Leaps and Bounds

It always amazes me how much S grows in such a short time, not just physically, but with her skill set. Yesterday she put her shoe on all by herself and managed to open a door by twisting the handle for the first time. Both of these are inconsequential to us as adults - we don't even think about them as we do them - they're second nature to us. But to a toddler, each is a big feat.

Her dancing repertoire has also grown to include the mashed potato (not sure where she picked that up?) and headbanging. Daddy was proud of the latter. We also played Ring Around the Rosies for the first time yesterday which she really enjoyed. The only bummer about the weekend was she tripped on the rug yesterday and face-planted resulting in a split lip. Poor baby! But she's a tough little cookie, and after a few tears, was off and running again.

Sing a Song

S has started singing. DH made up a song we sing when we change her diaper, and this week she's started saying "Na na na" to the tune of the first three notes when we start to change her diaper. So cute! She's always loved music and dances around whenever it's on, but could only point to the iHome to get across the message she wanted to listen to some. Lately she's started clucking and wiggling to tell me, hey, turn on some tunes!

Yesterday I had to go to the photo studio to help out with some shots by being a hand model, and DH accidentally left his keys at home, so he and S had to come downtown to get my set. The photographer had gotten an autographed photo of Mario Chalmers' shot that tied the championship game and sent it into overtime, so I was glad DH was able to see it.

Historical Day

Today Barack Obama was inaugurated as our 44th President of the United States. He is the first African-American to be elected to this post. While I did not vote for him, I listened to his speech with anticipation. He is very charismatic and well-spoken; I hope he is able to achieve his goals. Rick Warren did the introductory prayer which I thought was exciting, but I was disappointed to see the President did not recite the Lord's Prayer when Rev. Warren led everyone in it. I wish him well and God's blessings in this great undertaking!

Working for the Weekend

I need a weekend from my weekend - I'm beat! We boxed up the majority of the extraneous stuff around the house this weekend and are now mostly done. We'll be able to finish the odds and ends this week so next weekend we can do some deep cleaning and figure out if we've missed doing something to get the house ready by the 1st.

Sunday S and I went to our friends' house to meet their baby girl. She was not happy that Mommy was holding another baby, let me tell you! The green-eyed monster made an appearance. But after a few minutes, she was happy playing with the cats and walking around on tiptoe checking out the house. Then that evening we went to our niece's bday party. We went to bed early last night, but a little munchkin kept waking us up. Was being on a newborn sleep schedule her way of trying to convince us that having another baby is a bad idea so she doesn't have to have a sibling to share Mommy time with? I think so. Or she could have just been wet, then hungry, then cold, but those seem like reasonable ideas, and reason was not my strong suit at midnight, 2:30am or 5am.

I had my well woman exam today - oh yea - so I was glad that our drive to my parents' house went so well. S was dancing in her carseat to the radio - Toby Mac's "Lose My Soul" which is the only song she dances to in my car, so I assume is her current favorite. Although she does love the theme song to M.A.S.H. so it's a toss up. Her favorite thing to do while in the car is watch the baby shades go up. I made the mistake of doing that one day to distract her from a tantrum and now she wants me to do it all the time. They're the Eddie Bauer ones that suction cup to the window and you pull them down to the desired length and then press a button on the side and they roll back up - with a flourish! The problem is that I can only reach the one behind me, and I can only do that when stopped, so she pulls on the one next to her until I do it. That'll be broken soon, I'm sure....

Two random thoughts: I saw an infomercial on tv last night for Bump-It (or something? I can't remember the name exactly). It's to help boufante (sp?) your hair. I had to laugh. I'm doing all I can to calm mine down. The other funny thing that happened this weekend is that DH got S to hold her nose when he said "Stinky" and pointed to me. Lovely!

Better get to work! Thankful I have a job and a healthy munchkin to wake me at all hours.

Facebook & LinkedIn

I FINALLY got onto Facebook and LinkedIn this week. I can't believe how many people I'm connected to already. It's pretty cool. DH doesn't want to do it, but I think he'd enjoy it. I told some friends of ours that there's a Dogbook section, too, for their dog. Cute!

S is still as adorable as ever. She was helping me clean last night before the realtor came over. She happily wiped the coffee table with gusto while I was tidying up and doing a little dusting. She has picked up on how to shush people - I'm guessing from my parents - so when DH was lying on the couch napping, she kept putting her finger to her lips and saying, "Shh! Shh! Shh!" So I would whisper back, "You're right, we should be quiet. Daddy's sleeping." But then she'd turn around and pounce on him. :)

The meeting with the realtor went well. We're hopeful the house will sell fairly quickly (not holding our breath, though), and we're planning to start looking at properties after we put ours on the market. He and DH were going to email some paperwork today, so we'll have to go through that tonight.

Is 2009 over yet?

So yesterday Dad got laid off. He's trying to file for unemployment, but can't get through. I just feel terribly for them. What a start to the new year...

We are meeting with a woman about part-time childcare this afternoon. Mom and Dad love watching S, but she's a handful and it wears them out. We were hoping to find a place where we could split the slot with our friends who just had a baby girl and will be in a similar situation, but so far all the people I've called don't take infants. We'll keep looking, though.

DH went to NE for work yesterday. It was a short flight but really turbulent and in a prop plane, so a little disconcerting for him. He was glad to be on the ground when he got home! I was supposed to go to AR tomorrow for work, but our client forgot we were coming, so we rescheduled for next week.

S's new favorite thing is my Chapstick so I tried to bribe her to get dressed yesterday by offering it to her as a reward, but she cannot be swayed if she doesn't want to do something. I'm trying the Love and Logic method of offering her choices to help with her control issues, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. She's just hard-headed. Wonder where she gets that from... :)

Livin' in a Box

I imagine my reference to an obscure 80's song is lost on most, but it was appropriate for today's post. We're packing things up to clear out the clutter and S has discovered the joy of playing in an empty box that's big enough to be her chair/car/bed/whatever her little head is imagining. She's also having fun with the popcorn we used to pack one of the vases. One thing she's not enjoying is eliminating some things. I threw away a little random cardboard thing that said "ABC" on it that we'd had since she was born, and she got it out of the trash.

She was making me laugh earlier today eating pizza. She ate about 75% of a slice - from Papa John's, so it was pretty big - and then ate all the toppings off what was left. She kept flipping it upside down to eat it - reminded me of her Aunt J when she was little. :) The other thing she's been doing lately is wanting to be naked. I babysat for a girl when I was in college who refused to put clothes on. We would get ready to go outside to play in the snow, and she'd put her boots on but that was it. I told S she can wear her birthday suit inside as long as she wears clothes when we leave the house.

My DH is so cute - he got S a little Grover and Elmo for Christmas and found an Ernie yesterday to add to her collection. When he brought it home, he was playing with her and called her E (his youngest sister's name). I asked him if he was having flashbacks from childhood. He was embarrassed, but I thought it was adorable - he's 5 years older than her, so he remembers getting in her playpen when she was little to play with her.

Yesterday was a little rough - she was up a lot in the night and was up for the day at 6 am. Then she wanted to go for a walk, but it was bitter cold. I eventually gave in, and we walked to the store to get groceries for dinner. The wind didn't blow often, but it did kick up once in awhile, and I was worried about her little cheeks, but we got home and she didn't want to go inside. So we walked around by the library and on the way back she fell asleep, so it was worth it. Plus I finally got some exercise!

To back up one more day, we had my office Christmas party Friday night. We went to the Bulldog downtown and had a great time. Although, we didn't get done with dinner til almost 10pm, so we didn't make it bowling at Lucky Strike in the Power and Light District like we'd planned.

Dad's doing much better - he has a lot more energy. He was released Friday afternoon so I took him and Mom home. We took a bunch of boxes to their basement today. They should start charging us for storage. :)

Right now my DH and DD are chasing each other by crawling under and around the coffee table. The doorbell just rang, so since DH is trapped under the table, I better sign off to answer it....

Happy birthday, Dad!

Today is Dad's 69th bday so I'm taking off at lunch to take S to see him in the hospital. He's supposed to be released today after his upper and lower GI, so that will be the best bday present.

The other big news for us is we are going to put our house on the market Feb 1. YIKES! The realtor doesn't think we need to do much, so we decided we can get it ready by then. And by we, I mean my DH. Actually, he thought we could be ready in 2 weeks, and I asked him if we could postpone it a bit. It will be a difficult task in our marriage - selling and buying a house - but I'm sure we'll manage it, and if we don't kill each other first, maybe even grow in the process. :)

Dad

I tried to add a post yesterday, but our PC was giving me fits. It was saying cookies and Javascript were disabled, but when I went to check the settings they were fine. I love technology!

Yesterday morning I took S to Mom & Dad's to drop her off just as Dad was returning from the store. He asked me to get the groceries for him because he didn't feel well. After about 15 minutes of discussion, we decided Mom would stay home with S, and I would take Dad to the dr. We went to the ER, and it turned out his hemoglobin count was down again (6, so not as low as the 5 it was a few years ago when he was in dire straits, but close), and his blood sugar was up - over 500. His EKG looked ok, but I think they're going to do a catheterization today to make sure. His blood count was better today after the transfusion, but only a 9 so he still needs more infusions. Hopefully the catheter will show only good things!

We are having our realtor come over today to let us know what we need to do to get the house ready to put on the market. I'd like him to say there won't be much more to do than we already have on our list, but I'm not holding my breath. :)

Family and friends

Yesterday we met my dad's side of the family for lunch in Ottawa. Aunt M had organized it all since S was visiting from Alaska and K was visiting from Australia. I recognized a few people, but we don't see that side much - Dad's Dad's relatives. My DH, DD and I went with Dad (Mom wasn't feeling up to it). Then last night we went to C's to meet her fiance. He seems really nice. They're planning a June wedding. It was fun to see all the girls and their families. One of the girls found out she has gestational diabetes, so that's a bummer. So far she's just having to test her blood sugar several times a day and take medication. Hopefully she won't have to have insulin shots. They're monitoring her closely now, so she'll have weekly visits until her due date, 2/22.

Some of S's favorite things to do right now: twirl in a circle until she gets dizzy, carry around her purse, wear her sparkly red shoes that Daddy bought her, "talk" on her phone, climb stairs, sit on the step stool, take things in and out, eat watermelon. Things she does not like: being dressed, being buckled into her carseat/stroller, etc. - basically anything she can't do by herself or that restrains her. She's able to eat thick oatmeal with a spoon on her on, and has mastered eating some things (like watermelon) with a fork. She loves to help - she wipes everything with tissues to "clean", and tries to sweep with her kid-sized broom she got for Christmas. We just took the tray off her booster high chair so now she's eating at the table. We ordered a bedroom set for her so her bed will be here in a few weeks. She's getting to be such a big girl! For the most part, she is such a joy, but she definitely has a strong will and quick temper and lately tantrums have become frequent - terrible twos already! But she's also become more snuggly. She and Daddy do eskimo and butterfly kisses. And she loves to hug and give kisses. We are so blessed to have her!!

Happy New Year

So I fell off the blogging wagon after our DD's first bday 5 months ago, and although I was harrassed quite a bit, I didn't get a chance to do anything about it. So now that it's the beginning of the new year, I will have to make time to make it happen. I can't believe how many milestones of hers I missed posting. I tried to jot down notes, so I'll put them together in a summary blog soon.

For now, the new year didn't have a great start. My DH and I had an argument last night so I had a hard time falling asleep, then our DD (S) woke up at 4am - teething issues - so I was pretty tired when I got up this morning. Then we were running late and when I got to my parents' to drop S off, I accidentally locked her in my car - with both the main set of keys and the spare. I tried (unsuccessfully) not to freak out, but luckily the locksmith was only five minutes away. S was fine, but I was a little traumatized. Then I got to work and the last-minute belated Christmas party I'm coordinating was in question. Thank goodness it's Friday...

Despite all this, I have high hopes for this year. I want to get back to church again. I'd like to take up reading my rotation of novels, classics, and spiritual books again instead of just child-rearing literature. We're hoping to move - we'll see how the housing market pans out. Work is going to be busy, so I'm going to try to maintain the balance I've re-achieved the last few months and not get out of whack again. I've started going to the gym again and want to keep that up. Aside from our argument last night, things with my DH and I are going really well; I need to keep my priorities in line at home to continue that positive status. And I want to reconnect with my friends I've lost touch with this year. Hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!