Playing pretend driving

I was at the thrift store the other day, and I picked up a few good toddler activity idea books.  I've been sifting through them and jotting notes down about things we could do.  Lily is not at all the kind of baby who can play by herself or play with a toy for a long time.  I realized recently that if I plan out our day, it will help us both manage expectations.

One of the ideas was to take a big box and make a car.  We're at the point right now where she can't wait long for me to gather materials, so instead of making it complicated, I just took a marker and drew on the box.  We both get in (my feet hanging over) and she drives.  She beeps the horn, hits the gas peddle, and puts the blinker on.  She even changes the radio to put on Taylor Swift, though she is also nice enough to let me listen to the news.

Some liquid was spilled on the dashboard, and Lily got upset last night when she saw it. 

"Oh no! It's dirty!  Look, it's dirty!"  Lily said.

"No worries, baby," Mommy said.  "It's just like in our car when mommy spills coffee all over the place."

"Is it red?" She asked.

"No, it's green.  GO! GO! GO!"

Target homeschool dollar bin finds

This month, I ransacked the dollar bins at Target (I was looking for a watering can for the toddler who loves to water the plants), and I came away with a lot of great educational items.

We struck gold with this.  The month marker at top we already picked up from the dollar store.  What I found at Target was this yesterday/today/tomorrow wall poster.  We can change the days and talk about it every day.  It's easy to skip over topics when it's hard to explain them to a toddler, but this really helped us bring the days of the week into our regular rotation.

This is a great activity we've already been doing.  Spin the arrow and then find something of that color or the shape, depending on what it says.

This came in a pack of 4-5.  I'm sure we'll find lots of uses for it!

This clock is shown front and back here.  I bought two, because I knew we'd use it.  I was going to make on of these with a paper plate, but this is great!

These map activities are neat, though probably more for teachers.  It is a pack of 32 of the same worksheet (front and back).  One is a US map, one is the world map.  The US map will be useful, because we can practice filling them in over and over, and the back lists the state capitals and we can fill those in over and over.  The world map we might just use a few times, because it's just continents and the same word find game.  

From the upper left: I picked up a kiddie lanyard, because she loves her daddy's work badge!  Then, there is a pack of travel dry erase letter writing cards!  OMG!  In the center, there are flash cards with rhyming words, because I have a hard time thinking of words that rhyme.  Then, these box games take a skill like multiplication or money and make it into a game!  Those will be great to bust out at some point in the future as just another fun, learning thing to do.

We took our first paddle boat ride!

Daddy had a four-day weekend for the Fourth of July, so we went to the Reston Zoo on Friday.  We took our first paddle boat ride.  With Lily being so intense and kicking/writhing when she doesn't want to do something, I thought it would be a long while before we got to this point where we could have her in a water craft without ending up in the water!  It was a lot of fun.

Escape to Old Town Alexandria

Sometimes it's hard to escape from our routine, because we need places we can walk, eat and do something else fun all in one swoop.  On Sunday, we wound up in Old Town Alexandria.  Lily and I have been here a few times, and we were thinking this is the first time since we've had Lily that Sean and I have been in Old Town together.  That just seems weird, because we used to always be down that way for something.

We walked, played at the Armory Tot Lot, and then took a water tour of Alexandria.

Crazy toddler playdate turns into insane shopping spree

Last weekend, we hosted a playdate for some of the local toddlers and families, which turned into a massive potluck and then eventually into a movie night.  The toddlers were jumping on the bed and screaming in glee.  People kept showing up with food and we were having so much fun, everyone stuck around until long after Lily fell asleep in the middle of the chaos on the couch.  We had to bring in some toddler lawn chairs so the rugrats could watch the movie without sitting on each other. :)

The next day, we wound up at a 50% off sale at Value Village.  Alice spent $10, Cree spent $40, I spent $63, and Heather won with $84.  We came home with a bunch of clothes, board games for $1 ( I Spy Eagle Eye, Break the Ice, Operation, Mouse Trap, others), an activity tray, and two of these dance pads, one being a piano and the other being a number-based dance mat.

Jaimeson and Olivia shopping

We needed 4 carts in the end, even though Alice only bought 4 things.

Dance Challenge Mat

Things Lily says at 2.5 years old

Raiding the cussing jar.

"GET OFF ME!"

"I farted."

"What is he doing?"

"I'm going to run away (from that diaper change)."

"I love you."

"It's magic!"

"I need a hat."

Mommy presented Lily with Lamb-lamb.  "NO! I want MINI Lamb-lamb!"

"I want ice cream/chocolate/beans (M&Ms)"

"Do you want to cuddle with me?"

"I want your phone."

"Give me that phone."

"Let me do it!"

"No, let me try."

"I need more water."

"I need more MILK!"

"NO! I don't want it!"

"I don't want my diaper changed."

"I don't want a shirt."

"Can daddy do it?"

"Oh no!  I lost Lamb-lamb/bottle/it."

"Where is it?  I don't see it?"

"Where is the mall?"

"Where is Whole Foods?"

"I have a boo-boo. Kiss it?"

"I want to go to the pool/mall/market."

"Lay down with me?"

"Bottle, where are you?"

 "Is it dead?"

"Beep, beep - Get out the way!"

"Daddy, I'm all done!"

"Is it poop?"

"I want more milk.  I want a lot."

Lily, you need money for more milk.  (Checks her own pocket) "Where is it? I don't see it."

Lily, give me a big kiss, I am leaving. "Where are you going?" I have a meeting.  (Sweet baby kiss.) "GET OUT!" (Uses feet to propel unsuspecting victim away.)

"Where is Daddy?"  He went to work. (Remembering our conversation yestereday...) "Oh no! He took my go-de-go (stroller)!" 

"TA-DA: It's magic!"

<--- This was Lily on a late family trip to Whole Foods after she slept 5:15p to 7:15p.  It's midnight, and she just went to bed.  What are you supposed to do with that?  Watch Shawn the Sheep, we say.

We stayed in most of today.  Played Mister Potato head and with chalk on the porch.  Eventually, we put together the 50 states puzzle and played Migoga marble run, which took up an hour and a half.

Lily loved Migoga, but we don't play it often, because it's for older kids.  Eventually, she took one of the legs and used it as a cup to drop the ball from.  She then raised it up like a wand and said, "Ta-da!  Look, mama, it's magic!  I need a hat!"

"A magic hat?"

"Yes!" She said, taking the Santa hat out of the dress-up drawer.  She told me to wear the big floppy purple hat.  That could be my magic hat.  It is indeed a magic hat.  There are no pictures of that, so sorry.  We were having too much fun, plus, I needed to hands to hold the marble run upright, as it was missing a leg or two at this point.  We both needed wands.

"Ta-da, it's magic!"

Weaning

I weaned 16 days ago, but I'm still making milk.  That's absurd.  Just saying.  That's incredible based on everything we've been told about breastfeeding in these pro-breastfeeding venues.  But, it's absurd, because every misstep was agony for everyone.  I analyzed what I could have done wrong, and just beat myself up for it.  But, in reality, we just produce what we produce, and that's the end of story.  This whole producing milk for 3 weeks after just affirms a thought I had about too much pro-breastfeeding propaganda.  But, it has to be that way, because it takes a convinced woman a lot of dedication to successfully breastfeed against all odds. 

We've been doing good.  Her mood has definitely evened out to where I know when she's upset over life versus boob.  But, I can't get her to sleep with a bottle in the bed no matter what I do or how long I wait.  She'll sleep for me in the stroller or in the car.  More work to be done. 

Too cute a baby, though.  Our relationship post weaning is much better.

Getting rid of yard spider infestation

As Spring started to creep in, I realized we had an infestation of yard spiders to the point we couldn't let Lily play outside.  Through research, we stumbled upon diatomaceous earth as an answer.  Sprinkle this powder on the yard a couple of times per year.  It works by making cuts in insect bodies and winds up dehydrating them.  It is non-toxic to humans.  You can get a 10 lb bag for under $30.   Take that, ye insects that hold our yard hostage!

National Children's Museum

This kid spot was awesome! 

Update on the Family

I haven't been blogging much, but that doesn't mean that I'm not writing!  Here's what has been going on:

Getting ready for our big move to Tampa.

Sean is running around trying to get the paperwork completed so that we can get his orders.  This especially to get on the base housing wait list.  And, we're trying to figure out how to handle the Hyattsville house.  My mom is looking for jobs back in Ohio. 

I've been learning so much about TV news these past couple of months.   I am taking online classes, watching webinars, shadowing producers, shadowing assignment editors, talking to managers about advice, applying for jobs, and practicing tv news writing.

Lily is crazy fussy with Mommy.

She is still not sleeping well.  We had it figured out, and then a week of 6 days, 53 hours, and the night shift really messed that up.  So, she's constantly waking up now, I'm not getting sleep, I go back to sleep for an hour, Sean has to be to work earlier, and when I come downstairs, she spends the next 3 hours freaking out.  She's an emotional wreck when I'm around.  Not only that, some days, she takes one nap, other days, she wants two naps.  She's waking up at 3am and 4am some days, and it's impossible to get her back to sleep.  I've been at my wits end here for awhile.  We decided that I'm taking a mommy vacation this weekend and getting a hotel room.

And, she is still having trouble with lots of people.  We figured out that one unfamiliar person who keeps their distance and lets her come to them is best.  We thought a baby dance would be cool.  She loves to dance, loves to walk around new places.  But, she got in there and couldn't handle all of the people.  I don't understand it, because we took her to the mall right after, which was just as packed, but she walked around the mall for a happy hour.

Lily is an amazing baby.

This has all been so hard, but it's so incredible to watch her grow up.  She probably has about 15-20 words now.  She blows kisses.  She hugs stuffed animals.  She walks all over the place by herself.  She loves to adult push buttons and flip light switches.  She sings to herself. She's even sang herself to sleep a couple of rare times.  She squawks.  She dances.  She loves to cook and clean.  Hehe.  She also loves buses and trucks.  She loves to push around her baby doll stroller.  And, she even crawled through the tunnel at the baby dance.  CRAWLED!

It is incredible to watch her develop skills.  We go from one month, she can't push the baby stroller around at all.  She still had trouble with her weight distribution.  We put something flimsy up and wait until she can walk better.  Then, she can walk better, but it's exhausting to help her turn the stroller around the house.  We were hunched over again.  But, it seriously only took her two days of being helped before she could turn the stroller all over the house herself.  OMG.  I was just astounded.  She really wanted to push that stroller around!!!

14 Months Today

This girl has just taken off.  She is full-blown walking now. Of course, she still likes to hold our hands and pull us along at times.  Even though it felt like it would never end, and we even hired a mother's helper to deal with the finger-walking, it seemed like the 5 months we spent bent over wasn't that bad.  Don't get me wrong, it was BAD, but we've rebounded pretty quickly. 

Some of her favorite things:

• Sitting down to read books.  She loved to flip through them standing up.  We wondered when she'd start to sit with us and look at them.   And, now she does!
• She loves her baby doll stroller.  She found it the other day and loves to push it around.  At first, she couldn't steer at all, though after lots of help, she's learning to steer on her own.
• She loves playing in water.  In her bath, while washing her hands, and in puddles outside.  I almost let her play in a puddle last week, until I realized that we didn't have a change of clothes for her in the bag.

Cute things she did:

• Put the play phone up to her ear like she was talking on it.  We talk on the play phone. When I put my hand up to my ear and pretend to call her, she will answer!
• The Hollidges gifted Lily some slippers.  They were just sitting in the living room, though my mom hadn't seen them yet.  She was so excited about them, she opened them up and put them on the baby, then realized that they could have been bought for someone else.  LOL!  The baby, who hates socks, walked around all morning with them on.  When my mom took them off, she got so upset, she walked over to them, picked them up, and tried to put them back on.
• She started blowing kisses!  I blew her a kiss yesterday, she caught it, and put it in her mouth.  Then, she blew me a kiss!  MAH!
• She started singing herself to sleep.  When she's tired and laying in bed, she will sing herself some of the songs we sing together.  
• She is giving high fives!

Other things going on:

• She hit the developmental period ("wonder week") of principles about two weeks ago.  That means bad sleep and more fussy.  We have two more weeks to go in that, according to the Wonder Week app.  It always happens that the best night of sleep she has is going into a wonder week.  

Postpartum Depression

I knew going into Lily's birth that my stressful pregnancy put me at a higher risk for winding up with postpartum depression.  I thought that escaped it by some luck.  I've dealt with my fair share of stressful situations. But, it slammed us all into THIS reality when we used 4 oz (1+ days) of breastmilk because traffic kept me 30 minutes longer at the gym during vacation on a day when the baby should have been good for hours longer.  The 2-hour trip to the gym was not worth nearly a day and a half of milk.  I cried for days.  I resented the baby.  I was so sad. 

I knew what was wrong and I scheduled an appointment with a therapist immediately. I don't think that helped at all after 8 weeks of therapy.  Eventually, our appointments became about trying to convince me to hire a babysitter (even at 5am), as well as other pieces of parenting advice.  I just didn't connect with the right therapist, and after 8 weeks, I was just wasting my free time. I had to arrange rare outings alone to get to therapy.  I could have spent those two hours having brunch my myself or shopping!  So, I would use my free time in therapy that wasn't useful and still need more free time.

There have been several stories in the news recently of folks with PPD who have lost their grip on reality.  And, mental health treatment in the U.S. has been a hot conversation since Creigh Deed's son attacked his father and killed himself.  Not to mention the weekly shootings that are all too familiar this year.  In my opinion, it is very difficult to get on with daily life while trying to say "Hey! I need some help!"  Our system is missing something major.  To find a therapist, let alone one covered by my insurance, I have to wade through a list of names and addresses, most of whom do not have websites, and try to figure out who would be a good fit for me.  Then, it takes several appointments to figure out that a therapist isn't going to be able to help you, so the search starts all over again.  And, I've wasted covered appointments on my insurance plan trying to figure that out.  How long before I find the right therapist?  And, so many people don't have insurance, or their plans don't cover therapy.

What I need most is someone to take the baby out of the house for hours on a regular basis.  That happened for the first time two weeks ago.  Sean took Lily to Ikea and Silver Diner.  My therapist thought that it was imperative for me to enlist a babysitter or nanny, to spend weeks getting Lily to trust that person, and to spend time seeing if I would trust someone to take her out of the house.  The answer is NO.  I will not trust any person who is not family to drive my daughter anywhere.  But, that weekend was a success.  Hopefully, we'll have another one of those soon.

13 Months

Lily turned 13 months old last week.  She is still walking, but will now army crawl a bit, if the mood strikes her.  She is walking across large spaces and is falling less.  She learned to fall on her hands instead of her head (most of the time).  I muse that maybe this month, she'll be fully walking on her own.  She started getting onto her hands and knees and trying to stand up.  I just laughed at the sight.  Why now, after all this time?  It is like a dream.  Cannot be true.

She has so many words.  She tries to say some and she knows so many.  She says ox, sock, and rock, which come out as "ock"  She also tries to say cat, truck, and some other things. 

She loves to put the hat, sock, and shirt pieces back into her play suitcase.  It is very interesting to watch her turn them the right way. She loves instruments.  Anything you can shake, bang, or press to make noise is a hit.

She loves to touch other people.  She walks up to other kids and grabs them.  These toddlers and preschoolers don't know what to make of it.  Today, another little girl freaked out that the baby touched her. 

Lily is hugging now a lot.  It's so good to have her arms around you after a year of her smacking you away.  Lol.

Getting This Food Under Control

Fun fact of the day: the incredibly delicious Panera cupcakes have 520 calories in them.  That's right.  Five. Hundred. Twenty.  FIVE HUNDRED TWENTY!!!

I had cut out the carbs and sugar, and while my weight dropped, I got very sick.  More than withdraw, the headaches, body aches, and confusion went on for more than a month.  I'm still breastfeeding, so I have no idea what my body really needs until it makes me eat it.  So, I started eating some lasagna and peanut butter cups.  I got ill from some bad salad a couple of months ago and then stopped taking it to work, so I was confused with what healthy foods I should fill the cracks in my appetite.  I'm pulling teeth to just try to make it through with the little sleep that I get, so I don't have time to be sick.

I gave up on waiting for the weight to come off before shopping for clothes.  I went out and bought a new work wardrobe, none of which was a size larger than I was before pregnancy.

Then, I noticed that I unintentionally stopped eating meat and my weight started to balloon.  Between the easy-to-make cheese lasagna and the broccoli cheese soup at the brand new Panera, I wasn't being the carnivore I know I am.  I went from 168 lbs to 176 lbs really fast.  It was horrible.  None of my new pants fit last week!  Mind you, I was 150 lbs when I got pregnant and gave birth at at least 190 lbs.   I cut down my calories to 2,000 or less per day,.  Before, I was eating probably 3,000 to 4,000 and maintaining a good weight for awhile. But, even at under 2,000 calories per day, I was still gaining weight!

I remembered that I started loosing weight when I was eating meat and veggies for lunch and dinner.  I thought it was the sugar and grains that were causing the stagnation.  Last week, I ate several Indian dinners with naan (bread).  Lots of bread, actually.  And, I started loosing weight again!  By eating meat and veggies, I had also inadvertently cut out dairy, too.  The baby and I also cut dairy out last week to see if that would reduce her night wakings.  She is certainly sleeping better.  And, even though I have no idea how many calories I'm eating, the weight is still dropping.  It's at least under control.

I also cut down on the coffee I was drinking, because I read where one lady said she couldn't even drink decaf after noon without her breastfed child being up all night.  I think Lily's really a lot happier now.  We don't know what is going on with her nap schedule.  Some days, she'll take two naps, but other days, it's just one.  I am not sick by not eating much grain or sugar now, so I think that the large quality of coffee I was drinking to make it through all of the sleepless nights (that was causing some sleepless nights) required a larger amount of grains and sugar to deal. 

Even at 2,000 calories or less per day, I couldn't loose weight when I was eating lots of dairy.   How incredible.  I would not have thought it mattered as much what I ate as long as I didn't eat too much.

Cedar Oil for Lawn Treatment

We had been held hostage in our house and away from the yard this whole summer.  The mosquitoes were horrendous.  They were relentless.  And, no matter what Sean did, they left painful quarter-sized welts all over his body.  Apparently, these were African tiger mosquitoes, or something like that.  We tried to make mosquito traps using carbon dioxide to lure them in, but those failed to catch much of anything.  We then bought two insect lamps with mosquito-attracting pheromones, and those seem to work well.  But, they have a limit to how affective they are.

It was killer, because we couldn't just lay in the yard on a blanket with the baby.  Oh, she would have loved it.  Sean and I both grew up in the middle of nowhere and made the forest our home. I remember the countless days where I would curl up in our yard on a blanket while dozing off and watching the clouds float by.  We have a bigger yard and more green space that we would have ever thought living in this city.  But, because we were not willing to spray chemicals on the lawn, we couldn't use it.  My mom mentioned to me that everyone in Ohio uses Chemlawn.  I didn't realize until just a few weeks ago that our lawn growing up was treated with chemicals.  Of course, it makes sense now.  There were never any bugs.  Just fireflies. 

During our visit to Texas, we saw a sign for Cedarcide, an organic lawn treatment. Sean looked it up, and it was for sure not just another chemical treatment masquerading as something natural. It was a cedar oil mixture.

When I saw a brown recluse near the side of the house, I knew that we needed to do something.  Baby girl could have so easily come into contact with it while romping around the yard.  I was ready to just have them come spray the lawn.  For most people, that's okay.  We played in sprayed yards growing up, and we ended up fine.  Lots of people do.  But, for us crazy people who spend a good deal of time, money, and energy trying so hard to minimize the chemicals in their lives, this seemed like a huge deal.  It was a question.  Do you want chemicals or do you not want chemicals?  It was maddening. Of course we don't want chemicals.  We wanted to use the yard!

Sean reminded me about Cedarcide, and after milling over the price, we eventually made the leap.  Someone mentioned that having a company come out to spray the yard would be much more expensive.  It was about $80 for one small bottle.  I had been worried we had just paid $80 for two small treatments and that we would need a new bottle before we got rid of the bugs, but that was not the case.  It contains eight treatments, but the instructions say to use 8 oz for the first treatment.   My mom sprayed the yard and commented that she had enough in the bottle to soak the yard three times.

I was really happy with it.  We had a bonfire for her birthday and there weren't any bugs.  

Toddler Art Class

We've been hitting up this toddler art class from time to time.  Though creating art on paper isn't something Lily is able to really grasp at a year, the whole activity is very engaging.  There is a central activity, such chalk dipped in tempura paint or dipping cars into paint and driving them on paper (I know, cool, right?).  Additionally, the kids can use crayons, markers, or colored pencils at another station.  At a third area, there are toys and books to play with, as well as comfy chairs for parents to sit in.  And, there is coffee to boot.  It is definitely an activity with forethought. 

The first time Lily interacted with a medium on paper to make art!

First Birthday

 

 

Starting to decorate

decorating cupcakes

 

 

daddy and birthday girl selfie

teething baby

first bonfire awake

 

fairy beanie

hanging on the porth with my mom and dad

walking with Sean's mom

tex mex night

National Arboretum