Two cute things from today

First, we were listening to music from iTunes on this computer and after each song Carolina would clap and say "bravo! bravo!". Really, she did.

Then tonight when I was holding her and humming so she'd relax. Wait, let me back up a minute. She woke up at 5am and then 6am, and has been teething a lot because a front canine and a back "2 year molar" are coming in at the same time. She's been very uncomfortable and sleeping through the night has been harder than usual. She napped for 3 hours today and then I woke her up -- she wasn't happy with me about that.

So I held her and hummed for longer than usual, to help her relax and maybe bang her head less. Well, after about 10 minutes she noticed I had my eyes open so she waved goodbye to me. I nodded, picked her up, brought her to the crib and kissed her. As I am putting her down into the crib she puts Elmo towards me, and I kiss him good night too. She seemed satisfied that I kissed them both good night.

Super, super cute!

And man, she's really talking more and more. More words, more sentences and I just can't wait to understand all of it. I also can't wait for all these teeth to come in. She seems to be really tortured by it, more than usual. I've seriously considered putting alcohol on her gums but I know that just gets her drunk and doesn't actually soothe the pain. I'm still mulling it over, depends on how badly this crying out at night gets.

No becomes Yea

I remember my little sister saying 'yeah' a lot when she was around 2-3 years old. I would sometimes try to get her to say 'yes' but 'yeah' it was.

I'm proud to say that my little Miss C has moved from saying 'no' to things, even when she means 'yes', to 'yeah' sometimes.

Here's today's example:
This morning she asked to go "down" and pointed to the bed, which means go up on the bed. Once there she was jumping against the pillows. stopped. sat down. looked out the bedroom door into the living room and says "Doooo. Doo." I looked, expecting to see something Dora related but I couldn't see what she was pointing at. I said "do? do?" She smiles, points and says it loudly again.

I look again. Nothing makes sense to me.

I say "Carolina, I'm not sure what it is that you want. Can you show me?"

She just makes a frustrated noise and says the sound loudly again and points. I then say the noise to myself again and again and go. "OH! JUICE! You want the juice! I got it. Ok!"

She smiles, says "Yea!" laughs, says "Mama! Mama!" and claps her hands.

Hooray for Mommy for getting it right!

Very cute.

Counted to five all by herself, in Spanish

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that little Miss C surprised me in the morning by counting to five in Spanish on her own.

We weren't talking about numbers, even. She was babbling and then said "Uno?" so I repeated "uno". She then continues and I repeat after her: "dos", "tre", "quatra", "quatro".

Now I realize she didn't say "cinco" but she got the idea. So we can say she counted to four :)

Neat, right? I have zero idea when this kind of thing is normally supposed to happen, so I'll just assume she's smart and doing it in the normal range of things.

Like when she learns other words, she will do it one time with confidence and clarity and then that's it. It really is like her mind organizes the synapses for a moment, goes yup that's it, and then goes back to working on something else.

I know I could read a lot to figure it out but I'm trying to avoid obsessing. So I'll go without knowing and laugh more. Know less, laugh more. Seems to be working as Carolina and I have been having a grand ol time these past two weeks. Not every day but many big laugh moments. She has even had a bunch of playmates and was pleasant and fun and didn't get overly excited and start screaming or running around like, as my mother in law says about her, a baby on peyote.

Funnily enough she has been less interested in watching tv the last two days and wanted to play and read books more. Fine with me!

The first day without a nap

It's been an unusual day:
She's still teething, so multiple stinky poops are the norm and red cheeks. She is, also, incredibly pleasant and happy this week. Nice!

Today she didn't wake up until 8am, and that was only because I woke her. She did two poops (don't worry this is relevant) and ate a good snack of cheese, pear and small box of raisins. Then insisted on a bottle (formula, again relevant) and I put her down at about 1pm groggy.

For the next two hours, while I worked, she was intermittently chatting to herself and dolls and then quiet. So at 2.45pm I went in. The room stunk to high heaven. She was desperate for me to pick her up. She was adamant she didn't want me to lay her down for a diaper change even though she gave me the ASL sign for change diaper.

I took it off and she had a very definite rash in many places. It hurt her so much that when I took her to the sink to wash it off, she was nearly hysterical. I slathered on the diaper rash cream but she was still screaming and writhing. I got the diaper on and now it's lunch in front of Tinker Bell movie.

It was the dairy. Whenever she has had "too much" the poops got the vomit smell. Poor kid.

I feel horrible I didn't check on her earlier and yet she's fine. Clearly a little tired but really ok.

I hope it's an early night for her sake and she's healed by bathtime.

The poop burned! Good lord what a time being a little one can be.


PS Good thing she loves raisins. those and the blueberries are keeping her regular. And very, very happy.

day care, montessori pre-school and new york city

Holy crap. I've started to research day care in the city (Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan) and also look into Montessori for pre-school for Miss C. I knew that private school, and a good one that is clean, structured, responsible and well, elite (even just a little elitist) was expensive. I knew that private school can be as much as $20,000 -- but day care starting at over $7,000 for two half days a week?

My jaw hit the floor. It hurt. I then looked at other schools. I started to look in NJ. Not much better.

I should get a friend who's in education in the city because this is overwhelming and expensive. And there are WAITING LISTS for day care!

Good lord... I need a drink :)

In other news, Miss C has been having trouble napping. The other day she slept for nearly 3 hours, but all the days before and after, starting last Thursday/Friday, she's only napping one hour and having a heck of a time relaxing to fall asleep. Even with a bottle.

I'm perplexed. Maybe it's a phase but I sense something is up. She is more huggy than usual, which is nice, but she's also really, really into me holding her around naptime. If she gets up and is tired, like today, I must hold her for nearly 30-45 minutes before she feels comfortable for me to change her back to her clothes and walk around.

I'll figure this out but right now I'm stumped. Night time sleep is fractured with head banging.

Maybe she's just not getting enough exercise these days since it's been so very cold, wet/snowy, and otherwise unsuitable to going outside for play. Maybe it's just that simple...

I have been enjoying reading At Home by Bill Bryson. If you like history, well Western and in particular English and American history and knowing about how people lived before, this is a good read. I love all the etymology about words. Love it! Plus I got it from the local library, which is always nice to borrow books as our personal library is busting at the seems and there's no room for more books. 

20 months and it's getting interesting

The last month has been busy. I've gotten a bunch of colds and we went on vacation to visit the family in Vallarta. It was a lot of fun at the beach, and Carolina didn't seem to mind trading playing in the snow (she calls it "no") with sand. She and her cousin had a lot of fun together and it was nice to be away. The 2 hour plane delay home wasn't much fun but it was mostly fine since she got her own seat (hooray for missing passengers) and they gave everyone free DirecTV as compensation for the delay. She was EXHAUSTED once we got to my parents' place.

She made 'friends' at the hotel because she spent most of each meal at the restaurant running around all the tables like she was in a sprint race. I was glad there were other adults in the family to take turns :)

There wasn't much sleeping at night but there was a lot less headaches as she's able to handle being awake longer during the day without good naps for a week. We also visited friends in Houston and it was her first time sleeping on a blowup bed instead of a crib. Surprisingly went well, although I think more than 2 nights on that and it would have gotten a little tricky with the head banging since the 2nd night was more active than the first.

There's been a lot more "No!" going on in our home. Not snow but actually saying 'no', and belligerent protestation. I suppose that's how it goes as we get closer to 2-3 years old. I'm amused and frustrated by her looking at me, smiling broadly (not sinisterly) and continuing to do what I just said 'No' to. I don't know why I find it funny, but in a way I do, so it makes it hard to sound all stern. We did try a few time outs. It had some effect but really, if she doesn't get to go outside and work out the energy she's got, then 'no' or 'yes' are irrelevant.

It's nearly her naptime and I'm hoping to get some rest so I can finally kick this cold!

Smiling and laughing

The most wonderful thing has started to happen in the past 1-2 weeks; Carolina has begun to have an understanding of when something is funny on her own. I've noticed her watching Frosty and Tinkerbell, even Dora episodes she's seen before, and she smiles (a broad smile) when something funny or cute happens. Like, there's a new layer of understanding that's in her eyes that wasn't there before.

It's really, really cool. I guess as a mom I get to enjoy this new-found understanding as well as the tantrums and whining. I suppose this is what toddler-hood is all about.

A friend of ours recently had a baby girl, another friend had twins (a boy and a girl) and another friend has a baby girl that's going to turn one year old tomorrow. It's a very cool thing to see all these new babies in the world to join the ones that are already here. I just can't believe it's been a year for Chloe.  Time does fly...

Today, when Carolina woke up from her nap I could hear her chatting to herself and shortly after she woke I heard her say, repeatedly and very clearly, "Jee! Hannah! Jee! Hannah!" Jee is a friend of ours who visits to play with Carolina pretty much weekly, and Hannah is our babysitter who comes to sit for Carolina at least once a week. It was very cute and funny to hear her call out for them.

She's had a hard time napping and sleeping this week, on and off, and has been running a high temperature (not a fever) since her two canine teeth are coming in. Red cheeks and all. Poor kid. I'm not sure who will be happier when the rest of the remaining 6 teeth come in by the time she's about 2 years old -- me or Carolina!