The English Lesson

We have seriously dumbed down our speech around here. I know you're not supposed to use baby talk when interacting with your baby, and you should explain everything just as you would want it explained to you when talking to a toddler. We've never done it before, but this time around with Claire, we have really dropped the ball on vocabulary expansion. We use sentences like:

Mommy do it.
Mommy hold it
Daddy take it
No touch!

She uses the same types of sentences to communicate with us. So we're all on the same level. Tim and I talk to each other like this when the kids aren't even around. Caveman speak, or cavebaby speak... it's very efficient. And completely unnecessary for a child who will frequently take the child safety locks off the cabinet doors, dig around for what she needs in the cabinet, and then put the safety locks back on...

Score: Wall-3, Katie-0

This was a bad week for Katie's head. She slammed into 3 different walls and got 3 head injuries. I am a pretty calm person, I don't get rattled too easily, but the first time Katie slammed into the wall at my parents house, my mother gasped so loud she nearly sucked in all the air from the room, which contributed to Katie's panic. We held her down with an ice pack for so long, that the goose egg didn't get very large, and the bruise is already fading to a lovely yellowish gray. Thank goodness too, because our big family trip is coming up soon, and nothing would look worse in our family pictures than a huge purple lump on her forehead.

The next head injury was right under her eye. Again, forced ice pack, lots of screaming, and the bruise and swelling was pretty minor considering the force with which she she hit the wall.

The last incident was much worse, at least for me because there was a lot of blood involved. And we were at a friend's house... what could be worse than bleeding all over your friend's house? Katie suddenly was calling my name and stumbling toward me down the hall. None of the other kids could really tell us what happened, just that she must have tripped and fell into a corner. As she got closer to me, I could tell something was wrong, one half of her head was red. Like a horror movie. It started dripping down onto her shoulder, that's when she noticed it and started shrieking. I couldn't even see where the cut was, her hair was all matted and sticky with blood. We laid her up on the kitchen counter and used the hose from the sink to rinse the blood out. Eventually I found the source, and it was a pretty small cut, less than half an inch, but apparently head injuries come with massive amounts of blood. My friend assured me that her kids had all had much worse, deeper cuts than this on their heads and were turned away from the ER without stitches or staples. An hour on the couch auietly resting and watching tv, Katie was cured. What a rough week for her head... I wonder how many brain cells died during those ordeals...

Random Tidbits

1. Add these to the list of keys that have been broken off my keyboard: control, alt, d,z,x,c,b and esc. So now I have to guess where the z and x are because I never really knew. Thank goodness I hardly ever have to use them. Claire brought them all over to me announcing, "I broke it!" Like that was her goal for the day. She was so proud. Last week it was my space bar. Luckily it kinda snapped back on and works almostallthetime.

2. Our washer and dryer are stacked, and up on the top of the dryer is where I store a bunch of lunch boxes, coolers and insulated bags. Why do we have 13 of these things? 3 I can see, one for each kid. Oddly enough, not one of them is big enough to store all the drinks and snacks we need when we have a day trip planned so we end up using one of the bigger coolers from the garage anyway. Every time I do a load of laundry, and that would be at least once a day, no fewer than 4 of them tumble right off the top of the dryer. Today I am going to find them a new home.

3. I discovered that Tim has an emergency golf shirt in his trunk with his clubs. As in, "Honey, I had a golfing emergency today, I'll be home late, the guys wanted to catch a quick 18 holes..." hmmm, sounds a little like premeditation to me.

4. Katie made a "Do Not Disturb" sign for her bedroom door. She told me that when she takes it down I am allowed to go in there and clean it... well, how do you like that? Hmmph.

5. For 2 days in a row I have raced into our room as an afterthought and put a diaper on Claire while she napped. She is sooo into her big girl panties now- the ones that have Minnie Mouse on them- that she refuses to wear a diaper. I tend to forget during the day how close we are to soggy carpets and puddles. Do you know how hard it is to put a diaper on a baby all balled up in the fetal position? And I live in fear that she will wake up and her hour long nap will be even shorter.

6. I recently found out that there is, allowable by FDA standards, up to 6 rat hairs ground up in each jar of peanut butter. Needless to say, this has caused me some distress as peanut butter is a major staple of our diet. I can't bring myself to buy it, and the kids are getting restless- they eat a pb&j sandwich every day for lunch. I should just get past it- the way I made concessions to eating chocolate even after finding out about how many insects are allowable per ounce. This rat thing is just different to me I guess. But if you put them both together, my obsession with Reese Peanut Butter Cups is cured!

7. Claire, "Clue" as she calls herself, or rather, "Baby Clue" finally has allowed me to put her hair in piggytails! She is sooooo cute!!

The Impulse Purchase

There was no way we could leave the store without this...

She was just waaaaay too happy. And I'm a sucker for this kid. And I foolishly allowed the delusion to build in my mind that this might be just the thing that gives her incentive to sleep in her own big girl bed... hmmm. We'll see about that.

Puppy, Puppy, I love you!!!

Boppy-Boopy-Boo

We watched Cinderella. Claire was in awe. After the movie she had her new shiny wand and was dancing around in circles pointing it at each of us singing, "Boppy- Boopy- Boo!!"

Ammo and Too-kie

It was with much nostalgia and bittersweet emotion that I celebrated my baby girl's birthday. We took her to Sesame Place. She was totally starstruck and loved seeing all her favorite characters in the parade and shows. She loved the rides and enjoyed the wading pools and water attractions. Ryan insisted on bringing his wallet so she could pick out something and he could buy it for her, how that melted my heart for her to have such a loving big brother.

The pudgy baby is slowly disappearing from her face, but the sweet spunky toddler that is taking over is one of my favorite things.... well, it would be in the top 3 at least...

In the morning when she woke up we were singing Happy Birthday to her and talking about how she was born, and when Katie woke up and came in to join us, Claire announced, "Happy Birthday Katie!" When we explained that it's only Claire's birthday, her little face lit up and she seemed to understand this day was just going to be all about her. She got a Too-kie monster doll for her birthday, and carried it around snuggling it all day. A trip to the bookstore to buy "Goodnight Gorilla" a favorite book that we've had on renewal from the library for about a year, dinner out and a yummy Cookie Monster cake rounded out this exciting birthday. It's all about the little things, she's so happy and easy to please.

Claire with all her little friends!

Pool Time

Well, I survived my first trip with the kids to the pool for the season. As suspected, Claire was in heaven splashing around in the water. She was squealing and clapping as she ran through the fountains and kept wanting to wade deeper and deeper into the pool, chasing after the big kids. Of course she doesn't realize they are 2 feet taller than she is and can walk around the entire pool without the water ever being above their heads. So I got to get in with her, lucky me! The pool temperature is usually starting to be just right for me around Labor day when it's closing.... I was dreading the freezing temps of early June, but Claire was just so excited, how could I not be excited too?! No pictures of this event... it was crazy enough trying to keep track of this fearless baby without worrying about dropping a camera into the pool.

The only problem came when it was time to go home. She just kept yelling over and over, "NO HOME!!"