Those that can, do, and those that can't... teach... dinosaurs?
She might not be quite there yet, but it can be a lot of fun just the same.
Here's Rebecca in the middle of a successful pee, showing her dino friends how it's done.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Potty progress
Rebecca asked to be taken to the potty today!
Usually, she only asks to be taken to the potty after having an accident in her training pants, but today she asked to be taken to the potty because she felt she needed to go pee. And she did!
Many stickers were awarded.
Usually, she only asks to be taken to the potty after having an accident in her training pants, but today she asked to be taken to the potty because she felt she needed to go pee. And she did!
Many stickers were awarded.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Rebecca's favorite song
Rebecca enjoys watching and singing along to these songs.
Sometimes she'll be walking by and you'll hear her saying the following under her breath:
"Claws and jaws and teeth and bone, they like to growl and groan and moan. Rawwwr."
Sometimes she'll be walking by and you'll hear her saying the following under her breath:
"Claws and jaws and teeth and bone, they like to growl and groan and moan. Rawwwr."
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Driving lessons: Trip to the park
After dinner today Rebecca and I took a trip to the park. She rode her trike:
(note image is a couple months old)
Most of the way down she was all over the place, taking her hands off the wheel while I dutifully kept her course true by pushing the trike straight with the Kettler Convenient Handle of Parental Influence (tm). She was good about keeping her feet on the pedals, at points even providing a small amount of propulsion. Her steering was erratic though, and suggestions/commands like "Turn to the right" or "Steer away from the curb" would result in the opposite effect as often as not. "Straighten out" worked pretty well though.
We got to the park (a 3 block trip) and she climbed onto the play structure. A little girl and her mom arrived shortly thereafter. I found out in quick order that her name was Gloria (actually she said Gloria-Stefani, pronounced like Gwen Stefani) and that she was a few days shy of three years old. She had a few inches on Rebecca, and some obvious superior playground experience/coordination. They were pretty cute, and ended up clambering up the playstructure taking turns going down the curly slide.
At one point Gloria asked Rebecca if she could take the trike for a spin. Of course this elicited no response from Becca, so I told her she could give it a go. As soon as Gloria mounted up and started pedalling, Rebecca ran over and I was worried conflict over possession would follow. I was pleasantly surprised as Rebecca took on the role of 'adult' and grabbed a hold of the handle. Gloria could pedal quickly enough that Rebecca was having to run full tilt, especially around corners. She didn't wipe out, fortunately, and had a blast tearing around. They did a couple laps of the wading pool, went around the basketball court, and then went behind some bushes. I got up to go after them and they emerged, with Rebecca riding and Gloria 'driving' from in behind.
After a few seconds of this, they switched back, and Gloria started chasing Rebecca. Images of taking Rebecca home with tire tracks up her back flickered through my mind, but Becca wisely made a beeline for the grass. Gloria dismounted and gave chase on foot. She was quite a bit faster than Becca and caught up within a few seconds. Hunter became the hunted and Rebecca really poured on the coals to keep up as they ran across the little soccer field. Pouring on the coals consisted of flailing her arms and kicking her legs out to the side more, but not moving any faster, it seems. She was tired. They had made it half way across the field when Gloria's mom and I decided to go after them. Gloria was caught at the far edge of the field by her mom, but she did a quick dodge and started running back chasing Rebecca, once again passing her and becoming the rabbit, rather than the greyhound.
Rebecca made it back pretty winded, and after a couple minutes of trying to persuade her to use the swing, it was time to go. It was getting pretty dark and bedtime was approaching. Gloria offered to push Rebecca home. It was quite cute.
The ride home was amazing. Rebecca only needed major directional corrections 3 or 4 times the whole way home, I was almost exclusively providing propulsion instead of physical guidance. Gentle reminders of 'straight down the street' produced the desired result. I think she 'gets' steering now. Nifty.
So she sort of knows how to pedal, and understands steering, next up, putting the two together.
Then comes a bicycle with the seat lowered and pedals removed.
*rubbing hands together in anticipation*
Our lives are set to ludicrous speed
I think I've told Greg a million times, that I wish there was an emergency brake in my life. Everything is passing much too quickly (except when Lucy is teething and crying - then time stands still). I would like to think that I would use the brake sparingly - but I know that's not true. I'd be yanking on that sucker every day - at the very least, it would mean catching up on the laundry. I do a full load of baby laundry - for Lucy alone - every single day. She is a vomit factory. Rest assured... I have lowered my standards applicable to the volume of barf damage on an article of clothing that warrants a journey to the hamper. And yet - when night falls, the hamper is full.
So it goes.
Today Lucy ate solid food for the first time! (Photo to come) I didn't dare delay any longer - she had become insatiable. Naturally, she ate watered-down rice cereal. At first she seemed a little confused/apprehensive, but after her first taste, she was so happy and excited, my greatest challenge was dodging her flailing limb as I attempted to land the spoon in her mouth.
Rebecca had two little breakthroughs today.
The first was that she informed me that she required a change of training pants due to poops. This is really unprecedented, and definitely a step in the right direction. Sadly, she later committed a blatant act of poop-denial.
The second breakthrough was that Rebecca actively tried to involve Lucy in play. It came about like this: Rebecca decided to forego her nap despite being very tired (an alarmingly common trend as of late). We built a lego castle to house Sailor Venus and a Parasaurolophus, until I was required to tend to Lucy. After changing Lucy, I brought Lucy to the living room, where she enjoyed a bottle of formula. Meanwhile, Rebecca took my new fall shoes out of their box, paraded around the living room with them, then went to the kitchen after informing me that she was going to "make a boat". She used pieces of packing foam to create the "boat". These were large rectangular pieces that we are waiting to dispose of, and there were about a dozen of them. She then came an informed me that she had made the boat, and then made a series of requests that I stop feeding Lucy, put Lucy down. I told her that Lucy's bottle needed to go back into the fridge and she said " Here - I take it". Then we received a tour of the boat. Rebecca had one special section that was for passengers, and she asked me to put Lucy on the boat. I was afraid that she wanted to send Lucy away on an imaginary boat, but instead, Rebecca clambered on - wished me goodbye and started sailing away. When she tired of the boat, she helped me play with Lucy. It was quite lovely.
In other Rebecca news, lately she makes me kiss her plastic dinosaurs - but presents different body parts to me. First I must kiss their mouths, then their tails, then their claws and so on. I don't know why this is the case.
I have discovered that Rebecca is mixing up "angry" and "hungry". She often says "angry" when she intends "hungry". Becca adores being tickled and chased by her Daddy. This includes being "eaten" by Daddy Allosaurus (or whatever she thinks of on that particular day). So lately, she keeps asking him for "angry" - and now we know that it means she wants to be attacked by a parental dino.
Becca forced me to decontiminate the bathroom yesterday following an unamusing show of interest in the toilet. Since I am still fighting off a cold, and my sleep is frequently interrupted by Captain Nightmares (Rebecca of course - Lucy sleeps like an angel), I find myself to be very tired lately. The hardest part of the day for me is around 2pm. Because Rebecca's napping is becoming unreliable, I can't always grab a power snooze anymore. Lucy was having trouble settling down, so I wrapped her in a very snuggly blanket. The sun was shining, I had a warm little toaster baby on my chest, and before you know it - I was sleeping. Well... Rebecca got out of her room, bypassed the safety on the bathroom door, and got out the toilet implements. Fortunately, her shrieks of delight woke me up. When I opened the door I found her with the toilet plunger in her hand, splashing it up and down in the toilet water. There was a rubber ducky in the toilet, and the toilet brush. The floor (but especially the bath mat) was soaking wet. She had two stuffed animals sitting on the bath mat, and there was toilet water on the walls. It made me very grumpy because I was still tired, and now had to face a rigorous cleaning of the bathroom. Also, Rebecca had poops in her pull-up while all this was happening. No rest for the wicked.
So it goes.
Today Lucy ate solid food for the first time! (Photo to come) I didn't dare delay any longer - she had become insatiable. Naturally, she ate watered-down rice cereal. At first she seemed a little confused/apprehensive, but after her first taste, she was so happy and excited, my greatest challenge was dodging her flailing limb as I attempted to land the spoon in her mouth.
Rebecca had two little breakthroughs today.
The first was that she informed me that she required a change of training pants due to poops. This is really unprecedented, and definitely a step in the right direction. Sadly, she later committed a blatant act of poop-denial.
The second breakthrough was that Rebecca actively tried to involve Lucy in play. It came about like this: Rebecca decided to forego her nap despite being very tired (an alarmingly common trend as of late). We built a lego castle to house Sailor Venus and a Parasaurolophus, until I was required to tend to Lucy. After changing Lucy, I brought Lucy to the living room, where she enjoyed a bottle of formula. Meanwhile, Rebecca took my new fall shoes out of their box, paraded around the living room with them, then went to the kitchen after informing me that she was going to "make a boat". She used pieces of packing foam to create the "boat". These were large rectangular pieces that we are waiting to dispose of, and there were about a dozen of them. She then came an informed me that she had made the boat, and then made a series of requests that I stop feeding Lucy, put Lucy down. I told her that Lucy's bottle needed to go back into the fridge and she said " Here - I take it". Then we received a tour of the boat. Rebecca had one special section that was for passengers, and she asked me to put Lucy on the boat. I was afraid that she wanted to send Lucy away on an imaginary boat, but instead, Rebecca clambered on - wished me goodbye and started sailing away. When she tired of the boat, she helped me play with Lucy. It was quite lovely.
In other Rebecca news, lately she makes me kiss her plastic dinosaurs - but presents different body parts to me. First I must kiss their mouths, then their tails, then their claws and so on. I don't know why this is the case.
I have discovered that Rebecca is mixing up "angry" and "hungry". She often says "angry" when she intends "hungry". Becca adores being tickled and chased by her Daddy. This includes being "eaten" by Daddy Allosaurus (or whatever she thinks of on that particular day). So lately, she keeps asking him for "angry" - and now we know that it means she wants to be attacked by a parental dino.
Becca forced me to decontiminate the bathroom yesterday following an unamusing show of interest in the toilet. Since I am still fighting off a cold, and my sleep is frequently interrupted by Captain Nightmares (Rebecca of course - Lucy sleeps like an angel), I find myself to be very tired lately. The hardest part of the day for me is around 2pm. Because Rebecca's napping is becoming unreliable, I can't always grab a power snooze anymore. Lucy was having trouble settling down, so I wrapped her in a very snuggly blanket. The sun was shining, I had a warm little toaster baby on my chest, and before you know it - I was sleeping. Well... Rebecca got out of her room, bypassed the safety on the bathroom door, and got out the toilet implements. Fortunately, her shrieks of delight woke me up. When I opened the door I found her with the toilet plunger in her hand, splashing it up and down in the toilet water. There was a rubber ducky in the toilet, and the toilet brush. The floor (but especially the bath mat) was soaking wet. She had two stuffed animals sitting on the bath mat, and there was toilet water on the walls. It made me very grumpy because I was still tired, and now had to face a rigorous cleaning of the bathroom. Also, Rebecca had poops in her pull-up while all this was happening. No rest for the wicked.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Another video for your viewing pleasure. Rebecca and her menagerie.
Please pardon the darkness, taken on our little camera.
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