Mommy Mistakes

I just read a story over at Antique Mommy about a small mommy mistake (my only comment on the spanking thing is I don't agree with it, but I don't think those who do it gently should be criticized).

This reminded me of a recent mommy mistake I made:

When I pick MLO up from daycare, we have to set her up in her seat. Put her sunglasses on, gave her some juice (all liquids are called "juice") and one of her favorite toys.

Now, MLO has recently gotten into this habit of taking the sunglasses off while I am driving and then asking me over and over to help her put them back on. I have told her that I can't while I am driving and usually she accepts that. Note: She won't let me leave her in the car seat without putting them on before we go though.

One day she just kept getting louder and louder about wanting the glasses on. I told her she could do it, but mommy couldn't help. I let her cry it out and she eventually stopped and then found something else to play with.

The next day same routine. Glasses go on, juice in her hands and we start driving. I glance back and see she is taking the glasses off. After I face forward again she starts crying. I tell her mommy can't help, without looking back to see what was happening. After about five minutes of her still crying I finally look back and realize her juice had spilled all over and this was the upset.

I pulled over, got out, gave her a big hug, told her I was sorry and cleaned up the mess. After everything was all cleaned up she was as happy as could be.

I should have known better because MLO almost never cries about the same thing twice, once the boundary is set she knows.

It isn't always easy I tell ya'


Also on the grouchy thing: the daycare put her in her own room to nap where she wouldn't be distracted by the other kids and she slept for over two hours. She has been her usual "angelic" (well as close as they get at this age) self after that so we seemed to have found the problem.

Toy stores

In our new house there is a half a basketball court in the backyard with a big regular hoop. MLO sees others (me, daddy and her aunt and uncle) throwing our balls into the "basket" and she wants to also. We have picked her up and raised her as high as we can and she can't seem to through the ball up high enough.

So to help ease the frustration I decided to get her, her own.

This meant taking MLO to the toy store over the weekend and boy it is like going to Disneyland.

First toy store we went to was a smaller local toy store. MLO found a miniature shopping cart and she was pushing it around all over the place. We had great fun running around the store and through the aisles with me chasing and her pushing her cart. We also found a great collection of cars (including characters from the Pixar movie "Cars" which MLO loves) and beep, beeped those around.

However they didn't have any basketball hoops in stock. So I told MLO we had to go to another store and she happily agreed.

Then we went to a Toys-R-Us and my goodness, that girl got lost in the toys. We found some tables with train tracks and all sorts of gadgets set up and she was there for at least fifteen minutes before I managed to distract her.

Then she found the collection of balls and we were both chasing bouncy balls all over.

Then she found the toys with buttons that talk and you would have thought a convention was going on.

At last mommy found the basketball hoop and I had to bribe her to get her to go (with a cute little kitty stuffed animal that had stars on it's paws so MLO could sing Twinkle, Twinkle over and over - her favorite song of all time by the way).

It was an adventure and we both got our exercise. She fell asleep in the car on the way back and we both crashed when we got home.

MLO has been grouchy

Every night for the past two weeks MLO gets grouchy earlier and earlier. Before it was hunger, but even if I feed her dinner right away, she still complains about things easily and such.

Except on the weekends when she is with my all day and she is as happy as a clam, not a single tantrum no matter what I ask her to do (even leaving the toy store).

I was worried that there was something wrong at the daycare. However this didn't really make sense because MLO is SO happy every morning when I tell her we are going to her daycare. She happily climbs in the carseat and says the name of the daycare lady over and over again while I am driving. The daycare lady has told me over and over how good MLO is while there and how well she is playing with others. Just the other day gramma told me that MLO is developing really well, with a huge difference in her vocabulary and such since she saw her last (four days prior).

Then I realized that MLO takes really long naps on the weekend (2 to 3 hours) and I recalled a mention by the daycare that she takes the shortest naps of all the kids.

So today when I dropped MLO off I asked the daycare lady. Sure enough her naps have been no longer than an hour and I told her the problem I was having. Luckily she had some ideas on what to do and we will see what happens when I pick her up tonight.

Sleeping in a box

MLO's Godmother came over on Saturday to hang out with us, eat dinner, watch a movie, etc.

I warned her that we would be watching the movie in my usual fashion: with lots of distractions from MLO. We would have to pause the movie often if we wanted to hear it all, or resign ourselves to missing small details. She was fine.

While the movie was playing, MLO brought out a large gray plastic tub (the kind that is used for storing and stacking).

One of MLO's favorite activities is to sit in the tub and have me cover her feet with beads (a friend of Grandma gave them to her). She thinks it is the funniest thing.

Another favorite activity is for me to get her small pink pillow and a small blanket and package her up in the box as if she was going to sleep there.

After we did this, godmother asks "does she actually nap in there?" This is testament to how comfortable she looked though her knees were practically under her chin.

We laughed and played (missed half the movie) and had a great time.

Note: Thor kibby likes to sleep in the plastic tub too and whenever MLO sees her in it, she yells, "no Thor kibby, mine!"

Prize for a good cause

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Side Effects

Last night I went and saw a small showing of the independent movie "Side Effects". It stars Katherine Heigl (yes, from Grey's Anatomy) and she was really good. I haven't seen Knocked Up yet, but have heard it got great reviews and I think she is definitely going to do good work even after Grey's Anatomy.

The movie itself was very fascinating and fun. It was about Karly (Katherine Heigl) as a legal drug-pusher. She is a pharmaceutical rep and gets doctors to buy drugs from the company she works for. It is about the moral issues she runs into versus the pull of the great money and bonuses she earns.

The amazing thing about the movie is it was written by someone who did that in real life and is based on her own problems she had and things she saw.

I recommend seeing it, I believe it is on Netflix (where I rent all my movies).

P.S. Because of some of the controversy I have read about being paid for things and not disclosing it I wanted to say that no one paid me for this :)

Chicken

Guess what MLO's new favorite food is - CHICKEN!!

She can't get enough of it. She wants a plate in front of her full of chicken at all times.

Last night we had fish for dinner, she wanted chicken. I would like to make a note that she has had chicken for dinner the last two nights in a row as well as one of those lunches. Over the weekend we had our party and one of the items of food I got was chicken.

This is no way has reduced her desire for more.

This seems to be the case as she goes through phases of food she likes.

First thing in the morning she has to have a bagel. Nothing else will do she says, however I have made toast with cheese on it and told her it was a bagel and she ate it. So it isn't a taste thing, just a name thing.

Maybe if I had called the fish "chicken" last night, she would have eaten it. Will have to try that...

Took the cat to be fixed

Our cute little kitten (six months old now and "Thor kibby" as MLO calls her) went through her first heat recently and it was time to take her to be fixed.

This meant an overnight stay at the vet and no kibby for MLO to play with.

We took her yesterday and I tried to explain to MLO what was happening and that kibby would be okay and we would see her tomorrow. She seemed okay on it and hugged and kissed her kibby goodbye.

After she got home though she kept asking me where Thor kibby was. I would explain it all over and again and she would be okay but ask again in half an hour.

Thank goodness I picked Thor up today and when MLO comes home from daycare her kibby will be here.

Had official housewarming

We had our official housewarming this weekend and it went really well. I am totally exhausted after doing all the planning and stuff but I enjoy putting on parties.

MLO made some new friends (as we had many families come) and you can really see what a difference being in this daycare has made.

She is willing to share and actually gives toys to someone when they look like they are reaching for it. The kids played in our backyard until it got dark and then were in her room the rest of the evening.

Which meant mommy got to enjoy the party too and talk to friends and such.

The cutest point was when MLO was eating with her gramma, uncle Erick "erit" and grampa and saw me. She then called out "mommy, I eat with gramma" which made not only me smile, but everyone within ear shot.

A little later that night (after everyone had left) she made a little bit of a mess which got on gramma and she was so upset that she had made a mess on gramma. She kept crying "I gramma mess" and gramma had to give her a big hug to reassure her it was okay and she still loved her.

Counting

For a few weeks now MLO has been able to count to ten with help from someone.

Well last night she did it all by herself, from one to ten. Since then, and probably because I gave her such a huge acknowledgment, she has done it several times, clapping when she says ten.

She will be two the end of September and I think she is just amazing :)

Swim lesson

Last night we started our Swim Lessons again at the local YMCA (we did some last year too).

MLO loves the water and for the half an hour "mommy and me" class she has the biggest grin on her face the whole time.

She has gotten to the point where she can kick really well, moving herself forward. She holds the wall and can almost float on her back without my hand present.

She just loves the water and likes to splash me and herself. She "swims" to the teacher (with a push) and back to me.

Getting her out is the hard part, she is just as happy sitting on the step watching the next class and splashing her legs, as she is swimming with me.

Going on Rides

We took MLO to a beach boardwalk with rides and such. They have a kiddy section and my entire family had come to the boardwalk (it is usually just the kids and one or two adults who go) to see MLO go on rides.

We watched some of the rides so she would get the idea that little kids go on them and she can too.

I took her on the carousel and she wasn't interested in sitting on one of the horses, so me and her sat in a carriage thing they had on the ride.

She really seemed to like the look of the boat ride so we put her on that one first. It went great with her turning the wheel, ringing the bell and putting her hand in the water.

Well it went so well, she wouldn't go on any of the other rides. We did the boat ride over and over again. If you tried to convince her of another ride, even the ones where an adult came along, she just kept crying and saying "boat".

We got a lot of cute pictures and Nana (MLO's great grandma) took video. No one seemed too disappointed that it was the same ride over and over so I think it turned out okay.

Getting used to the ocean

Well the cutest point of the trip was when MLO got used to the ocean again.

We have taken her several times before, but at this age if you let something go too far between then they forget.

So her Aunt and I spent a lot of time with her, slowly getting her used to it. At first just me and MLO went down to the water (because everyone else was still sleeping, sleeping in an all) and sat on the beach and watched the waves. She decided the foam looked like bubbles and would exclaim over the bubbles. This lasted about an hour.

A little later that day her Aunt went out and chased the waves. MLO thought it looked like fun and started chasing and being chased by the waves. This lasted about half an hour.

Then her Aunt and one of her great aunts took her out and started jumping the waves (The front of the wave being the scariest part). After about a half an hour of that, she couldn't be kept out of the water.

She would grab anyone willing or go it on her own and start jumping waves and splashing.

We went to a boardwalk and every time she saw steps down to the beach and ocean, she made a run for it. Hubby ended up going down with her and they splashed in the ocean while I got to rest. The both came back very wet (with no swimsuits or towels on us) but very happy.

Since being back, every time she sees a picture or the ocean is on TV she yells out "ocean" and runs towards it.

Being that we live in LA, I think we will be making some more trips down there.

Just got back from family reunion

Hello everyone (mostly Kat I think - though there are a few others)

We went to a family reunion which is why I have been so quiet. Every year my family rents a beach house and we all go and stay together. At the end of the week I am just about ready to kill most of them.

I will have stories to tell but right now I need to get the house in order, buy food for us to eat, answer all my emails and so on. So I will be back with family reunion stories...

Love ya

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Chatter-box

I picked MLO up from the daycare yesterday.

The entire ride home (about 20 minutes) she talked. None stop.

Sometimes quietly to herself or her shoes, but she didn't stop.

She told me about playing with her "guys" (what she calls the friends she is making at the daycare).

She told me about how her clothes got messy and had to change pants.

We played "what's that" with the different cars and mommie had to get inventive because she didn't want the same answer over and over (car).

So MLO started her education on the different types of cars and we continued working on colors. Found out she loves trucks.

All of it in the cutest baby/grown-up talk that has a made-up word here and there, but you get the general idea of what she is saying.

Daycare success

I successfully dropped off MLO at the daycare today without any tears.

She pushed me out the door (something the daycare personnel promote - to make the kids feel like they are causing the leaving and not being left) today and smiled as I waved goodbye.

She likes the lady in charge of the daycare and willingly goes into her arms when it is time for me to leave in the morning. When I pick her up at the end of the day she says good-bye to her and then says "good-bye kids" to everyone else.

Thank goodness, the tears were too much.