1.1.11

Well, I was so busy today that I forgot to pick up my camera. I'm still sickly and the littles are starting to mend. I wanted to take a few moments to note that I have one smart little girl and a very determined little man.

Tonight, while on an upswing, I decided to help Evan with his walking. He's officially taken three steps at a time, a handful of times. I mainly use a toy he's after for motivation, but let's just say it is so difficult to get him to cooperate when you're the only adult working with him. After a few tries I put him on the gator and pushed him around the living room and he LOVED it. After that I cleared out the pen and put a couple of toys and the walker in it. He had so much fun pushing the walker back and forth in the pen. It's just not long enough, in my opinion, to get him where I think he should be. So, hopefully I'll be well enough in the morning that Adam can help me work with him.

As for B, I recently purchased a BUNCH of flash cards (School Zone / Brighter Child) that are on sale through Amazon. They have this great Get 4 for 3 promo going, and on top of that the cards are $1.63-$2.99. So you can get some great learning tools at great prices. She totally loves going through the cards. Most of the cards are labeled as ages 4 and up, but Arabella surprised us by knowing 95% of the words for the pictures we've shown her. Some I didn't even know she knew. We also bought the Colors, Shapes & More cards that have the Spanish words included on the cards so I can start working with her on simple Spanish. We opened that pack tonight and she fell in love with the crayons. She's at about 75% on labeling the accurate color to the card when it comes to the colors and she can repeat the Spanish label for them, but not unless prompted. Maybe I'm pushing a little because she just turned two, but I figure if I don't help her, who will?

After we worked on our flash cards we turned to her Melissa & Doug cutting sets (food / fruit) she received for Christmas. Lately when looking at toys for the kids I've been dead set on buying multi-functioning toys. As in it has to serve a learning purpose, not just "it was fun for 5 minutes and now it's collecting dust." kind of toys. This is why I LOVE Melissa & Doug. Their toys are 90% wooden, they are durable for play, but they also come with extended play instructions for the parents. We can sit down and go through them, practice cutting, and then I can work with her on food types, colors, mixing and matching to make silly foods, the possibilities are almost endless. Little does she know we scored big on a recent Amazon sale of M&D toys, so come May she'll be getting several more sets. I think I'm more happy about playing with them than her? It is great quality time and I love seeing her learn and watching how much information her little brain retains.

 

It's times like these I really enjoy this age, and when she has her "moments" I dread this age. So I'll take special moments like these as often as I can. It's also moments like these I seriously consider home schooling her, and then I snap back to reality.

We've Been Tagged

So the title isn't that clever, and not really funny, especially if you've truly been tagged by real graffiti artist's like my fellow December Mama, on a BRAND NEW garage door none the less. But back to Arabella, we tried doing our monthly cooking without the help of a sitter yesterday. We gave her the floor paper book and her box of crayons and worked away. Shortly after we called it a day I took Evan off into the other room to nurse him and then grab a bite to eat in peace in the bedroom. I heard Adam talking rather sternly to Arabella proceeded by a spanking. I jumped up to see what happened.... Oh yes, she did it!

Adam said he was checking laundry and she was "too quiet" so he checked on her and found the wall and trim had been colored on. I grabbed the camera after the clean up had started. Here's the culprit and her art work.

And I was not about to clean it up by myself, so she had to do some scrubbing too.

Daddy also found some artwork in a basket that before said incident happened had clean clothes in it. He found the clothes on the kitchen floor.

Nice work Arabella, but next time let's keep it on the paper.

She really did it this time

Tonight the kids were holy terrors... Adam went to bed at 2pm only to have to rescue me during the making of dinner at 5:30p. He was bouncing Evan, trying to keep him calm until I could nurse him and Arabella was being a PITA. She kept crawling on the couch after we had been telling her to stop it. I was in the kitchen, couldn't see her, but I knew what she was up to. She's been getting more and more brave about leaning over the end of the couch arm. I knew it would happen but why today?

All I heard was, Arabella if you don't sit on your hiney you're going to fall....SILENCE.....followed by a loud thud and Adam saying "I told you so." Of course Mommy freaks out and runs down the stairs to scoop her up and check her out. I asked what happened and he said she went overhead first. She had a really red, slightly rug burned forehead, mainly to her left side. Other than that she appeared to be okay, but scarred. So I sat her in a time out on the floor for not listening to Daddy. The next thing I know she's crawling back up on the couch and nearly did it again. You think the kid would learn...

14 Months Old

26 pounds 8 ounces

31.25 inches

It's been fourteen months and we have been raising Little Miss Attitude 2010. Arabella has become so defiant and independent these days. She's still getting more and more brave and says no to us for everything. It rather frustrating at times but it's also great to see her learning things on her own and experimenting.

These days we're still working on our vocabulary and we've starting using some old signs again. She now signs potty when asked if her diaper needs changed. She can sign bath when asked if she wants one and it's rather cute to see her run naked to bath tub because she's so excited to play in there.

She now closes every open door she can find and she'll even attempt to close you in the closet if you're standing in the doorway. This is cute to her, but frustrating to Mommy when I'm bent over trying to grab my shoes from the floor. I'm sure soon enough we'll get a pinched finger shut in the door, but for now she's good at keeping them clear.

Daddy has started reading to her consistently before bed every night and she's getting better at sitting still for him, but she's got a ways to go. She really enjoys her night time routine with Daddy. On occasion she requires me to go in and rock her after he's tried, but not often. With me being preoccupied with Evan, she's taken a shine to her Daddy and really came out as "Daddy's Girl." It's a little sad, but I get to get her out of the crib all week long and she makes up for it with some super hugs. She recently started giving me a hug after I changer her morning diaper. I'll stand her up and ask her to squeeze my neck. She'll throw her arms up and lay against me, but hasn't quite figured out how to squeeze around the neck. It's an awesome feeling though.

She's also figured out how to climb up on the couch and attempt to climb up the back of the couch to reach things we've placed on the stairs "out of her reach." She's also taken her first head dive off of the couch while Daddy was watching her. I'm just glad I wasn't down there to witness it. We've showed her repeatedly how to get of the couch properly but every now and again she feels like attempting a swan dive.

Thanks to her Grandmama, she's now hopelessly addicted to raisins. While we were in the hospital she stayed at Grandmama's and for a snack tried out the raisins. The kid went through a two pound tub of raisins in a matter of weeks. We recently bought 4 pounds of raisins at Sam's and she's working her way down the first 2 pound bag. It's a good thing that she's in to "health food" right? And as I type she just brought me her little Tupperware container full of raisins. The kid loves her fresh fruits and isn't really picky about what food she's given as long as it's what the adults are eating.

I cannot believe that my baby isn't a baby anymore. They really do grow up too fast.

New tricks mean new trouble

Where to begin? Our little dare devil is getting bigger and braver by the day. Over the past week she's really started showing off an attitude we haven't seen before. We believe it has to be her way of showing jealousy towards her brother? She doesn't hit him nor is she mean to him in any way. Really the only thing that has been noticeable is her ability to tell us no to everything under the sun and she's refusing to eat pretty much anything that isn't snack food.

Also over the past week she's started to say "ah" after she takes a drink. She does it and it sounds so hilarious. We don't do this, so we're not sure where she picked it up, but she definitely acts like her drink is the most refreshing thing under the sun.

Tonight while we were sitting down watching t.v. as a family she decided to get on her Gator on her knees as she's always done. Unfortunately she ended up taking a head dive into the fence in front of the t.v. She wasn't hurt, just scared. I think Mommy & Daddy were more scared than she was.

She's also muscled open the safety gate that keeps her locked in the living room more times than we can count. After taking Evan to the hospital for his lab work Friday I stuck her in there so I could get Evan from the garage. I came up the stairs just as she was pushing it open. Another fabulous safety FAIL.

Yesterday she figured out how to climb up on the couch. In the past I would put things she wasn't supposed to have on the back of the couch to keep them away. Now she climbs right up and starts grabbing stuff. So now I get to find a new hiding spot for the remote and box of tissues. My biggest fear with this new found stunt is that she doesn't realize she can fall off the couch and hurt herself. She tries to walk on it like it is the floor. She nearly took a head dive off the end while I was trying to get her to sit on her butt. Right now it's looking like we can no longer leave her alone in the living room while we cook in the kitchen. She's just too brave for us these days.

And last, as pictured above, she's mastered how to turn the clock dial just right in order to open the trap door on her activity cube and get the letters and numbers out. She's just a little too smart if you ask us, but hey we're her parents.

You Want Who?

I said before we're working with Arabella on baby sign language. I've been working on being consistent with signing. This week's task has been Mommy. I've also stated that she been working on her baby babble. Well, she has began to trim down "mamamamamama" to "mama". I'm hoping part of it is because as she would say her version I would respond with the Mommy sign and say "Mama". Every time she says it I respond. I'm am so excited to see her learn and grow. I can only imagine what the next six months will bring us.

Video of Arabella calling for Mama: