Table

Last week Paige decided on her own that she would sit at the table.  She has been in a high chair all this time because it keeps her in one spot to try to get as much food in her as possible.  I allowed her to try it and she actually did sit and eat a meal.  On Sunday, Hailey decided that she too would sit at the table.  She actually does well too.  I still have the high chairs out, but I'm headed to buy some nice booster seats this week for the table chairs.  It appears both are out of the high chair now.  It will be nice to have them out of the kitchen and have the extra space back.  Can hardly believe how fast they are growing.  

Sunday morning eating Circus Waffles.  Yum!

Woolly

Woolly has been ailing for about a year now fighting pancreatitis and limping. He would just lay on the floor and have a very difficult time getting up. After several speciality vets it has finally been diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis. We tried just some antibiotics that have anti-inflammatory benefits but after a month they failed. We finally ventured to steroids-- prednisone . The affects are wonderful! It's like having our old Woolly back! He's doing really well, barking and running to the door when the UPS man delivers, playing with the girls, diving for ducks in the pool, & even up and begging for everything. Brian groomed him the other night and he did great with that ordeal too. I'm sure that helps him to feel better too. A trip to the salon always helps me too. I hope so much that he can tolerate the steroids long term. It's so nice to have our special boy back.


The girls after Woolly got groomed.


So handsome!


Sleeping on his bed upstairs! Hasn't been upstairs for quiet a few months.


Beggar Boy back in action!

Pillows

We moved the furniture in the house around & our couches have a ton if extra pillows. I put them on the floor for the girls to lay & play on along with their pillow pets. They seem to like it.

Sister snuggles along with the dollies who needed to test too.


This is Hailey actually watching Elmo on Sesame Street. First time it really caught her attention & concentration. La, la, la, la!

24 pieces!

With the extreme heat this week we ventured to Target to find some indoor activities to do. We got playdough, some foam crafts & Paige put together this 24 piece puzzle. She was very excited to have it complete.

Words

Hailey is really starting to talk. She saying animal noises, specifically, "moo," "meow," & "roar" & will say them when asked what these animals say. She also says, "hi," "mama," "dada," & "yes." She's going so fast! This is her wearing the Mr. Potato Head glasses & eating cookies.

Blocks

My mom helped me the other day by going to pick up my car at the dealer with me. She ended up back at our house and played blocks with Paige. I love to watch them play together. They made a castle for the king and another for the princess.


Yesterday we had excessive heat, our thermostat outside read 117, so I tried to keep Paige inside. She built a bird nest with blocks and was an orange, big bird. I was the mama bird.


The letters then became bird food. Her imagination is great, I hope I'm fostering it. I will also add that stating inside is no fun.

3 year well check

Paige had her 3 year well check today. It went wonderful! We got to see the real MD today, Dr Sudha & it was terrific. I left feeling like a good mom. She answered my crazy mom questions about whining, negotiating & control without making me feel like a bad mom or stupid. Really nice. We even talked about Paige's school, which she is very familiar with. Her advice was that see saw no harm in changing classes.

Paige is healthy & hitting all normal 3 year old milestones...talking in complete sentences & can be understood half the time, follows commands (when wants to), identifies colors & shapes, identifies pictures in a book, and can identify a friend. The only one she's not completely doing is peddling a tricycle, but I think it's because our patio is small & it's been just too hot this summer to practice...we've been swimming instead!

Paige's statistics:
Wt: 29.9 lbs = 50%
Ht: 37 inches = 50%
blood pressure: 93/50.

Normal blood pressure for a child her age is 90/60. Her systolic might have been high because I was rushing to get out the door. We ran late to the appointment.

I'm so proud of my 3 year old. She's doing many new things to be helpful & caring.

Yesterday

Just a couple of beautiful, well in my opinion beautiful, pics of parts of my day yesterday. Paige started showing interest in sitting at the table to eat meals. She actually does stay in the chair & eat. But sometimes switches to her high chair for some meals too. As long as she eats, I'm happy!


While Paige was at school, I brought Hailey home to eat lunch & then we played in her room with the barn & animals. It was so fun! She likes to play with the animals & is starting to say their respective noises. The book Brown Bear, Brown Bear by E. Carle & another Are You a Cow by S. Boynton has helped to reinforce the noises. I must not forget my favorite, Big Red Barn by M. Wise Brown which is the ultimate for barn yard noises. Hailey's favorite right now is Brown Bear, Brown Bear. You will notice in this pic she also played dress up.

Hand Sanitizer

This afternoon at about 5:30pm, I was downstairs enjoying 5 minutes to myself as the girls "played" upstairs.  It was quiet.  I knew it was a clue, but still was savoring my time.  Brian got home and went upstairs to find that Paige had "washed" Hailey's hair in hand sanitizer.  Hailey wasn't crying nor protesting, but still, my 5 minutes of myself time turned into 10 minutes of having to clean up one child and kindly tell the other not to do such things.  My life as a SAHM...nothing better...right?  Right.  :) 

Hailey after a washing. 

Purple Dress

In case you didn't notice in the last few pics posted, Paige is wearing the SAME dress.  She has been stuck on this dress for about a week now.  She has to wear it and calls it her "purple dress".  She will go into the laundry and find it to put it on.  I have been washing it about every other night after she goes to bed.  I'm lucky that it's really pretty and I like it.  A dear friend of mine gave me all of her daughter's Gymboree and Jack & Janie hand-me-downs and it's from that group of clothes.  (Ironically it has a prairie dress feel, my dear friend and I adored Little House on the Prairie as children.)  She seems ok when I tell her that she has to change for school or if we go somewhere...so far.  I've heard of these phases with kids and clothes, but I was hoping to avoid it.  I probably need to read about it, as it may be a control thing and she wants more choices in what she wears.  Hmmmm...

Stuffed Bell Peppers

I have found that if I enlist Paige's help for dinner prep while Hailey is taking her afternoon nap, Hailey will sleep longer because Paige is sequestered in the kitchen and quiet.  Paige LOVES to help lately too, so it really is nice.  Tonight we made stuffed bell peppers.  She mixed the meat up and formed the balls for it to go into the peppers.  She did a great job and had fun doing it.  They tasted delicious too!

Showing the meat she mixed

Final product.  Yum! 

Swimming Update

I've heard it said that if you do something every day you will probably be very good at it.  Well, I believe it's true in this case.  Since swim lessons in early July the girls have become awesome swimmers.  Paige is completely on her own now.  She jumps from the high point of the deck into the deep end of the pool by herself and pops right back up, dives in with Brian, and swims multiple times across the pool by herself.  It really is amazing.  Hailey is jumping in from the side, walks around in the shallow end and goes under but pops right back up with a smile, bobs up and down, steps off the steps to swim on her own to me.  I still catch her when she does that, but probably just because it scares me, not her.  Like I said, they swim at least an hour every day so get tons of practice, so of course they are getting good, in this mom's opinion.  Perhaps they will be on the swim team when they get older?  It will be interesting to track.  We have a couple more months of swim time left before the water turns cold...maybe I need to get them in another more advanced swim lesson before the season ends? 

This is them heading out the door today to the pool.

Story Time

The routine after bath, is putting on jammies while having milk, then a story to finish milk, then bed.  Paige decided tonight that she would put Hailey to bed.  Hailey was fine with it and Paige read her the story Prayer for a Child.  Very, very sweet sister moment. 

Saying Good Bye to Auntie

After 6 wonderful weeks this summer we finally had to say goodbye to my Aunt Charlene this summer.  The girls call her Auntie.  It was so nice having her here.  She would come watch the girls anytime for me or I would take them there.  We are looking forward to seeing her again in October for Trick or Treating and my mom's birthday.

Pacifier

For the last 6 months I've been trying to break Paige from the pacifier.  I have made the rule that she can only have it when she sleeps.  Of course when she wants it she says she's tired and goes to lay on her bed or couch.  Very smart.  I also give one to Hailey when she sleeps, so Paige goes in to find the one that got left in Hailey's bed.  So needless to say, Paige has a pacifier more in the day than I want.  I tell her that we are awake and playing and she needs to think about taking her pacifier out.  I have explained to her that it can hurt her speech development and the formation of her teeth, but in toddler words so she can understand.  I'm at the point now of either giving in or going cold turkey. 

I tried the cold turkey thing today after reading about it in "What to Expect the Toddler Years."  It suggested that I enlist an authoritative figure such as the doctor.  I told Paige that I spoke with Dr. Valenzuela and she doesn't want her to have a "pac" anymore.  Then on the suggestion in the book for a reward, we called Dada and asked him to get some special candy for not sucking on her pac anymore.  Let me say now, after that explanation, cold turkey is TORTURE.  I tried it and it was a day full of whining and then screaming during quiet time.  45 minutes into quiet time, she somewhere found a pac and 5 minutes later was asleep. 

With that I'm back to the method of we only have pac when we sleep.  Yes, I know they say it takes 3 days, but Oy.  I don't know if I can do it.  I'm hoping she just grows out of having a pacifier by herself as activities increase in her life.  I'll try to minimize it as much as I can, but will just let it happen naturally.  Unless someone has a great suggestion, which I'm open to anything, I'll just try the natural wean.  Ugh. 

"Mama"

Last week Hailey finally said, "Mama."  It's so sweet.  She uses it ALL the time now.   :) 

She is also teething.  She has 4 molars and 2 eye teeth coming in.  It looks incredibly painful.  She was really cranky/fussy last week and this week just needy.  Poor little thing. 

This is one of her pics that were taken with Paige's 3 year session. 

Mimicker

The little sister sure does like to do all that big sister does.  Here's a few shots of Hailey doing exactly as Paige is doing.  Pressure for Mama to get things right with Paige so Hailey doesn't follow.  Yikes!

1st day back

Paige started her Fall Semester of preschool last Thursday.  We had been telling her that she will have a new teacher, Mrs. Hamilton, but she wasn't fully convinced about the change.  She still said she wanted Mrs. Hawley.  I took her on Wednesday for a meet the teacher time and it went just OK.  Wednesday was the first day back for all students so the class was a bit hectic and I didn't have a feel of total control by Mrs. Hamilton. 

Paige was moderately excited to go on Thursday.  She goes in the afternoon now from 12:30-3pm.  I think this will be nice so we don't have to rush so much in the morning, however, she is definitely fresher in the morning.  She did have an accident at school, which hasn't happened at school or at home since her first day of school this summer.  I was bothered by the fact that Paige does have a change of clothes at school, yet she was put in borrowed clothes.  I also had that strange feeling of non-control by Mrs. Hamilton when I dropped off and picked up Paige.  I don't want to be the crazy, controlling mom so I'm giving Mrs. Hamilton more time to get things organized and control of the class and students.  It appeared that several boys were having a hard time adjusting and were hanging on her each time I was there.  But if I don't see an improvement, I'll ask for Paige to be put back in Mrs. Hawley's class.   I'll just put it back on Paige that I think she needs to be in the younger class (2 1/2-3 1/2 years) for now.  That way I'm not the crazed mom towards the teacher. 

Three Years Old

In the last few months we have seen maturing in Paige.  I think that preschool really helped and perhaps just the fact that she's been on this earth for 3 turns around the sun has added to the maturity.  She is more independent (plays by herself), expresses her feelings more (happy, mad and sad), is very helpful with Hailey (brings Hailey her Snugglie when she's sad, tries to feed Hailey, etc), wants to do more things for herself ("I can do it.") and can do more physical things on her own now too (swimming).  It's hard to believe she's already three.  The time does go by so fast.  I have a new schedule set for this year, she goes to preschool two times a week in the afternoon, dance class for an hour one day a week and in October I will start her in soccer.  Getting out of the house is good for all of us, but will still look forward to two stay at home days during the work week.  I don't want to overstimulate or burn her out at age three.  :)  I had her pictures taken yesterday and it was the first time she actually posed.  It was such a great experience and we got some cute shots.  She's wearing the bumblebee outfit from my favorite children's clothing store, Gymboree.  Thanks Auntie!