Little Things

Cream Cheese Fiasco update

The rash is worse and her sleep is remaining a disaster. Wake-ups occurred every hour overnight, she was up for the day too early, and getting her to finally nap took hours. Thankfully, she accepted a second nap this evening and enjoyed Daddy-time. Bracing self for bedtime this evening, and feeling deep remorse for foolishly testing dairy on her--- no way was 6 weeks long enough, and I think I knew better. I wonder what is going on inside of her that dairy affects sleep this way. She doesn't appear to be uncomfortable, she's just--- wired. Like she's caffeinated.

She's saying "thank you" ("kang-goo") and "yup" (clear as day). She's consistently signing "all done"; but would still rather face-plant, whine, and pull at my shirt for "milk". That one's taking awhile!

Cream Cheese Fail

We experimented with adding a little dairy back into Anna's diet to see how her body responds (she has been without it for 6+ weeks due to a mild casein sensitivity). Yesterday, I gave her a small section of my bagel with a paper thin layer of cream cheese. The day continued as normal, but today we encountered the revolt. Sleep evaded her, she acted tormented by the mere suggestion of napping. When a nap did come, it wasn't long enough to be restful. She woke up crabby, clingy, and volatile. Later in the day we attempted a second nap, and that one plain didn't happen. By dinner time she sported the telltale rash over her bum. She conked out tonight from pure exhaustion, but is waking every hour, and sleeping restlessly in between her frequent wakings.

Oh we've been here before. Happily back to a dairy-free existence she goes.

Stashing

I finding odd things in odd places lately. Yesterday there were dice, puzzles pieces, and a wooden ball in one of my large kitchen pitchers. Today, it's Brussel sprouts and laundered wipes in our end table drawer, and grapes in our diaper tote.

Merry Christmas, A!

$35 + shipping, circa 1970, complete set!

The seller we bought it from on Etsy also has two sets of Sesame Street Little People, which includes Gordon and Susan (African-American characters), Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie. I'm really hoping he can give me a reduced price for these. They'd be great stocking stuffers :)

Our Weekend

This last weekend was full and lovely. To start, Stephen enjoy a conventional weekend off for once. These are rare occurrences, and perfect opportunities to catch up with our loved ones.

Friday night, our nephew L and his girlfriend C were in town from Iowa for a concert. They had dinner with Stephen while I took care of Anna's bedtime. L and C were planning on sleeping over after their concert, but the threat of bad weather convinced them it was best to make a late night drive home. I can imagine it was a very sleepy and long drive, but it is better than a drive in a Midwest winter storm.

Saturday morning, the three of us lounged around the house and enjoyed each other's company. No housework, no bills, no laundry, no commitments-- nothing but us. The snow started falling around 11 AM. Awesomeness. 

 

Shortly after noon, Mom showed up from KC. Her drive was rainy until she she was merely a couple miles from our house. She very literally blinked, and the landscape transformed from brown and soggy to white and wintry. An inch of snow was already on the ground. Big wet snowflakes were dropping from the sky. She texted me at that moment to tell me "WOW!!"... meanwhile, it had been snowing at our place for well over an hour. I guess the cold front decided to plant its butt over our apartment and save moving eastward for later that afternoon. Just unreal :)

The B's join us and my mom for a late Mexican lunch. We are a crazy bunch with our two little movers, as usual!

 Inspired by our first significant snowfall of the year, I picked up snowpants and boots for Anna at a local children's thrift store, hurried home, and started the dressing process.

She was a much better sport about it than Randy

She didn't mind the snow, really, but she spent the five minutes outside very quiet and still. Observing.

We tasted the snow. cold. crisp. crunchy.

We felt the snowflakes fall on our faces and on our hands. icy kisses :)

and warm kisses

mommy can't be the photographer for too long :-)

Anna was exhilarated and happy upon coming inside after her first tactile experience with wintry weather. I was reminded of my own childhood, and how it felt to come inside after playing hard in the snow--- the sweaty clammy chilled skin, rosy cheeks, and welcome comfiness of warm dry clothes that allowed free movement. We made chili that night, put the babe to bed, and tried to enjoy a movie (The Tree of Life). We really tried. Several times. It was a no go. We watched The Lazarus Project instead. It was the perfect mixture of intensity and corniness to satisfy us. 

The next morning, Mom spent time with Anna so Stephen and I could go out on a "date" (the second since she was born). Us wild things, we had breakfast at Hy Vee (oooh, the usually illicit biscuits and gravy!) then shopped for candles, whoo-hoo! We really did enjoy and appreciate the alone time out, though we kept thinking how weird it was that we didn't have Anna with us. 

When Mom headed home to KC at lunchtime, we did too! My grandma turned 78 years old on the first, and our whole family was getting together for supper at a super yummy Chinese buffet. We've never been able to make these special gatherings with living four hours away and Stephen's unpredictable work schedule- but the stars aligned this weekend :)

We arrived in KC a few hours before the dinner started, so we visited our long-time friends L and K. Ah, every time we see them, the desire to move back to KC intensifies. We love L and K (and their furbabies!!). 

The dinner was fabulous. My grandma was floored to see we were there, I loved her reaction. It made the drive so worth it. Anna loved seeing all of her family, and with time accepted the stream of invitations to be held.  She was a trooper, and so was a my family for being patient and respectful of her. It is challenging to strike that steady balance between respecting the boundaries of your child (who cannot speak for herself yet), and acknowledging the very well-intended desires of family members to nurture their relationships with her. Helping Anna successfully manage her emotions, ensuring her autonomy is respected, and encouraging opportunities for her to connect with loved ones are all very important to us. To keep the overstimulation at bay at a gathering like this was extremely difficult, if not impossible. But Anna did great and thoroughly enjoyed the kisses and hugs and tickles and laughter and FOOD, and most everyone got to have some time with her. I really wish we had pictures, it was such an enjoyable evening seeing everyone and watching the love between them and Anna.

Once on the road, she felt compelled to release a series of hollers and whoops and twitches to expend all of that built up excitement. Singing her some Smashing Pumpkins and Dixie Chicks sent her to sleep soundly until we arrived in Nebraska. :-) Bedtime eventually came at 1:30. Even though we slept an extra couple hours this morning, she insisted on going back to bed a couple hours later. And she's STILL asleep. :-)

Dear God help us, we are getting out the fingerpaint for the first time...

Naptime Rocker Musings

The boy is down for an early nap, and the girl is winding down for hers by sorting toys into the holes of her whack 'em set. With the lights off, the shades drawn, paci in mouth, and our white noise fans going she'll be ready soon. I was getting ready to hop out of my rocker to get our pot roast going for tonight (hanging with he B's), but here comes A toddling toward me dragging "Eco People on the Go". She stopped at the couch to read it to herself, but surely she'll inch her way toward me to hear my rendition of the book. It's actually one I don't mind reading since it goes fast and is upbeat, talking about the various ways people get around. It has flaps for the kids to open too, always a hit! But it takes an odd tree-hugger turn. We go from talking about biking, hiking, and strolling, to "plant a tree, or two, or three- one for you, one for me". I'm all for planting trees, this world needs more of them, but shouldn't that topic get a book of its own? It's like the author tried to jam pack as much "green" as she could into one children's book. And "ECO people on the go"? Why not just "People on the go"? I wasn't aware that only ecologically-aware people roll, stroll, bike, hike, and share a ride.

The rest of the tree trimming pics

 As I was tweaking the settings on our camera for our family picture, it caught some seriously heart-melting moments.

 One of many takes

 That evening, Anna took her time winding down before coming to me for her night-night milk. 

I <3 these moments

 Knittel Christmas Tree 2011

Putting beads *back* on the tree is serious business.

We are very fortunate that cup of coffee A dipped her hand in and spilled wasn't actually HOT. My reaction was somewhere between horror at what could've been, and ...pride? I mean, the girl repeatedly stuck her hand in the mess and gave it licks. She likes coffee.

ETA: the coffee horror was completely utterly outdone just now. Seconds after she was stripped for her bath the girl peed (ho hum, that's a toddler for you). Then she stomped in it. Then she knelt down to *lick* it with my panicking "NO!" just barely interfering. Ohhhh Ann...

Christmas Tree Trimming 2011- Part 1

prancing around with her snackie in hand (her first taste of summer sausage)

We bought a new tree this year. It is a foot taller than our last tree. When it came time to attach the star, I asked how we're going to do it. We then proceeded to stare blankly at each other. Hmmm. We eventually decided it was appropriate to find a sturdy object on which to boost Stephen's height. Even after the added foot to his height, it was a difficult task to place the star.

See? Yeah. Hopefully the little one will pick up star-placing skills from somewhere else, because she isn't getting them here.

... meanwhile, she finds the beads

Oh, the beads! How awesome is life.

This girl's faces crack me up!

    

... more pics to come of our tree-trimming adventure tomorrow. I'm beat!