Home-Made Picture Frame

Claire asks to do crafts now every day ... bascially right after breakfast, which is fine because it keeps her busy, and I feel it is educational. Here was a simple craft. I just got a picture frame in the craft section with some glittery stickers which they sell in boxes of like 50. They are raised foam. She was able to peel the paper off the back of the stickers and put them on herself. The only one I helped with was the word "Princess" so it wouldn't be hard to read. I put the glue in various dots around and she added the jewels and eyes herself. I love the frog with different colored eyes. :)

Sure, Dr. OB

Sure, Dr. OB, we just nurse for naps...or whenever my dear daughter wants to at home. ;) They are "HER nummies" after all!

Christmas is Over :(

I love LOVE LOVE Christmas. So much. I'm sad when it's over every year. "It's a magical time of year. " But it's not over until Jan. 6th, you know! Just this past Sunday, I enjoyed going to church and still seeing our church fully decorated (unlike the stores!) and continuing to sing Christmas hymns or Christmas carols. I guess a lot of Christmas is sooo commercialized now that the stores want to pull everything the day after Christmas and definitely undecorate by about New Years. BUT CHRISTMAS ISN'T OVER YET! Well, at least not according to the real Christmas story which wasn't over until this past Wednesday, which was Epiphany or Three Kings Day...you know, the day that the Wise Men FINALLY GOT TO SEE JESUS! Read more about this holiday here. Enjoy some "artsy" photos of our mantel area of our Christmas decorations. I may post more if I get around to it...

Ornament favor from my brother's wedding. Red ornament with "KRISTIN AND DAVID" and their date on the ribbon...
German smoking man who can burn incense and "smoke" his pipe

Our mantel the way I decorated it this year:

I LOVE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!

SOOO...Only now that it's a few days PAST Epiphany will I think about starting to undecorate. Don't worry...I'll have it down before too long! Time for Valentines stuff!

My New BFF

I recently found my new BFF. Sock Locks. They were at the grocery store by the laundry soap. Has anyone else every used these things? They rock. They are perfect for tiny socks...esp. this time of year! When we take socks off, one of these go on and then the stay matched in the dirty hamper! They stay on in the washer, dryer, and then back in the big mess of socks until the next time we wear that pair. Saves time from matching them and getting little socks lost in the wash. They punch apart from what you see in the package here. I totally should've bought more, but I wasn't sure how I'd like them. I remember using them when I was little, but had forgotten about them. I should get paid by this company now for plugging their product. :)

I love them. I love them. I love them. No more time spent matching little socks.

Big Girl Bed

Claire pretending to sleep in her new "big girl bed." We just stole a twin mattress from our guest room. Thanks, guest room. Sorry guests! :)
We just plopped it on the floor by our bed. And by "we" I mean...I watched Josh carry it all by himself. ;)

And she has slept on this bed for approximately....ready...0 minutes...she insists on still being in our bed...and I am far, far too lazy to care. :) She says her princess bed is too dark. She got the bedding stuff for Christmas from us. Kind of a rip-off gift since I would've probably ordered it anyways! :) After another week or so of it being in there, I'm going to try laying on it with her to see if she'll fall asleep in it. I hate the idea of transferring her because I'm afraid I'll wake her up and have to lay down with her again until she falls asleep.

Someone on Facebook recently asked "why" I still laid down with my almost 2.5 year old. But my first thought was "WHY NOT?!" I mean, I wouldn't expect her to spend her day "alone" in any way...eating, bathing, or playing unsupervised...and I definitely don't like the idea of her "sleeping" unsupervised. We live in a safe neighborhood and all, but it's just the whole idea of her being alone that bothers me...and I think rightly so at this age. I think nature meant it to be this way. Why are freshmen roomed together in college? Husbands and wives bedshare, but a tiny little person is expected in our culture to sleep alone for what is as much time of the 24 hour clock as they are awake?

Anyways, I'm not trying to get her transitioned anytime soon. I'm thinking...huge regression anyways...when baby boy is born. But now she has the "option" of sleeping in her own space if she wants to.

Not a coloring book!

I had to correct one of our books. I hate it when the book is teaching "letters" and they are not "correct" per the way hand-written letters are taught. So...I had to correct these. Plus, I added in the lower-case letters for comparison.

This is actually a really nice book and we can work on colors too. Glama Lynn and Grandpa Jason sent it for Christmas last year.

Each letter has its own little book-like picture that is a pop-up. I remember totally digging pop-up books as a kid, too.

Here's the book, just have your "red pen" ready if you're going to do more than just enjoy the pictures.

Oh...and the funny part...I was fixing the book to my liking at the table while Claire was otherwise occupied. Ha. A toddler being otherwise occupied is good for...oh, 45 seconds really, at the most. So Claire saw me "drawing" in the book and scolded me. She goes "MOMMY! That book NOT A COLORING BOOK! NO DRAW IN THAT!" I explained what I was doing, but I hope I didn't confuse her...

TEACHING FAIL!

We have these 2 foam alphabet puzzles. I actually picked up the Christmas tree one on sale for 49 cents! What a deal. I was working with Claire on identifying her letters and which ones are big/capital vs. little/lower case. It was pretty confusing for her because the lower case/"little" letters are actually physically bigger than the "big"/capital letters as seen in the picture below. Teaching fail! We do have a nice ABC wooden puzzle, but alas, the foam lower case letters are also still bigger than the wooden one. It's no wonder kiddies have a tough time identifying their lower case letters! ALL THE FREAKING TOYS AND BOOKS ARE GEARED TOWARD UPPERCASE! UGH! This is frustrating. WHY? Because when kids learn to read the only letters that are capital are the first words of sentences and proper nouns. So I should probably get on some teaching sites or head to a teaching store and look for some lower case letter stuff.

26 weeks!

I am 26 weeks pregnant today!!! YAY! And I haven't mentioned, but I am gonna be an Auntie for the first time in July!!! YAY! My sister Holly is preggers! I have added a ticker above with her EDD info, so check it out in my header.

I met with Dr. L today who is the guy who delivered Claire and despite the way things turned out with her birth, he is my "favorite" OB in the practice of four. The least of the evils. :)

I go EVERY TWO WEEKS NOW! AHHHHHH!!! That means the end is quickly coming near and at my next appointment, I do my glucose screen, which should be fine since it was fine with Claire. It's not a fasting test, although he said not to have a coke and donut for breakfast before I come. (YUCK!)

Apparently, at my last appointment, Dr. N noted something on my chart about me nursing as Dr. L asked about it...but guess what...he actually asked me how often and how long. See. Men are smarter than women. ;) Sometimes...but I just think he has more experience than the other OB who is new to the practice. I said she basically only nurses before nap and bed which is true like today. We laid down for about 20 minutes to "nap" but she didn't fall asleep so we got up...and then she was bathed and asleep by 7:30 tonight. Glorious!!!

I don't even care which OB is on-call...there are 4 so it's like a 25% chance of having the "one I want"...but really there is just one I don't want, who is Dr. S because he's more likely to drape and cut episiotomies. I'll have my doula on him though if that's who we end up with. Actually, I'd like to labor in the car until the baby is like, um, crowning. Hmm. I wonder if you actually deliver your baby in the car, do you still get charged for the labor/delivery fee, or can you just go home!?!

Funny side story...Claire was using the bath crayons tonight, and I had to do a double take. She had colored a big yellow patch on the bottom of the tub while I was reading a magazine. I glanced over and thought she had peed in there because it was super yellow. LOL! Luckily it was just the crayon though! Bath crayons rock. The only place I've found them is at Babies R Us; they are the ones by Crayola.

Learning to Cut

I've been trying to teach Claire how to cut with scissors for about a month but it's taking some time. She just now can do the open/shut motion with them. I guess I should've started closer to 2 because according to this she should already be cutting through paper, not just snipping at it. I used to watch Jon and Kate before they got divorced. I remember on there that she was having issues teaching the kids to cut and had waited too long to intro scissors. Our neighbor Christopher just turned 2 in November and can cut up paper like a madman! I watched him yesterday and we did some crafts. He was cutting up a storm!!!

One thing that Claire has really gotten good at in the past month since I've really started doing crafts with her is squeezing the glue out of the bottle, which is another good fine-motor skill. She finally learned because I got some glitter-glue paint thingys that were each in their own tiny little bottle so she figured out the hang of squeezing and dragging out the glue from the tiny bottles and now can do the big one. I'm planning on trying to make some Valentines with her for family. :) Hopefully they don't just end up in the trash on the other end though...I mean...crafts and crap are awfully close.

BANGS! After

Well here is an after shot of behind, but it looks pretty messy since she likes to put blanket over her head all the time to pretend she is a princess. And yes, she is wearing a purple fleece sweatshirt and a dress jumper that sort of clashes. I unfortunately didn't capture the snowflake pants which also completely clash, but hey...SHE CAN DRESS HERSELF!!! And she is very adamant about doing so. So on days when we DON'T leave the house...I don't care what she wears, although she is on a huge dress kick since princesses wear dresses.
AND! Here are her bangs. Nevermind the half-eaten orange hanging out of her mouth...this was the best shot I got since she doesn't like to hold still ;) Considering she was still pretty much bald last year at this point, I'm just happy she has any hair at all, but I'm not looking forward to combing it out. She hates it getting combed, and it being so fine doesn't help.

Cinderella BANGS! before.

Claire got another little hair cut over our Christmas stay at my parents house. See how the sides and area around the ears gets really long faster than the rest? So my mom did maybe five or six mini-snips around her ears and trimmed her some tiny bangs. I mentioned something to my mom about cutting Claire's hair and my mom said we should get her bangs out of her eyes. It's kind of hilarious because she had about 2 tiny strands that were like *maybe* on her eyebrows, but I love bangs on little girls and since her Cinderella doll has bangs, she wanted bangs too...so bangs she shall have. So here is the before:
And we also trimmed (and by we I mean my mom trimmed while I held Claire) the back area just a tiny bit. You can't really even tell, but it evened it up just a little. I think it actually looks fuller since it doesn't get all thin towards the ends like baby hairs tend to do.

SO for the AFTER PICTURES you'll have to wait till tomorrow. My camera is downstairs and I don't feel like getting it tonight ;) Me.lazy=true.

Scared of Santa

Apparently kids either love or hate Santa. Can you guys which one Claire was?

Yeah, she was screaming and would not let go of me to save her life. So I thought I could sit next to him and get a shot. This is one of the better ones. :) I'm not overly concerned. I think it's pretty funny actually. I might be more concerned if she willingly sits on the laps of strange smiling men...

Swimming in Chicago

We stayed the night in Chicago the day after Christmas and enjoyed the pool at the hotel. I got to try out my maternity/nursing swim suit! Ack! I *HATE* suits that don't have racerbacks. It must be my years from HS swimming.
Claire had an absolute blast of course swimming with everyone.

I have more pictures but they are all blurry or the lens from the camera is foggy from being in the freezing cold car so I think this is the best shot.

Breastfeeding Quote

I understand that issues arise and it's not always a "choice" but here is an interesting quote about breastfeeding:

People need to understand that when they're deciding between breastmilk and
formula, they're not deciding between Coke and Pepsi.... They're choosing
between a live, pure substance and a dead substance made with the cheapest oils
available. ~Chele Marmet

Making Christmas Cookies with Oma

Group Photos Xmas 2009

BabyWise Warnings

Wow. BabyWise has been shown to be bad before, and I can't stress this enough: YOU CANNOT SCHEDULE A BREASTFED BABY. WELL...you can, but it will lead to problems and probably early weaning, before a year. Check out this INSANE article about parents actually buying this crap: http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19990301&slug=2946922 I just can't believe anybody would actually follow ANY ADVICE that recommends scheduled feedings or expects a baby to sleep thought the night before 3 months. DO THEY WANT THEIR BABIES TO BECOME DETACHED?

WHAT THE HECK? Or a better question is...why are these parents so intent on buying into this crap that they need to "teach their baby highchair manners." INSANE! Babies drop stuff off of highchairs because they are learning about gravity, not because they are sinners. Wow. That's all I can say after reading that article and the crazy stuff it suggests. WOW WOW WOW! Some people are just that stupid to buy into sleep-training and scheduled feedings...who would let their baby cry for 3 hours!!! That is just child abuse. How can one detach themselves so much from loving their baby?

Size What?

Claire trying to pet Daisy, but Daisy runs away!
Claire telling Daisy all about her Princesses. We don't need a dog. We can just go visit my parents. It makes the dog thing that much more fun for her. Have I mentioned that I hate dogs? Well I do. They are dirty, stinky, and smelly. They track in mud, dirt, etc. and leave hair everywhere. Ugh.

Well here is Claire telling Daisy about her Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella.

And here is Claire trying to walk in some shoes that she stole from by the back door at my parents house. They are either a size 13 or 15 depending on whose they are. It's kind of funny because they are like the length of her entire leg.

She had to shuffle in them. It was pretty hilarious watching her!