Ryanne loves our cats. They're the first thing she asks about when we're pulling up to the apartment, every time. Minuit (mimi) seems to be her favorite. Julia (joo-ya) comes in a close second. I think Max (macks) and Spot (spa-tuh) are neck in neck for 3rd. Poor Preta (Petta) is too easily confused with Minuit and gets misnamed.
Of all of the cats, Preta puts up with her the most. She'll have her tail pulled without a peep. She seems to occasionally initiate games of chase with RC. She'll get her attention and then - somewhat slowly - run to the hallway. Ryanne will follow. When she gets close enough, Preta will run back to the bedroom. Ryanne only plays for a few minutes. I'm pretty sure she doesn't *quite* get that Preta's playing with her.
Max, amazingly, is also pretty good around her. He'll spit a bit when she tugs his tail. He also yowls at her when she pets him. All the same, he'll put up with a little kiss on his nose or side. He'll "talk" back when she meows at him. He'll sit, cowering, as she comes over to tackle him. He doesn't even flinch anymore when she 'pets' him, complete with deep little girl voice saying, "Tittle, tittle, tittle."
Minuit and Spot will tolerate her if they're in our laps when she comes over. Usually, though, they want to get away after just one full body hug.
Julia...yeah...she runs. It doesn't matter where she is - if Ryanne gets within 5 paces, she's out of there. Nevertheless, the lack of tail seems carry quite a bit of notoriety in RC's book.
They're all getting more mellow with age. They're also getting more mellow as Ryanne ages. I think someday, they'll all end up good friends. For now, they are little more than (im)patient roommates.
Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Escape artist
We're on take 3 of naptime today.
First take was ended when she had to go potty. This has been a pretty regular thing. She notifies us either right before or right after a dirty diaper. She can't stand to be in them any more. I prefer the days when it's right before.
Take two ended when I heard screaming and went in to find her standing in front of her crib...
Take three just ended with her walking into the office to catch me writing this.
'Cuz naptime wasn't fun already...
First take was ended when she had to go potty. This has been a pretty regular thing. She notifies us either right before or right after a dirty diaper. She can't stand to be in them any more. I prefer the days when it's right before.
Take two ended when I heard screaming and went in to find her standing in front of her crib...
Take three just ended with her walking into the office to catch me writing this.
'Cuz naptime wasn't fun already...
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Taller
I'm not sure when it happened. One day, she was clawing at the elevator, trying to get to the numbers. The next, she stood (barely on her tip toes) and pressed the one to go down.
She helps me do the laundry by throwing the clothes into it. She gets really upset if she catches me helping her get a heavy piece over. Luckily, she's not so tall that she can see my hand if I keep it inside the machine.
She can open the fridge and thinks that's a necessary prelude to requesting whatever she wants from inside it.
She can get things off the TV if she stands on her tiptoes - remote, cat brush, VCR (yikes!). She doesn't even need the extra step of moving the cushions out of the way anymore.
She struggles much less with the steps to the taller slides at the park. Sometimes she even forgets to crawl up the platform ones and just steps up. Same thing goes for stairs - she takes them one at a time, up or down, with ease. She'll hold my hand, but I think that's just to make me feel better. She prefers to have me walk behind or beside her so she can hold the hannle (handle) and do it herself.
She climbs out of her highchair and can almost get into it. If only there were a bit more lip on the chair...
Anything slightly taller (and there are fewer of these) than her is used to brace herself as she swings from her arms with her legs curled underneath her. She tries to do this if Chrys and I are both holding her hands - we usually don't let her because she doesn't always ask first and it can throw us off balance pretty quickly.
Today, I caught her with a leg thrown over the top of her crib and her chest on the bar. I think she was ready to heave herself over when I told her to get down.
She can reach untold new things on my desk and doesn't have to climb on top of it anymore to get to them.
She easily climbs to the top of the cat tree, even though there's nothing to hold on to save for the edge of the surface. She used to need something taller to get the right leverage.
She confidently climbs on the table to turn the living room lights on and off. Her favorite dismount (from the table or the tree) is to then climb over the arm of the couch and slide down to the cushion.
Did I mention that I'm pretty sure she's part monkey?
She helps me do the laundry by throwing the clothes into it. She gets really upset if she catches me helping her get a heavy piece over. Luckily, she's not so tall that she can see my hand if I keep it inside the machine.
She can open the fridge and thinks that's a necessary prelude to requesting whatever she wants from inside it.
She can get things off the TV if she stands on her tiptoes - remote, cat brush, VCR (yikes!). She doesn't even need the extra step of moving the cushions out of the way anymore.
She struggles much less with the steps to the taller slides at the park. Sometimes she even forgets to crawl up the platform ones and just steps up. Same thing goes for stairs - she takes them one at a time, up or down, with ease. She'll hold my hand, but I think that's just to make me feel better. She prefers to have me walk behind or beside her so she can hold the hannle (handle) and do it herself.
She climbs out of her highchair and can almost get into it. If only there were a bit more lip on the chair...
Anything slightly taller (and there are fewer of these) than her is used to brace herself as she swings from her arms with her legs curled underneath her. She tries to do this if Chrys and I are both holding her hands - we usually don't let her because she doesn't always ask first and it can throw us off balance pretty quickly.
Today, I caught her with a leg thrown over the top of her crib and her chest on the bar. I think she was ready to heave herself over when I told her to get down.
She can reach untold new things on my desk and doesn't have to climb on top of it anymore to get to them.
She easily climbs to the top of the cat tree, even though there's nothing to hold on to save for the edge of the surface. She used to need something taller to get the right leverage.
She confidently climbs on the table to turn the living room lights on and off. Her favorite dismount (from the table or the tree) is to then climb over the arm of the couch and slide down to the cushion.
Did I mention that I'm pretty sure she's part monkey?
Piwoh
With that, I was dismissed.
I bought it a few days ago hoping to kill some of the obsession with trying to nap in our bed. It wasn't going well as she doesn't want to stay there once I leave the room. There's still too much freedom. After all, she was just in it for the pillows.
She was sick last night - fever, puking, runny nose, the works. She went down around 7pm, having thrown up her dinner and the milk before it. She didn't nurse before bed...just let daddy put her down.
She slept until midnight. Then she called for me - loudly. I went to her and she wanted to "eye dow" so we laid down in my bed to nurse. Her fever had broken so I wasn't worried about this one staying down.
When she was done, she tossed; she turned; she smacked me; she kicked me; she sucked on my fingers; she bit my fingers. After about 15 minutes, she rolled onto her back, looked at me, and said "piwoh". I said it was in her crib so up she got. She ran to her crib. I picked her up. She gave me a hug and kiss. I put her in the crib. She asked for a book. I'm not sure she was still awake when I brought it back to her minutes later.
I bought it a few days ago hoping to kill some of the obsession with trying to nap in our bed. It wasn't going well as she doesn't want to stay there once I leave the room. There's still too much freedom. After all, she was just in it for the pillows.
She was sick last night - fever, puking, runny nose, the works. She went down around 7pm, having thrown up her dinner and the milk before it. She didn't nurse before bed...just let daddy put her down.
She slept until midnight. Then she called for me - loudly. I went to her and she wanted to "eye dow" so we laid down in my bed to nurse. Her fever had broken so I wasn't worried about this one staying down.
When she was done, she tossed; she turned; she smacked me; she kicked me; she sucked on my fingers; she bit my fingers. After about 15 minutes, she rolled onto her back, looked at me, and said "piwoh". I said it was in her crib so up she got. She ran to her crib. I picked her up. She gave me a hug and kiss. I put her in the crib. She asked for a book. I'm not sure she was still awake when I brought it back to her minutes later.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Stickers
Well, she calls them tiTTers. Whatever the name, she's in love. She loves sticking them on things, most notably her body. She always starts with the face. If you're special, you get one, too. First one is usually the forehead, sometimes the nose. From there, it gets kind of random.
When we were in Disney, she stuck one to her thigh. She loved this...until it was time to take it off after she'd fallen asleep with it on there. It was *stuck*. She couldn't get it off. I had to do the fast pull and just get it off. She was very mad. She had an angry red circle-shaped welt on her leg that took a bit to go away. That didn't stop her from sticking them all over herself as soon as she got a new one. It didn't take long to get a new one as every cast member wanted her to have one, at least. I still have a stash that I collected when she was already busy with one.
It wasn't just Disney, though. Everywhere we go, it seems, she gets stickers. She got them at the dentist - what happened to a toothbrush? Those were Hello Kitty ones and they made her day. Today, the lady at the post office recognized me and I have some for her from there, too. Between those, the dozens we have from Mr. Donut and the handful from the Pocky boxes during their promotion, we're going to be covered...literally.
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Dentist Take 2
Ryanne went to the dentist for her check-up on Friday. We talked it up beforehand. The dentist was going to have her say "Aaaaah" and he would look at her teeth. We told her that he would really want to see the new ones - molars #3 and #4 cut in the past week or so. She was excited.
We got to the dentist and she smiled and played with the nurses. She played with the toys. She kept running into the exam room yelling "teef" and saying "aaaah" with her mouth open. She seemed really excited. I kept telling her she had to wait until they called her name.
Then they did call her name. I had to practically drag her into the exam room.
We got in there and they wanted her in the chair. She wanted no part of that. She sat in my lap in the chair with her body practically wrapped around me.
They asked her to open her mouth. She shook her head. We couldn't even get a "no" out of her.
I asked for the toothbrush to get her to open up. She clamped her mouth shut and bit her lips to keep me out.
Eventually, she opened up and let me brush - occasionally. We showed off the molars one at a time with me holding her cheeks out and moving out of the way so the dentist could see around me as she tried to turn away.
The poor dentist tried everything. He was talking to her. He talked to me. He waved the dog at her and made it talk - first as him, and then in a funny voice. He showed her USA*HA*NA and tried to get her to open up. The nurses gave her Hello Kitty stickers and she scorned them. She was totally unimpressed.
When we finally got enough shown to the dentist and flouride (I think) rubbed on most of the teeth with the toothbrush, we gave up. The dentist asked to see her in 6 months. I said we'd be back in the US by then. He looked totally crushed. I agreed to bring her back in November or December so he could "say goodbye".
Her appointment is in early December. Hopefully we can convince her that it's ok by then.
We got to the dentist and she smiled and played with the nurses. She played with the toys. She kept running into the exam room yelling "teef" and saying "aaaah" with her mouth open. She seemed really excited. I kept telling her she had to wait until they called her name.
Then they did call her name. I had to practically drag her into the exam room.
We got in there and they wanted her in the chair. She wanted no part of that. She sat in my lap in the chair with her body practically wrapped around me.
They asked her to open her mouth. She shook her head. We couldn't even get a "no" out of her.
I asked for the toothbrush to get her to open up. She clamped her mouth shut and bit her lips to keep me out.
Eventually, she opened up and let me brush - occasionally. We showed off the molars one at a time with me holding her cheeks out and moving out of the way so the dentist could see around me as she tried to turn away.
The poor dentist tried everything. He was talking to her. He talked to me. He waved the dog at her and made it talk - first as him, and then in a funny voice. He showed her USA*HA*NA and tried to get her to open up. The nurses gave her Hello Kitty stickers and she scorned them. She was totally unimpressed.
When we finally got enough shown to the dentist and flouride (I think) rubbed on most of the teeth with the toothbrush, we gave up. The dentist asked to see her in 6 months. I said we'd be back in the US by then. He looked totally crushed. I agreed to bring her back in November or December so he could "say goodbye".
Her appointment is in early December. Hopefully we can convince her that it's ok by then.
Listen to me
Ryanne has decided that the best way to make sure we're listening is to put her hands on the sides of our faces, hold us steady looking at her, and address us.
Incident 1 (secondhand until he gets his own login and I can add him to the editor list): I'm shopping for Yukata robes and Chrys and RC have wandered off. Ryanne starts asking for me. Chrys makes her repeat "Where is mama?" At the end, she grabs his face, gets really close to him and says "whe-are?" He promptly came looking for me.
Incident 2: It's somewhere between "jeezus it's early" and "are you kidding me?", i.e., the hour of 5am to 6am. Ryanne has woken up, nursed, and decided she needs to go potty. We're in the WC (which is literally a closet in our apt and gets DARNED hot). I'm barely awake. I'm squinting because I don't have my glasses on and, well, my eyes don't really want to stay open because I'm barely awake. Ryanne is practicing one of her new favorite faces - furrowed brows - in an imitation of the face I assume I'm making. She's alternating between this and a big smile. It's funny; it's cute. I can barely manage a smirk because...I'm barely awake. She leans down from her throne, grabs my face and flashes this HUGE smile. I guess I managed to smile enough at that because she went about her business and left me alone.
I've also gotten grabbed to give kisses, or rub noses, or get bonked in the forehead really hard (*love* that last one). It's definitely an attention getter.
Incident 1 (secondhand until he gets his own login and I can add him to the editor list): I'm shopping for Yukata robes and Chrys and RC have wandered off. Ryanne starts asking for me. Chrys makes her repeat "Where is mama?" At the end, she grabs his face, gets really close to him and says "whe-are?" He promptly came looking for me.
Incident 2: It's somewhere between "jeezus it's early" and "are you kidding me?", i.e., the hour of 5am to 6am. Ryanne has woken up, nursed, and decided she needs to go potty. We're in the WC (which is literally a closet in our apt and gets DARNED hot). I'm barely awake. I'm squinting because I don't have my glasses on and, well, my eyes don't really want to stay open because I'm barely awake. Ryanne is practicing one of her new favorite faces - furrowed brows - in an imitation of the face I assume I'm making. She's alternating between this and a big smile. It's funny; it's cute. I can barely manage a smirk because...I'm barely awake. She leans down from her throne, grabs my face and flashes this HUGE smile. I guess I managed to smile enough at that because she went about her business and left me alone.
I've also gotten grabbed to give kisses, or rub noses, or get bonked in the forehead really hard (*love* that last one). It's definitely an attention getter.
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