See, this is the problem when you don't blog very much. You have a lot of catching up to do. So here goes:
N & Q: Years ago, Andy and Wendy got us a wooden alphabet puzzle. It was for Alli, but she didn't do much with it. Natalie however just LOVES the alphabet, so she plays with it all the time. Molly uses the letters to quiz her, and yes, at 19 months, Natalie knows most of the letters and their sounds. But for some reason, N & Q are very special to her. She walks around with them, cries if she can't find them, you name it. If we put the puzzle back together, she will always go and grab out N & Q. Not sure why. It's really funny though! And she never picks other letters, just N & Q!!
The Slide: When Alli was little, I got a hand-me-down plastic slide/climbing thing from a lady at work. Hard to describe, but it stands about 3 feet tall, has a small slide down it, and has lots of different holes and stuff so kids can climb all over it. It also has a space in the bottom for a little "club house". Anyway, it's outside on our patch of grass. But all summer long, it just sits there and is never used because it's just too hot. Idea!!! With our pool project, we kept many flagstone pieces and created a path to a flat area where the infloor cleaner pump is. We built up that area by stacking extra flagstone pieces and then moved the slide over to it. Now Alli has a path around the pool to the slide, and she can slide right into the deeper end of the pool. We broke it in last weekend. (Sorry, no pictures - we were just enjoying the moment and we were already wet.) It has been a big hit with Alli!
Purple: Natalie has 4 pacifiers. Only one is purple, the rest are pink. She now calls all pacifiers "purple", but if given the choice, she always chooses the purple one. So, we really only use 1 pacifier, unless we can't find the purple one, and then she settles for the pink. Anyway, I recently decided that she doesn't think about the pacifier until she sees it, so I thought taking it away might be a good idea. I decided she could still have it for nap times and bed. So the first day we tried it, we just told her we put it away, and Molly put all the pacifiers in a container in a drawer and didn't show Nat where they were. She's been very easy about it. We just tell her it's put away and she's good. Of course now she's chewing on her hand and the drool is horrible. But I think we are doing the right thing. She only chews on her hand with teething. I'm guessing her 2 year molars are on the move. Poor kid. She hasn't had a break from teeth since she was 2 months old!
Bagheera: Well, our beautiful old man finally got too old. He had degenerative nerve damage down his spine due to old age. What happened was he didn't alway know where his back legs/feet were. Eventually, he couldn't always get up. And sometimes he couldn't feel bowel movements come. And then for a couple of weeks he barely was able to get up by himself, and even when we helped him, he would take a couple of steps and fall. It was horrible to watch. So we decided to talk to the vet because we figured it was time. And we made the decision. And then he did great for the whole week while we waited for his appointment. Stubborn dog! But the vet said it was still the right decision. And we put him to sleep on Thursday, May 29. :( He was a good dog and we miss him.
