The Business of Baby

Happy 20 month birthday, sweet Beanie!

The past month has been amazing in her language development.  She is now full on talking, imitating words as she hears them, adding to her vocabulary and joining words together in meaningful ways. This morning she handed me a book and said "Mama, read it". I was so surprised!

She also knows the names of several of the  girls in her school and the neighbor kid. She can say my name and knows its "mama". She cannot say her name as yet!

Other fun facts:

1. She loves climbing on furniture - so beds, high chair and even the dining table using the dinging chairs!!  Needless to say the dining chairs have now been moved away.
2. She knows words to most songs such as Twinkle Twinkle, Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider. The cute thing is that she cannot pronounce most words but picks up on the last one, so when we sing she will chime in with the last word. So much fun.
3. She knows the ABC song in its entirety
4. She loves reading books and we read several books every day. I am happy with the books I have bough her since its helping her vocabulary as well.
5. She loves the dump trucks or any trucks. When we are on the road she likes seeing the trucks and asks for "more".
6. She is helpful around the house, helping me with laundry, emptying the dishwasher (I leave the plastic plates etc in for her to take out), leaning up her messes with my help. She brings me her plate/cup when she is done. She likes to help me get dressed and hands my Dad his hat and gloves when he is getting ready to leave.
7. She like to cook.  When I cook eggs she sits on her high chair with some Easter eggs in a bowl and "cooks". I cannot wait to see her enjoy the kitchen set I am buying her for X'Mas.
8. She loves lotion and putting it on her face and then says "pretty" :-)
9.  She likes her "bows" aka hair clips. I am hoping to get her to like pony tails but she is not there yet. Her hair is quite long now and so sweet with its soft curls. I cannot get enough of kissing her sweet head!
10. The other day she climbed on the dining table and was playing with the bananas in the bowl and babbling something.  My Mom was standing by her and told me she was counting in Chinese!!!  They teach Chinese and Spanish in school. I am also teaching her my native language now - she picked up the words for water quickly and now only calls it that.
11. We have started watching some cartoons now. I held off pretty well I think for 19 months. We watch Curious George in the morning on weekdays for about 30 minutes while she has her milk and I prepare her lunch. On weekends she likes Thomas the train - just the song. Most times she is not really watching.

In other things, diaper changes has become a struggle again, as is washing hair. I think this stuff goes in cycles since she was the same a couple of months back and then it settled down.

She is showing interest in new foods and the other day said "try, try" when she saw my plate. I am happy to see this. She enjoyed pasta in meat sauce for the first time last week so that is another thing I can add to the list.

She seems to be getting close to being ready to potty train and knows when she poops or pees. I need to start reading up on it and get my act together in that area.

After all that stressing about sippy cup etc, Beanie is now able to drink from an open cup. She does dribble some, but overall is very good. I only give her a few sips at a time in the cup. Today we went out for pizza lunch and I forgot her sippy cup so she drank water out of a plastic cup. I was so proud.

She also amazed me today at the d'sr office. We had gone for a re-check and she walked in herself - holding my hand.  She got up on the weight scale - on Monday she had freaked out over it as she has always done. She then walked along to the exam room and sat on the bench. She got a bit upset when we had to lay her down to measure her but was way calmer than normal. Then when the Dr came in she calmly let her examine her. We then walked out together.

I am floored!!

I think all the play acting is really helping. You have no idea how traumatic doctor visits have been in the past, so it see this is just amazing. BTW - her fever has broken since yesterday. Her chest had a few crackles in it today so the pediatrician gave her a prescription for antibiotic, only to be given if the fever returns. I am hoping not!

My baby is growing and getting so smart.

She can now climb on the stool and wash her own hands, remove her shoes and jacket with some assistance, Knows to put her toys back before picking up another. Folds her play mat, etc. I think this is all the stuff she is earning in her Montessori school.


I love you baby girl. You make me smile each and every day!!

Yup the title says it all I suppose.

I took this week off from work since Beanie's school was closed and thought it would be a great time to hang out and do some fun things building up to Thanksgiving on Thursday.

Well, the one thing I am learning with a child is that plans don't always materialize as imagined.

Last Thursday Beanie gets the sniffles. Friday she is full on cold (watery eyes, dripping nose) so I kept her from school. Then Sat she appeared a bit improved, until she woke from her nap with a 101.5 fever.

Ugh!

I did not panic (yay me!) since she tends to get fever with a bad cold sometimes. Usually goes away in about 12-18 hours. Well, it did not go away. Instead it kept spiking when the medication wore off, and the next day (Sunday) she woke from her nap this time with a fever of 103.5.

Cue panic!

She has never had such high fever.

At first I wanted to take her to Urgent Care but decided to place a call to the nurse line at Children's Hospital. The nurse went through a long list of questions and we decided that I could wait until Monday to take her in to her pediatrician since the 103.5 was a bit high for a cold. I added Advil to the mix since I was running close to the max daily dosage for Tylenol. Beanie was clingy when the fever was high but the moment the medication kicked in she was her normal playful happy self. Her cold was getting better so the high fevers were a surprise.

Yesterday I took her into the clinic in the afternoon. Beanie was awesome with the doctor.  I have bought Beanie a medical playset so we play a lot with the it - looking in her ear and with the stethoscope etc-  to ally her fear of doctor visits. We role played a lot on the morning yesterday and I even told her how to do "aah" to open her mouth. She still freaked out at being weighed when we checked in, but was really calm with the pediatrician. She even lifted her own shirt when Dr B needed to hear her chest.  So VERY proud of her!!!

The ped said its most likely a virus and to give it another 2 days. Her ears, throat and chest were clear and she tested negative for RSV. Flu and Strep which was good news. The problem is as she pointed out that it will bring us to Thanksgiving when the clinic is closed. She suggested I bring Beanie in tomorrow (Wed) for a  recheck if she continues to have fever.

Today Beanie still had about 101 at noon, but has not had anything since so I am really hoping we have turned a corner. I am noticing that the duration between the fever spiking is getting longer so that seems an improvement.  If Thursday was not a holiday I would have liked to wait another day, but I really don't want to be stressed on TG if she is get a fever late tomorrow, so off to the ped we ago again.

Definitely not the way I wanted to spend my time off with her, plus I feel so bad that she is under the weather for so many days :-(


Today I took my car into the dealership to get the driver airbag replaced. My vehicle is part of a huge airbag recall I heard about on CNN. I went to the manufacturer's website and entered in the VIN and sure enough it was part of the recall. I did not see any point in delaying so scheduled it immediately. Glad its taken care of now.

Had my yearly GYN check up last week. She was happy to see me. She is not my OB but my GYN whom I had started seeing 5 years ago when I was having difficulty getting pregnant.

I am due to get my eyes checked next week, but have procrastinated since July. I am now wondering if I should just miss 2014 and make an appt in Jan for 2015. Knowing me I will not be able to get my act together to order new glasses with the holidays coming.

Plan to do my X'Mas decorations later this week. I will involve Beanie in it because if I do it while she is away at school  she will get all upset to see the house looking different! I do know that it will make it logistically easier doing it without her trying to "help" - lol!

It is amazing how much Beanie remembers of events and things from the past, and I don't mean just a few hours ago, but days and even weeks ago.


It is actually fun in a way since I can refer back to things we have done or seen and she knows what I am talking about. In fact one of our favorite bedtime routine is when I recount her day and what she did. She really likes it and chimes in her two cents.

And in talking about memory, today had been a rough day thinking of my Uncle who passed away a year ago today very suddenly. He is missed so much!

On Thursday I had my first parent teacher conference at Beanie's Montessori school. At the earlier daycare they did reports cards twice a year, but no face to face.

I was really excited since at this school I really don't get much information on what Beanie does all day, so I was interested in knowing what "work" she likes to do and also get the teacher's perceptive on how she is doing and interacting.


The appt. was at 9am , but they moved it up to 8:30am. I woke early so I could dress well and put on makeup for a change.The meeting went very well. They are very happy with Beanie - describing her as sweet, loving and well behaved. They did say (as I well know) that she is cautious and likes to first observe the situation before she feels ready to mingle or get involved. I see that all the time, for example if we go to store she will first want me to carry her and then after about 10-15 minutes she will be walking around like she owns the place!

They said that she likes building blocks, working with playdough, painting and playing with the doll (bathing/dressing it etc). She loves books and enjoys the music and Spanish classes. They said her language skills were great and commented on how easy it is to communicate with her since she responds Ya and No. Overall it was a good meeting.

They did suggest that I allow Beanie to eat the school snacks, I normally send her snacks and lunch. It seems she is showing interest in it and trying to pick things of other kids plates :-(  I give Beanie a predominantly organic diet which is why I have been reluctant to have her eat non-organic fruits and veggies, but I also do not want her to feel deprived and different.  I agreed that the afternoon snack which the kids eat out in the playground together, she can have, if she chooses to. I will still send her my snack.

Also on Friday's kids have pizza. I did not want Beanie having it initially, but again she is showing interest. I had though that after TG I will let her have it since a warm pizza lunch will be nice in winter. Anyway, I let her have it last Friday and her teachers gleefully told me "she loved it" - um, ya, who does not like pizza :-)

They do offer fruits/veggies with it. I saw a few items in Beanie's lunchbox. Those school pieces were really big, so I have emailed her teacher to either cut them up small or not offer to her. I send my own fruit/veggies on Friday to accompany the pizza.

Sometimes I wonder if her teachers think I am a pain in the a** mom, but you know, I really don't care. Its my job to look out for Beanie!

Today Beanie was outside playing with my Mom around 5pm, while I was finishing work.

I then started preparing her dinner and put some broccoli to steam, set the timer for 15 min and decided to join them outside so I could get some fresh air too.  Beanie seemed to have had enough so while my Mom and I were on the porch she went in the house and was standing by the door as if she was going to close it.  I was right outside the doorstep and was cajoling her to come outside.
So she steps out, I shut the door and we start playing in the driveway.

My neighbor has put out some X'Mas decorations out, including a lit up outdoor tree since she knows Beanie plays outside a lot and thought she would enjoy it.  My neighbor comes over to chat and invites us in to see her indoor decorations. I asked my Mom to watch my broccoli while we went over.

As I am crossing the lawn my Mom tries the front door - its locked!!!

Apparently when Beanie was holding the door open, her tiny left hand must have turned the lock --argh!

The garage door was open and I was hoping by some miracle I may not have locked the door into the house - but no luck!

So there were are locked out with stuff on the gas stove!!

And since I was steaming the broccoli it did not have masses of water in it.

I was panicked.

My Dad has a key but he had surgery yesterday so he cannot drive. Luckily  my parents live about 10 min walk, but still that would mean me walking over (I was not in the right kind of footwear) and it would be at least 25 min.  My neighbor very sweetly offered to drive me over. We rushed over to my parents house, I grabbed the key from my Dad - who is mobile but moving slowly.

Rushed home with 30 sec left on my 15 min timer. There was enough water in the pan to have gone 15 min more but that would have been pushing it.

Crisis averted!

The irony is that my Dad is always telling me to carry my keys when I step out of the house, even if I am by myself, and I always scoffed at the idea.

Well you can be sure that I will be making a copy of the key and hiding it outside someplace should such a situation reoccur! 

Last week when I had gone to pick up Beanie I saw a cop car and a sheriffs car parked in the cul-de-sac outside the school. My heart dropped for a second and then I saw them trying to unlock a car. Apparently a 3 year old boy was holding the car keys and locked the door with himself inside. The cops were trying to unlock it, but it is not that easy. I took about 15 min to go in and get Beanie and they were still struggling to open in.

Lesson to learn, do not give car keys to a child.

We decided to skip Halloween this year.

Last year it was Beanie's first Halloween so I got her a cute Pumpkin Princess one which she wore to daycare and later that evening. Although we did not do candy because I did not want her frightened with all the kids in costume.

This year I did not even get her a costume simply because she had no place to wear it. Her school does not do anything for Halloween and we were not planning on going trick or treating because she cannot eat the candy she gets so it seemed pointless (and unfair) to have her get the stuff and then chuck it. Also I was not sure how she would take to having strangers open the door and would probably be in my arms wailing most if the time.

At home we did not do candy for the same reason because the costumes would scare her. Most kids wear frightening costumes IMHO.  So we just stayed home, kept the porch light off and played a bit outside before the trick-treating began.

We did go for the Fall Festival in our local shipping center and I saw the kids all dressed up to that one, so maybe next year she will be ready for it. I am in no hurry though, she will do plenty of trick or treating in the coming years.

Yesterday her school had planned a Fall Fete at an upscale rural community (does that even make sense?) about 45 min away. Its in a rural area but had expensive homes, a hotel/spa etc hence the upscale adjective. There is a working farm and the plan was to have a  picnic with access to a petting zoo, corn maze and hay rodes. Sounded super fun so we signed up for it.

Unfortunately the weather yesterday was awful. It was quite cold, but even worse it was horribly windy. All night Friday I could hear the wind howling outside so basically I decided to cancel.  It made no sense being out in the open with 20-30 mile wind gusts. Beanie is just about doing better and I was not going to risk it.

Instead we decided to go shopping and eat lunch out which was fun. About 1pm I texted her teacher to let them know we were not coming.

Later at night when I checked my email, it turns out the Director of the school had sent an email in the  morning - worried about the weather too - and eventually around 9am decided to cancel the outing.

I was so glad that I had not driven out!!  I should have checked my mail but I was not expecting anything. I don't get my personal mail on my phone only my work mail which I check 100 times a day!

Anyway, the outing was rescheduled for today from 2-4pm but I declined since that is when Beanie naps so she would have been tired and irritable. They are supposed to refund the $ for those people who could not make it today. Lets see if that happens.

We did pretty good today with the time change. We woke at 6:30am which was essentially 5:30am but I was prepared for it.  After that we were able to stick with our normal timings for meals and naps. She went down for the night at 8pm at usual. So hopefully it will be a smooth transition.

This weekend was spent doing a lot of shopping for Beanie for winter clothes. The weather changed so quickly that I was caught a bit unprepared. Last weekend the house painters were there so I could not go shopping. Luckily my Mom had bough Beanie a nice puffy jacket so she had that at least given the cold weekend we had.

On Thursday, I ordered a hat/gloves from the London-based company I like. I loved the hat my Mom had bought Beanie from visit to London last year. It fit really well and we got a lot of compliments on it. Beanie has outgrown the hat so we needed a new one desperately.  I found out that they have a store in the city so I called and got it the next day! Went for a different print this time and colors that match the puffy jacket.  So much better experience than the awful experience I had with the London shop last year. Beanie has been wearing her red London coat that I purchased last year, over the weekend and looking like a doll. Last year she hardly got to wear it since they were so late in sending it to me.

We also went to Old Navy on Saturday and Baby Gap today.  Made out like bandits - bought about $150 worth of clothes for $7 - yay!  Got the cutest boots from Gap, hopefully she will wear them. She is so opinionated and is refusing to wear some things I have bought. I still need to buy some sweaters and another hat for school.

I paid my entire home painting job on my Gap card. Wonder how many rewards I will get -- probably a couple of hundred - I hope! Definitely better than adding airmiles which I doubt I will be using very often.