Colds

Andrina has had a cold since last Sunday. She's been pretty miserable for most of this week. Most of our time has been spent trying to keep her as cranky-free as possible. Which is really difficult to do for a toddler who's got a bad cold and cough. Luckily, her fever finally went away yesterday so she's feeling about 75% better I'd say.

As far as the week has gone with Andrina having a bad cold, I've been puked on (because she didn't like the baby benedryl the pediatrician said to give her), sneezed on, coughed on, gotten drool and snot rubbed on me, heard a lot of her whining because she's just been miserable and endured many, many temper-tantrums that have come about quite easily this week. Overall, Andrina has been almost a 180 from her usual happy self.

However, even this terrible week has had its upside (well, for me, not for my poor cold-stricken baby). Me being there for Andrina has brought us even closer together. She knows that Mommy really is there for her and has kept right on loving her even though she's been such a handful. Even when she's refused to eat anything for 16 hours and refuses to drink milk too, only water or juice. Which I really don't understand. She likes milk and she had to be hungry and thirsty, how could she refuse milk? Maybe her cold made it taste bad?

So how have I coped with all of this. In addition to zoning out in front of the TV or my computer when she goes to sleep, a lot of Elmo! Andrina loves Elmo and we usually only let her watch 1 hour of Elmo/Sesame Street a day. Well, seeing how miserable she's been and how her mood improves greatly when she does watch Elmo & the gang, we've been letting her watch about 4 hours worth a day! Now before you go calling the parenting police on me, we have been under extreme circumstances! It's the one thing that reliably makes her feel better and I'm not going to deny her that when she's feeling so awful.

Taking Baby For a Ride

A huge leap in Andrina's development tonight! She put her "baby" in the wagon and wheeled her around all by herself! I have not shown her how to do this and I don't think she saw this at school. They don't have wagons but they do have toy shopping carts. Maybe she got the idea from one of the slightly older kids at school or maybe it's her own but either way this is a big step in her cognitive development! And when I saw this, I had to get some pictures!

Really Big Girl Tub!

I took the toddler tub out of the bathtub, now Andrina has the entire bathtub to play in! Can you tell she likes it?

Identical Cousins

How cute are these kiddos?

Stroking My Parenting Ego

Andrina had a melt-down at today's 18 month well-baby visit. She seemed to either get tired of being in the exam room or cranky or just wanted to go home. Of course, being an active toddler in a boring exam room with little stimulation would make her want to leave! Whatever it was, she got really mad towards the end of her visit and kept walking over to the door, hitting it, and saying "home". Well I dealt with this like I do with almost all of Andrina's tantrums and meltdowns. I walked over to her, knelt down and told her that I knew that she wanted to go home but it would just be a little bit longer. She got upset at essentially being told "no" so she tried to throw herself on the floor to have a tantrum. Normally I'd let her do this and ignore it but it was a tiled floor instead of carpet like we're accustomed to at home. So I had to pick her up and hold her while she was screaming and flinging herself about. I told her that I could not put her down because she was too upset and would hurt herself on the hard floor. After a few seconds she settled down so I put her down on her feet and asked her if she would be able to handle this on her own now. The answer must have been "no" since she went back to the door and started hitting it and saying "home" again. I went to the corner of the exam room and got a Cailou board book and exclaimed, "there's babies in this book! I'm going to look at the babies in this book!" Andrina was now just standing at the door looking at me so I went on to excitedly describe what the baby was doing on the first page. That worked to distract her and she came over to me to sit on my lap to see the book. So I'm sitting on the floor of the exam room with a diaper-clad only toddler in my lap and the pediatrician starts telling me how I displayed all of the effective parenting techniques with a toddler. He was saying how I got down on her level, empathized with her, didn't let her hurt herself, gave her the opportunity to soothe herself, and distracted her while staying calm myself. Wow! That was all very nice to hear although I just interacted with Andrina like I always do when she is upset. But thanks for the compliments anyways. I know I'm a great mom but it's nice to get validation from someone else!

18 Month Stats

Andrina is now 31 inches tall (she grew 1 and 1/2 inches since 15 months old) and still 22 pounds. Going good baby!

One and a Half!!!

Happy 1 and 1/2 year old birthday Andrina! This is a big milestone for you! And happily all your development is right on track--and then some! Love you more than anything-Mommy

Reading Words

Ok, I started this list on 12.19.08 and I am finally putting it up. The following is a list of words that Andrina can definitely read. When presented with the word she has either said it, pointed to it, touched it, or done the action.

kick

nose

arms up

point

clap

smiling

wave

keys

tongue

ball

eyes

mouth

toes

dogs

book

head

ears

giraffe

bubbles

bib

nap

hat

hair

combs

drum

chick

car

horse

camel

pig

blocks

That's over 30 words she can read so far!

1st Fun in the Snow!

With the bitter cold we've had so far this winter, it's been almost impossible to get Andrina outside to play in the snow. We finally made it out there today! She enjoyed it but her one boot came off twice. The first time I took her inside to put it back on, the second time I gave up and ended the snow play. But she looked ready to come inside then anyways so it was not so bad.

True to being Andrina, she began exploring right away!

And true to being Andrina, she had a lot of fun! Can you tell?

Juicing

Tom's big Christmas present was a Jack Lalane juicer that he specifically asked for. I got it for him for and we been making juice with it. Tonight we gave some of it to Andrina and she loved it! And then she wanted me to drink some too. Take a look:

ELMO!

Andrina really loves Elmo. She says his name all day long. Goes up to the TV and points, saying Elmo. She has even spoken his name in her sleep. More than once I've woken up at 2am to hear her say "Elmo" then she gets quiet again. Well tonight at about 8:00, she was fighting sleep and started yellig "ELMO" several times! Tom and I just both looked at each other then laughed. She must have yelled "ELMO" 10 times! What a cutie Andrina is. And she really loves her Elmo...

More Spoken Words

Tonight at dinner, Andrina spoke "peas" and "rice". Which was a part of her dinner. Some other words she's spoken over the past week include Bert (a la Bert and Ernie), Grover (more Sesame Street), ham, and house.