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Wednesday, October 17, 2012

My New Stylist


Monica and I had just returned from a short shopping trip in Media, and I was checking my email while she was investigating the contents of her diaper bag.  The laptop was on the end table next to the couch, so my back was to her.  I heard a little giggle, and then felt a yank on my hair.  What the heck!  She never pulls my hair on purpose, so I was really shocked...until I turned around and found this:







My very own little stylist!









She had found my hairbrush in the diaper bag, and was giggling away while she worked on giving me a new 'do.  Can someone please tell this kid that teasing hair went out of style about 20 years ago??
 

It wasn't the most comfortable experience for me, but she sure was having a blast!

Whoops!  Don't eat the hair, kiddo!
Monica says, "Mama, I officially declare you to be lovely!"   It might be days before I'm able to untangle this mess....but she sure had fun, so it's worth it!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Germs Galore

10/9/2012
We are in the throes of Monica's very first cold.  I really shouldn't complain, as we made it 13 months without her getting sick once.  Unfortunately, I'm still getting over this horrible illness, so I am in a weakened condition, myself.  However, I suppose that this is preferable to the alternative, which would be me getting sick the moment she becomes healthy again, as she will assuredly regain her normal energy x 1,000. 

The best word to describe our current situation would be "disgusting."  I actually found myself holding a tissue up to her nose and saying, "blow" yesterday, and then laughing uncontrollably at myself for being so idiotic.   It didn't dawn on me until that moment that she doesn't know how to blow her nose.  So she just sits there with snot running out of it at continuously, which means that I am wiping her nose with a tissue every two minutes; during which, she repeatedly jerks her head, thus smearing snot across her cheeks.  Where it dries into a crust because I am too busy throwing out the snotty tissue and washing my hands in preparation for the next round of nose wiping in t-minus 45 seconds.  That is, as long as she hasn't already wiped it on the couch.

The saddest part is that she can't suck her thumb while she sleeps because she can't breathe through her nose.  So she is alternating between sucking her thumb for a few seconds and then pulling it out to frantically gasp for breath.  Poor thing!

Except for when we're (sorta) sleeping, I don't think we've stopped watching TV since Saturday afternoon.  I'm pretty sure she is in heaven, as I have been too weak to try to engage her in actual brain-developing learning activities.  
 
10/10/2012
Unrelated post note - I just wrote 2011 and kept going like it was nothing.  And then I realized 2012 is almost over.  Brain = dead.

My fears have come true.  Monica is rallying even quicker than I thought possible, while I remain a supine, inert lump on the couch.  To her credit, she has been a perfect angel for most of the day today, revisiting with her toys that were ignored during her snuffly couch potato phase.  Unfortunately, she seems sick of watching television, and I don't think that I have much more time before she is climbing the walls and needed to get out of the house to burn off some energy.  Perhaps I will rouse myself after her nap for a quick trip to the bank.  The bank is a good errand because we can hit the drive through without changing out of our pajamas.  Seems silly to get dressed at 5pm, the day is practically over!

JK has been trying to convince himself that I have an exponentially worse version of a slight sore throat and mild fatigue he was feeling last week.  While I seriously hope he is right, I remain unconvinced due to the coughing he was just doing on his way out the door.

So, that's what's going on over here.  No cute picture to end this blog post, we're not the most photogenic bunch right now!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The Great Self-Feeding Experiment

The Grubster eats a lot.  That statement can be interpreted in two ways, and both apply.  She eats large quantities of food, and she eats on a frequent basis.

As of right now, I am basically serving her four meals a day.  We have breakfast when she wakes up (9am), first lunch before nap (12:30pm), second lunch after nap (4:30pm) and dinner (7pm) every day.  Once in a while one of the lunches is more snack-like, but there is never any telling as to how much she will eat.  And since she generally demands a variety of foods at each of these four meals, my on-the-spot culinary skills are unparalleled these days.  Thank God for the internet, which has a wealth of recipes and information relative to feeding toddlers!

This week, I was gauging her level of hunger for first lunch before her nap.  Thinking she was too tired to invest herself in a full meal, I handed her a cup of milk and a couple of puffs, and spooned some yogurt into a small bowl.  I figured it would fill her up enough so that she'd take a decent nap, and then we'd have a real lunch after she woke up.

I stepped into the living room to grab my phone off the end table.  JK usually texts me when he is on his way home, so I wanted to think ahead to what we could eat for lunch after Monica was asleep.  And when I got back, I found this:

Her high chair has this attached semi-tray that you see in the picture, as well as the removable full-sized tray.  Since she started eating finger foods, we ALWAYS have the full-sized tray on the high chair.  She hasn't had a meal without the full-sized tray since we started having meals in the dining room several months ago; which is why I had never before encountered this situation. 

Without the full-sized tray, Monica can reach out and grab whatever is close by on the dining room table.  In this case, happened to be the yogurt bowl and spoon. 

I decided to let her have at it and just see what happened.  She has tried to take a spoon out of my hand to feed herself some of whatever I was spooning onto her tray, but she never gets any food into her mouth that way.  She isn't quite ready to balance the spoon in a way that food won't slide off of it before it gets to her mouth.

Luckily for her, yogurt is sticky, and it stuck to the spoon.  All she had to do was stick the spoon in the bowl, and then stick the spoon in her mouth.  I was amazed and impressed that she was actually eating so much of the yogurt.  And boy, was she proud of herself....I had to refill the little bowl three times!  I'm not entirely sure that she was even that hungry, I think she was just showing off her sweet skills. 

Ahhhhh, this independent little baby isn't that much of a baby anymore!!!