The InDeeds of Life

Fun at the Grandparents

2012-02-13T09:00:00.000-05:00

Mon Amour is off on another grand work-adventure. Leaving Papillon and myself to conjure up some fun adventures of our own. This past week, those adventures included a bit of an extended stay at my parents. Papillon always gets spoiled with fun things at my parents, and this trip was no exception.

We had to visit the bakery to get some pictures of Papillon with some special Valentine's Gift items - she is unofficially the bakery's mascot of sorts. She has a bit of a fan club of bakery customers, but more on that later. First, a cute photo of Papillon sitting on top of a flour tub, holding a "Bread Kiss" in her lap and some cinnamon roll in her hand. Delicious and adorable.

...it was a short lived photo shoot. Papillon found sitting on the flour bin to be a bit scary.

After the photo shoot, we checked out the office, and did a little calculating. Papillon, it seems, takes after her Grandpa when it comes to his love of numbers. She was having a blast with the calculator.

After a full morning's work at the bakery (45 minutes or so equates to a full work day when you are 19 months old), it was time to head home for a little book reading with Grandpa.

See this nifty rocking horse?

It was a gift for Papillon (well, for my parents and their grandchildren...so far that is just Papillon, so for now it is mostly hers), from a customer at the bakery. He makes these horses as a hobby, and, being a regular customer, knows my parents and had met Papillon once. He decided that she must have a rocking horse, and so he made her one. And she loves it! Thanks, Bakery-Customer!

When visiting at Nana and Grandpa's house, it is sometimes difficult for anyone but Grandpa to get time with Papillon. Even skyping with Mon Amour can take a back seat to the random fun that Grandpa conjures up. So, in order to convince Papillon to spread the love, we sometimes instruct Grandpa to nap (which he needs to do anyway, seeing as his work day often starts before 2am), so the rest of us can get some Papillon-time.

On one such napping occasion, Papillon, Nana and myself went for a walk.

And Nana taught Papillon the joys of throwing small rocks into the water to make them splash. It was grand fun!

Papillon also enjoys hanging out with my parents dog, Lilly. Who is very old, and whose tolerance for Papillon may be more inspired by arthritis-induced-immobility rather than patience. Either way its pretty sweet. Papillon gives her lots of pets and hugs and insists on feeding her treats. At one point Papillon brought a toy over and laid down on the floor next to her so that they could play together.

Papillon's least favorite parts of visiting Nana and Grandpa's house are those times when everyone fun (Grandpa, Nana, Aunt Mimi) is at work, and its just me and her trying to get some things done. Note the sadness:

She likes me just fine. But when we are at Grandpa and Nana her expectations for fun increase exponentially and hanging out with mom just doesn't cut it.

Not the Zoo...but just as free!

2012-02-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

Thanks to our zoo membership (have I mentioned how much I love our membership already?) this past week we were able to visit the Railroad Museum with some friends for free!

They have tons of full size trains from every era, but the kids favorite train was the toy one like the kind that you can find at the mall. You know the ones: put a quarter in and it rocks back and forth and such? Yup, that one was a hit!

The museum is all in this large roundhouse, so there is lots of space to just roam around. Space which the three walking kiddos in our party definitely took advantage of. Here is Papillon having fun holding hands with one friend.

And the Dynamic Trio, holding hands and pushing strollers and all!

This engine was playing some rather loud train-noises which I thought Papillon would not like. Turns out she was very intrigued, and now officially makes train noises. She even has a special train-hand-motion to go with them.

We rode the small merry go round that was there. It was Papillon's first experience with a merry go round and I thought the smallness of this particular one would be a good way to start. But, as physics would have it, the smaller the circle on a merry go round, the more you feel the movement and the easier it is to get dizzy. Yikes - that was quite a ride! I was glad I just had the one kiddo to hold on to...

We ended our tour in the kids zone which is full of every kind of train related toy you can imagine. Toy train tracks, train legos, train puzzles, train word games, train books, etc. This was a lot of fun, even for the non-walkers in the group.

Papillon has been making train noises ever since our visit...its precious!

Just Cute

2012-02-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

There is nothing particularly special to say about these pictures. Mon Amour just randomly took a few one night when Papillon was being goofy and playing on the floor.

There is something about them though - perhaps the way her hair is pulled back making her look like she has less of it, or perhaps they way she is just chilling on the floor like she would do before she was mobile -

but for some reason, they really remind me of pictures of younger-Papillon. I saw them and was like "whoa - she looks exactly like she did when she was a baby". Obviously she is still that baby, but you forget sometimes, or lose track I guess. And on this occasion I took a look at my toddler and got nostalgic about my baby. 9 Months is my best guess for what they remind me of.

Like I said, nothing earth shattering to report. But, its crazy to think that one day I will look at my elementary school-er and get nostalgic about my toddler. Or crazier still, look at my teenager and be nostalgic about...well, a lot!

Failed Zoo Attempt

2012-02-09T20:09:00.000-05:00

When you have a zoo membership, and the weather forecast calls for sunny and 65 in the dead of winter, it would be dumb to not call up your closest zoo-loving friends and plan an spontaneous trip. The conditions being such earlier this month, I gave my mom a call and made some plans! They would come up after dad gone done his early AM baking shift and meet me at the zoo.

Note to self: even the most spontaneous plans should be a little bit planned. We arrived to find ourselves the ONLY ones in the parking lot. Good fortune, I thought optimistically. Nope. Bad timing. Turns out the zoo is only open Fri - Mon during the winter and they don't make exceptions for days that are sunny and nearly 70.

Insert tremendous disappointment.

Followed by very-nearly-as-fun and even-more-spontaneous plans to go to the less formal "zoo" known as the Duck Ponds. Our 2nd use of our zoo membership would have to wait.

Fortunately, ducks are pretty much Papillon's favorite animal, and there are lots more ducks at the ponds than there are at the zoo. So it was an upgrade as far as Papillon was concerned.

The ducks at this pond are very "friendly". They came at us before we had even fully gotten out of the car. They could sense we brought snacks. And they WILL eat it out of your hand...

...as evidenced by this video. Papillon found this to be remarkably entertaining.

After we ran out of duck food, we went on a little walk. With the help of the plastic bag left over from feeding the ducks, we turned it into a variable nature walk. Papillon collected rocks (mostly gravel), sticks (mostly bark) and even a pine cone. She enjoyed dumping them out then putting them back in ad nauseum. It was her adorable way of sneaking in a break on the walk cause her little legs were bushed but she refused to let anyone carry her. Little Miss Independent.

Here are Papillon and Nana exploring a large tree stump.

You know the weather is nice when the spring flowers are blooming before February has really even begun...

The Lollipop Incident

2012-02-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

One, uneventful morning, I was straightening the kitchen and Papillon was entertaining herself here and there. She opened one of the kitchen cabinets and found my secret stash of Tootsie Roll Pops (a particular favorite of mine). Since she has only ever had one lollipop and I have never eaten one of these in front of her, I figured she wouldn't recognize it as food.

For a while, my theory was solid. She pulled a bunch out, lined them up on the ground to count them. "One, eight, nine, eight, nine". It was all good. We tried to work on her colors (she doesn't get the concept of colors yet...everything is "yellow" or occasionally "pink").

Then she tried to unwrap one. Curiosity I figured. "No, thank you, Papillon. We have to keep these wrapped". It worked. Or so I thought. Until she disappeared from the kitchen and was remarkably quiet.

I took a break from dishes to check on her, and this is what I found.

Yup. She knew, or at least discovered what it was. And she loved it.

I let her eat most of it, but then she got close to the tootsie part and I had to take it away. A tantrum ensued. But such is life. It didn't last long. The worst part (as in, only bad part, really, cause this was just a cute little adventure of discover) was that after pulling out and counting all the green and orange ones (my least favorite) the one she decided to open was a red one....my 2nd favorite. Alas. One less red one for me.

Egyptian Pizza

2012-02-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

We recently had an excuse to go out as a family for a little celebratory dinner. Beforehand we did a little exploring of the Square adjacent to the restaurant and found this sign that made us very excited...

...and then taught us a lesson in the importance of including pertinent details in your advertising. We were drawn in by the tempting promise of crepes, but couldn't figure out where to go to get said crepes. The sign was near a floral shop, an empty store front and some stairs leading to a fitness center. No crepes in sight. Note Papillon's distress at the lack of further information about these crepes! (We did find them after much searching, but the idea of a crepe had lost its charm by the time we did, so we shall call this an epic advertising failure. Sorry little crepe stand).

And one more tangent before we get to dinner. As we walked around the square, Papillon started pointing and yelling "Duck! DUCK!" She is generally very enthusiastic and occasionally just says "duck" for no apparent reason. I figured that was the case this time, until I saw what she was pointing at. Yes, friends, my little creative thinker saw this log and recognized that it looked like a duck.

I should show you the little loop she drew herself that she then proclaimed a fish. It truly did look like a very simple fish; you know, like the "Christian Fish". Which is the kind of fish I draw for her, so it made sense that she recognized it when she drew it herself. But I just had to take a moment to be a proud mom and point out the nifty way her brain is working these days!

Anyway, eventually we made it to dinner. A cute little Egyptian Pizza place.

What makes Egyptian Pizza "Egyptian" I don't know. But, I do know, next time I go to a place with Pizza in the name of the restaurant, I will order Pizza. Mon Amour and I both got more traditionally-Egyptian entrees, and they were good. No complaints.

But Papillon's kids pizza was AMAZING. So tasty. It's almost a shame she ate pretty much the whole thing herself. This pizza was 8 ish inches across and she ate all but like 2 pieces of it.

Papillon enjoyed the coloring books and crayons that were provided for her. And we all had a lovely time at dinner.

Pretending It's Spring

2012-02-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

It's February, but if you didn't have a calendar, you wouldn't know it. (at least not for the first couple days). The weather has been amazingly nice. The day of these photos was mid-fifties. Cold compared to the mid-sixties of the day before, but still amazingly nice. Papillon and Marge and I went for a walk. Then came home and played in the front yard for a bit.

Papillon likes to take the keys and "unlock" the car. I couple more tries and I think she really may be able to do it!

There is lots to explore in the front yard, like leaves and rocks and of course, the car. But from time to time she takes a break to just sit. (Note the super fun pigtails!)

Here she is bouncing around the corner to tell me car won't unlock.

Checking the key to see if she had the right one.

These videos are some of my favorite. In the first one she had just discovered the berries from our holly trees and she was amassing a little collecting on the sidewalk. Note how she can count all the way to one :-) She actually usually goes "one, eight, nine", which is an improvement from just "eight, nine". Now if only we could get a "two" to follow that "one"

The best part about this 2nd video is the shrug. Cutest shrug ever.

Also note, later on, how diligently she searches for the keys (don't worry, they weren't actually lost, I could see them the whole time).

Hat and Nesting vis groceries

2012-02-04T10:00:00.000-05:00

Papillon is more opinionated every day. Not in a bad way. She is just figuring out what she likes and what she doesn't like. She is very good at telling me what she wants for breakfast - be it cheerios, a banana, an orange, some yogurt (which she calls applesauce...), etc.

On one morning recently, she found her winter hat and insisted I put it on as soon as she woke up. Then she insisted on keeping it on all morning...

We had some grocery shopping to do, so off we went, winter cap and all!

We got lots of comments about its adorableness. Papillon just took them all very matter-of-fact-ly as though it was just a normal part of her outfit.

Side note about that grocery shopping trip. I haven't been very inspired by grocery shopping of late; so it has become a thing we do of necessity rather than one of my favorite hobbies. Then, suddenly, there was a good sale. Combine that with some hard-core nesting urges, and we went a little overboard in the grocery department.

Thank heavens for a husband who forgives me for occasionally spending an entire months grocery budget in one trip (after I had already spent that months grocery budget...oops!) and thank heavens for the chest freezer we recently acquired on long-term loan from some friends. Said freezer is now mostly full with all kinds of things. From cheese to butter to a whole ham to at least 6 fully-prepped-ready-to-go meals. Yay for nesting via grocery shopping. I feel at least 20 times more prepared for Baby #2s arrival with a freezer and pantry full of food!

Grandpa's Napping Buddy

2012-02-03T13:00:00.000-05:00

I visit my parents with some regularity. And when I do, Papillon insists on playing with Grandpa the whole time we are there. I often feel bad cause we show up a little before lunch, which is right about when dad gets home from his 2am - 11am shift at the bakery and he is bushed. But he wouldn't miss out on time with Papillon, so they play until she goes down for a nap.

On this particular occasion, she was going strong and Grandpa was fading fast. I told him we could take her and she would be sad but she would survive. He said he was good and we needn't come get her unless we heard snores...

About 5 minutes later we heard snores...

And Papillon was still happy as a clam sitting in his lap watching a few cartoons. Her Christmas bib that says "Grandpa's Napping Buddy" is even truer than we thought!

33 Weeks

2012-02-02T20:20:00.001-05:00

My nifty little weekly emails reminded me that today officially marks 33 weeks pregnant, meaning roughly 7 weeks to go before she arrives, and reportedly she weighs about 4 pounds at this point (pineapple sized). I believe it - when she stretches, I feel like I need to stretch with her in order to give her space.

Good news is, last we checked, she had flipped to the appropriate head-down position. Which means that one sore spot where her head and Papillon's knee used to meet is feeling much better. Bad news is that between Papillon's relative heft (a decent 24+ lbs now!) and the Little One's ongoing growth, I have definitely acquired a sore back and a bit of a pregnancy waddle. But, that being the worst of my complaints, I really can't complain at all. It seems pregnancy has decided to be good to me for a 2nd time around.

I look at my precious, bouncy little toddler, and feel my sweet baby stretch inside me and I can't help but be overwhelmed with how blessed we are. Mon Amour and I both realize it, God is truly blessing us in this stage of life. Not just with our little girls, but his job, our church and friends, etc etc.

Anyway, back to strictly baby related things.

Braxton hicks have begun; just occasionally. I realized that last pregnancy I was definitely having Braxton Hicks, but I didn't recognize them so I didn't think I had any. In retrospect, I don't know how I missed them, but what can you do; if you recall, I spent probably a good 8 hours in active labor before recognizing what that was either. So, call me clueless. But I recognize them now - my stomach gets all tight, it doesn't hurt at all, unless Papillon runs into me for a hug while my muscles are still contracted. Its very interesting how much more sensitive a contracted muscle is than a relaxed one.

Recently I have learned what it means when people would say that their lap disappeared while pregnant. In my mind you would have to be gigantic for your lap to actually disappear, but it's officially gone. Papillon can attest to that. She has to readjust herself 3 or 4 times on my lap before she can get comfortable. There is just not enough space for the baby and Papillon to both be comfortable at this point.

I am still roughly on target with my weight gain from Papillon's pregnancy. Averaging a pound per week from the very beginning. At first with this little girl, I felt like I was gaining it all over (including my face, etc) , more so than with Papillon. But now I feel like this little one looks like a delightfully compact little belly. Rounder and lower than Papillon. What do you think? (closest comparison pic I can find is 31 weeks)

We are making progress towards being ready for her. Papillon is slowly but surely transitioning to her big girl room. Naps tend to be a smidgen shorter than normal in the big girl bed, but otherwise, I can't complain. She loves it. Next week we will work on going all night in her big girl room.

My ability to sleep is still decent, though my body pillow is a necessity for sure. And rolling over requires waking up, readjusting pillows and getting totally re-situated. And I have totally embraced sleeping as late as Papillon will let me. Unofficially I had been doing this for some time, though in my mind, I would at least try and get up before she woke up so I could get a jump on the day. Not any more. I season of sleep deprivation is approaching and before it gets here I am embracing the blessing that is a little girl who generally sleeps until sometime between 7:30 - 8.

A couple of friends had babies in the past month and seeing their little ones makes me anxious (in the excited sense) to my own to arrive. I am ready to be nursing again, ready to have a tiny snuggly bundle to hug, even ready to be up all night with her. (not that it won't be exhausting, but thats what comes along with a newborn, and I am ready for my newborn to need me to be up all night with her) I am looking forward to seeing how much she looks like Papillon. Excited to try out my new Ergo. Excited to see how much Papillon loves her. Just plain excited.

That said, I am also decently nervous. Nervous about doing labor again since I won't have cluelessness on my side this time. Nervous about how I will handle Papillon's occasional tantrums when I am sleep deprived. Nervous about managing both kids when Mon Amour travels again. Nervous about how anything is going to get down when I am juggling two little ones schedules. Nervous about pushing myself too hard to get stuff done cause I don't like to admit that I can't do something. Oh. So much to be nervous about.

But mostly I am excited. March 22nd seems so close and yet so far away. I love having my little one inside me, I can't help but smile every time I feel her kick (after Papillon was born, I actually missed her kicks for a couple weeks, even though I had her in my arms. There is something specially lovely about movement before they are born - a uniquely mom-baby time. I am pretty sure I will miss these movements again this time) And I love that so very soon I will get to see her pretty little face.

Zoo Trip #1 of the year

2012-02-02T13:00:00.000-05:00

I am so excited that this year we invested in a zoo membership. We went once or twice when Papillon was very small, but I don't think we went last year at all. We intend to make up for lost time this year. And with the membership, the wonderful thing is that we can do and do the zoo in small parts. Rather than trying to make a huge trip out of it.

For our first trip of the year, it was Mon Amour, Papillon and myself on a little family outing. We brought the stroller but should have known Papillon would want to walk the whole way.

We focused on the "children's area" this time. The weather was quite pleasant, but since it was officially still January a lot of the animals were not out but Papillon didn't mind.

We did get to see the otters...

which, clearly, Papillon loved!

and we saw a few farm animals which Papillon enjoyed cause she could name them all. Chicken, cow, pig, sheep, all her favorites.

Just to make it a legit visit, before we left, we popped over to see the zebras and rhinoceroses.

Then it was lunch time so we headed home. Next time the plan is to skip right to the elephants and focus on that side of the zoo! But there is no rush, lots of year left to embrace our zoo membership.

Movie Monday

2012-01-30T09:00:00.000-05:00

Just a few cute movies for you.

The first two are from our recent road trip...

Entertaining herself with the sugar packets when we ate out.

Helping Grandpa scoop ice cream.

This one is an older video, that I feel like I shared before, but I didn't see it in my list of uploaded videos, so I must not have. Its just delightfully random and cute.

And taking care of her baby doll. Whom she now feeds, burbs, changes her diaper, takes her shoes on and off, and just generally plays with. Its very sweet.

Big Girl Room

2012-01-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

As I write this (which is not exactly when it publishes) we are exactly 2 months from my due date. Meaning it is time to get serious about Papillon's transition to her new room. Thanks to Mon Amour's hard work, it is move-in ready. Some of the finishing touches will come later as we find the missing pieces and get more confident that Papillon won't mess with things that we add to the room. For now though, this is what it looks like.

Note the super-sweet brown, floral comforter. (there are bright pink sheets under there! With a back up set of neon green sheets!)

Three of the walls are a very very light pink. With one bright pink wall!

The decorations are going to be from all over the world. So far she has some artist original pictures from Australia and one piece of wall art from Indonesia. And a fox-shaped camping chair...probably from Wal-Mart. :-)

The door presently lacks a door knob. The one that was there locked with the push of a button from the inside, and then couldn't be unlocked from the outside. This obviously could not be. Soon enough we will go get non-locking door knob. Also note the sweet green bookshelf? Eventually she will have a bed frame and possibly a dresser that will be that same color green.

I am pleased to report that we have begun the process of transition to sleeping in her big girl room. Today (again, not the day this publishes...but the day I wrote it) is day 3 of big-girl bed naps. Day 1 was a smashing success. 2 hours of napping, without any fuss on either end. In fact she stopped me from reading her a book in order to climb into bed. Day 2 was a little trickier, but that was Marge's fault. I put Papillon to bed, and Marge promptly barked like crazy. Papillon decided to get out of bed, stand at her door and say "hush, Marge". Then she wouldn't go back to bed. But, we did try again like 20 minutes later, and she fell right to sleep...again 2 hours, no troubles. Upon waking she figured out how to open her door, so she came to find me when she awoke. Poked her head around the corner into the dining room and said "Hi" cheerily. So sweet. Day 3, went right to bed again (hurrah!) but only slept for 1.5 hours (if that) before climbing out of bed to come find me. I would say our transition to the Big Girl Room is going very well.

While we are on the subject of Big Sister and Little Sister....check out these adorable matching dresses that a friend made.

Officially their first matching outfits. Complete with matching hair accessories. Can't wait for the girls to be able to wear them together!

Fish!

2012-01-28T15:19:00.000-05:00

I was very excited the other day to be able to take Papillon (who is officially a fish-detective. She spots them everywhere!) to the aquarium. To make the trip even more exciting, the friend who invited us is one of Papillon's favorite friends. She is just about 1 year older, which makes her just enough older for Papillon to idolize her. Papillon sometimes just stares and her and takes in the awesomeness. Her friend also thinks Papillon is pretty cool, cause she can tell her what to do and lead her around by the hand, and Papillon readily complies.

Here are some pictures of the two of them at the dolphin show.

And of course, Papillon's friend's little brother (and their mom, of course) were there too. Isn't he adorable?

Papillon, as always, was a little overwhelmed by the new situation (it is pretty dark in the aquarium and it was fairly busy) but she did very much like seeing all the different kinds of fish. We will definitely be going back some day in the not to distant future.

Basketball Game

2012-01-27T09:00:00.000-05:00

Last week, Papillon attended her fist basketball game. She wasn't sure what to make of the game itself, though she did like to say "ball" and point.

What she preferred was walking around the arena smiling and waving at everyone. She would occasionally stop and peek through the railing at the game, and cheer when everyone else cheered.

Go Navy! (we lost, but, that was sort of expected)

Road Trip Part 2, Niagra Falls

2012-01-26T09:00:00.000-05:00

Day 2 of our road trip, we took a little trek up to Niagra Falls. It was still cold, but sunny and pleasant none the less.

Here is Papillon and Grandpa in front of Horseshoe Falls.

I had been to Niagra Falls once before, but it was a long time ago and we saw it from the Canadian side. This time we stayed State-side which provided a very different view. It goes without saying that the falls are most impressive.

We walked from Goat Island (don't ask me which it is called that) where you can see Horseshoe Falls, around and off the island to the other side of American Falls. Papillon walked happily for a bit, but poor Little Brother's back hurt from bending over and Papillon wouldn't let go of his hand. So She ended up being carried by Grandpa most of the way.

We had to take the obligatory close-to-the-edge picture for Mom, complete with a "No Climbing Over Railing" Pose.

Little Brother taught Papillon "Where is Canada?" to which she enthusiastically pointed and said "Eh!" like a good Canadian.

Grandpa taught Papillon "what a waterfall does" which involves a swoosh sound and a nifty hand motion. Papillon got very good at it.

While looking for a tourist shop to warm up in (note to self, Niagra Falls basically closes in the winter, so its probably best not to go in January. Oh well, you live and learn) we found this pretty sweet sign - you may have to click on the picture to see it. It says "Unattended Children will be given an espresso and a free puppy". Clearly we had to get a picture of Papillon looking unattended next to the sign.

After failing to find a toasty place to thaw out, we opted to have lunch in the car before heading back.

After lunch, before officially returning, we stopped by the oft-forgotten, but equally-amazing-as-the-falls Whirlpool. It's an impressively large pool along the Niagra river where the river takes a sharp turn to the right. It rushes in on the left side of the pool, goes around pool counter clockwise, but then to get out on the right hand side of the pool. In order to do this the current actually dips underneath the incoming flow. It seems some people have ridden through the incoming rapids and around the whirlpool in a barrel. One poor chap tried to swim it, but he didn't make.

It was a pretty cool place. I would highly recommend paying it a visit if you ever find yourself in Niagra Falls.

On the trek home, I swore that Papillon would take a good solid nap. It was, after all, a 2 hour car ride and she hadn't slept all day. However, I was totally wrong and she stayed awake, the whole time. Crazy kid.

Our day ended with a little dinner at a mexican restaurant. Papillon amused herself by arranging the sugar packets on the table ... .

..and drawing on a few with her crayons.

The next day it was time to make the long trek home. We got up early and while we packed, Papillon sat in the bed having some milk and blueberry muffin for breakfast.

Papillon slept like a trooper on the way back! Her 2 hour morning nap allowed us to get 4 hours of uninterrupted driving in. Miraculous!

On the second leg of the trip home I sat in the back with her (my arm was getting sore from reaching back to hand her things). And we enjoyed a little peanut butter bagel for lunch. Peanut butter got everywhere...

...but it was worth it. Papillon was a happy camper as you can tell by her "smile for the camera" face!

When all was said and done, we logged 1200 miles on the road in 4 days. Papillon was ready to be done with cars forever when we got back. But she really did a fantastic job with how much we abused her schedule all weekend long.

Road Trip Part 1

2012-01-25T09:00:00.000-05:00

Mon Amour was recently out of town for business again, and Papillon and I decided that we needed to take some kind of fairly significant trip to pass the time. We have gotten pretty talented and keeping ourselves busy locally, but it was time for a change pace.

So, Papillon, my dad and I packed up the car and set off on a roadtrip to visit my Little Brother at college waaaay waaay off in the distant cold corner of nearby state. We headed out early, knowing that the 6.5 hour trip with a toddler in tow would probably take a bit longer than that and we wanted to get there before dark.

Papillon was a trooper and we only made 2.5 stops on the way out (the 1/2 stop was just for gas and we didn't even get her out of the car). When we arrived it was snowing quite significantly, and I was very thankful that dad was driving and not I. I trust his snow driving skills much better than mine. We got checked in, paid a quick visit to Little Brother and then called it a night.

The real fun started the next day which we kicked off properly with a big dose of pancakes at the appropriately named "The Breakfast Place". Little Brother very kindly saved me from ordering the full "short stack" which would have been 4 fluffy pancakes the size of a dinner plate. He assured me that even he had never made it through the full short-stack. I got a half stack (2 gigantic pancakes) and even my pregnant-self was slowing down by the middle of the 2nd pancake.

We got Papillon french toast, but she preferred Grandpa's Sausage Gravy. Anything Grandpa was eating was obviously tastier than what was on her plate.

You know how restaurants give kids a paper menu and a couple crayons? Well this place was posh, and Papillon got a whole box of 24 crayons to use! So many options, she had to share some with Uncle E.

On the way from breakfast to church, Papillon grabbed a quick cat nap.

I had told dad he needed to sleep in later than his normal 2am wake up time lest he wake Papillon...he dutifully slept in until 6am. And at the first sound of him stirring, Papillon stands up in her pack n play and happily cries out "Hi!". The 2nd day, at 6am, I thought Dad had succeeded in sneaking out of bed without waking her and I rolled over to take a peek...there she was, standing in her pack n play, holding on to the side with her nose peeking over the top. When she saw me move, she just lifted one hand and waved and smiled with out a word. The cuteness melted me. Side note about sleep: Poor thing, all weekend got no more than 20 minutes of nap at a time. She was sleep deprived for days after our return. But she dealt with the lack of sleep admirably.

After church, we trotted off to "Presque Isle" for some scenic touring. It was very sunny and very cold.

The snow and wind of the previous day had blown the lake up on the branches, creating some pretty spectacular ice sculptures on the trees.

And on the picnic table, which of course Little Brother and his friend had to sit on...and get stuck to!

After a morning of gallivanting about in the cold, we headed back to Little Brother's apartment to hang out for a bit. Papillon was tired enough, and enough overwhelmed by all the new experiences that she was sitting perfectly still. So obviously I had to put her hair up in a pony tail. Carpe Diem!

Fun times with sharing her water and playing silly games with the fun family.

That evening, we headed back out to Little Brother's other church, affectionately known as "Church in a Bar". This was a pretty nifty experience. They are very focused on the inner city crowd and they keep their service very "real". Papillon even tested out the nursery which was most impressive, considering the church takes place in an old bar building and a good portion of the church go-ers are homeless. Papillon enjoyed herself despite being sleep deprived and in a new place; she didn't cry until I came back to pick her up at which point she took one look at me and just fell apart. One of her new little toddler friends gave her a hug. So sweet.

At the end of this very busy fun day, Papillon wouldn't even let me sing her a song before bed, she pushed me away and dove right into bed.

Scraped Knee

2012-01-24T09:00:00.000-05:00

Papillon's first scraped knee happened about 2 weeks ago. It seems like one of those childhood milestones worth documenting. For some reason it made me smile happily every time I saw her little "boo boo".

The story went like this. We were preparing to take Marge for a walk and I got the stroller out and asked Papillon if she wanted to get in. She said "no" decisively. Did she want to walk? I asked. "Yes" she said confidently. Just to make sure she knew what she was saying, I asked a few more times and even tried to put her in the stroller anyway. But she was determined. So with Marge leading the way, an empty stroller in tow and Papillon toddling just behind me, off we went.

Papillon was very good at following me and staying on the sidewalk when I asked. Unfortunately one little road goes slightly downhill and has no sidewalk. In her attempt to dutifully walk on the "sidewalk" she walked on the slightly angled and rather narrow drainage gutter on the side of the street (its a different color pavement). The combination of the two angles made it treacherous and she got going fast and then tripped and landed on the ground.

Hand in the mud up to her wrist, knees getting the brunt of the fall, but her nose definitely scratching the pavement as well. There was about 1 minute of crying, and a little lip bleeding. But she quickly calmed down.

"Do you want to ride in the stroller now?" I asked

"No"

"You want to walk more?"

"Yes"

And off she went.

We made it almost a full half-mile before Papillon sat down on the curb, stating matter-of-factly "sit".

She rode in the stroller the rest of the way.

She was very clearly pleased as punch with herself for her walk when we got back.

And, I'm not going to lie, when I later discovered her bloody knee (didn't notice it until after we got back) I was pretty proud myself of her for being so determined.

Baking Lessons

2012-01-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

Possibly Papillon's favorite activity these days is to "hap" (aka "help") me with whatever I am doing. If I go downstairs to get something from the pantry or grab the laundry, etc, she used to fuss cause she felt I had left behind. Now I ask her to help by closing the door behind me and she is perfectly happy to see me go.

She helps me sweep with a broom twice her height, helps me put things in the trash, but most of the time "helping" means sitting on the counter while I do kitchen things. She can't help much with dishes yet so she just watches. But she is a very good helper when it comes to baking.

She holds the measuring spoons.

And listens intently while I tell her what we are making.

And when told, sits perfectly still while I dash to the other side of the kitchen to grab something.

She loves to taste test things (insisted on trying the salt...not a fan!)

She loves dumping ingredients in.

We made brownies the other day (not pictured) and she was so insistent on stirring that she wouldn't give up the spoon for and second and I had to get my own spoon and stir around hers.

I love my little helper!

She loves the snow

2012-01-22T09:00:00.000-05:00

This is not yesterday's snow. Rather it is that bit of an intense snow shower that happened roughly two weeks ago. It was impressive looking snow, but didn't last long. Anyway, the point of the story is...

Papillon loves the snow! This is not her first official experience with snow (there was less enthusiasm with that experience. ) but it was really her first time learning what it was. She now says "snow" and recognized it (excitedly!) yesterday morning when she got up and looked out the window!

Grandpa was kind enough to take her out and teach her how to catch and the blow the snowflakes away. Grandpa got cold before Papillon did and so when they came back in the had to watch out the window for some time.

Snow is so much fun, she even had to stand on her tip toes to see it properly!

Tiny Baby

2012-01-14T09:18:00.000-05:00

Thanks to this little kid for arriving a little early so that Mon Amour and I could make the little trek over to our old "haunt" to meet him before Mon Amour left for another business trip. Added bonus - he shares Mon Amour's birthday! A good day to be born Little Guy, a very good day.

I love meeting new babies. Aren't his squishy little cheeks so cute?

He was totally zonked for most of our visit, I laid him in my lap and he just flopped. How sweet!

Papillon was intrigued by the baby. She wanted to point to his eyes and nose and such. We had to watch out and make sure that pointing to his eyes did not equal poking his eyes, but other than that, she seemed to take pretty well to the tiny-newborn-ness. A good sign for things to come, hopefully.

And of course, we can't forget the adorable older brother, who, himself, seems to be adapting quite well to the new addition. Look at those eyes!!

I think this is a "smile for the camera" face. Down right, hilarious!

Congrats to our good friends! The new little one is precious!

Pretty Dress Outing

2012-01-13T09:00:00.000-05:00

Early this week, Papillon joined me on a fun outing to a wedding dress fitting for a very good friend from college who is getting married this summer. Her dress is beautiful, but of course I can't show you pictures of it, lest somehow, the groom gets a hold of my blog! It could happen...the internet is not as big as we think it is!

Anyway, in lou of pretty dress pictures, a few pictures of Papillon from these fun times.

She really got into the enthusiasm of the moment!

And enjoyed the platform and mirrors

Afterwards, it was 5 Guys for dinner. Papillon brought her own oranges.

She loves her oranges.

She also loved the french fries which she dutifully dipped in ketchup. When the fries ran out, the oranges went in the ketchup...gross, yet some how endearing.

28...29...30 weeks

2012-01-12T09:00:00.001-05:00

These pictures are from roughly 28.5 weeks, so they are just a smidgen old. I am officially 30 weeks along today. This pregnancy is rolling right along.

Weight gain-wise, I am roughly on track with where I was with Papillon. Which is impressive, considering how many Christmas cookies have been in my house in past weeks.

In other good news, I passed the glucose-screening! I failed the initial test with Papillon, and had to take the darn 3-hour test. For whatever reason, I passed first time this time around. Public Service Announcement regarding that test: My doctor told me there was no need to fast before hand; the techs at the lab, however, said fasting is the way to go if you want to pass. If it doesn't make you sick to put off breakfast for a bit...fast before this test. It may save you a 3 hour future appointment!

Papillon is very enthusiastic about the baby. She gets excited sometimes when she sees my belly and shouts "baby baby baby" until you assure her that, yes, she is correct, that is the baby. She has a really sweet way of saying the baby's name too. I am very excited to see how Papillon and her little sister do together!

In recent weeks we have been doing lots of prep for this baby's arrival. All the tiny baby clothes are sorted and ready to go in the nursery dresser (Papillon's clothes need to move out first, that is a work in progress). I bought a few extra diaper liners to make our cloth diapers more versatile. We also bought tiny disposable diapers for those first weeks with a newborn. I have a new nursing cover. And I got and Ergo for Christmas. With each new thing that has arrived I have felt more and more prepared! I recently got to hold a friend's newborn baby and that made me even more excited for my own's arrival. I love love love the sleepy, snuggly, squishy new born stage.

At my last OB appointment everything was looking good. Baby is measuring just right, heart beat is good and all that. The doctor asked if I had any complaints and I told her about this one spot on my stomach, just above, and to the left of my belly button that feels bruised. Anywhere else on my stomach can get bumped, poked, squished, and its no problem. This one spot though is VERY sensitive. Turns out, that is Baby's head. That's why its nice and hard, and since that is also where Papillon's knee rests when I hold her, it is a bit sore. This also explains why all her "kicks" still seem so low; it's because her feet really are nice and low. A head-up baby is not a problem at this point, but the doctor did tell me some exercises to do to encourage that all-important somersault. Papillon was head down by this point in pregnancy, and I am very much hoping Baby #2 decides to follow her lead and is flipped around by our next appointment. Not just for reasons of not wanting to worry about delivering a breech-baby, but also cause I would love to get her very hard head away from that bruise, and get her cute little feet kicking up at the top!

I am so thankful for this healthy pregnancy. I was reminded in recent weeks how much of a blessing every day of pregnancy is. Life is a very precious and fragile gift and I pray that in the midst of any exhaustion, uncomfortableness, or just busyness, I never lose sight of the awesomeness of this blessing.

That's all on the baby-front. Roughly 10 more weeks (give or take, of course) until there will be a little head to go in this little hat that I made for her!

Christmas Day

2012-01-12T09:00:00.000-05:00

Christmas Day, Mon Amour's parents joined to kick off the official holiday celebration.

First there was breakfast...check out the new no-spill bowl that Papillon received. And yes, it really does work, it is very-nearly-impossible to spill.

There were lots of presents to be opened...this is Papillon's last Christmas as the only grandchild and so the spoiling was in high gear.

Mon Amour also got spoiled....with an iPad. Whoohoo!

Papillon was a trooper with all the excitement, but eventually got tired of opening all the presents. She really honestly would have been just as happy with opening 1 or 2 gifts and then moving on. Eventually the glazed over look set in and we took a break from unwrapping.

After gifts, Papillon tested out some of her new toys. Some fun blocks with french words on them. Oh, and note, the play-smart-phone! Yes, she loves it. And yes, she knows its a phone, she says "ha-whoa" to it all the time.

Eventually there was lunch, followed by dessert....this kiddo shares her momma's love of Rice Krispie Treats!

And finally, in order to get away from the pile of presents for a bit, and burn off some of those delicious lunch calories, we went for a walk. Papillon decided she didn't need to stroller, and walked with Grandad for a good long ways....probably about 5 blocks. Pretty impressive for two and a half feet tall.

Eventually she got tired, and had to hold on to Grandad with both hands...

Ultimately she succumbed to the stroller and later to a nap to round out Christmas Part 1...

18 Months

2012-01-11T20:42:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Papillon turned 18 months old. Officially 1 and a half and definitely not a baby any more. Full on walking, walking, attitude possessing toddler.

You will have to forgive the Snoopy comparison photos, she would not hold still despite my best efforts at distraction, entertainment, etc. Next time I should just take the picture while she is sleeping.

We haven't had her 18 month appointment yet, but I would wager she is around 25 pounds. Officially not the tiniest any more. She is even, occasionally mistaken for a being older. I enjoy her being very average these days, and am truly quite curious to see how Baby #2's growth compares to Papillon's.

At 18 months, Papillon....

...talks like crazy. Some times just babble, but she has a ton of words that I can understand, and even a bunch that anyone could understand (aka very well articulated words). Fun words include cheerios, milk, Marge (possibly the cutest thing she says!), dog, fish, dad, momma, Nana, Aunt Mimi, hug, help, Hi, Bye, See ya, yes, yup, yeah, Baby, Hello, please, box, bag, and many many more. I love all her words. She even has an adorable attempt at her little sister's name (which is not the easiest word in the world for a little kid)

...has become much more outgoing. She waves to everyone, gives hugs anyone when given the chance. Loves playing with other kids. She talks and runs around in social situations (including church!) rather than clinging and being quite. She is still introverted enough to need her quiet time now and again, but her social butterfly side is totally coming out.

...loves reading and coloring (mostly with pens, and generally on the walls...we are working on that) and playing with play doh. A lot of times these days, when she gets up from a nap she wants me to hand her some books so she can sit and read for a bit before getting up. One day, I cut her short on the books. She got out of the crib, grabbed a book and walked back to the crib, pointed and said "please". How could I refuse! Back in she went for one more book.

...has 4 new teeth - all molars. They are still working their way in, but are definitely visible. She now has the 8 in the front, skips the eye teeth and has 1 molar on each side just past that. 12 teeth total. She loves to chew with her molars - she puts something in there and chews very obviously, and very adorably.

...has discovered her nose, more specifically, the inside of her nose. If you ask her where her nose is now, the finger goes straight up the nostril. And sometimes on car rides, a little booger hunting keeps her entertained.

...is a bit opinionated. She will melt down when she doesn't get what she wants, and is sometimes hard to bring back out of her sorrows. We are also working on not saying "no" to mom and dad when she is asked to do something. It's a work in progress.

....is getting ready to move to her big girl room. It is painted, cleaned and her mattress and sheets are all set. She loves loves loves playing in her room and jumping on and off her bed. Some time in the next week or two we will begin attempting naps in there. Hopefully her ever-flexible nature will continue and it will be a smooth transition.

Is it possible that 18 months is my favorite age yet??

Happy 18 months, Papillon!

Lollipop

2012-01-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

Papillon received her first lollipop the other day. We were on a little errand run to pick up some pictures and the local pharmacy. It seems that this photo place is kind of like the bank, with a stash of candy behind the counter. The friendly lady first offered her a peppermint candy - the soft melt in your mouth kind, but still, something hard to give to an 18 month old. We tried to be appreciative, but the lady realized something else might be better, she dug around until she found a lollipop....a BLUE lollipop. Papillon smiled at her very enthusiastically as if she knew how awesome it was going to be, but she was hesitant to lick it until we got to the car. Then she discovered the joys of highly-died-sugar-candy-on-a-stick:

Officially addicted.

She managed not to make too much of a mess (excepting, of course, the blue lips and mouth), but eventually she just kept holding the lollipop in her mouth without swallowing. This resulted in a large amount of blue slobber, so I had to take the rest of the lollipop away. This resulted in a few moments of tears....but, in the moment, the blue-lipped super-excited moment, it was totally worth it.

Christmas #2

2012-01-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

The day after Christmas, my parents, grandmother, and little brother and sister came over for Christmas, round 2.

Again, there were lots of presents to open. Papillon was a little better at opening them this time (she had already had lots of practice)

But still often preferred to let Grandpa do all the hard work of unwrapping.

She opened some fun new books with her Auntie!

Possibly the most entertaining and delightfully perfect-for-the-recipient gift was this monkey-bank carved from a coconut, complete with pipe. Little Sister got it in Hawaii....but it was made in the Philippines, and last I heard, we still hadn't figured out how to get the money out of it. (Papillon had quite the fun time "borrowing" coins from Grandpa to put in her Uncle's monkey-bank) But these quirks only made it all the more amazing of a gift!

Papillon got some Play Doh, which she tested out after lunch. She is a huge fan!

By the end of round 2 of Christmas, we were pretty tired. But it was such a fun holiday and so fun to be able to see so much family!

As a side note, I have developed a huge appreciation for people who put a lot of time and energy into wrapping. I am a very functional get-the-job-done kind of person, so my presents end up wrapped but definitely on the ugly side as far as wrapping goes. Perhaps next year I will aim for slightly more lovely, and possibly even delightfully personalized wrapping, cause I really do appreciate the fun of opening a pretty gift.

Pre-Christmas

2012-01-03T09:00:00.000-05:00

This year everyone came to us for Christmas, which was amazingly delightful! No one stayed super long (most everyone lives close enough that day trips are do-able) but we got some good visiting in over the course of the holiday.

Our first guests, and only overnight guests, were Mon Amour's Sister and her Fiance. They arrived Friday in time for us to trek out to see a local Christmas landmark....the lights on 34th street.

We have heard rumors that when you buy a house on this one block in our city, you formally agree to be part of the Christmas display madness.

Everyone has lots of lights and other decorations, but some people's displays clearly took more work than just going to the local Wal Mart and buying the biggest, brightest thing you can find. There was some really cool stuff to see.

Last year, we just drove through, but this time we parked and walked. It was insanely busy, but definitely worth it.

Back and home, Papillon got to show off her sweet cookie making skills to her Aunt who made some tasty home made thin-mints. They were very good and I will definitely need to get that recipe from her...

Good times are always had when sitting on the counter is involved.

New Bath Toys

2012-01-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

The aim of this video was to record some of Papillon's excitement about her new bath toys so that we could then share said excitement with her wonderful Aunt and Uncle who gave them to her but are not local enough to witness the excitement in person. As with all good video intentions, as soon as the camera came out, Papillon switched to do something else. So, there isn't a lot of bath toy excitement...but its still kind of cute.

Fun things to note in the video:

Very beginning - Drinking from the cup. Don't worry, it's fresh, clean, non-soapy water and she didn't drink that much. But the cup action is pretty stellar...perhaps we should use a regular cup more often rather than a sippy cup
22 seconds - "ha-whoa". This is how she says hello when asked or when pretending to talk on the phone.
48 seconds - "yo-hey!". In Papillon-talk equals "no way"; generally she gets a little closer to pronouncing it right. It's a favorite phrase; we don't no where she picked it up. But she finds it handy for both exclamations of emphatic disagreement, as well as enthusiastic excitement.
1:09 - counting. For the record, usually when you ask her to count something she points to them one by one and says "eight, nine, eight, nine" (repeat). This time she actually chose to start with "one".
1:19 - "why". Possibly the cutest hand gesture ever. If you ask her to find something and she doesn't know where it is the hands go up and she shrugs her shoulders. She also does this when she doesn't know the answer to your question (aka, has no idea what you asked) which generally happens when you ask her a "why" question. So the word "why" has started always accompanying the cute shrug.

Enough talk...enjoy!

Oh, and Papillon says thanks for the new bath toys!

Just Cute

2011-12-28T09:00:00.000-05:00

Some random cuteness just for fun...

This little outfit I put on her cause I thought it was a bit much...a little too floral to be actually cute. So we wore it on a day that we didn't have any where to go, only to discover that Papillon is small and adorable enough to make the otherwise slightly-gaudy floral print, amazingly cute!

She also was really into posing for pictures this day. I told her I was taking her picture and she backed up to stand against the wall, and then smiled. Unfortunately she would hold still for like half a second and then dance and flail and stuff. See:

Another day, she was in a super fun mood and having a blast sitting on the steps with Marge.

Note the fantastic ponytail!

I love this picture! I wish Marge was not blurry, cause if she hadn't twitched, it would be an incredibly fun picture.

If we didn't have a dog, I fear Papillon would be terribly bored most of the time. Marge doesn't even have to do anything, and Papillon is hugely entertained.

As always, I missed the prime moments of fun, but captured a little cuteness nonetheless. (and I do manage to rotate the camera to face the right way before I get too far into the video)

Love to Eat

2011-12-27T09:00:00.000-05:00

Excepting the nursing fiasco at the beginning of her life, Papillon has always been a great eater. Recently she has discovered a few new favorite foods. I love it when I give her something to eat just for the sake of trying it, thinking to myself that there is no way she will actually eat more than a bite, then she devours it like it may be her last meal.

Spaghetti is one of those new found loves.

She ate literally a whole heaping plateful...and loved it!

Squishing it with both hands was also part of the enjoyment.

I missed the prime moments of squishing and stuffing the face, but you kind of get the picture here.

Other new found favorite food....oranges!

She is pretty much an expert at eating all the good stuff out of the rind, though occasionally she gets carried away and takes a nibble of the rind as well. She just loves them that much.

Christmas Cookies

2011-12-26T09:00:00.000-05:00

This year I decided it was time to start some Christmas Cookie traditions. Growing up, we made Christmas cookies; but not in the way that many people make Christmas cookies - namely, batches upon batches of cookies that you mix together on trays, tins, etc for all the holiday sensitivities. I decided this is an awesome tradition and it was time to get it started.

First cookie of choice, Gingerbread Cookies, of course.

Papillon was a great helper with pushing the cookie cutters down.

She also discovered that the dough was delicious (yay for egg-less cookie dough!)

Yum!

Voila! Cookies cut out and ready for baking.

Next step, frosting and decorating! I frosted, Papillon added the sprinkles...one at a time. Talk about fine-motor-skill development!

Eventually she discovered that the frosting is also delicious, so, no more sprinkles, just fingers in the frosting then into the mouth! At that point she got her own cookie to devour and I frosted the rest so we wouldn't have baby slobber on all the cookies...

The next day's cookie of choice was Peanut Butter Blossoms (the technical name for cookies we affectionately call Hershey's Kiss Cookies...you know them, little peanut butter cookies with a hershey's kiss sitting in the middle).

Papillon was excellent at helping me stir.

And at licking the beaters!

She also helped me unwrap all the Hershey's Kisses. I would get them started and she would pull the little tail out. Then I told her we needed to squish up all the wrapper trash so we could throw it away. This became a fun filled game that was messier than it was productive. But, the main goal of cookie making is to have fun, not to keep the house clean, so it was all good.

The next day we made rice krispie treats with M&Ms in them. Sadly we took no pictures. But, I am pleased to report Papillon is just as much of a fan of marshmallow-goodness as I am, and good times were had in the name of gooey-ness.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

A few outtakes from this year's Christmas card photo shoot. I won't include all the ones we took before we found good lighting...talk about bad shadows!

Note: It was quite cold during this photo shoot.

And Papillon just wanted to go back to playing with Grandpa...

Clearly desperate for Grandpa...

Ok, fine, you can have grandpa.

It's a good thing that on-the-verge-of-a-mini-tantrum looks kinda similar to adorably-smiley, cause she is definitely seconds away from her break down in what ended up being the photo of choice for our Christmas cards...

Now you know. That cute toothy smile is actually a whine of dissatisfaction...such is life.

Merry Christmas!

Pre-Christmas Shindig

2011-12-24T16:00:00.000-05:00

Since many of us were going our separate ways for actual Christmas, my mom decided to invite us all to a little Pre-Christmas Shindig earlier this week. Mostly it was an excuse to get together and eat tasty food. It went something like this.

Yummy eating and chatting.

Papillon as always, enjoyed the sweet potatoes.

After dinner, while the rest of us were digesting, Papillon still managed to have energy to climb up and play the piano.

Super fun!

The event ended with a little Skyping with the family that couldn't actually make it to the party.

All in all a very fun warm up for the Christmas festivities!

Snack Time

2011-12-21T09:00:00.000-05:00

These are just some fun pictures from a recent post-nap snack-time. Which is always a very fun time of the day.

Note the enthusiasm.

This chair has been one of Papillon's favorite toys, but recently the batteries died. So it doesn't play music any more, making it less fun, but still a wonderfully practical snack chair.

Mmm, milk!

Dazed and confused...with bed head.

Just hanging out, eating some snack in the snack chair.

Post snack time, Papillon wanted to play with the tree for a bit.

She knows she is not supposed to touch the ornaments, but she likes to test the boundaries. She holds her hand out to the tree and says "touch" (which is generally an indicator that she knows that she is not supposed to touch something) and looks at me to see if I will stop her.

Sometimes she touches the tree, and not an ornament to see if that is within the rules. And sometimes she pokes and ornament and walks away: again, testing the boundaries. She is a good kid, but does like to know what the rules actually are.

Waiting Patiently

2011-12-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

These are from a while back, but I had to share them.

This was after Mon Amour's most recent and very long trip. We were waiting in the cell-phone lot for the call to come pick him up!

Waiting patiently.

Examining the keys.

Pleased as punch to be allowed to use the keys as a necklace!

The Hike

2011-12-14T09:00:00.000-05:00

Our only other real scheduled event was a bit of a "hike" to Swallow Falls (hope I am remembering the name right). It was the perfect length of a hike - not too long or strenuous, but lots of pretty sights to see and rocks to climb.

Here are a few pictures from the adventure.

Papillon even walked some of the ways - which made her so very proud of herself. If you can zoom in on this picture, you can see her smiley little busting-with-pride face!

Remarkably, I think he was able to get a tiny bit of reception on his iphone on certain parts of this hike!

Oh, and in case I forgot to mention, we did have one other event for which we ventured away from our cozy cabins. We saw the new Muppet Movie!! Papillon hung out with Grandpa while the rest of us saw the movie. I think it was a win win for everyone!

And that's the story of our Thanksgiving vacation. It was definitely a good one.

17 Months

2011-12-13T14:53:00.000-05:00

I am a little late on this month's update. After next month's update it may be time to switch to semi-annual updates. But for now, a little bit about Papillon at 17 months:

Papillon is growing like crazy. I am not sure how much she weighs at this point (somewhere over, but not hugely over 22lbs I would imagine), but I can tell you that she is fitting in to quite a few size 2Ts! Baby clothes sizes are ridiculous though, she actually wore a 3T dress on Sunday and it just barely fit and the pants in this picture are 12 month pants. So who knows. But in general, clothes size 18 months - 2T is how we roll these days.

She wakes up every morning anywhere from 7am - 8:30am then is up until nap time from 1:30 - 3:30ish. Bedtime has suddenly shifted a smidgen later - say 8:00pm ish these days.

She eats pretty much anything. Though she doesn't like juice particularly - which was only a problem when we were trying to get some pedialyte in her during her recent illness. She also has taken a bit to warm up to honey (introduced on doctors orders in light of a current stubborn cough). Favorites foods are ice cream (of course), crackers, cheerios, bananas, peas, and yogurt.

She is very affectionate. While waiting in line at the grocery store recently, she puckered up to give me a kiss. I obliged. Then she asked for another kiss and another and another and another. So sweet. Though I think that the other people in line thought we were crazy. She also blows kisses these days which is amazingly cute.

She says more and more. And is pretty good at communicating even the things she can't say. Its actually hugely helpful that she talks so much. In general if I hear her say "touch" it means she is contemplating touching something she is not supposed to (the ornaments on the tree, or the dog food, etc). And if she says "trash" it means something has just gone in the trash can...we are still working on learning what is and what is NOT trash.

She also understands a TON. She follows simple commands like "please put this in the trash" or "find a book and bring it here". But she is learning more complex things! The other day she picked up a bib from the clean laundry the other day, and I told her that we didn't need it now, but we would for dinner, so could she put it on the table. I forgot about it...until I found the bib sitting right where it needed to be by her chair in the dining room. She is also starting to understand things like doing something "later" vs doing it "now".

I have a video of her in the bathtub, and just for fun I asked her what we had done that day. Clear as clear can be she says "Umm...I played". I should upload that one eventually. (Side note: "umm" is the traditional answer to "what" questions. Where as "maybe" is the default response to "why" or "which" questions).

Her unprompted communication is also increasing. Like when she tells me something without me asking. For example we drove somewhere recently and when we got there, I opened the door to get her out of her carseat and she looks and me and says "poop". Low and behold it was true, she had a poopy diaper.

I am very much looking forward to Christmas with Papillon this year. I know that last year was officially her first Christmas, but this one is going to be at least 3 times as fun! Oh, and don't tell Papillon but the chair in the pictures above is actually a Christmas present. We got it at Goodwill for $5! She loves it already...but its going into hiding until Christmas morning. I suspect it will be new all over again then!

The Turkey and The Time Capsule

2011-12-12T08:30:00.000-05:00

And the blogging continues to slack....my continued apologies. Time to plow through the rest of Thanksgiving.

Initially when we picked a destination for our Thanksgiving, I was skeptical that we could pull off a full-fledged Thanksgiving feast. Who really wants to lug a huge turkey 4 hours out into the middle of nowhere and then attempt to cook everything up in a tiny kitchen with minimal pots and pans and such? But, it had to be attempted; and we did, in fact, succeed in pulling it off.

The turkey (just a little 13lb one) was delicious! Sliced oranges and thyme under the skin - yum!

The table intended for a max of 6, squeezed us all in.

The dresser made for the perfect, if not awkwardly placed, buffet.

And the BBQ Potato Chips had a place of honor in the middle of the action. (BBQ potato chips at the feast, by the way, is the only thanksgiving tradition to which any of us are hugely attached...so they were a must)

And then there were, of course, the pies. We were all set in the pie department.

Mon Amour and I had been in charge of the food (with the exception of the pies and rolls, which came straight from the parents' bakery) but Mom was in charge of the post-dinner entertainment which came in the unexpected form of a time capsule that my family put together about 10 years ago (was it 1991? 92? I can't remember).

The very first item in the box was an empty prescription bottle....no idea why that was in there. Probably some memorable illness suffered by someone in the family that year...clearly we have all suppressed that incident.

After that random, though truly amusing, beginning, we waded our way through various artwork by us kids. Well, mostly by these two:

Seems that they are, and always have been the artsy ones in the family. So the box was a bit disproportionately filled with their creations. Little Brother and I managed to slip in one or two artistic contributions.

Then began the reading of the "interviews" with each of us.

This is when the fun truly began. For "Best Friend" Dad put down "Mom". Awww. Mom neglected to list Dad in a fairly sizeable list of friends from that time. Haha. Who knew dad would win for most romantic response.

My own response to the question "Favorite Thing to Play" was possibly the strangest. I have no idea what I meant by "Pretending to camp with 'The Creep from the Deep'". Yikes. Totally have suppressed that childhood pastime.

Little Brother's list of favorite foods though, won, hands down, for hilarity.

2 Year old Little Brother's Favorite Foods: "Ketchup, Peanut Butter, and Pickles".

The man likes his condiments.

Thanksgiving Overview

2011-12-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

It's about time that I blogged about Thanksgiving. Don't worry, it won't be a hugely long series. Just a few little posts to commemorate this fantastic vacation!

First, and overview, complete with a random assortment of photos in no particular order.

We spent Thanksgiving with my family in the middle of no where about 4 hours drive from where we live. Or at least it should have been 4 hours...add in a stop for lunch and a rockslide on one of the roads and it was a 6 hour trip. Oh well. We all made it eventually.

Here we all are in a smiley, though badly lit, group photo:

We had no particular plans for our stay except to relax and have fun.

We found plenty of ways to do both...

Little Brother instructed all who were willing in the art of unicycling.

Papillon discovered the joys of playground-induced static-hair.

and spent a lot of time with Grandpa. Grandpa is quite possibly her favorite person in the world (sorry to everyone else, she loves you too...but maybe not quite as much)

She tried her best to warm up to her Uncle and Aunt whom she hasn't seen in real life in forever...but most of the time her introvert side won out and she gave him lots of skeptical, silent stares. We really must skype more Uncle A and Auntie Lola!

We played a lot of games...

Went on a hike and got frightened by....well, really, nothing. Our hikes were largely uneventful.

The uneventful-ness of our hikes is clear from Papillon's face...

More game playing...this game, is totally awesome by the way. Even though it took a few hours to actually figure out what we were doing, it was worth it! I stumble on victory the first time we played, and then barely scraped by a win in the second game. I am officially the undefeated Power Grid Champion!

When we weren't hiking, or unicyclying, or playing games, or eating, we just hung out.

There is our vacation in a nutshell. A couple more posts to follow with a few more details.

Why we still have a dog.

2011-12-06T15:35:00.001-05:00

It's not that we don't like Marge. But we must confess that we got a dog during a time in our life when it wasn't time for a baby yet. To tide us over. Note to self: it's true what they say, when you do that, the baby eventually shows up and the dog falls into a distant second place in your heart. Poor Marge.

But we all love her. Particularly Papillon. The other day she found this fun new activity to do with Marge: (once again, I apologize...eventually I will remember to hold the camera the right way)

I just missed the sweetest part of this interaction - Papillon would take the food from the kitchen, over to the stairs, climb up the 3 or 4 stairs to reach Marge, feed her the food and then smile and clap delightedly before returning for more food. Marge had left the stairs by the time I got the camera out, and eventually Marge in to the kitchen to save Papillon the trip:

They are good pals.

Baby #2 Update - 21-24 weeks

2011-12-02T16:00:00.000-05:00

It seems I am even less consistent with these pregnancy updates than I thought I would be. Oh well, it was bound to be that way. Needless to say working a 40 hour work week with no kids = a lot less busy than working a 16 hour work week and parenting a small child. Throw in some travels on Mon Amour's part, and then a Thanksgiving holiday to make things a little extra hectic, and POOF just like that, I am 24 weeks along. Before we get to week 24, a tiny flash back..

21.5 weeks here:

Ahh, looking nice and pregnant and feeling great.

Here is Papillon not understanding why no one is playing with her in this pre-bed-time moment:

Sometime in the recent past, I had an AHA! moment similar to one I had when pregnant with Papillon. I realized pre-Papillon, that as much as I was super excited about her actually being born there was something beautiful about just being pregnant with her. She was there even though I couldn't see her, I was taking care of her even though I wasn't actively trying; I loved her even though I hadn't really "met" her. It was simple, and it was beautiful.

This time around, I feel Baby#2 move inside me and I look at Papillon and think - I have 2 kids, but the care for Baby #2 is mostly on autopilot while she is inside of me. Life with one-plus-one-inside is simple, and beautiful and as much as I can't wait to meet Baby #2, these remaining 16 weeks (give or take) are a wonderfully precious time that I am totally cherishing. Blessings often come with responsibility (children are a wonderful example of this); pregnancy is, in some ways, a pleasant interlude of blessing with out all the coming responsibility.

Now on to slightly more recent photos, here I am on Thanksgiving at 23 weeks:

Still looking quite pregnant and still feeling great. Pregnancy seems to have decided to be kind to me a 2nd time around.

She moves a lot. But definitely not to the obnoxious point yet (will that ever come? Time will tell. It didn't with Papillon, but she is a very quite child in general). I can feel her roll over, kick, stretch, etc. She has quite spells. All of yesterday was a quite spell, so of course I started to fret about her. In the evening I tried to get her to wake up a bit - tried the whole orange juice, laying on my left side thing. Nothing. I tried laying on my back (officially a counter-recommended position at this point, but one that for what ever reason, generally inspires Baby #2 to go crazy). Nothing. Just for fun, laid on my stomach...that woke her up. Seems she enjoyed being smooshed (or didn't enjoy it...its hard to say...) cause she bounced around quite contentedly for some time after that.

We are now officially at 24 weeks (and one day), which, if I remember correctly, marks "viability day". At this point, if she were to be born, doctors would at least be able to try and help her. And reportedly she weighs just over 1lb. Crazy. Thankfully, she seems quite comfortable where she is and will hopefully stay put for another 16 weeks or so.

Cuteness...to tide you over

2011-11-30T14:20:00.001-05:00

So much to blog about...so little time.

We were celebrating Thanksgiving in the wilderness last week, and so blogging was impossible. Now we are back and there is lots of blog about, but also lots of other things to do. Eventually blogging will resume, but in the mean time, a cute picture of little Papillon from vacation...wearing Uncle A's hat!

Enough cuteness to get you through until regular blogging resumes I hope...

Full Fledged Pony Tail

2011-11-30T09:00:00.000-05:00

It's hard to tell...

...cause once I got it up, she wouldn't hold still for a picture...

...but we got it ALL up!

A full fledged pony tail with all her hair! And it stayed in until we had to go somewhere in the car (car seats do a number on hairstyles that stick straight out the back).

People keep asking me when she is going to get her first hair cut. The correct answer is "not for a long time". It's long, yes. Sometimes it's in her face, yes. But Mon Amour and I both want Papillon to have long hair and don't want to deal with bangs. So I do my bestest with bows and pony tails. But there is no haircut in the works for this kiddo for now.

Before long we'll be working on braids!

Illness

2011-11-22T16:15:00.000-05:00

Last week marked an adventurous new first for us. Papillon had her first legitimate illness. Sure, we've been to the hospital for malnutrition, and she's had the sniffles, some yeast infections and one round of pink eye. But really, no serious bugs.

Until last week when we were hit by a stomach bug deluxe. We are pretty sure that Mon Amour brought this bug back from his travels; he had a bit of bug of his own when he returned, and based on the timing and symptoms of Papillon's illness, I think we can safely blame Mon Amour.

Symptoms included diarrhea (like whoa!), vomitting, a fever around 103, and a generally sleepy and desperately-in-need-of-snuggles-baby. She was sick most all week, and three solid days mostly looked like this:

Adorably pathetic, isn't it?

It was tough times. Turns out that pregnant me gets very emotional about a sick child. The morning she woke up with vomit in her hair, I just fell to tears. I wanted to make it better instantly but that was not possible. All we could do was snuggle, stay on a tylenol regimen and drink lots of water. (Side note: Papillon detests Pedialyte...we even watered it down with like 6 parts water to 1 part pedialyte...she is like a pedialyte bloodhound.)

I am pleased to report that she is nearly 100% better...I would call it 99%. I think we are just fighting some remaining weariness, and a bit of an addition to snuggles...

...despite the lack of symptoms, she has decided that snuggling all day is pretty much the best thing ever and gets more than a little whiny if you don't comply.

I am thankful for a generally very healthy kid, and also thankful for all the snuggles necessitated by this illness, but mostly thankful that the vomit-in-her-hair mornings are over....for now.

Just had to share

2011-11-21T14:00:00.000-05:00

Aren't these two the cutest, most innocent looking duo you've ever seen in a shopping cart together?

It's Papillon and her friend on a recent shopping trip, sharing a bag of goldfish

Baby Practice for Papillon

2011-11-18T09:00:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, we had a friend and her little red headed son visit us for a bit.

I love little babies, and we had lots of fun!

It was also good practice for this scruffy headed kid who is soon to be a big sister.

She was pretty good over all. She was ok when I held the little guy, and also enjoyed trying to hand him stuff and tickle him. But there were definite moments of jealousy and some post-baby-visit-clingy-ness has ensued. But who could resist being jealous of this adorable little face?

Leaf Raking

2011-11-17T09:00:00.000-05:00

Following some cold weather, and a very blustery day, a fair amount of the leaves around here are off the trees. This means it is time for some raking! And for introducing Papillon to some fall fun!

Believe it or not, Papillon loved her mittens despite how they prevented her from picking stuff up. I think she categorizes them in with accessories (shoes, socks, necklaces), all of which she loves.

She was not entirely sure how she felt about the whole fall-fun thing. The leaves were moderately interesting, but hard to walk through. And when I set her down in a pile of them, she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do.

So she mostly stood in one place for 45 minutes, watching me rake and staring at her mittens.

Despite the rather lack luster response, it was a pretty good introduction to leaf pile fun!

Visiting Friends

2011-11-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

While Mon Amour was traveling, we packed our schedule full of fun friends. Poor Papillon eventually got overwhelmed with all the visits, but over all, we had a hugely fun time!

Playing together!

Cute friends!

One night we had delicious spaghetti. Papillon has never really liked the spaghetti I make for her, but she LOVED this spaghetti. She at sooooooo much! And kept asking for more. She even preferred it over the accompanying bread, which is a first. Bread is generally a hands down favorite over anything.

Thanks to all the friends who helped pass the time pleasantly over the past couple weeks!

Halloween Cuteness

2011-11-14T13:55:00.000-05:00

For Halloween, Papillon and I had plans to sit on our front steps and hand out candy while she looked adorably cute in her frog costume. Unfortunately, our plans were foiled by circumstances beyond our control.

Nonetheless, Papillon managed to look adorably cute in her costume in the afternoon.

What a cute sad face!

A little froggy fun!

So excited!

Funny froggy face!

and a little climbing on Nannie's suitcase...

...in order to have a comfier seat for magazine reading.

Pony Tail!

2011-11-12T13:00:00.000-05:00

Guess who has enough hair for a pony tail!!

It doesn't quite all make it back, but we are very very very close!

16 Months

2011-11-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Papillon turned 16 months old...and she loves books!

But I have shared that before...it just so happened this time it was the only way to get her to hold remotely still for her Snoopy-photo.

At 16 months, Papillon....

....goes to bed around 7:30 and gets up anywhere from 7:30am til 9am. With the occasional 9:30am slipped in!

...takes 1 nap. Usually 1:30 - 4pm.

....has started saying more words. At her 15 month doctor's appointment, I had to confess that she only really said one word ("Hi"), but the week following that appointment she added a bunch of new words to her vocabulary! She says Hi, Eyes, Hot, Hat, Stuck, Yuck, Duck, Help, Elephant (usually with just 2 syllables, but there were 3 full syllables one time!), Mouth, Shoes, and a few other things said with varying clarity.

...is learning some body parts. She knows eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, tummy, hands, and feet. She can find them on other people, or stuffed animals or pictures. She is not super-good and finding them on herself, but she is getting there.

...is working on more teeth. Or at least one more - one on the top right. As always, it is coming in slowly and not causing us too much trouble. Slow and steady wins the race for this kiddo.

...is incredibly affectionate and loving. But I have concluded that she is a definite introvert. We have been all over the place lately, visiting friends, and staying with people while Mon Amour is out of town, and the poor kid just got totally overwhelmed. At one point we left one friends house, and I think she thought we were going home, cause when we arrive at another friend's house she gave me a look that could kill and then hid her face on my shoulder. After that trip was over, we came home and I didn't think she would nap because she had slept in the car, but I put her in her crib anyway. And she was just so happy to be home and alone, that she just sat and played for 1.5 hours. And afterwards she was hugely refreshed. So yeah, she's an introvert.

...loves her socks, shoes and coat. And necklaces. And the new bows we bought her the other day. Methinks she is all girl.

....loves to torment Marge. We had taught her that she could push Marge away if Marge tried to eat her snacks. Now she takes her snacks over to Marge, holds them out for her, then, squeals in pretend-anger and swats and Marge's face. She is such a tease. Our dog is so patient.

...is getting better and better at following orders. You ask her to find something for you (a book, a different book, her elephant, etc) and she can find it easily. It's amazing how much she understands!

....is incredibly sweet and fun loving and I love her to pieces!

Pretty Pics

2011-11-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

We recently visited with a friend who owns a swanky camera, and it happened to be a day that Papillon was feeling very photogenic, so the pictures just had to be shared!

Practical Things

2011-11-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

At her 15 month appointment, Papillon's doctor inquired whether Papillon was imitating household chores and such. In the moment I couldn't think of anything - we don't have a play kitchen, or a toy vacuum or any such thing, so I wasn't sure what kinds of things to look for.

True to form, it was just a day or two later, that she did this...

...keys right up to the doorknob, complete with unlocking motion.

So yes, she seems to be properly on track for imitating household stuff.

She has also, since, discovered the joys of stirring a pot full of small toys while I make dinner!

Random Lovely-ness

2011-11-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

Somehow I neglected to blog about this summer's annual outing with these lovely ladies:

But I recently stumbled across our pre-outing pictures and I couldn't resist posting them.

I love these lovely ladies!! I am already looking forward to next year's outing!

Mommy Daughter Date

2011-11-05T09:00:00.000-04:00

On a recent evening home alone, Papillon and I decided to go on a little date.

First stop, a shoe store. Papillon loves shoes. And it was a huge shoe store. So we walked around a bit, had fun times in the clearance section. Waved adorably at a few other shoe shoppers, and eventually found a fabulous pair of shoes for me.

Next stop Panera, where things got super fun!

Papillon enjoyed her grilled cheese sandwich and said Hi to everyone who came past. She played peek a boo with the lady in the booth next to us. She was excited to recognize the dog in the painting on the wall. Laughed at everything, and was generally just hilarious fun.

Nothing is quite as delicious as a good grilled cheese.

After dinner, it was already Papillon's bed time. But we had to walk past the Petsmart to get to our car, and who can resist taking a short cut into the retail store that's as good as a zoo to a 15 month old? In we went, Papillon was unsure at first, the largeness of the store was overwhelming. Then she spotted a dog across the store. She promptly let go of my hand, screamed in delight, and took off running. It was precious. Though her choice of dog was unwise (it was huge!), so I snatched her up and headed off to find something friendlier looking.

We admired the fish and frogs, birds and gerbils and eventually came across a nice little old lady who was more than happy to let Papillon pet and giggle over her tiny, fluffy dog.

By the time we got home we were both thoroughly bushed, but it was possibly one of the most fun Papillon and I have had together. She is normally a lot of fun, but this was an evening full of grinning-ear-to-ear giggling-at-everything, for both of us!

Treats with Grandpa

2011-11-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

After our recent fall fun outing, we stopped for a bit of lunch and a bit of ice cream after lunch.

Papillon loves ice cream, especially when it is Grandpa's ice cream.

Watch how this unfolds...Papillon next to Grandpa.

Papillon on Grandpa's lap.

No longer wanting to wait for every other bite...she wants her own spoon.

She scores her own spoon.

In fact she steals Grandpa's backup spoon as well.

Mmmm, so tasty!

Fall Fun

2011-11-03T09:00:00.000-04:00

On a recent visit to my parents, we took Papillon to to a Pumpkin Patch.

It was an absolutely gorgeous fall day.

Perfect for a hayride!

Papillon took in all the lovely sights along the way.

Despite her the hesitancy conveyed by the adorable thumb sucking, she was actually a huge fan of the hayride. When we stopped briefly, midway, she started bouncing and trying to get the drive to keep going.

We then braved the small but deceptively complex corn maze. Clearly I missed the memo about this being our scared-face photo.

When we got home we let Papillon play with some small pumpkins. She was hesitant to touch them at first, and insisted repeatedly that they were "hot". We eventually convinced her they were not hot, and she eventually enjoyed the fall fun.

Baby #2 is a....

2011-11-02T09:00:00.000-04:00

It's a Girl!

Yup, a 2nd girl for us. Papillon will have a little sister!

Here she is:

Silly little thing was squirming when we needed her to hold still and then when we needed to get a picture of her feet, she sat perfectly still, cross legged hiding her precious little toes. We eventually got a glimpse of those sizeable tootsies!

Everything was measuring right on track and looking perfectly healthy, weighing in at a whopping 10 oz. Oh, and good news, unlike Papillon, the placenta is not blocking her adorable little movements so these little movements that I have been feeling should just keep increasing!

We are pretty much set on her name, though she still needs a blog name.

Mon Amour, who was not in the country for the big ultrasound, but he called in at just the right time. So we got to hear the big gender reveal together! And right when Mon Amour called, our little girl put her hand up and very much appeared to be waving. It was such fun!

Papillon did a great job sitting through the ultrasound. We asked her if she was excited about her little sister and it is debatable whether she said "oh yay" or "no way". Only time will tell I suppose.

Now time to paint the our girls' room in beautiful girly colors!

Books Books and more Books

2011-11-01T09:00:00.000-04:00

Have I mentioned how much my kiddo loves books?

Cause I am pretty sure I can't over-emphasize that fact. She LOVES books.

Here is a little book-reading montage from the past weeks/months.

If she ever says no to book reading it means she is waaaay beyond tired and needs to go straight to bed. Otherwise she could read books from morning till night.

Last Year's Costume

2011-10-31T17:00:00.000-04:00

Papillon tested out her Halloween costume a little early this year in order to get some cute pictures for the bakery. She was not interested in wearing the hat, so we had to act fast to get a photo with the hat in it.

This was supposed to be her costume last year - it's a 6-9 month size. She wasn't quite 6 months last year, but we kind of thought it would work. Needless to say, our pipsqueak didn't even get close to filling it out last year. This year it is a tiny bit snug, but it works!

She very much enjoyed playing the "pull the hat off" game.

It made for crazy static-hair!

Festive Bridal Shower

2011-10-29T09:00:00.000-04:00

Last week, Papillon and I went to a bridal shower for a friend of mine from high school. It was a delightful little surprise shower that I was excited to be a part of!

Papillon got all decked out in party attire for the occasion. She seemed to enjoy all the people and excitement, and definitely enjoyed the cheese and crackers!

As with any good bridal shower, there were fun games and some present opening.

And some cheery toasts!

Despite the party running straight into bedtime, Papillon did a great job. She got a bit punchy at the end (note the slightly deranged gleam in her eye?)

And was completely tuckered out by the time we left.

A delightful time all around. Good work and mission accomplished to the secret party planning masterminds! Glad I could be a part of the fun!

Congrats to the bride to be; I am sorry we will be missing out on the big day!

Just Playing

2011-10-27T09:00:00.000-04:00

Asking for books.

Looking for crayons.

Putting crayons in the box.

Reading a magazine.

Oops. There went half a page.

Oh well.

Still fun times.

All in a mornings play time!

Tickling the Baby

2011-10-26T20:52:00.000-04:00

Lately we have been seizing every opportunity to let Papillon play with babies younger than she. Got to get some good practice in before her little sibling arrives. She has developed a bit of a jealous streak when it comes to me holding other babies, but as long as they are not sitting on my lap, she generally finds little ones to be lots of fun.

We recently had a little friend over, and I showed Papillon how she could tickle him (Papillon is a big fan of tickling herself and others). She thought it was hilarious. She tickled him once, but then couldn't manage to do it again cause she would reach out to tickle and burst into fits of laughter that would interupt the actual tickling process.

I managed to get one good photo of the interaction.

Nursing the 2nd Time Around - The Plan

2011-10-25T20:00:00.000-04:00

If you recall, nursing Papillon was quite an adventure for us. That is not an adventure that I would like to repeat. For that reason, ever since that fateful day that drove me to the most ridiculous nursing routine in the world (you recall how I was literally attached to the baby or the pump for 12+ hours a day?), we have been making plans for our 2nd go-round with nursing.

Am I nervous about it? Yes and no. I feel worlds more confident that I will know what I am doing and will able to tell if it is not going right. Though it is also possible that I will be paranoid at all points that it just isn't working, when maybe it is going quite well indeed. Mainly, my nervousness, though, comes from being nervous that my body is just plain not cut out for nursing a big baby. Papillon didn't really start growing at a "normal" rate until after she turned 1 when we started introducing whole milk. If she hadn't started out at a whopping 9+lbs, she would have fallen off the growth chart all together. Perhaps my body produces skim milk....or maybe just plain not enough. Cause I nursed on demand, nursed round the clock, pumped like crazy on top of that, and Papillon only managed to squeak on a few ounces a week if that. Therein lies my nervousness.

Generally though, I am more focused and driven than nervous. We have a plan, and there is no way it could go as badly as it did the first time around. (I think) What is the plan?

Well, for starters, I am going to nurse that baby the moment he/she is born. Ok, maybe not that exact moment. But I do believe with Papillon we missed that window of alertness that newborns have right after birth, and she fell sound asleep without having learned the joys of eating, so she just kept sleeping and sleeping. Barring another crazy-emergency delivery, this little baby will be handed to me immediately and won't leave my arms until we have at least offered some nursing.

Also, we are going to meet with the lactation consultant multiple times before we leave the hospital. This hospital has a lactation consultant on duty 24/7. Not every other day, during business hours, not including weekends, like our previous hospital did. I am going to capitalize on this resource even if I feel like I am doing it all right from day one.

Also, we are walking out of the hospital with our new born baby in one hand and a hospital grade pump in the other. The two weeks I had my hospital pump last time were up there with the worst in my life, but it was my nursing salvation. It is quite possible I will have a baby this time that had no problem communicating to my body that he/she is ravenous and needs me to produce tons of milk. But in the chance that he/she is not that convincing, the pump should do the trick.

My focus at the beginning is simply going to be on feeding the baby. Obviously Papillon will need my attention as well. But when it comes to the new baby, I am not going to stress (or at least try not to stress) about anything else. I think with Papillon I was worried about whether or not I was doing enough with her - was she wearing cute enough outfits? Was she sleeping properly? Was she being held enough? Photographed enough? Had we put her in the sling yet? There will be time for all of that later. The first couple weeks, all I will be worried about is - is this baby eating? I mean, really, they are a newborn, what else do they need to do? I feel like I understand much better now the difference between a newborn and a baby, and I think that perspective is going to be very helpful this time around.

So there you have it. That is the plan. Lord willing nursing will be a pleasant experience from day one this time around.

Sweet Video

2011-10-21T09:01:00.000-04:00

Papillon has taken to doing this squinty-eye thing fairly regularly. We thought it was totally random (I thought maybe it was because she had hair in her eyes...) but it seems that while babysitting Papillon recently, her Aunt was teaching her to blink firmly and I suspect that is what she has been showing us.

Mon Amour tried to get a video of the cuteness the other day and succeeded in getting a video of the squinty eyes, kiss-y face, "Hi" and some walking. Pretty much all of Papillon's cutest tricks. So, enjoy

Not as Warm

2011-10-19T09:00:00.000-04:00

We have a very fun weather gadget hanging on our fridge. It continuously updates the forecast throughout the day with current temp, highs, lows, 5 day forecast, etc. It also provides a little on sentence description of the day. Some times they are generic, like "Partly cloudy". Or "Chance of thunderstorm in the afternoon".

But some times they are more creative. We have seen things like "Showers in the vicinity". "Chance of a passing shower". "Sunny and seasonable". That kind of thing.

This was possibly my favorite forecast description:

"What's the weather supposed to be like today, dear?"

"'Not as warm.' End of story"

How informative.

Begging

2011-10-17T09:00:00.000-04:00

Papillon loves books. When she gets it in her head she wants you to read her one, there is no refusing her. For example...here is a series of photos Mon Amour took instead of reading Papillon the book of choice:

"Please, dad, just read me this one little book."

"Oh, dad, stop taking photos and read me the book. "

"I guess I will pull out the sweet face and the sign language."

Papillon knows a number of signs and sometimes uses them properly. More often than not though, she just plows through all the signs she knows until you finally cave into doing what you want her to do. In this instance, I believe she tried, "more" and "please" and possibly "book" followed by lots of "pleases" again.

Eventually, after a few more photos, Mon Amour caved and read her the book.

17 Weeks

2011-10-13T19:25:00.004-04:00

I am 17 weeks along today, and feeling great!
I forgot amidst all the unpleasantness of switching doctors how much I love being pregnant. I have been spoiled with easy pregnancies, so that helps. And my baby-belly is hard to hide these days; not huge, but hard to hide which is fine by me. Voila, the 17 week baby belly.

Officially, less poundage than last time, but some how a rounder belly? At least that is how it seems to me.

Symptoms: Not much. Tired sometimes. Hungry all the time. And most nights are filled with crazy and generally frightening dreams. Other than that, no "symptoms" to report. Oh, except that my finger nails are growing at a ridiculous pace again - yay for an influx of growth hormones!

Again with this pregnancy I wouldn't say that I am having cravings, but I definitely have strong feelings about food. I either love it or I hate it. Foods I love: Mac and Cheese, Panera's Broccoli Cheddar Soup, Cereal with Milk, Ice Cream. The common thread...dairy. Yes. I love dairy. Between Papillon and myself (Mon Amour doesn't like milk) we are buying milk 2 gallons at a time these days.

Still no convincing movement so far from this baby. I was really hoping for a crazy wiggly baby this time. But perhaps we have another laid back kid on our hands. From time to time I think I feel something, but nothing repetitive or convincing.

I have found a doctor that I am pretty sure I like. I have only had one visit with them, so i am hesitant to go all out and say they are the best ever. But it was definitely a positive experience and I am looking forward to going back at the end of the month.

We also toured the hospital of choice this past week and over all that was also encouraging. Our tour guide was of the drill-sergeant variety, but if you could get beyond that, the hospital itself seems like a great place to deliver. The have labor tubs, wireless monitors, spacious yet cozy delivery rooms and they are only 15 minutes from our house. I still need to look in to their volunteer doula program which I am very excited about!

I am very excited about this 2nd little child. Papillon is at a very fun age, but I have a weakness for tiny babies. I love them to pieces and can't wait to have my own again. Overall I am not anxious (yet) about juggling two kids. I know it will be an adjustment, but on the whole, I am just really excited about it. I feel like I can plan a little better with this baby than with Papillon, cause I know what to plan for (or at least I think I do!).

The one thing (or at least the main thing) that I am worried about with Baby #2 is that I really really fail at asking for help. And I know that I will need help. I know that I am not super-woman, and that I can't do it all. But gosh, darn it, if I don't try...and sometimes run myself into the ground because I won't swallow my pride and accept that I can't be all things to all people.
I hate needing help. I loathe asking for help. And I am uncomfortable receiving help. This is going to need to change. I am pretty confident God is going to be working on my idol of self-sufficiency in the coming year, and I just hope he's willing to teach me gently.

Waking Up

2011-10-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

Papillon loves her sleep, but she also loves playing with her stuffed animals when she awakes. The following are three videos of our wake-up routine. I used to just go in, she would be excited and reach for me to pick her up right away. Now she does NOT want me to pick her up right away, she wants me to hand her more stuffed animals so she can kiss them all, give a few of them hugs, and generally just have crazy fun times in her crib before she will let me get her out of bed. All three of these videos are from the same wake-up sequence. We generally play like this for 10-15 minutes in the morning and after a nap. It's a nice excuse for me to just sit and relax!

There is a lot of footage in the following three videos, so I understand if you don't watch them all. But they are super sweet, and you should look out for her sweet puckered-lip kissing face and her adorable hugging and crazy enthusiasm. It's super cute.

15 Months

2011-10-11T08:30:00.001-04:00

Yesterday my little Papillon turned 15 months old.

It was very tricky to get a picture of her with Snoopy this time - she would not sit still for one moment unless she was sitting on my lap, which is not conducive to taking pictures.

This one is what was like to call Classic Papillon:

A funny little serious face that just totally captures her personality. If only she hadn't knocked Snoopy over. Oh well.

Despite a more accurate size comparison, it's clear (I think) that she has grown a lot since last month. We haven't had her official 15 month appt yet, but a recently appointment put her at significantly over 21 lbs! That is progress!
And just for fun...look at one year ago when she was just three months!

At 15 months, Papillon...

...loves her sleep. For a solid 2 weeks she was getting up after 9am everyday, sometimes as late as 10am. Growth spurt perhaps? It was lovely. Now she is back to getting up a little earlier, but she is perfectly content to play in her crib by herself for a long time. Somtimes as much as an hour. This is very indicative of her personality - very laid back, go with the flow, come get me whenever, kind of baby.

....is officially down to one nap. It starts at 1 or 2pm and ends at 3:30 or 4pm. It's been an adjustment not having two nap time sin which it get stuff done, but it's also been nice to have the whole morning to be out and about without worrying about Papillon being crabby and in need of a nap.

...has stalled at just 8 teeth. No signs of anything new. No molars. No nothing. Just 4 on the top, 4 on the bottom.

....eats most anything if you are persistent. Anything she does not recognize gets refused right off the bat, but if you hide it initially (in yogurt, or on bread or something) she will eventually eat it without the disguise. Favorite foods are still bananas, grapes, any bread products, peanut butter, and ice cream. Certain vegetables and all chicken, requires more disguising than most other foods.

....still mostly just says "Hi" and "this" and "that" (used to add emphasis when pointing to something). She makes tons of sounds though. When reading her Dr Seuss alphabet book, she often pulls out an awesome "Zzzz" sound. Her favorite page in that book is the "Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz" page!

....loves to give kisses. She will give kisses to most anyone that she recognizes. And also to all her stuffed animals and some other random objects as well. (reportedly she kissed an Xbox controller the other day. haha). She puckers up by sucking in her top lip and makes a great kissing noise. Generally if she gives you one kiss she will give you 3 or 4. And while she is very generous with her kisses, she does refuse you sometimes. Mostly she refuses Mon Amour, I think she thinks its a game. Cause she will lean in for a kiss, then when he gets close, she pulls her head away and shakes her head vigorously while smiling ridiculously. Getting a picture of the kissing face is tough, this is the best we could do.

...is walking! We have known for a long time that she could walk, she just didn't want to let go of our hand. But finally yesterday, she found her confidence! She still crawls and holds on to the wall when possible. But if the shortest distance between her and the thing she wants is across the middle of the room, she just takes off! I am a happy momma. Will this make life busier? Probably. But really, Papillon has been dying to walk for a long time now and when she wasn't confident about it she would stand holding on to something and just fuss until I came over and gave her my hand. So, life will be more fast paced from now on, but I will totally take it! Sorry for the sideways-ness of the video...one day I will learn to hold the camera the right way for videos...

....loves books, Marge, taking walks, and hanging out with friends of any age.

...and just for fun, here is a video of her with a toy she rediscovered yesterday. For the first time she figured out how to stack the circle on the post, and she loved it. Over the course of the day she stacked and dumped and stacked again for probably well over an hour.

Happy 15 Months Papillon!
You are more and more fun every day and I love love love being your mom and watching you learn and play and grow every day! I never get tired of it.

Fine Arts Festival

2011-10-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we went on a mini road trip to visit these friends and their adorable new little baby! It was the Little Baby's First Big Outing! And also his first time in the sling - yay for babywearing!

We went to a nearby Fall Fine Arts Festival. The weather was absolutely perfect for it! And there were lots of fun vendors and music and tasty treats. There were also Papillon-sized chairs!

And the highlight of the show was this glass pumpkin patch! Each pumpkin is a little different and there were tons to chose from! Big ones, little ones, orange ones, uniquely colored ones, etc. It was pretty nifty.

Papillon totally embraced her almost-walking skills a lot. She walked (holding our hands) for a really really long ways. She doesn't make very good time, but when you are browsing different art booths, toddler-speed is just about right. See how hard she concentrates when walking (note the tongue sticking out)

We got to see how they make the pumpkins - its a pretty elaborate process!

Storyville

2011-10-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

It had been a while since Papillon and I had ventured out to Storyville, so one Friday afternoon when the to-do list was under control, off we went for a little fun.

She is getting sooo close to walking. She really wanted to walk over to me with this book, but she couldn't quite do it (the book was throwing off her balance).

We tried on the bear costume, but it was a bit big, so instead we played with some musical instruments.

Bear costume falling off...

The stuffed frog was lots of fun!

As was the doll house.

Possibly the most fun was just walking around staring curiously at the other kids.

She is signing more....I am not sure what she wanted more of...perhaps just more fun times?

Using a Spoon

2011-10-05T09:00:00.000-04:00

Papillon is getting better and better at using her spoon (and even her fork), see:

And yes, her hair is currently smeared with applesauce....but trust me, her spoon skills are improving.

Bagels!

2011-10-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

The other day, Mon Amour was in the mood for a baking adventure. He offered to make dinner, an offer which should make any busy homemaker very happy. But, I must confess I am the type that often finds it easier to do things myself, my own way, than to let others help in their own way. I tried my best to support his enthusiasm, but when he settled on making bagels so we could have bagel sandwiches I was truly super excited.

This was not our first bagel making adventure, but it had been a while, and we opted for a new recipe. We made a double batch - which made a small mountain of dough.

Which we then shaped into bagel-shapes and let rise.

Next, you boil for about 60 seconds, and let cool. Note the awesome looking steam!

Top with deliciousness like garlic and oregano and bake for a bit. And Voila! Bagels!

They were a little flatter than we thought they would be...perhaps something went awry with our yeast, but all in all they were deeeelicious!

Here is the recipe (I am a minimalist when it comes to directions so forgive me if it doesn't make sense) adapted from the "Heirloom Cooking with the Brass Sisters" cookbook:

2 packages dry yeast
1/2 warm water
1 t sugar

5 c flour
2 T salt
1 and 1/2 c water
1 T sugar
2 T vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add sugar and allow to proof in warm spot for 10 mins.
All all remaining ingredients EXCEPT the egg. And beat in stand mixer (or with much effort, by hand) for 1-2 minutes, then knead for 3-5 minutes.
Let rise about 1 hour.
Divide dough into 12 equal parts, and shape like bagels (either by rolling and making circles, or flattening and punching a whole in the middle)
Let bagels rest for 15 minutes
Bring large pot of water to boil.
Drop bagels (a couple at a time, only as many as will fit floating on the surface of your water) into boiling water. Boil for 60 seconds, flipping halfway through.
Remove and let rest for 15 minutes.
Repeat with remaining bagels.
Brush tops of bagels with the beaten egg. Top with desired toppings (can do plain, cinnamon, garlic, whatever).
Bake for 15-18 minutes at 450 degrees.