With the impending time change last weekend, my whole plan was to gradually push back Juliana's bedtime a couple of nights at a time by 15 minutes or so, and try to gradually stretch her get up time by an equal amount. Great in theory... We had no problem pushing her to go to bed later (I think we can all attest to being able to push through feelings of being tired), but then she started waking up earlier and earlier in the mornings... Ugh. So a few days before the time change, we said forget it, and went back to the 7 pm bedtime. Her mornings were still off, but at that point, I was exhausted, still sick, and just didn't have the energy to commit to it anymore. Saturday, when the time change occurred, we kept bedtime at 7pm (6pm with the impending time change), and she was up at 5 am (6 am without the time change)... Brian was able to go into her room and snuggle with her and get her to wait until 7 am before she needed to go find Mommy and eat breakfast. Amazingly, she's done fairly well this week with the time change... The last two mornings she hasn't been up until around 7am (thank goodness!!), and it hasn't been a crying, need to snuggle "up". Instead, she's fussed a little, I take my time getting to her, she flips her light switch a couple of times (she can reach it from inside her crib, but the light on the fan is off regardless of how she switches the switch), and plays in her crib a little before saying "I want up!" which is my cue to go in. I'm hopeful that this is the new trend, but I highly doubt it.
She's been playing a new "game" with Dada, and she loves it. She says "Boo!" and watches Daddy's reaction as if she's scared him. Sometimes she will "hide" somewhere (behind the window curtains, in a closet, under the table, etc), but she gets such a big thrill out of it! When I pick her up from school, we will have the following conversation:
M: Who's at home?
J: Dada
M: Are you going to scare Dada?
J: Yeah (laughing)
M: How do you scare Dada?
J: Boo, Dada
M: And what does Dada do?
J: Boo, Dada (laughing)
The other day, we were eating breakfast and she looked up onto of our pie chest and saw the bubbles jar (for blowing bubbles, which I let Brian do, because they are a poor soap version and require lots of air stamina for blowing at a toddler's pace), and kept talking about "Bubbles, Dada." So we made a little video on my iPhone of her saying she wanted Dada to blow bubbles. After we were done filming the video, I asked her if she wanted to watch it, she said yes. So I turned the phone so she could see it, and she watched herself. When it was finished, she said "Watch baby" as in she wanted to watch more videos of herself. So I went to a video we took of her scaring Brian with her contagious laughter, I love watching it. When the video started out, she smiled along with her laughter, but then when she heard Brian's voice she started crying! I stopped it and asked her if she missed Daddy, and she said "Yeah..." So then we called Brian (who didn't answer) and left him a voicemail.
This morning, she ate breakfast and we had the following conversation as I was trying to get her to come upstairs with me to get dressed and ready to go to school:
M: Do you want to go to school?
J: No
M: Do you want to see Lolli and Pop? (we're headed there tonight so I can give a talk at my high school tomorrow)
J: No
M: What do you want?
J: Dada come home. Dada come home.
M: You want Dada to come home?
J: Dada come home.
M: Well, the sooner you go to school, the sooner you'll see Dada.
J: ...
M: Do you want to watch Daniel Tiger? (on PBS Kids app on my phone)
J: Watch! Watch Daniel Tiger!
Our neighborhood isn't really great for trick or treating, and it was raining again this year. At her school they had a Halloween costume parade on Wednesday, so she wore her League of Their Own costume to that, and then just wore a Halloween themed outfit on Thursday. Monday night, though, our local Target was having a trick or treat event where the kids in costumes show up, walk around the store to volunteers who pass out candy. Juliana was beyond thrilled with this activity. They gave her a plastic jack'o'lantern pumpkin to carry around and collect her candy. She loves to carry things, so this was beyond awesome for her. Then we let her walk around the store while she carried her pumpkin with one hand and held onto one of our hands with her other hand. I think she could care less about getting candy in her pumpkin, it was more the fact that we were in a store and she wasn't in a shopping cart or being carried around by us, but was walking. Periodically throughout our trek she would say "I walk. I walk." I wanted to go to a senior home or retirement home for trick or treating, but the local one didn't offer any events like that, so maybe another year. The concept of "candy" caught on really quickly though... We used candy to bribe her back into her car seat to head home when we were done walking around the store. She ate a hershey kiss. And a couple of nights when we get home from school I'll ask if she wants some candy, and we'll give her one piece of candy (after I know she's eaten the decent filling food for the rest of the day). She's really good about only eating what she wants though... One of those little bags of M&M's? She'll eat about 5 and then she's "All done!"
 |
| Reading to baby... |
I am pleased that Juliana now loves to read books. She still has a bit of a problem sitting still for a big book, but I ask her to identify things in pictures or try to talk about what's going on in the picture after I finish reading the text to try and keep her engaged. Before "nigh-nigh" she gets to read 2 books (M: Juliana, what's your favorite number? J: Um... Two!) (M: Let's count, okay? One... J: Two! M: What comes after two? J: Two! M: No, three! J: Two!) (D: How many do you want? J: Two!), and normally she picks Dada to read these books to her, but sometimes Mommy gets to read as well. That particular day when I suggested she read to her baby, she identified what she was seeing in the pictures of that little board book. And sometimes, we'll hand her a book to read while we're driving and she babbles, "reading" the book out loud. She loves lift the flap books, Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin (we're now starting It's Time for Christmas from this series), and anything Elmo. We have an old Sesame Street book from when Caitlin and I were little called Who's Hiding. It doesn't have Elmo, but does have Big Bird, Grover, Bert, Ernie, Cookie Monster, Oscar, and Snuffleupagus. She's just started identifying Cookie. Sometimes Big Bird gets called Cookie too, and she's started saying Oscar as well (probably because Grandpap and Grandma Paula's dog is also called Oscar).
 |
| On Monday sick day, Mommy took Juliana to the store and got some Crayola Color Wonder markers and the truck coloring book (picked over princesses... I don't think it means anything, she just knows how to identify cars and trucks more than Disney princesses. Guess we'll get on that!) |
 |
| After not eating "real" food for a few days, she gobbled up 3 bowls of Mac and Cheese. |
 |
| Daddy taught her to put rags on her head like a headband to catch sweat, so whenever she sees a rag she wants to do the same thing. Two sickies... |
 |
| A girl and her elephant |
 |
| Lolli and Pop's house is always a fun play place with the baby doll stroller and bag of doctor tools |
 |
| Up-pee! (A shortened version of Up, please!) |
 |
| Checking out the goats at another pumpkin patch |
 |
| Jack 'O' Lantern! Juliana really enjoyed helping scoop all the insides out, but we left the carving up to Dad. |
 |
| Ready to hit the slopes in her ski jacket (wasn't cold enough to break out the matching bibs) |
 |
| She wanted a "Freeze Pop!" but we had to settle for a blue popsicle instead... See her blue mouth and teeth? |
 |
| Show me your tongue! |
 |
| After breakfast, she wanted a bib on her baby and wanted to buckle her in to feed her. |
Juliana had a little bit of trouble getting that particular baby doll to sit in the seat (the legs and arms move for positioning). It was so funny to hear her exclaim "Sit down baby!" after trying for a while to get the baby to stay still in the seat.
She has also decided recently that she wants to "Showa" (shower). So sometimes when we have trouble getting her upstairs for the bath before bed, we'll ask if she wants to take a shower or take a bath. When she stands in the shower under the running water (we're working on the whole back up into the water, tilt your head up and back so you don't get water in your eyes), she'll say softly "I showa, I showa..." almost like it's a mantra.
Some other favorite phrases:
Me help - as in I'm helping you
Peen up- Clean up (this isn't that often, always on her terms, and not for a long duration of time)
Peas Pop- Freeze pop
Passey Go- Can be "where did passey go?" or "passey went/fell/gone" or "passey come with me"
I wear my boots- I heard this on repeat while driving the other day. She loves her Hello Kitty rain boots
I love my boots- after hearing this, I had to make sure she got to wear her boots to school that day
I love Dada
Hurray!- with both arms thrown up in celebration. This accompanies the songs If you're Happy and you Know It, and The Ants Go Marching
She's been in an interesting mood the last few weeks which I believe we are finally determining to be eye-teeth related... She wasn't eating much, or being extremely picky over what and when she would eat, and was not napping well either. So, she was tired, and hungry, and the tantrums were often and enormous. The teeth still haven't popped through the surface, but she has settled down a little bit so I think they've moved into a better position and she's more easily distracted by her surroundings. But, sometimes when the pain would get to her, she would yell/cry out, "Hand! Momma Hand!" while she was in the back seat. I would have to break her heart and tell her "I can't hold your hand right now, I'm driving" which was answered with crying/fussing... The last couple of days though, the trips have been much more pleasant.
No comments:
Post a Comment