Monday, May 31, 2010

Daily Peep: Hats Off to You!


She multi-tasks, too.





And sometimes, she's just plain cute.

.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Daily Peep: Definitely Not the Official Panda Photos

This happens every night, after her bath.
Every. Single. Night.


Daily Peep: Baby Wearing Baby

After BabyJ and her mommy went home this evening, Peeper started playing with her baby doll.


At one point, she put it in her little shopping cart and pushed it around.


As you can imagine, I didn't like her poor baby being pushed around in a plastic box, so I said, "Would you like to wear your baby in a wrap?"

(I'd had BabyJ in the wrap earlier, while Peeper was swinging, and then I showed A how to do it and she was wearing her right before they left.)


Close enough to kiss.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Nineteen Months

Dear Peeper:
You are nineteen months old today, and maybe it's because we've spent the past few days with BabyJ, who is only two months old, but suddenly you are seeming like such a little girl, and not so much a baby.

We've done MOMS Club activities the past few days, too, and you've just hopped right down as soon as we walked in, and taken off to play with the big kids.

And, speaking of BabyJ, I just can't get over how well you're handling having her around. You are so sweet with her, and so helpful.

Today, at MOMS Club, I was holding her and you came over and sat in my lap, and signed "baby" and "cup" (Which you use to refer to both her binky and her bottle - you don't have either, so you don't have signs for them. I suppose I should teach you the real signs, so we can talk about BabyJ's.) and, possibly "where is it?" but I don't really remember.

I said, "Do you want her to have her binky? Okay, it's in her carseat that used to be yours, over there (several feet away, past a bunch of people) beside our diaper bag. You can go get it."

You hopped down, went to the carseat, got BabyJ's binky and blanky and brought to both back and gave them to her!

Because? You are a genius.

DoulaK and 80% of her children stopped by this afternoon to drop off some things, and I told you "DoulaK's coming over, and she's bringing BabyK" and you immediately signed "phone."

I'm pretty sure that you were telling me that he is the baby-on-the-phone, because that's where you've seen his pictures.

Because? You are a genius.

You are signing in sentences and telling us things like that all the time - things that seem like they should be too complicated for you, or that it doesn't seem like you should remember - but you do.

You've picked up several more signs this month - some of them you've gotten after we only showed you once, and a couple are your own special interpretations of my silly faces when I say certainly words (like the donkey's "hee-haw" or "yuck-yuck-yuck") - but with no audio, so I'm calling them signs, rather than words.

You've also got some new words and animal sounds.

I suppose that we should probably be less-than-proud of the fact that one of the few things that you can say is "ice cream," but my God, it's so cute how you say it, I just want to show it off!

The closest I can come to spelling it would be hhhhh-chkchkchk. It's very, well, I'm not sure if "gutteral" is the word I want or not. It's farther up in the mouth than that, but something throaty going on. I have to get it on video for posterity.

And, speaking of hhhh-chkchkchk and other such things, pretty much as soon as I talked to the doctor and blogged and posted on the Babyled Weaning forum about the fact that you were subsisting on breastmilk and goldfish crackers, you started eating lots more solid food.

Of course.

We have been trying to not have the goldfish so constantly available, and maybe that's helped you to save room for other things, or maybe you just wanted to make a liar of me.

You're really liking cheese these days, and have recently discovered hotdogs, although we're not too thrilled about you having those very often, so you've only actually had a couple. (I quarter them lengthwise to deal with the choking-hazard aspect, but they've still got that whole nitrites and chicken-lips thing going on.)

You've had bananas a few times, and you're still loving the concept of apples, but not so much the reality. Usually, I end up eating most of the apple, with peanut butter, and you lick peanut butter off a spoon. (A bit at a time. Again with the choking-hazard thing.)

You're still not so thrilled with lying still for a diaper change, but we've learned how to distract you long enough to get it done. The most effective strategy is to first let you choose what color diaper to wear, and then to give you a quiz. If you're busy pointing out body parts or telling us what various animals say or showing us signs, you don't seem to mind as much that we're snapping a new diaper on you.

We also usually let you pick out your own clothes, with a bit of guidance. We might offer two outfits to choose between, or sometimes when I really have no preference, I'll just show you which (weather-appropriate) section of your closet you can choose from.

That doesn't mean that you're going to be happy when it's time to actually put the shirt over your head and stick your arms in the holes, but at least we know you'll like it once it's on.

You're also getting a lot less frustrated with things (and us) than you were a month ago, in fact that only lasted a week or two.

Except when we make you get out of the dogs' room, because you're playing in their water bowls or eating their food.

Then you're really pissed.

But, mostly, you're back to your usual happy self, which makes us very happy, too!

Of course, you always make us pretty damn happy.

Happy oh-my-God-you're-closer-to-two-than-one day, little girly!


I love you,
Mama

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Daily Peep: A G-G-G-Ghost!

Peeper loves to help herself to the items in Shrike "pretties" drawer. I suspect that it has to do with the drawer being accessible, and the things in it being silky and nice-feeling.

She might as well, because nobody else is using anything in that drawer.

This particular item is a half-slip.

Or a ghost costume.

What you can't see in these photos and video is that she was putting it on and walking around and taking it off, and that's what prompted me to get out the camera.

Then she was just interested in looking at the camera, until Shrike said, "Show Mama the game you were playing," at which point she immediately started putting it on her head and walking around with it again.

Because? She is a genius.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Our friend A went back to work today, and we had BabyJ all day for the first time.

(Yes, the same day that we hosted the MOMS Club. That was not intentional!)

We're pretty worn out, but I really don't think things could've gone much more smoothly. BabyJ handled it very well, and Peeper was just amazing.

She was very interested in her, and very sweet to her. She wanted to help give her bottles, and even helped to burp her.

Three different times, Peeper patted BabyJ's booty, and immediately she let loose a big ol' frat-boy burp - it was quite impressive.  

Daily Peep: Pandamonium

No, this isn't Peeper's official monthly panda pic, that's not coming for a couple more days.

We had the MOMS Club folks over today, and the kids played in Peeper's room for a while. By the time they left, all the pandas were strewn about the room - but Peeper rescued them, and piled them all in Mr. Panda's lap.

Awwww. . . .



Monday, May 24, 2010

Daily Peep: Such a Deal!

Consignment store.

(A brand new one, right down the street from us, specializing in kid's clothes, toys and gear!)

$4.99.

There's storage under the lid for your crayons and playdough and what-not, and the lid itself reverses from the Lego surface (shown) to a smooth side for coloring or playdoughing or writing the Great American Baby-Novel.

The plan was to stick it in the garage or basement for a year or so, until she's big enough for it, but I don't know. She kind of loves it already.





Sunday, May 23, 2010

Cruising

Peeper driving her new Cozy Coupe for the first time yesterday. She's already much better at getting in and out of it!

Daily Peep: A Whale of a Cutie

More mix-and-match jammies, more mixed than matched, if you ask me, but she picked out the combo.



Saturday, May 22, 2010

Daily Peep: Cruisin'

We stopped at a yardsale today, and they had two toddler cars - a Cozy Coupe, and a smaller open-topped one, with a handle for the parent to push and steer with. When we saw that they were $15 each, we thought we'd pass on them, but Peeper had other ideas.

We let her test-drive them both, and it was obvious to everyone that we were going to be buying one.

I told her that we could take one home, and asked her which one she wanted, and she chose the coupe.

When I say "chose," I mean that she clearly pointed at it, and said "Uhh!" just like when ask her to choose which color diaper she'd like to wear, or which pair of pajamas. She definitely understands that concept.

After a bit of practice, she can get into the car by herself, although she doesn't quite believe that she can, and it sometimes takes a couple of tries, and can get out by herself pretty easily.

She does "reverse" quite well, but hasn't quite gotten the hang of "drive" yet.

Actually, she can't make her little ride-on car go forward either, nor the ride-on toys at the skating rink.

Come to think of it, the closest (still) that she comes to crawling is a backward commando-scoot maneuver.

She walks forward quite well, though.





Thursday, May 20, 2010

Daily Peep: More New Jammies

And here's the other half of the new mix-and-match jammies.






Daily Peep: You Want Fries With That?

Why yes, that is a hat made out of a junk-mail envelope.

Why no, I do not know what possessed me.