Sometimes when Alethea carefully arranges things, I wish she could tell me what she’s thinking. There has got to be a story behind this:
Other times I really REALLY wish she could explain what’s on her mind:
Cup in a drawer. Anyone want to take a guess?
Recently I finished reading the book How To Take Photos That Move Houses. Yesterday I decided that since I got so much cleaning done this weekend, I ought to try out a few of the tips I picked up and do a little photo shoot in my now super spotless dining room.
Just for comparison, here is my best ‘before we moved in’ photo of the dining room, which is mostly of the front hall, but you can at least see the yellow paint color:
And here is my favorite of yesterday’s ‘after’ shots:
And here is my second favorite photo, which shows more of the room, but the color isn’t as good:
I was still trying to figure out the light settings on the camera when Alethea woke up from her nap, so clearly I have some more learning to do, but I think reading the book gave me a great jumping off point to start exploring everything our camera can do. I’d recommend it to any camera novice who wants to take good pictures of their house.
PS. For anyone wondering, Alethea seems to be feeling much better today!
Yesterday morning we woke up to several inches of snow on the ground and huge clumps of flakes steadily falling from the sky. I was actually really excited about it, mostly because I knew there was nowhere we had to be. It was also fun to see Alethea’s expression as she looked out the window right after she got out of bed:
Apparently she doesn’t remember snow from last year, as she was quite impressed by it and stayed pressed up to the window for several minutes pointing and saying snow:
This morning, instead of freshly fallen snow, I woke up to Alethea fussing in her room. 7:30am is a bit earlier than she normally gets up, so I thought she was just fussing because she was still tired. But as I found out when I went to get her, it turns out she was fussing because she had gotten sick and her favorite blanky was no longer in a condition to be cuddled with.
Her bedding is now in the washing machine. She’s cranky and refused to eat anything for breakfast, but other than that, she seems to be okay. Unfortunately, this also means I’m missing church for the second week in a row to stay home with a sick kid. (Peter would have stayed with her today, but he was leading worship.)
Trying to look on the bright side, yesterday was a super productive house cleaning day and the snow made everything look pretty. I guess one great weekend day out of two isn’t bad.
This is BobbleHeadBaby.com’s 200th post! Here are three things I’m celebrating today:
Number 1 – We picked up the craigslist bookcase last night, which means that my used furniture hunt for Alethea’s room is officially over! It also means that I get to do my ‘super cheap’ furniture dance because I’m WAY under my original estimate in the furniture column of my spreadsheet. (Please don’t ask about my fabric/bedding/window treatments column, I’m celebrating here, folks!)
Number 2 – The doctor’s office called and told me that I passed my glucose tolerance test ‘with flying colors’ and that I won’t have to take the test again this pregnancy! No more icky orange drink for me!
Number 3 – Last night I got a lovely and unexpected gift in the mail. A good friend of mine spotted some cute glass knobs at a store, bought them and mailed them to me so I could finish Alethea’s dresser! The dresser looks awesome, but even more than that, I love knowing that I was being thought of even though she’s far away and we can’t hang out in person anymore. What a day brightener!
So at long last, here is the COMPLETELY finished dresser:
Wooo-whooo!
Sorry I haven’t posted in the past few days. Alethea came down with an awful cold late Saturday night and as a result, things around here haven’t been running as smoothly as I would like. Over the course of the last day or so, the cold has moved down into Alethea’s chest, which isn’t really a good thing, but it does have the humorous upside that when she laughs, she sounds like an old chain smoking lady cackling away. It’s pretty funny.
As I’m sure none of you want a blow-by-blow of how the past few runny nose days have gone, I’ll simply give you the non-boogery highlights:
1) Now that I’m done stenciling the focal wall in Alethea’s big girl room, I’ve turned my attention to the remaining projects in the room. I was able to get some shopping done over the weekend and picked up some supplies and also a beaded curtain for the window. When I handed Alethea the curtain still in the box she said, “Oooh!”, but when I took it out of box and held it up she said, “Oooh! OOOOOOH!” I’ll take that as an 18 month old’s seal of approval.
Alethea was excited about her curtain, even when it was still in the box!
2) I finally found a bookcase on Craigslist that I think will be perfect for her room. I’m supposed to pick it up tomorrow evening. Crossing my fingers that it doesn’t get sold out from under me.
I want this bookcase!
3) Tomorrow I have my 32 week pregnancy check-up. This is also the third time this pregnancy that I am taking the 1 hour glucose tolerance test. I passed the test when I was pregnant with Alethea, but then she was 10lbs at birth, so they are convinced I had undiagnosed gestational diabetes with my first pregnancy and are determined to make sure I’m diagnosed if I have it this time. So far this pregnancy, I passed my first test well, the second one at 28 weeks was ‘on the high side of normal’, so they are having me do a third.
Sigh…
In my head I know it’s all for the best, but I don’t really like having blood drawn and I really HATE the stuff they make you drink beforehand. If you’ve never had the test, just imagine guzzling 10 ounces of undiluted McDonald’s orange drink concentrate. Yuck!
I think Alethea is going to be up from her nap soon, so I’d better run, but stay tuned and I’ll let you know how everything turns out.
A.K.A – Bye Bye Nursery
Today we moved Alethea from the nursery to her big girl bedroom. We started in the morning moving her bookcase, lamp, toys, etc into the big girl room. (At some point soon we will be getting a different bookcase and lamp to match her room, but for the time being, she’s going to use the ones from the nursery.)
Alethea took it all in stride. I’d say she seemed… interested.
Me? I was doing pretty well until I decided it would be best to clear out the nursery as much as possible. I took everything off the walls… and then I cried. Silly, I know. I’m going to be such a basket case when she goes off to college!
Fast forward to the afternoon… we took the mattress off her bed and moved it into the new room as well. She had a blast yelling ‘three’ (she hasn’t mastered counting up to three yet, so when she does tricks she just says ‘three’) and then taking a running step off the mattress onto the floor. She also enjoyed arranging pillows, blankets and stuffed animals on her ‘bed’. She was having so much fun, she declined any interest in an afternoon snack.
I thought, “Wow, she’s taking this really well.”
Then Peter came home and began disassembling the crib (it’s too big to fit through our doorways assembled). She had fun helping Daddy and was ready at any minute to hand him his hex key:
The crib parts got moved into the big girl room and Peter began the reassembly process. And that is the precise moment when she lost it. She cried and screamed and couldn’t be consoled. She pushed me out of the room and back into the nursery. Then she cried some more. She most definitely did not think her crib belonged in the big girl room.
After she had dinner, she did mostly calm down, so perhaps part of it was hunger.
Fast forward again to the present… We just finished our bedtime routine and so far all I’ve heard is talking (no crying!) from the room. She’s not asleep yet though. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the night goes.
Peter and I stayed up late Tuesday night to watch Election results. Turns out we shouldn’t have bothered. With the MN governor’s race headed for recount, we won’t know for weeks what’s going to happen. Besides, as Peter put it, “I’m just too old to stay up ’till 2am anymore.” Sad, but true.
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Early this morning we were treated to a very enthusiastic rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star coming from Alethea’s room at 2:30am, and 3:30am AND 4:30am. While mildly impressed that my child can carry a recognizable tune, I think I must have a discussion with her about appropriate concert times.
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I’ve skipped my afternoon nap and stayed up late into the evening a few days this week to try and get the stenciling done in Alethea’s big girl room. I’m almost there (just some touch-ups left), but I didn’t make my original goal, which was to have Alethea moved into her room by the end of October, nor am I going to make my second goal which was to have her moved in by today, which is two months until Baby Bob’s due date. New plan: finish painting/clean up today and move her crib into the room tomorrow.
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Oh, and I AM going to take a nap this afternoon.
Today Alethea and I had a fun, but busy, morning. In order to stay on track, I employed a series of Mommy Tricks. Here’s how it went:
TRICK #1: SUCKER AT THE POLLS
No, I wasn’t the sucker, I gave Alethea a dum-dum sucker so that I could vote. Turns out that a small sucker buys me just enough time to do my civic duty. (It also turns out that being dressed in pink from head to toe isn’t enough to keep Alethea from being called a ‘little fellow’, but that’s a post for another day.)
After we voted we headed to the park. As it happens, there were some lovely children there before we arrived who decided to coat the slides with mud. Not just one slide… all of the slides in the park (what makes mischievous children so thorough?) If I’d been a more experienced mom, I might have been ready to use TRICK #2: PULL OUT THE OLD TOWEL, you know the handy rag-like towel that the prepared mother keeps in the car at all times for emergency situations like slide cleaning, but alas, I had no towel, so I resorted to…
TRICK #3: DISTRACTION BY SUBSTITUTION
Alethea said, “Slide! Slide!” And I said, “Alethea, look, the swings are right over there!” The swings were an acceptable distraction.
After Alethea got board with the swing, there wasn’t much left to do, so I asked Alethea if she was ready to go home. She wasn’t. I resorted to…
TRICK #4: LEAD A HORSE TO WATER
I thought maybe we could get to the car by baby steps. “Look at those bikes on the bike rack over there, Alethea!” (Alethea goes to examine the bikes = we move closer to the car.) “Look at that tall tree, Alethea!” (We move still closer.) A big truck goes by on the road and Alethea voluntarily walks a few more steps. Suddenly she stops, points and says, “Car.” In my most positive voice I said, “You’re right, Alethea, that’s our car!”
She looks at me, looks at the car, looks at me, then realization floods over her face and she yells, “Nooooo!” turns and runs in the other direction.
So much for trick #4.
At that point I was down to…
TRICK #5: WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS
Chase your kid down, pick them up, put them in the car (even if screaming), go home. Not really my best Mommy Trick, but sometimes it’s what it takes.
Today we went to the doctor’s office for Alethea’s 18 month check up. Turns out she didn’t go through a growth spurt last month. Her current stats are: height – 31 inches, weight – 24lbs 2oz, and head circumference – 47.5 cm. Only growing .25 inches in the last three months means she’s now down to the 29th percentile for height. However, she did gain over two pounds so she’s up to the 47th percentile for weight. Head circumference is still her highest percentile at 76th.
I’m not worried about the height thing though. I never expected to have a tall child and Alethea always seems to need to put on a few extra pounds before she’ll shoot up, so I imagine she’ll be doing that here shortly (no pun intended).
While Alethea didn’t grow in height as much as I had anticipated, she did something today that made me realize she is retaining things longer than I had thought. At our ECFE class the parents say this chant with the kids:
“Tick tock, tick tock, I’m a little cuckoo clock, now it’s striking one o’clock” (while we chant the kids rock side to side on their feet)
Then we lift the kids in the air and say “Cuckoo!”
I knew Alethea liked this game and we did play it at class last Thursday, but I was still surprised today when I saw her playing with Dee (her stuffed puppy) and all of the sudden she lifted him above her head and said “Cuckoo! Cuckoo!” That means she remembered the game for four days, without any reminders from me!
It’s great that she’s growing up, but a little scary too because I feel more than ever the weight of knowing that she’s retaining (and internalizing) both the bad and the good for so much longer than she seemed to previously. Yikes!
Tonight we had Alethea’s friends Ava and Judah (and their parents) over for trick-or-treating. We had a little bit of a football theme going with the kid’s costumes:
Of course there was that little awkward moment when Ava realized she was totally outnumbered:
But Alethea soon distracted her with an impromptu pom-pom routine:
After dinner and the photo shoot we went down the block trick-or-treating. Alethea had fun running around in the dark and riding on Daddy’s shoulders. However, I don’t think she really got the whole ‘trick-or-treat’ concept. True, she only tried to go inside the first couple houses that we visited, but after that she cried every time someone put candy in her bag.
We think she had a good time though because after we got home she was completely wound up and polished off two mini-bags of pretzels. (As a kid I thought non-candy items were lame, as a parent… I kinda get it now!)
After we got her calmed down a bit, she did go to sleep pretty easily, so at least for this year, there was no sugar high to keep her up.
Over all, I’d say it was a smashing success. We hope your Halloween was also worth cheering about!