New Words

Published by Daphne on Jul 3, 2009 in Angelina, Firsts, Jubilee and Signs & Words. 0 Comments

Angelina’s speaking vocabulary is growing. Often she is heard mimicking us, that is, immediately repeating the word we just said. In these cases, it’s a little difficult to know if she’s actually learned the word. In the past couple of days she’s been saying some things that are on her own accord.

If she wants to show you a toy, she will bring it to you and say, “Look.”

If she wants to perform a trick or stunt for you, she will say, “Watch.”

And my personal favorite, if she’s giving something to you, she will say, “Here you go, Mom.” It took me a long time to decipher this phrase.

Reflecting on these words, I’m pretty sure she learned them from her older sister Jubilee.

Solution (We Think)

Published by David on Jul 2, 2009 in Deep, Firsts and Madeleine. 0 Comments

After monitoring enough of Maddie’s attempts, we think we finally identified exactly how she was able to climb out. She would get into a corner and reach out her arms over the crib up to her armpits. Then she was strong enough to pull down her arms and thus “lever” her body up a little bit, feet off the crib mattress. Once up this little bit she would wedge her feet against the two vertical corner slats where they formed an angle. From there all it required was sheer determination to climb up a little further. We never witnessed what happens next, and we don’t plan to either because we don’t want to let it happen again.. all I can picture are some pretty scary looking falls.

So.. in the end, we simply swapped cribs because the other crib has sides and ends of uneven height such that Maddie can’t stick her arms out over the rails at a corner. Also, there is no corner angle where vertical slats meet together at the side and end. (It’s hard to explain with words.)

We are relieved to observe that she hasn’t tried to climb out again since her initial attempts were thwarted in this new crib.

After Last Night

Published by Daphne on Jul 2, 2009 in Deep, Humorous, Jubilee and Madeleine. 0 Comments

We expected Madeleine to sleep in since she had been awake for 3 hours in the middle of the night. Nope! Angel and Maddie woke up even earlier than usual. So David went in to give them some toys. Maddie, of course, did not like the idea of remaining in the crib. So she jumped ship again!

David wanted to buy a bed that day. I wasn’t so eager to have one toddler in a crib while another could roam around during room time. The other solution is a crib tent. Unfortunately, I was told that you need a crib where the sides are all straight. So I’m not sure if it will fit on either of our cribs.

What to do? High tech geekiness and a mother’s need to be more determined than her daughter! David set up a LAN camera so I could watch Madeleine during nap time. I had the children play and eat lunch in the backyard to use up energy, hoping this would make Maddie too tired to climb out.

When it was nap time, Maddie started crying as soon as I put her in the crib. I went to my computer and monitored her. Jubilee loved this. She got a big kick out of it and acted like a hall monitor. “I’ll tell you when she starts to climb out,” she said.

“No, tell me when she stands up,” I explained. “You can also tell me when she starts to climb out, but it’s more important to know when she’s standing so I can be ready.”

So we stayed in my room like security guards. Jubilee sat at the computer while I positioned myself to get to Madeleine before she could get out of the crib. She tried a couple times, but I immediately ran in there before she could escape. It lasted about 10 minutes and she fell asleep.

Determined

Published by Daphne on Jul 1, 2009 in Deep, Firsts and Madeleine. 0 Comments

I came home late Tuesday night. When I got into the bedroom, David and I began talking. Our noise probably woke Madeleine up. She would not go back to sleep. From 11:00pm to 1:00am we did everything: changed her diaper, held her, gave her water, gave her milk, gave her gripe water, showed her our bed and that we wanted to be asleep in it, ignored her, prayed for her, who knows what else.

At 1:00am, when we thought the gripe water would do the trick, we told her we weren’t going to come in again. We went to bed and turned off the lights. After a few minutes, yes, she began crying again. Every time we thought she was slowing down, she started crying more. There were times when the crying sounded belligerent.

We heard her flop down on her bed ready to sleep, but she kept crying. We heard a flick of the door handle and that shocked us. Did she throw a book from her crib to the door? Then we heard knocking! Oh no!

We rushed into the bedroom. Sure enough, she had climbed out of her crib, determined to get out of the room to run to us. Oh no!

Madeleine had won the battle! We put her in our bed. She was calm until I turned out the light. Then she started crying again! So David pondered that maybe she was becoming afraid of the dark. He found a night light, plugged it in the bedroom, put Madeleine in the crib, and closed the door.

We didn’t hear a peep for the rest of the night. That is, for the next 5 1/2 hours because it was now 2:00am!

(And if you’re wondering, yes, Angelina slept through the entire ordeal.)

Cleaning

Published by Daphne on Jun 30, 2009 in Angelina, Firsts, Humorous and Madeleine. 0 Comments

Here’s a couple fun stories about cleaning:

Angel and Maddie are getting better at helping to clean up. Today, after helping me stack the cardboard bricks, they didn’t merely knock them back down again. They actually helped to stack the bricks a second time.

After lunch I put Maddie on the Baby Bjorn toilet. I had a feeling she went pee, which in it of itself is amazing. I was busy trying to get Angel out of the highchair so I couldn’t go and look at the potty. Well, I didn’t need to. First, Maddie started to lift the potty out of the Bjorn to show me. (I was able to convince her to put it back before anything spilled.) Second, she walked over to where I stack the baby cloths (for wiping hands, etc.), grabbed one, and began wiping herself with it!

5th Percentile?

Published by Daphne on Jun 29, 2009 in Angelina and Deep. 0 Comments

Angelina had a weight check today. 21 pounds 7.8 ounces! She is approaching the 5th percentile in weight! When you adjust her for being born 6 weeks early, she’s above the 5th percentile! Yay! I never thought I’d see the day when she was higher than the 1st percentile. Thank You, God!

Losing My Mind Vs. Losing My Kid

Published by Daphne on Jun 26, 2009 in Deep, Firsts and Madeleine. 0 Comments

I am not sure which is worse, but I definitely know that when I lose my child, my mind goes with her.

It was bad enough when we couldn’t find Angelina the other day. Today at the park was a lot more stressful.

We went to the beautiful Jack Fischer Park today. It had a long time since this particular group of friends had met together for a playdate. The last time we had met at a park, Angel and Maddie were still in the snap-n-go! In our email discussion scheduling the playdtae, I had written, “Hopefully I can talk; it’s hard taking 3 kids to the park.”

The day went very well and yes, I did get to talk with my friends. As we were wrapping up to leave, I couldn’t find Madeleine anywhere. My friends and I looked and looked and looked. I was screaming her name so loudly that other parents started helping me out. It was at least five minutes, if not more, before we found her. (It felt like an eternity.) We don’t even know how she got onto the play structure. She had been on the other side of the park in the toddler sand area and we can’t figure out how she passed by us without us seeing her.

I’ve decided to change my job position. I no longer want to be a stay-at-home mom because the title is an oxymoron. I now want to be a stay-at-home monk. That way, we will have no choice but to remain in the confines of our home at all times and never get lost again.

Loss of Preschool Innocence

Published by Daphne on Jun 25, 2009 in Deep, Firsts, Humorous and Jubilee. 0 Comments

Wednesdays are my me-day. My wonderful nanny comes that day and gives me a break. (Until she quits next week, *sniff sniff*!) On this day, I hide in my room to do my own thing.

When I had to leave for an appointment, I told the nanny that Jubilee could watch tv. Jubilee said, “I want to watch Blue’s Clues!” I told the nanny that Jubilee could explain the DVR to her.

When I returned an hour later, the very first thing Jubilee said to me was, “Mommy, I watched Hannah Montana!” Needless to say, I was horrified, mortified, and shocked beyond belief. (When it comes to tv, I’m very strict about the shows she’s allowed to watch. Although there are some shows that she can watch that are older, it’s always monitored.)

It turns out that after watching Blue’s Clues, the nanny was scrolling through the recorded show list to find children’s shows. Apparently, Jubilee did not specify a show, as I expected her to do. So she asked Jubilee, “Do you want to watch Sid the Science Kid or Hannah Montana?”

I’m pretty sure Jubilee chose Hannah Montana simply because she had never heard of it and wanted something new and exciting.

So when I told Jubilee she wasn’t old enough to watch Hannah Montana, she protested, “But I like it!”

“What about it did you like?” I countered.

“The funny parts,” she answered. (Thankfully, I learned later on the episode was about going to the dentist and not some boy-girl relationship story.)

Do you want to know the worst part about this? She wouldn’t have watched Hannah Montana if yours truly didn’t record it for her own personal enjoyment! I’m so embarrassed.

Bee Sting

Published by Daphne on Jun 19, 2009 in Firsts and Jubilee. 0 Comments

Jubilee got her first bee sting today. Ouch!

We were at David’s company picnic. She was cutely walking barefoot on the grass. I watched her face, like it was in slow motion, change from a happy face to…what just happened?…this doesn’t feel good…hey this hurts…owwwwww!!!

David looked at the bottom of her foot and could tell immediately she’d been stung. He was able to get the stinger, including the sac, out. Poppa was deathly allergic to bee stings so we’d been dreading this day.

We were able to ice her foot and she willingly complied to sitting for a long time with the ice to her foot. She said it felt good. After some time she was fine and back to her happy self.

Messy Versus Meticulous

Published by Daphne on Jun 17, 2009 in Angelina, Food and Drink, Humorous and Madeleine. 0 Comments

Angelina and Madeleine are opposites in many ways. One noticeable difference is their eating styles. Angelina is very good at using a spoon and feeding herself. Madeleine, on the other hand, has still not mastered the spoon. They both still use their hands and turn their bowls upside down, dumping all of the contents onto their tray. Yet at the end of the meal, there is a drastic difference. You find very little food in Angelina’s seat, whereas Madeleine’s seat has food in every single nook and cranny.

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