So, as most of you know, when Mark was in Vegas last year Baby Girl, who was 11 months old, decided to climb out of her crib, open all of her drawers and throw all of her clothes around her room. She greeted me crying at her door. I was able to distract her by sleeping on her floor for a few weeks until she decided that she should not crawl out again. Well, Tuesday morning, when Mark went in to get her, as he does every morning, she was standing happily at her door. She had been able to crawl into her crib for weeks, but had not tried to get out. Clearly it was time for a big girl bed.
We bypassed the toddler bed because she is already 36 inches tall, so really that would only last a short while. We set the bed up in her room today and she was very excited to jump on it and off of it. I was really worried about how the bedtime would go. Surprisingly, it went fairly well. I started off by laying down with her and then trying to leave. That failed. She was out of her bed before I had the safety rail back up. Then we tried laying down in my bed, which was part of our previous routine. Again, failure. So we went back to my bed, Mark placed several babies, dogs, and horses in her bed and then I took her back to my bed. I told her a story about a baby who had lots of little babies to look after and when the baby went to bed in the big girl bed, she would wake up to be a princess. When I asked her if she wanted to be a princess, it was a big yes. Then I asked if she wanted to sleep in her big girl bed to become a princess--big smiles and another big yes. So off we went to bed, I gave her a kiss and said I love you little princess and she has been sleeping ever since. All told, bedtime only took about 20 minutes. I just hope it continues to be this easy.
It amazes me how much difference 1 year has made. This time last year she was just getting stage 1 baby food, and maybe a few tiny puffs. Now she won't let us feed her or break up her sandwiches--they must be cut like mommy's. And most nights she refuses the highchair. She is very interested in the potty and we purchased one for her the other day. So now I just have to set it up for use and begin letting her explore it. Today at Home Depot she squealed, screamed and clapped when we past the toilets, so I think she is definitely interested. I'm just not sure I am ready for that kind of commitment yet. Exploring it is fine, but stopping and running to the bathroom every time we are out and she "wants to go potty." I know at some point I have to do it, but right now I'm just not into it. It may not be to practical with the Little Miss on the way. We will just have to wait and see with that one.
Also, 1 year ago she was not signing at all. Now, she can learn a new sign as soon as we introduce it to her. She combines signs and words and really listens to what you have to say. She actually sits to read a book, and even brings us books to read--something we never thought would happen outside of her bath. Being with her daily, it is difficult to see the changes, but when we sit back and think about it, it is absolutely amazing. It is very true when people say the days are very long, but the years are short.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Saturday, July 21, 2007
A visit with the grandparents
Mark's parents just left after a 3 day visit with us. Baby Girl loved having them here. We took them to the Zoo, the MO Botanical Gardens and the Fox Theater during the day. Our evenings were spent eating at on The Hill, enjoying Ted Drews, and playing at Little Gym. It was quite a long week. We are at home recovering today.
The weekend before they came we all went to Faust Park, where we played on the playground and visited the Butterfly House. While we were at the Butterfly House they had a free craft session going on in the education center. Baby Girl made a visor, a sun catcher, and colored with markers for the first time. The markers were a big hit. She loved taking the caps off and trying to get them back on.
Now we are ready to get back into our routine and we need to get working on decorating the rooms. We purchased all of the paint for the girls' rooms. And we purchased paint for our room, so it looks like the next few weeks will be spent painting away. Baby Girl is getting a pink striped room with Princess stencils. And the new Little Miss will be getting a pink and green room with various sized polka-dots in pink and green. We purchased the bedding material for my mom to make the quilt for the Little Miss, but we are still searching for bedding for Baby Girl.
In other news, Baby Girl now climbs into her crib and can take her sleepers off. Mark walked into her room about a month or two ago, only to find her completely naked in her crib. Fortunately the mess was minimal. Even though she had a dirty diaper, she did not get into it too much. We only had to sacrifice the bed sheet. All of the babies and animals survived. Now we make sure the buttons are snapped in addition to the zipper. And soon she will make the move to the new big girl bed.
Baby Girl is also refusing her high chair. This may be good because now it will be ready to take the Little Miss, and since it fully reclines we can put the baby in there as soon as she comes home from the hospital. The down side for Baby Girl is that she likes to move between the chairs while eating, so this makes meal time a bit stressful. We are going to try a booster, but I have little hope for this. I'm happy she is so independent, but it scares me too. And I miss feeding a little baby. She has not let us feed her for months now-unless she is really hungry and has no patience to do it herself.
The weekend before they came we all went to Faust Park, where we played on the playground and visited the Butterfly House. While we were at the Butterfly House they had a free craft session going on in the education center. Baby Girl made a visor, a sun catcher, and colored with markers for the first time. The markers were a big hit. She loved taking the caps off and trying to get them back on.
Now we are ready to get back into our routine and we need to get working on decorating the rooms. We purchased all of the paint for the girls' rooms. And we purchased paint for our room, so it looks like the next few weeks will be spent painting away. Baby Girl is getting a pink striped room with Princess stencils. And the new Little Miss will be getting a pink and green room with various sized polka-dots in pink and green. We purchased the bedding material for my mom to make the quilt for the Little Miss, but we are still searching for bedding for Baby Girl.
In other news, Baby Girl now climbs into her crib and can take her sleepers off. Mark walked into her room about a month or two ago, only to find her completely naked in her crib. Fortunately the mess was minimal. Even though she had a dirty diaper, she did not get into it too much. We only had to sacrifice the bed sheet. All of the babies and animals survived. Now we make sure the buttons are snapped in addition to the zipper. And soon she will make the move to the new big girl bed.
Baby Girl is also refusing her high chair. This may be good because now it will be ready to take the Little Miss, and since it fully reclines we can put the baby in there as soon as she comes home from the hospital. The down side for Baby Girl is that she likes to move between the chairs while eating, so this makes meal time a bit stressful. We are going to try a booster, but I have little hope for this. I'm happy she is so independent, but it scares me too. And I miss feeding a little baby. She has not let us feed her for months now-unless she is really hungry and has no patience to do it herself.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Baby Girl gets a little sister, and our Disney Vacation
She finally stopped hiding, and let all of us see that she is a little baby girl. Sisters, how sweet. I can't wait to pull out all of the baby clothes and use these again. How perfect that they will be 23 months apart, so seasonally, everything should work out just fine. What I am not looking forward to--pulling out the swing. Baby Girl loves to swing and she is going to be pissed that she can't get in the house swing. She also loves the Intellitainer, but I don't care if she gets in this, she can't get hurt. And the new baby will not use it for about 3 or 4 months.
We just returned from a 2 week Disney vacation--well, Mark worked for half of it, but the rest of the time was vacation. We had a great time. One day when we were down there, I woke up and felt the baby moving in all sorts of new ways. I guess overnight she decided it was time to start getting ready. I had a good feeling that we would know the gender when we returned. I was pretty confident that she was no longer breech. We stayed at a Disney hotel, just across the street from Downtown Disney. It was great because any package we purchased at Disney could be delivered to our hotel, free of charge.
We had a 7-day pass to the parks so we went to all 4, and to Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom twice. The employees at Disney are all trained very well. They do a great job of making you happy and keeping the place spotless. And they enforce the no-smoking policy. I thought this was great. I always hate going to crowded events where people are smoking. Aside from the smell, which makes my stomach turn during pregnancy, I am always afraid I will get burned when walking past someone.
I was pleasantly surprised that I could ride the majority of the rides. I had fully intended to sit outside while Mark and Baby Girl enjoyed the fun. The only thing they went on that I could not, was the Jungle Safari at Animal Kingdom. I did this last year, so it was no big deal. I highly recommend it to anyone going to Animal Kingdom--and get the FastPass as soon as you arrive, because they are usually gone by 1 or 2 pm.
MGM was the only park that I found disappointing. It was a sea of concrete, difficult to navigate, and not really too much to do. However, the real problem was the dining choices. There were very few quick places that had AC, and all of the full service places were booked months ago. If you plan to go to MGM, make dining reservations in advance. They start booking 180 days out. The same goes for all of the parks. However, aside from the Character dining, most places can accommodate you if you call a day or so in advance. We did take Baby Girl to a 30 minute musical production of Beauty and the Beast. She loved it. She watched and danced and pointed through most of it. Only a few times did she completely seem uninterested. 20 minutes would probably have been better for her, but even so, I was happy to see her enjoy herself.
Magic Kingdom is really the best of the parks. There are so many rides and the parades and fireworks at the end of the evening were really spectacular. We sat at a table near Main Street, where you could see the parade, and then we could get ice cream and wait 30 minutes for the fireworks to star. The fireworks were slightly blocked by the trees, but since Baby Girl is so young, we figured, it was better for us to be comfortably sitting while waiting. As we waited for the fireworks, many people walked by, looking for a spot to sit. It was funny to listen to the 40-50 year old dads comment about the possibility of seeing Tinker Bell fly by from our location. She was blocked for a moment, but then you could see her just fine.
Animal Kingdom is beautiful. It is easy to forget you are in an amusement park while you are there. And they have lots of good snack options. Some of the places have a great fruit and cheese tray. It was nice to have a change from traditional snacks. They did a good job of creating traditional looking structures throughout the park.
Epcot had great food in the World Showcase. I had been wanting a gyro for months, and when we went to Morocco for lunch, I saw it as soon as we walked it. Baby Girl was asleep in her stroller, so were were lucky enough to enjoy a great lunch without a squirming baby. The Future World Showcase had some fun rides, and some interesting organic gardens, but some of the inovention stuff left off with the advances of the Internet--the Internet starting getting big almost 15 years ago now. If they don't update soon, they may need to change the name from Future World. This was the most relaxing of the parks, lots of rides and shows in the AC. We watched a movie about France that made me want to travel there. We found a great spot to watch the fireworks and light show.
Well, that is about it for all of the parks. Downtown Disney was great. They had lots of fun free shows for children. One night while Mark worked I took Baby Girl to Wolfgang Puck's for dinner (we ate there like 6 nights because it was so good). After dinner we went by the lake where two Disney employees were doing a dance and singing show that had all sorts of follow-me dances. Baby Girl was out there dancing and following along as best as she could. She was knocked over a few times by some older children, and once by a crazy mom, but she would just get right back up and start dancing again. We stayed for about 2 hours, then i took her back to the room, where she was down for the night. I did not have my video camera with me since I was by myself. I would have loved to have some footage of that night.
We just returned from a 2 week Disney vacation--well, Mark worked for half of it, but the rest of the time was vacation. We had a great time. One day when we were down there, I woke up and felt the baby moving in all sorts of new ways. I guess overnight she decided it was time to start getting ready. I had a good feeling that we would know the gender when we returned. I was pretty confident that she was no longer breech. We stayed at a Disney hotel, just across the street from Downtown Disney. It was great because any package we purchased at Disney could be delivered to our hotel, free of charge.
We had a 7-day pass to the parks so we went to all 4, and to Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom twice. The employees at Disney are all trained very well. They do a great job of making you happy and keeping the place spotless. And they enforce the no-smoking policy. I thought this was great. I always hate going to crowded events where people are smoking. Aside from the smell, which makes my stomach turn during pregnancy, I am always afraid I will get burned when walking past someone.
I was pleasantly surprised that I could ride the majority of the rides. I had fully intended to sit outside while Mark and Baby Girl enjoyed the fun. The only thing they went on that I could not, was the Jungle Safari at Animal Kingdom. I did this last year, so it was no big deal. I highly recommend it to anyone going to Animal Kingdom--and get the FastPass as soon as you arrive, because they are usually gone by 1 or 2 pm.
MGM was the only park that I found disappointing. It was a sea of concrete, difficult to navigate, and not really too much to do. However, the real problem was the dining choices. There were very few quick places that had AC, and all of the full service places were booked months ago. If you plan to go to MGM, make dining reservations in advance. They start booking 180 days out. The same goes for all of the parks. However, aside from the Character dining, most places can accommodate you if you call a day or so in advance. We did take Baby Girl to a 30 minute musical production of Beauty and the Beast. She loved it. She watched and danced and pointed through most of it. Only a few times did she completely seem uninterested. 20 minutes would probably have been better for her, but even so, I was happy to see her enjoy herself.
Magic Kingdom is really the best of the parks. There are so many rides and the parades and fireworks at the end of the evening were really spectacular. We sat at a table near Main Street, where you could see the parade, and then we could get ice cream and wait 30 minutes for the fireworks to star. The fireworks were slightly blocked by the trees, but since Baby Girl is so young, we figured, it was better for us to be comfortably sitting while waiting. As we waited for the fireworks, many people walked by, looking for a spot to sit. It was funny to listen to the 40-50 year old dads comment about the possibility of seeing Tinker Bell fly by from our location. She was blocked for a moment, but then you could see her just fine.
Animal Kingdom is beautiful. It is easy to forget you are in an amusement park while you are there. And they have lots of good snack options. Some of the places have a great fruit and cheese tray. It was nice to have a change from traditional snacks. They did a good job of creating traditional looking structures throughout the park.
Epcot had great food in the World Showcase. I had been wanting a gyro for months, and when we went to Morocco for lunch, I saw it as soon as we walked it. Baby Girl was asleep in her stroller, so were were lucky enough to enjoy a great lunch without a squirming baby. The Future World Showcase had some fun rides, and some interesting organic gardens, but some of the inovention stuff left off with the advances of the Internet--the Internet starting getting big almost 15 years ago now. If they don't update soon, they may need to change the name from Future World. This was the most relaxing of the parks, lots of rides and shows in the AC. We watched a movie about France that made me want to travel there. We found a great spot to watch the fireworks and light show.
Well, that is about it for all of the parks. Downtown Disney was great. They had lots of fun free shows for children. One night while Mark worked I took Baby Girl to Wolfgang Puck's for dinner (we ate there like 6 nights because it was so good). After dinner we went by the lake where two Disney employees were doing a dance and singing show that had all sorts of follow-me dances. Baby Girl was out there dancing and following along as best as she could. She was knocked over a few times by some older children, and once by a crazy mom, but she would just get right back up and start dancing again. We stayed for about 2 hours, then i took her back to the room, where she was down for the night. I did not have my video camera with me since I was by myself. I would have loved to have some footage of that night.
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