2-27-06

 

A step forward, a step backwards, but we're getting there, right?  She slept in the big room again Friday night but then naps over the weekend didn't happen in there so we had to go back to the crib and then last night she wouldn't sleep in the big room so she was back in her bed in her room.  On Sunday I ran out to do some errands once Jessie was in her room for her nap.  I told Kris she wasn't actually asleep and to listen for her.  Apparently while I was gone he had to change a poopy diaper and then he put her back to bed in her bed.  With the wipes on the bed.  With Jessie.  Ya, I came home to the ENTIRE contents of the newly opened wipes container emptied in her room.  Most of them were tossed into the crib and some were being used as "blankets" over her various dolls and animals in her bed.  Everything was totally wet!  There are two things that Jessie cannot be left alone with.  A box of tissues and a bag of wipes.  I suppose a roll of toilet paper would also count here, although we don't generally leave her alone in the bathroom and most of our toilet paper rolls aren't left where she could reach them anyway. 

This weekend at Target we bought this "color your cookie" thing.  It was this thick hard cookie with white frosting and the black outline of SpongeBob on it along with 3 markers that had edible flavoured ink.  (Chocolate, banana, and grape, in case you were wondering.)  Gavin colored his cookie and shared it with Jessie who got the markers and was also coloring the cookie.  Then she proceded to color her tummy with the markers.  When she was done we were joking that she had a lickable tummy and whenever we got her we'd pull up her shirt and give kisses all over her tummy.  She thought this was pretty funny, but now I'm wondering if daycare is a little awed with her newly chocolate, banana, and grape colored tummy.  Jessie also got a little bunny purse.  She LOVES bags and anything with straps she will hook over her elbow and say "Bye bye" and wave while she walks away.  I wanted to get her a little purse that she could use with her Ostara (Easter for those of you that don't know what Ostara is) dress.  The little girl purses, you know, those goofy little things that have fake pearls and lace all over them, were $10 at target!!  I managed to find this little stuffed bunny purse in the dollar section though.  Much better!  Now she has to have her "purse" whenever we go out.  Oh, and BTW - it is not pink.  It happens to be a green bunny purse. :)

 

2-24-06

 

She slept in the bottom bunk bed in the big bedroom!!!  WAHOO!!  OK, the kids BEG for her to sleep in there after stories each night and sometimes I say yes, and sometimes I don't feel like dealing with them horsing around in there for 30 minutes before I haul Jessie off to her own room because they aren't sleeping.  Then I get the added fun of screaming Jessie because she doesn't WANT to leave the big room.  I said yes this night and we tucked the kids in and left.  I heard the light go right back on in there and opened the door.  Gavin was out of bed and Jessie was sitting up watching him.  So we hustle Gav back into bed and tell Jessie to lay down, shut off the light and close the door again.  Well, they did goof off a bit at first, but then it was quiet.  I started watching my CSI DVD (cause who has time to watch a show when it is actually prgramed to be on anyway?) and I hear crying from upstairs.  I go up there and Jessie is on the floor trying to put on this shirt she found on the floor.  She has it part way on and her arm is stuck out the top.  I take the shirt off and ask if she'd like to sleep in her own room, she says NO! so I tuck her back into the bottom bed and say good night.  Quiet....  I go back to my show and when I come back upstairs, they are both asleep!  YAY!  This morning was interresting trying to get Gavin up and out of the room so he could get ready for school without waking Jessie up.  He actually climbed on the bed with her!  She sat up and called for me but I was able to just hold her a little and tuck her back in and she went back to sleep (Gavin is lucky!) All in all, it went well!

I totally need to add Jessie's words in on her list!  I just can't seem to remember them all whenever I have a chance to edit the site.  Yesterday on the way into daycare we were "counting" in the car.  She skips numbers here and there but she actually said "six seven nine ten eleven twelve" and then some numbers that all sounded pretty much like something-teen.  I was so shocked!  The eleven and twelve were hard to understand too, but you could just tell she was getting the concept of beyond ten.  She also put on her own shoes (on the wrong feet and unstrapped) and her own pants!  She is getting to be such a big girl!

 

2-14-06

 

Happy Valentines Day!  I have to admit, this isn't a big holiday for us.  Chocolate is always fun but the whole "saint Valentine" doesn't hold much importance in our house.  Besides, the kids get spoiled enough from their grandparents. 

I had taken all the bedding out of the crib since Jessie wasn't using it and moved the matress back up to the top setting and put in all the new baby bedding.  Jessie saw this and wanted to sleep in it for nap that day and overnight that night.  That was the end of the crib though and she's back into her bed again.  She woke up last night and boy, she must've had a crazy dream!  She was telling me all about it... "Daddy, shower, cry, scared, Mommy scared. light off, cry, scared... etc."  I don't remember all of what she was telling me about but we cuddled a little and she laid back down and went back to sleep.  It sure is nice to be able to snuggle in her bed with her!  This morning she decided she wanted a walk in her big bike stroller.  That is this huge contraption that looks like a tiny car and hooks to the back of your bike to pull the kids along - seats two.  You can also put handlebars on it and use it as a stroller.  We use it at the Ren Fest with the kids.  Anyway, it is packed away for the winter.  I kept saying we couldn't and she was NOT taking no for an answer!  I picked her up and buckled her into her seat with her screaming.  I put my face in hers and was talking quiet to her and she was playing with my hair and I'd pretend she couldn't touch it and pull it away from her.  She'd laugh and then look at me and remember she was mad at me and cry again.  We did that back a forth a few times - it was pretty funny.  She was trying so hard to not laugh!

I've been adding words to her words list as I hear or remember them...  She's been doing really well with word endings for things like 'ing' or 'es' or 'ed' and so on.  She has said "mess" before, specifically awhile back when I emptied out her cereal bowl to show her the picture in the bottom and she gave me the "naughty" look and said "Mommy MESS!" in a very reprimanding way.  That was adorable beyond belief!  This morning she was eating a waffle in the back seat and brushing crumbs from her lap saying "messy!" 

There was a tiny little new baby at daycare this morning, Cindy is watching him for a little while.  Jessie was intrigued for about 5 seconds and then she decided she was not really happy about Cindy holding a baby, and she asked to be picked up.  Hehe - she's in for a treat in May!

 

2-10-06

 

Hello.  The night before last, Gavin decided he wanted to sleep in Jessie's room with her.  I told them that if they actually went to sleep they could and they actually did go to sleep.  I heard Jessie wake up that night and Gavin said "It's OK Jessie." and she says all squeely.. "Oh HI!" and then they were quiet again.  That morning when I went to get Gavin up for school, he was on the bed and Jessie was sleeping under the crib with her little legs sticking out under the skirt.  Weird.  Anyway, they wanted to do it again last night but it didn't work out.  Possibly because there was some commotion about the cat being in the room and after I took him out they were pretty worked up so Gavin left and Jessie managed to settle down after that.  We do have the crib moved away now and the railing up so I could probably take down the crib - although I don't know if I should since I'll just be putting it together again very soon.  Maybe I'll just set it up for the baby. 

Jessie also BIT me again!!  I thought Jaws was over that!  She actually drew blood and bruised my arm this time and it wasn't even provoked.  She was climbing up on the couch with me and her head just happened to be by my arm.  What's that all about???  She got in big trouble and then just a few minutes later she tried to bite Gavin but we stopped her.  She hasn't done it since then, and that was the night before Gavin slept in her room.  Hopefully she's all done with that... again.

Daddy went swimming with her this last session.  She seemed to have fun with that so I'm happy that I won't be lugging my 9 month pregnant body into the pool with her in a few months.

Lastly, I just read on Kristina's page about counting the words her baby says or signs and since that's one area that Jessie really does well at, I thought I'd count hers.  She only signs "please" and technically it is really the sign for "more" but she thinks it means please.  She charms the pants off her Farma doing that and could probably "please" her way into a pony and a convertable, but still, that's her only sign.  I tried to write down all her words, only counting the ones she says on her own without anyone telling her to say it - mostly because you could get her to say ANY word by telling her to say it.  I put the list here (click the underlined words).  There's a bit over 200 words at this point but I'm possitive I'm forgetting a number of them.

 

2-6-06

 

Good morning!  (It is 4:38 AM and I am editing a website.)  Jessie spent her first night actually sleeping in her big girl bed last night!  My mom and Jim came over last night and Jim put together Jessie's bed in her room.  We left the crib in there since she was getting out of the bed in Gavin's room a lot.  That way I could put her in the crib if needed.  I also pushed the edge of the crib up against the bed so that Jessie has the familiar feel of that when she's sleeping.  We do have a little railing on her bed, but it has a hide-away feature and at the moment it is hidden away.  I went in the check on her and she was just so precious sleeping in that bed that I wanted a picture.  Well, the desire got the better of me so I got our digital camera and snapped one (shown below).  I'm glad I got it although if you look closely you will notice that her eye is actually a little open in the picture.  The flash woke her up with quite a start and she totally freaked out.  A couple minutes of crying and rocking ensued as I put her back into her bed.  All in all, it wasn't bad though and I now have my picture of her first night in a big girl bed. :)  I'm not certain if I think it is a good thing that she went right to bed in this bed in her room or not.  On one hand, that's one less hurdle, but on the other, it means that her fidgety talking and getting in and out of bed in the bunk bed room has more to do with it being "Gavin's room" then it does it being a big girl bed.  THAT means that moving her into Gavin's room now that she's in the bed will probably not really be much easier then it would've been in the first place.  Oh well - they will eventually learn to stop talking to each other and sleep, right??  I guess if not, we do have the crib empty now so if Jessie needs to spend some time sleeping in her old room that doesn't mean the baby can't.  It's just a little crowded.

For more big girl topics, Jessie is totally off the sippy cup for meal times now.  Of course, walking around the house and bed time and all that are still the non-spill kind, but she gets regular cups while in the high chair.  We started this a long time ago because she'd get so upset that Gavin got a regular cup and she didn't.  We'd give her a cup then with just a tiny little bit to drink in it.  Usually she'd dump it out on the tray or down her front (on purpose) so we'd take it away.  Eventually she went longer and longer with the cup and not spilling it and now she only dumps it out when we leave her in the chair longer then we should've anyway.  My little girl is growing up! *sniff*  I've been thinking we could get out the wooden toddler chair we have so she can sit at the table with the rest of us, but I just want her to stay little in that chair a bit longer. 

Oh, and yes, I did end up buying all that Hanna stuff, however I called the outlet mall to order it through them and save on shipping and they actually had better prices and better stuff in stock.  I ended up getting a few more pieces (more tight colors and some shirts for Gav for next year and a snowwuit for the baby) and it was STILL $20 cheaper not including the $15 savings on shipping!

One more thing before I forget, I weighed Jess this weekend and she was 22.9 pounds.  I haven't looked that up but since it is about 50th percentile for a 12 month old, I'm thinking she's still pretty petite for a 20 month old.

 

2-3-06

 

Last night we went out bowling and in the car Jessie was being fussy so I was keeping up a dialog just talking to her and I was saying "Vroom vroom vroom" to make car noises as we drove.  Well, she picked up on that and now she runs around "vrooming" and asking to ride in the car.  We also sing a lot in the car as it distracts her from whatever is bugging her such as trying to put her mittens on or off and not getting her thumb in correctly.  She has almost gotten the ABC song down enough to sing along with you and I am sooo proud of her with that!  She misses really only about 5-6 of the letters in the song.  Granted, she can't just sing it all by herself, but she's getting there! 

This morning while getting her dressed she didn't want to put on the long sleeved shirt that goes under her dress.  She only wanted the strappy dress on.  She kept saying "No, this shirt!" and holding up the red dress.  I tried telling her the white shirt goes under and the red shirt goes over, then I was holding the white shirt up and saying "under" and the red dress up and saying "over" over and over again.  She grabbed the white shirt and said "NO UNDER!" and walked out her room and threw it down the stairs.  Oy.  We did manage to get the shirt and dress on, and then she decided she wanted socks instead of tights but I distracted her by dumping the whole bag of diapers out over her head and while she was laughing I got her tights on.  While dressing her, she was busy putting her cabbage patch doll's shoes on her doll.  It was so funny because she would hold the doll and the shoe and look at the doll and say "Ready?... OK." and shove the shoe on.  Those things fit really tight and basically you are squashing the doll foot into the shoe.  She then said "Tight.. sorry" and took the shoe off and started over with the "Ready?... OK." 

At our swimming lessons on Wednesday, she did SOOO well!  When we do the back float she's normally pretty squirmy.  Well, teacher Jasmine was going around to all the kids checking to see if they can get their arms out and legs straight and be in the right possition for a certain amount of time.  Kinda a test.  I though the minute Jasmine touched her she'd freak out but she didn't!  She actually laid back and put her arms and legs in the right place and did just what she was supposed to do!  I learned from that that if I hold my hand with my fingers on the back of her neck and my hand cupping her head then she calms right down and I don't even really have to hold the rest of her up.  She also got to wear the goggles that day and she LOVED that!  I FINALLY got her to participate in attempting to reach down and pick up the little pool toy.  That makes them put their face in the water to be able to get the toy.  She didn't actually get her face in the water, but she participated and that was a big improvement.  Then when we did the floaty foam thing that they are supposed to walk across and jump off to mommy she actually did that too!  THEN she was giving Jasmine high fives and everything during the lesson.  Wow, my little scaredy cat girl must be getting used to the lessons I guess.

 

2-1-06

 

Two, here we come!!  I must've forgotten this about Gavin at two, but Jessie is getting SOOO sensitive!  I can no longer just pick her up out of her crib, dress her, and jump in the van.  Now we need to sing her little twinkle twinkle song, trick her into wearing what I want her to wear such that she thinks it is what SHE wants to wear, and play the "boot" game to get her boots on without protest.  When it is time to eat, she needs to know what we are going to be eating before she will let anyone put her in the highchair and more importantly, she needs to approve.  By "approve" I don't just mean she needs to like it - she needs to be in the MOOD for that food item.  Oy, do they HAVE to go through the learning independence phase??  Where's my maleable little girl that would just follow along with whatever we wanted?  On the non-tantrum front, she does get just cuter and cuter as the days go by.  When she sings Twinkle Twinkle now, she is really getting more and more words!  She now sings "Twinkle Twinkle lill starrr, howowowowowow arrrr, up apup..wa so high, lill a damamama sky, Twinkle Twinkle lill starrr, howowowowowow arrr".   The last words are always her best and sometimes she just waits for those to come along and yells them out.  The How I wonder what you are part is JUST hillarious to see her try to get her mouth around all those words!  She makes the goofiest facial expressions ever. 

BTW - right now Hanna has their classic loose fit tights on sale for $8 to $14 dollars and I currently am sitting with a shopping cart online with one of EVERY color in it.  All I have to do is hit "purchase".  I'm trying to resist, but that is an AWESOME deal and I LOVE those tights!  Be strong mom, be strong!