Sunday, June 26, 2011

Sleepover at Grandma Ruth's House

Setting: Emily is getting ready to go to bed at Grandma's house.

Grandma: OK, Emily, it's time for bed. Now you get to sleep on this fancy new sofa-bed, so I want to make sure you don't have an accident. I need you to wear this pull-up please.
Emily: Grandma, I'm 3. I wore those when I was 2.

[PAUSE]

But....I'll wear it for you.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Seven Months Old!

Sophie,

You are seven months old now, and whenever I see you in recently taken pictures, you look so big to me.  Maybe that's because your head really is giant (95th percentile last we checked), or maybe it's because I simply can't understand how you changed so fast from the tiny, skinny newborn that we brought home from the hospital.  But whatever the case may be, you are learning and growing and changing everyday, and occasionally I struggle to keep up.



You can crawl now, not the classic style only hands and knees crawling, but the just as effective army crawl style.  It gets you (much too quickly, in my opinion) from one side of a room to the other.  We've started to hear cries from Emily along the lines of "Mom, Sophie's eating/slobbering on/tearing apart my (fill in the blank)!"



You're eating so many different kinds of solids now, and love them all.  At least, I think you do because you don't spit anything out.  You are, however, a very vocal eater!  You had your first taste of puffs (aka cheerios that dissolve slightly easier), and did very well getting them into your mouth all by yourself.  You love to sit and take out every toy from a box or bin.  You look at each object, put in your mouth, turn it around in your hands, studying it the way that only someone who is discovering new things can do.



You're sleeping pretty great, most days still taking two naps, unless they are exceptionally long and then it's just two.  You sleep 11 to 12 hours at night, waking up by talking to yourself or shrieking happily.  You're always a little disgruntled when you're left alone in a room for any length of time, but other than that, you're really pretty darn happy.  I love you little ladybug!

Love,

Mommy

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

P is for Perfectionist

Emily has been going through a little bit of preschool withdrawal since school let out a few weeks ago.  Thus, we've been working our way through a bunch of preschool level activity books, and she loves it.  One day when she was finished with one page in the book I suggested that we practice writing her name.  She's been good with the letters, E, I, and L for awhile now, but still asks for help with the M and the Y.

Almost immediately after we started, she burst into tears, truly upset because her "M" didn't look like a perfect "M".  Glancing down, I could have guessed which letter it was, but agreed it wasn't quite right.  I assured her that was okay, that she'd get better the more we practiced, that lots of people struggle with learning new things, etc.  The angst in her eyes did not improve.  Instead, she told me that she HAD to be able to write her name.  After some more prodding, she said that this was because when the teacher asked everyone to write their names on their papers, she wanted to do it.   Now, I'm not quite sure which teachers asked her this (all her preschool classmates had adult handwriting on their projects) but I told her I'd help.  After several more attempts, experimenting with which lines to draw first, uppercase or lowercase, etc. something clicked and she got it.

Instead of being excited, she just looked relieved.  I feel badly for my perfectionist daughter, not sure where this internal pressure is coming from (I have deliberately not pushed letter writing yet), and a little nervous about this tendency as she grows older and struggles with more things.  At the same time, I'm proud - she worked really hard at this until she got it and didn't give up.  Once we mastered the "M" we worked on the "Y" and she can write her name flawlessly now.  Way to go, Em!  Just don't be so hard on yourself, okay?  You're a pretty terrific, very perceptive little three year old.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Oh, The Places We Go!

We enjoyed a gorgeous day in the city of Pittsburgh today.  The kind of day that you can't see a single cloud in the sky.  The kind of day where you could wear just about anything and be comfortable.  The kind of day where you can't bear to go inside if you don't have to.  And the kind of day that makes me wonder why we don't live somewhere that has these kind of days more frequently.  The girls and I took full advantage.  Here's a snapshot:

10:45 a.m. - Jogged - for the first time in our double jogging stroller - to the supermarket to get some fruit and bread.



12:30 p.m. - Spent a considerable amount of time swinging outside.  Emily learned some new tricks at preschool this spring, her favorite being the one where you wind the swing up and then get dizzy as it unwinds.  It makes me dizzy just watching her, so I don't.





3:06 p.m. - Rode our bike around an entire block for the first time, and got some scooter action in too.  Sophie chilled in the baby bjorn, but then demanded her shot at the action.





3:44 p.m. - The cutest baby in a toy car that you'll ever see!



Who knows what the evening will hold?  I see a trip to the DQ for some I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M (we now spell that so Emily can't weigh in if we're talking about going).