Completely forgot...

Alternately titled: "She's going to hate me later for writing this"

We're using the potty!  By "we" I mean Hollie, obviously.  Daniel and I have been throwing the idea around for awhile, debating whether or not she was ready, and last Monday (like almost two weeks ago), I decided to just go for it.  I knew it was a bad idea, because Uncchris was arriving in a few days, and they say you're not supposed to start when you've any kind of additional circumstance (illness, remodeling the house, new baby, etc.)...but really, as in all things: if you wait for the "right time" it's never going to happen.  So I went for it.

Day one was a success!  When she woke up I gave her an hour or so to eat breakfast and wake up all the way, then took off her diaper, and didn't put another on another (which she didn't mind at all).  She enjoyed it for a while, but after about two hours she started doing "the dance" and going somewhat frantically from one activity to another.  I brought the potty out into the living room, and gently asked her occasionally if she wanted to sit down and use it.  For a few months now, we've been reading a book about using the potty, so she was already familiar with the "terminology" (haha).  She actually did sit down a few times, bringing a book or toy with her, but always got distracted and got up.  She asked for a diaper a few times, and so I would start to slowly get it ready, but each time she changed her mind and said "No! No diaper!"

Finally, around 12:30 in the afternoon, after roughly four hours sans diaper, she sat on the potty and used it.  Amazing.

I wanted to give you the story of the first day, but I'll spare you (and future Hollie) the rest of it - suffice it to say that our record after week #1 is 5 in the potty, 3 on the carpet.  Not too shabby.  Warning, I'm gonna brag a little -- At least two of those in the potty were unprompted, in other words: I heard tinkling, came running, and found her already on the potty!  Beyond impressed.

It kind of got put on hold for the most part while Chris was here, so I'm thinking we'll be starting from square one on Monday.  Our weekends are always pretty busy, so I think we're just going to be Monday-thru-Friday potty trainers around here.  If that makes the whole process end up taking longer as a result, I'm okay with it.  She seems to have gotten the idea, at least.

Another new belly picture is up!  Next week we start the third trimester.  Crap, we really need to deciding on some names...      

Uncchris!

This has been the broken record playing in our house the past week.  Daniel's brother Chris (Uncle Chris or Uncchris!) has come to see us for a little while before he starts a new job!  Hollie adores him.  She took a little while to warm up to him, especially since he arrived late (after bedtime) and when Hollie woke up in the morning she found him in the kitchen instead of her daddy, but ever since then she has been like a second shadow.

A few updates:

I'm feeling good.  Big, but good.  When I sit too long my legs start feeling super heavy (which I don't remember from last time), but getting out for walks and exercising as often as possible have been helping with that.  And my back huuuurts...but what else is new, right?  It's a brief, shooting pain...sometimes even when I put a foot wrong.  Youch!  I recently started feeling hungry all the time, which didn't happen until much later with Hollie (and when it did I put on weight fast), so I'm like, oh crap!  I'm trying to have healthy snacks, or see if I'm actually just thirsty, or even just wait to see if the hunger goes away in a minute or two (which it does sometimes!)(not starving myself, don't worry).  As far as I can tell, my weight gain has been right on track, so I'm thankful for that.

I guess the reason I haven't written at all lately is because my head has been somewhere else, and I can't write about our mundane family life when this kind of stuff is on my mind.  Wish I could tell you more, but we're waiting to find out something definitive.  All I want to do is sit by the phone and sweat bullets, but I have a toddler who pulls my attention away occasionally.  Daniel has a great opportunity at work.  If he doesn't get it (or decides not to take it) it's no big deal, so don't worry - we're not stressing over anything potentially bad.  If it does happen and I get to tell you about it, then it will make sense why I'm going crazy over it.

Speaking of toddler, we've got a full-fledged one around here lately.  Some days (becoming most days), man, Hollie will fight tooth and nail about something...anything...and then later, fight about the opposite.  Like she really really really wants juice.  And then she really really really wants water.  Or NOOOO I don't want a shirt on!!!   And then later NOOOO don't you DARE take my shirt off!!!  Unfortunately, Daniel and I appear to be slow learners in this game.  We've found that by being patient, catching her in the right mood at the right moment (some pre-planning on our part helps), not fighting fire with fire, and the big one - choosing our battles, we've been able to avoid the meltdown...sometimes.  Still learning, yes, we are.  The not-fighting-fire-with-fire and the not-staying-mad-after-tantrum's-over parts have been the toughest for me, but I feel like I'm learning a little everyday and making improvements (to my own mindset) one step at a time.  I do have all the motivation in the world, after all.  She is sooo loving, when she wants to be!  She even pats your back when she gives a big hug...I love it!

Another big one - we've been making an effort to give her what she wants when she asks nicely (even if it's something that not ordinarily allowed)(but within reason).  I guess that falls under choosing your battles.  It's funny how we complain that her answer to everything is no-no-no! but sometimes we're just as bad.  Hoping this strategy has some long-term effect.  Also, we try to turn our no's into yes's: No, we're not going to have a bath now, but we're going to have one right after dinner.  And 9 times out of 10, she does remember...and reminds you!

Toddlerhood really is amazing, though.  She's become so demanding, but in a cute way!  She completely takes the lead: tells you where to sit, what toy to hold, what to do with it, etc.  She has a pretend blood pressure cuff and stethoscope, and one of her favorite things to do is have you lay down so she can put the cuff on you and "listen" to you everywhere!  It blows my mind sometimes.

Another funny thing:  when we're getting dinner ready, she sees all the food out and tells us she's hungry (hungee!), and we tell her don't worry, dinner will be ready soon!  Then she immediately climbs up in her chair, buckles herself in, and tells us about every 30 seconds that she ready to eat (ready eat!).

Her speech is growing in leaps and bounds.  Starting to string words together and everything!  However, she does tend to repeat things without really knowing what they mean, so it's tough to really gauge what she knows.  She also tends to use the same pronunciation for similar words, like monkey and blanket (mankie) and kitchen and chicken (just chicken, but ending with -on instead of -en: chick-ON!).  Her counting has taken two steps forward and one step back...she started repeating "one" and then weeks later added "two" (and she would sing "one-two-one-two-one-two!") and just recently added "three"...except that now sometimes it's "two-three-one"!  Uh-oh.  She knows and recognizes the music of Glee, one of our favorite TV shows (she calls is gee!).  The soundtrack for season one is the most requested CD in our collection!  Yeah, we might be kind of proud of that.  :)

If we're talking about more traditional kids' music, The Itsy-Bitsy Spider song (neebee spider) is her favorite, with the hand motions, of course.  Second favorite would be the Elmo song (youtube video here), rewritten to include Hollie's song, Mommy's song, Daddy's song, and lately Uncchris's song.  She will start singing that one all on her own!

Long update!  I will try to write more often.  I did add a new belly photo last week, and I'll have another one tomorrow (27 weeks!).

I've got it stuck in my head now: la-la la-la, la-la, la-la, Hollie's song...  

Who needs chairs?

I just came across these photos today.  They were taken back in November and I just never got around to posting them!  Anyway, we're snowed in (yeah, again), and these reminded me of warmer weather (because Hollie's not wearing pants).  Enjoy!

To distract her from the [obvious] fact that I had the camera out, I asked her a few questions...

               Hollie, where is your nose?                                     and Momma's nose?

                        Ears?                                                                   Teeth?

                        Eyes?                                                               Belly button?

What a cutie.

"Ummo's nummers"

We may have a future accountant around here.  Hollie's been learning been learning about numbers (nummers) out of an Elmo (Ummo) book, and lately she's been pointing them out everywhere - on everything from phones to food packaging.  It's usually just nummers, but occasionally she specifies: Ummo's nummers.

To clarify, she does not actually know the numbers.  However, sometimes she sings to herself, "One-two-one-two-one-two!"

She sings a lot, and I love it.  Her songs usually go something like this:
"Mommy-daddy-baby-mommy-daddy-baby"
or
"Baby-doggie-nummers-baby-doggie-nummers"
or
"Sah-shoo-sah-shoo" (see below)
or
any combination, in a little sing-song voice.  I wish I could catch it on video, but you know how tough that is.  By the time the camera is out and turned on, she's moved on to something else.  You never know, I might get lucky!

Socks and shoes - sah-shoo.  Heard when we're getting ready to leave the house (or if she wants to leave (usually right before bedtime)).  Also heard around the same time...

Jacket - jack-ah
and
Hat - at! (always with a !)

Her pronunciation of water had slowly evolved from woggy,
to woddy,
to wah-doh,
and finally to wad-dah , which sounds pretty close to the real thing, just with a bit of an accent.

Her month-old obsession with lotion (show-shah) continues.  The definition has been expanded to include hand sanitizer and chapstick.

She is saying more foods, like...
Orange -  ornge (one syllable).  I feel so bad, because she loves them and asks for them constantly but gets an awful rash if she eats more than two or so a day!
Apple - appo or appah
Banana - mana
Sandwich - sammich
Water and juice - She knows I dilute her apple juice, so she usually asks for waddah-juice.

There are probably a few more, but I can't think of any at the moment.  I hope all of you don't get tired of reading stuff like this.  I read a quote recently, something to the effect of - You have to accept that no one else in the world thinks your child is as fascinating as you do.  I don't care if that's true, this is mostly for me anyway, because I just can't stand the thought someday I won't remember all these little things.

So, bear with me.  I know the real reason you keep coming back...photos like these:

  7:30 pm

This is what happens when you miss naptime!

Quick story

In church earlier this week, while rummaging happily through my purse ("burse"), Hollie found chapstick.  I took off the cap, and showed her how it just goes just on your lips.  That translated to "lower half of the face" in toddler-ese.  I let her go, since she still had a bit of a runny nose, and her poor nose and lips were pretty chapped.  It was also adorable, and she was having fun with it - including putting some on my face, too.

Anyways, before this, she had been holding on to her Alvin the chipmunk doll, so he was still sitting out on the pew.  And he had some chapped lips, apparently.

Then things evolved from adorable to very cool...she would put chapstick on herself, then on Alvin, replace the cap, take it off again, and repeat the whole process...over and over and over.

I knew that this kind of repetition is normal for lots of toddlers, and I had seen Hollie do it a few times before, but never with this many steps, and never with a toy/object that she had never used before (the chapstick).

It was funny and fascinating and baffling at the same time. What in the world is going on inside her head?  Why did she have to take the cap on and off every single time?  Of course, we will never know.  I hope I see it again, because it was awesome.

Two heartbeats!

Heart attack?  Sorry, we're not having twins (I wish).

We got to hear the heartbeat twice!  Daniel ran late and showed up five minutes after the first time.  I would have asked the nurse to wait for him, but I was anxious!  164 bpm both times...perfect.

I am 12 weeks pregnant today!  We celebrated with a trip to Dr. J, the OB.

I have actually dropped a pound since my last appointment, which puts me three pounds below where I was when we found out about the pregnancy.  I was really surprised to hear that, because my appetite has been improving lately, food aversions are dying down, and I've been eating much better (i.e. more) than before.  I try to snack all day, but occasionally we have a really busy day and I sit down and realize I'm starving.  I'm going to make more of a conscious effort from now on.

Anyways, the doc's not worried about it, and neither am I.  I remember that with Hollie, during the last month or so, I was hungry literally 24/7.  Could not get enough.  Tried to eat healthy, but boy did I pack on the pounds in the last few weeks!  So yeah.  It'll happen.  :)

At my next appointment, in six weeks, we get an ultrasound!  Can't wait.             

-------------------------------------------------------

Hollie is so silly.  And SO smart. 

Yesterday, I was running around the house trying to get Christmas gifts together and wrapped...and leaving Hollie pretty much unsupervised.

I think toddlers have a sixth sense for when they're not being watched.

She's recently discovered this drawer in the kitchen that has various utensils in it, like the can opener and the corkscrew wine bottle opener and and the vegetable peeler and other things that aren't really dangerous but become dangerous in little hands.   

So rather than install another lock (our cabinets are going to look like Swiss cheese), we've just been trying to steer her back toward her own drawer, with the towels and oven mitts (which she loves to wear...it's adorable) and other boring stuff.

Of course, yesterday, while I was running around, I heard Hollie get into the drawer (because I think moms have a sixth sense for when their kids know that they aren't being watched).  I peeked into the kitchen to see her sitting on the floor playing with the harmless measuring cups.

I debated for about two seconds.  This would easily keep her for busy for the last few minutes of stuff I needed to do, but then there's the whole now-I've let-the-rule-be-broken-under-my-nose... which could come back to bite us...

...so I let her play, and got everything done that I needed to do.  Then it was time for a trip to the grocery store, so I asked Hollie, "Wanna got to the store?"  She knows what this means, and got all excited as we hunted up socks and shoes and jackets.

As we were heading for the door, she suddenly stopped like she had forgotten something, turned around, and ran back into the kitchen...
picked up the measuring cups...
opened up the drawer that isn't hers...
and put them back in.

I was somewhere between blown away by the sweetness and blown away by the fact that she remembered.

That's all for now!  I'd better go see what she's up to...

Our little pick-pocket

So Daniel's parents, aka Abuelita and Pepère, came to see us for Thanksgiving.  So much fun!

Great story- Abuelita, Hollie, and I were at Target one day and Abuelita was pushing the cart and making faces and being goofy with Hollie while I shopped.  Apparently (I didn't see it happen), while making eyes, Hollie reached into Abuelita's purse and snagged her cell phone!  Out from under her nose, what a pick-pocket!  Abuelita found me and told me what happened, and we decided we'd have to keep an eye on her...but not long after, Hollie did the same thing and got her wallet!  By that point I'm thinking, okay, maybe this is a way to boost our income?  We've always said it, but this further proves what a sneaky, sneaky girl she is.  She's all smiles, but there's always a plan in the works.

Over Thanksgiving dinner, we tried to decide on what our new baby's nickname will be for the next seven months or so.  After heated discussion, Pepère had the winner with...

Cletus the Fetus.

Haha!  I love it!  It goes without saying, but this will not be our baby's name if it's a boy, so please please please DON'T get this embroidered on anything!  It is the best antenatal nickname I've ever heard, though.  And antenatal is the coolest new word I've heard in awhile.  I'm going to start using it more often.

Another cute story- This afternoon Hollie got out her wipes, a bear, and a doll.  She opened the wipes and started wiping them both between the legs while telling me that they "poopoo"-ed.

The "down low" on the basement

Hahahaa...get it?

Hollie likes to edit Daniel's basement floor plans.
It's going to be her bedroom someday, after all.

We've been making great progress lately!  The electrician has been in to help complete our wiring, and the plumber came (on the same morning...both unexpectedly...mere minutes after getting phone calls from both of them saying that they were on their way...it was crazy) to run water to the bathroom and install the tub/shower.

Between the two of us, Daniel and I have nearly finished framing in the new bedroom closet (moved from one wall to another), new hall closet (which did not previously exist, but does now, as a result of the new bedroom closet location) (are you bored with this yet?), and built-in bathroom cabinet!  Things have not always fit together the way they should, but we've found that if you hit a 2x4 with a mallet enough times...it'll fit.  :)

By the way, did you catch that?... built-in bathroom cabinet?  I am soooo jealous.  I want one in our bathroom, too.  :(

---------------------------------------------

Also, speaking of Lawn/Home Maintenance, remember that front lawn drainage fiasco we kind of forgot about for a while?  Well, it's finally getting dealt with next week.  Woohoo!    

Sooooo close!

We're pretty sure Hollie's first word is going to be "baby" or "bath". 

Right now, for bath, she just says the first syllable - bah - whenever we are headed to the bathroom, and she can point out bathtubs in pictures.

For baby, she uses one of the following:

bay-bay
bee-bee
bee-bay
just bee
or
just bay

but never the actual word!!  So frustrating, but cute.  She looooves finding pictures of babies everywhere.  I bet she is going to be such a great big sister.  :)

Also, have I mentioned that she can identify her...

head/hair
eyes
ears
nose
mouth/teeth
belly/belly button
arms
legs
and toes?

Well, she can.

Our little monkey

We recently bought this awesome old bakers rack for our dining room.  Finally got all those cook books off the counter!  The chair is pushed up against it just until we can secure it to the wall -- it's slightly top-heavy and much too easy for a surprisingly strong toddler to pull down.

Anyways, I witnessed this little feat yesterday...

 

So proud of herself!  I have been trying to capture that little grin forever.  :)

Also...Daniel and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary yesterday...with chocolate and flowers!  And some great background action in these pictures...

This was about an hour after that first climb took place.  She just climbed right up onto the chair...without going through the bakers rack first!  Nothing is safe anymore.  :)

15 months

Hollie is 15 months old today!  What a little lady she is becoming.

Lately she has started holding hands with us...something she has, until now, always refused to do.  Well, actually, she holds our fingers.  Us holding her hand is still not allowed.  Also, she will only lead, never be led.  It's very cute.  Today she walked almost all the way down the street holding my thumb.  My back was hurtin'.

When Hollie was born, her hair was dark, like mine, but it has slowly lightened.  It still looks brown when she's indoors, but lately it has looked nearly blonde when she's out in the sun.  I think my hair went almost blonde when I was younger, too (but older than her) and then it went dark again.  So we'll see.  How funny, if the two of us dark-haired, dark-eyed parents made a blonde-haired, blue-eyed daughter! 

We are up to nine teeth!  The first molar is coming in on the upper right, and the second incisor on the lower left.  We had zero indication from her that she was teething, so we were surprised to say the least!

In the last six months (since she started walking) we have gone up two shoe sizes.

She gets crazy excited when she sees dogs on TV (I have been meaning to get that on film...one of these days..).

It's really nice that she can eat most of what we eat now.  She loves trying new foods, and I think the only ones she has never liked are squash and zucchini.  Some recent favorites are strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, watermelon, grapes, eggs, and any kind of meat.  She tried the home-made brisket while we were in Louisiana...wow!  We are still breastfeeding, but just when she wakes up, and when she goes to bed.

Speaking of going to bed, she has been an excellent sleeper the past few months.  We have been sooo lucky!  The key for us has been routine.  For a long time, she just nursed to sleep (and slept all night) but a few months ago she began waking up consistently once every night.  I was pretty sure she wasn't that hungry because she's fall asleep immediately when I tried to feed her.  I figured it was time to change up our bedtime routine.  We already kinda had a routine, with nursing at the end, so I just moved it to the beginning instead.  Since then, we have stuck to this routine pretty rigidly: feed, change diaper, change into pajamas, brush teeth*, read books, turn out the light, and then just hang out with her until she goes to sleep.  It wasn't more than a few nights before she started getting visibly tired toward the end of it.  Now, it's just, well...routine, and it is working incredibly well for us.

*That's right, we are brushing her teeth!  Just with water.  And she mostly just chews the brush.  But she loves it...I think it's her favorite part of bedtime (especially when we sing the Raffi song -- when you get there, press play!).  Never too early for those good habits.  :)

These days she typically goes to bed between 9 and 10, and wakes up around 7.  She just recently switched, all on her own, from two shorter naps to one longer nap, usually in the afternoon.       

We can tell that even though she doesn't say any words yet, she understands a lot of what we're saying.  She likes to bring books to us so we can read them to her, and afterward I usually give her the book so she can flip through it and "read" it on her own.  The other day, she handed the book right back to me...read it again, Mom!  I had been in the middle of something, but I read the book again...and again...and again.  After about the fifth time, I said to her, "Go take the book to Dada!"  And she got up and went straight to Daniel, and gave him the book!  It's happened a number of other times, with different things.  We'll say, "Let's find your shoes!" or "- your sippy cup!"  and she goes and finds them.  Amazing.

The other thing about shoes...she brings them to us when she wants to go outside.  I know because once she has them on, she goes straight to the front door.  She loooves going outside!   

 I've started playing around with photo editting on Picnik (see above).  It's free, so I like it.  :)

Hollie likes to chase the ducks at the park...

 But sometimes she gives up...

Here are some other miscellaneous photos of the little bear that we've accumulated recently.  Enjoy!

Dinner and a show

While I was visiting my family in Phoenix last month, my mom and I found ourselves just sitting and being entertained watching Hollie eat. We got thinking about how great it would be to buy one of those old-timey dinner theaters, and run a show that would just consist of a bunch of babies in high-chairs, up on stage, eating things like mashed potatoes, beets, etc. The really messy stuff. I would soooo buy tickets to that!

I'm not talking about child labor or exploitation or anything like that. It's just that I could watch her eat for hours on end (which I hope never happens).

It got me in the mood to do [yet another] post dedicated to mealtime.

She was adamant, so I gave her the spoon and the bowl (she's pretty tough to argue with).

Had to try out both ends...

She couldn't quite master the scooping technique, so she mostly just stabbed at it, like so:

I don't know what's going on here...

Goopy fingers!

Wait for it, wait for it...

The way every good meal should end. :)

Here's another memorable meal: mashed potatoes and steamed veggies.

Look at it. In the hair, the eyelashes, the ears, the nose...

More goopy fingers!

When dinner was over, we took her shirt off right in the chair because you better believe she was going straight to the bath tub (do not Pass Go, do not Collect $200). I guess she wasn't happy about that.

The hair...