Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Here's some pictures-mostly of Andrina. Not a surprise, huh?

Coloring a Halloween picture

The world's cutest little pumpkin-

All dressed up for trick-or-treating, with her little dog too!
Having fun with a box of milk duds

Another pic of Andrina with Puggie-as a piggy!

Needing a lift from the long walk from house to house

Wow there's a lot of candy in here!

Eating some M&Ms

The three of us with our jack-o-lanterns

Happy Halloween Everyone!

I hope everyone got lots of candy!

Until next Halloween....

BOO!

Fall Fun

Here's some pictures from our second family trip to Goeberts:

Andrina looking at baby chicks.

She was pretty cranky the whole time and this appeared to be the only part of looking at the animals that she enjoyed.

Mommy and Andrina with Cookie Monster and The Count

Daddy feeding two baby bison (American buffalo).

Daddy's favorite part of the petting zoo.

Sitting on a big pumpkin

Looking at a really big pumpkin

From last night, decorating sugar cookies for Halloween

Characters

Andrina is trying to feed her cookie to Elmo!

Andrina and I went to a Babies R Us/Toys R Us grand opening this morning. Andrina had so much fun walking around with a balloon in one hand and a cookie in the other. And she really liked meeting Funshine Bear, Geoffrey, Strawberry Shortcake, and Arthur. And she got crayons, a Strawberry Shortcake coin purse, a drawstring backpack, and a baby car shade to take home as gifts. And I bought her some Christmas presents for her that I've been thinking of getting her for quite awhile. I got them on a great sale too and I also had a coupon! Great fun for baby and mommy!

Andrina and Mommy with Funshine Bear

Giving the big bear a hug
Andrina and Mommy with Strawberry Shortcake

Meeting Geoffrey. She's a little intimidated by this HUGE character!

We finally found Arthur while we were in the checkout line but Andrina got to meet him too!

I'm happy that Andrina enjoyed the characters and was not afraid of them. She really liked Funshine Bear the best! Her favorite toy is a bear so that makes sense to me. I enjoyed doing this with her. It's like I get to have a second childhood through my own daughter. We'll have to go to Sesame Place and Disney World in a few years...

God Gave Me A Free One

I think my heart stopped beating this afternoon. I was driving home with Andrina after our trip to Babies R Us/Toys R Us this morning. I happened to look in the rear view mirror and saw that Andrina had taken her bow barrette out of her hair and it was completely in her mouth! I immediately knew that she could choke on that and instinctively pulled over to the side of the road, turned on my emergency blinkers so we would not get hit and got the barrette out of her mouth. She's completely ok and oblivious to the danger that she could have been in. The whole time it was happening I kept praying "please don't let her swallow that, please don't let her choke on that, please let me get that out of her mouth before anything happens to her".

I never thought of her barrette as a choking hazard. Up until recently she just left them in her hair. Lately she's been taking them out but she just pulls them out and drops them. I never thought she'd put it in her mouth! After this incident I told her not to put that in her mouth, to leave it in her hair. Well, how well is she going to listen to that? Or remember? I've got to be realistic so no more bows or barrettes in your hair while we're in the car. You'll only be able to have them in when you're supervised. Maybe it would be even better for you not to have any hair accessories until you're older. I can't wait for the "everything in the mouth" stage to end...

School

I've been researching early childhood schools by me and I made a decision which one to enroll Andrina in. Actually I decided a few weeks ago but they were full. Well I found out today that they have the opening I want for Andrina-only 2 days a week. So Andrina and I went there this morning and I registered her. She'll be going to school every Wednesday and Friday starting on November 5th.

The hours are 7am to 6pm. But I think I'll be taking her there more like 8am (when the formal day's curriculum starts) and picking her up by 4pm at the latest. I think the first few times we go, I will have to stay there with her for a little while before leaving and I'll need to pick her up in the early afternoon until she adjusts to her new part-time routine. I don't feel guilty at all about enrolling Andrina in school this young. I had read that it's actually beneficial for toddlers to get some formal schooling. That the benefits of interacting with other children, separating from Mom and Dad, structured activities and crafts can't really be done at home (at least with other children and seperate from Mommy). So Andrina will be getting the best of both worlds. Five days a week at home with Mommy (I'm not ready for school to have her full time yet!) and two days a week at school. Where she will be taught numbers, the alphabet, colors, shapes, sign language, Spanish, yoga, and get to make art and music and play with other children. I'll still be teaching her reading everyday of the week though, just as I've been doing for over a month now.

Yuck

I made this soup last night and I was quite disappointed in it. It called for winter squash and I had yellow squash at home when I got this recipie emailed to me. It also calls for curry and onions. I think the soup could be better if I cut the amount of curry in half and omit the onions. Thankfully, I knew that it would be too strong for Andrina so she didn't have any of it. Next time I'm going to do that and use pumpking instead of squash. I think that will taste much better.

2nd Pumpkin Farm

On Wednesday Andrina and I visited Anne and my sister and we went to a pumpkin farm out by them. Here's some pictures from April's camera as I forgot mine!

Anne and Andrina in the moonwalk together

Andrina enjoying the corn pit

She really liked the corn pit, we went in there twice

The moonwalk was empty so we had it all to ourselves right before we left. Except my sister is pregnant so she sat this one out.

Overall it was a great trip and a great day. We did get there a bit too late and by lunchtime, Andrina got cranky and threw several temper tantrums. She was upset being confined in her stroller while eating and when I let her out and then restricted where she could walk off to, that brought on more temper tantrums, which got worse because I stopped her from throwing herself on the concrete ground to have them! It was quite the scene for a little while! But thankfully she was able to get control of herself and enjoyed the corn pit and the moonwalk once more. Except she was too upset to enjoy the animals in the petting zoo after we had lunch :(

After the pumpkin farm, we headed home. Andrina slept in the car for half an hour and when she woke up, we went to the outlet mall, just the two of us so I could pick up my watch that was being repaired and I bought her two new pairs of skechers shoes too (buy one get one half off!). Unfortunately they didn't have the ones I wanted in my size. After the outlet mall, I knew that Andrina was probably still hungry since she was so upset at lunch and hardly ate anything. And I didn't want our outing to end yet since we were having such a great day (with the exception of the lunchtime tantrums) so I decided we'd go to McDonalds to have a burger and ice cream and play in their playground. We did that and that was really fun too. Andrina ate almost an entire cheeseburger on her own and had several bites of ice cream (I knew she was still hungry). Then she even climbed up the slide with my help and we slid down it together before heading home.

Overall, a wonderful day for me and my baby. I'm really loving going places with her and us doing things together. I'm hoping tomorrow that we can go to yet another pumpkin farm together. I hope the weather will cooperate!

Body Parts Update

Andrina now knows FIVE body parts. Yesterday she showed me that she knew where her ears were. Tonight she showed my she knew where her arms were by bending her elbows to move them. Add those to nose, mouth, and toes and my 15 month old knows FIVE body parts! Can you tell how proud I am of her???

Needy Again

I spend almost all of each day, everyday, with Andrina. And that is the way I want it to be, until she is able to start an early-childhood school part time. As I have blogged numerous times before, she is very easy-going and therefore, usually quite easy to take care of. Although I have noticed a pattern in her behavior over the past few days. When I am in the kitchen in the evenings cooking dinner and therefore not focused on her, that is when she gets really needy and wants to be held. I'm not surprised by this. Well today she simply would not take "no" for an answer while I was trying to cook. So I pulled out a baby carrier and strapped her to my hip while I cooked. She was quite content to snuggle up against me and watch me cook.

Look at her face-Andrina is still a baby! I don't care if she is technically a toddler, I know her and she has way too much baby in her to really be considered a toddler yet.

The sling. I really didn't use a sling too much when Andrina was a younger baby. I also am very fortunate to have a cleaning service out here every week, so they do about 80% of the cleaning (not counting the everyday dishes and laundry which I've always done). And I only recently started cooking a lot so I never really needed to have Andrina in a sling while trying to get housework or cooking done. But now I see that this one attached to my hip may be getting a lot more use!

Of course Andrina wanted spice bottles that I was working with, so I gave her one to shake around while I cooked. Oh, and it is plastic, not glass.

I've also noticed a pattern in myself. Lately I've been cooking a lot. I've been making dinner about 3 to 4 days a week, which is a lot for me. As autumn came, my desire for homemade soups has increased with the colder weather. And since I am trying to save money in this awful recession (yes, it is a recession I don't care if the Bush Administration keeps denying it), I have been very conscientious shopping the sales at the grocery store. A few weeks ago there was a sale on Hamburger Helper-11 boxes for $10. And when I included the coupons that I clip every Sunday, it was even cheaper. So I have many boxes of Hamburger Helper and that's what dinner was tonight. Although I add vegetables to mine so it's healthier for everyone and Andrina will grow up with vegetables as the norm with every meal so she'll be less likely to shun them.

Little Pumpkin Pie

I couldn't resist trying on Andrina's Halloween costume tonight. Here's how she'll look on Halloween-with clothes other than her jammies on underneath though:

Is this kid cute or what???

Taller

At Andrina's 15 month well-baby visit today, she weighed in at exactly 22 pounds (39th percentile) and 30.5 inches tall (62nd percentile). I am absolutely thrilled to learn that her height percentiles keep increasing. For an adult woman, the 62nd percentile in height is 5 feet 5 inches tall-this is astoundingly good news for me! At this rate of growth, Andrina's pediatrician thinks she will be anywhere from 5'5" to 5'6" as an adult! I am so happy my baby won't be stuck being short like me. Because it really, really sucks! If I could grow another 4 to 5 inches taller myself, I would be thrilled! I hope this is the way it will be for her, that she won't stop growing at 5'1" like me... as all the women on the maternal side of my family are short, I think the tallest is April and Doreen at about 5'3" or 5'4" each and a really tiny 4'11" for our mother (note: she says she's 5' tall, but we all think she's 4'11" at the most). I'm hoping and praying for all good things for you Andrina, including not having to be short!

15 Months Old!

Happy 15 months Andrina! I've loved all this time we've been able to spend together! I love you, you super sweet and happy gorgeous little love of my life! Ok, Mommy is gushing... but I mean every word!

Little Girl

Wow, look at this picture. When did my baby become a little girl???

Pumpkin Patch

I took Andrina to a pumpkin farm today. They are all over, but I drove an hour away this morning to take her to one that had many animals to see and moonwalks just for toddlers, so there wouldn't be any big kids trampling her. She had a great time. It did take her a little while to start playing in the baby moonwalk but once she got started, she really liked it and she loved seeing all of the animals. This was the first time she actually really saw the animals and it was obvious that she enjoyed seeing them too. And she seemed to enjoy walking around the pumpkins too. Enjoy the pictures:

Enjoying the baby moonwalk

Looking at animals
Showing Mommy a duck

Checking out the pumpkins

And her own mini pumpkin to take home

I'm going to take her to some more pumpkin patches this season. Hopefully some more with animals too.

Play Date

Just some pictures of Andrina and Ryan from their latest playdate today:

Gosh they are cute kids!!!! And big-how did that happen?

Hand Holding

I have to honestly say that I am absolutely loving this stage of life Andrina is in right now. She is this perfect mixture of baby and little girl. It's like right now instead of getting a "terrible toddler" I get to be the mommy of this fantastic little person who's part baby. Here's a list of everything about her current developmnental stage that I'm loving right now:

1) She can come to me with her arms extended, wanting me to pick her up and hold her. Perfect.
2) She now holds my hand and we walk together like this. Perfect.
3) She brings me books to read to her. Perfect.
4) She's still baby enough that I get to spend lots of time cuddling her. Perfect.
5) She's toddler enough to go do her own thing, then baby enough to want me again. Perfect.
6) She's toddler enough to show me where her nose or mouth or toes are. Then baby enough to go right back to cuddling. Perfect.
7) She enjoys physical play with me. Perfect.
8) Her temper-tantrums are few and short-lived when she does have them. I'm pretty lucky.
9) She has yet to say "no" when I tell her to do something. I'm pretty lucky.
10) She almost always obeys me when I tell her to "come here" or to give me something or to close a drawer that she has opened. I'm pretty lucky.
11) She's not picky about her food. She eats all the healthy foods I serve her, including fruits and vegetables! Peas, green beans, carrots, corn-she likes them all! Perfect.

Well, this stage won't last forever. But I'm really, really enjoying it. And when it's over, I'm still going to love her with all my heart. Just like I do right now. Even if there are more temper-tantrums and "no" words in our future...

Ahead of the Curve (Mouth, Nose, and Toes)

According to "What to Expect the Toddler Years", by the time toddlers are 15 months old, 50% of them can "point to one body part when asked" (Eisenberg, Murkoff, and Hathaway, 1996, p. 62). Well I am very, very pleased to report that Andrina can do MORE than that and she's not even 15 months old yet! Tonight at my Dad's and sister April's combined birthday celebration, Andrina was able to touch my nose and mouth when I asked her to (ok, it was my body parts, not hers but hey, she can't see her own nose and mouth).

It gets even better. Before bed we were reading one of her books, "I Love You Through and Through" and we were at the pages that said "I love your fingers and toes". When I read that to her, she pushed the book aside and grabbed her toes! Wow, totally amazing! That was the first time she showed me that she recognizes what her toes are. So she knows 3 body parts: mouth, nose, and toes!

Almost all of the credit goes to the "Your Baby Can Read" system, as in the starter DVD and books it is almost all animals and body parts that the babies are being taught. So early learning of their body parts is a bonus of the system (besides the main goal of early reading). However, I was able to teach Andrina "nose" before we started the system, so I get part of the credit.

Ms. Independent

Today was yesterday's 180. Andrina was not needy today, if fact, she was extremely independent. She threw a fit at lunch today when I tried to "help" her eat (yes, she can feed herself but it takes f o r e v e r!). I made her a nice healthy lunch of ham (no nitrates or growth hormones) and cheese (tons of calcium and protein) on wheat bread (whole grain) with carrots and mixed fruit (I always offer fruit and vegetables at every meal and she actually likes them! I'm so proud!). I cut up her sandwich into bite sized pieces for her too (note: this actually takes a long time-does anyone except other moms know this and appreciate it? I doubt it). Well, like I said before, Andrina got really mad when I tried to help her, so I said forget it and gave her the fork and plate to let her feed herself. Which she did just fine, except she kept shoving too much food into her mouth instead of actually chewing in between bites. So I had to take the plate away from her to prevent her from choking since she would not listen to logic and reason. That really made her mad! So lunch was very short lived today. She only ate about half of her lunch before a complete meltdown and I lost my patience. I put her down for her nap which she was due for and thankfully, she fell right asleep.

Before the lunch time meltdown...

After her nap she was agreeable to a snack and ate an entire organic toddler cereal bar and drank diluted fruit juice. Then it was off to the gym. Here's my on-the-go Andrina in some of her new fall clothes:

Isn't she just adorable?

The gym experience went well again. This was Andrina's third trip in there in their child care. She did just great. She played some this time and when I came to pick her up, one of the staffers was playing with duplo blocks with her, which I really appreciate since they don't have to interact with the kids so I really like it when they do. There was a little bit of neediness when I picked her up to go home, she would not stop hugging me! I really loved that part and that is some positive reinforcement to take her to the gym with me much more often. Some separation is good for her development.

I had originally planed to make Andrina a scrambled egg for dinner (with sides of veggies and fruit), but after today's lunch episode, I decided that today would be Andrina's first happy meal from McDonalds. I chose it because: their hamburgers are small and easy to bite into and chew, it's so kid-friendly it's practically guaranteed that she'll eat it, if she throws it all on the floor it's not a big waste, and now they have apples and milk instead of french fries and soda. I'm not a health food nazi, but there is no way I'm going to let my baby have soda and fries-food that has zero nutritional value. The hamburger isn't exactly healthy but when I pat the grease off of it, take off the pickle and add a piece of cheese from home, it's not too bad of an option. Especially when I serve it with more fruit and veggies, which I did. So in the end, Andrina had a quasi-happy meal.

The quasi-happy meal was a success. I cut her burger into quarters and gave her one quarter at a time and put fruit and veggie pieces on her tray, handed her a fork, and let her do the entire meal on her own. It was extremely messy, but a good messy! The food only got squished in her hands and on the tray, not much landed on the floor. It was adorable to watch her eat her burger. She took it apart and took bites out of each ingredient separately. And she ate her carrots and fruit and drank her diluted juice too. Interestingly, the milk and apples that came with it are in the fridge. I had already opened up a fruit cup that still had a lot of fruit in it so the apples will have to wait until tomorrow. And I'll add the milk to her cereal since she is drinking the next-step toddler formula.

So this is why they call it a happy meal!

Oh and the toy, it was a Glenda doll from the Wizard of Oz. It was so late that the toy will have to wait another day too.

So Needy

Andrina was extremely needy today. And of course, it is on the day that Tom left for an out of town trip and I am all alone dealing with a needy baby/toddler. Andrina would not let me leave a room with out her today. Every time I started to go through a baby gate by myself, she started crying, then screaming. And these were the same, little things I do everyday that she is completely accustomed to. She was playing in the family room and I left to go into the utility room to get laundry out of the dryer. And if you know my house, you know that my utility room is about 3 feet from our family room. She cried and screamed like I was leaving her for good! And the entire time I'm talking to her, telling her I'll be right back. But she kept at it until I was back with her. I don't know how many times I had to pick up a tearful baby/toddler today because I had the nerve to leave her presence for a tiny amount of time.

And then there were the toddler temper-tantrums. Once today it was "no remote" and that brought one on. I walk away from Andrina when she throws a baby fit and that almost always makes the tantrum a short one. True to her babyness (is that a real word?), I walk away from her tantrum and she comes to me, arms up, wanting to be held. More needy baby/toddler.

But there is such sweetness in this neediness. My baby wants me badly and how much longer will this last? Not only is she growing up too fast, but soon she'll be ready to be anywhere but with a 'rent. So I try not to get upset and savor the tenderness behind it. When she abandons her temper tantrum to come to me, arms extended, I pick her up and cuddle her close. And she snuggles into me, sucking on her fingers. And she becomes all baby once again. A sweet baby needing her mommy. How can I not love that?