Saturday 24 September 2011

Fellow Mommy Blogger Giveaway!

A fellow Mommy Blogger friend is having a giveaway for yet another mommy friend!
Head on down to http://notjustbabybrain.com/2011/09/hello-fabulous-giveaway.html to win! This is for some fabulous homemade baby shoes, which I am sure everyone could use! I know Miss S would love a few pairs, they are seriously adorable! Here is a link to check them out: http://www.etsy.com/shop/HelloFabulousDe... I hope it works...I am still new at this linking thing.

Alrighty, that's all I have for now. Miss S and I have to get ready, we are having family over this afternoon and I am hoping that today's nap goes better than yesterday's...which was basically nonexistent. Baby girl was not only falling asleep while standing up, but also in the tub. Eyes rolling, head drooping, the whole nine yards.

Thursday 22 September 2011

Mommy to a Big Girl

Having a "big girl" is pretty great. You get lots of hugs and kisses, a bay that runs into your arms and climbs into your lap. However, you also sometimes get this:
A baby girl who climbs into cupboards and pulls everything out. Or climbs into the laundry basket and pulls it all out...or just opens drawers and pulls everything out. I literally need eight arms and 12 eyes to monitor her sometimes. It's been "one of those" mornings around here today...I don't have a recent picture to document our morning because I literally couldn't get a camera with all the correcting and redirecting I have done so far. I actually would have been happy if one cabinet was all i had to worry about. She's sleeping now, so I am off to do more laundry and such before she wakes up and gets into some more trouble. I will go look for a nice, happy, snugly girl picture to post about now.
PS- Do you SEE those shoes?! Are they not the most fabulous baby shoes EVER! People, we have shoes that fit that she can actually walk in! Bonus, she signs shoes and wants to wear them. SUCCESS.

Saturday 17 September 2011

Adventures of Toddlerhood

That's right folks. We have officially entered toddlerhood. Miss S walks/waddles everywhere now. She can make it across the house easily, occasionally stopping to catch her balance, sometimes falling (when her pesky socks get in her way), and rarely stopping to crawl. She is getting pretty fast on her feet.
This means that everything is being moved up another level. It was easy with a crawler, nothing breakable was at her eye level, aka on the floor. Now we are even more careful and I have developed a 6th (or are we on 7th) sense...the ability to predict what it is she has gotten into when it is quiet.

At least she has given up on going under the sink, but yanking her out of the TV cabinet for the umpteenth time this morning has given me a new appreciation for newborns...and walker. I wish we had walkers in Canada. It would create a barrier between her and whatever cabinet/drawer she wants to get into. Alas, here in Canada we have to simply watch our young ones, tell the "NO" and "eh eh", pull their hands (or bodies) away from the "DANGER".  Miss S hears these three things many times in a day, she also shakes her head and "eh ehs" right back at me...or pokes her finger out at the "DANGER" and yelps "AH!" Apparently she doesn't know that "AH! HOT!" is a bad thing, she thinks it is a game.

Speaking of games, I never thought I would tire of "peak a boo". Miss S can play for hours. If I stop, she will cover my face with her hands, or throw a blanket over my head, the pull it off and exclaim in excitement, "EEEHHHH YA YA!" Even in the bathtub we play this game, only then it is with a wet washcloth that often ends up everywhere but in the actual tub.

It is fun though. It's an amazing thing to think back to a year ago, she was just a little baby, a lump. She couldn't move at all. I would put her down on her blanket and find her exactly where I left her. Those were the good old days. Only now, 525,600 minutes later, I get goopy kisses, bear hugs, a baby (toddler) that crawls into my lap with her blankie to snuggle and constant giggles and looks of wonder at the world around her. A year passes so quickly, heck, 14 months have passed so quickly. It's scary to think of where we will be next year. For now I'll just enjoy these moments...especially the quiet ones while she naps.

Monday 12 September 2011

Communication

Just popping in for a moment to brag about the genius that is my daughter. We have been doing baby signing with Miss S since she was very small, and she's shown a few signs...until recently when it seems that her "vocabulary" has exploded! She basically signs to the entire first DVD....AND, when she signs "cracker", she SAYS "gacker". It is UNBELIEVABLE! Her "mama" and "dada"s have also finally started to be geared towards her parents instead of whatever she happens to be looking at. People have also started to recognize that she is, in fact, signing. Plus, she LOVES the Baby Signing Time DVDs! It is the ONLY thing she shows any interest in, and luckily it autostarts and plays on a loop. I can get her food ready while she happily sits and watches.

The downside to her loving Baby Signing Time is that she can recognize the music from as little as 2 notes. I mistakingly put the TV on, thinking The Office was in the DVD player...it wasn't. So, instead of going down for a nap, Miss S bounced up and started signing "Eat". Really, all she heard was the first three "doots' and Hopkins laughing (boy, that must sound bizarre to anyone who has not watched Baby Signing Time).

Isn't it incredible how much little babies absorb? Miss S is the cutest little sponge I have ever seen. Every day she amazes me with the new skills she masters, or attempts to master. Now, if only I could have the stupid camcorder ready to go when she is in the mood to show off...One day I will capture these moments on film and figure out how to get them online...or at least onto the computer.

Tuesday 6 September 2011

1 shoe, 2 shoes, 3 shoes!

I took Miss S to WalMart today because I wanted to get her a little pair of soft soled shoes. I always thought she had relatively small feet. She is still wearing the little 6-12m shoes from The Children's Place with room (granted not a lot of room) to grow, but the 12-18 month shoes from anywhere are huge! We tried little 12m ones from H&M, GAP and Old Navy and found that they all were fitting now, JUST fitting. WalMart was no better, but at Walmart, she was JUST fitting into a size 4! How crazy is that. It must have been the socks or something, or maybe they just make small shoes because that seems crazy! 12m socks are still big, they are all knee socks for crying out loud!

Why is it so hard to buy shoes for babies? I know barefoot is better for early walkers, but if we are outside, in public, she needs shoes so she doesn't get warts or step in poop.

PLUS, she LOVES shoes. She sees shoes and tries to put them on her own feet...or chew on them, depends on her mood I guess. She has the sweetest little flip flops, and if I take them off, she screams and tries to put them back on herself...then gets frustrated when they slow her down and chews on them.
Aren't her little toes just too cute for words?!
Anyways, this was really just a way to relieve some frustration because we both want new shoes...She has the CUTEST pair of leather slippers that are at least 2 sizes too big...they would be perfect if they only fit. Note to self, not only is buying shoes for an adult impossible to do online, but doing so for an infant is an even bigger gamble.