Tag Archives: kids

Feb7

Early Learning Activities: Week 3 (What Changed That Sound?)

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Early Learning Activities: Week 3 (What Changed That Sound?)

This week’s activity is super easy.  Do you have:

  • a teething baby?
  • blocks, or something like them?
  • a folding chair?
  • a cardboard box?
  • some other random object?  (we used a empty shape sorting cube)

Please be advised that it’s possible to complete this activity without a teething baby.  In fact, if you can pull that one off I’d recommend it.  (Analie’s teeth are causing us all a great amount of headache today.  Poor thing.)

OK here’s what you do.

First, take you fussy child and put it on the ground near the supplies needed for this activity.  Congratulations.   Step 1 is complete.  (This was the most difficult of the steps for Analie this afternoon.  She did not want to sit on the ground.)

Next, grab some blocks and bang them together.  Hopefully your baby will imitate you.  Analie thought this was so awesome, then we traded blocks back and forth for awhile and tested them all out to make sure they all worked.  Yay!  They did!

Then I showed Analie how to bang the blocks on the seat of the metal folding chair.  GUYS.  She thought that noise was AMAZING.  (And she made so much noise that my headache from teething baby’s whining is officially worse.  But it was better than hearing a whiny baby!)

After we banged blocks on the chair, I switched her to the cardboard box.  She thought the dull sound that it made was super funny.  I wasn’t expecting that!

We also banged the blocks on the shape sorter, which made a hollow, wooden noise.  Analie wasn’t enthralled by it, though.  Fine by me…it was a really annoying sound!

Poor little girl would need to take snuggle breaks about every 30 seconds, and it kind of cracked me up.

*bang! bang! bang!* and then she’d lay her head on me for a few moments, sit back up and start back into *bang! bang! bang!*

Good luck! I hope your teething baby is less whiny than mine.

Feb2

Analie has eight teeth. COUNT ‘EM.

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Analie has eight teeth. COUNT ‘EM.

This afternoon the weather was gorgeous, so we went outside to go mudding in the backyard.

I dressed Analie in her most awkward pair of pants, two pairs of socks, and two undershirts, thinking they might get ruined if she got super muddy.

But I needn’t have worried about her clothes.  She’s not into getting dirty, although I tried really hard to show her how to dig in the mud.

She does love Angus, though, so he tempted her to at least crawl a tiny bit off the blanket twice.  And then he got too far away so she went right back to where it was dry.

But how sweet is that smile?

My little girl is getting so big.  I love this stage; the curious wonder of a stick or rock she dislodged from the grass, the  fascination she has with picking furry bits of moss off the ground and handing them to me proudly.

Oh…baby girl…can we freeze time?

Jan27

Being a Mommy Counts

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Being a Mommy Counts

So, I read the “Don’t Carpe Diem” article everyone’s sharing around on Facebook.  And you know what?  I think I may be, like, the ONLY person on the whole Internet who didn’t love it.

Maybe that’s because Analie is in such a magical stage right now.  Guys, every single day I get all misty and choked up because she is so amazing and so sweet; I just wish she’d stay like this forever.

But I know she won’t.

And I hate that.

Sure, yesterday she noticed I hadn’t latched the Tupperware cabinet and emptied the entire thing on the kitchen floor within a matter of 25 seconds.  But the look on her face of utter joy in the discovery was absolutely unparalleled.  It took me probably 2 minutes to clean up and reorganize the disaster once she was down for a nap, but two minutes of my time is a drop in the bucket when it comes to filling Analie’s days with the beginnings of rich life experiences.  (Even if it IS only Tupperware.)

Sometimes I feel frustrated by the negativity that can surround being a mommy.  I feel like we mommies get so caught up in expecting our children to behave like they’re years older than they really are so it will be more convenient for us…when what they really need is for us to get on our knees with them (even though it HURTS these days, right?!) and crawl around the house, pull stuff out of drawers and bang blocks together.

Discover life on Analie’s terms.  Not mine.

And isn’t that why I chose to become a mommy?  To do life with my baby?  Even when it hurts?  Or annoys me?  Or wears me down?

Maybe this stems from the increasing panic I am feeling about losing my “baby” as she grows up.  But Analie’s earliest picture of Jesus is going to be what she sees in Joey and I.  And one of my biggest prayers these days is that what she absorbs about Him isn’t that she has to fit into the predetermined behavior box we’ve made for her based on the behavior books we’ve read by well-intentioned Christian authors, or just what makes our lives more convenient.

I want the moments to matter.  The late nights and early mornings aren’t forever.  And I know that someday, when I look back on the early years of Analie’s life, I don’t want to regret my lazy parenting choices.

(AND OH MY GOSH, doesn’t the Internet make it so easy to be a lazy mommy?  Does for me!)

I hope nobody reading this feels judged.  That’s totally not my intention.  Because I am at least 60% less awesome at being a mom than I think I am.

But I’m Analie’s mama.

And I’m the only one she’ll ever have.

I want to make it count.

Jan23

One Perk About Having A Late Crawling Baby

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One Perk About Having A Late Crawling Baby

Analie is, like, the least advanced baby when it comes to movement.  She’s all, Yeah, I know about that cool toy you have over there, but WHATEVS MOM, I’M COOL WITH THIS PIECE OF LINT I DUG OUT OF THE CARPET.

Short version, it has been difficult to entice her to crawl.

Finally, finally, FINALLY, the Wednesday before Christmas, girlfriend started crawling.  (And it’s good that she did, too, because I’m pretty sure our pediatrician was about two weeks away from firing me as a mother.)  Ana’s crawling progress has been slow but steady, but over the last week she’s really gotten if figured out.  More often than not I’ll turn around to make sure she’s still in the same room as me and catch the wobbly backside of my child as she haphazardly scootches herself along the wood floor.

It’s so hilarious.

Last week, Analie discovered Angus’s food bowl.

Several times on Wednesday I told her no and distracted her with one of my mixing bowls.  (Because she loves to alternately stir and whack Angus with the spatula.  Surprisingly he thinks this game is fun too.)

The next day as I was loading the dishwasher and she and Angus were playing on the kitchen floor, she suddenly took off for his food bowl.

I busted out my first Mama Voice and said, “Analie.  NO.”

She was leaning forward with her tiny little hand was outstretched to the food, but when she heard my voice, she JUMPED. (Then I freaked out that I’d been too firm with her.  (Did I yell???!  I need a hidden camera!))

Analie sat up and stared at the food bowl.  She didn’t move.

I continued to freak out in my mind that maybe what I had thought was my firm voice had really been a yell.  (One of my parenting goals is to be just like my mama and speak firmly but with no yelling!  EVER!)  I wished I wasn’t looking at the back of her head, because I wanted to see those little wheels turning; one thing I love about this stage is that Analie can’t keep her emotions off her face.

It seemed like forever, but was probably only about two seconds, before Analie turned around and happily crawled back to the mixing bowl and picked back up where she had left off.

Victory?

The very next day, we repeated the same situation, right down to the mixing bowl and spatula toy on the floor. But this time when I told her no, I used only a fraction of the firmness I had used the day before.  And you know what?  She immediately turned around!  AND SHE HAS IGNORED HIS FOOD BOWL EVER SINCE!

I am totally expecting her to sneak over there again. But for our first NO! crawling boundary, I am so proud of Analie.

And I’m also glad that she waited so long to start crawling.  Because I’m not worn out by saying no yet.  (That’ll probably hit next week, right mamas?)

 

 

Jan4

Girlfriend just said purple. TRUE.

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Girlfriend just said purple. TRUE.

After lunch we were sitting on the floor in the dining room coloring Ana’s picture purple.  I bought her some chubby washable crayons, and it’s a good thing, too, because let’s just say that not all of today’s coloring was done on the paper.  And the crayon just wiped right off! (Crayola has come a long way since when The Kid was three and colored all over the wall in the hallway when Sister and The Brother locked him out of the playroom because he was being annoying.  And boy howdy, he sure gave them the What For.)

She still can’t choose purple out of a lineup of crayons, but I think that’s mostly because she just wants all of them at the same time, right now, please and thank you.

About five minutes of coloring later it was clear that Ana didn’t want to color on the paper anymore (key phrase: ON THE PAPER) so I decided to call it and switch to reading a book about colors.

I read that stupid book six times.  SIX.  (Once was backwards and once was on my  head, so if those don’t count as real read throughs then only four.)  That sixth time when I turned to the purple page, Ana screamed and said “BA-BUH!!!”  And then she looked at me like she had just singlehandedly averted Climate Change and wasn’t I super proud of her?

Now that she can SAY purple, perhaps we will be able to select the purple crayon tomorrow?

 

Dec13

The Next CEO Of Starbucks

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The Next CEO Of Starbucks

Analie goes totally postal when she sees us drinking coffee.  She reaches her arms out (and/or starts flapping), sets her jaw, and growls for us to GIVE! HER! THAT! MUG! NOW!  PLEASE.

The past couple of days I’ve given her my coffee mug after I finished it.  And as soon as he gets it, she’s grabbed it with both hands and held it up to her mouth just like she’s seen Mommy do.  It’s hilarious because it covers her entire face. (I totally need to get a photo of this.  I am a failure.)

She started reaching and growling for my coffee mug this morning, and it wasn’t even close to being empty.  So, I thought, I’ll just let her taste what’s in there and nip this little problem in the bud.

(Point of detail: I drink my coffee black.)

I held the mug to her face and she put her tiny hands on either side of it.  We tipped it toward her mouth and she took a little drink of straight up black coffee.

I expected her to grimace and cry.

Instead, she flapped, squealed, and lunged for the mug again.

Plan = Backfired.

Oct24

Splish splash she was takin’ a bath…

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Splish splash she was takin’ a bath…

Who loves bathtime?

ANALIE LOVES BATHTIME!

Everything is better in the water.

And the more she splashes in her eyes and up her nose, the better.

No matter how lousy our afternoon has been due to teething or whatever, the minute she hears the tub running it’s a new attitude!

The more agile Analie gets (which, admittedly, still isn’t very agile) the more eventful bath time is becoming.

 

Tiny little girls having their daily bath are the cutest, sweetest thing ever.

Mine steals my heart every single time with her dripping eyelashes and shriekey giggle.

 

And then she SPLASHES ALL OVER IT!!!!!!!!

Oct17

Leave those leaves!

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Leave those leaves!

Mondays are the best day of the week.  Today is no exception.  Because we had a lazy start, Ana’s still in her PJs, and we’re grilling a whole chicken for dinner tonight.  We have no idea what we’re doing, so naturally we invited some (brave) friends over to join us.

Before we could have people over, though, Joey had to deal with the leaves that piled up (HAH! I MADE A FUNNY!) while we were on vacation.

They were everywhere.  And the sad part?  Only about 5 of our 30 trees have dropped their leaves. So there’s way more where this came from.

Analie thought the leaf piles were awe-some.  What she did NOT think was awesome was that she was outside and Daddy was across the yard, leaf blowing the driveway, and he was not coming over to her!

JERK!

So she sat in the pile of leaves with her tiny little arm outstretched and yelled “DADADADADADADADADA” for like ten minutes straight trying to get his attention.

I couldn’t even get her to look at me.

I believe we have established she knows “dada”.

After awhile she moved past DADADADADAAAA! and started digging herself out of the pile I had constructed around her.  That was fun.  And funny for me, because every few minutes she’d get a leaf on her arm and then throw her arms up in the air, totally shocked and stymied as to how to get the leaf off nownownownow.Like, MOM IT’S TOUCHING ME, PLEASE ADVISE.