Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Life with a 2-1/2 year old
Our family sleeping has been much better since Grandma Rickey suggested that Bagheera sleep with Alli. It's been heaven since we made that switch - both kids in the room together and mommy and daddy finally having a bed to themselves. Ahhhhh!
Alli's speech is so complete I can't believe she has more to learn. She carries on conversations very well. And for any parent that doesn't think kids learn the most by example should be shot. We see everything we do someone echoed by Alli. Right now, she asks if she can do, well, anything. It just dawned on my the other day that this was because Kim and I ask her before we do anything - something we learned to do with her in our communication exploration during the terrible twos stage.
And during this Christmas break, mommy was terribly sick. But I had Alli taking care of me when daddy was out riding. She gave me stickers and fed me tea (pretend tea from her tea set). What more could a mommy want!!!
Christmas was also quite fun with her. She asked to open everyone's presents. And we gladly said yes (except for Bagheera, who likes to open his own gifts!)
We are looking forward to seeing more changes in our little angel during the new year.
Monday, December 6, 2010
How the Big Girl Bed has Changed our Sleeping
Alli has done a *great* job of staying in bed she goes to sleep at night. We rarely have a problem. But.... she gets out of bed when she wakes up in the morning - no matter how early. She doesn't come into our room, instead she stands in the hallway just outside her room and lets out a little cry. It doesn't matter if we tell her she can come into our room, she just stands there. So, daddy usually climbs out of bed and brings her to our bed so we can get just that extra 15-20 minutes of snoozing in.
But lately it has gotten a little worse. Now she's waking up in the middle of the night, like 2:30am and standing in the hall and letting out her little cry. We usually don't bring her to our bed if we have hours of sleep left, so one of us, usually me, takes her back to bed and if necessary, lays with her until after she falls asleep. But this has also progressed to just going to bed with her in her twin-sized bed (hence the reason it's usually me.) While it's adorable to roll over and see this beautiful little girl sound asleep, it's also, well, not such a good night sleep. When she changes position, an arm usually goes out to make sure I'm still there. Stinker! :D
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Baggy Loves Alli
-KimG
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Bye Bye Underwear
On other notes though, she is excelling. Everything is by color: "Mommy, what is that?" "No, it's 'blue'!" :D
We found out that she likes some of Britney Spears' songs. It's really cute to see her shake her bootie, which she is doing quite a bit these days.
She understands so much about everything, and she wants to do everything that mommy does. She helps me cook meals, do laundry, etc. She also wants to wear similar clothes - if I have a jacket on, she needs a jacket. If I take my socks off, she takes her socks off. It's really cute.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Happy Halloween!
We went to the first house and we knocked on the door. I told her when the person answered she should yell "trick-or-treat". She did - without any prompting. We were quite impressed. Then she handed the lady the candy from her own bag. We laughed. It's nice that she was ready to give!! :) The 3 of us helped her with the candy and then we went walking to the next house.
This house however had lots of people sitting outside, and Kim and I knew the parents. With all the commotion, Alli got shy. So up in my arms she went and wouldn't say a word. Unfortunately, she never got over it. So we hit 4-5 houses total and then just went back home. She was much more talkative there - hanging out with us and the neighbors out front with a fire in the pit beside the driveway.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
Alli's First Haircut
And, in typical Guerrette style, the camera and video camera were going the whole time!
Alli's Getting a Bed
We've know for several months that Alli could climb out of her crib. The first few times she did it were out of frustration, tantrum really, when we put her in time-out in her crib (a bad practice that we stopped shortly after starting). We weren't too worried, however, because we stopped punishing her by putting her in her crib, and she stopped climbing out.
We knew it wouldn't last. For the past couple of nights, Alli has been climbing out of her crib because she wasn't ready to go to sleep. Jenny and I would put her to bed, then a couple minutes later we'd hear her door open and hear her walk into the kitchen to tell us something. I think we both laughed a litte, regained composure, and told Alli that she wasn't allowed to climb out of bed. That didn't really work as she's been getting out of bed 2 or 3 times per night. She asked that we keep her door open when we put her in her crib. We obliged thinking that would keep her happy enough to keep her in bed. Sometimes we'll check on her after 5 or ten minutes only to find her standing in her doorway, listening to us.
This morning, the girl who normally wakes up at 6am-ish, walked into our room at 7:30am. She's so cute. Jenny and I both said, "Good morning, Alli!" She ran to me at the side of the bed closest to the door and said, "Daddy, I poopied." Jenny and I laughed.
-- Kim
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
What's Been Going On
In the last month, more words/sentences have been coming out of her mouth. Baggy (or Geera) has turned into Bagheera. Phrases have turned into complete sentences - like "Bagheera, what are you doing under the table?" It's quite fun to watch her blossom!
Potty training is...well...still challenging. She still hasn't made the connection of when she has to go, so we still have to make her go sit on the potty periodically. And poopies have not been on the toilet at all - those she still goes and runs away and pushes while hiding in a corner. :)
She is learning lots of new songs at school, which is fun. And she has finally learned her colors. Yay! But it's now a big deal if I pull out a sippy cup and she doesn't want that particular color today... Ugh!
Alli is *very* independent. While it's frustrating to wait for her to finish something, it's also more time consuming if I don't. For instance, if I try to help pull her shirt off of her cause she's having problems getting it over her head, she winds up in a complete melt-down because *she* wanted to do it. So we have to put the shirt back on and start all over again. There are times where she walks an item back to where I got it from just so she can pick it up herself. Sometimes that's really funny, and other times, well, when you're in a hurry...
Her teacher (Miss Flo) says she often confuses Alli with a 3 year old because she is mature for her age and she hangs out with the 3 year old girls when they get the classes together. As soon as she figures out the potty-training, she'll be moving up to join them. :)
We also started her in a little gymnastics program at a place called "The Little Gym". She *loves* it. They have all sorts of gymnastics equipment which Alli gets to explore. She really likes the balance beam and hanging from the bars. :) We (the parents) are also learning how to spot the kids so that we can help them with flips, learn how to teach them the beginnings of hand stands, cart wheels, etc. It's a cool little place and Alli gets excited when I tell her we are going to the gym.
And speaking of work outs, mommy started running consistently again. So what happened? Alli wanted to start running. Last night she decided she wanted to go and we took off and wound up going probably 1/4 mile!! Nice work little girl!!! (She had to walk half way up one of the hills.)
Alli also had her first boat ride last weekend. She was soooo excited and did an excellent job swimming in the middle of the lake with her life jacket on. I was pretty amazed that she didn't get scared. She even jumped off the back of the boat holding my hand to get into the water. Big girl!!!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
2nd Day of Daycare
She is very chatty all the way home, which is quite fun for mommy. Both mommy and daddy keep thinking that in 2 days she has matured months. It's crazy - but also exciting!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Potty Training Attempt #1
If you take Alli to the toilet, she will go - even if you ask her if she has to and she says "no", she will typically manage to get something out.
So yesterday I went to pick her up at Marcie's and we wound up staying and swimming with all the kids. When we got out of the pool, Marcie said "oh yea, I forgot to tell you that I was running low on diapers, so now I don't have any." Well, there was nothing we could do except put her in big-girl panties, so we grabbed a pair of Reegan's (4T - a bit big for Alli) and told her "you have to go potty on the toilet now - you have big girl underwear on." We assumed this would work, plus we were planning on setting her on the toilet every 1/2 hour or so.
5 minutes after getting the underpants on, she pooped in them. Ugh. Okay, so I took her to the bathroom, cleaned her up, set her on the toilet (nothing came out), and got another pair of Reegan's underwear. "Alli, if you have to go potty, you need to tell Mommy or Marcie and we'll help you sit on the toilet."
10 minutes after that incident: "MOMMY!!! AHHHHHHHH". "Alli - your pants are wet..." Ugh. So, we cleaned up mess #2, sat Alli on the toilet again (and again, nothing came out), and grabbed yet another pair of Reegan's underwear.
20 minutes into dinner: "MOMMY - OUT!!!" "Alli - you went potty while you were eating??? Ugh..." By this time, Reegan was protesting us using her underwear and decided that what Alli needed was a pair of Gage's underwear. I surely didn't mind if Alli wore boys underwear, but Marcie said no and Reegan had to give up yet another pair...
15 minutes later, we went home. The first thing I did was put her in a diaper. :)
Today we decided we would just see if it was a fluke last night...
Alli has a little training toilet at our house that Marcie gave us and Alli likes to use (cause she can do it herself). This morning we dressed her in big girl underwear and before we left the house, I told her we had to go potty. She told me to stay in the hallway. She went to the bathroom, closed the door, and wanted to do it all herself. Well, she needed help pulling down the underwear so she finally let me in to help, and then shoo'd me out. She went potty in the little toilet and even picked up the little toilet and dumped the pee into the big toilet. Then I helped her get some TP and we finished the process. What a big girl!!! Surely last night was just a fluke...
Verdict today from Marcie? Alli wet her underwear twice in a 30 minute period! And then she wet a 3rd pair while standing in the garage, and instead of wanting to be changed, she wanted to ride a bike.
We're going back to pull-up diapers for a little while....
Saturday, June 5, 2010
I Go Potty Mommy
Yesterday I just sat her on the toilet a few times and 3 times for that day something came out. Hooray!!!
Tonight we were out to dinner and I went to the bathroom. When I came back she said "I go potty mommy" so I turned around and took her into the bathroom. I put her on the toilet and low and behold - she went! I was SOOOO excited!
Gonna go out and buy more pull-ups!!! :D
Sunday, May 16, 2010
I'm Two!!!
Our theme was Elmo.
Alli ate her entire cupcake (vanilla, with whipped frosting).
Things she is doing:
- Echoing *everything* we say!
- Talking in sentences
- Pretend play
- Doing puzzles
- Sorting (although I can't tell if it's by color or shape)
And one thing that I'm noticing is if I tell her "5 minutes and then we have to go to bed" or whatever we have to do, it avoids huge fights and tantrums. She just stops what she's doing and says "okay Mommy".
2-year doctor's visit not scheduled yet, so weight/height stats will be coming later, but based on our scale, she is tipping a huge 22 lbs. :D
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
No More Bottles!
It was a little struggle in Houston, but she did pretty good. When she asked for milk, I told her she could have it in a cup because we didn't have any bottles. She always chose water instead. Coming home was a different story. I ran into the house before we unloaded her and I hid every bottle we had in the house. When she asked for milk and I told her it had to be in a cup. She started digging through the drawers to find a bottle. It is now the weekend after Houston and she is rarely asking for milk, but she also doesn't raise quite the fuss when I tell her it has to be in a cup, she just moves on to water.
Success!! Now if she'll only start drinking her milk again...
Friday, April 23, 2010
My Best Friend
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Swimming
Daddy and I kept trying, slowly. But we didn't want to push her. So we stayed in the hot tub for about an hour - throwing the ball for Bagheera who is currently the only one in the family brave enough to face the cold water in the swimming pool. (He's also not allowed in the hot tub, so that probably has something to do with it.) By the end of the hour, Alli was comfortable enough to walk along the entire outter seat of the pool, and even kneel down until her mouth went under water. We figured that was good enough, and we also realized that we had better take her "swimming" every weekend now, and possibly once a month through winter so she doesn't lose so much between seasons.
Friday, March 26, 2010
March is Eventful!
Last weekend, we were in the ER for Croup again. Ugh. Alli was fine - no sign of anything and then woke up at 11pm wheezing and coughing. The wheezing was bad so off we went to the ER. It won us a 3.5 hour stay (because they wanted to monitor her until the steroids kicked in). Boy, we knew when that was because she had the wonderful reaction of GETTING ENERGY from them! Yes, a bouncing baby at 4am. Yikes. When we got home, she just wanted to play with all her toys. She finally dozed off at about 6:30am, but then woke up promptly by 8. Needless to say, the whole family was a bit out of sorts the next day. She's doing fine now - a lingering cough but nothing much else.
And today was hectic, not because of Alli, but because of Bagheera. Earlier this morning Alli and I went outside. We were in and out of the house and garage, no biggie. So then I decide we should have a snack and go to the park before I drop her off at Marcie's. So she sits down and eats some oranges and I realize there is no dog. So I go looking for Bagheera and I found he had inadvertently got locked in the garage. Apparently, he decided that this was his golden opportunity to EAT THE DIAPERS IN THE POOP trashcan that we keep in the garage so Alli's room doesn't stink. There were diaper remnants, dirty wipes, and poop smeared all over the garage. I actually started gagging as I was trying to clean it up. Needless to say, we didn't make it to the park.
After I dropped Alli off, I came home and decided the whole house smelled like poop so I bathed the dog, opened all thewindows, and lit a bunch of candles.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Shape Sorter
Monday, March 8, 2010
February Stuff
So February events for Alli:
We went sledding in Forest Lakes over the weekend of Feb. 12-14. There was a *ton* of snow! We were so excited to take her down the hill, after all, she loves going fast in the wagon and every other thing she does. But the snow gave her a different want. OUT! She wanted nothing to do with the snow. She *hated* it. Don't set her down in it. Don't put her hand near it. Don't make her sit on a sled on it. Ugh. What a bummer. By the end of our two days of snow play, we got her to go down the hill with us a couple of times (about 10 feet of total travel distance each time) and she cried the entire time down every trip! We also made her walk in the snow, which she cried the whole time as well. Maybe next year she will see the fun of playing in snow…
The one thing I've noticed as a big change for her is she's starting to wake up happy. Instead of crying to get us to grab her, she's finally yelling "MOMMY". We enjoy that much better. And every now and then she just stays in her room quietly and we realize she's awake because Bagheera wanders in and we hear her talking to him. :) That is an *extra special* morning.
We have had to learn a lot about discipline lately. She definitely is hitting the 2's and wants her independence. There are choices we don't agree with though and since she doesn't seem to listen to reason (yet), we have to discipline. We do try to tell her why - she's a smart kid, so at some point she's going to understand it.
She plays several different video games on her iPhone (daddy's old phone). "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Wheels on the Bus", "Hatch", "Peekaboo Barn" and "ABC Animals". But now we don't start the games for her, we just hand her the phone and she knows how to turn it on, get into the interface, and pick the game of her choice. Yikes!!
Alli is also quite the parrot. And now that she's reaching 2, we hear "no" a lot more. It's really cute though. You say something like "Alli, do you want to kiss Bagheera?" And she'll say "No, no kiss Bagheera". It's always "No, no" whatever you said. I've had her say some ridiculous things, so I know she doesn't mean "no", she's just reciting. It does get a little trying though if we are trying to figure out what she wants!
Oh, one other thing that I would love to document. Marcie's youngest is a year older than Alli. His name is Gage. The interaction between the two of them is just adorable. Gage answers the door in the morning when Alli arrives and he is always very excited. Likewise, Alli is always excited to see Gage. It's so cute to watch them talk to each other in the morning. The other day, Alli was at home playing with a phone. Her standard phrase when she plays is "Hello? Hi. Blah, blah, blah. Ok, bye." Clearly my conversations must take that pattern. But then she threw in a new one… "Hello? Hi Gage. Blah, blah, blah. Bye". Awwwww, she's calling Gage!! :D
And as for the toilet thing? Yea, that was a fad. She doesn't even want to sit on the toilet anymore. Oh well. When she's ready...
Saturday, January 23, 2010
What a Big Girl!
Last week, Alli started a new trick. She started climbing out of her crib. Yikes! Yes, a very daring trick. So far, no injuries. We're not ready to move her into a bed, so we're going to have to deal with this a different way. (And no, I don't want to put a net over the top.) We were going to take the bumpers off, but then I saw her do it. She doesn't use the bumpers at all. She's able to hoist her leg to the top bar, then she pulls herself up so that she is parallel with it, then lets herself go over, holding on tight with her hands and then she drops. Holy crap! Little gymnast!
The next big change we've seen in her is just blurting out things we didn't realize she knew. Like Zebra, Monkey, yellow... And then most of the words to the songs on her kiddie CD. Yes, most of the words. The songs she likes the best right now are the ones with hand motions, like Itsy, Bitsy Spider and Wheels on the Bus. It's just really cute to hear her sing.
And for the hat trick.... going pee-pees on the toilet. Yes, we've had a few successes. Not that we are trying to potty train, we aren't. But every night she wants a bath after dinner, and she runs in there butt naked and I hurry up and whisk her into the bathtub. As soon as the water starts running (and sometimes before) she goes pee. So, I decided I would instead whisk her onto the toilet. And it worked, she went pee-pees in the toilet before her bath. We were both very proud of her. So then today we lost her in the house, and when we found her, she was in a bathroom next to the toilet raising the seat and saying pee-pees. So Daddy helped her get on the toilet and sure enough, she went! So we were praising her about it and she was proud. We'll see what happens and if this progresses. I would think 20 months is still young for potty training, which is why I'm not going to push it. But if she wants to do it herself, I'm all for it!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Happy New Year!
When we got home, the trend continued. Tonight was the first sign of it reverting back to normal, which I will gladly accept. It's not that I don't want Alli to grow up, it's just that she still eats with her hands and sitting in a big girl seat tends to be.... very messy as she touches EVERYTHING, including the fabric seat with her sauced hands!!