Tuesday, December 29, 2009

My Sixteen Month Old

I realized that my post "My 15 month old" got cut off somewhere and I don't remember exactly what was missing. I do know that it originally included something about how the post was extremely late (considering that CC was more than 15 and a half months old when I posted it), and that some of the info. was out of date. So, hopefully this will clear things up a bit.

Oh, and one more thing missing from that post was about how sick Christina has been lately. She had that pesky ear infection which we got antibiotics for immediately, but unfortunately a week later we had to take her back to the doctor because she had a fever of 103.5. Turns out the antibiotics never worked and on top of the ear infection she also ended up with RSV and Pneumonia!

She officially has been diagnosed with Reactive Airways Disease (the kid version of Asthma) and we had to return to the 'ol inhaler again. My poor baby even had to go to the hospital and get tortured. Three attempts at an IV finally landed her with fluids, medicine, and steroids; she also had two chest xrays; had blood taken; and a bunch of other terribly annoying things for a baby to deal with. Thank goodness she is all better now though.

So yeah, like I was saying . . . . My sixteen month old:

- likes to color. She is getting very good at it too. She knows how to make lots of marks on the paper, which I hear is an important milestone. We are still working on keeping the crayons out of her mouth, but I hear that is a battle we will likely be fighting for a long time. It seems that whenever I tell her not to put something in her mouth, she gets very excited and immediately takes whatever she has in her hand and shoves it into her mouth. She thinks it is just the funniest game.

- is starting to prefer eating what I eat over anything else offered to her. She shares my bagel with me every morning and whenever I am eating pasta, she always wants some of that too. She is still crazy about fruit though, whether I eat it or not.

- is extremely affectionate lately. She loves to give hugs, especially to Amstel (one of our dogs). Every time she gives a hug to anyone or anything (even a stuffed animal), everyone in the room says "aaawww" because really it is just so darn cute. I'm sure all of the attention is why she continues to do it. I hope she never stops with that one. I love her warm and sweet hugs.

- is very strong. I don't think I've ever mentioned it here before, but she has always been very strong. I call her my little hulk baby. She likes to pick up heavy things and just carry them around. She does this with a small table we have in our living room, her plastic chairs, her lunch bag, her diaper bag, etc. At the grocery store she will sit in the front of the cart and pull things out of the inside of the cart. She can even lift a gallon of milk. When she was in the hospital and the nurses had to hold her down to take her blood and give her the IV, it took four of us to hold her down! I was on one side with my Dad and Nik, while the two nurses were on the other side (one of which was taking the blood or putting in the IV -not holding CC down). Even the nurse was surprised at her strength and commented on it.

- doesn't really let anyone read to her, but loves to flip through her books. She is very independent that way and in many other ways as well.

- prefers to feed herself. It is still a little messy, but she is getting really good at it. In fact she must understand the process extremely well considering she feeds her baby doll now.

- squeals with joy whenever she sees someone she loves, like when Daddy comes home from work or Grandma comes for a visit. It is the most adorable thing. She starts squealing and bouncing around all over the place. She just gets so happy and really knows how to show it.

- got three toy phones for Christmas and absolutely loves each of them.

- continues to go to sleep every night without any crying or fighting whatsoever. I am so lucky. All I have to do is tell her night-night and let her say good night to whomever is home (including the dogs), I hug and kiss her and tell her I love her, then I put her in her crib and cover her with a blanket. She goes right to sleep after that, every night. Plus, she sleeps for 12 hours at least. Her naps are not always as easy, but I will take what I can get.

- still only has six teeth (four on top, two on the bottom). I feel like she is going to be in kindergarten before she has a mouth full of teeth. But that is ok with me.

- has eyes that change colors each day. It is very weird and I'm curious to see if this will continue. One day her eyes are blue, the next they are hazel and still the next day they could be brown. Some days she has a ring of blue around the outside, but the inside is either hazel or brown. It is anybody's guess what color her eyes will be on a given day. Nik thinks it is her genes fighting with each other to see who will win, lol. I don't know, but it would be pretty interesting if her eyes continue to change day in and day out.

- is going to be moving to the pre-toddler room at daycare soon, since she is walking now. I think this is going to be a good move for her. She loves that room and loves the teachers. There is more space and instead of baby toys she has big kid toys she can play with. She usually spends part of her days there anyway, so for her it will be an easy transition. For me it will be a little harder because I LOVE a couple of the teachers in the infant room. I know I will get comfortable with the pre-toddler teachers too though, it will just take some time.

Well, I think that is all I have for now. Happy Sixteen Month Old Birthday Christina!! I can't believe how big you are getting! Muah!

Monday, December 28, 2009

Merry Christmas

I know I'm a little late with this one, but I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Things have been pretty hectic with my family, but overall Christmas went well. Christina got totally spoiled and now she has enough toys to fill up every inch of our condo. Just another reason we have to move!

Everyone was very generous this year and Christina is really loving all of her new gifts. She is also walking all over the place like crazy now. She basically doesn't even crawl anymore. It has been so awesome watching her over the last few days. Among many other gifts, she got a baby doll and a baby stroller. Christina loves to push the baby all over the house in the stroller. She also got two more baby dolls and tons of baby accessories. One accessory is a high chair. Christina loves to feed her baby in the high chair. It is just amazing to see how she knows exactly what to do. And her favorite word now is "baby". She just loves all of her baby doll's and all of the fun things she can do with them.

I have lots of pictures and videos (of course), but forgot my camera and video camera at my Mom's. I will post them when I can.

Until then, Happy Holiday's everyone!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

My 15 month old

-Says "Auntie" when she points to a picture of Auntie Rachel and Auntie Cassie.

-Can point to her nose (most of the time) when asked "Where is your nose?" and can always point to Daddy's nose when asked "Where is Daddy's nose?"

-Wants to get down and walk around when I am walking the dogs. But since she still doesn't walk much on her own, this means I have to hold her hand which can get a little tricky since I am also holding the dog leashes and trying to keep them from knocking her down.

-Sometimes calls the dogs "Bad Dog" because she hears it from me all of the time.

-Says the word "gentle" and totally knows what it means. Yet that doesn't stop her from beating me and Nik up from time to time. She gets very excited and lets her hands go flying.

-Still loves daycare soooo much! When I pick her up, she is happy to see me. She gives me a smile and a squeal, then she continues with her playing. Most of the time she even runs away from me (i.e. crawls very fast) because she doesn't want to go home. I guess daycare, or "school" as we call it, is just way more fun than our boring old house.

-Loves to feed herself using a spoon or fork, but she still can't be trusted to hold the plate/bowl/jar. I usually help her manuver the spoon/fork into the food and she does the rest.

-Says "Mama" like a million times a day.

-Insists on pushing her food off of her tray and onto the floor whenever she doesn't want it. When she was at Grandma's recently and started to do that, Grandma said "No Christina, don't throw your food on the floor". Christina pointed to the food on the floor and said "Dog". (Knowing full well that the dogs always clean up after her lol). Grandma then reminded Christina that the dogs are not at her house and Christina stopped throwing food on the floor! :-) If only it were that easy to get her to listen to me sometimes.

-Found a midway point between crawling and walking. She now spends a lot of time walking across the room on her knees. She wants to keep her hands free, but she doesn't want to deal with her wobbly legs.

-Is finally starting to eat real food. Whenever she sees me eating pasta, she always wants some. She also stole a pop tart from me recently. I was very surprised.

-Absolutely loves fruit (blueberries, banana's, strawberries, honey due, cantalope, etc). It is definitely her favorite food group.

-Loves to say "baby" and points out babies whenever she has the chance.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Holiday Pictures

We took CC for holiday pictures a few weeks ago. She wasn't feeling well so it was a pretty painful experience. But, we did come out with some cute pictures. Take a look:







Friday, December 11, 2009

Santa

Christina has an ear infection (booooo), so we didn't get to go to New York like we had planned. We were going to take her to see Santa at Macy's and then to Rockefeller Center. Oh well, next year maybe.

We did manage for her to see Santa at the mall. She was happy before and happy after, but during the whole "sitting on Santa's lap", uuummm, not so much.

Proof:



But she is still the cutest kid I have ever seen :-)

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Name my Frogs


Brookstone sells this cute little Frog-o-sphere. It's a little tank with two frogs, a snail, living gravel, and bamboo. Awhile back Nik, Christina and I were in the mall and we happened to see them as we walked by. I had frogs when I was in college, so immediately I was drawn to them. An hour later we were on our way home with new pets. This was a few months ago and still the frogs have no name.

Nik is very bothered by this. Since they are technically my frogs, I should be the one to name them. I keep telling Nik I will name them in my own time, but truthfully nothing is coming to me. So, help me please. Any suggestions? I'm sure someone can come up with something cute.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has some fun and exciting plans for today, lots of food, time with family, maybe some shopping this weekend?

Happy Turkey Day!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

A Little Baby Attitude

Normally I am against forcing something on children. Like for example, I'm not really thrilled about dressing Christina in anything that has a character, a sports team, or a saying on it. I figure that when she is old enough to want to wear those things, then she should. Until then, I'd rather try to stick to generic stuff. Of course I'm totally for bibs that say "I love my Mommy" or something like that but come on, I know she loves her Mommy even if she can't say it, so there really isn't a problem there :-)

I did happen to stumble onto this website though and I found the shirts to be hilarious.





If Christina could talk, I could definitely see her saying all of these, especially "I'll walk when I'm good and ready"! Although she takes steps without a problem and I KNOW she CAN walk, she just won't. Whenever we try to egg her on, she'll just sit down. So yeah, she will walk when she is good and ready. Very cute shirts. They have a bunch of others too, but those three in particular fit Christina.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Last swim class

This weekend Christina had her last swim class for the season. I'm sure we will sign her up for another class in the spring, but for now it is her last class.

As far as skills go, I don't really think she learned anything. I think that everything she did in class was pretty instictual. It is always good to practice though. Also, skills aside, I think she enjoyed the class. At this point, that is the main goal. When she gets older, then the skills of learning to swim will be a bit more important.

Overall, I think the class went very well. I didn't pick a great time of day for the class though. I chose Saturday at 11am so that we could take our time in the mornings. I thought that maybe Christina would get a nap in before we left the house. In realty, it quickly became obvious that there was no time for a nap since she would normally not take a nap any earlier than 10am. This meant that each and every Saturday, she was already very tired by the time the class started.

She wasn't cranky or anything during the classes, but she obviously wasn't completely into it. On some days she just went along with everything we did and didn't even smile. I know the class was still enjoyable for her, but if it had been a litter earlier or a little later, I think that would have worked out better. Next time I will keep that in mind.

Anyway, I told you that last weekend my Mom did the swim class with Christina so I could sit a week out. I wasn't feeling too well and I wanted to give my Mom a chance to do a class. The great thing about that was that I took a lot of video and some pictures. Take a look at a couple clips of Christina's swim class:




And here are some pictures:






Sunday, November 15, 2009

New Music

I love Lady Gaga's new song Bad Romance and Ke$sha's Tik Tok. Tell me what you think about the songs and the video for Bad Romance.


Lyrics | Lady GaGa lyrics - Bad Romance lyrics


Lyrics | Kesha lyrics - Tik Tok a.k.a. Dolla lyrics

Saturday, November 14, 2009

First Steps

My Mom came over today so that she could come to Christina's swim class. In fact, she did the class with her. I took pictures and video that I will post another time. Today, I want to share something more exiciting.

After swim class and lunch, we went back to my house. My Mom has been very anxious to get Christina to walk so she started trying to entice her to walk. Of course she is walking no problem while she pushes her toys across the room, but she hasn't done it on her own yet.

My Mom set Christina up on her feet and let her get her balance as she let go of her. While she was standing on her own, my Mom then encouraged her to walk towards her. Can you believe it, it actually worked! She walked right towards Grandma!

The first time she did it, she took like three or four steps towards my Mom. She did awesome! It was so exciting to be able to see it. After she had done it a couple of times, I grabbed my camera. As usual the video isn't quite as good as it was in person, she didn't take as many steps as she did when I wasn't recording, but still, it is pretty cool!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

And she's walking, sort of

Ok, so she is holding onto a toy, but she is walking while she pushes it along . . . and she is doing it so well!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

I'm Old

I came across some pictures of myself from a few years back (ok, ten years ago) and I was shocked to see how young I looked. I must be old now, lol.


Now: (just ignore the crazy looking guy next to me, lol)

Then:
(high school)





(College years):
Hey, I guess I'm not the only one that got old. (Sorry honey!)

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Standing Tall

Over the weekend, Christina took her first steps.

I don't think it officially counts though since she didn't actually mean to take them. Nik was holding onto her hands and sort of running around the room with her. He would lift her up and make it seem like she was running over all of the couches and then back to the floor. (She was loving it). Then, he let her go and she just kept on walking by herself.

After a couple of steps she realized she wasn't holding onto Daddy's hands and then she sort of stumbled into a sitting position. I got to see it first hand, which was awesome. She was clearly walking. She had the strength and the balance - but not the confidence. It is only a matter of time.

In fact, the very next day I saw her practicing trying to stand up without holding on to anything. She kept practicing over and over again, getting half way up and then sitting down again.

On Saturday, while we were at my Mom's house to celebrate her birthday, Christina decided to give Grandma a wonderful birthday present. Even though she was wearing slippery tights, she was able to stand all the way up on her own. Then she did it again and she continued to do it over and over again. It was so cute and so exciting. She loved it and was so proud of herself for being able to do it.

Nik and I got to see it first hand. We were so excited. We would stay as quiet as possible as she stood up, and then once she sat back down we would applaud and tell her what a good job she did.

After she had stood up about six times or so I finally realized that I should have had my video
camera going! Duh!! I didn't have it at my Mom's house, but I did have my digital camera, which can take video. So I ran to grab it and I caught this, it isn't the best, but it is something:


Monday, November 9, 2009

Jury Duty

This week I'm at Jury Duty. I can't tell you how much better this experience has already been compared to the last time I had Jury Duty.

Before Nik and I bought a Condo four years ago and moved to the middle of nowhere, we lived in Hudson County, NJ. Jury Duty in Hudson County was a miserable experience. Driving there was a nightmare, finding parking was a nightmare, everyone around was mean and rude and everything you looked at, touched, or sat on was dirty. They made you sit in a room and they pretty much left you there to rot. I did get called into the court, but didn't get put on a trial. That pretty much sums up my first Jury Duty sentence.

There is a world of difference between that and this. Where I live now (in the middle of nowhere), the court house is located in a pretty little town not far from where I live. They have a parking garage that we can use free of charge. They greeted us with smiles and hello's when we came in. They provided us with an entire orientation in which we watched a video all about Jury Duty and then a nice woman proceeded to tell us all about what we can expect and answered all of our questions.

This woman covered everything you ever wanted to know about Jury Duty. When I did this in Hudson County I was completely clueless. But here, wow, she covered everything from where the bathrooms are to how much we will get paid to how long a trial might last. She told us she would keep us updated throughout the day about which trials are in the court and whether they settle or whether they will need a Jury. She told us she would tell us when the court is done for the day so that we could leave early. She told us we have AN HOUR AND A HALF for lunch. She told us where we could go for lunch, what was good in the area, and that there is a refrigerator and microwave in a nearby room.

But wait, there's more. She told us to take our jackets if we get called to court because it might be cold. She told us to feel free to talk on our cell phones while waiting to be called to court. She told us to make sure to tell the Judge if we have a hardship of some kind and therefore can not serve on a trial. Vacations actually count has hardships.

I distinctly remember that last time I was called for Jury Duty, everyone got piled into a stuffy room in which we had to sit in horribly uncomfortable chairs all day long. Each person was practically stacked on top of the next.

Here, not only are we in a nice bright room that use to be part of a church, but we have very comfortable chairs, tables with outlets for lap tops and a Plasma TV. There are plenty of seats so that everyone can spread out.

The orientation covered so many details, that she even told us the history of the building we are in. She went so far as to tell us about the architecture, the stain glass windows, who the artist was and that the colors are no longer used. This building is apparently very special and she seems to have a passion for talking about it.

Where I am??? This can't be Jury Duty, can it???

It seems like I'm on a business trip or something. I'm about to start a training or a conference. Aren't people suppose to dread Jury Duty? Well, I'm not. But, let's see how this goes.

I'm interested to hear what your experience with Jury Duty has been. Please, spill the beans!

Preview for next time . . . Christina is standing on her own now and even took a couple of steps over the weekend. I'll tell you all about it and I have video!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Pre-Black Friday Sale - Today!

Apparently, today retailers are kicking off the holiday shopping season. There are great sales going on right now. I know I've already emailed a bunch of people about it, but I thought I would post it here as well.

Today you can get an XBox 360 for $199 with a $99 e-gift card either at Walmart or Walmart.com. You can also get a Sony Bluray player for only $150 at Walmart or Sears.com. Sears.com also has a Samsung Bluray player for only $150.

Both Walmart and Sears are also having great sales on TV's if you are in the market. JCPenny and Kmart are having great sales on lots of stuff as well. So, now is a great time to start your holiday shopping!

You can check it all out on my favorite black friday website.

Happy Shopping.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

The Curse of the Car Accidents

Over the summer, my step dad was in a car accident.

Only a couple of weeks later, he was in another car accident.

A month and a half ago, I was in a car accident.

A couple of weeks ago, my Mom was in a car accident.

On Monday, my sister Mindy was in a car accident.

Thank goodness no one was seriously injured. But, please, be careful out there. Let's hope this curse has run it's course. We don't need any more accidents in our family.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween


I hope everyone is having a great Halloween. We went pumpkin picking either this week, CC had a Halloween parade at daycare yesterday and today we went trick-or-treating of course. Christina had so much fun playing with her candy.



Happy Halloween!!

















Thursday, October 29, 2009

Picture Post



In September, my Mom and I took Christina to Sesame Place again. We got to go on a hay ride, see a bunch of fun shows, and go on some rides.


We went on the Merry-go-Round of course. She sat on the horse all by herself this time.


She went on the Tea Cup ride. We weren't sure if she was too little for it and we were nervous about it spinning too much. But, she didn't seem to mind. She liked grabbing onto the wheel in the middle.


Whatcha lookin' at Christina?


She loved playing with all of these cushiony shapes or whatever they are.  She would have stayed there all day if we let her.


If anyone has any idea what this face is about, please tell me.  It is so cute. (everything she does is cute though, right?)



Look at those bottom teeth!


She looks terrified here!  But really, she was ok, I promise.


Check out this cute outfit.  (Thanks Dot and Dave!)


 Apparently, CC isn't afraid of sand anymore.  Although I think it has more to do with the fact that this was a sand box and not the beach.  There is something about the beach that she doesn't like.


 I think she was trying to tell me that she was thirsty, lol.


I have a lot of versions of this picture in case you haven't noticed.  It's because she is always looking up at me (and the camera) wanting something (usually me, the camera and/or her milk).


Rough housing with Daddy . . .


Doesn't she look like such a big girl when she is wearing jeans?  I think so at least.


All bundled up


 Here CC is wearing an outfit that Grandma and Granddad got her from England.  Very cute!
 


Christina loves her "big girl chair"


How cute is this little dress?  Can you see the corset-type ties on the side?  This outfit came to us from family in Greece.  How cool is that?  She gets to wear stuff from all over the world!


Christina also loves her lion ride-on toy (thanks Pete and Arlene!)  She is wearing a cute Elmo outfit that we got second hand from my best friend Melissa (thanks Melissa!)


It is so cute when she sits in her chair and plays with her stuffed animals.  I always keep Pennington Bear (straight from England, thank you Gordon!) and Winnie the Pooh on the chair.  I also love this outfit she is wearing (Thanks Mom!)


In the spirit of the season, I put this cute little Halloween outfit on CC last Friday.


Over the weekend we went to visit Auntie Rachel in the Pocono's.  Half of the time we were there, Christina was cleaning the whole house with a baby wipe.  I don't know why, she just wanted to, lol.


Sometimes, she used a baby wipe in each hand.


She really didn't want to give up those baby wipes.


I took some pictures of Christina's bedroom for her baby book.


This doesn't really have anything to do with Christina, but the other day when we got home from work/daycare, we saw this:


And that's all for today.  Next, I plan on sorting through all of the video's I've taken over the last month.  I  know I've got some good one's and I hope to put some here.