Sunday, January 31, 2010

10 Months.

                                     
                                     
I can't believe that you are 10 Months old, and will be 1 before we know it!!  It went by in the blink of an eye, literally, and I have treasured every moment, and continue to try and take every moment in and make each one count.  You are such a little person righ now, I can't believe how 'grown up' you are.  I was just saying to Daddy today how fun you are right now.  Such a little ball of energy, pizazz, and spunk!  There is so much to say, so much that I could say, but really, I just want to remember and put down some of the things that are so 'you' right now, like:

-You are such a ham, and you smile the biggest smile all the time, at almost anyone you see, especially when they give you a big smile too! 
-Everyone stops to tell me how much they love your big 'beautiful' smile!!  They say how much they can't get over your big smile!  It is pretty cheesy!!
-Everyone always says how you have these "Big, Beautiful Blue Eyes."
-They also say you are so Beautiful.  Everywhere we go.
-You laugh literally out loud, in little laughing fits, when we gobble your tummy and tickle you.  You are tickilish everywhere: feet, tummy, legs, under the arms.
-When you first began these little giggle fits, I sometimes got confused if you were laughing or crying/fussing
-You have the sweetest little voice and you jibber jabber all the time, and have little coversations with yourself and other people that you think people can understand.
-Your jabbering is started to resemble more of an actual language, converation, and words now though.
- You say: Dada, Dad, Daddy, Mama, Mom, Nana, Baba, Lala, Hi, and you speak your very own language
-You can sign "milk" but you haven't picked up on any of the other signs yet, you just smile a huge smile at me when I sign with you.
-You sometimes bang your hands on the highchair tray when I am getting your food ready in the kitchen, and ask you if you 'want to eat'
-You start getting excited, moving your hands and legs and head when you see:bowls, spoons, sippy cups, baby food jars, yogurt cups, gerber poofs, yogurt poofs, cereal jar, wagon wheel jar, bottle, any kind of food, people eating food, or as I'm getting ready to nurse you.
-You get excited and wiggle and move your arms and legs in excitement when you see Diesel, and you call him "Da,da."
-You call lots of people and things, "Da,da."  It's by far, your favorite word.
-You love people.  You really love any and all children.  You are mesmerized by children, and will intently follow them with yoru gaze and body.
-You love to open and close the laundry shoot door, and you think you are so clever, and you are beside yourself with how much fun you think it is (although, we have since nailed it shut, so you wouldn;t go flyign down it some time when we are not looking.
-You love to flush the toliet and will do it repeatedly over and over.  You also like to empty the toliet paper roll on the floor, or empty a box of kleenex.
-You love to play with magazines and books.  And you will take them out of a pile and throw them on the floor, or pull every single book off the shelf.
-You are starting to get into cabinents and drawers.  You will try to take everything out and throw it on the floor, and even after being told "no," moved, and distracted with somethign else, you will repeatedly go back and try and do the same thing over and over and over again.  This is the same with the laundry shoot cabinent and toliet paper roll.
-You will crawl over to your lay area on your own and begin to play and will continue to play entertaining yourself for over and hour.
-You love to play with the blinds in the family room.  You love to crawl along the couch, and look out the window.
-You love to crawl around on our bed in the morning before we are ready to get up out of bed.
-You lift Mommy's 3 Pound weight up with your hands over and over like you are lifting weights.  I kept telling everyone you will have the  buffest arms of any Toddler in daycare
-You most of the time, do not liek to have your diaper changed, and will try with determination to roll right off the changing table, and I have to hold you down with the grips of life to change your diaper so you don;t go flying off
-You frequently do not like going in to your carseat, and hold your legs ral stiff and stand in your carseat refusing to sit dow.  I usually have to bribe you with a toy to get you to sit down, the same applies to changing your diaper.
-You "sing" in church, when there is singing and talk others are talking, you also sometimes make very loud noises and talk shriek when there is absolute silence, causing others to look at you, and I have to give this shrug face, like, "what can I do?"
-You love looking at people in church, and will sometimes crane your neck to look at people.  You dont; discrinm=minate, you love everyone.  Everyone is incredibly fascinating to you, and you like to try and touch people, throw your toy at them, and smile this big huge cheesly smile at them.  You also try and talk with people, and call them, "Da,Da."
-You open and close doors.  And sometimes you close yourself in a room, and start to fuss and cry because your alone and scared.
-Anytime you see your reflection:be a mirror, glass, refridgerator, oven, window, etc. You kiss yourself thinking you are another baby?  Or, maybe you just really like yourself!
-You wave "hi" and "bye," very often.  But, usually not when prompted to.  You like to decide who and when you will say hi and bye too.  You wave hi with your left hand and bye with your right.  Your "hi" is like a queen wave.
-You will chase a dog around for hours following him/her and you are not afraid to get very close, or have them touch/lick you.  You are so obsessed you sometimes annoy the dogs (which seems impossible).
-Upon waking you immediately stand in your crib, and cry and fuss until someone comes to rescue you.
-You are starting to get ancy while nursing, and will proceed to crawl all over me in every position while still nursing.
-You bite harder than any pitbull, and I'm sometimes afraid you've turned into some kind of rabid animal.
-You are fascinated with nips, and will squeeze them very hard.  Daddy's too.
-You love books with textures and pull flaps.  You kiss your stuffed animals/dollies before bed, and love snowglobes.
-You most often sleep on your tummy, like your daddy.  And you can sleep in any angle/position in your crib (even stickigng your booty up in the air in a crouched position!)
-You're starting to love on people more, and will lay your head down on their shoulder, or another body part.
-You love to sleep on people, and would prefer it that way.
-You love to be chased while you  crawl, and will giggle and increase speed while being chased.
-You love to play Peek-a-Boo, any kind of peek-a-boo.  And will pull down any object covering the person playing with you.
-You will put absolutely anything into your mouth, and lvoe to find very very small tiny objects on the floor and crawl away with them pretending that you don't actually have said object, and do not like to have someone take that object away.
-When very tired you will fall asleep immediately in the car and could sleep there for hours
-You are a very light sleeper, and will awake to the sudden noise, loud or soft
-You love soft, furry things, and enjoy snugglign with them, and/or rubbing them against your face
-You love people food, baby food, Yo Baby Yogurt, rice cereal, Gerber poofs, but you do not like those baby meals in a jar.
-You love sippy cups, bottles, mommy milk, and are obsessed with whatever drink/food is in someone's hands
-You are a superb master crawler, and you love to sit-to-stand, and cruise along furniture flying from one thing to the next.  You love to push your little train around and your walker, and get a huge kick out of it.
-You move an dance to music, melodies, and make noise.  You LOVE your Leapfrog "Tad" frog that teaches you numbers as well as your Leapfrog frog that teaches you your body parts and plays music.  You always light up this huge smile and start to "dance" and talk whenver we turn them on.
-You love stuffed animals/bears and your Elmo puppet and love to have them tickle you and smoosh you on your face.
-You love teethers, and liek to constantly have one in your mouth.  But you have begun to not like your nookie, prefering to have mommy nip or nothing at all.
-You usually prefer not to have a bow, headband, or hat on, but I can usually get you to wear one for a while until you become tired or sassy and pull it off.
-You love stroller rides, and being outdoors.  You like to look at the trees.  You try and help walk Diesel by holding the leash.
-When you're tired you rub your eyes, and mimick pulling your hair out, or start fussing with it.
-I'm sure you would let us hold you all day if we could.
-Everytime we get in the car, you take your socks off while in your carseat.  Everytime.  Sometimes you can oly manage one.
-You place your tongue over your upper lip and leave it there, sometimes rubbing it back and forth over your upper lip in a quick motion.

There are so many "Nikolina" idiosyncrasies that define "you" but I coudl go on forever.  We love youand we're so proud of youand how far you've come.  We can;t wait for each new step.  Our little pumpkin.  Don't grow up too fast!  Let us walk a little while with you.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Cause For Celebration.

My mother (Mimi) watches the pumpkin on Thursdays (her day off), and this week, I had to be at work by 7 am, so my hubby took me to work today and dropped the pumpkin off at my parents house.  I always love it when we can do little things like that together, as a family, like riding to work together, or even just simple things like grocery shopping or running errands.  It's nice when things work out that way.  I love those days, when things seemed a little relaxed and you can do things like that...

I was awarded a promotion at work today.  I received an annual bonus and by surprise, my manager also informed me that I received a job level promotion to boot!!!  So, our family received a little bump in pay today, which will help us get a leg up on those medical bills we still have yet to pay off!!  Woo hoo!!  So, my hubby took me out for a quick bite to eat for lunch at a quaint little Italian restaurant in town, and then we grabbed a bite to eat after we went to pick up the pumpkin at my parents house together. 
Out to eat twice in one day--we were spoiled today!  I loved every minute of it.  Mostly just the time spent together doing something out of the ordinary...

The promotion was a nice way to end the week, as this has felt like a very long week for me, even with Wednesday off with the pumpkin, I have just been terribly exhausted this week.  And, lately, at work, the customers have been really, really, cranky, and it has had me reaching for every strain of patience that I have (and I am not a patient person!).  Maybe I am a little cranky too, but I swear people are cranky lately (It must be the winter blues!)  It is also Nik's 10 Month Anniversary tomorrow, and Diesel's 5th Birthday.  We stopped by my hubby's new office, and I must say that it is looking very nice, and we are so proud of him, and so excited!!  So, today, we had cause for celebration for many reasons. 

I can't believe our little pumpkin is going to be 10 Months tomorrow.  I just love her to pieces!!  I am going to try and write a few words about what she's been up to lately tomorrow and to wish my sis-in-law a Happy 22nd Birthday, but I just wanted to say Happy Thursday, and...

 "It's Finally Friday, Here Again!!"  Woo hoo!  Thank Goodness!!

The little pumpkin has 5 teethers!! 

My hubby bought me this little cake to celebrate my promotion...isn't he a sweetie!!!
You have to love that he walked into the store, looked around, and thought,"Ahh, yes, Beer candles. That is just what this cake needs! These will be perfect!!!" 
Beer candles!!!  Ha, What a guy!
I actually love it!!  I think it's adorable!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Wordless Wednesday.

Okay, so I'm not quite sure where Wordless Wednesday originated.  I have seen it on MckMama and Baby Davis Michael (stopped by there earlier).  But, I have always enjoyed the idea of participating each Wednesday, and adding a photo from that week. 

Today, my sis-in-law (Little Bites) came over to take Nik's 9 month photos (she's almost ten months-Friday-which is also Diesel's 5th Birthday and my other sister-in-law's 22nd Birthday!!)  Rachael took some great shots, and later on that afternoon, I got that itch as I so often do, so I just had to snap some too.  I loved this one, and I have some more to post tomorrow and later on this week.  But, I LOVE the idea of posting a photo every Wednesday, so I am going to try and do it as often as I can.  I have stayed at home with the pumpkin a few Wednesdays, as I still have some Family Leave Bonding (un-paid) to use until she's one. 

As I mentioned a while back, my hubby offered to let me use it once a week to stay home with the pumpkin.  I notice it in my paycheck, but it's worht it to me even if it means we have to skim somewhere else.  So, I frequently am home on Wednesdays, but have not really gotten to participating regularly every Wednesday with a photo as I wanted (even though I'm usually taking photos that day.)  I don't know what will happen once I am no longer home one day a week with the pumpkin (I'm trying no tto think about it), but for the next couple months, I'm going to try and post a photo regularly every Wednesday.

I love photography, as it so often takes your breath away.  And, I think that Wordless Wednesday is a great way to cater to the magic awe of photography.  There are so few moments that take your breath away...I think there should be more.  Which is why I LOVE photography.  It so often takes my breath away.  Especially my sister-in-law's (Little Bites) photography.  And, because I have posted this photo, I now have to post just one more...







 
(This is the same face she gave me when I dropped her off at daycare Tuesday+streaming tears...breaks your heart doesn't it??!!)

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Grasping.


Ok, so I didn't think it was supposed to be getting harder to drop Nik off at Daycare, harder for both of us. 

This morning when I dropped her off at Daycare, she didn't want to go to our Daycare provider, and then when I handed her over again, she reluctatnly went, but then started crying.  Her little eyes just looked back at me, all welled up with tears, as her little face got all pink.  My heart just dropped. I mean, I am not seriously trying to drive you all crazy, but I am just at a loss as to what to do with this.  She's never done this before, except that she will also not comfortably go to the other daycare worker, but this has never happened with our primary care provider.  I have begun to think that maybe there is something that is not right with our situation and I think that I have got to start looking elsewhere for another provider. 

I have been saying this for sometime now, but out of convienence and justification that my reluctance was rooted in motherly ridiculousness, I have chosen to stay with our nanny.  But now, I just don't know.  This does not seem right.  I mean how do you know what kind of care your little one is receiving?  There's just no way to know FOR SURE.  I mean, no one is YOU.  No one will ever be what YOU would be to your little one, I know that.  I know that a lot of times, my ticks are just biased and flippant because I am not the one raising her, but really, how do you know what goes on over there?  The not knowing just kills me.  I mean, I don't want to say this, but I almost wish I had like a Nanny Cam Bear or something.  But, I'm afraid I wouldn't like what I see, which is probably a good sign that it's time for a change.  I just am reluctant to make it for some reason.  So, am I ridiculous, or what?  I just don't know what to do with her/this situation.  She's so back and forth.  I mean I know she'd rather be at home.

Our provider looks after a lot of children, most of them are older, as they shuttle school age children back and forth to school.  Maybe she's not getting enough attention.  maybe there's too much goign on over there. Maybe she's getting yelled at.  Maybe she's just being a 9 month old.  But, it's getting harder, I swear, for both of us.  We've been taking her to daycare since she was 12 weeks old.  Is it just me, or her getting older, or maybe somethings changed over there that would cause all this to suddenly seem like it was spiraling out of control.  Maybe my desire to stay home is growing stronger and I am just reaching, or maybe Nik is getting bigger and she's getting less attention. 

I have read that you are supposed to remain indifferent and realxed and not show your little one any anxiety over dropping him/her off at daycare.  You are supposed to keep it light, and not linger.  And, I do that.  So, I just don't know what to do.  She's becoming such a little person now, so aware.  Which is worse, because now she knows what she wants, and she can tell you.  And, daycare is not where she wants to be.  I am grasping for some answers, for some resolve to get through this, and I just hope that something comes to me.  I just want every one of her days, every one of her moments to be like this:

Monday, January 25, 2010

Not Me Monday.



Not Me Monday blog carnival was created by MckMama.  You can see how she and many other mommies did not spend their Monday here:http://www.mycharmingkids.net/.

I promise you, I DID NOT play "dress up" with my daughter and hold a little mini "photo shoot," dressing her in bare skinned, sleeveless dresses in the middle of winter, for over an hour (inside of course!).  I swear to you, I DID NOT then force her little chubby yummy arm through the tight body of said dress just to get it on, so I could snap a few photos.  I would NOT DO such a thing as to treat my daughter like a little doll, as she is a real, life, person with feelings and thoughts.  That is not me, and I would NEVER DO such a thing.








I also DID NOT while NOT taking said "photo shoot" neglect to see (in my feverant desire to get a good Christmas photo of Nik) that my daughter had NOT scraped her head on the Christmas tree or another unknown foreign object.  That would be irresponsible of me as a mother, and that it just NOT like me at all! 









I swear to you I DID NOT let my daughter chew on the metal key that opens the china hutch simply so I could get a picture of it, and because she has NOT done it for the past THREE weekends and I find it NOT absolutely hilarious each time she does NOT do it.




I swear to you, that I DID NOT, absolutely DID NOT take down Christmas decorations this weekend, spend the entire day putting up Valentines Day, and STILL did not NOT take down our Christmas Tree that is now standing admist Valentines Day decorations!!  That would be absolutely ridiculous of a person to do such a thing simply because they enjoy the illimination and BEAUTY of said Christmas Tree!!  That simply sounds crazy! and that does not sound like me at all!



Ok, so this is my second Not Me Monday, but as usual, I'm at work today, so unless you desire to hear about my Not Me Work Day, which I doubt you do, I had to regale you with our going-on-ings over the weekend.  I think I just made that word up?!  This time, there is less (much less), as I didn't have a four day weekend with the pumpkin and we shopped all our money away last weekend (except for a trip to the grocery store, well, two trips, we didn't do much).  We went to see Daddy twice at his new office, stopped at the vets, did some laundry, dishes, vacuumed, cleaned, played, took naps (well Nikolina napped, and I wanted to nap with her, but this little tick told me I had mommy things to do, and well, that I shouldn't nap with her, as we're trying to make her more comfortable sleeping, and falling back asleep alone, but Oh, believe me, I wanted to).  We took down the Christams Decorations (albeit the tree, of course!), put up some Valentine decorations, and went to church while Daddy worked, (late again of course!)

Saturday, January 23, 2010

The Up and Up.

Nik has been feeling much better.  Thank Goodness.  These pics are from last weekend, bc I haven't snapped any this week yet.  Her nose is not runny or stuffed up anymore, and her cough is subsiding, just a few weak coughs here and there.   I am so thankful that I took her back and we got her on a Z-pak.  It's amazing how fast she started to get better after that.  I know that children should build their own immunity against these viruses, but how relieved are you when they give you these magic elixirs and, VOILA!!, your children turn right back around from that sick path they were heading down.  I have to admit, this thing was so bad, I was so worried about our little pumpkin!  We can finally have my sister-in-law, http://schiranotriplets.blogspot.com/ to take our little pumpkin's 9 month photos!  She's nearly 10 months at this point!  Which makes me a little sad that she's changed a little and we missed that window, but I am excited to take some photos of her naked in her little hat, crawling, cruising, and my sis-in-law mentioned some V-day shots, and I had been wanting to do that too (we think alike on photography so much sometimes), so I am soooo excited!

The pumpkin's taking a nap now, I was tempted to take one with her, but I FINALLY am going to take our tree down, while my hubby is relocating his office today.  They are moving locations and he rented a U-Haul and a friend and he are doing it all themselves to save money!  Isn't he such a little hard worker?!  We're so proud!  So, I've got to get the Christmas Storage boxes out of the basement beofre the pumpkin wakes up.  Just wanted to wish you a Happy Weekend.  We will be cleaning and putting away Christmas decs today and putting up some Valentined Day ones!!  Yeah!! 




I just love this little hat I got her from Baby Gap, sooo cheap!!  Isn't it addorable?!  I love how old fahioned their winter gear is this year!  It's absolutely adorable!!  I hope they continue to make clothes and accesories this adorable, I will be in there more often (on sale days of course!)  I just love winter and fall because of all the accessories you can pile on: scarves, hats, mittens, boots, big purses! 
There's so much fun stuff!

Nik is obsessed with the laundry shoot door!!  It's just her size!  It terrifies me that some time I'm not going to watching, or the door will be left open, and she's going to fly down it.  I have the same terrible fear about the basement stairs.  Scary!


I just love putting tons of bright colors on her!  She looks so adorable in jeans and a black turtleneck too, though.  Like a little version of me!  Ha!  Ugh, I can't believe my husband and I are almost 30!!  How sad will that be to no longer be in the 20's?