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???