My Twenty-One Month Old

- falls a lot. Not because she doesn't walk well, but because she throws her body around and has no fear.

- makes a funny face when she says any word beginning with a "c" like cat, cookie or cracker. It is sort of like the Elvis lip.

- loves to look at pictures, but she especially loves to look at pictures of herself

- likes to rearrange the furniture

- likes to hold hands with her friends at school and she also likes to grab Mommy and Daddy's hands so that she can lead us wherever she wants to go.

- continues to say more and more new words, almost a new word every day. Some of her new words: horse, cat, car, bird, help, book, Uncle, socks, shoes, boy, key, apple, animal (although it sounds like Elmos so it is hard to tell sometimes). Some I forgot to mention last month: mouth, ear, cracker, both

- says "Uncle" whenever she sees a picture of her Uncle Alex or her Uncle Scott. I haven't had the chance to try it out with her other Uncle's yet.

- is starting to use sign language more. All of the signs she now uses regularly are: more, ball, flower, book, milk, and drink.

- hates having her hair in her face. If her hair isn't pulled back she is constantly pushing it out of the way.

I had my first phone conversation with Christina on May 21st. She was at my Mom's house and I was at work. When I picked up the phone, Christina was already on the other end. She said "Hi Mama" a couple of times and then babbled for a bit. Then said "Mama" again and then said "Bye Bye". It was the cutest, sweetest thing. Normally she is interested in the phone, but she has never actually put it to her ear and talked back to the other person. It actually brought tears to my eyes!

We just got Christina some new shoes at the mall today. Her feet didn't seem to be growing for the longest time, but then all of a sudden they grew a ton! She went from being a four and a half, wearing size five shoes, to being just a touch over size six and wearing size six and a half shoes. She loves her new sneakers.

Unfortunately, I think she is getting sick. Nik is sick so it isn't a huge surprise. I just hope she gets better quick. We are leaving in less than a week for our week long trip to Georgia for my sister's wedding. I'm also hoping not to get sick. Cross your fingers and send us some healthy vibes!

Who's the Boss?

So, it turns out my daugther isn't perfect. I know. I was shocked too. I've seen her socializing with the other children at daycare and she doesn't play very nice. We walk in the room and she immediately sets her eyes on some random toy across the room. It doesn't matter that she isn't actually playing with it or that it doesn't belong to her. It doesn't matter if other children are already playing with it or not. It doesn't matter which toy it is, it is always something different. Immediately though, she feels as if she owns the toy and only she should be able to play with it or even touch it.

The other day we walked in and she set her sights on a stuffed cow. She ran to it, picked it up and clutched it in her arms. Then she said "mine", of course. I told her that it wasn't hers but that she could play with it. Some of the other children came over to her. They always greet her when she comes in, but for some reason she sees it as a threat. When one of them attempts to lay a hand on the cow, Christina starts screaming at the top of her lungs. Screaming. It is totally not necessary.

I feel bad for the other children because they honestly just want to play with Christina. They like Christina and therefore whatever she is playing with, they want to play with too. They don't mind sharing. But, Christina is so far on the other side of wanting to share, that she becomes a crazy girl trying to protect her toy as if it is her own life.

At the park the other day, Christina was playing in the sandbox. It took about twenty minutes of her standing outside the sandbox, watching the other kids play, before she attempted to get inside. She was really freaked out by the dirty sand and didn't want to touch anything. Slowly, she felt a little better and began playing with a shovel and truck. She was shoveling sand onto the truck, being very careful not to get herself dirty.

Another little girl the same age as Christina came over and tried to play with her. Christina kept freaking out and pulling the truck away, even though the other girl hadn't actually touched the truck. The little girl went away to another part of the sandbox (I don't think she wanted to deal with Christina's drama), but CC could still not take her eyes off of her. She kept watching her, giving her dirty looks, and protecting "her" truck.

I know most children don't like to share. I know it is something that they need to learn. But, boy do I have my work cut out for me. I feel so bad for the other kids and I just wish Christina would relax and play nicely with them.

And, this doesn't only happen with toys. She is like this with her teachers as well. Last week another child was sitting on her teachers lap. Christina got pissed off. "How DARE someone sit on my teachers lap!", I'm sure she thought. She walked right over to the child and shoved him off the teachers lap. The poor kid actually fell and then turned around and bit Christina on the arm as payback.

The teacher was very apologetic about the whole thing to me. But honestly, I'm not sure why. The bite didn't break the skin and Christina didn't even cry, so I'm sure it didn't really phase her. But also, the kid was totally right in trying to fight back. I mean, I don't condone fighting, hitting, or biting, but I understand where the kid was coming from. Christina was way over the line.

I don't know exactly how to fix her rage, ownership, and protection issues but I sure hope she doesn't act like this towards poor defenseless Gwendolyn when she comes along. I've been putting Christina in time out lately whenever she hits or bites, but she doesn't seem to get the message. Anyone have any suggestions?

70 days to go

I'm thirty weeks pregnant now, ten more weeks (70 days) to go. Things have been going very well with this pregnancy. Gwen has been moving so much lately and it is always nice to have the reminder that my little one is in there.

Our house is filled with baby things again. Christina loves seeing her old things and tries to use them even though she is obviously too big. She climbs into her bouncer, asks me to put her in the exersaucer and likes to push her baby dolls in the swing. I am glad that I brought all of this stuff into the house this early. I am hoping that by the time Gwen comes along, Christina will be bored of it and won't mind sharing. Because sharing is definitely not her strong suit.

I've got a ton of baby clothes washed and put away, just ready and waiting for the tiny little newborn that we will bring home. It is really cool to be able to look at the newborn onesies and remember seeing Christina in them. Of course it is shocking how small they are because no matter how long ago that was, it is just amazing that Christina has grown so much. It is hard to believe we are going to have another tiny little baby in the house.

The infant car seat and extra base are in storage, but they are up front just ready and waiting. Hopefully this time I'll actually get the seat installed before I go into labor. For Christina, I hadn't installed the carseat by the time I went to the hospital to have her (one week before my due date). I was totally convinced that CC would come after her due date, so I wasn't worried. This time I'll try not to let that happen.

I emailed HR today to get all of the forms I need to fill out: short term disability, FMLA, FLI. It is all very confusing but hopefully the process will come back to me when I start filling out the applications.

So pretty much, I am all ready to go except that we still haven't come up with a middle name for Gwen. I just haven't found that perfect name. I hope it comes to me soon or this little girl isn't going to have a middle name.

Great Weekend

This should have been posted this passed week, but since I never got to it, I will add two fun weekends worth of stuff.

Last weekend, we had an amazing weather weekend. Somehow it turned into the middle of summer. Luckily we were able to take full advantage. From the beach, to the park, to the Warfside (an outside restaurant with a live band), we really did so much and enjoyed the weather. Christina had a great time and I got some great pictures.

We also celebrated my birthday at my Mom's house even though it was a couple of weeks late. It was just a little get together with dinner, but it was nice.

This weekend, my mom, Christina and I went to Virginia for my cousin Alaina's baby shower. She is due almost a month after I am and she is also having a girl. The trip went very smoothly considering that we drove there on Saturday and back on Sunday, each way was a five hour drive and it was the longest trip Christina has ever taken. Also, I'm pregnant and all, so a long car ride could have gone very badly, but it didn't. We lucked out. Christina wasn't all that great on the ride to Virigina. I think she didn't understand why she was stuck in the car so long. On the way back though, she definitely seemed to "get it" and she was a perfect angel.

On top of doing well for the car rides and doing well at the shower, Christina also said two new words: jacket and apple. She also opened her first present today, which wasn't even for her. I think watching Alaina open all of her baby shower gifts made her realize what it was all about. When I gave my Mom her Mother's Day gift today, Christina immediately went for it and started ripping it open. It was really cute to see her get excited about opening a present. She didn't even mind that it wasn't anything fun for her.

At the shower though, she got extremely excited over a couple of gifts that Alaina received and was not a happy little girl when she found out that they were not for her. She was sad, but boy was it cute. At least I thought so anyway.

Here are some pics of last weekend:

My cutie:



Celebrating my birthday:





















My sad looking, but totally yummy birthday cake: (yes, it says 281 years old lol, I actually turned 29)


Park:







The Beach: (Christina's actual first time at the Beach. It was so cute how she thought the sand was yucky.)
















Warfside:






Hanging out in the backyard:



Here are some pics of this weekend:





The Mommy to be (right) and her friend who is also expecting (left):


Mommy to be:



My wonderful Aunt Debbie who threw the shower:


My cousin Melissa:


Christina and Shirley (family friend):


Christina, Shirley and my Mom:


My cousin Susan and her lovely daughter Mackenzie:


Decorating Onesies:






Our finished products:







Presents!












Christina took this picture of Alaina (completely by herself) . . not too bad


My Aunt Charlene (also taken by Christina):


My beautiful girl enjoying one of Alaina's best presents (I just love this little rocking chair!):


She also loved the balloons tied to the chair:



By the way - Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful Mommy's out there!!