Busy Fun Day

Today Karina and I went to the school where my friend Steph works to pick up some things she had for me, then we went to BJ's for milk and M&Ms (because I can NOT run out of those!), and then after her nap we went to Michael's and the mall.  We were quite the busy bees today. 

At school, all the people I know stopped and talked to Karina, and couldn't believe how big she's gotten.  With school just starting up around here (after Labor Day), the teachers are all busy getting their rooms ready.  I'm going to help Steph later this week.  BJ's was uneventful, although I did get a great Christmas present for Karina.  It's a magnetic drawing board, but the back has a chalkboard surface!  Right now, Karina's drawing/coloring is basically this:  Draw a line on the page.  Turn the page.  Draw a line.  Turn the page.  Maybe this will help her learn to make more than just one mark at a time!  Although today it was pretty cute as she tried to color the little ponies' eyes in her coloring book. 

At Michael's we spent too much money, but I got her a bunch of random presents, like these little tubes of animals--one farm set and one horse set.  She has a bunch of these little tiny horses that my mom gave her, and she loves them, so I thought she could have a whole herd.  And she loves farm animals, and really all animals.  She is also getting some doll clothes for the several dolls I've accumulated around here for her.  She keeps finding them and playing with them, but I guess she's still little enough that it's okay.  She doesn't know they're presents yet.  Finally, she grabbed these two inexpensive little magnetic-paw dogs that were stuck to each other by their magnets.  She carried them around the whole store, and we almost forgot to pay for them!  That was so embarrassing.  I always make sure I check!  But I caught them and we did pay for them!  I also got a bunch of little things to make her some hair clippies because I've been doing that (just like everyone else on the planet, it seems) lately.  I just figured I could make some cute ones and they'd be cheaper.  I need to make a lot more to make the $7 worth of felt worthwhile, hee hee!  The best part is I found a lady on Etsy who makes clippies with the ribbon coverings already on them, but no decorations.  Gluing the ribbons on is my least favorite part, so I ordered a set of those just to make life easier. 

Then we went to the mall to have dinner at Wendy's, which is one of the fast-food places Karina can safely eat (no peanut stuff in their food; it's only the Frosties she can't have).  We walked through the mall and found a few things on sale, and then had dinner. It was really fun, and I enjoyed letting Karina lead me through the mall.  She was singing all the way home, which I also love.  She just "la la la"s the whole trip, and it cracks me up.  She was really having fun drinking her water out of a cup and straw.  When we got home, we spilled it when I was trying to put her down to see her dad, so I refilled it.  But by then, she just wanted to pour it from the cup to the sippy cup and back.  One wet floor later....

On a completely different subject, my brother starts his clinical site work tomorrow for his radiography degree.  He's really excited and I can't wait to hear how his day goes.  He's going to be exhausted I'm sure.  The site he's at first is one that's really busy and will keep him on his feet probably all day.  I'm so proud of him. 

Well, that was our strange, busy, fun day!  I hope everyone else had a good one too.

OH, and I scored a MonkeyFootDesigns wet bag from Hippo Bargains for $13!!!  I love those wet bags!  This is the one I got.

Flashlight and Stickers and Our Busy Day

Karina has discovered flashlights.  She found a flashlight somewhere and has been shining it all over her walls of her room and on all her toys and on me and her daddy.  She is so excited that the light can shine on everything, and that she can aim it.  When she first started playing with it, she was having trouble aiming it, and she seemed to think it was randomly moving around the room.  The second time she got it out to play with, she seemed to have figured out that she was controlling it.  We would say, "Karina, can you shine the light on Lambkin?" and she would do it.  It's so cute.  Tonight, she was at it again!   She wanted to take it to bed with her!  (I didn't let her)  The other thing she was playing with today was about 12 stickers.  Her Aunt Maria sent her a few things when Bill was in Chicago last time, and one was a small sheet of colorful handprint stickers, like a teacher might use.  She had to have all of them peeled off for her (they were kind of tricky to peel off) and she started by putting them all over her shirt.  Then she peeled them off and put them on her toy cow.  Then she put them back on herself.  She was very happy to have stickers all over herself, and she was posing for pictures for her daddy.  Then she peeled them off and put them on her hobby horse (horsehead on a stick).  She played with the stickers for an hour!

We had a really busy day today.  First, she had to be woken up for church because she always sleeps too late on Sundays.  So she played in the nursery with her little friends, and then instead of regular naptime, we went to the annual picnic in the park that my church always does.  They have a worship service outside, and then a picnic.  Of course, it's right during her current naptime, but I decided to postpone the nap so we could go.  She was so excited to be at the park!  She was squealing!  Then we got all our food together and she ate hardly anything.  Bill took her over to a playground area when a bunch of other kids were going there, too, and she played over there for over half an hour.  We left shortly after one, and she was put down to nap at about 1:30.  She did not wake up until 4:45!  She literally got up, ate dinner, and then had about 2 1/2 hours to play (that's when she was playing with the stickers and then the flashlight).  We postponed bedtime about 15 minutes, because I was afraid she wouldn't want to sleep, but she's been in bed for 45 minutes or so, and not a peep out of her. 

That's one busy Sunday for a little girl!

Fun Stuff from Summer

Today, I read Second Time Around's blog about fun things they did over the summer, and it inspired me to do one of my own.  The author's son is a little older than Karina, and I can really relate to her stories and the cute things he does. 

One thing we did was go to Bill's work picnic.  There's a great playground and covered patio area near his work and every once in a while they have cookouts or music.  This time, Karina rode the merry go round with her daddy for the first time (she got so dizzy because he sat in the middle while a young boy voluntarily pushed and I took pictures).

She really loved running through the open areas a lot.  See her shirt?  I made it!  She was finally big enough to wear it.

We also went to a school playground several times that's really close to our house (we can walk there).  She likes it, but is temporarily afraid of the slides, so she climbs up and then goes back down.

She got to play in her little pool a few times, but we had issues with the outdoor spigots (the one in back is broken and the hose isn't long enough to reach the front one).  So we tried out different places to put the pool and ended up not playing in it as much as I would have liked.

Oh hey, see that cup in her hand?  It's full of goldfish crackers.  She dunked them.  Ick.
She also got to play in her homemade water table (sink tub!) outside several times.  Here she's on our front porch. 

I guess it was a pretty full summer overall.  It sure flew by!  I can't believe she's 20 months old today!  I didn't even realize it til just now.  Ugh, I usually take special pictures.  I guess I'll do them tomorrow.  Well this was a fun post, and I am glad I stayed up to load and edit the pictures.  I hope you had a fun summer too, and thanks again to Second Time Around for the post idea!

New Site for Gorgeous Fancy Girls' Clothes

I just entered to win an absolutely adorable dress from Francoise Studio at Fabulous Fun Finds!   If you have a daughter, any age, you just have to go to FFF and enter this contest.  Because when you see what this company has to offer, you will be drooling as much as I was!!!  These are not the same as a lot of the boutique style clothes you see on places like Etsy.  These are super-fancy.  Really, really special things, but the Diya dress that's being given away is still casual enough that she could wear it just about anywhere. 

Okay, stop reading my post, click that link and go look at these pretty clothes.

Karina's second first word!

You see, Karina has technically already spoken her first words.  A looooong time ago, she used to say Mama, Dada, and duddy (doggy).  But then she stopped. 

Until recently, when she's been babbling a lot and coming close to saying a lot of words.  Today she did. 

She said "Di-ba".  Yep.  Diaper. 

She was playing with a pile of diapers that I had shared this morning with a friend who's in the process of switching from disposables to cloth.  I brought a bunch of diapers down to church to show her (an overwhelming giant wet bag full) (I have a sickness, okay?)  Karina let me get them all put away before she decided she needed to play with them and put some diapers on Lambkin.  Now this in itself is interesting because Lambkin is not a doll or a stiff stuffed animal; he's a floppy, rug-like pet with a stuffed head and flat body.  She adores him.  Putting diapers on him is a bit interesting due to his floppy nature, but she enjoys it, so I help her.  Today, she was picking out diapers for Lambkin from the pile she'd made, and she picked one up and said, "Di-ba".  Clear as day.  I started cheering, you probably heard me.  My brother had just walked in the house downstairs and he heard me cheering.  I immediately called Bill and then my mom.

I'm so happy about her second (or, really, I guess it's her fourth) first word!!

He makes me laugh...but maybe you had to be there.

Today when my brother came home from class, we were standing around in the kitchen talking, and I realized I needed to get some clean diaper laundry out of the dryer.  I opened the laundry room door, and saw that, just as I suspected, both laundry baskets were upstairs.  Thus, the following conversation (approximation) ensued:

Me: I wish there was a way for the laundry baskets to just magically go back downstairs once you're done carrying the laundry up.

Dave: Yeah, or some kind of idiot servant who would carry them up and down for you.

Me: Yes, but he would do it because he wanted to, and not want any compensation.  And he wouldn't have to be an idiot.

Dave: An idiot servant who would carry them up and down for you, and travel within one fixed line.

Me:   Huh?

Dave: A dumbwaiter.

Me (laughing, as well as feeling pretty dumb myself for not getting it right away): What's that from?  [We have a history of quoting lines from movies/TV shows to each other, and Dave is particularly good at it]

Dave (hesitantly): I made it up...

Oh yes.  He made it up.  I swear, it was so funny when it happened.  It just doesn't translate well to print, but oh well.  He said something else funny later on, while we were out walking around the block with Karina, in the muggy soup of a mosquito-filled evening, but I forgot what it was because I was trying SO hard to remember this conversation so I could write this post about it. 

The rest of the catching up... a kind of longish post.

I called about a free playgroup in the area that is run by my city government and which was recommended to me by the our case worker, Robin.  It's free to city residents, and for other people it's only a dollar!  It's once a week for about 90 minutes in the morning, and they play and do art and have a little snack.  They are taking a 2 week break right now, but will start up again the first full week of September.  I am really looking forward to going and I hope it will be fun for Karina.  She really needs the interaction with other children.  Once she's too old for this one, there's another one that's for ages 1-4 (this one goes to 2yrs). 

Next, I'm excited that my friend is coming over tomorrow to check out my cloth diaper stash.  She has a little baby girl and wants to use cloth on her.  She's had a lot going on recently, so we have had a hard time catching up, but I'm happy she's coming over tomorrow.  She wants to start using cloth diapers, and I get to show her how I take care of mine.  Too bad Karina picked tonight to make a mess of her diapers!  Oh well, such is life.  Small potatoes.  I get to show her my diaper sprayer and the detergent I use and the diaper rash cream that I love (Grandma El's, I'm a total convert), and all the different brands I have.  I wish I had had someone to help me out when I started.  I didn't know anyone except Danise, and she used them so long ago that they had really changed a lot.  I was so lucky though because she was here to visit when Karina's belly button scab fell off and I could finally put my diapers on her.  I didn't know anything about special newborn diapers and such and was forced, unhappily, to use disposables on her until the scab fell off.  Danise was able to show me how to fold the prefolds and put them in the covers and then put the covers on my daughter.  Well, I'm sure I could have figured it out, but it was really nice to have someone there who'd done it before.  Now I get to be that helpful person to someone else, and that makes me really happy.  I think my friend is going to be really happy once she makes the switch to cloth.  She's already excited about it.

Finally, today Karina and I took a dishtub out onto the front porch, filled it with water, and she played for almost an hour in it.  She loves water, and especially pouring water from one container to another.  Unfortunately, she usually spills more than she saves, so I don't let her do this in the house...very often.  She had the best time, though.  I had a bucket of extra water so I could refill the dishtub when she had spilled the majority of it, and we just sat out there and had a good time.  Then she went across the yard to where my little dog statues are under the crepe myrtle tree, and carried them over to the steps.  She kissed them both, then set them down and sat down next to them, with her arm kind of over them.  When we had to go in finally, she kissed both of them again.  It's the sweetest thing how she does that. 

A Few Words

This past week, Karina has been really trying hard to say some words.  Her newest thing to say is "Oh".  She also said, "Yeah".  One day while playing with one of her animal puzzles, I started asking her what each animal was.  She would make a different (incorrect) sound for each animal, and it was pretty clear she understood that each animal's name was different.  She wasn't having much luck until we got to the picture of the duck, for which she said, "Duh".  Not like she usually says those duh/buh sounds, but very definitely and specifically for the duck.  She also said, "Itty" again, although it doesn't really sound like "itty", it is more gutteral, but that's as close as I can describe it in print.  She's been going on lengthy babbling streaks, sometimes for hours on end.  It's wonderful.  We continue to encourage her and hopefully soon she'll start to add on the ending sounds to some of the words and be a little clearer on some of the others. 

More to come later.  There was a lot to say today, so I'm not putting it all in one post.  And I'm sorry I don't have pictures.  I am a really lazy picture uploader.  Actually, I'm kind of just lazy in general, but that's a completely different story.

I'm not the only one who hates bad grammar

Check out this post by Listen to Lena!  She hates bad grammar too!!!

Etch a Sketch Giveaway at A Nut in a Nutshell

Etch a Sketch!  I had one as a kid, as I'm sure many of you did, too.  It's their anniversary, and you can win one at A Nut in a Nutshell!  I remember really liking the sound it made when you turned the dials.  I don't know why I remember that, but I used to think it sounded like some kind of string was about to snap.  It was the coolest sound!  I can't wait til Karina is old enough to have one of her own.  Hopefully, she'll get it away from me long enough to play with it.  He he!

Maybe I have a button?

Okay, I decided to try my hand at making a blog linking button thingy.  I used the directions posted at Blog Designs by Sheila, and used her free image.  I tweaked it and added text in my Corel program, and I think, I think it might even work.  I had to do some editing, like removing the text "[IMG]" from my image name, but after a few tries, I think it might be working.  If you try it out, will you let me know?  Since I'm signed in to my own blog, it's weird and hard to tell if it's working.  Thanks!

Babbling Baby

I am so happy because Karina has been babbling a LOT more lately.  It's like she knows she's got to get on the ball with the talking thing.  The other day, while I was cleaning up in the kitchen (I love writing that--it makes it sound like I actually clean!), she was going on and on for almost half an hour, with the Ma ma ma sound, and all sorts of variations on it.  She has been pretending to read books more, and yesterday at dinner she tried really hard to say the word, "Biscuit".  She loves Nana's biscuits, and we use them to get her to eat other parts of her meal.  Well, after she gagged so hard on the chicken that she coughed up her milk, we just let her eat biscuit.  She made her usual "ba" sound, but we were really encouraging her with it, telling her that "ba" is a sound like "biscuit" and that she's trying and doing a good job, keep it up, etc. 

Some of the things we're supposed to do are: when she tries unsuccessfully to say a word, we don't tell her she did it right, instead we say something like, "You talked!  I like that!  But I didn't understand what you said."  So she knows she is doing a good job trying, and we're happy, but she didn't get it right.  That way she doesn't think "Ba" actually IS biscuit.  We also pretend we don't know what she wants when she points to things.  If she points to a cookie, we might say, "Do you want the cup?  Do you want the towel?  Do you want the ___ (fill in blank with any nearby item)?"  And then after a few of these, we finally say, "Do you want the cookie?"  She has an obvious positive reaction, and we say something like, "Oh, you want the cookie!  Next time tell me."  And we give her the cookie.  (or whatever the object was; she rarely eats cookies; mostly at her Grandma's house)

But she's definitely making some progress, and I am now telling myself that she is just on her own timetable, and she was focused on other things, like walking and manipulating things, because she didn't need to talk.  I guess she decided that the other things were more important so she put off talking.  But now that she's mastered the other things, she can work on talking.  Plus, since she understands practically everything we say to her (really, the girl knew flyswatter.  When have I ever said that word??) she's kind of ahead in that respect.  I still think she's going to just let out a whole sentence one day, and once she starts, she's going to really take off like crazy. 

(I hope!)

I Spy Bag Giveaway at Savvy Moms Save Blog

I think the little I Spy bags are such a clever idea, especially for things like car trips or waiting rooms where kids are expected to be quiet and patient for more than five minutes.  Right now if you go to Savvy Moms Save, you can enter to win one of the cutest I Spy bags I've ever seen.  They are made by Giggle Junction on Etsy, and they have little appliques sewn on.  The windows are smaller than a lot of bags, to make it more challenging for older kids (I assume), but some have larger openings.  They have lots of styles, too, and the price is good, even if you don't win one. 

Kitchen Chair

Karina is always wanting to be held, and I hold her a lot, but sometimes I just can't, like when I'm preparing meals in the kitchen.  One day, I pulled a kitchen chair up to the counter and let her "help" me.  She was so happy!  A few days later, I was making lunch, and Bill was sitting in the kitchen.  We were talking and sort of ignoring the fussing noises, but then Karina tried to push and pull on Bill.  He didn't know what she wanted, and then it suddenly dawned on me that she wanted him to get out of the chair and put it by the counter where I was working!  Now, whenever anyone is standing at the counter doing anything, she wants to pull the chair over.  She will pull on it and make her little fussing sounds until you move it over.  Today, she "helped" me make pancakes for her, David, Erin, and me to have for lunch.  She gets such a kick out of being up high and being able to reach things on the counter.  I don't have any pictures of her up on the chair, because I'm not willing to leave her side to take a picture.  So you'll just have to use your imaginations on this one, until I get a chance to have Bill or David take a picture for me.

Shoe Extravaganza

Thrifty & Chic Mom and Momma in Flip Flops 2 are hosting a shoe extravaganza event.  Information from Momma in Flip Flops 2 is that she and Ellen from Thrifty & Chic Mom have 25+ companies that will be participating, starting August 9th.  Reviews, giveaways, and coupon codes on both sites.  If you love shoes, you probably don't want to miss this!



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Poor Baby Knuckles!

Today it was so nice and cool out, finally.  After a run of 100+ temperature days, it was only in the low to mid 70s today.  It was threatening rain, but held off most of the day.  Bill and I decided to go for a walk around 11, just after she'd eaten an early lunch.  This morning, she slept late so I had to bring her breakfast with me to church, and she was pretty hungry when we got home.  So she had lunch about half an hour earlier than usual.  The last few times we've gone for walks, Karina has been quite slow and hesitant, wanting to be carried the whole way.  So I got out her little baby doll stroller, so she could push it.  She loves having something to push.  We were on our way. 

Down the street, around the corner, down the block to the next corner.  This is a 4-way stop, so we're always extra careful here; plus people tend to speed down the street along which we were walking, so we really make sure nothing is coming.  Two young ladies stopped and commented on how cute it was that Karina was pushing the stroller.  One of them was pregnant and asked about things like talking and walking.  Then we started to cross the street.  (Don't get scared, nothing bad happened with any cars) There were no cars coming at first, so I was letting Karina push the stroller.  She was going pretty slow, but moving, and then I noticed a car coming up to the stop sign.  I picked her up and grabbed the stroller and we went on across the street.  When I put her down I said, "When we cross the street, you can't dawdle.  We have to go fast across the street in case cars come."  She got back behind the stroller, and started off--fast.  Too fast.  She lost her footing and went down.  Her hands, still holding the bar of the stroller, smashed onto the cement and she scraped both her thumb knuckles plus two other knuckles on her right hand.  She started screaming crying, practically hysterical.  We started for home, but she cried even more.  We turned back and she finally calmed down, so I just carried her as we walked down two more blocks before turning back for home.

When we got home, I took her upstairs and rinsed off her little fingers and then put on the Johnson's Cream.  You would have thought I had put hydrochloric acid on them the way she screamed. I was sooooo careful, too.  I know how much it hurts to scrape up your knuckles!  I decided she must be overtired, so I tried singing and rocking her.  Hysterics continued.  Maybe she was still hungry?  I took her downstairs, and she reached for the refrigerator, but she didn't really want anything in particular from in there; it was just a thing to do to try to be in control and avoid her nap.  Conclusion: overtired.  Back up we went, and back to singing and rocking (standing rocking, not in a chair).  For probably 30 minutes I just rocked her in my arms, and about every few minutes she'd cry again.  Heaving sobs, and then her little nose had gotten so stuffy from crying, she'd cough from it.  Finally, I could see she was pretty much asleep and just crying fitfully, so I put her in her crib.  She cried one little bit, and then slept peacefully for 2 1/2 more hours. 

Bless her little heart poor baby girl.  She woke up fine, and we played on the back porch for a long time, where she helped me organize my toolbox and a bunch of random nuts/bolts/screws/picture hangers into a little hardware drawer unit.  As it got closer to dinnertime, she started getting cranky again.  Anything different from her routine can really throw her off sometimes.
Happily, she is sleeping now quite peacefully.  Now, it's my turn!