Cats and Dogs

While at the video store tonight, I saw a sad looking golden retreiver in a car. S/he was looking out, waiting for Mommy or Daddy to come back to the car. And this dog made me think of Grindle. How Grindle was like a dog in that he would wait by the door for me when I was not home, waiting for me. How he would come when I called his name, like a dog would. How he loved to be petted like a dog too. I miss you Grindle. And I miss Uncas too. How many cats and dogs will I come to love and care for in my lifetime? How many times will I experience this loss and the sadness that goes with it? Will Tennie (or Puggie or Pugger as we also call her) be able to live a long life? She is such a sweet little dog. We all love her and she is so good with Andrina. Will Andrina be able to enjoy her doggy for many years to come? I can only hope so.

First Child Care Experience

Today Andrina and I had our first "child care" experience. I went to the gym and took Andrina with me. Tom's back was hurting yesterday so I didn't want to wake him up to watch Andrina in the morning and I didn't want to wait until later to go to the gym. So Andrina was in the child-care area and I watched her on the monitor while I worked out. Overall, it was a success. My baby is securely attached and when I first left her, she didn't even notice I was gone. But for the 20 minutes I was on the elliptical glider, she walked all over the play room, not playing, just walking. I think she was intimidated by the bigger kids. So I got off that machine early and went in there to "check her diaper". Of course, I was really checking in on her, making sure that she was ok and she was. And her diaper was too. But when I went to leave again, she whined and threw her arms around me. I told her that Mommy was going to use one more machine and then I would come get her and we would go home. And then she was actually ok for me to leave and was happy to see me come back for her another 20 minutes later.

Overall, it was a successful experience. But Andrina was the youngest and smallest child in there. When we were leaving, a mom with a toddler came in. Too bad they weren't there when we were. She really can't play with other children yet and they were hogging the toy that was out. When I came to check on her, I pulled out more toys but Andrina was not interested in them. She was being held by a staff member when I came to take her home. So I was glad to see that someone picked her up and was holding her. She looked like she needed to be held.

As for me, I didn't get in a real workout. I usually work out longer and with more intensity but it was exercise for me and Andrina was ok with the whole experience so yes, all in all, it was a success.

Oh, it was member appreciation day at the gym, that's what the balloon is from. Andrina loved her balloon and played with it for hours when we got home! Closely supervised of course!

Toddler or Baby?

I know Andrina is technically a toddler but she sure seems like a baby still to me. Maybe I'll see more "toddler" in her in 3 or 4 months...

"Nose"

It seems that Andrina now recognizes the word "nose". She pointed it out the same way she did "elephant". Yippee!!! You're on your way to reading my baby girl!

First Recognized Word????

Last week I purchased the "Your Baby Can Read" dvd set/learning system. Tom and I have been faithfully following it since it came in the mail on the 23rd-3 days ago. We've made sure that Andrina has watched the started video 2x a day and we play with the sliding word/picture cards with her and I read her the starter book at least once a day as instructed. I'm really, really hoping that this system will work and Andrina will be an early reader. I've got good expectations as I researched the developer and his system before I ordered the kit and his studies and system (published in real peer-reviewed journal articles) are legit.

Well, nothing beats personal experience as validation. Tonight when I was reading Andrina the starter book, we got to the page with the word "elephant", then you lift up the flap and there is a picture of an elephant (the essence of how the system works-pairing the picture with the word). Well, at the top of the inside of the flap is a sentence suggesting an activity with the word repeated. Ok, long explanation but here's my point: when I lifted the flap to expose the picture and the sentence was also visible, Andrina pointed to the word "elephant"! Yes, that was the picture she saw and she pointed to the word elephant! I was so incredibly excited at that moment I can't describe it. I'm sure she recognized the word I had just shown her and spoken, that it was not a coincidence.

Now, you could say that she just saw the word "elephant" and had memorized it and pointed to it again when she saw it and the picture. Well, that is exactly the point. I think after being exposed to the word "elephant" and the picture of the elephant many, many times over the past 3 days, she recognized it because she is beginning to memorize the general shape of the abstract symbols that spell out the word that readers recognize as "elephant".

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and I'm continuing on with the system. That after 7 months of 2x daily viewing (each view is only 22 minutes) and us using the cards and books with her, that she will have learned early reading.

Leaps and Bounds

It's amazing how quickly babies learn. We know that they can understand much more of what they hear than what they can speak. We also know that their motor, cognitive, and language skills develop by leaps and bounds at this time. It is so amazing for me to see how all of this is coming together for Andrina now. She has been walking exclusively for a week now and has run a little bit (gross motor skills development), is stacking blocks and putting together puzzles (fine motor skills development), has spoken at least 8 words (that I can understand-expressive language development), understands so many more words, probably a hundred (receptive language development), and not to mention all of her smiles, gestures, and being able to engage us and respond to us to get her needs met (social and emotional development).

I think what I'm trying to get across is that it is now that it is really becoming apparent that my baby is so well on her way to becoming a person. And by a "person" I mean her own abilities, her own intellect, her own accomplishments, her own relationships with others, and her own personality. It seems that everyday she is capable of something new. Here are pictures from two examples:

Andrina with her "mommy" and "baby" tigers. This morning I was holding and playing with the mommy tiger and I said to Andrina that the mommy wanted her baby, and I asked her, "where's the baby tiger"? She stood up looked around the room, walked over to the baby, picked it up and brought it to me! Then she wanted to play with both of them, so here's a picture of her with the mommy and baby tigers.

Andrina was better at stacking her blocks this morning, so she was able to stack her blocks 4 high (instead of 3 like yesterday) and they stayed standing without falling over.

Every day I get on the floor with Andrina and physically play with her. One of her favorites is when I lay on my back, pull my knees to my chest, and put Andrina on my shins, lifting her up and down and we laugh and converse while doing this. Her laughing makes it obvious that it is something that she enjoys. Well, this evening we were playing like this and when I stopped, Andrina wanted more so she climbed right back on top of me while laughing. Yes, this is something that all kids do, letting others know what they want. But it was sweet for me because this is also something that I enjoy (we get to be physically close while playing like this and our shared enjoyment of it brings more emotional closeness between us) and Andrina wanting more of it means I get to be closer to her. And this was the first time she let me know that she wanted more of this playing. Just a sweet memory for mommy.

3 Blocks High

By the end of this month, Andrina is supposed to be able to build a "tower" of blocks with two blocks. Well, tonight I sat down with her and built a tower of blocks to show her (I've done this many times before but this is the first time she has shown any interest). After I built my tower of blocks, Andrina stacked one block on top of another. I was so excited and scrambled to get the camera, I took a picture and then she put a third block on the tower! Yea! Andrina actually stacked the tower 4 blocks high but it was too uneven and kept falling down. Sniff sniff....

Here's pictures of her accomplishment!

6 blocks to work with

2 blocks high, getting ready for the 3rd
3 blocks high! Yea for Andrina!

Goodbye Grindle

Last night I had to have my cat Grindle euthanized. It was a very hard thing to do. He was 17 years old, had health problems, and had been urinating outside of the litter box for at least 10 years. His urinating has become dangerous for our baby, not merely an inconvenience. Tom and I had been taking care of him and cleaning up after him, but with the last incident, I came to the conclusion that it could not go on like this.

At the end of the 2 days of rain here in the midwest after hurricane Ike hit the gulf coast, we got flooding in our basement through a crack in the foundation that had been previously repaired. With the flooding, it hydrated the crystallized urine that Tom and I had missed down in the basement, and we apparently missed a lot of it. Our whole house stank of cat urine really, really bad. It stank so bad that the smell woke me up out of a sound sleep at 4:30 in the morning on Monday. And the smell of cat urine has been here ever since. We had to rip out the carpet in the basement and we will need to replace some of the wall paneling too. That helped much with the smell but it is still lingering.

I can't have Andrina breathing in the ammonia from the cat urine. I'm afraid that Grindle became a health hazard to my baby. I spoke to our vet and with his advanced age and health problems, chances are he would be euthanized at a shelter or spend the rest of his life in a cage at a no-kill shelter. And with the mortgage crisis and all the animals that had to be given up to shelters because their owners lost their homes, there are no shelters that are currently accepting animals. I know, I called them.

So, with much sadness, I made the appointment to have him euthanized yesterday as late in the day as I could. The lawn had thankfully dried out after all the the rain and flooding so I was able to let Grindle spend the afternoon in the sunshine on the lawn with me. We spent about an hour outside together, then we came inside so he could have dinner. He lounged around inside for about an hour and then we went back outside together until it was time to leave.

This was such a sad thing for me to do. I was crying throughout the day caused by the horrible anticipation. But Grindle really enjoyed his last day. I literally spent hours holding him and petting him, things I've been too busy as a mom to do lately. He loved his dinner and loved all of the cuddling and sunshine on the lawn. I told him while we were outside that I loved him, but I love my baby more and I had no other choice and that I was so sorry that this was happening. If he understood, he must have been ok with it because he just lapped up the affection and purred.

Grindle was such an affectionate kitty. Up until the end, he purred when I held him. And I held him in my arms and he was purring when he died. I wish it had not come to this. I'm sorry Grindle.

Grindle as an older kitten. This was taken in either 1991 or 1992.

He was lying on the bed I had as a teenager. He used to sleep with me.

Grindle in his prime. Here he is about a year old. It was probably 1992 when this picture was taken.

Me and Grindle when he was a kitten. My boyfriend at the time, found him and gave him to me. He named him Grindle after the monster Grendel in the classic poem Beowulf. He thought the name Grendle was too mean for such a sweet kitten, so we changed it slightly to Grindle.
Grindle was about 10 weeks old when I got him. He can't be more than 4 months old in this picture, taken in the fall of 1991. I was only 17 and had just started my senior year of high school.

Since I was 17 when I got Grindle, and he was 17 when he died, I literally had him for half of my life. He was there for me through so much and I really miss him.

Grindle and I on our last day together, enjoying the sunshine for as long as he could.

He really loved being cuddled and he was purring when Tom took this picture.

Enjoying the sunshine...

Lounging in his favorite spot in the house, the landing between the 1st and 2nd floors.

Goodbye Grindle.

Thank you for all of the affection you have given me for the past 17 years. Thank you for all of your purring, it let me know that you loved me too. I hope to meet you again someday.

Love Your Human Mommy, Shellie

Grindle
June 1, 1991 - September 17, 2008

Some Really Needed Good News

This afternoon I heard back from my friend Rebecca (not Becca, these are two different friends) who lives in Houston. As everyone knows by now, last weekend a horrible hurricane hit Houston. I have been very worried for my friend Rebecca who relocated there a few years ago. I tried calling her last weekend and I got a busy signal at both of her numbers. Now, I knew that this did not automatically mean bad news as all the power and most communication was down and that most likely she was ok but I was still worried for her. I followed up my calls with an email to her and got a response from her today and she is just fine! She and her cat and a friend evacuated to Huntsville, Texas before the storm hit. Even better news for her, her apartment was not at all damaged by the hurricane which was very lucky considering that her apartment's property sustained heavy damage.

This good news was especially needed as dear, sweet Rebecca's husband passed away last month. I'm sure that she needs all of the good news and blessings she can right now. This news is also wonderful for me to hear now as I am preparing to put my ailing cat to sleep tonight but I can't write about that now, it is too painful and sad an anticipation.

It's Bath Time, Nakey Baby!

I couldn't resist taking these pictures. Is there anything so perfect as the carefree innocence of a baby?

Busy Day, Part 2

Not only has Andrina decided to rely on walking for almost all of her getting around today, she has accomplished something else too. Tonight, Andrina put together a "puzzle" all by herself! It's a 3 piece farm animal puzzle with the wodden knobs. She dumped out all of the pieces, then put the pig piece in by herself! So I encouraged her to keep going, and after taking out the pig piece again, she eventually got all 3 pieces into their places! Way to go Andrina! Mommy is so proud of you!

Busy Day Walking

All of a sudden today, Andrina has been walking about 85% of the time! She took her first step when she was 12 months old, her first two steps when she was 13 months old, and now, just 2 days after turning 14 months old, she has decided that she wants to walk most of the time! Before today, she was mainly crawling and walking only about 20% of the time, today she is almost exclusively walking. She appears to resort to crawling when she needs a break from all the hard work of taking so many steps for so long! Here's a sampling of pictures:

Happy 14 Months Old Andrina!

I Love You!

No More Tommy's...

Today I went to Carson Pirie Scott's to get some more new fall clothes for myself and Tom. I was in the men's section and I could not find the Hilfiger clothes anywhere. A clerk asked me if I needed help and I said yes, I was looking for the Hilfiger clothes. She informed me that they are not "allowed" to sell them anymore. That Tommy Hilfiger himself signed a contract with Macy's stating that they get to sell his clothes exclusively. You've got to be freaking kidding me! I could not believe that one! Well, that's if for the Hilfiger clothes for me and Tom. Tom and I are both native Chicagoans and we love our city. We love it so much that we refused to to shop at Macy's since Macy's has destroyed a part of Chicago's history by getting rid of the Marshall Field's name when they bought them out. So bye-bye Tommy Hilfiger's! We loved your clothes while it lasted but we will NOT shop at Macy's!

My Weight Loss So Far

According to the bathroom scale this morning, I have officially lost 50 pounds since January! And I finally bought myself some new jeans today. I had been putting it off but with September and fall weather here, I can't wear shorts much longer. So I bought one new pair of Tommy Hilfiger jeans and one new Tommy shirt at the outlet mall today. The jeans are a size 8! Wow! I think I was in a size 18 before but I can't really know because I was still wearing maternity clothes until January. So the size 18 then is just an educated guess since I had some size 16 jeans but they were too small on me then so I just continued to wear my maternity jeans. Hence, I think I was an 18 but now I'm an 8! Oh, and the size 8 Tommy's go on easily and are comfortable, not ones that I'm squeezing and straining to get myself into!

Andrina's First Skechers

I am not really into labels, names, and designers, with a few exceptions. Up until recently, I always had a Coach or Dooney & Bourke purse with me (which has been switched to an ugly Buxton Bag because I can wear it over my shoulder and that is much easier when out with a toddler). I do like Tommy Hilfiger clothes but I really love Skechers shoes! Ok, yes, I do have at least 30 pairs of other shoes in my closet but for everyday wear, I really like Skechers. I have at least 10 pairs of Skechers gym shoes in various colors. So today when Doreen and I went to the outlet mall, I went into the Skechers store and got a pair of black, mid-calf, 3" heeled boots for myself and a pair of size 3 "baby" Skechers gym shoes for Andrina! And I only paid $16 for them, which is a really good price too!

Andrina in her new shoes!

Are these just great baby shoes or what? I love how they have various colors in them so they will go with many different colored outfits! And there are sparkles too!

Thanks Auntie April...

...for the new toys! As you can see, Andrina loves them! She played with the Elmo table for over an hour straight this morning alone. That is a great toy, I'm so glad you have it, she is really enjoying it. It is something I would have bought her if I had seen it in a store or online. And she likes the rocker giraffe too. She needs help getting on it but she rocks from there.

Look at me checking it out

I am really enjoying this
Hi again!

I'm rocking by myself

Ok, how cute is this kid trying to put her foot on the handle bar???

So This Is Sand....

Andrina had her first encounter with sand today at our cousin Cheryl's birthday party. She really enjoyed the new experience and grabbed it, spinkled it, scooped it, dumped it, and even tasted it. Thankfully she only tasted it once and choose not to do that again! Here's pictures of her and Anne playing and having fun.

Scooping and dumping

Here was a sweet picture with Andrina looking at the camera-and it is blurry! Arrgh!
Anne is actually giving Andrina a hug goodby, not grabbing her!

Andrina Loves To Read Her Books

For the past week or so, Andrina has been really into her books. She's enjoying going through all of them and looking at them and we have been reading together at least twice a day now, many times more. Here's some pictures of Andrina enjoying her books.

Books from bedtime stories last night

Hmm, there's a lot of books out already, do you think Andrina has enough?
Apparently not. She is looking for more! Ok, now all of my books are out for me to read!

Hi Mommy! Read to me!

Andrina's early love of books is very special to me. I don't know about everyone, but when I was pregnant, I always pictured my child sitting quietly reading books. That's how I envisioned my baby before she was here. I would envision myself holding and cuddling a baby, but as a child, this is how I pictured her. And now here she is, like I pictured her in my mind. I hope this will last. I hope a love of books is something that we will have in common as Andrina grows.

Baby Got A Boo-Boo

Two days ago Andrina fell and hit her forehead on the corner of the dvd player. Bad Mommy was making her oatmeal for breakfast when this happened. So I am partly mad at myself because it happened on my watch and partly not because I know that Andrina is going to have spills and falls and is going to get bumps, bruises, and cuts. That's just a part of childhood that is going to happen.

She cried for about a minute while I held her but she got over it fairly quickly. There is a tiny pin-head sized cut on her forehead. When she stopped crying I cleaned it, put neosporin on it and bandaged it. Then I iced it for a little while too but I couldn't get too much of that in with her squirming. I didn't think it was too bad where it needed a lot of icing. But there is a small bump there and a very faint bruise.

Later that day she was back to her happy little self again and I took a picture. She is happy but it is so sad to me because of the bandage. She just looks so pitiful with it on. Every time I see her sweet little forehead with that boo-boo I cringe. I wish it had happened to me instead of her.

But the good news is there is only a very slight bump and bruise. It should be healed in no time. And the cut has already scabbed over. And fortunately Andrina did not try to mess with the bandage so it should heal fine.

My poor little baby. I'm so sorry you got hurt. I can't stand for anything to hurt you. I love you too much for anything to hurt you.