Layla's beginning to get the idea of Santa. She tells us she wants him to bring her 'pink and purple ice cream, rosemary, and lavender' and she hopes he brings the Studly Hubby and I toothbrushes in our favorite colors. Tonight she wrote him a 'letter' where she said, "dear Santa, thank you for the presents, I love you" (she yelled it afterwards like maybe he could hear her).
The funny thing is, she's actually leaving the presents alone that we've put under the tree - we are amazed. Although she did throw a few of them across the room while she was pitching a fit the other day. Please, those of you who may be sending presents, be sure they are well-padded.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Sunday, December 09, 2012
Potty training and other adventures
We are in full-throttle potty training mode these days. We have extra motivation because Layla is moving up to the 'pre-school' room next month where most of the other kids are potty trained. She hates being wet and learned right away how to hold her pee all day so she didn't wet herself... but didn't get the idea of actually peeing in the potty at all. For two months now she's been requesting a diaper whenever she has to go pee. We've tried explaining, reasoning, bribing, scheduling, and even hiding the diapers to get her to pee on the potty and none of it worked (the daycare recommended we back off so we don't create a bigger fight). Finally she started peeing so much in her diapers that they've been leaking and that seems to be motivating her (like I said she hates being wet). Tonight she finally peed in the potty, and we're hopeful we're on the right track.
In other news for the past four months we've dealt with a variety of other troublesome toddler behaviors. In August and September there were excessive night time wakings (I'm talking 6-10 times per night), which really fried both of us. Then in October and November it transformed into frequent and very long, loud crazy tantrums. We think she resumed sleeping because of some sleep training we did (the toddler version, a bit more painful than the first time around but equally effective). We learned how to divert many of the tantrums but still had at least one a day for a while, and several really outrageous public disasters including one at the airport. Now, finally, she is both sleeping and the tantrums have ebbed. We are hopeful things are getting better. We're still dealing with some little problems like she will only wear a swimsuit and it takes us forever (like almost 2 hrs) to get out the door in the mornings but these seem manageable compared to the other problems. Now I finally get why some parents don't seem to care about some things.
We've started finding and reading books on how to manage 'spirited' children which has been really insightful. My mom gave me one book in particular about what spirited children turn into - 'highly sensitive people' - it's a wonderfully positive take on how this can be a really good quality. I can really see what they mean and hope it's true!
In other news for the past four months we've dealt with a variety of other troublesome toddler behaviors. In August and September there were excessive night time wakings (I'm talking 6-10 times per night), which really fried both of us. Then in October and November it transformed into frequent and very long, loud crazy tantrums. We think she resumed sleeping because of some sleep training we did (the toddler version, a bit more painful than the first time around but equally effective). We learned how to divert many of the tantrums but still had at least one a day for a while, and several really outrageous public disasters including one at the airport. Now, finally, she is both sleeping and the tantrums have ebbed. We are hopeful things are getting better. We're still dealing with some little problems like she will only wear a swimsuit and it takes us forever (like almost 2 hrs) to get out the door in the mornings but these seem manageable compared to the other problems. Now I finally get why some parents don't seem to care about some things.
We've started finding and reading books on how to manage 'spirited' children which has been really insightful. My mom gave me one book in particular about what spirited children turn into - 'highly sensitive people' - it's a wonderfully positive take on how this can be a really good quality. I can really see what they mean and hope it's true!
Freshening up the blog
After about 5 years of changing nothing on my blog, including the links, I finally freshened up the layout and links a little today while I was procrastinating doing a bunch of other stuff. I'm not sure what inspired it, except that I keep finding other blogs that are so much better looking than mine and I decided to finally do something about it.
I'm really a big fan of the whole blog idea and hope that it never dies. Thanks to those of you who are still reading despite my infrequent posts!
I'm really a big fan of the whole blog idea and hope that it never dies. Thanks to those of you who are still reading despite my infrequent posts!
Saturday, December 08, 2012
Holiday lists
(for anyone who is interested - I'm not trying to get my friends to buy me stuff, I'm just trying to put a list in a convenient place for those who need it)
For Layla:
- art supplies including stamps, paper cutters, kid-friendly scissors, washable paints (finger paints are good!), watercolors, papers
- anything disney princess or Backyardigans
- puzzles, activity books, sticker books
- toy kitchen stuff (play food, play cooking supplies)
- 3-yr age appropriate lego sets or another building set
- miniature sets (e.g. tiny play kitchen or dollhouse type stuff)
-pink and purple nail polish (non-toxic please)
- size 3-4T tops and bottoms, in particular sweaters, elastic waist pants, size 8 shoes
For me:
- lavender/almond/vanilla/honey/oatmeal scented soap, bath or body oil, bath salts, bubble bath (if the Soap Opera is still open they always have good stuff, otherwise I like California Baby products)
- socks from Gap or similar place
- fancy hair clips
- any recommended books on ornery toddlers
- Aveda Stress-fix body lotion or soaking salts, rosemary mint collection shampoo, conditioner, soap
- running shirt (long-sleeve or short, size medium)
- Clinique 'whole lotta color' or 'kisses' collection
-any Theo chocolate product
For Derek:
-Star Wars thumb drive http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/c3bd/
-Amazon gift card (for photography stuff)
-socks (running socks and regular socks)
-running shirt, size medium
-picture frames, 5x7 or any size
- Justin Bieber CD
For Layla:
- art supplies including stamps, paper cutters, kid-friendly scissors, washable paints (finger paints are good!), watercolors, papers
- anything disney princess or Backyardigans
- puzzles, activity books, sticker books
- toy kitchen stuff (play food, play cooking supplies)
- 3-yr age appropriate lego sets or another building set
- miniature sets (e.g. tiny play kitchen or dollhouse type stuff)
-pink and purple nail polish (non-toxic please)
- size 3-4T tops and bottoms, in particular sweaters, elastic waist pants, size 8 shoes
For me:
- lavender/almond/vanilla/honey/oatmeal scented soap, bath or body oil, bath salts, bubble bath (if the Soap Opera is still open they always have good stuff, otherwise I like California Baby products)
- socks from Gap or similar place
- fancy hair clips
- any recommended books on ornery toddlers
- Aveda Stress-fix body lotion or soaking salts, rosemary mint collection shampoo, conditioner, soap
- running shirt (long-sleeve or short, size medium)
- Clinique 'whole lotta color' or 'kisses' collection
-any Theo chocolate product
For Derek:
-Star Wars thumb drive http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/c3bd/
-Amazon gift card (for photography stuff)
-socks (running socks and regular socks)
-running shirt, size medium
-picture frames, 5x7 or any size
- Justin Bieber CD
Going to the LIBRARY!!
We've started going to the library. When I was little, I was an avid fan of the library, going on a very regular basis to both the public and school libraries. I would rip through as many books as I could and even revel in just hanging out there and reading.
Now, I see Layla doing the same thing. She LOVES the library (although she's still getting the hang of being quiet there, sometimes we have to cut our visit short). Nowadays I get online, pick out some stuff, then it gets delivered to our branch library which is almost next door. We go over there, wander around a bit, then pick up the stack of books I requested and head home. She spends the whole week fascinated with her books, then just as she gets sick of them... we go back. I've taken this as an opportunity to get some books for myself as well, and have been devouring them at a dizzying speed. Here are some of the things we've fallen in love with.
Books I have recently loved:
Where did you go, Bernadette? Written by a Seattleite who used to live in LA, it's about... a Seattleite who used to live in LA, who gets a little crazy and then disappears. It's absolutely hysterical, especially if you have lived in Seattle or LA. The author, Maria Semple, is my new favorite. She used to write for TV shows like "Mad About You" and "Arrested Development." I like her so much I've 'liked' her on FB.
The Books of Pellinor. This epic adventure - laid out in four books, the first of which is called "The Naming" - was sort of published and forgotten about a decade ago. My mom found them at a garage sale and our whole family has devoured them. It is like Lord of the Rings except with a female hero and a more modern language. The author pretends like it is a historical manuscript, recently found and translated, but deep on her website I found admittance that this is not true (she made a pretty big effort so it seemed like it could be true!).
Other books I've read recently: Hunger Games (as good as they say), the Host by Stephanie Meyer (of Twilight, I thought it was pretty good), 50 Shades of Grey (as raunchy as they say), and several books on how to manage ornery toddlers.
Books Layla has loved:
Anything by Laura Numeroff ("If you give a mouse a cookie"), Lucy Cousins (the "Maisy" books), Eric Carle, SHARK VS. TRAIN by Chris Barton (a random find and excellent book) and all Disney princess books.
Now, I see Layla doing the same thing. She LOVES the library (although she's still getting the hang of being quiet there, sometimes we have to cut our visit short). Nowadays I get online, pick out some stuff, then it gets delivered to our branch library which is almost next door. We go over there, wander around a bit, then pick up the stack of books I requested and head home. She spends the whole week fascinated with her books, then just as she gets sick of them... we go back. I've taken this as an opportunity to get some books for myself as well, and have been devouring them at a dizzying speed. Here are some of the things we've fallen in love with.
Books I have recently loved:
Where did you go, Bernadette? Written by a Seattleite who used to live in LA, it's about... a Seattleite who used to live in LA, who gets a little crazy and then disappears. It's absolutely hysterical, especially if you have lived in Seattle or LA. The author, Maria Semple, is my new favorite. She used to write for TV shows like "Mad About You" and "Arrested Development." I like her so much I've 'liked' her on FB.
The Books of Pellinor. This epic adventure - laid out in four books, the first of which is called "The Naming" - was sort of published and forgotten about a decade ago. My mom found them at a garage sale and our whole family has devoured them. It is like Lord of the Rings except with a female hero and a more modern language. The author pretends like it is a historical manuscript, recently found and translated, but deep on her website I found admittance that this is not true (she made a pretty big effort so it seemed like it could be true!).
Other books I've read recently: Hunger Games (as good as they say), the Host by Stephanie Meyer (of Twilight, I thought it was pretty good), 50 Shades of Grey (as raunchy as they say), and several books on how to manage ornery toddlers.
Books Layla has loved:
Anything by Laura Numeroff ("If you give a mouse a cookie"), Lucy Cousins (the "Maisy" books), Eric Carle, SHARK VS. TRAIN by Chris Barton (a random find and excellent book) and all Disney princess books.
The holidays
For the holidays, Layla decided to wear her swimsuit.
She puts it on the minute she gets up (we somehow convince her to change into clothes for daycare), and the minute she gets home. She wears it to breakfast, lunch and dinner. She would wear it EVERYWHERE, except we like to consider ourselves somewhat competent parents and so far we've held off letting her go outside in it, in December, when it's almost freezing out, because that seems like something somewhat competent parents wouldn't do.
Our attitude is, a swimsuit is better than being naked, which would be her next favorite choice. It's only slightly worse than her pajamas, which was her favorite choice last month. And it's definitely better than the princess dress she wore most of the time we were visiting family in Iowa over Thanksgiving vacation.
What we decided we really ought to do is just let her wear it, and maybe even take her swimming. That seems like something somewhat competent parents would do.
She puts it on the minute she gets up (we somehow convince her to change into clothes for daycare), and the minute she gets home. She wears it to breakfast, lunch and dinner. She would wear it EVERYWHERE, except we like to consider ourselves somewhat competent parents and so far we've held off letting her go outside in it, in December, when it's almost freezing out, because that seems like something somewhat competent parents wouldn't do.
What we decided we really ought to do is just let her wear it, and maybe even take her swimming. That seems like something somewhat competent parents would do.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Fall, officially
It's officially fall when you...
GO TO THE PUMPKIN FARM!
CARVE SOME PUMPKINS!
HAVE SOME PUMPKIN PIE!
Thanks to a couple of free weekends, we have done all of the above, and even some more. Last weekend we carved pumpkins, and this weekend we went to a pumpkin farm and had some pumpkin pie (and did lots of other fun stuff too!).
We finally had some nasty fall weather, with rain, wind, and a cold cold chill this week. After a long dry bout with lots and lots of sunshine we were all finally kind of relieved to see some rain and when it came down hard we all went inside and were happy to do all those things we didn't do all summer - for our family this is making soup and apple crisp, writing letters to Grandmas, shredding stuff (I kid you not, we generate a lot of stuff to shred somehow), reading books, watching TV (I FINALLY watched Hunger Games) and Skyping with various family members.
We've been searching out indoor activities to keep our little monster busy through the winter. Last week we ventured to the library and for the first time actually checked out some books for her (it seems to be working out). We're looking into signing her up for a toddler indoor soccer team, and possibly also a dance class. We've started doing artwork at home with renewed zest, and have a lot of plans but few supplies. Lucky for us the winters here are very mild so you can often sneak in a playground trip or hang around outside at the zoo intermittently through the winter.
GO TO THE PUMPKIN FARM!
CARVE SOME PUMPKINS!
HAVE SOME PUMPKIN PIE!
Thanks to a couple of free weekends, we have done all of the above, and even some more. Last weekend we carved pumpkins, and this weekend we went to a pumpkin farm and had some pumpkin pie (and did lots of other fun stuff too!).
We finally had some nasty fall weather, with rain, wind, and a cold cold chill this week. After a long dry bout with lots and lots of sunshine we were all finally kind of relieved to see some rain and when it came down hard we all went inside and were happy to do all those things we didn't do all summer - for our family this is making soup and apple crisp, writing letters to Grandmas, shredding stuff (I kid you not, we generate a lot of stuff to shred somehow), reading books, watching TV (I FINALLY watched Hunger Games) and Skyping with various family members.
We've been searching out indoor activities to keep our little monster busy through the winter. Last week we ventured to the library and for the first time actually checked out some books for her (it seems to be working out). We're looking into signing her up for a toddler indoor soccer team, and possibly also a dance class. We've started doing artwork at home with renewed zest, and have a lot of plans but few supplies. Lucky for us the winters here are very mild so you can often sneak in a playground trip or hang around outside at the zoo intermittently through the winter.
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