Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Monday, February 28, 2005

1...2...3

Ryanne and I walked up the stairs to our apartment yesterday morning. We did it again today. When we take the elevator, we always point out the numbers and count as we're going up. Well, much to my amazement today, she made appropriate sounding number noises from floors 1 to 6. She got a couple of extra ones in there from 6 to 11. I'm just floored. I'm pretty sure she was actually saying the numbers since she always said them as we came around the corner and she looked at the sign.

She's also interacting more with the show she always wants to watch on television. Well, let's start by saying that somehow she knows when 8:30 rolls around and goes in to turn the TV on. Pretty much every day. I think it's based on our schedule, but it's interesting nonetheless. She's been watching this show for a while. There are 3 segments she loves. The first is a woman that does a sort of modern "dance" as various animals or elements. Ryanne has started looking at me when she starts and just giggling with glee. Sometimes she'll try to move her hands around like the woman does, but since it changes from week to week, it's not always easy. The second is a segment where the cast of 4 dress up as cats and sing. Ryanne just likes to stare and yell "ca". Last is a guy that does various hand and body motions to a little song. She adores this one. She gets all excited and tries to jump and lean and move her hands like he does. Sometimes, she just ends up spinning in circles in front of the TV - her rendition of his dance, I guess. It's the only show she watches with any regularity and it's 30 minutes so I don't feel too guilty. Plus, she's just so darn CUTE!

She's also trying to jump. Right now this consists of running in place as fast as she can.

She's also climbing...everything! She climbs the first level of the cat tree. Today I saw her throw her legs over the couch and slide down the arm from there. Then try to get from the arm to the top cat tree level. She got really close. This kid needs Little Gym and controlled, safe climbing places. In the meantime, I try not to discourage her unless she's doing something dangerous. I figure she's going to do it and I don't want to squash the curiosity or physical development.

Chrys and I are dismissed now. When we put her down for bed (and me for her nap), she starts saying "doo-er" as soon as she hits the sheets. That is our cue to exit via the door as quickly as possible. Right...don't want us there to go to sleep...got it.

Lastly (and I HOPE I don't jinx it by saying anything), she's sleeping again. Chrys and I moved into the living room 2 weeks ago. We move our futon in there at night and back into the tatami room during the day. This way, we don't wake Ryanne up when we come to bed. Result, she now sleeps from 7:30 to 5ish, nurses and is up for the day. She also naps better - taking a 60-90 minute nap without the previous wake up after 45 minutes. The bad side of napping on her own is I no longer get to take a 45 minute nap with her. Oh well, I get cuddles other ways so I'll just enjoy those more.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Noises

Chrys came down with my runny nose, it appears. With this comes violent blowing of the nose. He honks when he does this. Ryanne loves it. Turns out she loves it A LOT.

After we took him to work, I chased her to the bathroom where she did her normal grab a wipe from the pack. However, instead of lifting the toilet seat to drop it in, she put it to her nose. Then she blew a raspberry. It sounded almost exactly like Chrys' honking this morning. I just about fell over laughing.

She repeated this throughout the day with various rags and wipes. It's still funny.

She also has figured out how to beat the system. There are times that she'll put a finger to my nose and, for whatever reason, I don't say "beep". Usually this would make her stop. Today, though, she put a finger to my nose and before I could say "beep", she said "beep". She did this over and over again and eventually did it for Chrys when he got home, too. The wonderful things we teach our children, huh?

Oh, and I got the %^#$&*^ sleeves on her dress tonight. I was having a bear of a time. Turns out, I sewed in a cap sleeve and they intended some length. That'll teach me to only cast cursory glances at the pictures and mostly use the text in the directions. *sigh* Oh well, it's done and there is NO way you could convince me to rip out those seams and start over. She'll never know the difference and I think she looks cute in cap sleeves. So there!

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

What's that you're doing?

with the rag...and the vacuum...and the broom. "Keenin"? Hmmm...

Neither Chrys nor I could ever fall into anyone's "neat freak" classification. We try very hard to keep stuff neat, in general, but it's a genetic war that's tough to win. Nevertheless, our daughter seems to have different intentions right now.

Every morning, I am greeted with the broom and dustpan and told "weep". At which point, we sweep up the cat litter that's fallen on the floor near the litter box.

After she watched some TV, she ran for the office and the closet with the vacuum. "Bacoom", she tells me. We got the vacuum out and she's playing with it, but we haven't used it yet.

Then she went to get ice, like she does periodically during the day. Well, after a spell, the ice started to melt on the carpet. She suddenly runs for the door, opens it, goes to the drawer with the rags, grabs one, brings it back to the office and starts wiping at the floor. She wipes for a while, goes to put the rag up, comes back, sees more water (since the ice hasn't been removed), repeat. For a while...like 15 minutes. Craziness.

Granted, she sees me clean up water a lot, since she likes to dump the cat's water dish (a lot) so she knows how it's done. The thing is, I haven't bothered cleaning much water on the carpet, and none of it here. The water dish is on the tile and I don't want anyone to slip in the puddles (well, river 'cuz it's a big dish). On carpet, I try to blot it up if there's a lot of it just because I'm paranoid about the padding and mold in humid climates. For a little piece of ice, I never bother. I guess she just made the connection from the kitchen.

Amazing to see their little minds work.

She's also working on her first 2 word combinations. Today she said "tato" and signed "eat". She had another one the other day that we couldn't quite make out and we weren't sure wasn't coincidence. Maybe hindsight will help me remember the details. She's growing so fast. It will be full sentences before I know it.

Monday, February 14, 2005

With scabs on my fingers...

I don't think that's how that nursery rhyme goes, yet, that's what I have.

Ryanne never took a pacifier. She much preferred my breast or one of our fingers (which we started at the suggestion of the lactation consultant who warned against the evil pacifier and it's ability to wreak havoc on the boob of the breastfeeding mother.) To this day, she'll chew on a pacifier, but won't suck on one. Furthermore, if she needs soothing, one of my fingers gets popped into her mouth (she'll pull my hand up, and if I fight, the screaming gets worse and soothing does not happen).

I realize part of this is temper tantrum and a battle of wills. If I continue to let her have her way, she'll never learn that it's not ok. Honestly, I'm ok with her needing to suck on things and don't mind that it's still a part of my anatomy.

What gets me is the biting. Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather she bite a finger than a breast. MUCH rather. I am growing rather tired of the perpetual scabs and dimples on my fingers. They're annoying. They itch as they heal. I can't get them soft no matter how much lotion I slather on them. It sucks.

I guess I prefer that she not taking to sucking her own thumb. I know she'll grow out of needing the suck to calm her down, too. I just wish the teeth weren't part of the deal. For now, though, I guess it's an indication that she's still my baby and I should take heart in that. All too soon, she'll want nothing to do with me, much less my fingers.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

It'll stunt your growth

Before Christmas (probably when we went to the Sasebo arcade), we stopped at Starbuck's and had some coffee. Peppermint mocha for me, if I remember right. Well, Ryanne wanted that cup - BAD!



Rest assured, the cup was empty by the time it went to her hands. No hot liquid, or evil caffeine

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

I may have mentioned this before

but it cracks me up enough that you're going to hear about it again.

Ryanne loves ice. She asks for it constantly. She now knows how to get it herself. She does. If only I could teach her to close the freezer door when she's done.

Today, she decided that her truck cabin on the sand toy I got last weekend needed to be filled with ice. She took the little cup over (I guess it's supposed to be a sand sifter) and filled it with ice, probably 5 or 6 pieces. She carried it around, she popped one or two in her mouth. She dropped them on the floor. It's a great toy and requires no clean up.

Her random contribution ---> ;-0

The part that cracks me up - when she drops a piece of ice, she has a hard time picking it up. If it's on the tile, it's a huge challenge. It starts to melt and often her hands are already wet and slippery from playing with the ice. Well, leave it to my girl, she has a solution.

She gets down on her hands and knees, or all the way to her stomach if necessary, and chases it around with her mouth. This provides a great deal of entertainment for me. It's funny to watch her slither around and try to pick up the ice with her mouth.

The really scary part - she's good at catching it that way and I rarely find a puddle.

Monday, February 07, 2005

Bad mama

I'm also a candidate for the World's Worst Mother.

A couple of nights ago, RC woke up around 10:30pm, as she's been doing for a while now despite our best efforts. Chrys went in to check on her and deemed her fine and left her to fuss a bit while she went back to sleep.

We usually only give her 15 minutes of this before we go back and check on her. However, it being the last of the weekend nights, we wanted to have a bit of alone time so we turned on U2 and decided she'd be fine for a few minutes while we just enjoyed each other's company. Selfish of us, but we'd like our marriage to survive the 18 or so years we have children in the house.

Well, 30 minutes later when we turned off U2, she was still fussing and starting to get a little worked up so I went in to check on her. I picked her up and rocked her, etc. I was massaging her leg when I realized that I should have felt diaper by then.

I ran my hand down her back...yeah, those were baby butt cheeks and definitely not a diaper. Hmmm...

I turned on the light and made sure it was on dim - no sense in waking her up completely with the 'bright as day' fluorescent. I looked in her PnP. Sure enough, there was her diaper. At the other end was sopping wet sheet.

I imagine the scenario went something like this. Standing in bed...whining a bit. Pull up the bottom of the nightgown to chew on it. Rake a hand across the diaper tab opening it, accidentally, of course. Realize your diaper is falling off. Step out of it to get to safety. Realize you have to pee. Oops! Get tired of whining and try to go back to sleep. Realize that your head is in something wet and cold and smelly. Stand up and whine. Get tired and lie down. Repeat until mama comes in and finds you wallowing in your own filth.

Ok...so it's not like she drinks more than water and it's not like it smelled bad, but I still felt pretty bad making her try to go to sleep in pee. I stopped short of burning the nightgown - it's not the nightgown's fault. There's some guilt, but I know she's fine. Guess I'm just back to hunting for one piece jammies in ever bigger sizes.

No!

Oh yes, it's that stage. The one where not only does she get into everything and get told "no" or redirected a lot, but she knows how to say it back. So far, her "No!" is pretty cute - "nooooo" - but I know that won't last, especially as she realizes its power.

New things - she says "eh-o" and waves her hand (as she's doing now, addressing her adoring public). She pointed at the yellow stripe on my sweater yesterday and said "nana" and then said "eh-lo" as I corrected her. She can eat a banana by herself with the peel on (she needs help getting the peel down, but likes that it makes it less slimy to hold). She still eats a banana a day. She says "datsit" when she's done eating and takes (or tries to, depending on the velcro) her bib off. She correctly identifies any "baby", including herself in the group for now. She plays with her puppet book (and took the hot pads off our dinners last night and used them as finger puppets like the ones in there). She bobs her head at people when we greet them with "konnichi wa". She says something that sounds like "kawaii" (cute, which she hears a lot). She's working on numbers and will hold up one finger, say "un" and then do something (usually 'jumping' off the futon onto mama). She identifies these little plastic figures that came with Coke at Xmas as "do" (dolls) and asks for them even though they're up on a shelf so she can't play with them unattended. She asks for "teshun" at about the same time every morning and gets very excited about 2 segments (one a woman that does a bit of a dance as different animals or elements and the other a guy that does a bunch of hand gestures with a big group of kids). She said "DD" and "boo" the other day when we went to watch one of her Blue's Clues DVDs. She now identifies all of our cats as "in-ee" and wants to give them treats (which she points at on the top of the bookcase) every day. She has given the cats treats - Minuit and Preta took them straight from her hand, the other 3 she had to throw the treat at them. She can now open the freezer door and get her own "eyesh", but can't remember to close it. She starts doing the chicken dance whenever anyone says chicken - this is particularly funny when we're sitting at McD's eating nuggets. Oh, and in true Texas form, she mimics me throwing my arms up in the air when someone scores a touchdown (tested by yesterday's Super Bowl).

She still cannot resist taking all of the cat food and dumping it into the water bowl. Somehow she manages to do this with very little effort and in a time period so short that I'm almost certain she has bent the space time continuum to keep me from catching her.

Just for her aunt A - she just correctly mimicked your first name while looking at the picture of the two of you in her book (the one where she's checking out your WCIII shirt).

Chrys figured out the other day that "do itoe" which she babbles A LOT, is Uncle M. I can't tell you how nice it is to have that identified.

Friday, February 04, 2005

Little things

Ryanne can now tip toe. She practically runs on tip toe through the apartment. She is very proud of the extra height, but needs to work on her stability.

She can also easily work a zipper. This means no more zipped up jackets for her, or for us! She loves to unzip my vest and will play with it for quite some time. She's been doing it for a while, but I usually had to hold one end for her to get the leverage - not anymore.

She loves to chase the pigeons through the park. She runs after them yelling "do", even though I try to convince her that they're birds, not dogs. She loves that they have to fly to get away from her. Gaining on them right before they take off is a favorite activity.

She loves her sand toys at the park, too. She was playing with moving sand from the bucket to the shovel last time (using her hands).

Her nap time routine seems stabilized and her evening routine hasn't suffered. We are mostly night weaned (working on 5 to 6am now). We have her first drawings - one from the hotel in Tokyo that's in my drawer and one from here that's up on the fridge. She helps me sweep and vacuum (see the pix linked in the previous post).

Other than that, we went to a "Gym Rompers" class yesterday. It's hosted at a local maternity clinic by the wife of the OB. Ryanne had a blast with the other kids. We sang and danced and she ran around like a crazy woman for almost 2 hours. She was WORN OUT! It was a good chance to work on her jumping skills, though. The other kids were jumping on a big box spring type thing and Ryanne started trying it. She got the tiniest bit of air, freaked out and got down...only to get back on 10 seconds later! I think it won't be long. She's fascinated by trying to jump and loves to climb. I can't wait to get her back and try Little Gym in the states. She also charmed all of the moms with her "tan too"s and I got to practice some Japanese while they practiced English. A great social event for all of us and I can't wait to go back. It's hosted 2-3 times a month and will be perfect for us.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Overwhelmed

The last two nights as I've cuddled in bed with Ryanne getting her back to sleep, I've been on the verge of tears. I don't cry, partially in fear of waking her up again and partly because I don't want to end up a snotty mess as I go to sleep. I'm not stressed, or unhappy. I just can't believe how happy she makes me, how great it is to be her mom. I guess I can't figure out how to deal with all of the emotions so I end up teary. She's a great kid. She's turning into a very loving person. She adores hugs and kisses and blowing kisses. I think she's trying to say "I love you" ("Ah Yah You"). She's even playing with mama versus mommy. It's great being with her and great experiencing all of her changes. All of that leaves me just a little overwhelmed with emotion at the end of the day - happy emotion, but overwhelming, nonetheless.