Quick update from last post: The concert was really fun, except for the tortuous contemporary violin concerto they threw in at the beginning. Holst's Planets suite made me want to hop back on stage and perform. It was such an exciting piece! Taylor did well with the babysitter, but didn't go to sleep for her, which wasn't a total shock. We came home at 10:40pm to a very tired baby - but at least her tummy was full, her teeth were clean, and she was dressed and ready for bed!
Now on to the recent stuff...
Two nights ago, Mark and Taylor were showing signs of sickness (Mark was coughing, Taylor's nose was stuffy and she had a mid-grade fever) so we went to bed early and hoped for the best. Taylor camped out in bed with us because she was feeling so bad. I was kind of glad for the chance to breastfeed her a bit more to help her fight off the illness, but honestly my milk supply is so low now I don't know if it was much of a benefit. She asked for water multiple times because she was so thirsty.
That night, her temperature spiked at 99.7. I think her normal resting temperature is on the low side (97-something or 98.1) just like Mark, so I considered this to be practically over 100. Then our thermometer battery died, so I don't know numbers after that point. I don't even remember a time when Taylor had a fever that high, she's always been such a healthy baby.
Mark decided to stay home from work yesterday because he was still coughing and had a sore throat. We just took it easy. Taylor didn't want to do much besides sit on our laps and snuggle, but she still had moments of being her normal talkative, giggly self. Mark made chocolate mousse for our evening dessert, which turned out great.
It's nice it's the weekend now so Mark and Taylor can continue to rest without worrying about missing out on too many important things. I'm very glad that they seem to only have cold-like symptoms and not the crazy stomach bug that has been going around. I'm not excited about the day when my parenting will involve cleaning up lots of vomit and other ickiness.
Daylight Savings time is tonight, so remember to set your clocks forward an hour! Don't think of it as one less hour of sleep, think of it as one more hour of glorious sunshine for each day ahead. :)
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
A Few Milestones
*Yesterday, when I told Taylor "I love you" she responded (unprompted!), "I love you too, Mommy." My heart melted.
*As of this week, she can count from 1-10 on her own, and sometimes can say some of the teens. She also knows a few sections of the alphabet song.
*I don't think I mentioned this before, but around 22 months Taylor became mostly diaper-free. She's in underwear full-time during the day and just wears a diaper overnight. Even nap times are in undies! We'll transition to undies at night once the weather warms up a bit more and we're out of our seasonal footed pajamas.
No progress on the reading front yet. We've had the Your Baby Can Read program for a little over a month now and Taylor loves the videos and books, but I think it takes a while longer for all the information to click. The flashcards are all still very confusing.
Tomorrow will be the first night Mark and I leave Taylor at home with anyone other than family for an extended outing. We're going to the Saint Louis Symphony's performance of Holst's Planets, so Taylor will be with the babysitter for bedtime. We've tried to ease the transition a little this week by having Mark more involved in the bedtime routine, but rarely has she fallen asleep for the night without nursing. It will definitely be a change of pace for us all, but an exciting prospect to get out of the house for some classical entertainment. I haven't been to a symphony performance since Northwestern...and it was probably the last one I performed in!
The weather is supposed to be fabulous this weekend, so Mark and I are going to clean up our yard a bit and start planning our garden layout. As much as I'd looove the weather to stay this nice and just continue getting warmer (walks! the zoo! line-drying laundry!), I wouldn't be surprised with another snowstorm before Spring arrives.
Oh yeah, we get our order of Girl Scout cookies tomorrow! Hand-delivered by our local adorable girl scout. I'm so excited for the sweets. Bring on the Lemon Chalet Cremes (confirmed untainted, thank goodness).
*As of this week, she can count from 1-10 on her own, and sometimes can say some of the teens. She also knows a few sections of the alphabet song.
*I don't think I mentioned this before, but around 22 months Taylor became mostly diaper-free. She's in underwear full-time during the day and just wears a diaper overnight. Even nap times are in undies! We'll transition to undies at night once the weather warms up a bit more and we're out of our seasonal footed pajamas.
No progress on the reading front yet. We've had the Your Baby Can Read program for a little over a month now and Taylor loves the videos and books, but I think it takes a while longer for all the information to click. The flashcards are all still very confusing.
Tomorrow will be the first night Mark and I leave Taylor at home with anyone other than family for an extended outing. We're going to the Saint Louis Symphony's performance of Holst's Planets, so Taylor will be with the babysitter for bedtime. We've tried to ease the transition a little this week by having Mark more involved in the bedtime routine, but rarely has she fallen asleep for the night without nursing. It will definitely be a change of pace for us all, but an exciting prospect to get out of the house for some classical entertainment. I haven't been to a symphony performance since Northwestern...and it was probably the last one I performed in!
The weather is supposed to be fabulous this weekend, so Mark and I are going to clean up our yard a bit and start planning our garden layout. As much as I'd looove the weather to stay this nice and just continue getting warmer (walks! the zoo! line-drying laundry!), I wouldn't be surprised with another snowstorm before Spring arrives.
Oh yeah, we get our order of Girl Scout cookies tomorrow! Hand-delivered by our local adorable girl scout. I'm so excited for the sweets. Bring on the Lemon Chalet Cremes (confirmed untainted, thank goodness).
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Recommendations for this and that
Taylor loves her new flatware, bowls, plates, and cups. We needed to step up from the plastic headed flatware since she was having problems stabbing food at meal times, plus she insisted on drinking only out of open-mouth cups. They are all dishwasher safe and very easy for her to use.
Food Revolution
Jamie Oliver takes his healthy food campaign to the U.S. Mark and I watched his U.K. School Lunch series a few years ago and were blown away with how poorly children eat at home and schools and what effect that has on their behavior and school performance. Watch the trailers (1 and 2), sign the petition, and tune into the show starting March 26th on ABC!
Undercover Boss - White Castle
Who knew the owner of an enormous fast food chain would care so much about his company? This episode was amazing...it almost makes me want to eat at White Castle more to support the company. Almost. Mark and I tuned into another episode from the series and it wasn't nearly as good, so I would just recommend this one.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Photo Wednesday: Valentine's Day and Finger Painting
Happy Valentine's Day!
Finger painting for the first time
Final collaboration with Mommy
Friday, February 12, 2010
Green Beans and the Stalling Queen
Yesterday at dinner, Taylor did something unprecedented. She ate her green beans. But she not only ate the green beans, she devoured them and asked for seconds, thirds, and fourths! This was a kind of new green bean recipe with soy sauce and sesame oil that we've only tried a couple of times before. It was a hit! I don't think she ate much of the chicken and rice, but I was pleased none the less. It's always felt like a tiny failure for me every night when I have to scoop off all the green stuff I had set aside on her plate. Now I feel like we had a tremendous victory. What a proud parent moment - I nearly cried with joy.
Bedtime was not quite as successful though. Taylor has become a pro at stalling tactics, but they all seem like legitimate requests so it's awfully hard not to concede to her requests. As part of our usual routine, we read a few books and I turned the lights off and let her start nursing. Then she pulled off and told me she needed to poop. So, we went to the bathroom and she did her business and we went back to bed and back to nursing. After another minute, she pulled off again and said she was hungry and insisted on Cheerios. Since it had been a few hours since dinner I figured she might really be hungry, so we got out of bed and she gorged on Cheerios and water for about 30 min...offering me a Cheerio every single time she took one out of the box ("No, thank you, Taylor, that's for you. No, thank you, I don't want one. No, thank you, sweets.").
Then I cut her off and we moved back to the room to wind down again. Once lights were off and we got settled, she announced that she needed to pee. ::Sigh:: Since I committed myself to paying attention to her bathroom needs with EC I couldn't bear to tell her to just go in her diaper or ignore it (as if she would anyway), and we got up and went to the bathroom again. When we returned to her bed I was determined to stay in there until she was asleep. It took less than a minute back in bed before she insisted that she was really hungry and needed more Cheerios, but I held my ground and she stopped crying in a couple minutes and nodded off for the night. Phew. I will have to do a bit of tweaking to the pre-bedtime routine, I think, to avoid a repeat episode.
Since we got to bed so late, we slept in really late this morning and I felt like I didn't accomplish much during the day. I have got to get myself on a better daytime routine. I feel like there is a lot to do, but I don't have firm goals...or much motivation to reach the goals I do set.
Other Taylor updates: she likes to sing portions of Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Happy Birthday now. We can recognize some words and notes in there. I'll have to catch her on tape sometime soon. We're working on teaching her the Alphabet Song.
She offered to nurse me the other day. It was hilarious - "Milk? This side? Now this side?"
And we tried out finger paints for the first time yesterday. They were a gift from her Uncle Mike and Aunt Jen. She loves it! I took photos of the process, but will have to post later.
Have a great weekend!
Bedtime was not quite as successful though. Taylor has become a pro at stalling tactics, but they all seem like legitimate requests so it's awfully hard not to concede to her requests. As part of our usual routine, we read a few books and I turned the lights off and let her start nursing. Then she pulled off and told me she needed to poop. So, we went to the bathroom and she did her business and we went back to bed and back to nursing. After another minute, she pulled off again and said she was hungry and insisted on Cheerios. Since it had been a few hours since dinner I figured she might really be hungry, so we got out of bed and she gorged on Cheerios and water for about 30 min...offering me a Cheerio every single time she took one out of the box ("No, thank you, Taylor, that's for you. No, thank you, I don't want one. No, thank you, sweets.").
Then I cut her off and we moved back to the room to wind down again. Once lights were off and we got settled, she announced that she needed to pee. ::Sigh:: Since I committed myself to paying attention to her bathroom needs with EC I couldn't bear to tell her to just go in her diaper or ignore it (as if she would anyway), and we got up and went to the bathroom again. When we returned to her bed I was determined to stay in there until she was asleep. It took less than a minute back in bed before she insisted that she was really hungry and needed more Cheerios, but I held my ground and she stopped crying in a couple minutes and nodded off for the night. Phew. I will have to do a bit of tweaking to the pre-bedtime routine, I think, to avoid a repeat episode.
Since we got to bed so late, we slept in really late this morning and I felt like I didn't accomplish much during the day. I have got to get myself on a better daytime routine. I feel like there is a lot to do, but I don't have firm goals...or much motivation to reach the goals I do set.
Other Taylor updates: she likes to sing portions of Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Happy Birthday now. We can recognize some words and notes in there. I'll have to catch her on tape sometime soon. We're working on teaching her the Alphabet Song.
She offered to nurse me the other day. It was hilarious - "Milk? This side? Now this side?"
And we tried out finger paints for the first time yesterday. They were a gift from her Uncle Mike and Aunt Jen. She loves it! I took photos of the process, but will have to post later.
Have a great weekend!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Happy 2nd Birthday, Taylor!
Our sweet little girl is 2 years old today - so spunky and full of personality. We celebrated with cake and presents this last weekend in Evansville. Today will probably be low key - maybe we'll do leftover cake with a couple of new candles to blow out.
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