sleep issues

I have mentioned before how Anya sleeps like Ally never did, right? Well, Thursday that all went by the wayside. Friday night I gave her some green beans (did I mention I've been feeding her food yet? I don't think so. Anyway, I've been giving her cereal in the daytime, and mostly bananas at night, but tried green beans Friday night) She hadn't slept great the night before, but that happens sometimes and wasn't terrible. Well, Friday WAS. She scereamed bloody murder if I even came close to attempting to set her down. She farted her way through the night and I ended up with about 3.5 hours of sleep total (and on the way to the aquarium the next day oy-vay!) Thought it was the beans. Turned out it wasn't. She had no beans Saturday, but still had a bad night. I got 4.5 hours of sleep. I think maybe I figured out the problem though. I had a breakfasst casserole on Thursday morning for breakfast. It had lots of cheese and probably other dairy too. By the time I breastfed her that evening, most of it had probably left my system. However, I still had 3 bottles I had pumped during the day. She ate the first (most concentrated) one Friday. Had another on Saturday. I threw the 3rd out. Just in case. Don't know for sure if that was the problem, but better safe than sorry. I'm also not going to try green beans again for a while.

She slept 7 hours last night. woke up and ate for 15 minutes. slept another 4 hours. Much better.

Shedd Aquarium

We went up to Chicago this weekend to take Ally to Shedd Aquarium. Had been thinking about it for a while, and now that Rob has weekends free, it's much easier to go on trips like that. Ally had a great time. We told her about it Friday night, and Rob showed her the website. She was fascinated with the snake she saw. She really wanted to go see that snake. At bedtime, she gave no arguement, because she needed to get lots of rest so we could go see the snake tomorrow! When she woke up, she was bouncing off the walls. She had switched from the snake to the sharks though. We got to hear something like this:

"When we swim with the sharks they will bite us!" "Are we going to see those bad sharks?" "Sharks will bite our fingers and they will fall off" "Sharks are in the water and when we go in the water they will bite us!" and so on and so forth. But the weird thing was, she wasn't acting scared, she was just acting excited about it all. I think she watches too much Discovery Channel with her dad.

Anyway, we spent the day wandering about, and Ally had a great time. Anya sat in the stroller and rode around staring at everyone. Rob and I alternated lifting Ally up to see things, and we basically wore ourselves out. We saw lots of sharks and fish and whales etc. There was only 1 snake though, and he was kinda balled up so you couldn't see much of him. Ally was disappointed in that. We stopped at Rob's dad's on the way home, and let Anya get down a little. She was going crazy not being able to squirm around on the floor all day.  We let Ally watch the portable DVD player for the first time. She absolutely loved it! which is why we hadn't let her watch it before.

sick?

last week Ally didn't sleep one night. It rained all night and the sound of the sump pump kept waking her up. The next day she was very cranky at day care. They even called me to tell me that she had fallen asleep reading. So they woke her up to take her temperature. And she didn't have one. What did I want them to do? DUH! Let her go back to sleep. if she can sleep in a room full of 2 year olds, she's obviously tired.

Anyway, I left work to take her home so she could have a nice long nap, but that failed miserably. She woke up screaming her freakin' head off. She said her belly hurt. She screamed for about 15 minutes before I called Rob to ask his advice. We decided to take her to the ER just in case. I mean she wouldn't stop screaming!! So I loaded her up, and went to pick him up from work. She quit screaming about alfway there, but we went ahead and took her anyway, because she said her belly still hurt. Once there we were informed that an axillary temperature wouldn't suffice, and we had to have oral of anal. Ally wouldn't open her mouth. Poor kid. I had no part in it. Rob held her still for the nurse. Ally blamed him. That evennig I heard something I thought I'd never hear coming from my kid's mouth:

"Daddy put it in my butt and it made me sad. I didn't want him to"

I had to make sure and tell the day care what had happened the next day so that they wouldn't call DCFS on us when she told everyone about it. But, she will tell you herslef that the next time, she will open her mouth and lift her tongue when we tell her to. Hard lesson to learn. Funny though.

Oh yeah, she quit acting sick and started to answer inconsistantly about where she hurt, so we left before we even saw a doctor. She was fine

crawling?

Anya is not quite to what I would call crawling, but she's getting pretty close. She is actually able to raise that big ol' belly of hers off the floor. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth. Then she collapses and scoots either forward or backward - depending on which way she was rocking when she collapsed. She does this repeatedly and has great fun with it. until she ceases to have fun with it and then - oh lordy! How dare I leave her alone on the floor to flounder in her own pile of drool and snot? What kind of mother am I? If she could only figure out how to call DCFS on me, I'd be in trouble.  I thought kids were supposed to learn how to sit up before crawling? She still wobbles a LOT when soitting. She'd be fine if we had some of those adjustable training wheels for her butt. You knwow what I mean. Those ones that you can either put in contact with the road, or lift up and out a little so they only touch the road if the bike wobbles some. Do they make those for baby butts?

Children learn what they live

This weekend, I heard Ally parrot back a few things she's obviously been told or heard often:

"We don't throw toys" to me as I was thowing her toys in a pile to be taken downstairs

"We don't kick our friends" to Anya after Anya kicked Ally's head which was oh-so-carefully laid on Anya's feet in the first place

"Keep your mouth to yourself" to me after I was blowing raspberries all over her

My baby is 4 months old

How did that happen? Wow. She's also fat! She's 17 pounds 11 ounces and 26 1/2 inches long. That's a little more than Ally was at that age, but pretty close. I don't make a lot of extra milk, but apparently, the milk I do make is thick or something.

Anyway, I think I've mentioned before how much I love this age. Anya is roolling over regularly - anytime she feels like it. Even if I'm in the middle of changing her diaper or the doctor is trying to listen to her heartbeat during her checkup. She's moving backwards a lot. She scoots off her blanket on the floor all the time. Sometimes even forward (but those times the progress is usually on her nose). I put her on the couch last weekend, and turned away for a second, and she lurched off. Banged her head on the floor to. I felt so bad, and she screamed! But, she's okay and I won't be doing that again.

She's smacking at toys and playing and chewing on many of them. She tries to grab things sometimes, but doesn't have her fist open, and just smacks them. She can't always figure out why she can't pick them up that way. She studies things seriously. She'll stare at a spot on the floor for quite a while. She loves watching Ally. She's discovered her hands and feet are good for chewing. She always sucks her thumb, but now she grabs her hand with the other one and tries to shove it all in her mouth. Rob had her the other day, and found her socks soaking wet. Apparently, she managed to suck on them for a while.  (Apparently, I lke the word "apparently". have been using it much lately. It's my word of the week)

We put Anya in the walker outside on the patio last weekend too. She loved it. She was just truckin around everywhere. Her socks were falling off with all the pushing, so I took them off. THem her little toes got all scratched up. I won't be doing that again either. Poor kid. but the walker was a definite hit.

I'm getting ready to switch her clothes over to the next size (6-9 months). She's ready, but I had to get all that stuff down from the attic and sort through it and wash it up and all that. It's all washed now, but I have to sort it into seasons and find a place for it. New clothes - Yay! I love new clothes for the kids. Don't know what size Ally need for the winter. Looks like we may start it out in 3T, but can't be sure of that until I get her long pants back out and start shoving her in them.

Ally is very excited. She's waiting for her birthday. She knows she'll be 3 and can't wait for the cake and ice cream. 3 years old. Where did the time go?

Why did we teach her to talk?
The other day Ally Anya and I were sitting in our car (truck. Note to self: get picture!) waiting for Rob to get off work. See, I get off an hour earlier than he does, and we ride together. The daycare is 5 blocks away, so we usually have to sit awhile and wait. Ally asked to listen to her Dora  music (Why did I ever buy that CD?). She listened for a while and then apparantly got bored. She said "I don't like that song". So I skipped to the next one.  She said "I don't like that song". Lather, Rinse, Repeat. After about 7 or 8 songs, I turned around and said "Ally, you are being a ..." and stopped myself from finishing the sentence. She smiled real big and said "a butt?" and giggled.  Hmmm... Maybe I've said that a couple times too many.

more pictures
How do my kids just get more beautiful every day? I mean EVERY day. Here's proof See what I mean? (Oh and by the way, be sure to check Anya's pictures against Ally's 4 month pictures which I'm too lazy to link to, but is linked over there to the rihgt already anyway)

boo-boos and band-aids
When I went to pick Ally up from day care Friday, she was not in her room. I assumed she was on the playground, and grabbed her stuff and went looking for her. I heard her voice in another room on the way outside. She was washing her hands in one of the sinks and looked like she had just finished crying. She was asking the teacher to carry her back outside. I said hi, and asked what was wrong. She told me about her boo-boo. She scraped her knee and had a bandaid on. Her teacher had made her a special bandaid that helped her walk. She decorated it with a smiley face and hearts. I guess Ally was bleeding a little, and refused to walk. Didn't think she could. The bandaid helped though. Cause we all know bandaids are magical. I gave her the requisite attention and sympathy and got ready to walk down to the other room to pick Anya up. Ally walked with me, but "couldn't" walk without holding my hand. She also walked stiff-legged like she couldn't bend her knee. It was so pathetic. I guess it shook her up to be bleeding. I can't remember her seeing blood before. This might be her first time.  It took about 2 days for her to allow me to take the bandaid off, and every once in a while she'd remember her boo-boo and start limping again. She's such a  character.

the beginnings of empathy?
Last night, Ally was watching a movie with me. Well, mainly I was watching the movie, and she was sitting on my lap interrupting occasionally and poking me in the eye, etc. I was watching "Meet the Fockers". There's a scene in the movie where a little dog is chasing a cat around, and the cat jumps on top of the toliet, and the dog jumps after him, and falls in the toliet. We all know what comes next, right? The dog gets flushed. OH. MY. GOD! Ally screamed her freakin' head off. I thought she had hurt herself. I asked what was wrong, and she sobbed "That doggie got fushed down the towet!!!!!" I had to try not to laugh. We had to have a conversation about real and pretend, and how doggie's can't really fit etc. She didn't really believe us though. We finally settled on "Let's watch some more and see what happens. I bet he's okay." Of course, it was an RV toliet, so it was blue water and all. The puppy turned blue. We used that to our advantage. Toliet water is not really blue, therefore the movie is not real. For the rest of the movie, she would occasionally ask me about the dog. and make sure to tell me he was okay... just in case I was worried.

signs, signs...

I found this stuck on my head earlier. My only question is: Who taught my girls (yes, both of them) how to read?

 

Did I tell you the one about the toliet?

The other day I was nursing Anya in her room (next to the bathroom). I heard what sounded like the handle to the stepstool. I thought she was turning on the lights which she does often. Then she goes around and turns them off. Awful entertaining to her. Me - not so much. Then I heard the toliet lid opening. Ally is not a troublesome girl in that she hasn't ever tried to play in the toliet of gotten into stuff she shouldn't (much), so I wasn't too worried. What I was, was hopeful. Maybe she would go to the bathroom by herself. Maybe we were pressuring her too much, and she just needs to be able to do it on her own. (I'm an optimist it seems - who knew?)

Didn't hear from her for a little while, so I burped Anya and checked on Ally. I found her kneeling on her stool with her diaper and pants around her ankles. There was a small pile of poop behind her on the bathmat, and she was "swimming" her fish (metal on the nose so she can catch them with the fishing pole in the tub) in the toliet. The kid has a short attention span. What I figure happened is that she sat down to poop. Nothing happened in the first 2 seconds, so she got down to play with something, and while she was squatting, out came the poop. No longer needing to sit on the pot herself, she thought she would give the fish a dip in the water.

I do give her an "E" for effort though. She knew she had to go and sat (for a little while). Praise for the notion. Soap for the hands and fish.

truck

Hey all, I got a new truck! Saturday, we went out looking at SUV type vehicles versus vans. The car we had was kinda small for 2 car seats, and impossible if Ally ever wanted to bring home a friend or anything (plus, you never know, we may have a 3rd or 4th or 5th kid). We knew we wanted something bigger eventually, but hadn't decided to do it yet. We went on a fact finding trip and ruled out a bunch of vehicles that just didn't have enough room for our purposes. Then we looked at a Durango, that Rob had put on the top of his possibilities list. He really liked them. So we looked and saw one that was perfect. Rather than wait, we just decided to buy it. We're instant gratification people. It's an 05 with lots of neat features and stuff, but mainly - it's big. It's been about 2 years since we traded in the Chevy, and I missed having a truck. of course, hte gas mileage isn't great, but it wouldn't be in a van either, and that's where we were headed if the SUV things didn't work out. And it was actually cheaper than a new van would have been. Ally loves it. She's currently sitting all the way in the back of the 3rd row. She has her own seat. I'm in class this week away from my desk, so don't have my cord for my camera. You know I would have posted pictures already otherwise. (And don't give me any crap about "you could always upload them at home"! You know I have no time for that stuff at home!) I'll post pictures later.

Oh, and it's really hard to get used to saying "truck" instead of "car". Rest assured I will get used to it. Ally will make me--> Me: "Get in the car, Ally" Ally: "It's not a car - it's a truck!" Me: (sigh) "Well, do it anyway"

food!!!!

I can not believe it! (cookies for everyone who knows what show that came from (but you have to hurry. I'm eating them now) )

Sunday, Ally had eggs and biscuit for breakfast, ham and cheese sandwich for lunch (and french fries I think), and pizza for supper. Last night, she tried and ate 2 cooked baby carrots.  Can you say Hallelujah! (can I spell hallelujah?)?

Ally ate breakfast with no fuss at all. She threw a fit over the ham on her sandwich at lunch. There was much screaming and many tears and much snot running down her face. I got a Kleenex for her and wiped her nose. She turned around and said something alnog the lines of "My sandwich is tasty for me now" and climbed back into her chair at the table and took a bite of her sandwich. Brat. Then for supper, she started to fuss that she didn't want pizza, but I headed her off and told her that (you're too late. the cookies are gone - Want to guess anyway?) I was cutting it into bites and asked if she wanted it in a bowl or on a plate. She happily accepted a bowl and ate her supper. We gave her a break and gave her fish sticks last night, but added a vegetable, and it worked.

I AM more stubborn than my child. Thank God.

Wrong! Wrong! I was wrong!! Yipppee!!!
Ally tried some hamburger at day care yesterday! She did it in order to get more cheese. yippee! So when we got home and I read her summary sheet I asked her about it. (Well, first I changed pants cause I pissed myself) She said she likes hamburgers. So I made a decision and changed our supper plans. She actually ate some ahmburger at home too. Mostly bread (cause we're out of buns) but she ate some hamburger without a fight. Probably a little more than the size of a quarter if you add it all up, but I'm fine with that. She's trying a new food! yippee!

The rules of the road

Ally knows that the lights progress from red to green to orange (I mean yellow). She knows green means go and red means stop and a green arrow means we can turn. She also knows that orange (yellow) means slow down and look around. Unfortuately, she expects us to obey that rule. We go through a yellow light and she says "Hey, you didn't slow down". Or "orange doesn't mean go"

She also knows that honking the horn means "Everybody get out of the road!!!" Hey, at least it doesn't mean "Get the f*** out of my way". Yet.

mind of her own

Both my kids have a mind of their own. I've detailed this many times with Ally, but Anya is starting to show it too. If she wants to "talk" to you and you're not paying her enough attention. She yells at you - then smiles and coos. She coos and talks a lot. I don't really remember that much about when Ally was this age except that she was fun. And that she smiled constantly. Anya is more - uh... what's the word I'm looking for? - internal? When you're not interacting with her, she has a very serious look on her face. Like she's just trying to figure everything out. When you laugh and smile at her, she almost instantly smiles and gigles right back, but it doesn't stay long. She reacts and then goes back to thinking. Or talking at you.

And a lot of the time, if you lay her on her back, she's over on her belly before you even realize it. She started by rolling from belly to back, but still isn't that good at it. As soon as she figured out how to go the other way, she quit trying as hard. She perfers her belly. Unless there is someone sitting next to her staring down and laughing with her. Mostly she only goes from belly to back if she's in her crib waking up.

She's going to be a lot like Ally, I can tell, but it's certain that she's her own person too. I love raising kids sometimes. It's so rewarding to see them become their own people. And it starts happening so early. So fun.

food

Ok, so we're still not having much progress. Monday, she wouldn't try spaghetti. Tuesday, she wouldn't try prok chops. Wednesday, we went to dance, so we had McNuggets. Thursday, she wouldn't try Sloppy Joes. Friday, she wouldn't try Spagetti o's shaped like Dora. Oh, wait, that hasn't happened yet. I bet I've just had a psychic moment. The weekend is coming up, and we'll have a chance to starve her again, but there just aren't that many foods that I think she'll even consider eating even when she's really hungry. It's going to be fun. Not.

 

 

scrapbooking
I've been a little inspired lately (considering that it's already the end of August and I've only done about 8 pages, and 4 of them were done this past week or so). Go check them out. The link is over there to the right. (And sign up for the trivia thing while you're at it. I love getting me some useless points)

Sploofus
So I found this new time waster for work. My mom referred me to a trivia website. You sign up, and they send you a trivia question every day, and you get points. There are oodles of quizes out there that you can take for fun, and practically waste the entire day. The thing is, you get extra points for referring new people, so anyone who is interested in trivia, or wasting time, check it out. The link is over there to the right under Sploofus. When you get to Level 2 (answer 10 questions of the day right) I get 10,000 points. Cool huh?