Since I was pregnant, I've been a member of BabyCenter.com. Most of the stuff in there is the same fluff you read in every magazine and article about babies, but some is actually useful, and some is just fun to read. Like the journals they have. There is one journal written by a mother of a boy and a girl a little over three years apart in age. She started the journal soon after she got pregnant with the little girl. Catherine, the author of the journal, is much more focused on the day-to-day life of raising kids than the "right" way to do things and does a good job of pointing out how you can feel like you're so full to bursting with love for your kid, but a second later be praying for someone to offer you a month long vacation somoewhere - anywhere- away from it all. I've been reading past entries most of the day (since they haven't found any work for me to do yet) and it just keeps cracking me up. Kids do the funniest things. It makes me feel good that I'm writing all this stuff down to remember later. You guys just all get the added benefit of being able to read along too.
We're going through an repetitive phase right now. Like the fascination Ally has with "a spoon and a jar of cherries". This contraption is supposed to "feed" a baby doll I imagine (I got it at a garage sale with a bunch of kitchen stuff). You stick the spoon into the jar and, magically, when you take it off, there are cherries on it!!!! (If you spent time with Ally and the spoon, you would see why that warrants four exclamation points) then, when you touch the cherries, they slide back into the spoon handle and disappear real fast. We had to take the spoon away from her and hide it a few months ago, because she always wanted to run with it in her mouth. Well, she found it the other day, and we sat for at least 20 minutes, just pushing the spoon in, pushing on the cherries, watching them disappear, and doing it all over again. We went through just about every different way possible of "eating" the cherries - from pushing on them with her finger, to using my finger to push on them, to feeding them to the bear, to stepping on them - and so on (and on... and on... and...) She had such a good time with them that she took them to bed with her that first night. She was so cute. She had her little fist curled around the jar, arm thrown out above her head, with the rest of her body sprawled out.. I thought that maybe, she'd wake up in the morning and play a little in her crib and let me sleep. Ha
Ally can now identify her mouth (which she thinks means her tongue. You ask her where her mouth is and she'll stick out her tongue and point down her throat.), eyes, ears, nose, head, hair, belly, fingers, toes and feet. You have to be careful asking about her eyes or ears though. With the eyes, it's pretty obvious - what isn't is how fast she goes from poking herself in the eye to finding mine. One second I'm clapping and praising her on how big she is and the next, I'm trying to get my contact to come back from where ever it disappeared to. The ears, though, are a different story. I never realized what a problem it would be. She usually can't see your other ear when she's got her finger in one. So, instead of walking around, or stepping back a bit, she grabs your head and pulls on it til you're turned enough that she can prove that Yes, you do have two ears. But, once she loses hold of the first ear, all bets are off. she'll go back and forth all day -or until or point out that Dad is right behing her and -surprise- he has ears too! Or sometimes, she'll get positioned just right so that she has both ears within grasp. Then she pinches. The other day at Famous Dave's (restauant in Bloomington) she was eating corn-miffins which are delicious there. Yummy We always order lots extra. She was chowing down. After almost eating 2 whole ones, Rob told her she didn't have any more room in her belly. In answer, she lifted up her shirt and showed him just how big her belly was and how silly was he to think she'd eaten too much already. Then she smiled and went on shoveling in the last of the muffin.
We bought her a little fold-out couch from Wal-mart the other day. At first, she got mad (otherwise known as furious) if we folded it out, but now she enjoys it. She's found that if she tries to walk on it, she falls down. so, she steps up onto it and walks around until she falls down, or somehow makes it to the other side and off then runs around me and does it all over again. of cuorse, I have to be involved in this. I'm not sure why, but it seems to be integral to her enjoyment. Maybe she likes knowing that when she falls, she'll have a big fistfull of my hair to slow her down. Maybe it's because she likes to dig her toes into my leg and watch me make funny faces in pain as she walks across me to get to the unfolded couch. Maybe it's something simple. Maybe she just likes to share her happiness with me, and make sure that we're both having a good time.
If you ask her dad, she gets it from me. He is always asking me to please put the camera down and just enjoy the time together. I haven't managed to explain to him just how much more enjoyment I get looking at the pictures later, and sharing them too. Which is just a lead-in to the easter bunny story...
We went to the mall Saturday and had her picture taken with the easter bunny. The highway bandits posing as photographers will only let you use your own camera if you buy one of their packages (which start at $12.99 for 1 5X7). She couldn't wait. She ran up to him and gave him a big hug and then sat on his lap studying him so much she barely would smile. So, we bought a picture and I took 3 or 4. Once I get around to getting them off the camera, I'll stick them out here. Of course, I'll probably be too busy getting my eyes poked out.
another note: She actually ate Mcdonalds chicken nuggets this weekends. 2 of them! For those of you thinking "Why is this a good thing?" that just shows how far I've fallen in the struggle to get her to eat some protein.
Posted by ktjrdn
at 00:01 CST