Chris and I bought Kate's highchair at a garage sale. When we were cleaning it up, we wondered how it got so dirty. I mean, we found food in the tiniest nooks and crannies! Well, I now know how that happens. It's called a toddler. I can't believe how big of a mess Kate can make when she's eating. Even if we feed her, the food seems to end up all over the chair! Plus, you should see the carpet underneath the darn chair! It's a mess!! I don't so much mind the messy chair, but the carpet is another story. What's so fun about throwing food on the floor anyway??
On the flip side, there are some fun perks to this toddlerhood thing. Kate is definately getting more gutsy about walking. She wants to be walked everywhere and she will now stand on her own without being forced to by mom or dad. In fact, just a while ago she let go of me and then tried to lift her leg to take a step! So humerous to watch! It was like she had two huge lead weights on her feet keeping them on the ground and as soon as she managed to lift a foot she fell over. Too funny!! I'll have to keep the camera handy so I can catch the first few steps in action.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Ways to silence a screamer...
Chris and I have had enough with the new screaming talent our daughter has developed. We've debated different methods and we both agree that screaming back doesn't work. Ignoring it had gotten us nowhere and takes way too much patience at the end of the day. On the same evening as the diaper experience, Chris had an idea and decided to experiment.
His first inclination was lemon juice, but we were fresh out. So, he found some vinegar in the fridge and waited for a nice, long scream to come out of the little one. As soon as she started screaming, he stuck his vinegar-tainted finger into her mouth. It was actually pretty effective. Despite the disturbed look on her face, we had a solid 3 hours of peace and quiet! I'm not sure if we'll continue this method, but it sure worked well the other night!
His first inclination was lemon juice, but we were fresh out. So, he found some vinegar in the fridge and waited for a nice, long scream to come out of the little one. As soon as she started screaming, he stuck his vinegar-tainted finger into her mouth. It was actually pretty effective. Despite the disturbed look on her face, we had a solid 3 hours of peace and quiet! I'm not sure if we'll continue this method, but it sure worked well the other night!
Bathroom Drama
So, I'm posting this story at Chris' request. If you're not into diaper stories I suggest you skip this post.
The other night we were eating a peaceful dinner... I take that back - it wasn't peaceful at all. Kate has a new habit of screaming all the time. Out of nowhere, high-pitched, loud, obnoxious screaming. It seriously never stops. Sigh... I should probably start the story over... The other night we were eating dinner. That is, Chris and I were eating. Kate, however, chose to scream instead of eat. So it wasn't a very pleasant dinner experience, but we got through it.
After dinner, I was doing dishes (by hand - our dishwasher broke a few weeks ago...bummer). Chris was putting away the leftovers and Kate was at my feet screaming. I looked down at her to try and convince her for like the 100th time to stop screaming and noticed that the back of her shirt was wet. Upon further inspection, Chris and I realized we had a poopy mess on our hands. Leftovers and dishes were dropped and we swept her away into her room to change her.
In the process of taking the soiled clothing off of the screaming, squirmy mess of a child we have, the poop made it's way up her back and all over her legs. We wiped her down as much as we could and then decided a bath would be the only way to get her clean. I took her into the bathroom and stood her up outside the tub while the tub filled (the water was too cold to stick her straight into the tub). In the meantime, Chris and I were gathering all the bath necessities and washing ourselves off (we were a mess, too at this point). I'm glad there were two of us!
Suddenly, Kate got really quiet and we noticed she was looking down at the floor and lifting her leg. Yup! You guessed it! She had peed all over the floor!! (Have you ever seen how much urine a 1-year-old's bladder can hold????) I put her straight into the bathtub while Chris began gathering bleach/floor cleaner and a rag to mop up the mess. I think it was at this point that Chris said "This is definately blog-worthy!" Then we laughed and played with our daughter in the bathtub while we waited for the floor to dry.
Anyways, this whole ordeal took about an hour - not including the cleanup of the changing table, the clothes and all those dishes we forgot about. What a mess!!
The other night we were eating a peaceful dinner... I take that back - it wasn't peaceful at all. Kate has a new habit of screaming all the time. Out of nowhere, high-pitched, loud, obnoxious screaming. It seriously never stops. Sigh... I should probably start the story over... The other night we were eating dinner. That is, Chris and I were eating. Kate, however, chose to scream instead of eat. So it wasn't a very pleasant dinner experience, but we got through it.
After dinner, I was doing dishes (by hand - our dishwasher broke a few weeks ago...bummer). Chris was putting away the leftovers and Kate was at my feet screaming. I looked down at her to try and convince her for like the 100th time to stop screaming and noticed that the back of her shirt was wet. Upon further inspection, Chris and I realized we had a poopy mess on our hands. Leftovers and dishes were dropped and we swept her away into her room to change her.
In the process of taking the soiled clothing off of the screaming, squirmy mess of a child we have, the poop made it's way up her back and all over her legs. We wiped her down as much as we could and then decided a bath would be the only way to get her clean. I took her into the bathroom and stood her up outside the tub while the tub filled (the water was too cold to stick her straight into the tub). In the meantime, Chris and I were gathering all the bath necessities and washing ourselves off (we were a mess, too at this point). I'm glad there were two of us!
Suddenly, Kate got really quiet and we noticed she was looking down at the floor and lifting her leg. Yup! You guessed it! She had peed all over the floor!! (Have you ever seen how much urine a 1-year-old's bladder can hold????) I put her straight into the bathtub while Chris began gathering bleach/floor cleaner and a rag to mop up the mess. I think it was at this point that Chris said "This is definately blog-worthy!" Then we laughed and played with our daughter in the bathtub while we waited for the floor to dry.
Anyways, this whole ordeal took about an hour - not including the cleanup of the changing table, the clothes and all those dishes we forgot about. What a mess!!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Welcome to Toddlerhood
She finally did it. I knew this day would come sooner or later!
I also wanted to share a bad mommy moment I had last night. For some reason Mommy (me) decided it would be ok for Kate to play with a glow stick on the way home from mutual last night. I have no idea what I was thinking. About halfway home Kate started crying and by the time we were home she was screaming! The glowstick had leaked a little bit and she got some in her eye. I had an experience like this a few months ago with sunblock and the only way to flush out her eye is to stick her in the bathtub and dump water on her head. It sounds really mean, but it was the only way to get enough water in her eye to wash it out. So, at 9:00 last night, Kate got a bath. After a few minutes she was back to normal again and the redness and irritation had gone down. Word to the wise: do not give your unattened child a glowstick to play with!
I also wanted to share a bad mommy moment I had last night. For some reason Mommy (me) decided it would be ok for Kate to play with a glow stick on the way home from mutual last night. I have no idea what I was thinking. About halfway home Kate started crying and by the time we were home she was screaming! The glowstick had leaked a little bit and she got some in her eye. I had an experience like this a few months ago with sunblock and the only way to flush out her eye is to stick her in the bathtub and dump water on her head. It sounds really mean, but it was the only way to get enough water in her eye to wash it out. So, at 9:00 last night, Kate got a bath. After a few minutes she was back to normal again and the redness and irritation had gone down. Word to the wise: do not give your unattened child a glowstick to play with!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Cindy Lou Who
This is what Kate is going to be for Halloween...if I can make a nightgown that looks similar to this. Won't she be the perfect Cindy Lou Who?! Any suggestions as to what Chris and I should be? I'm thinking the Grinch and his dog/reindeer will be too Christmasy...what do you think?Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Happy Birthday Kate!!
Monday we celebrated Kate's first birthday. Chris and I can't believe our baby is a whole year old...and we've been parents for a year now!!! Wow. I think we have about 200 pictures from that day. I'll spare you and just post a few. :) (unless you're really itching for all of them, in which case I can make you a CD)
Ok, so these first 4 pictures were after the cupcake experience but I'm too lazy to figure out how to change the order of the pictures in this post so you get to see them out of order. You can see in the first picture how messy Kate got. This is a tea set that our good friends the Baughs got Kate. She loves playing with dishes at their house so they decided she needed some of her own. I can attest that she's played with them plenty the last two days. Thanks Baughs!
I just love this reaction to her new toy. You can't really tell, but the toy lights up and plays songs which Kate thought was pretty cool. Thanks Grandma Bakker!
Aunt Stacey and Uncle Andy got Kate some fancy new shoes. I wish I knew what she was thinking when we put them on her. We've never put her in real shoes before.
We thought that a little push-toy would help motivate the chica to walk. (I'm not exactly sure why we are pushing her to walk. I'm sure we'll regret it as soon as she does!) :) Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Carson for the cool barnyard push-toy thingy!! :)
Ok, so this is a random picture I took of Kate. She's learned this new look. I think it's the look I give her when she throws handfuls of food on the floor. (Can't you just see me doing this?) :) She's getting pretty good at it, don't you think?
Ok, so these first 4 pictures were after the cupcake experience but I'm too lazy to figure out how to change the order of the pictures in this post so you get to see them out of order. You can see in the first picture how messy Kate got. This is a tea set that our good friends the Baughs got Kate. She loves playing with dishes at their house so they decided she needed some of her own. I can attest that she's played with them plenty the last two days. Thanks Baughs!
I just love this reaction to her new toy. You can't really tell, but the toy lights up and plays songs which Kate thought was pretty cool. Thanks Grandma Bakker!
Aunt Stacey and Uncle Andy got Kate some fancy new shoes. I wish I knew what she was thinking when we put them on her. We've never put her in real shoes before.
We thought that a little push-toy would help motivate the chica to walk. (I'm not exactly sure why we are pushing her to walk. I'm sure we'll regret it as soon as she does!) :) Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Carson for the cool barnyard push-toy thingy!! :)
Ok, so this is a random picture I took of Kate. She's learned this new look. I think it's the look I give her when she throws handfuls of food on the floor. (Can't you just see me doing this?) :) She's getting pretty good at it, don't you think?
In addition to presents, we had a birthday party for Kate with a few friends. Chris borrowed a moon-bounce from a lady he works with and to my suprise, Kate loved it! I thought for sure it would be a toy for Daddy only, but turns out Daddy knows what Kate likes!
Here's the first picture of Kate with her cupcake. At first she just played with the frosting with one little finger. I decided to speed the process up a bit by giving her a taste. Once she got a taste of the sugar...well, you'll see!
She slowly started getting into it...still with only one hand though.
Come to think of it, I think she only used one hand the whole time, but she definately downed the cupcake quickly once she figured out how to do it! What a mess!! I think my mom has a very similar picture of me on my first birthday.
All in all it was a great day!
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