After breakfast, I got Parker down for a nap and bundled myself up to go help.  A shovel wasn't of much use, and we've determined that we definitely want a bigger snowblower.

But after we were done, Maia was eager to go inside for some hot chocolate and a snack.


One bonus with this extra day at home this week is that it gives us another opportunity to work on potty training with Maia. She has all the skills she needs. She knows what it feels like, and hold to stay clean and dry. She just had to want to do it. And she did. Dry all day.  Hours between potty trips.  Super independence.

Well, mostly super independence.  She was eating lunch while I was changing a massive Parker diaper blowout (which ended up with me just carrying him to the bath).   This tortellini is one of her favorite things, so I was surprised when she said she was done and didn't want more.   I figured out why.  Apparently she thought maybe she'd like some of Parker's food mixed in.  Apparently it wasn't as tasty as romano cheese.

When the storm was over and everyone but me got nice naps... the sun came out, and it was beautiful.

And while I was snapping these photos, before getting dinner ready: Maia was playing with play-doh and singing:   Do-do-do-d'do-do-do-do-doooo pulled pork!