When they sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" at daycare they "twinkle" with their hands by opening and closing their fingers. So whenever she sees a picture of a star, she starts doing the hand motion and sings "twinkle twinkle twinkle twinkle..." in essentially the correct tune.
For "Baa Baa Black Sheep" they slap their hands on their thighs, so thigh slapping means that Heather wants us to sing. And when she sings it, she sings the tune (same as twinkle) and "baa baa baa baa baa baa baa..."
So let's start with some Heather things.
1 - She's started requesting trips to the playground and requesting videos (vid-yos). The playground is getting to be more fun as she is doing more climbing and it is not just about the swing and the slide anymore, although she still loves both of them. When it comes to videos, we can get away with showing Sesame Street instead of always watching videos of Heather, but if she doesn't like the SS segment that is on, she's say "No no no no" until I fast forward to something else. Her current favorite character is Big Bird and Oscar got the "No no no" treatment last night. (Have I mentioned how much I LOVE On Demand?!?! Lifesaver.)
2 - She says Hi and Bye bye to Nora and Stewart ("tew-ar") when she sees them. She sometimes still tries to run up and pet them, but many times now she's just happy to stand and wave at them. I think she knows that they'll run under the bed if she tries to go up to them. She's very gentle, so I hope that someday they'll give her a real chance to get closer to them.
3 - Spoon ("poon") is one of my current favorite words. She also says airplane and helicopter when she hears one overhead. Noodles and blanket are adorable, too.
4 - We're trying to add "please" to Heather's vocabulary. Totally adorable and irresistible when she says it. Even when she says "mama nurse please" at 5am. :-/
5 - I think she's being a bit more of an adventurous eater again. I hope this means that the teething symptoms for the last incisor are over. It's not that she wasn't eating, but there were just things she had stopped eating and things she wouldn't even try. I don't know that she'll stop being picky, but I was excited that she shared my brunch wrap with me on Sunday for the first time in months.
I'm positive that there are other things, but they aren't coming to me and this text window has been open all day...I will think of more as soon as I step away from the computer I'm sure...
Not too much to say about yarn at the moment. Two of my projects are secret presents for blog-readers, Babette continues and I haven't gotten back to my cardigan yet. I did rewash and block it. We'll see if it stays stretched out, if I need to redo the button band or what I will do to fix it.
2 - She's still shy for hellos, but the hand wave is more reliable even if she won't speak.
3 - "Boo boo" and "band aid" (ban-aye) are two of my favorite words (despite the implications).
4 - Her word for pacifier is "bye-doe" (?) and she knows how to say "nurse". Both of these words are simultaneously good and bad in the eyes of a mom wondering if and when we should wean from both. (I'm more concerned about the former).
5 - She can say Stewart and Nora now. As well as knowing how to say kitty "ki-teh" and meow.
6 - I think one of my favorite routines is when R and Heather get home first. When I turn up our street, they start walking toward me, and Heather is just giddy with happiness to see me. If she could really run flat out she would. Awesome.
7 - One of her favorite activities is removing all of the contents of my purse and taking everything out of my wallet that she can get out of it. She mostly just looks at things and then hands them to me. Sometimes this is good entertainment at a restaurant.
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I'm sure that there are more, but this is all I've come up with while my email window has been open this afternoon.
I've decided to learn for a couple of reasons. 1 - It involves yarn. 'Nuff said. 2 - I've seen patterns in crochet that I like and I think that the properties of crochet make them better suited to these projects than trying to "redo" them in knit stitches. 3 - I think having a better understanding of crochet will help me better execute crocheted edgings and crocheted seams, as well as understanding how they can be modified to suit my tastes.
I don't really think that I going to come away from this with a stronger desire to crochet than knit, because in general I prefer knit stockinette fabric over many of the crochet fabrics I've seen. But there are crochet fabrics I like, and I think there is great promise in understanding a myriad of ways to play with yarn and use it to its best advantage!
For those interested, I'm making the ladylike lace gloves from The Happy Hooker and the Babette Blanket from Interweave Crochet. I still need more yarn for Babette, but I couldn't resist making the first few squares from some Cascade 220 in the stash...
She was delightful and chatty when the pediatrician was talking with us at the desk, but whenever he or the nurse wanted to touch her / weigh her / measure her she pitched a fit. I think she cried more for the exam than she did for the shots. Silly girl.
We didn't really have any questions, so it was mostly a nice chat about how well she's doing and the pediatrician was really impressed with how many words she has. :-) Oh, and no more shots until she's 4 - yay!
ETA: I forgot. Even after just spending 10 mostly shy minutes with Heather, the doctor could tell that she has an independent personality.
Gee. I wonder where that came from...
Other new words:
Jellies (for jellyfish)
Hat
Book
Helicopter (okay, you probably wouldn't recognize this one, but she tries really hard and it is clear from context that she is identifying the right object and trying to say a 4 syllable word)
Tunnel (new word last night from our trip to the zoo)
(ETA: I knew I was forgetting a few. Cheese, Lulu (her bear), Shhhh (when she sees an animal or someone sleeping), shoe, thank you, Pooh, Eeyore and Kanga. I'm sure there are more. These are all the ones I remembered this evening and I'm quickly realizing that there is no way to easily document them all.)
Since she's repeating what we say, we've started repeating what she is saying and adding "please" at the end. We will see if that works.
We learned this weekend that we have to beware of taking advantage of her somewhat flexible schedule. We were invited to a picnic for R's boss that fell right in the middle of Heather's nap. I was convinced that taking an unnapped toddler out was a bad idea, so we put her down at the earliest possible naptime and crossed our fingers. When I went to wake her after 90 minutes she was stirring (I think she was between sleep cycles) and woke up easily. She was pleasant and happy at the picnic for a couple of hours, until the point that she wasn't anymore. :-) She went down easily for a second nap and I felt (foolishly) like we had dodged a bullet. Hmrph.
She slept for nearly 2 1/2 hours (!) and woke up in a horrible mood. So bad that I was convinced she was ill and took her temperature (normal). I think we actually made her more annoyed by asking her lots of questions and try to make her happy. After about half an hour she finally adjusted and then the three of us had a lovely couple of hours together. We read books, had a "pizza picnic" in the living room, and watched some Heather videos on the big TV.
Her late nap meant a late, difficult bedtime and a fussy night. We all survived and she seemed to be back to normal last night, but we should certainly avoid dividing up Heather's nap in the future.
:-)
I'm not really sure what to tell you beyond the usual "what's going on" kind of update. I'm a little better rested than I was after my deadline 2 weeks ago, but I could still use a little extra sleep. The house is currently driving me crazy. There are still things from camping that aren't unpacked, there are areas in need of real cleaning and it's just in one of those states where there are lots of little things to do. I think the biggest tasks are tackled (mail, laundry, dishes) for the most part, but I really thought that 2 weekends at home would have us in a better position. Although I've been tired and unmotivated to do housework in the evenings, so I suppose I can only expect so much from a few hours each day on the weekend. :-)
At this point I just want to get the house back to a non-stressful place before our anniversary trip so I won't need to spend any of our at home vacation days doing mundane cleaning tasks. (But I might do more enjoyable things like cleaning out my room or doing a little painting.)
My knitting for the past few weeks has been purely selfish. (This is going to hurt me soon since I have several things to make as gifts for October and December). The basic black cardigan is going well. I had to rip back a few times to deal with some pooling issues, but those were easy to take care and I'm halfway up the last major piece. I think by the weekend I will be blocking, sewing and maybe knitting the button band.
I also started a top-down raglan for myself out of a cotton blend when the wool-hemp of the cardigan was becoming a bit hard to deal with in the summer humidity. I also was feeling like I really wanted a new summer top. I think this will be good travel and evening knitting for our trip, for the times that the gift knitting is too fiddly. It may or may not be done for summer, but it will be a good fall layer.
Heather continues to be lots of fun and she is adding 2-word phrases to her vocabulary. They are mostly "Hi ____", "Uh-oh ____", "Bye bye ___" and "Night night ___". She is also sometimes sounds like she says "thank you" and she is doing a lot of repeating. When we say the names of her classmates, she smiles and repeats them back. And many times she'll repeat a new word for an animal or object or color. Totally adorable. She is pretty good at answering yes and no questions reliably, but we have noticed that if she doesn't understand the question, her default answer seems to be "yeah".
She still seems to act initially shy around others. Some of it seems like a little act, but it is adorable and it doesn't take her long to move past the shyness.
Oh, and the poor thing got my hair. Fine, straight and not a lot of it. As you saw in the camping pictures, there is enough of it to put up in pigtails now, but just barely. I still have my fingers crossed that some of the paternal hair genes will kick in before too long, but I'm not counting on it!
We decided to try the long hike up to the water tower, and the way up went very well.
But once we were up on the water tower, Heather wasn't all that impressed by the view and was getting restless.
So we had a little snack in the grass while Tom and Rachel finished their water tower experience.
It did start to rain a little as we were leaving, but luckily it stopped so we could get all the way back to camp. Being well rested meant that she didn't need to fuss in order to fall asleep for a nap.
She even held still long enough for pigtails and didn't immediately pull them out. (A new milestone)
For our last morning, we checked out a different beach. We had it to ourselves for much of the time we were there.
More time on the towel, too.
She fell asleep in the car on the ride home and had a little trouble staying asleep, but we all got to bed eventually.
After a lite lunch, Heather took a dip in the pool with her daddy. The water was warmer than our last visit.
When she was done, Heather was very anxious to get her towel laid out "just so" and enjoy a little time in the sunshine.
What's a visit at Grandma's without a frozen treat at the end?
We got to camp within an hour of Heather's bedtime, so I was feeling a bit rushed to get water, firewood and food in her belly before a meltdown. But the new environment was enough to keep her entertained. Although she did get a little mad that she couldn't be the one to carry the water jug back to the campsite. :-)
And we decided that we should take advantage of the cooler morning air for our first hike. We started with a shorter hike around the peninsula since it took us a little while to get our act together and we didn't really know how Heather would respond. Everytime we got near the lake, she would start doing her version of "quack, quack", but sadly there weren't any ducks to be seen there like there are at the lake near our house.
She seemed to be getting tired, but a nap wasn't successful. So we had some lunch and headed to the beach.
Digging in the sand is serious work.
So it is nice to take a dip in the water to cool off after all that effort. Lakes are especially nice because they are shallow enough to walk in, even when you're less than 3 feet tall. :-)
There is a little playground near the beach, too. It doesn't have an infant swing, but Heather can swing slowly on the big ones with daddy's supervision.
It was definitely naptime when we returned to the campsite after all of that. Our friends Tom and Rachel arrived while Heather was sleeping and I was doing some work.
This time she lasted longer in the backpack. But given the short nap the day before and the short nap this afternoon, Heather just didn't have a full hike in her and she was too overtired to fall asleep in the backpack.
So I used the second nap of the day to start a dinner fire and get a shower. Heather's favorite part of campfire food was the baked sweet potato. Silly girl didn't even want to try a perfectly roasted marshmallow!
Their daughter is now 20 months old. They have had a hellish process and have been kicked out of PGN 6 times over the course of the last year. And their agency is becoming less and less responsive as time goes on.
All that stands in the way is one final interview with the birth mother, a requirement recently added to the process. She is refusing to go for the interview.
Please help me pray for a miracle for this family. I'm here sobbing over my lunch wishing there was something that I could do for them...
For example, it can be hard to tell daddy and doggy apart, so context
really helps with those especially since both are said often.
Mommy is a bigger part of everyday language now
Bunny, Butterfly, Bird and Bike are not clear but definitely there
Water "wa-ga", Kitty "ki-gee", Apple "bapple"
Sheeps say "baaa", horses say "neeee", Cows say "mooo", owls say
"hoooo", little piggies say "wee"
But we've had two examples this weekend (at least) of times that I look
forward to Heather having more words. Her arm was hurt on the
trampoline over the weekend, and it took a while for us to figure it out
using our powers of deduction. With a mostly ambidextrious toddler who
is prone to get fussy during clothing changes anyway, it took a little
while to realize that she was purposefully not using her right arm. All
seems to be fine now. She's still favoring her left arm, but it is
clear that her right arm doesn't hurt anymore and she has started using
it when playing or trying to get away from diaper changes. ;-) Ah, the
life of a toddler.
The other example was some issue with going to sleep tonight. Part of
it was because of a screwy schedule this weekend. She went to bed late
both Friday night and Saturday night because we had plans away from home
and she was extremely reluctant to fall asleep in the car. But at two
wake-ups were because she was thirsty. It takes 20 questions to figure
out what she needs. If she would just say water or drink, it would be a
lot faster to get her back to sleep. :-)
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The couple of weeks are going to be crazy at work, busy preparing for
our second ever camping trip with Heather and going on said trip. I'll
try to keep posting, but no promises. I do have some pictures from this
past weekend to share, but it is dependent on the next few bedtimes
going smoother than tonight did.
If any readers think they might be interested in joining us for camping
(tent sites with running water bathrooms and showers nearby), let me
know and I'll send you the details! You could also drive up to the park
for a day trip while we're there for some hiking, swimming and good
campfire food.
1 - My iPod - There are many times it makes my life much better. It
allows me to think about knitting both while I am knitting and when I
can't knit. I listen to a number of knitting podcasts and I have a
line-up of theater related podcasts to listen to when I get through the
knitting ones. It also allows me to watch movies of Heather and look at
pictures of Heather while I'm on the road, and I have a few TV shows on
there, too. Although honestly, I only use the video feature when I'm
traveling. I never thought I would ever use it.
The iPod is also important because there is a significant segment of my
music collection that is disliked by my spouse. :-)
2 - The DVR - Soooooo much better than a VCR and vital for any parent
who doesn't want to stop watching their favorite shows just because
there are rugrats in their lives. The only downside is the limited
space for HD programs, so sometimes it does put pressure on us to watch
our shows asap. I hope that an upgrade someday will ease that pressure.
3 - The child seat on R's bike - I love Heather and R, but there are
certain things that are a lot easier to accomplish when they aren't in
the house. Their bike rides give me 30-45 minutes of time to do the
things that I can't do while Heather is napping (vacuum upstairs, clean
up her room, put away her clothes). I know that they are both having
fun and I get a little productive time, so it is easier for me to relax
after Heather goes to bed.
4 - Ravelry.com - You knew there had to be something about knitting on
this list. I considered mentioning my harmony interchangable needles or
my swift and winder, but I decided that they only make some projects
easier. Ravelry can and usually does improve every projects I work on.
I can connect with other people who've made something I'm working on and
ask about the pattern, the fit, the yarn, etc. I can search for a type
of project designed at the gauge I'm getting with my yarn. I can search
for projects by a designer I like. I can see what my friends are doing
and be inspired. And I am inspired to take pictures of all of my
projects and not just the ones for other people.
5 - The bus - I know that there are plenty of people out there who would
rather get a root canal than take public transportation, but I am not
one of those people. Driving in rush hour traffic stresses me out (even
in Pittsburgh where traffic isn't that bad compared to other cities).
I'm not a morning person, so my bus ride gives me a chance to wake-up
and prepare my brain to deal with work and my coworkers. When things
are busy, my commute is the only guaranteed time that I get to knit each
day (and listen to my knitting podcasts). And I've made friends on the
bus. I don't see them as often since my previous "regular" bus was
cancelled, but we keep in touch and I've had some nice chats with people
on my new regular buses.
I'm tagging Jen (Seedling of Knowledge), Michelle (The Spice Rack) and
Katie (Shades of K). Sorry for the low-tech tagging. I'm posting via
email.
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