Smarty Pants

Y never ceases to amaze us with just how bright she is.  She seems to remember absolutely everything and she really just seems to have a natural knack for learning and grasping new concepts.

Here lately she has started to really begin to love the different letters of the alphabet and spelling them out as she sees them.  It started one Saturday when I was dressing Q for our family photos.  I had just taken the tag off of Q's Shirt - it was from The Children's Place.  If you've never seen a TCP price tag it's just a white rectangle piece of cardstock with the price on one side and "place" written in all caps on the other side.  Well Y picks up the tag and very nonchalantly says, "P-L-A-C- Mommy what's that one?"  I told her it was an "E"  and then she started again, "P-L-A-C-E." 

It completely surprised me.  I mean she's been reciting her alphabet for longer than I can remember it seems and I knew that she even recognized many of them - she has the alphabet magnets and would pick out certain letters but never before had she ever spelled anything out to either of us.  It both amazed and excited me!

Since then it seems as if she has taken more of an interest in spelling things, while talking to B's parents on Skype she will have me spell out the names of people she knows and she will search for and press each letter until the person's name is typed out completely on the screen. Or if we're out and about she will spell out the word(s) she sees.

I guess this is pretty typical for children who happen to be the first child but it's completely new and exciting to me!  Now I want to start working with her to teach her to recognize the sounds of each letter in hopes that maybe she'll start kindergarten knowing how to read instead of learning how to read in kindergarten.

No pressure though - as far as I can tell she's already ahead of the game!

The "X" Factor

I should start by saying that this post has absolutely nothing to do with the show, The X Factor, it is instead a record of just how powerful an "X" can be.

Y has always been a snugly person.  She was a baby that was pretty much held constantly and loved to be snuggled.  Each morning I'd bring her into bed with me and we would snuggle and sleep sometimes until 10 or 11am.  She has always loved being snuggled up next to mommy or daddy but she loved it even more when it was both!

As she has gotten older and bigger it has become more and more uncomfortable to have her in our bed.  Before getting pregnant with Q and even during the early months of pregnancy I'd simply take her back to her room whenever she'd come climbing into bed with us.  But then she smartened up, she'd walk over to B's side of the bed (he was least likely to notice and definitely least likely to react) and sleep with her head at the foot of the bed instead of snuggled tightly between us at the head of the bed.  I would wake in the morning surprised both that she was in our bed and that I hadn't known she was in our bed.  This worked to her advantage for a while, until my bladder started getting the best of me and I'd wake several times each night.  But by that point I was far too big to be able to pick her up anymore and so I'd leave her there, allowing her to sleep in our bed.

After Q was born, Y would wake up every time Q cried (the downfall of them sharing a room) and since we had issues with the latch and reflux, that was quite often.  I relented and decided that the only way Y was going to get any sleep was to allow her to go sleep in our bed whenever she woke up.  I did it mostly because since I wasn't getting much sleep myself the last thing I wanted was a toddler running around with little or no sleep!

But finally, Q was better at sleeping and waking up far less so I decided it was time to get Y to sleep in her bed again.  I tried taking her back to her bed when she came to ours but I'd always find her back in our bed again when I woke in the morning.  We checked out a book about a little boy who wouldn't sleep in his own bed and what his dad finally did to get him to stay in his own room, she failed to realize the connection.  And then one day she said she wanted to put stickers on her "potty training chart," even though she hasn't had a potty chart for well over 6 months...but it got the wheels in my head turning.

She had loved putting the stickers on her potty chart each time she went potty.  So I told her that we would make her a sleep training chart and that each morning if she went to sleep all on her own and stayed in her bed the entire night (she's not allowed in our bed until it's light outside) then she would get to put a sticker on the chart and she'd get a treat in the morning.  It was a Sunday night that we started it and she was so excited about her chart.  I printed it up and hung it on the wall in the kitchen just like we had done her potty chart but that night and the next two nights she still ended up in my bed before morning. 

So finally on Wednesday I looked at the still blank chart and decided we needed a way to mark her progress and so I placed an X on the previous 3 days representing Sunday night, Monday night and Tuesday night.  Well I was amazed at just how upset she got with the sight of those 3 X's on her chart.  She did not like them at all!!!  And so when Wednesday night came and it was time for her to go to bed she came to hug me and said, "Mommy I'm gonna sleep in my bed all night so that I can get a sticker and a treat tomorrow, and NO X!"  I of course was quite skeptical but I hugged her and said that she was a big girl and told her that I knew she could to it.

She woke up that night around 11pm, after B was already in bed asleep, and she headed towards our door.  I was doing some knitting and so I looked at her and said, "remember, if you sleep in our bed you get an X."  She stood by our door and pondered it a while before walking over to me and climbing in my lap.  I snuggled her a while and then took her back to her room where she climbed in her bed and promptly went back to sleep. 

At 1am I was woken up to her screaming, "Daddy, Daddy" over and over again (when I asked B about it the next day he had no recollection of even hearing her - must be nice). I went in and told her that Daddy was already asleep and that he wouldn't be coming in with her but of course her screaming had already woken Q up and made her realize it had been a while since she had eaten!  While I nursed Q she went back to sleep and I didn't hear another peep out of her until 7:30am when she comes bouncing in our room so proud that she had slept through the night in her own bed.  I, of course, made a big deal out of it as did B when he came home from work. 

I was truly amazed that she had done it and she did it not because she got to put a sticker on the chart or even because she knew she'd get a piece of candy - she did it all because she didn't want an X on her chart!  It's amazing how the child's mind can work.  And here we are nearly 3 weeks later and aside from those original 3 X's she only has 2 more X's on that chart!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is typically a pretty quiet holiday at our place, and this year was no exception.  B's parents come each year and this year we also invited the missionaries over.  I cooked all the food - from scratch - but had a bit of help from my Mother-in-Law which was definitely appreciated during those times when I had to go and nurse Q.  This year I was a bit ahead of the game though because I started all the prep work for the meal on Tuesday.  If you're curious about the menu, it was:  Turkey (as usual, but I did try a new marinade this year which was a HUGE hit), mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, and homemade macaroni and cheese.  For dessert we had apple crisp and cherry pie (made completely from scratch, no store bought pie filling!  I'm very proud of this fact if you can't tell) both served with vanilla ice cream.  Dinner was great...dessert was even better!

Here are some photos Nana B. took while I was hard at work in the kitchen!

We headed out to go do our Black Friday shopping at 9:45pm - Walmart opened at 10pm - and Walmart is definitely one store I will be skipping in the future, at least until later in the day.  I've been to Walmart on Black Friday before but this was the first year I was there when the sales first started.  Let's just say it was an experience that I don't care to repeat again...and I did it all for a Bissell 3-in-1 Stick Vac!  After Walmart we headed to Kohl's and waiting outside for 15 minutes until the store opened at midnight.  This was the first time Nana B went with us on Black Friday so we left the girls home with Grandpa P.  While in Kohl's our strategy was to have B wait in line while Nana B. and I did all the shopping and periodically dropped things off to him...it worked and we were out of there in just over 2 hours.  Our next stop, JCPenney wasn't going to open until 3:30am so we had just over an hour to spare so we headed back home so I could nurse Q which would hopefully hold her over until we were done.  Our timing couldn't have been more perfect because she was awake sitting on the couch with Grandpa P. when we walked through the door.  She was sitting there quite peacefully with him and he said she's only woken up about 10 minutes prior to us arriving home.  I nursed her and we chatted for a bit before heading out again.  We finished up at JCPenney and were home by 5:45am.  I was in bed by 6am and almost as soon as I laid down Q woke up but I was so tired by that point I just nursed her in our bed while I slept.  But by 8am she was bright eyed and bushy tailed and that was the end of my sleep.  It was crazy and it was exhausting but all of our Christmas shopping is done!

2011 Family Photos

Back in September we bought a Groupon for a photo session at JCPenney Portrait Studios.  Today is the day we went to have the pictures taken, and here are the results:

The three poses we ordered:

And here is a collage with all the poses we took:



It's Happening...

Before we started trying to get pregnant, during my entire pregnancy and even after Q was born I spent a lot of time worrying about how Y would react to and treat Q.  When we first brought Q home Y tottered between being overly affectionate towards Q and being pretty mean to her - pulling her hair, hitting her, pretty much anything that she knew would make Q cry.  But more recently she's really started to show much more affection towards her baby sister, and this is more of a gentle affection!

Each morning while I prepare breakfast for Y and myself I put Q in her swing.  Well while I am making breakfast Y has started pulling up her rocking chair in front of the swing and "reading" to Q based on the pictures in the book.  Here she is reading her Thumbelina and I'm not sure how obvious it is in this photo but they are both smiling.

These are the moments when I love my job the most!



3 Months Old!

On Tuesday, Q turned 3 months old and so, as has become tradition, I had to take some photos to upload to the blog and write a post about her.

At some point during the last month I was really able to begin to relax and fall into a more settled routine with all the chaos around here.  Q truly seems to be a completely different baby these days - the fussy baby of old seems to be a thing of the past!  She is sleeping great, she's slept through the night for the past 2 days waking at 7:40am and 8:40am respectively.  And even prior to that she would only wake up once per night between 4-5am and then go back to sleep until somewhere between 8-9am.  She loves to coo and babble what seems to be constantly at times. 

She is also a great nurser, so much so that she had started refusing the bottle.  I say "had" because while visiting with friends on Tuesday one offered to attempt to give her a bottle and she drank it all with little or no fussing...little stinker!  So today I tried it before heading out to the gym but it didn't work, she screamed her head off until she finally gave up and fell asleep (then I woke her and nursed her before leaving).  Then while I was cooking dinner she wanted to eat and so I told B to give her a bottle.  He tried to give it to her while standing close to me and she wasn't having it.  He moved a little farther away and guess what?  Yep, she drank the bottle!

She loves to be talked to and 99% of the time when you talk to her she will "talk" back and she always has a smile waiting when we talk to her.  She's never been a girl to take a pacifier but she has managed to discover her fingers and unless she's eating or sleeping (we still swaddle her) the chances are good that you'll find those hands in or near her mouth.  For those who are wondering:  yes, she does still have those blue eyes though there's still time for them to change.  And honestly, sometimes they appear to be more gray depending on the lighting.  We're still battling reflux though with the medication she's much, much better.

I am often asked about the differences in temperament between Y and Q now that things are a bit more settled.  And while both were/are relatively happy babies, Q seems to be a bit more high maintenance than Y was.  Q is very particular as to how she likes to be held and even when she likes to be held.  It always amazes people that majority of the time she'd rather you laid her on a blanket on the floor than to have anyone hold her.  She can literally be in a super fussy mood but the moment you lay her on the floor, all is well with the world!  But even given their differences we love them just the same and can't wait until they start to grow and play together.

I know all of the pictures included here are pretty much the same but they're all so cute and I love all the different facial expressions that I had a hard time narrowing it down and just choosing a couple.  So you get a collage instead.  And I can finally say, by viewing these and other photos that we've taken, Q looks like my mom.  It took us a while to figure out exactly who she favored but after seeing these pictures it's pretty undeniable! Needless to say this makes my mom very, very happy!

Sisterly Love

I'm not sure what Y is doing in these photos, but Q is happy!



Halloween

This year we actually went to trick-or-treat in the same neighborhood as last year, but with different friends (last year we went with the Moss' and this year the Davis').  The neighborhood REALLY gets into Halloween and Y got quite a bit of candy...and we only went around one block. 

Y was excited the whole day and just couldn't wait to get into her Tinkerbell costume, I've never seen her so cooperative when it comes to getting dressed and getting her hair done.  I think her favorite part of the night, aside from the candy obviously, was the ride in the wagon.  I think when Q gets a bit bigger it may be a good investment for us to buy a wagon for the two of them.

After a chilly night of trick-or-treating (it was much warmer than last year) we went back to our friend's home for some cider and donuts with both sets of friends from the neighborhood (we know them from church) and their neighbors.  It was a great Halloween and on the drive home Y commented a few times that she was sad Halloween was over and that she didn't want it to go.  I'm sure for a 3 year old telling her that it'll come again next year is no comfort.  She's struggling to grasp the concept of a week's time so trying to explain another year was way too much of a challenge.



I think she makes the cutest Tinkerbell I've ever seen, but of course I'm a bit biased!


And now that Halloween's over...she's just excited that she gets to dress as Tinkerbell EVERYDAY!

Playing Dress-Up

Y has REALLY gotten into playing dress-up and using her imagination.  The things she comes up with never ceases to amaze me.  In the picture on the left we had just come home from church and wanted to take a picture of her in the dress (which was bought for her by her Nana B. while visiting Aunt C in Norway) so we could email it to Nana B.  In the photo on the right she is still wearing the dress but on top of it is her Abby Cadabby costume from last Halloween (2010) and on top of that is a hooded towel.  When asked, she informed me that she was Cinderella and it was her gown that she was going wear to the royal ball!  And if you're wondering about the socks...they're her glass slippers!  That girl loves her accessories!



Can't resist adding a photo of Q!  She's playing on her play mat after church while mommy and daddy had lunch.



Trick or Treat Trail

This year we heard about an event called the Trick or Treat Trail which is put on each year by the township in which we live.  They have different characters to come and the kids are allowed to hug them and take pictures of them, neither of which Y wanted to do but she agreed with Elmo and Big Bird.  She agreed to stand in front of Dora, Diego and boots in order for us to get a picture but that was about it.  They give the kids a Halloween bag to collect the goodies in and then they follow the trail to each station.  At those Stations they are given candy or little trinkets, most of it is little trinkets which I prefer seeing as she'll be getting more than enough candy next week.  You have to pre-register your child and it cost $8.50 and at the end they get to pick their own little pumpkin.  Even though Y didn't really want to interact too much with the characters she said she had a lot of fun and has been talking about all the different characters she got to see.  B is going to help her carve her little pumpkin tomorrow so she's pretty excited about that as well.  Below you will find some of the pictures.

Q before and after.  She fell asleep about 5-10 minutes in.

Here's our little Tinkerbell!  I think she and B look adorable in their photo together.

She's not too crazy about any of these characters though she recognized them all aside from the Monsters Inc. guy and Big Boy.  She actually asked if Big Boy was the 3 Little Pig's Daddy.

Strawberry Shortcake and a few Disney life-size character boards

Big Bird, Elmo, Snuffie, Bert & Ernie.  These were the first characters she actually interacted with.

Aside from the Dora crew and Blue she's not really familiar with any of these other characters.

Here she is posing for a photo at the end of the trail, picking out her pumpkin with B and a photo of all the goodies.