Helping me

When Isla needs help these days, she says "helping me."

You Don't Say....

Isla spent the weekend with her grandparents and P and I were away from her for 2 nights in a row for the first time!  She was SO happy to see us when we got back.  Mom brought her here for her nap today.  When she woke up, I went in her room and picked her up and she just laid her head on my shoulder like she always does.  Then, she pulled back, looked at me, got a BIG grin on her face, threw her arms around me, and put her head back down.  After holding me for about 10 minutes, she decided she could give Daddy a hug too. 

She enjoys my parents SO much and loves the animals she gets to see there.  She'll tell us all about PopPops chickens and cows.  I asked her recently where eggs come from and she said "out of chickens."  Smart kid!  She's helped PopPop gather eggs before and always insist on having one whenever he brings them inside.  They are very tasty--the color is so bright compared to store bought eggs. 

Yesterday they took her back in the field to see the cows.  Mom stood her up the back of the truck when they got there and said the cows came up pretty close to her as she jabbered away to them.  She saw a baby calf having it's dinner and mom got her to understand that milk comes from cows, although she insisted that Isla's milk comes from the refrigerator. 

Talking has morphed into complete sentences most of the time, sometimes multiple sentences in a row on the same topic.  Intelligibility is improving also.  MOST of the time, if we're looking at her and can see what she has or how she's gesturing, we can figure out what she's saying.

Potty training is still hit and mostly miss.  I put big girl panties on her this afternoon and she peed in them twice and knew EXACTLY when it happened.  I'm not going to push her but most warm, summer afternoons will be spent outside in big girl panties to help her get the hang of things. 

There are tons of other things I want to write about but they're escaping me now.  Perhaps there will be adendums. 

The sweetest little voice ever....

At 1:00 this morning I heard "Mom-ma. Momma? Momma." I went into Isla's room and she was laying in bed. As I walked in and sat on her bed, she sat up, stretched her neck, and puckered. She gave me a kiss and laid back down, not saying anything else. I asked if she wanted me to lay down with her until she fell back asleep. "Yes." And she went right to sleep.

Ice cream

One morning last weekend Isla and I were looking at a book before breakfast. It had little pictures of ice cream on the cover. "Momma may I ice cream have please?" How could I say no to that?

Today on the way home, Isla kept jabbering things I couldn't understand. I pulled in the drive and as the garage door opened there was a big sigh. "Isla wants ice cream." Isla wants ice cream? I asked. Another sigh. "Yes, please." On the way back home from Sonic, I asked if it was good ice cream. "Yes." Is it so good? "Yes, PopPop likes it." Yes babe, PopPop would like it.

Testing, testing...

I just downloaded the Blogger app for my phone. I've tried posting to this blog via text message but didn't have great luck.
Here are some pictures of recent Pinterest projects and Isla playing in the little snow we had a few weeks ago.

Birthday Party!

Guess who found the create collage feature on Picasa?  I really need to play with this feature!

Isla and I are settling in our new routine of only having daycare 2 days a week.  She's decided she loves her new daycare and gets excited when we drive up our 2 mornings a week. 

She also gets excited when we got to the gym in Jackson on Tuesday mornings, "I PLAY, I PLAY!" for Kids Bee Fit.  Kids Bee Fit is a great program where the wonderful Miss Millie exercises and does activities with preschoolers.  The have floor scooters, inflatable bumper things, hula hoops, and lots of other cool stuff.  Each session ends with a nutrition lesson and Miss Millie stamps everybody's arms.   It took a few weeks for Isla to participate (and I have to leave the room for her to do anything--workout time!) but she loves it now.  We do that each Tuesday morning, and oh, what a wonderful nap follows! 

On Thursdays we either go to Discovery Playhouse--the children's activity center in our town where we had her birthday party, Toddler Time at the local library, or once a month, we go with daycare to Kids Bee Fit again.  Today was a Kids Bee Fit morning and the little kids were so cute walking along, holding onto the colored rings on their rope as they walked to the gym. 

I've been trying different projects I've found on Pinterest during naptimes--I made her a rag quilt last week.  Some friends and I are having montly Pinterest Parties to try new projects and recipes, and just have some momma time.  Isla and I are going to host a Preschool Edition of the Pinterest party in a couple weeks and invite friends over to play, snack, and do crafts.

We find time to go to the gym most days.  She usually hangs out at the gym's childcare area about twice a week.  Mondays I go while she's still with Grandma and Tuesdays I exercise while she's at Kids Bee Fit so she doesn't have to go too many days a week---usually Thursdays and Saturday mornings. 

I need to do better about turning off the TV and not letting her watch too much Mickey Mouse and Elmo.  We watch some in the mornings--she nor I are morning people so the TV makes things a bit smoother.  On days we're home, we then try to have some reading time in her room.  I also need to wokr in some "lesson time."  She's starting to identify some letters and numbers and I want to encourage that.  After naptime we usually have some art activities and/or play outside. 

Vocabulary is unbelievable at this point.  I wouldn't be able to begin to count how many words she has and how many she understands.  She pretty much babbles constantly unless she's watching TV or "writing."  She loves to count, but gets stuck on 2.  "1, 2, 2."  I think she repeated "1, 2, 3, 4" after Big Bird one day.  She's using pronouns more and more.  "I see you!" is a favorite game.  She knows most of her colors with pretty good consistency.  She can also identify E, O, and I with pretty good consistency.  Like I said, I want to start "lessons" with those.  This morning I let her study the keyboard for different letters and push the buttons to see them on the screen.  This seemed to hold her attention so we'll keep trying that.  We've had mixed results with potty training.  She was sick a few weeks ago and lost interst in sitting on the potty, but she's starting to get interested again.  At daycare she's sitting on the potty most of the time the bigger kids have potty time.  It didn't take her long to learn that sitting on the potty=getting a Skittle.  Hopefully we can have some luck again soon catching her to actually GO potty that she'll start associating that with getting more Skittles.  Last week, she sat on the potty saying "push, push" and passed gas three times in a row in the potty and got excited each time cause she thought she'd done something so I think she's starting to understand what to do. 

Time for me to log off.  Not sure I'll even have time to re-read this to edit my boo-boos.  I gotta figure out what we're doing this afternoon--gym?  Wal-Mart?  Hobby Lobby?  I have 2-3 hours worth of places to go and naptime could last until 3ish.  Maybe I should go spend some time on the treadmill so I can cross the gym off the list.  I also want to look at a couple online sales, figure out what I'm making for this weekend's Pinterest party (need to do that before the Wal-Mart trip!), and look more closely at the HubPage things.  Later!

Hubpages

I'm trying to figure out what Hubpages are all about and wrote my first "capsule" (I think that's what this is called) for them tonight.  If anyone reads this blog entry, check out my hub.  Or capsule.  Or whatever it is.

http://speckles.hubpages.com/hub/Honoring-That-Special-Woman-You-Call-Mom

WOW!

Personality explosion!  As we were getting ready to take Isla to my parent's house today I realized what a surprise PopPop was in for.  He hadn't seen her in a week and when she was there last Sunday she was sick.  Meanwhile, she has had this amazing little personality just explode.  She's had her own ideas about things for awhile but suddently they are so.... BIG and BOLD.  Sassy little girl!

A bunch of tidbits.....

I keep remembering things that I want to record here, then don't have a chance to do so or assume that once I sit down to try, I won't remember half of them.  There have been so many sweet, smart, attitude-filled little tidbits lately.  I'll probably just leave this post on my computer a few days to keep adding to it.  The fractured writing has nothing to do, of course, with the very active 2 year old I'm writing about.  Oh yeah, gotta post party pics too!

We started a new daycare the week of Isla's birthday.  It's going okay but since we only go the 2 days a week I work, we're still adjusting.  Wednesdays are going to be harder since every weekend will be a long weekend for her.  Naptime has changed from 11 to 12 with the new daycare.  This seems to work out well at home, but she's had some days at daycare where she's found a pillow in the library area of her classroom and gone to sleep. It doesn't help that last week she was getting sick while she was there and this week she was getting over being sick while she was there.  (Sunday and Monday at home with momma and Ga-ma were rough). 

She's finally saying Grandma well, but leaves out a few letters.  I think Ga-ma is super cute though and my mom loves it!  But she's still a big PopPop fan.  She was at their house Sunday afternoon when she started running a fever and when I went to get her, I KNEW she was sick when she didn't want PopPop to carry her to the car.  HE says Isla always thinks he has to carry her to the car, but I think HE thinks he always has to carry Isla to the car.  I remember seeing him become totally different when my niece was born, then change even more when my nephew came.  It's really cool seeing him now with Isla.  They always babysat R and J a lot.  I think with Isla they're getting to have more fun.  I try not to make sure they get to see her a lot without it being too much relying on them to babysit. 

Isla loves to "feed her pig" whenever anyone gives her money.  My parents think this is so cute so they keep giving her coins and ones to feed it.  Mom gave Isla some coins Thursday so they went in her room to feed the  pig.  Mom oinked after Isla put the first one in and Isla thought that was so funny.  After that she wouldn't put the coin in until Ga-ma oinked.  I came in the room about the time they finished.  She asked Ga-ma for more and mom told her she didn't have any.  Isla looked at me and said "momma have more money?"  No, momma doesn't have any.  "Have daddy more money?"  I don't know, you'll have to go ask him.  And she marched down the hallway and asked P if he had any money, returning with 2 dollar bills to feed her pig.  It hit me and mom both that it was such a big kid conversation.

After so long of "Elmo" and "Moush" in the house, we finally have another TV show we like to watch.  I turned on Blues Clues last week and she loved it.  Now she's as likely to ask for Blue as Moush or Elmo.  I'm working on limiting her TV time though.  We both seem to need it in the mornings--neither of us are morning people and it helps me get her ready to have her distracted by the TV, plus letting her have some still time watching the TV seems to help compensate if she's up too early.  And it gives me time to check my Words with Friends games, Facebook, put a load of laundry in, unload the dishwasher, etc.  After an hour or so of TV, we turn it off and go have some book time in her room.  We'll read awhile, play with the dollhouse, blocks, or whatever else is in there.  Then we'll think about getting out and about. 

The waking too early thing seems to be getting better.  We finally can keep her up later and not have her wake up earlier because of it.  We try to start bedtime around 7:30 but most nights its been 8 before she's let us leave the room for her to go to sleep and she's been waking up around 6:15.  Some days it's 6  and yesterday it was 6:45.  On her birthday she gave momma present and slept until 7!!  I think this has helped with the later naptime at home.  Hopefully once she gets used to going to the new daycare, it will help with naptime there too.  Yesterday she stayed awake all morning without any problems--they said she was even laying on her cot laughing when it was actually naptime. 

I try to take us to do something each day I'm home with her that way there's not such a drastic difference between work/daycare days and non work days.  She's spending Sunday nights with Grandma so I get some time Monday mornings to do chores and have "me" time.  Tuesdays we're going to the gym for Kids Bee Fit classes.  So far this hasn't gone so great--she doesn't want to participate when momma is there so next week I'll drop her off and go upstairs to exercise while she has her exercise play class.  Wednesdays are work days.  Thursday mornings are toddler time at the library.  We've only been to that once so far--not a huge hit but we'll try it again.  She likes going to the library to play and use their computers and wanted to leave toddler time to use the computer more. 

Once a month they do Kids Bee Fit at daycare on Thursdays.  Not a normal daycare day for us, but they said we can come for that.  We went this week and she participated much better than she has at the gym. She didn't want to let go of me when we got there about 15 minutes before it started.  Then her little friend Ashlee came over and wanted me to hold her too.  Then a new little friend Ava started asking me where her mommy and daddy were and also wanted me to hold her.  I sat in one of the preschool chairs with a girl on each knee and one in the middle, reading to them until it was time for Kids Bee Fit.  When that started, she was more participatory because her teachers (and momma) played too (when we go to the gym, if moms stay in the room, they sit and watch).  As we'd run or gallop in a circle, I had Ava holding on to my  pinky, Isla holding on to the same thumb, and Ashlee holding the other hand.  As we were leaving, Ashlee came over to me for a hug, then she wrapped her arms around Isla for a hug too.  So sweet! 

I know I'm scattering here, but back to TV viewing.  She is becoming more and more involved with the programs she watches.  When Big Bird covers his eyes while Ernie hides, she covers hers and tries to count with him.  When Mickey and friends call for Toodles, she "Oh Toodles" with them.  And she tells Steve to think when he has all of Blues Clues.  And I like that we can watch her shows On Demand, not just for the convenience but for the absence of commercials.  This doesn't help with patience though--she starts asking for more as the music on shows changes to start the credits

I'm not sure I care for her newfound ability to take her pants off.  I think I put her PJ pants back on her 5 times last night before I decided to let her go bottomless.  She'll also push her diaper down if it's not on securely. 

Daycare uses Skittles for potty training so I bought some to have here.  It didn't take her long to realize she gets one for sitting on the potty.  Last weekend she probably spent a total of an hour on her little potty.  I don't think she ever went in there, but that's okay for now.  She's sat on the potty at school some too.  I didn't try to get her to do it while she was sick.  I'm trying hard not to push and let her figure this out on her own and daycare seems to be on the same page.  Most of the kids there are 4-6 months older than she is so I think that will help with the process. 

My girl loves to twirl!  As soon as I put a dress on her these days, she'll start twirling.  She'll also come over and grab my finger and tell me "UP" to twirl with her.  We also Ring A Round the Rosey and fall down. 

The last time our PAT person was here, she left No Biting by Karen Katz.  Isla can pretty much read the book to us now.  Biting seems to be getting better, thanks largely to the book.  I need to order a copy of it so we can give S her copy back this week when she comes back.

I'm sure I'll add more to this later and I'll try to upload some birthday party pics tomorrow. 

The pictures of her in the red velvet dress were from her first dance last weekend.  P took her to a Daddy-Daughter dance at a local church.  He said she wanted to dance every dance.  He sent me  a video-she really got out there and moved!  When they got home, she saw me and her face LIT up!  It was so much an expression of "Momma, Momma....guess WHAT?!"  I think they both had a blast!

It's been awhile....

It's been a busy few weeks.  Christmas, New Years, leaving our old full-time daycare, starting our new 2 day a week daycare, birthday #2 yesterday, planning birthday party #2 for tomorrow.....

I thought biting was going a lot better.  Until she chomped down on my thumb at dinner this evening.  In a restaurant.  When we put her in "time out" in the corner of the booth between us, she started screaming.  Nice.  So she didn't stay in there as long as she would have at home. 

Her first day at her new daycare was a rough one.  She did okay but she slept HORRIBLY the night before, coughing, tossing....so she was ready for naptime 2 hours before the rest of the class.  Today was day #2 and SO much better.  She didn't cry at dropoff--it's been wonderful that her little friend A is in her class and gets there at the same time we do.  When I went in to pick her up, she had on a welder's helmet with the little face shield down, holding a baby doll.  While I was waiting for her to put up a mask, a little alligator walked up to talk to me.  A little cutie that  decided she liked me the first day we visited the classroom. 

Overall, sleep is going better.  She was up until almost 8 last Friday and Saturday night and didn't get up until after 6 each morning!  Finally, a later bedtime means a later wake time!!  So we've been doing bedtime around 7:45.  Yesterday she didn't get up until 7:00!!!  This morning it was 6:30.  I'm praying for another 7:00 day tomorrow!!!  She's had a couple nights where she's fussed and we've had to go in and check on her, but for the most part, momma's been sleeping in her own bed. 

Seems like there should be so much more to write about, but I'm tired and my brain can't think.  Oh well, perhaps I can add some pics instead! 

Good girl!

Our wonderful Parents As Teachers educator loaned us a book by Karen Katz to help us with the vampire issues.  In the book, it says we don't bite our friends.....what can we bite?  Apples!  Isla's been "reading" it to us.  There's also a page on hitting (which we also need), kicking, spitting.... 

Today my brother acted like he was going to bite Isla.  I told him we can't  play bite.  Isla and I told him that we don't bite our friends, we bite apples.  This afternoon, I wasn't thinking and as I put Isla's sweater on her, I ated like I was going to pull her hand through the sleeve with my teeth.

"NO!  No bite!  We bite APPLES!" 

Good girl! 

What happened?

Where did December go?  I can't believe it is Christmas Eve already.  Isla's biting has gotten some better--no reports in the past week of her trying to chomp people.  She did hit a kid at school this week though.  In her defense though, after spending an hour at daycare for their Christmas party this week, I was ready to hit the kid too.  I think part of her problem is that she's getting frustrated and bored.  The kids in her class are all younger than she is by several months. Those months are really important in terms of what they can do at this age.  Luckily they're letting her spend more time in the other toddler room right now and there's a little boy in there a couple days older than she is, and until Friday, her friend A who is a couple days younger. 

A starts Isla's new daycare the week before she does so Isla will have a friend there already!  I'm excited about her starting.  There are a couple people at the old daycare that we'll miss, but one of our favorite teachers who left our current daycare a few months ago is now working at the new one so she'll know one of the teachers already too.  The day before we start we'll go by and let her play awhile.  Her friend A did that one day this week and her mom said all the kids just came up and started playing with her. 

Christmas plans suddenly seem up in the air.  Mom was sick this morning so TNT may be staying with us tomorrow night and having the family Christmas here.  Hopefully it was just something mom ate (although Pop was sick earlier this week so it's probably the flu).  Not that I mind having Christmas or TNT here, I just don't want Mom to miss things! 

Birthday plans are also underway.  I'll send out the invitations next week and look for more decorations, what to do about cupcakes, etc.  My cousin already has our cookie order for Elmo and Abby Cadabby cookies.

Overall, sleeping is going better than it was.  She'll still wake up early (4ish) some days, but will typically go back to sleep pretty easily if I lay down with her.  She knows she can't get out of bed until her clock turns yellow so we're staying in her room until 6. 

Words and language continue to amaze me.  Sentences are whole and 4-6 words long.  At the same time, she's having episodes where she just wants to fuss so we're working on "using our words."  Yesterday she was fusses about something, I told her to use her words and she started saying "please."  Great word, but please what???

Her attention span is amazing too.  Miss S came one day this week and brought a plastic tub of dried beans and she played with those the whole PAT session.  I bought more beans later in the day and she played another 40 minutes with them.

Last week we decorated cookies with our play date friends.  I have pictures I need to post from that.  I have other pictures I need to post to and I'm sure I'll have more after Christmas. 

After naptime today, I think we'll take a walk, have a bath, then get ready for the 4:00 service at church.

More later.

The Vampire....

Was thwarted by her teachers at daycare the past two days.  I'm not sure yesterday's teacher even KNEW she'd tried to bite a kid Monday also, but I still felt like she was chastitizing ME, even though she said it's a normal part of development.  So we're talking a lot about playing nice with friends, you only bite food, etc. 

On a positive note, this morning I realized that not only is Isla putting words together, she's putting sentences together!  I asked if she wanted me to take her bowl this morning and she said "No.  Not Yet.  I'm not done!"

Sleeping, sauce, and other stuff.....

A few weeks ago, Sleeping Beauty tried to climb out of her crib. We converted her crib to a toddler bed and that seemed okay for about a week.  Then she decided that she didn't like the toddler bed.  Did. not. like. at. all.  She slept in the floor most of last week.  Well, when she did sleep.  She was up even earlier than usual, fought going to sleep, and was generally cranky.  Momma decided something had to change.  Friday I bought a full-size mattress, Minnie Mouse sheets and comforter, and rearranged her room.  Her Tot Clock was also delivered Friday.  So far, so good.  We heard a "thud" around 4 Saturday morning and I laid down with her when I put her back to bed.  She woke up a couple minutes before 6 and we talked about waiting for the clock to change.  She seems to be getting the hang of the Tot Clock--yesterday we had to lay in bed for quiet time for a long time after her nap because the clock hadn't turned yellow yet and when I asked her the color we were waiting for, she said "yellow, yellow please" like she was asking the clock to be yellow.  This morning it was after 6 when she woke up so the clock was already yellow.  Nap time went well today but she was up about 15 minutes before the clock changed AND Grandma and PopPop came in right when she got up.  I told her she had to go check the clock and she started crying but when PopPop went in her room with her to lay down for the remainder of rest time, she was fine.  After a few minutes I went in and overrode the clock and let her get up.  Hopefully her new sleep isn't just a fluke and things will continue on this course.

For some reason, Isla started calling her diaper rash cream "sauce."  When I'm changing her, she'll grab the butt paste and say "sauce."  I'll put some on her and ask her if it feels better.  I didn't ask her one day last week and she looked at me and asked me "feel better?"  She also calls lotion sauce and likes having sauce put on her hands--of course, a little on each hand.  She likes to put it on her knees, regardless of whether or not she's wearing clothes and to put it on her dolls. 

Another one of those things I always ask is if she's ready to go when I pick her up at daycare.  One day last week I hadn't asked and she looked at me "ready go?"  Such a sweetheart.  I can't believe how much her language has exploded in the last few weeks and how well she's putting sentences together.  She told P this morning "night-night.  Daddy, you can go back to sleep." 

There have been a few times my sweetheart has bitten me.  I haven't been too concerned because it has been limited to me and it has been times when we've been playing and close and she just seems to get too excited.  Until today.  When we picked her up at the Reign Forest after church, S told me she'd bitten a little boy.  Twice.  One time leaving marks.  Ugh.  I don't know the little boy--not sure if that's better or worse.  Not sure what to do--think I'll email our PAT person for advice.  Tonight she got excited while we were playing and bit my shoulder.  When I said "ouch" she realized what she'd done and laid her head on my shoulder and patted.  So empathy is developing.