Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Temper Tantrums

Everyone warns new parents about the terrible two's.  But nobody warned me that the tantrums actually start at the age of one.  Kate throws tantrums about a variety of things these days and none of them are pretty.  She kicks, screams, rolls and bucks during diaper changes.  She flings herself from side to side and arches her back when she doesn't want to get in the car.  She wails and tries to throw herself to the floor when I put her book away at bedtime. 

She's going to give us hell as a teenager I think...

Monday, August 30, 2010

She cleans

My daughter drooled on the floor today.  She looked at the drool.  She got up, walked over and grabbed a kleenex.  She very spastically wiped at the drool with the kleenex.  She shredded the kleenex.  She threw the kleenex away.   I'm so proud.

:)

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Walking

Kate started walking a couple weeks ago and now she is EVERYWHERE.  People kept telling me, "Oh... the longer the wait until she walks the better - then you don't have to chase her around!"  And like most things they warned me about (sleep when the baby sleeps... your dogs won't get half the attention after baby is born that they do now...) I assumed they'd be right.  But ya know what?  They were wrong.  I LOVE that she can walk.  She has so much more independence to do what she wants to do and it is so fun to watch her explore.  She can go outside on the driveway or deck without scraping her knees and getting splinters.  She can wear dresses and not get all caught up in them. 

Walking is fun!!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Good day

Today was BEAUTIFUL.  The weather was perfect - high of 75 and sunny.  So after work, I went home and grabbed my Moo.  We packed up and headed out to the zoo for a little bit.   Here's our fun in pictures:

Looking at the ducks (her favorite)
Having a snack while checking out the deer
Moo by the cows
Looking together
They got really close to her - she loved it
Look, mama!  I see one!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Post 100!! And a video to celebrate

This is my 100th post on this blog!  It all started with this: 

To celebrate, here's a little Kate time:

Monday, August 23, 2010

My little girl is so smart

Sometimes I'm surprised by how much she is able to figure out already.  The tiniest things leave me wondering what else she is capable of.

Like today she figured out how to open a ziploc bag.  Easy, right?  But she just sat there so serious and focused while her little thumbs picked at the top until she was able to pull it open.

Or how right this very moment she is sitting at my feet flipping through her favorite book, pointing at all the animals and saying "dog". 

And earlier my mom taught her to look for the hidden mouse on each page of her book.  Not only did she find him, but she'd point to him and get all excited. 

I love watching her learn new things!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Sick

Kate got sick. :(  Throwing up, diarrhea kind of sick.  It's really sad.  Nana had to deal with some of it while K and I were in away at the wedding and I felt bad for all parties involved.

I hope she is better soon.

And I really, REALLY hope the icky feeling I have right now doesn't mean I'm getting it too. :x

Friday, August 20, 2010

Weekend at Nana and Grandpa's

K and I are going to a wedding this weekend, so Kate will be staying with her Nana and Grandpa.  I remember a time when I would dread leaving her for even a couple hours.  Now I'm comfortable leaving her for the weekend... only because I know she's in good hands and is going to have fun. 

And also because I'm really looking forward to sleeping in at the hotel on Sunday. :)

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Helmet Needed

Not for me, for my child.  She has one.  A cute bike helmet with pink rabbits on it.  I think I'm going to start putting it on her in the morning and not taking it off until bedtime.  The poor kid bangs her head on stuff all.day.long.

Tonight, it was a scary one.  She was walking through the kitchen and tripped.  She fell forward and smacked her head right on the solid wood leg of the table.  She immediately flipped out and was screaming bloody murder.  She now has a nice bruise right above her eye.  I'm almost afraid to see what it's going to look like tomorrow. :( 

But whatever it looks like, it is sure to go great with her helmet.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Bad day

Today was an awful day.  Just one of those days where every little thing that can go wrong does.  My class was a mess... I think it was payback for the field trip we were on yesterday that involved almost 4 hours of driving.  Yuck.

And it feels like Thursday.  :(  I wish tomorrow was Friday.

Monday, August 16, 2010

This is my last week

of working full-time!  I was a stay-at-home mom to Kate until she was 10 months old and then started working full-time.  While I generally enjoy my job, I despise leaving my baby girl for 9 hours every day.  So starting on Monday I will only work 7:30-1 every day, leaving my whole afternoon free to spend with my Moo.  She may be napping for a few of those hours, but that will at least give me time to get work done around the house so that when she's awake we have quality time together.  4 more days to go!!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

The end of breastfeeding

When I found out that I was pregnant (and even before then) I knew for certain that I wanted to give breastfeeding a try.  I know all the benefits it has for both mother and child and it was really important to me that I do everything I could to breastfeed for at least a little while.  My ultimate goal was to make it a full year.

My baby is over 13 months old and yesterday I breastfed her for the last time.  It's bittersweet.  I am so ready to have my breasts back and not have to worry about engorgement or pumping if I miss a feeding.  But I truly loved the experience.  We had the normal difficulties at the beginning (soreness, figuring out a schedule, leaking, etc.) but all in all it was a remarkably easy process for both Kate and I.

It is also bittersweet because when feeding her last night I didn't know it would be the last time.  I knew that I was going to end it soon, but it wasn't until bath time tonight that I decided we should start our new routine tonight.  It's probably a good thing that I didn't know... I would have sobbed through the whole thing I think. :)  At least this way I know that our last feeding together was representative of every other night.  She fell asleep at the breast and was sweet as could be.

Tonight she handled our new routine like a champ.  She had a sippy of milk and we read some stories and cuddled.  She is now laying in her bed getting cozy and drifting off to sleep.  Hopefully it will continue to go this well.





Friday, August 13, 2010

Things I love about my job...

I am a preschool teacher and work with 3 and 4-year-olds all day.  I was pretty unhappy that I had to go back to working after being a SAHM to Kate for 10 months, but it has turned out ok. Most days I still dread leaving for work and not seeing my baby all day, though.  So here are some things that I really love about my job:
- I get to bring Kate with me 2 days a week.  She loves school.
- The kids are awesome... so full of energy and so hilarious
- Sometimes I get an unexpected early leave (like today because we only had 9 kids)
- I have one more week of full-time work before I go to part-time and I will be done by 1pm every day
- Did I mention how fun the kids are?
- I get to take field trips to water parks, fire stations, zoos, and apple orchards
- Now that I'm going to be a lead teacher I get to think about fun stuff like classroom organization again... I missed that :)
- I love kids

The end.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Meteor shower

So the Perseus meteor shower is going on right now.  My hubs and I made plans to watch it.  I googled it and found out where we needed to look.  Thought about little things like bug spray and a blanket...

And guess what... we're too tired to sit up and watch it.  I looked out the window for a few minutes to see if I saw anything.  Didn't.  Now I'm going to bed. :/ 

Goodnight!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

30 Day Blog Challenge

The thing that inspired me to give my blog a facelift and come back from the dead was talk amongst my e-friends about doing a blog challenge.  My first thought was... no way.  My second thought was... why not?!  So here I am.

The idea is simple:  write 30 posts in 6 weeks.  So I'm not responsible for a post everyday, just 5 days a week.  Because let's face it... I have a toddler now (oops, did I forget to tell you?! stay tuned!) and life is busy.

For more info on the 30 day blog challenge, please head over to my friend Sare's page at     http://fallingforbaby.blogspot.com/2010/08/30-day-blog-challenge.html

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Resurrection

My blog has been ignored for a long time.  I'm planning on making a comeback... so stay tuned!