I LOVE Summer!!!

I Love Summer! It's hot, it's sticky (well not really here in Michigan but all the people who are from here seem to think it's horrible humidity...they should move to the south) but those aren't the reasons I love it so much. I love it because I love summer shoes...sandals, flip flops, you name it and I love it. I used to love ALL things shoe but in the past several years my affinity for "other" shoes has lessened. I am trying to pass my love for shoes on to my beloved daughter but as you may have read in my previous post she hates shoes. It kind of makes me sad because ever since she was born shopping for myself doesn't give me the same thrill as shopping for her. I haven't let the fact that she hates shoes deter me though, I mean, she has to have shoes, right?!?! Fortunately I have The Children's Place which has many affordable options, plus I shop there so much that they invited us to their rewards program so we actually earn points for every dollar you spend and then they send us a reward certificate for $10 when we reach a certain number of points. Anyway, here's my latest purchase...

I bought both pair but they have even more colors (7 to choose from) which were so hard to resist, so I just stuck to the essentials. Anyway...I'm ready and excited for summer now!

Baby Blanket

About 2 weeks ago I finally finished the baby blanket that I was working on for a friend, I think it turned out beautifully and I am so very excited for them to use it with their little one. I thought I'd post a picture here for anyone who hasn't already seen it on Facebook. Now that I have completed the blanket I have started knitting some more dishcloths. My Grandma saw the ones I knit for my mom and wanted a few. Once I am done with those I plan on knitting another baby blanket for one of my college roommates who is due sometime in July. I debated knitting her one identical to this one but I think I'll pick out a different one for her...just to keep things a little different.

Pure Joy

So we've been leading a pretty boring life these days which probably explains the lack of posts. However, I feel like I should at least give little updates on the princess who keeps you all coming back and reading.

So here goes...

This is still my favorite age with her, she is so fun, getting more independent and yet she still loves to snuggle up with mommy. She loves to be chased and constantly wants to be outside. Pretty much all day every day she says, "wanna go bye-bye" and "outside" it makes me really sad when the weather outside is crappy and I can't take her out. Last week we had several rainy days and she would literally just stand at the window and look out. She loves to climb up and down stairs and while at B's parent's place last week she got pretty good at it; she was able to climb up and down slowly all alone as long as she held on to the rail - we did of course stay close by in case something went wrong. Not all is happy-go-lucky about this stage though. Her favorite word is "no" even if it's something she actually wants. She can throw some pretty intense tantrums (though fortunately for us they are few and far between) and she hates shoes (makes me question if she's really mine, haha). And that's it...that's all the bad! I feel pretty lucky about that, there are days when she tests my patience more than others, but all-in-all I LOVE being her mommy. She is constantly adding words to her vocabulary and now songs to her knowledge base. She still sings "EIEIO" from Old McDonald, she can sing parts of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, she has "ABCDFG" (skipping the E, probably because it sounds like D and E run together) from the alphabet song, she's been signing the Barney Song for quite some time now. She still runs to me and gives me a hug whenever I have my arms stretched out. She has finally started showing some interest in playing with baby dolls, although she typically tosses them to the side when she's done. She has her daddy wrapped around her finger...and she knows it. She realizes that when mommy says no, daddy might say yes (but not if he knows what's good for him, haha).

To sum it all up...she is pure joy!!!

Happy Easter

I know Easter was several days ago but I'm behind in getting all the pictures posted. We went to Canada to spend the weekend with family and fun was had by all. Y had a ball climbing up and down the stairs, she would stay there for hours if you allowed her to. Anyway, here are some pictures from our weekend.

Some Pictures

Last week we were so lucky to have some unbelievably nice weather here in Michigan. This March has been incredible! Normally during this time of year we're still trying to dig out from tons of snow but as you can see in the pictures there is no snow this year. Most of the days last week were in the 60's so we just had to go out and enjoy them while they lasted. Here are some pictures of us strolling around our apartment complex.

We've been searching for a chair for Y for a long time but the stores we looked at didn't have them in stock when we looked or (the really nice ones) cost a lot more than we wanna spend. I am totally amazed and the prices of some of the chairs out their for toddler aged kids. Granted some of them look a lot like real furniture for some one's house but still, I could never justify spending $75 bucks on a small chair which will likely only be used for a few years. The truly surprising thing was that many of the chairs out there can get close to $150-$200 and we don't exactly have that kinda money sitting around to throw in a chair. Our budget was more like $20 but there is almost nothing available for $20 so we settled for spending $25 (half of which Nana B agreed to subsidize as part of Y's Easter gift). Without further adieu...here's Y enjoying her new chair! Oh yeah, it was even hilarious, she picked up some reading material while sitting there and started perusing a magazine.

The Princess's Throne

At Y's 18 month well baby appointment I had planned to ask the pediatrician's opinion on potty training - when to start, methods he recommends, etc. Well I never got to ask the questions because before I even began asking any questions he started to talk about it himself. He said that we could start potty training at anytime we felt she was ready and he gave us a slew of signs to watch out for which signal she may be ready, such as: recognizing when she is wet or poopy, showing interest in using the potty, diapers not soaking wet and stuff like that. Well, she is beginning to recognize when she is wet or poopy and telling us when she needs a diaper change but not so many of the other things he mentioned. After the doctor's visit we decided that we would get Y her potty chair and as soon as it was delivered and we took it out of the box she walked right to it and sat down on her throne (with clothes on of course). She's not quite ready to start yet but when she is (even if it's several months from now)...we'll definitely be prepared.

18 Month Well Baby

On Monday, Y had her 18 month well baby appointment with her pediatrician. She is very healthy and doing extremely well. She is 33" tall and weighs 25½lbs. She is all down with her vaccinations until she is 4 years old, with the exception of the yearly flu shot.

Nursery Chronicles

Those of you who are LDS know that in our church children don't attend nursery until they turn 18 months old (those of you who aren't LDS you know it now). Needless to say I was more than ready for Y to turn 18 months so that I could turn her over to the Nursery Leaders. Y, on the other hand, was not that ready! We have taken her for the previous two Sundays and she really wants no part of it. I kind of feel as if it is our fault though, mostly because she was such a good, easy going, low maintenance baby that we literally took her everywhere with us. And in the event that we went some place where we couldn't take her (i.e. the temple or Piston's games or anniversary dinners) there was always a grandparent that was more than willing to come and watch her for us. So with the exception of once when she was 6 weeks old she has never been left with someone she isn't familiar with.

The first Sunday we took her in was March 7th, and I truly wanted to hold back for a little while simply because there were already 2 or 3 kids in there crying and I knew that would set her off for sure. Long story short, I took her in anyway and she started crying as well. Not only was she crying but she also had a firm grip on my hand making the quick getaway nearly impossible. After a few minutes of listening to her cry I pried my finger from her grasp and bolted for the door. I listened to her cry for several more minutes and then she stopped. I figured that she had just figured out that I wasn't coming back and found a toy she liked and started playing with it. It wasn't until I went back to pick her up at the end of church that I found out just how wrong I had been! Turns out she screamed unless there was someone holding her at all times and even then she would still cry. I walked in to see her with the puffiest, reddest eyes ever and when I took her from the Nursery Leader she clinched on tight to me and would not let go - she would not even let B touch her!

Fast forward a week and I was really dreading having to take her into nursery. As you know this week marked the start of Daylight Savings Time and so we "sprung forward" moving time ahead one full hour. We put Y to bed at her usual time (9pm) on Saturday night and because of the time change she slept until almost 10am Sunday morning. This year at church we are on the 1pm time schedule (which I really HATE) so typically I put her down for a nap around 11am to allow for a 1½ hour nap before leaving for church. However, since it was 10am before she woke up there was no way she was going down for a nap an hour later. So she had no nap before church and as hard as I tried she would not go to church during the Sacrament portion of church either. When Sacrament was over we walked out of the chapel and as soon as she saw the hallway which takes you to the nursery, she started crying (I assure you that is no exaggeration). I picked her up, walked her in and she cried harder. I put her down on the floor and she cried even harder. I eventually rushed out the door and as I shut it behind her I heard her screaming "mommy" while still crying. I think this went on for maybe 10 minutes before she stopped and I began to relax. About 30 minutes later I went to check on her through the peephole and see that she is laying in one of the nursery leader's arms asleep. I hated the idea of him having to sit there and hold her because it really limited his ability to interact with the other kids. So I went in to get her and as soon as I picked her up she started screaming. I was eventually able to calm her down and we went into the foyer and snuggled for a bit. About 20 minutes before church was to end I decided that we would go back in but this time rather than leave her, I would stay with her hoping that she would grow comfortable enough to maybe find a toy and play with it or interact with some of the other children. When we arrived in front of the nursery door she immediately held me tighter and in a soft, sad whimper she said, "no mommy, no mommy, no!" I could have cried, my heart broke, I have never seen her so scared and sad as she was at that moment. I went in and sat on the floor with her and she would not budge from my lap, she would not play with any toy, and she wouldn't even think of playing with the other kids.

I know that every parent deals with this struggle on some level but I am really torn between leaving her and just letting her get used to the idea or staying with her until she grows more comfortable with it. Both ideas cause me stress when I think about it because I don't want to give her a complex that we'll abandon her but at the same time if I continually stay with her I wonder if she will ever truly grow accustomed to the idea or will she always expect me to stay with her.

I have noticed in the past few months that she has grown much more attached to me than ever before so this week I'm going to try sending B in with her. That might not be the best idea either but I gotta try all my options.

Did you ever have a kid like this and if so, what did you do to help them?

18 Wonderful Months!

On March 4th our precious daughter turned 18 months!!! I think the most exciting part for me is that she can now go into nursery at church and I don't have to chase her around anymore, but more on that later. It was my intention to type up this post days ago but I really never got around to it, but better late than never is my motto!

So here goes...at 18 months our little monkey has turned into a parrot, literally! She will repeat EVERYTHING that comes out of our mouths and I have already found myself having to watch what I say. Now I never say anything really vulgar but there are somethings I say that I really don't want my 18 month old saying. Mostly just words like "shoot" and "crap" and "dang it." You know, all those words that we Mormons use instead of saying the "real" words. Anyway, back to the story. Whenever I pick her up to lay her on the changing table to dress her or change her diaper I always say, "up, up and away" and no quicker than I get it out she is giving her little rendition of what I just said. She repeats "wash hands" and just about every other word we say. She's getting really good with naming her body parts and I even got her to say "mouth" and "boca" (which is espanol for mouth). She turns absolutely anything into a telephone. Sometimes I will see her walking around the living room with a piece of paper held up to her ear while she's talking. I honestly have no idea where she got that from because I pretty much always use speakerphone...it's just easier. She loves to play with my iPod Touch and her favorite app is this stupid and simple app called the Wooo! Button. All it is, is a button on the screen that has "Wooo!!" on it and every time you press it you hear the scream WOOOO!! She absolutely LOVES it and laughs hysterically every time she presses the button...it is really entertaining. She also likes the Itsy Bitsy Spider app which sings the song and allows her to press the different characters and they move, etc.

She has graduated at the top of her baby boot camp class!!! She sleeps throughout the night, takes 2-2.5 hour naps, plays in her crib after she wakes up and sometimes she will even let us know when she is ready for bed. One night last week we were sitting and watching American Idol and she grabbed my hand and B's hand and led us to her bedroom to let us know she was ready for bed. I will admit that I sneak into her room every night before I go to bed myself and just watch her and tell her how much mommy loves her. I can still picture her as a tiny baby (actually, she was never a tiny baby but you get my point) sleeping peacefully in her crib and I honestly miss those middle of the night feedings sometimes, when I got to hold her and snuggle her close to me. I used to wonder how I would know when it was time for us to have another baby and people would tell me, "you'll just know." Well I completely understand that now. Even 3 months ago there is no way I would have said that I wanted to deal with the midnight feedings and the sleepless nights and everything else that goes with being the mother of a newborn but I'm at a totally different place right now. The ideas that I dreaded a few months ago, don't seem so horrible anymore and in fact I find myself excited for the day I get to experience them again. So ladies (and any gentlemen who read) I think we're approaching that time when we board the roller coaster of pregnancy again. We're not there yet but we are definitely approaching that gate and I can't wait to throw my hands in the air and scream at the top of my lungs!

On that note, here are a few pictures:

She insisted on picking each sprinkle off the cupcake and eating it individually before she would even think of eating any other part of the cupcake.

She is still not a fan of getting her hands dirty while she eats, but as you can tell she made a slight exception on this day. Although you can also tell that she is working diligently to get it all off her hands.

Some pictures that I snapped after church today.

If nothing else proves it, this look solidifies the fact that she is definitely MY child. This is one of my looks if I've ever seen it. Only 18 months old and she already knows her mother so well! I LOVE IT!!! haha

This stage is proving to be my favorite stage of all, thus far. She's our little clown and she gets more hilarious by the day. I can't wait until she starts making those hilarious statements that little kids always make! Motherhood is AWESOME and these have truly been the best 18 months of my life thus far because I've shared them with my wonderful husband and the perfect blend of our DNA...we got some good genes!

Part 1 of 4...

I mentioned previously that my next knitting project would be a set of matching mittens and scarves for Y and myself. Well I have finished the mittens that are for me. Since these aren't going to be used until next winter anyway, I have decided that it is okay if I take a little break and come back to finish the other parts later. The reason I'm taking an intermission? Well because a really good friend of mine is having his first baby which is due in May and I really needed to get started on the baby blanket that I'm knitting for the little munchkin. I'm really excited about this blanket and how well it is turning out thus far. I'll post pictures when it's done but for now I'll leave you with a picture of the mittens I knitted. And yes, I did the opposite colors intentionally!