Thursday, December 31, 2009

The Great Tantrum of 2009

The year of 2009 has gone out with a bang for my daughter!

It all started while she was helping me feed the dog. For the last month, Charla's "job" has been to dump the dog food into the dog's food bowl. She loves doing this. Getting to the food bowl can be a bit tricky. It's in my husband's and my bedroom and that is the black hole of the house. So, she must scale a pile of laundry but she does so happily.

Tonight there also happened to be a small shoe shelf standing against the wall. I had done a bit of reorganizing on Tuesday and hadn't gotten around to finding a new home for the shelf so into the black hole it went. As I was following Charla into the bedroom I bumped it. It fell over and hit her on the hip. Well, you would have thought she had been caught by her worst enemy and was now experiencing painful torture.......slowly.

I picked her up immediately and took her to the couch to survey the damage. All I could see was a red mark forming on her back/hip area, no big deal. This shelf is not a huge and heavy piece of furniture. I bought it at Target and put it together myself, it weighs all of 10/15 pounds! So hugs and kisses were in order but that did not settle the stream of tears.

Eventually I thought I heard the word "bed" in amongst the screams of "pain". I took her to her room and she actually quieted down, success! Oops, there she went again, now screaming because I had placed her in her crib. I took her out and thought maybe she meant my bed, turns out that wasn't it either. Water? NO! Crackers? NO! Blankie? NO! Rock and cuddles? NO!

This went on for a full hour! I have to give credit to my husband though, he took the last 20/30min because I still had to run to the grocery store and since it's New Year's Eve they closed early and it was already 6pm.

When I got home she was finally done crying. There were legos scattered all over the living room. I asked what had happened and my husband said she had thrown the bag in a fit of anger, it wasn't pretty! Apparently she had settled down about 10min before I got home and was playing like nothing had happened. Meanwhile I was about ready to climb the wall!

Happy New Year!

P.S. Charla's resolution for 2010 is no more tantrums. Think she can stick to it?

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Sick baby

Poor Charla had her first real illness. It started out as a cold but after a week she ended up with a cough and a fever. So off we went to the doctor.

She was not happy to be there and she made it well known! I think she was remembering all those well-baby check-ups that ended up in shots. As soon as the nurse took her temperature, she started screaming! After the nurse left I tried to calm her down but she refused. The poor girl kept reaching for the door and screaming "Go, go, go".

We got sent home with a prescription for amoxicillan and instructions to come back if she wasn't better in a week. She seems to be on the mend though. Today she was almost back to her normal self. Still a bit sensitive and whiny but definitely more full of energy and smiles! Thankfully she doesn't mind taking her "pink medicine"!

Having a sick toddler is so exhausting!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Boring Day

Today is one of those days that's cloudy and rainy. Staying inside with Charla can get very trying sometimes. A couple days per week she goes to playgroup. Those days aren't too bad because then she's occupied all morning. Today though we had nowhere to go. Overall it was a good morning, but I'm not looking forward to an entire winter of staying indoors!

Charla is a very outdoorsy type of girl. During the summer we spent all morning outside, came in for lunch and nap, went back outside when she woke up, came in for dinner and went back outside as a family for a walk. She spent hours outside every day. When it started getting cooler this was cut back to maybe 1 hour in the morning and a walk after dinner. However, now the sun is already down by the time dinner is over so if she gets to spend 1 hour total outside, it was a good day.

She loves to play in her sandbox, go for walks and get pushed in her swing. Even when we took her to parks this past summer her favorite things to do there was go in the sandbox and get pushed in the swing! Never mind that there's tons of play equipment at parks that she doesn't have at home, she chooses to do exactly the same things she does at home. I have a feeling next summer will be a bit different. The slides and climbing toys will hold more appeal for her.

For now though we have to get through the winter. The next month won't be bad, we've got the holidays in there. January, February and March however may be a bit rough!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

1.5 Years Old!

Saturday was my baby's 18 month birthday, 1.5 years! I can't believe how fast the time has gone. When I look back at the first few days in the hospital with her, it's hard to imagine that this is the same little girl. When I held her to my chest for the very first time it was love at first sight. The love has grown day by day and now I can't imagine what my life would be without her.

Her personality started shining through at a very young age. She has always let me know exactly what she wanted. She was probably one of the loudest babies in the hospital! However, as soon as she received her "demand" she would settle down and stay content until she needed something else. She's not a demanding baby by any means. Sure she's had her phases but overall she was a very content and happy baby and is proving to be the same as a toddler.

Lately she's been enjoying playing with Legos. I will sit on the floor and hold her tower up while she makes it taller and taller. Once she can no longer reach the top she will knock it over and start fresh. She builds quite a few towers throughout the course of the day. Another favorite lately has been her farm and animals. She's had that for a few months now but it never seems to get old. Her favorite animals are the horse and the goat.

My husband and I are going to start trying for another baby this month. I've asked Charla if she wants a baby brother or sister and depending on her mood she will say either yes or no. Obviously she doesn't really understand what this means. I hope once her sibling has arrived though, they'll enjoy each other.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Round 2

So yesterday my husband got laid off.....again. He's already been off for 6 months this year. We just can't seem to get our head above the water. Currently we're treading water, but we have some mounting debt and some clinic bills that I would really like to get paid off.

We were planning on trying to get pregnant with our second child after the holidays. So far I think we're going to continue with this plan. There's no real reason why not too. Sure we're in a bit of a tight spot financially right now but I don't want this to be the deciding factor on whether or not we have another child. I definitely do NOT want our daughter to be an only child.

On a happier note, Charla is picking up so many new words and even adding some phrases! She says, "are you?" for "where are you" and "ha har" for "hat hair". She is too cute! She's also learned how to say the name of our dog "Dixie". She says that really clear.

Last week both Charla and I came down with something. Charla had a fever for about 3-4 days and I had a fever the first day with some general aches. I think Charla was having aches too because she kept grabbing her legs and whining. I have no idea what we had. We didn't go to the doctor since those were the only symptoms. At first I felt for sure we had come down with H1N1 but now I'm not so sure. I guess in the end it doesn't really matter. We are both better now!

I'm going to try to blog more regularly. Life gets so busy and I tend to forget. I am taking a break from the forum I usually visit though, so that should free up a good 2 hours of my day, UGH!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Cuddles

When Charla was born she was the most cuddly baby in the world. She would lay on my chest and sleep for ages. As she got older and more mobile, she wasn't always content to just lay on Mama. As disappointed as I was, it was also fun to watch her grow and learn.

Usually I would get cuddles before naps and bed. We would sit in the rocking chair and she would lay her head on me. We would both relax and I would breathe in her fresh baby smell, it was heaven. Then enter the toddler years! No more relaxing and cuddling, she wants to go go go! When I hold her to rock her she wants to talk to me, laugh and joke around. So, our rocking experiences have been cut very short and I missed them.

Today however, I got some GOOD cuddles in. Charla has a slight cold so she hasn't been sleeping super well. She woke from nap a bit early today so I went to her and tried to rock her a bit. She didn't fall back to sleep but she did lay on my chest for almost 30min cuddling! I loved it, I savored that time together because I don't know when the next time will come that my baby is still for that long.

I wonder if our second baby will be a cuddly baby. I hope so but at the same time I know I won't have the time to snuggle that baby like I did Charla.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

First Entry

My daughter is 17 months old. She is learning and growing so quickly, it literally feels like time is flying. She is learning new things every day. Lately it is not unusual for her to hear a sound or word and be able to repeat it back immediately. She has a rather large vocabulary for her age, some of her words are: kitty, puppy, okay, hi, bye-bye, please, cheese, blankie, keys, ball, swing and I know I'm forgetting some.

She also knows lots of animal noises: sheep, cow, bird, crow, kitty, puppy, horse, lion and monkey. Some body parts she can identify: belly, bellybutton, head, nose, ears, eyes, mouth, fingers/hand, feet, teeth and tongue. She is very smart!

I stay home with her during the day. When she was born I was planning on going back to work. However, after she was here, I knew I wouldn't be able to leave her. I didn't want to miss all her milestones so I quit my job. Things haven't been easy. My husband was unemployed for 6mos this year so money was very tight. Currently he is back to work, but who knows for how long. We take things month by month, sometimes day by day, but we get by. I'm so thankful to be able to stay home with my baby.

We have a few things we do during the days to keep us occupied. During the summer we were outside a lot. Charla loves being outside. We would go for walks, swing in the swing, go to the park and play in the sandbox. Lately the weather has been as nice so we've started playing inside a bit more. Inside she likes to color, squish play dough, play with her farm/animals and so much more. She's a happy child and fairly easy to keep occupied. We also go to playgroups during the week which she really enjoys.

This evening we were going for a walk outside. It was a nice night out, we haven't had a nice evening in about a week so we took advantage of it. While we were out, a flock of geese flew overhead. Charla loves birds and animals so of course this caught her attention. She looked up at the sky and said "geese". She then watched them until they disappeared. Things like this are what I want to remember; the wide-eyed wonderment of a toddler is beautiful. They are so eager to learn and aren't in a rush.

My husband says it must be nice to not have any concept of time. To be able to wonder about and study every tree, leaf or anthill to your hearts content. I definitely believe that this is one of the joys of childhood.