Big girl

Olivia spent Friday night at Grandma and Grandpa's house, without paci and without incident. She accidentally left blankie behind and didn't even notice...at all. She was so exhausted after all her Saturday fun with Grandma and Grandpa and FINALLY getting to play outside on the first warmish day we've seen in a long time, and she fell asleep while reading books with Daddy on the couch at 7:15!!

Our girl has been "night trained" for five months, which just means that she wears undies to bed because she has an iron bladder and doesn't need a pull-up. In five months we've had three bedtime accidents, but NO mid-night potty usage. What this means, of course, is that typically she sleeps through the whole night without needing to use the potty. On those rare occasions where she does, she has peed in her bed.

On Saturday night, she woke herself up shortly after midnight, used the potty, and then came to tell me she had used the potty and would I put her back in bed please? I did, left the room for two minutes, and came back to find her fast asleep. I'm amazed on so many levels...waking herself up to potty without having been "taught" that, going by herself in the middle of the night, not freaking out about the monsters she typically sees in the middle of the night, falling asleep peacefully and quickly after being wide awake and without paci...

I think we can officially call her a big girl now.

The paci fairy

Here we are, ten days into the "no-paci zone", and I feel it is safe to say it has been a success. It has also been a challenge.

It was Groundhog day, a cold and gray day when famous Phil did NOT see his shadow (yay!), and when it was time for nap, paci was nowhere to be found. Olivia and I looked and looked, and then I got a brilliant flash of an idea and started telling her that the paci fairy must have decided it was "time". Enter incredibly creative and impromptu explanation of the paci fairy (into which very little forethought was invested). We decided to skip nap that day and worth through the first phase of her grieving process (I also spent a good deal of time actually locating the missing paci while Olivia wasn't paying attention...had to follow through, and a "found" paci would have blown the whole mission). We did some painting and coloring and such, and every once in awhile Olivia would moan about wanting paci, and we'd go through the story again and it passed.

That night, bedtime was much harder than most no-nap days. She fought sleep for something like 90 minutes, which is not unheard-of on a nap day when she is feeling particularly defiant. But on a no-nap day, she is usually out in ten minutes. That night, she fought sleep and mourned the missing paci for a LONG time before she finally just passed out.

I say mourned because that is truly what it looked like. She cried and held me and needed comfort as if she'd lost her very best friend in the world. She wanted to bargain with paci fairy. I told her that paci fairy sometimes watches to see how well big girls do without their pacis and then will leave little treats of encouragement. That seemed to cheer her a little. But then she decided that she didn't WANT treats...she wanted paci. So that first night was just hard.

My biggest fear was that she'd sleep half of the night and then wake up and not be able to go back to sleep without paci. But that didn't happen. In fact, she has slept through the night every night since then. I'm sure the sheer exhaustion of totally giving up nap has assisted in our success, but so far I don't have too many complaints.

Olivia woke up on Feb 3rd to a note from the paci and a chocolate treat. There was more mourning at tired times and at bedtime on the second and third days, but both nights she was asleep within 15 minutes of going to bed. By the fourth night, she was compliant with our requests (mostly) to settle down and go to sleep without begging for paci. Now she simply doesn't ask about paci anymore except to inquire if the fairy would leave her another treat. (We've found that chocolate and notes are great motivators for her!)

Paci fairy will be making her exit this weekend with a big-ticket "prize" for officially growing up and being a big girl. I assembled a new hot wheels vehicle of some sort, and the weather will finally cooperate with her using it outside on Saturday.

One thing I did NOT expect through this whole thing...the lack of dependence on blankie. I was expecting blankie to stay around awhile and comfort her through the whole paci thing. For the first few days, though, Olivia didn't want anything to do with blankie until AFTER she was asleep (when I would sneak it into her hands for tactile comfort). Now she will hold and finger it a bit for the less-than-two minutes it takes her to fall asleep. But it stays in bed when she gets up. She no longer NEEDS it. This is huge.

Despite the fact that I miss my nap "break", this has undoubtedly been a good change. To illustrate this point, here's a before and after:

Before: Paci/Blankie were demanded every time Olivia felt wronged or hurt or upset, and these demands were happening several times a day. She'd take paci/blankie and retreat to a corner to sulk.

After: She has learned to cope better. I have to break up fewer fights, negotiate fewer toy sharings and in general interfere in their play less. Olivia GETS ALONG BETTER with others.

Before: Olivia would get up from bed and lay on the couch with paci/blankie for at least a half hour before agreeing to eat/play/talk. She was usually grumpy.

After: She gets up, leaves blankie behind in bed and typically comes straight to the kitchen to request breakfast. She sometimes lays on the couch, but she is generally in a pleasant mood.

Before: Long car rides would induce screaming fits if paci/blankie were inadvertently left behind. Such fits would continue until we reached our destination or she passed out. This was NOT pleasant.

After: During long car rides, if she gets tired she just stares out the window quietly, trying to stay awake. Sometimes she falls asleep, but it has thus far been peaceful.

These are just a few examples of the positive changes I've seen. In addition...she's fairly pleasant ALL DAY, despite not having a nap. I don't know if it's exhaustion or if she is just a grumpy napper, but many days she'd behave horribly AFTER nap...worse than she ever did in the mornings. Now she seems more even-tempered and calm and easier to get to do...anything. She pays attention better. It's like my incredibly difficult child has just become...a normal three-year-old.

If I had known how nice life would be without paci, I would have pushed this change a LONG time ago.

Training pants are a worthless crutch.

Although I haven't talked about it here, we've been off and on with the potty training for five months. FIVE. MONTHS. Geez.

It started in March, when I noticed that Olivia was dry for long periods of time, so we started the "potty chart" to encourage her to use the potty. We were successful in cutting down on the number of diapers we used per day, but that was about it. Olivia got lazy and stopped using the potty on any regular basis. I got lazy and discontinued the chart.

She would potty off and on through the rest of the school year, but training was hard with other kids in the house, and then there was surgery, and then vacation...I just decided to put it off until we had a few weeks at home that we could dedicate to this. All the while, we'd been sinking money into training pants for ease of pulling off and on when she deigned to use the potty.

And then...we went to Branson for a week with the family. And I changed her training pants exactly once a day...when she pooped. Olivia seemed pretty scared to poop in the potty, but since we were vacationing all week and both of us were there to remind her (not to mention, the rest of the family), she peed in the potty all week. Stayed dry...all week. Even overnight. It was evident that she was ready.

But when we got home, she adamantly refused to use the potty. Wet her training pants regularly. Didn't see the need to stop playing to go to the bathroom. She'd even change her own training pants if I wasn't watching. She KNEW she had to use the potty...she just didn't care. I got so frustrated and angry. I asked her why she didn't use the potty. And she said, "No, Mommy, it's OK. I just pee in my diaper."

And there it was. Training pants = diaper. Why on earth would she bother herself with using the potty when she'd been using her "diaper" for her whole life. Duh, Mommy.

So we switched to undies and didn't look back. It's been nearly three weeks, and I think I can safely declare that she is fully potty trained. We're still using the training pants at night, but most nights it is an unnecessary precaution.

It appears that the only motivation Olivia needed to start pooping in the potty was having undies instead of a diaper. It was rough at first, and I had to watch her like a hawk for the signs of needing to poop. But now? She just goes into the bathroom by herself, does her business, wipes, washes her hands.

We are successful at home and away from home. All it took was undies (and a lot of explanation, repetition, etc, but that's true with teaching most things). I don't know why it took us so long to figure this out. But this diaperless existence...feels like a huge success for both of us.

Success, then failure

I took Olivia, diaperless, to Local Theme Park today with two goals: make it through a morning of fun with no accidents, and wear her out for a good, long nap.

I watched her like a hawk throughout our playing and caught her striking the "poopy pose" twice. Both times I rushed her to the potty and both times she pooped in the potty. YAY! Much success. Score TWO for Olivia! Although I don't really think you can call her potty trained until she actually initiates the bathroom visit herself. But we're getting there.

We were having so much fun. We did the waterpark, watched a show, did funtown (kiddie section), went to another show. I was going to take her home for nap after show #2 (she's such a huge fan of these shows). Halfway through the show, she tripped while dancing in the aisle, smacked her head on the bench and came up with a whopping knot on the side of her eye.

Trip to first aid scored us a bag of ice, which Olivia held to her head for two minutes and then opened so she could eat the ice out of the bag.

So. Olivia's going to have a big shiner for the last night of VBS...the night where all the parents come and watch the kids sing and dance to the songs they learned all week. Yeah. Score zero for Mommy today.

Two-point-five

1. Olivia slept through the night last night, and the night before. That may not sound like earth-shattering news, but after weeks of putting her back to bed in the middle of the night when she woke up imagining monsters, it seems pretty huge to me. I don't know why she's sleeping better, but I hope it continues.

2. On the other hand, we were out and about last night and driving home after dark, and as soon as the inside of the car turned dark, Olivia started to get scared and talk about monsters. She has never been afraid of the inside of the car before. She seems to be really sensitive to the dark lately.

3. As futile as it has been, we've been trying to convince Olivia that monsters don't exist. This seems a little insincere to me, since I know that monsters DO exist, just not in the form that she imagines. But the monsters that exist in this world are unlikely to be in her bedroom at night. They are more likely to be snatching children in parking lots and grocery stores. At any rate, we've told her that monsters won't go where Jesus is, and she has a crucifix in her room, so she seems to get the concept.

4. I had to dismiss a kid from daycare for next school year. I felt so bad when I told her parents about her problems here and recommended that they find a new place for her to go next year. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to get her to behave. She's obviously bright and very energetic, but she is also aggressive, defiant and occasionally just mean. Recently, she has been throwing fits at the slightest reprimand and she has gone from hitting and pushing to biting, which I just can't tolerate. By nap time, I'm so frustrated from disciplining her that I'm yelling at everyone for everything and the whole house is full of tension. It's not fair to the other kids, and I don't think it's a healthy environment for the kid in question either. I'm sure there's someone out there who can handle her specific needs, but I've finally come to the conclusion that I'm not that person.

5. That kid is also having a sibling sometime in the fall, and I had to explain that I can't take on a baby right now anyway. Which, I think, came across as confusing to them because we are actively waiting for adoption #2, which will likely show up in the form of a very tiny baby, which is the same thing. But it isn't. Yes, having an infant AND caring for other people's toddlers is a lot of work, and yes, when the time comes it will require a lot of sacrifice of my time and stretch my patience. But I reserve the right to be willing to make sacrifices for a baby who will forever after be a part of our family and NOT make the same sacrifices to care for someone else's child while they work. I don't think that's unreasonable.

6. I am frazzled, disappointed, but most of all RELIEVED about these developments. I don't get paid enough to be this stressed out by one kid.

7. I have just ten more babysitting days (after today) until summer break. Not that I'm counting...

8. Did I mention that Olivia is exactly two-and-a-half years old TODAY?

That's two-and-a-half, going on five. My husband calls this her "Topps baseball card action photo"

Ides of March

Here's 15 thoughts for March 15:

1. I'm giving you (my elusive readers) the benefit of the doubt and assuming that all my readers have given up reading blogs for Lent. Or maybe the content here is just so dull that they don't come here often. At any rate, no one (except my husband) commented on my last post. So no resurrection eggs for you!

2. It's high time I put a few random updates in here. Olivia grows and changes so fast, and I don't want to forget this years from now.

3. A couple of weeks ago, I realized that Olivia was waking up dry with some consistency, so I decided to start a potty chart to put up in Olivia's bathroom. The big stickers at the beginning of a line indicate that she was dry overnight. The little smiley stickers indicate each time she peed on the potty. The puffy pink glittery stickers (only two so far) indicate when she pooped on the potty. The X is a wet diaper and the * is a poopy diaper. So, we are doing better, but still consistently inconsistent with the potty.

4. It's been a rough sleep year so far, but we recently had something like three consecutive weeks of great sleep...no midnight wake-ups for any reason. But last week, Olivia's mind fabricated new monsters that live in her closet, so we are back to rough sleep. I hate closet monsters.

5. Actually, she's imagining monsters anytime she's scared, but she's trying to convince herself that they don't exist. The other day we were in a public restroom, where the toilets flush forcefully and usually scare her. She went to flush the toilet and said with confidence, "There aren't any monsters in the potty, Mommy. It's just loud." And then she ran, wide-eyed, to my side as soon as the scary flushy sounds started...and laughed at herself for doing it.

6. Our driveway is cracking up because of the weather and the fact that the contractors who built the house took huge shortcuts in pouring it. So we had a concrete guy come out on Saturday to give us an estimate on re-pouring part of our driveway. He is known around here as the "Concrete Cowboy" and wears a cowboy hat a lot. We went outside to wait for him and play with sidewalk chalk, and we told Olivia that "Cowboy" was coming over. So when he got out of his truck, Olivia greeting him with a shy, "Hi, Cowboy." She warmed up to him quickly, and soon she was ramming her baby stroller into the front of his truck and shouting "Can you move this truck Cowboy? CowBOY!" Needless to say, she completely charmed him and his wife.

7. Olivia has become more manageable on shopping trips. It's still a challenge to keep her in the cart, but if I give her a piece of paper, she has her own "list". It gives her a sense of purpose. The things you'll find most often on her list? "Cake, mac & cheese and pepperoni!" Sounds like a balanced diet to me.

8. Olivia's restaurant behavior is also much improved. We met Daddy and a priest friend for dinner one night last week, and Olivia behaved herself for the entire 90 + minutes that we were there. AND she ate all of her food. She's growing up.

9. During the last couple of weeks, I've been making several trips to the lab for my hormone series. Step one of "project diagnosis" is underway.

10. Next week is our Spring Break. (The benefits of watching teachers' kids...) We have planned some fun stuff like visiting cousins and a zoo and a children's museum. It's all stuff that is near-ish, so we won't have to spend much money, but we also won't be sitting at home all week staring at each other. I'm very, very excited about this.

11. Although it's a bit gloomy today, last week offered a few warm and sunny days for outside play. The kids LOVED it. I'm looking forward to more of the same. It's also easier now than it was last Fall...the kids are bigger and more skilled and I'm not constantly afraid they are going to fall off of things.

12. We are seriously thinking of replacing all of our carpet with laminate flooring and I am very excited about this possibility. No more goldfish crushed into the carpet. Very exciting.

13. Daylight savings time has, for the first time ever, seriously thrown us into a tailspin. We slept luxuriously late yesterday. We had to wake Olivia up at 8:30, and she never ever sleeps that late. AND she was going on 11.5 hours of sleep (which is also rare). We ate a leisurely breakfast, got cleaned up and headed to Church only to find that *gasp* all the people were coming out of the doors, not going in. Yep, we forgot to change our clocks. I found an evening Mass to attend (bilingual, but still), but the whole thing just really screwed with our day. Add to that the circumstances (late wake-up and the time change) that led to a late and short nap, and today I'm dealing with an unreasonably grumpy 2-year-old. And 4 other unreasonably grumpy children. And naptime had better be long!!

14. I have discovered that Olivia can be a holy terror if she is tired because of schedule disruptions. She had to sit in time-out for a long, long time today because she kept going back and doing exactly what she got in trouble for doing in the first place. And nothing but a nap can cure it. So, yeah, my morning was a LOT of fun.

15. But she's so cute, it's hard to stay upset with her for long.

Teeth, again

Olivia was one of those kids for whom teeth came early and quickly. Or so it seems now, since it has been FOREVER since we've dealt with the teething issue. I must have recorded it somewhere, but I cannot tell you off the top of my head when was the last time she had a new tooth. It's been that long.

I have heard through the grapevine that there are these two-year molars. I haven't done any research on them at all. I just know that most kids get new molars around age two. But Olivia has had the same number of teeth forever, you guys. I just wasn't expecting this.

So yesterday, at Mass, Olivia was poking her fingers around in her mouth and I looked in to see what was irritating her. And there they were. Two brand-new teeth just pushing through her bottom gum...one on each side. Apparently they got the memo that Olivia just passed her second birthday. And here they are, right on time.

Luckily, these teeth have shown up with none of the drama associated with the earlier teeth. I can tell that they bother her a little bit, but she's so busy playing and, well, being an active two-year-old to really notice them much.

My precious baby girl is growing up so fast!

Two

Dear Olivia,

Today is your birthday, and you are finally two years old. This is a little anti-climactic for me, though. To me, you've been two for AT LEAST six months and are now very close to three. You are so clever and articulate and, well, tall. EVERYONE thinks you are three (or older). So Mommy would appreciate it very much if we could skip all things that make two "terrible" and just pretend that you are past all of that nonsense. Please?

You are our sweet, active, smart little girl, and we can't imagine life without you. Even at your most frustrating, you are the greatest blessing we've ever received.



Happy Birthday, sweetheart! We love you so much!

Randomness, plus celebratory musings

I'm "in town" today for various appointments and such, so I'm writing this yesterday as practice for NaBloPoMo, because I intend to participate and this is pretty much the only way I get a post in daily...to write a bunch at once and then schedule them to post throughout the week. I don't know if that's cheating, but since I don't have one of those internet-phone gadgets, it's pretty much my only option.

I'm "off" from babysitting today because of these appointments, which is nice except I feel like I have to cram everything into this one free day since I won't have another one for awhile. *Sigh*

I'm thinking about Olivia's birthday. We are going WAY low key this year, just inviting local family to an evening meal with cake because, you know, she's TWO. She doesn't know she's being shafted on the big party thing yet. Plus, her birthday falls a week after our anniversary and less than two weeks before my birthday, which is followed quickly by Thanksgiving, and, well, there's only so much celebrating we can tolerate in the gloomy month of November.

Also, who picked November to be NaBloPoMo? Did you not realize that it's my BUSIEST month of the year? Sheesh.

So, anniversary. It's the first Friday in November, and it's our FIFTH Anniversary. I know that way back when we got married, I must have been thinking something like, "well, maybe we can do a big vacation for our fifth anniversary or something." (Which means a cruise, something I've been dying to do with my husband since we got married. Because cruises...ROCK. All you do is lay around and eat and sightsee. ROCK!)

But, yeah. Enter kid, exit second income. No cruise. BUT, we're spending two nights in a hotel in Nashville, TN, while the kid entertains the grandparents for the weekend. And I'm disproportionately excited about this little weekend getaway. We haven't done a weekend away alone (except for leading Engaged Encounter, which is entirely different) since Olivia was born. So, yeah, it is kind of exciting.

Also, speaking of Engaged Encounter, I found out recently that the EE national convention is going to be in Seattle next year (Oct). And even though I've never really had any desire to attend this convention before (um, expensive, plus touchy-feely couples who like to share their feelings with complete strangers = not really our thing), I kind of want to go to this one. Why? To meet my internet friends, of course. Except that I'd spend all of my time visiting with all of you and would miss the whole convention. My husband would probably not be OK with that. Except that he hates the touchy-feely more than I do, so maybe he'd be relieved. Hmm. Well, if someone drops a load of cash on us unexpectedly, maybe we'll consider it.

End of season and Almost Two

Local Theme Park is closed for the season. Yesterday was their last day of operation for the year. We spent as much time there as possible yesterday, taking in Olivia's favorite show twice and riding all of her favorite rides.

And giving High Fives to the ride conductor.

Olivia's obsession with the kids' show is bound to lead to severe withdrawal in a couple of weeks. She sings the songs EVERY DAY...and does the dance moves. After the final show yesterday, her fave character let her come up on stage and practice her moves and her bow. Olivia was in heaven. I'm wondering if there's some way I can hire this character for her birthday party...

In other news, Olivia is 23 months old today. So I took her picture to remember her final month before she turns two. She's wearing the tie-dye shirt I made for her at the craft booth in the children's tent at my husband's college homecoming. Yes, I'm so talented.

I'm not sure what to call her anymore. "Toddler" just doesn't fit. She's so tall and so smart and so full of personality. She's growing up so fast...I feel like I can't keep up with all of the changes and the new things she's learning.

Comparisons

I know that in a perfect world, we wouldn't compare our children to other children because everyone grows and develops at their own pace and, especially at this young age, there are bound to be variances. But Olivia is just so tall and verbal that people think she's at least three or older, so I can't help but wonder what other almost-two-year-olds are like and what is considered "normal".

Example: Addie and Olivia are just a month apart in age (Addie is older), but Olivia's two inches taller. That can be attributed, of course, to her genes. But what about their verbal skills? At lunch, Addie said, "I want Hot Dogs!" And Olivia repeated what she said (because one can't live without something the other has...sheesh!). And then I said, "I'm warming up the hot dogs, just a minute." Olivia said, "I want ketchup too, Mommy." Me: "Ok, ketchup too." Olivia: "It's in the refrigerator. The ketchup is in the refrigerator. OK Mommy?" She was strapped into her chair or she would probably have gone to get it herself. Olivia was not satisfied until I put the ketchup on the counter, at which point Addie shouted, "Ketchup! Want ketchup!"

And when we go outside, I always sit the girls down and remind them that they need to stay in the playset area or we are going to have to come back inside. I can't exactly run after one kid (Olivia) who's trying to sneak off to the front yard and leave the other one to fend for herself on the slide tower. So we must stay in the rock/playset area.

Now, every time I say we are going outside and sit them down for their lecture, I say, "Listen, girls..." and Olivia cuts in to say, "Stay in the area! Stay in the rocks!" I know they both understand what I'm saying, but Olivia remembers and can converse on a level I have never seen with most three-year-olds.

It makes communication with others in her age group rather frustrating. I have a hard time remembering when Olivia couldn't tell me exactly what she wanted or was thinking.

Now I'm going to get off of here before Olivia wakes up and catches me on the computer and starts demanding, "I want to play 'puters, Mommy!" until she wakes up Addie. It's best around here if the computer is OFF when the kids are up.

Let's just focus on a happier subject

I have two sleeping toddlers in my house who went down for nap a full half-hour earlier than usual. I wanted to put them to bed an hour before that. They were NOT good this morning. I don't know if they were both overtired or what, but there was a lot of pushing and hitting and tantrum throwing by both of them. We usually have a little of that, but not ALL MORNING. They had better both get a good long nap.

I would rather not dwell on that, so let's talk about our weekend, shall we?

We had a fun weekend without much on the actual schedule. We opted for a high school football game on Friday night. That was fun for me, particularly because the weather turned suddenly cool late last week and there was a cool breeze that made me think of Fall...ah, Fall! We found a spot on the grass near the track, and Olivia entertained herself by running around and exploring.

On Saturday, we went to Local Theme Park, where Olivia, for the first time, got to ride the big kid rides. Before, she was limited by her height (under 36") to just the kiddie rides and a handful of other 'family' rides that anyone can ride as long as they can sit up and be with an adult. We banned her from the kiddie rides a couple months ago because she learned to unlatch her seatbelt and would do it in the middle of the ride, and that just wasn't acceptable. So we were EXTREMELY limited in what we could do for awhile.

Then, Saturday we thought we'd check...and she hit the mark! There are about 8 more rides she can ride now (all with an adult, but still). Yep, our 21-month-old is now 36 inches tall. How is that possible?

My child speaks in full sentences

Heard on Friday:

While visiting a local pioneer village that features a cabin/livestock, etc. We were watching the cows and sheep. I said, "Look at the sheep, Olivia." She said, "He walking away." Yep. He was.

After clipping her fingernails (which, by the way, is akin to cutting off her thumb with a hedge trimmer, judging by the way she reacts), I let her play with the clippers to help her calm down. She managed to separate the metal part from the plastic part. She looked right at me and said, "I broke it." Yep. She did.

She has come up with lots of random sentences with no prompting. I just can't believe how quickly she's catching on to all the verbal stuff.

Rite of Passage

So you bring baby home from the hospital and slowly transform your house to meet the needs of baby. Baby gates appear, sharp-edged furniture disappears. You get the picture. But I don't think you REALLY commit to making your house into a home that screams "A FAMILY LIVES HERE" until you put up one of these.

A neighbor of ours just moved, and we asked if they were taking their playset with them. They agreed to sell it to us for a fraction of what it would cost to put up any similar set. And as a bonus, they only live a couple hundred yards away, so my Dad and my husband and my brother were able to easily disassemble it and carry the parts across the yard. Easy delivery.

"Plus, the parts are so fun to play with!"

It took all day to move and rebuild the playset. Luckily, we had a beautiful day for such work. And the client was pleased.

"Hi Grandpa! Thanks for building my cool slide!"

"My very own bridge!"

"And swings!"

"And did I mention the slide? My favorite part!"

(If you are related to me, don't mention this next part to my Mom and Dad. I don't want them to freak out about what happened next.)

We were still basking in the glow of Olivia's brand new playground...

She fell from the top of the tower. It was the most terrifying moment of my life.

She was playing on the ramp and she kept asking me..."Mommy, come?" She had decided that she liked having me in the tall tower with her. Like our own little clubhouse. So I followed her and she decided that she wanted to slide. I didn't mind her sliding alone because she has learned how to land safely, but she didn't want to sit down. THAT I had a problem with. I was trying to get her to sit down, and all of a sudden she was leaning out the front of the tower, grabbing on the rail and facing the tower, like she wanted to hang on from the outside. And in a second, she was flat on her back on the ground.

I thought she had hit her head on the frame below, and I was sure that she was badly injured. I scooped her up and ran inside, yelling to my husband that we had to get her to the emergency room. She was crying, but not in a "I hurt myself" kind of screaming way...more of a whiny, disoriented way. That just scared me more.

She screamed for the entire half-hour drive to the ER as I worked hard to keep ice on her head and keep her awake. She was mad about both. She desperately wanted to sleep (causing me to be more worried). When we finally got there and saw a nurse, she started crying louder. She has developed anxiety about doctors and nurses because of shots, so she was just inconsolable.

The doctor assessed that she was bouncing back well and that we should watch her closely and return if she started vomiting or if we couldn't wake her up. I was unconvinced. This docile little child wasn't acting like my kid. But maybe that was the exhaustion from crying.

We went to get some dinner. She refused to eat and mostly just sat and stared through dinner. Then we went to get a few groceries. In the store, Olivia consented to hold Daddy's hand and walk. She NEVER lets us hold her hand. She's too independent. A few minutes later, she wanted to be held. And then...the entire contents of her stomach were all over herself, Daddy, and the store's floor.

When we arrived at the ER the second time, we had to wait. Olivia fell asleep for 20 minutes or so. We got a room. By the time the doctor got to us, Olivia was awake and singing her songs and responding to questions in normal fashion. This doctor (a different one) weighed our options but decided that we should wake her at regular intervals and watch her closely and return if something got worse.

So, two trips to the ER and the same basic diagnosis. She had a bad fall and got pretty shook up. She must not have hit the beam after all because she doesn't seem to have a bump.

She slept well last night and woke up crying today. She cried through her bath and sat on my lap for an hour before she felt like herself. I really think that her body just ACHES. She was feeling better when the tylenol kicked in.

Now, she's pretty close to normal. She's still very tired, but I think she's bouncing back well.

New playset, first real trip to the ER. I think we are going to lay low for the next few days and recover.

Polite and sleepy

I have a final Openness to Life post brewing for Wednesday, but in the meantime...

I think I have mentioned that Olivia is a very verbal kid. My Dad was saying the other day that he can't remember ever meeting a 16-month-old who could string four words together to make a sentence with as much ease as Olivia does. He asked if we quiz her at home. We don't. We do pretty much what every other parent does. We talk to her constantly, explaining the world around us as we go. And she just picks up on stuff. What can I say? She's very sharp, and I can say that without bragging because she doesn't get it from us. The flip side of that coin is that we have to be VERY careful about what we say around her.

Anyway, Olivia has picked up on the "polite words". "Please" is a word that she uses with great frequency, and she's starting to use it for almost every request. "Cackers, pease." "Shoes, pease." And when she is finished eating and wants out of her chair..."Finis, pease." (We're very particular about the difference between "done" and "finished".) Occasionally, this word is used to beg, as if saying the word over and over and over will get a preferred response out of us. But most of the time, it's delightful to hear her ask for something politely.

We're working on "Thank You" and "You're Welcome". She gets them a little confused. For example, when I give her something she has asked for, I ask her, "Can you say Thank You to Mommy?" She often responds with "Welcome!" On the other hand, I let her carry the bucket-o-flowers this morning (we have been working in the yard), and she said "Mommy, thank-you, welcome!" She's sorting it out.

The sleep weirdness, it is back! Olivia spent Friday night at Grandpa & Grandma's house, and we picked her up late Saturday afternoon. Mom said she slept very well and napped a little. So we were expecting a tired, easy-to-put-to-bed toddler. Instead, I spent two and a half hours trying to get our obviously-exhausted child to settle down and go to sleep.

The crawling-out-of-the-crib problem has become worse. When awake, she has NO PROBLEM crawling out and running into the living room. She did it no less than a dozen times on Saturday night. I finally ended up laying with her on her big mattress for twenty minutes until she fell asleep (SOUND asleep...we had tried this trick before). I don't know if she was just too overtired or if she had some sort of anxiety about going to sleep and waking up in a different place since we'd left her at Grandma's the night before. But it was TOUGH.

Naps have become a difficulty as well. She WILL NOT stay in her crib if put down awake. I have to rock her and restrain her until she falls asleep and then put her in her crib. This actually works, and most of the time she ends up laying her head on my shoulder and singing herself to sleep. It's a little weird since she has NEVER been one to easily be rocked to sleep...not even when she was an infant. But it works for her now, and it's kind of sweet to hold my sleepy little girl while she settles in for a nap.

On the other hand, this could become a problem if she still requires rocking for naps when baby #2 comes.

We are back to seriously considering the switch to her big bed. I am 100% serious when I say that no crib contains her. They are barely even an obstacle. She stays in her crib if she feels like it, and only then (a change even from last week's status...she's over the whole bars-provide-boundaries issue). So how is that different from a big bed? We're going to have to deal with it sooner, rather than later, I'm afraid.

I'm going to use the rest of naptime to finish splitting and moving my Irises. It is going to rain tomorrow, and Spring always rushes on me faster than I'm ready. I love our landscaping projects (and they are getting easier to accomplish now that Olivia can be occupied by "helping"), but there are always tiny windows of time when I can get things done before the weather has turned too warm or the plants have already started to bloom. Must keep moving.

15 month stats

When the nurse called us this morning, Olivia happily followed her back to the exam area and stepped right onto the adult scale as directed. No more baby scale for her! She stood still long enough to register her 27 lb weight (97th percentile).

We entered the room and got her height measurement at 34 inches. That was "off the charts" according to the nurse. She showed me the line graph on the computer, which was registering her at 99.98%, but I got the feeling that this was just the default percentile for anything above the line on the graph.

It is said that you can estimate a child's adult height by taking her 2-year-old measurement and doubling it. If you double her height now, she would measure 5'8"...which is how tall I am. But she still has nine months to go until she's 2 years old, so there's no telling how tall she'll be "expected" to be.

Her head circumference was also measuring at 97th percentile. So overall, she's growing at the rate of a 2-year-old.

Sheesh.

Shots were traumatic. The trauma was short-lived when Olivia became fascinated with the "fishies" (dolphins) that the bookkeeper had hanging above her desk at check-out. The doctor said that these are her last shots until Pre-Kindergarten shots, and we were told that we would "skip" the next well baby check-up (18 months). In the words of our doctor: "Well baby check-ups help us ensure that babies are continuing along proper growth and development expectations. I don't think we have anything to worry about with Olivia. We'll see you at her birthday for her annual check-up."

Fine by me.

Vocabulary

Olivia has never been slow to do anything...she runs everywhere she goes. Language acquisition is no exception. For many months, she has had a few words that she has used regularly, and it has been obvious that she understands more than she can say. She has been quickly expanding her vocabulary and is even stringing a few words together to make sentences. It's really fun to watch her little mind work as she communicates with us.

I've been trying to get a list together of the words she uses regularly, without prompting. I consider these to be the words she "knows". She can repeat just about anything, but if she can pull the word out of her brain without our assistance, then I know that she really KNOWS that word. I've counted about fifty words so far.

Here are some examples of an almost-15-month-old trying to communicate.

Daaeee go? (Where did Daddy Go?)
Daaee phone? (Is Daddy on the phone?)
Fishies, pease? (Goldfish Crackers, please?)
Cackers (Crackers)
COO-Key (Cookie...one of her favorite words)
Ca-Corn (Popcorn)
Muh (Milk)
Pay (Pray)
Jesus
Bye, Bye
Nigh-Nigh (Night-Night -- Used when she wants to go to nap or to bed)
Foo (Food)
For (Fork)
Side (Outside)

That is just a short list of her more frequently-used words. And as I look at them, it becomes obvious that she's obsessed with two things...Daddy and Food. She talks about one or the other about 80% of the time.

One, Two, Three

Olivia's new skill is counting. She can count to three. We start out by saying "One", and then she follows it by shouting, "TWO! FREE!". We've tried to get her to five, but she can't quite remember the four. She knows five, though, thanks to the Subway commercials. She can shout Five! and hold up her hand like she's giving a high five. I'm trying to get it all on video, but she wouldn't cooperate today.

I spent most of yesterday creating our profile book which will be shown to birthparents who are choosing families for their babies. It includes a "Dear Birthparent" letter and photos of us, our house, Olivia and our family. Considering the thousands of pics I've taken over the past year, I'm pretty proud of how I was able to limit the photos of the book to about twenty and still, I think, create a pretty clear picture of who we are. We saw some samples of profile books at the agency last Wednesday, and some of them were so full of pictures that it was overwhelming. I didn't want ours to be like that.

We have a few more places to run and signatures to get, but we should be pretty close to finished with our homestudy paperwork by the end of the week. We'll have to wait a couple more weeks for references and fingerprints to come back before we can schedule the home visit, but we are definitely making progress.

I've checked two things off of a list of 3475 things to do

This week starts our countdown to baby #2. We meet with the social worker on Wednesday to begin our homestudy, and while we don't have a match or a timeline for a match or anything, I've got this feeling that we HAVE to start doing something about the clutter in our house. It's my form of nesting, I guess. And with our Christmas decorations already taken down and packed away, I have no more excuses and must get started.

So, today I moved our DVD tower from the office into our bedroom. This was step one of the declutter-the-office procedure. I've decided that I must declutter and organize before I can start moving furniture out and finding new homes for everything that lives in the office.

I also cleaned off the coffee table in our bedroom. It has been in our room collecting junk because we moved it there to keep Olivia from climbing on it, and I had decided that it was time to return it to the living room. It lasted for ten minutes. Olivia climbed up and sat on it, which was fine. Then she swung her legs back and forth, which caused her little rear to slide right off. She scraped her back and neck as she was falling to the floor and I decided that Olivia and the coffee table cannot occupy the same room anymore.

So I guess I've completed 1.5 things on my list. The cleaning of the coffee table led to cleaning/dusting of the entire bedroom, so that's something. This whole project is making me exhausted, and we haven't even really started yet.

In other news, my husband has house fever. He's been looking at houses online that are for sale in our Former City where we would like to move back someday. I've managed to fight off this house fever for almost two years using the argument that he needs to have a JOB in Former City and we need to sell our current house before we start looking, but now the market is pushing prices down, and there are these really big homes that are selling for about what our house is worth, and I can see why it's hard for him not to dream. Especially when we are talking about how to squeeze a baby into our office between the bookcases and the filing cabinet (KIDDING, although we may have to put the filing cabinet and half the office furniture in the garage to make this room back into a bedroom.)

Olivia has eleven teeth now. In the midst of the holidays, I managed to forget to report that two of Olivia's bottom molars came in around mid December, and now she has one popping through on top. She hasn't complained one bit either.

Now I must get back to my project while I still have the tiniest bit of momentum and motivation and Olivia is still snoozing.

Stats for one-year-old Olivia

Olivia measured in at 31.5 inches tall today at her doctor appointment. That's still 98th percentile for height. She's also 23 lbs 8 oz (83rd percentile, I think, which means she's eating quite well now!).

That's all. She's tall and growing.