What a sap!

It's an eye opening experience when you get a chance to observe your child when they don't know you're watching. 

This morning, I dropped Lily off at daycare and she started in the with the "No.  No.  No." as soon as I pulled up to the building.  So I told her that she was going to see all her friends today and Ms Christina and it would be fun.  She said, "Friends?  Fun?"  So cute.

But when we got in the door she didn't want to stay.  She still had some cereal and milk left which she was munching on for the ride to daycare and the teacher asked her if she wanted to go sit at the table with some of the other kids to eat her breakfast.  So the teacher took her by the hand and started to lead her over.  And I made a run for the door!  Once safely out the door, I turned around to watch Lily and somewhere along the way, the teacher got sidelined by another kid and Lily was walking on her own over to the table with the other kids (who were all older than her).  She found a chair and started to sit down and another little boy started making faces at her.  She didn't even flinch.  She sat right on down and munched on her cereal.  She was so independent!! 

Do you even know how HARD it was for me not to go running in there and give her a hug and a high five and tell her I was proud of her for joining those kids all by herself and not getting upset when someone made faces?!  I'm such a sap.

In other news, Lily's obsession with Dora is getting out of control.  Every time we turn on the TV she's starts asking for D-D-D-Dora (she sort of starts singing the theme song).  She gets SUPER excited when we turn it on.  Dancing around, hollering, getting 2 inches from the TV and yelling "Swiper no swiping!"  "Pack pack!" "MAP!"  "Boots!"  (For those of you not versed in Dora-speak, these are all elements of the show - or at least Lily's version of them.)  We have to constantly remind her to back up from the TV.  She just gets so excited, she can't help herself.

Watching Dora on her favorite couch:

When I tried to get Lily's attention away from Dora, this is the face I got:

We're going to need a bigger fridge!

Lily's first week at daycare is officially done.  For the most part, I think that this will be a good experience for Lily and will be a good thing for her "social game."  (We watch too much reality TV...) 

This morning was a bit hard to drop her off.  When we pulled up to the daycare she started saying softly, "No.  No.  No.  No."  Over and over.  Just "no."  She was kind of whispering/whining it.  She kept right on saying it as I signed her in and we found the staff members.  Then she hung on to my neck for dear life and wouldn't let go.  It nearly broke my heart and I was ready to run out of there with her and go do something fun!  I know she's fine as soon as I leave but it sure doesn't make it easy to drop her off.

Also, we are already noticing differences in Lily.  For example:

1. She's very clingy and crabby in the late afternoon / early evening hours.  You can't get 2 feet away from her before she bursts into tears as though someone has just pinched her. 
2. She seems to be STARVING when she gets home.  More than before.  She goes to the fridge every 15 minutes wanting something else to eat.  If we don't give it to her, we have another meltdown on our hands.  Therefore, we are going through drinkable yogurt like candy just to maintain our sanity. 
3. That of course leads to even crappier dinner eating habits.  As in, she doesn't want to eat any.  Or at least is not happy with anything we put on her plate unless it's applesauce or some other fruit that she is craving.  Sigh.
4. She's H-Y-P-E-R!  She runs around hollering and laughing (somewhat wickedly!).  She's climbing even more than before on chairs and working her way up to the kitchen table.  Sometimes that crazy behaviour is cute and sometimes it's downright SCARY!!

It's hard telling what's really the cause of some of these things.  Lack of adequate nap?  Not enough 1:1 attention?  Or maybe hanging out with FOUR boys all day?  : )  Or, as Joel says, maybe she's just getting older and changing.  Who knows?

The bright side is that Ms Christina (Stee-na) says that Lily is such a happy girl and gets along well with all the other kids and all the teachers.  So we're doing something right!

We have a budding artist on our hands.  We're going to need a bigger fridge!

Eating ice cream with Daddy after school today:

I've just put Lily to bed in the big girl bed.  This is our first time at a second attempt!  She went down with no problems - no tears, no screaming, no scrambling out of bed.  I loaded up the bed with ALL her stuffed animals so that maybe the bed would feel smaller to her.  Could be that she's in there right now playing with all those animals instead of going to sleep and that's why there's no crying!  Wish us luck for a drama free night!

We've Got a Floater!

"We've got a floater!"

That's what Joel hollers to me as I'm taking a few minutes to relax on the couch after dinner tonight while he's giving Liliana a bath.

AWESOME.

So I holler back, "You need help?"

"Uh yeah, I reckon!"

AWESOME!

He's pulled Lily out of the tub and rewashed her.  I swoop in to take her to get dressed and leave Joel to deal with mess in the bathtub!  Hey, seeing as how bath duty is usually mine, I've cleaned up my fair share of floaters.  This one's ALL HIS! 

So as I'm getting Lily's pajamas on, Joel comes up with a "brilliant idea."  Starting tomorrow, we're having someone come in to help us with the house cleaning.  I'm sure you can guess what this brilliant idea of Joel's was....

Welcome to our home!  Thank you so much for agreeing to help us and make our lives easier!  Oh, that?  In the bath tub?  Hmm, how did THAT get there?  Gosh, I have no idea!  Toddlers!  You just never know what you're going to find!

1st of Hundreds?

As far as I can tell, Lily's second day of school was as good as the first.  Drop off was a little trickier because Lily didn't want me to leave and cried, but I'm sure she was fine before I even made it to the car.  However, Lily's been a bit challenging since we got home.  The shorter nap schedule is really impacting her afternoon attitude.  I hope this part gets better quick - otherwise we're in for a rough road for a while.

Here's a picture of Lily with her first of probably hundreds of school craft projects.  She was too busy watching Dora to be bothered with posing for this photo.

 

There's not much to update on the pregancy front but I did want to show off this present that Peanut #2 received from Maria.  Isn't this gorgeous!?


First Day of "School"

This morning was Lily's first day at daycare - otherwise known as "school."  We've been so fortunate to have found such wonderful people to look after her and give her personal attention since she was 12 weeks old that it's a bit tough for me to send her to daycare now where she's one of many.  But I have a feeling it's all going to be just fine.

Of course this morning, like every morning, Lily started off right away talking about going to see Ria (Maria) and Alex (her favorite).  I tried explaining that we were not going to see them today because they have to go to school and now Lily is going to go to school too.  Instead, Lily will go see Ms Christina.  Tee-na? she says.  I hope Ms Christina doesn't mind being called Tina because that's probably her name from now on according to Lily.

All the way to the daycare, Lily kept saying:  "Ria?"  "Alex?"  "Isa?"  "Ruben?"  "Leo?"  Over and over.  I kept saying we wouldn't see them today cause everybody's going to school and they go to a different school than Lily.  And then we'd start over:  "Ria?"  "Alex?"  "Isa?"  "Ruben?"  "Leo?"  So I'd remind her that we're going to see Ms Christina today.  "Tee-na?" 

We took Lily to the daycare several months ago when we were checking it out and she played with the toys while Joel and I talked to the director.  Today, as soon as we got in the foyer (before toys were in sight), Lily must have remembered the place, because she yelled "TOYS!" and took off running through the doors in search of the toys. 

After I got Lily's things all settled in, I had to search for her to get a kiss and then she promptly went back to exploring all these fun toys (you'd think we didn't have any toys at home) and she didn't even notice when I left.  If all future mornings are like this one, switching to daycare will be no problem!

When Joel picked up Lily, she was happily playing with another little girl, getting along just fine.  Ms Christina sent home a note saying that Lily did great today.  She said that Lily took an hour long nap and that part is pretty evident tonight.  Lily's been a little bit crabby and clingy which is how she gets when she's not had enough sleep.  We may need to ratchet back her bedtime a little bit to compensate. 

All in all, good first day!



Thank you Saldivar Family!

Friday was the last day with Lily's current babysitter Maria (and Ruben and Leo and Alex and Isa). Lily really loved it over there and became a part of their family this summer. Lily's lucky enough to have two more families out there who care about her and make her happy!

I tried taking some snapshots on my phone of Lily saying goodbye to everybody but a) I'm a crappy photographer and b) you have to be some kind of miracle worker to get a good shot of a toddler with a phone camera!


Hugging Isa.....



And Alex....

And Leo!

I think Lily is really going to miss seeing them every day but she's going to make new friends at "school" and hopefully she'll adjust again quickly.

Thank you Saldivars!

Oy holy swollen feet!

So I know I mentioned that swollen feet is becoming more of an issue...welp. Here's what my feet look like after a day at the office! Time to quit?? :)