Homework

An amazing thing happened today: Amelia and Diana were, for several minutes, both asleep this afternoon. I probably should have joined them and taken a nap myself, but I felt certain that one of them would wake up if I tried to get comfortable at all.

Amelia loves her gymnastics class, but boy is she a handful! She couldn't wait to leave for class this morning and asked several times on the ride there, "Going to class?" I guess she was worried I would take her someplace else instead. She had to be dragged from the building 15 mins. after class was over because she did not want to leave. I'm glad she's having fun.

What do I do during the day when I'm not feeding, carrying or chauffering the little ones? Well, check out these photos. (Note that the bookcase seen here was once just a large stack of boxes - see January 22.)

Lisa

More assistance from Amelia

As usual, when Mike came home he asked Amelia about her day. Apparently, he asked her if she had been a good girl for mommy and after some thought Amelia said, "Maybe."

Amelia's perceptual powers are keen. She was good some of the time today and kind of two-ish at other times. For example, while we were at the grocery store Amelia helped mommy by helping to push the shopping cart. This was a very nice thing for her to do except that she refused to stop anywhere along the aisles. If I wanted to get any food off the shelf I had to cajole her into stopping, often putting my foot in front of a wheel.

Amelia is also still not very skilled at sharing. When Diana reached out to play with a toy Amelia was basically ignoring, but apparently liked, she became upset. She started saying, "No, no, no!" and pulled the toy away replacing it with a baby book. "Here, play with story," she told her sister.

I also attempted to demonstrate how to properly use a stud finder today. I'm not sure Amelia understood what we were doing, but she likes helping and she likes tools - especially the tape measure since it has, "Numbers on it."

Amelia also tried to help mommy beat Guitar Hero with hilarious results. As I played "Iron Man" Amelia took a break from singing and stated, "Orange one doesn't work." Those of you familiar with Guitar Hero know that the orange key is the fret button to the right of your left pinky (assuming you're right handed). That key is only put into play on hard and expert levels of Guitar Hero.

I told Amelia that the orange key wasn't broken, it just wasn't being used on the medium level. I asked if she wanted me to try a harder version of Iron Man so she could see all of the keys and she said, "Okay." Of course, the blue and orange keys still aren't used too terribly much on harder levels. And I have to tell you I did not get through Iron Man on "hard."

When Amelia persisted in asking for more of the orange and blue buttons I tried to explain to her that I pushed the buttons shown by the game. I played the song again on easy and knelt down to demonstrate how the game was played. Amelia didn't get it, so I stood back up and worked to finish the "easy" version of Iron Man.

Then, Amelia did the funniest thing. She stood between me and the television screen, faced me and asked to see the orange and blue keys on the screen. I told her there were no orange and blue notes on this level and she pointed to my guitar and said, "They're right there." I started to laugh, which made it difficult to play. As I continued laughing and playing the notes I was supposed to play (without the orange and blue keys) Amelia continued to look back and forth between the screen and my guitar saying, "See, right there - orange and blue right there."

I laughed so hard I started crying. It was hilarious to hear her try to explain that I had two other keys available for use right in front of my face. I guess I was just too blind to see them.

As for Diana, she isn't quite ready to date I don't suppose. Today at the playground a neighbor boy (who also has a six-month old sister) came up to Diana in her stroller and kissed her on the cheek. Diana immediately began to cry but settled down quickly when I told her it was okay.

Really funny stuff going on around here, and tomorrow we're off to another gymnastics class with Amelia.

Lisa

Diana's statistics

Last Thursday, Diana had her six month well-baby check-up. She is, of course, doing great. Her weight hasn't gone up a whole lot these past few weeks, despite her obvious love of solid food, but she's still growing. Diana now weighs 16 lbs. 8 oz. which puts her at the 50 percentile for her age. She's 27 inches tall (90th percentile) and has a slightly larger than average noggin (52nd percentile).

Diana was not thrilled to be at the doctor's office, and wiggled and squirmed in her car seat while waiting for her check-up. Amelia, on the other hand, loves going to see the doctor because she isn't the one getting a shot, she gets to play with different toys in the examination room, and she goes home eating the lollipop Diana can't have (because she's too young).

Amelia has been a real crack-up recently, let me tell you. Her speech is getting better and better every day. She hasn't grown much since turning two, but her vocabulary and command of grammar and syntax is improving every day. The other morning, while watching her morning DVD selection, Amelia turned to mommy and said, "I'm learning how to spell." I was really impressed with that statement and Amelia was, in fact, speaking the truth. You may be surprised to know that Amelia can spell the names of a dozen different animals at the tender age of two. She knows all of the animals in her book "Jane's Animal Expedition" and spells the names as she reads. It's fun to hear her spell out words as she goes. Over the past several weeks I have learned from Amelia that:

"D-O-G spells dog."

"D-O-G spells seal."

"D-O-G spells coyote."

"D-O-G spells giraffe..." and a dozen other words.

There actually is one other phrase that Amelia is learning to spell correctly besides "dog" and that's Iron Man (no kidding)!

Another thing Amelia does that everyone loves is when she makes up the lyrics to her own songs and sings them aloud. Normally whoever happens to be listening is the only one who gets to enjoy these adorable melodies, but Mike had the forethought to write down a few lines as Amelia sang them. This is some of what Amelia sang while waiting in the car as I visited the DMV (a favorite past time)...

"Flying in the sky is so much fun
and there's letters on the house.
Waiting for mommy to come back..."

I almost wish we could keep a recorder on hand to get all of these gems as they emerge, but I guess that isn't practical. Still, I'll try to keep sharing Amelia's quips when I hear and remember them.

I also have to tell you that Amelia has been helping mommy assemble furniture. As I was bolting a storage unit together she picked up a screw and looked for a way to help mommy by putting it in its proper place. I showed her where to put that screw, and then another, and then asked her where she thought the fourth screw should go. Amelia found exactly the right pre-drilled hole and put the bolt where it belonged. I was very impressed.

Of course, all of the help Amelia provides is appreciated, though not all of it is, um, great. As I was working on this particular piece of furniture I was startled to hear a terrible scraping sound to my right. Sure enough there was Amelia dragging a piece of wood across the tile to where mommy was working. I smiled and said, "Thank you" though I was really concerned about the state of the dragged wood.

Lisa

Executive veto power

Today I began assembling the nine components necessary to build my wall storage unit. Proud of my initial success, and just feeling good overall, I felt the time had come for a trip to Coldstone for ice cream.

Walking into the ice cream shop I asked Amelia what kind of ice cream she wanted. Her response was, "Blue." Now, "blue" ice cream is cotton candy flavored. It isn't as bad as it sounds, but it's not what mommy wants when she's being naughty and eating ice cream. I talked her into trying green (mint) ice cream, but both of us agreed it wasn't that great. She wasn't impressed with cake batter ice cream either (mommy loves that one!). Again Amelia said, "Blue...okay, blue." I asked if she wanted chocolate, but it was nothing doing. I decided this would be a good day for Amelia to get her own kiddy cup of ice cream.

We then moved down to the cabinet of mix-ins. I thought Amelia might like sprinkles, but she really had her heart set on the pretty gumdrops. This is where I stepped in and used my veto power. The last thing Amelia needs is to eat a bunch of gum with her cotton candy ice cream. Instead, she chose M&M's (also pretty) to mix into her blue ice cream. I suspect she liked the M&M's better than the ice cream since she kept asking me to fish them out for her.

Diana had a teeny tiny bit of my chocolate ice cream and seemed to like it pretty well. She would not surrender my spoon once she had a taste, in fact, so I had to keep switching spoons out with her. Today was Diana's six month appointment. Tomorrow I will give you the details as far as her measurements go. I'm sure you all realize she's doing great and growing and developing normally.

Until tomorrow,
Lisa

New year, new class

Since the arrival of baby Diana mommy is always looking for ways to fit in special play time for Amelia during the week. Last fall Amelia played soccer. This year she has been enrolled in a gymnastics class specially designed for kids 2-3 years old.

Amelia's first reaction to this new class was similar to her reaction to soccer. It was almost impossible to get Amelia to remove her shoes and join the class after arriving at the center. It was impossible to get Amelia to follow any of the instructions provided in class; she preferred (as did another boy of a similar age) to run off and explore the huge open space and fun rings, balls and other toys.

However, once the class lost some of its structure and became more of a "free-for-all" on trampolines and in the pit of foam, Amelia had a great time. It was nearly impossible to get her to leave at the end of class. Once the gate was closed, preventing her from running around in the classroom area, Amelia kept searching for a means of getting back in. In fact, she almost slipped past the guards when a new student arrived for a subsequent class.

So it looks like gymnastics will be fun. After class mommy, Amelia, and Diana had lunch at a nearby Chinese restaurant. At that point I couldn't quite decide if I should push my luck and try to buy printer paper or go home. I decided to look for printer paper at Office Max or Office Depot or Office whatever-I-first-encounter but could not find the store I was looking for. I was going to head home, but Amelia expressed excitement and interest in going to Target.


Target was not such a good idea at this point. I found the printer paper and it was a good deal, but then Amelia insisted on spending a huge amount of time looking at toys. She found a huge, pink, stuffed unicorn at the end of a toy aisle and my first thought was, "Oh no, she's going to want that!" Instead, Amelia picked up the pony (which was at least as big as she was) and carried it back to its proper place on the shelf. I was so proud of her I decided to buy her a small toy. I brought Amelia over by the animals and told her to pick one. Well, she refused to choose any animal and instead took one of every kind of animal off the shelves and lined them up in a big animal parade. I tried to buy her a toy, but she couldn't decide and seemed to like playing with the animals in the store just fine.

My apologies to whomever had to pick up all of the cows, sharks, horses, tigers, etc., but I am happy I saved five bucks and a tiny bit of space in my shrinking home.

Lisa

Mommy's helper

Boy do I feel silly. I thought I would get more work done around the house if Amelia weren't here. While she and daddy were away Sunday I got some things done, but nothing impressive.

Today while Diana took a long post-carrots-and-oatmeal nap Amelia and I headed outdoors. I first finished shaping one of the three junipers in my backyard. Remember that I not only hate junipers but I am also allergic to them. Nonetheless, I did a pretty good job on the first bush and completely avoided the itchy skin I got the first time around by wearing a latex glove. I still have a sore throat, however. (Crummy juniper!)

Diana was still asleep and I felt the need to be productive, so I got out the children's bench I've been carrying around for months. The bench was cute and very easy to assemble. Amelia helped me by putting the boards (pretty much) in place and putting bolts and screws in the correct holes (not the correct bolts and screws, but that's okay).
After all of that productivity we were introduced to a greater challenge as the UPS man delivered our new shelving unit. Mike and I felt fairly confident that this unit would come pre-assembled. I guess that's what we get for thinking.

But, since there are nine components to this wall unit and three capable assembly personnel (Mike, myself and Amelia), I figure we can get this done in three days with no sweat (yeah, right!).

Lisa

Better, stronger, faster

As Amelia has grown she has become more sophisticated in a number of ways. For one thing, her speech is much more complicated now than it was even a month ago. This has been both a blessing and a curse for mommy. While Amelia used to simply ask for "juice" in the morning she now specifies whether she, in fact, wants juice, chocolate milk or water. She further specifies what color cup she would like to drink her selection out of and, on occasion, also specifies the color of straw she prefers to use that day.

And while Amelia used to enjoy dangling hangers off mommy's fingers that mommy had retrieved for her from the closet she now not only can get her own hangers from the closet but can also drop the annoying clothes placed on the hangers onto the closet floor.

Speaking of clothes falling, why is it that I can't hardly find pants that fit Amelia? Twenty-four-month-old pants fall right off her skinny butt...but that's another topic for another time.

Today mommy finally opened a toy that had been given to Diana for Christmas. As is common with toys these days opening the packaging took the patience of Job and a minor in mechanical engineering. Once the toys were out for Amelia to see, she fairly and equally divided them up. The toys were three colored bowls, a shape-sorter lid, three shapes, a bunny that laughed and talked, and a plastic spoon. Amelia generously gave her sister the plastic spoon.

Amelia's just not that great at sharing. While playing with the musical bowls in front of Diana little Diana would sometimes reach out and grab the edge of "Amelia's" toy. Amelia would then sternly, but gently, pull Diana's hand off the bowl and move it back over to Diana's play mat saying, "No, no, stay in the house!"

You see, the play gym is Diana's house, and she must frequently confine her play and movements to the area covered by her jungle play mat. If mommy is holding Diana and Amelia wants mommy's attention she will ask mommy to "Put baby down in baby's house."

We're working on sharing and empathy daily. I'm sure it will sink in at some point.

Lisa

Am I keeping you up?

I thought 6:30 was bad! This morning Mike asked if I could tell him the time. I wasn't sure why he was asking but squinted at the clock and said, "It's almost 6 a.m.". Exasperated Mike repeated, "It's not even six yet?"

I then realized that Amelia was, once again, in our room wide awake. We tried to get her to fall asleep in our bed, but it didn't work. She just begged and badgered until one of us (mommy) got out of bed and took her and all her animals (two giraffes, two zebras, two elephants, a horse and a unicorn) downstairs to play.

Believe it or not, I'm getting used to getting up early.

More interesting than sleep battles may be the fact that Diana is learning to sit up on her own. She can sit for a couple of minutes now before slowly falling off to one side.

Lisa

Mommy's alarm clock

The sleep battles are being fought in our home, once again. Lately it's been difficult to get Amelia to stay in bed at night and nearly impossible to get her to take a nap in the afternoon.

I'm sure I've said this before, but Amelia's at that age when she really needs to take a nap (or else she's really grouchy) but she refuses. According to our chosen expert reference what we are supposed to do is to repeatedly put her back in bed every time she gets up without talking to her or giving her any kind of social benefit at all. This is easier said than done, though it does seem to be effective.

Of course the other side of this coin is Amelia's wake-up time which has become rather early, in our opinion. At six thirty this morning Amelia was standing beside my bed asking me to "Get down, get down!" My excuse for not getting out of bed was that I was feeding Diana. I guess that wasn't reason enough to ignore Amelia's wishes and she sweetly asked, "How about 'Get down, please'?"

Then in case there's any doubt as to what it is Amelia would like me to do, she will pull back the covers on the bed and push my feet to the floor, one after the other. She also hands me my socks, so my feet won't get cold on the downstairs tile.

I hate getting up so early, but at least my daughter is sweet in her persistence.

Lisa

P.S. Speaking of persistence, a friend pointed me to Parents magazine on line to find a quiz to determine what type of parent I am. I never did find that particular quiz, but I did find a fun one on astrology. Check out their descriptions of Pisces moms and Taurus children and you'll see some of what I struggle with every day!

Good taste in toys

Mmmm...tastes like purple.

Perhaps to dream

Yesterday a new chapter was written in the saga I call, "Nap Time or Lack Thereof." After a trip to Barnes and Noble where Amelia embarrassed her mom by scolding a younger boy for attempting to play with her toy train ("Mia's train!") mommy and Amelia had a talk about sharing. Amelia seems to understand a lot more and get more out of mommy and daddy's talks these days. After explaining to Amelia that we'll all get along much better in this world by cooperating and sharing Amelia thought for a moment and added, "And saying 'Please'."

On the drive home, both Amelia and Diana fell asleep. Amelia has desperately needed to nap recently but refuses to stay in bed. In the car seat she's legally and safely confined so she can't get up and walk down the hall to see what mommy and Diana might be up to.

I'm sure all of you are asking yourselves, "Yes, but when does mommy get to sleep?" Well, I fixed that problem too by allowing Diana to drive us home the last three miles from the bookstore. (Of course, I'm kidding. But I did spend 40 minutes sitting in my drive-way listening to KNBR while Amelia slept. She needed a nap so badly I was willing to simply hang out in my car so she could sleep.)

Lisa

Daily dose of Diana

If you're a cutie pie and you know it grab your feet.

"Who's sleepy? I'm not...z...zzzzzzz..." 

To nap or not to nap?

Amelia's at the age when she should have a nap every day, but will often resist falling asleep. At least, that's the opinion of the authors I've read on the subject.

Yesterday I did my darnest to get Amelia to take a nap. At one point I even had her sit in "time out" on the stool we set up down the hall for just this purpose. It seemed that Amelia would not stay in her room unless she thought I was watching her, so I knelt quietly at this computer and fiddled around while I waited for her to fall asleep. (You see, the stool we are using for her rare "time out" sessions is the seat we normally use at the computer.)

After a while, I heard Amelia's door open. I tried to ignore it figuring that seeing mommy would just make Amelia more likely to want to stay awake. A little while later I thought I felt a pair of eyes upon me. I turned around but didn't see anyone. A couple of minutes later I was sure I heard footsteps coming down the hall. More frustrated than mad I turned around and found that Amelia had brought our stool all the way down the hall with her. She sat it down behind me and said, "Here, sit on it." I sat on the stool and she half stated, half gestured for me to pull the stool up to the computer. Once I was comfortably seated in front of this keyboard Amelia asked, "How's that?"

I was so impressed with Amelia's thoughtfulness that I gave her a hug and forgot about her nap. She was pretty tired when night came, but you want to be tired at night, right?

Funny thing is today I thought I'd skip Amelia's nap all together. Diana took a long baby nap and when she woke up I found Amelia sitting on daddy's chair with a nearly empty box of crackers in her lap. As she ate the crackers her eyes became heavier and heavier until eventually she fell asleep where she sat.

So I guess the bottom line is sometimes Amelia needs a nap and sometimes she doesn't. I guess it's more about watching her to see how sleepy she is than watching the clock.

Lisa

Amelia is Iron Man

Our family received many terrific gifts this year. One of the best (a gift from daddy to mommy) is a Play Station game complete with Guitar Hero. Both Mike and I have been having a lot of fun practicing our rock-and-roll guitar skills and Mike has been working especially hard on perfecting "Iron Man" at all levels of difficulty.

I don't know why I found this surprising, but the other night I heard a soft voice singing along with Ozzy as I practiced my easy version of Iron Man. Sure enough Amelia has heard Iron Man enough times to know some of the lyrics.

In fact, Amelia has a real talent for learning song lyrics - which means that we'll have to carefully monitor the tunes we play around the house and in the car. Still, I'm proud of my daughter: the one-year-old girl who correctly identified AC/DC when she heard it on the radio. And I get a real kick when Amelia says, as she did when we powered up Guitar Hero last night, "Rock and Roll!"

Lisa

"It's like a tight rope!" - Amelia finds the end of a skein of yarn and tries to figure out just how far one piece of yarn can stretch. 

Happy New Year!

The end of the year has been hectic. Our normal excuse for being busy and out of touch has been that we had final exams to take. This Christmas season we had no such excuse. Still, we were up to our eyeballs with work.

All I want to say in these brief moments before I go to sleep on New Year's Day is that 2006 was a terrific year for my family and I. We are blessed with two wonderful little girls after the birth of Diana in July. Our move to California went remarkably smoothly, considering the timing. And Mike and I are in our first honest-to-goodness home. I don't know what 2007 has in store, but if this coming year is anything like the one we just finished, I say, "Bring it on!"

Lisa