First Day of Speech

Today was Karina's first day of speech.  Her therapist, Lisa, came over early this morning.  It went just fine, and she gave us a lot of things to try with her.  We're going to work on words that start with vowels first, because she said it's easier to form those words with your mouth (in case Karina's having trouble with that aspect).  We learned a bunch of new signs, which was one of the funnier things that happened.  Back when she was evaluated, they told us not to teach her any more signs because they thought she was using them as a crutch.  Today, I had to tell Lisa that she was the one who had told us that, because we had been using signs with her.  Well, nobody's perfect, and I wasn't upset or anything.  I just thought it was funny.  When she asked who had told us to stop teaching her signs, I had to say, "It was you!" and I felt kind of bad.  But she seemed fine, and just said she thought that Karina was closer to the breakthrough point, and now she thinks maybe she's not quite as close as she thought originally.  So we learned a bunch of new ones today, like shoe, up, open, on, in, and out.  Lisa will come back next Wednesday at the same time, and hopefully after that, she will be able to switch us to 9am on Tuesdays (although to be honest, this time seems like it might work just fine). 

We went to Musikgarten today, and since it was rainy here, there were only three of us in class today.  One was my friend Jessica and her daughter, who is only a month younger than Karina.  What's so crazy is I used to babysit Jessica and her sister when they were kids and I was in high school!  And we have babies only about a month or so apart in age.  I found out she sews and is crafty like me, and so is my other friend from My Little Anchors.  I just keep wondering how we all haven't been friends together longer.  We're all crafty.  Maybe we should get together and make bows and sew.  That would be fun, if we had somewhere to do it.  Jessica and her mom are going to do a craft fair for the first time, because Jessica would really like to stay home with her daughter rather than get a job outside the home.  She really loves staying home.  I hope it will work out for her so that she can do that. 

I have often toyed with the idea of selling the stuff I make, but I know that my crafting goes in spurts, and I never really do stick to any one thing for any length of time.  I may be making tons of hair bows right now, but last month, I was madly sewing dresses.  Before that, it was something else, and so on.  It's always like that, so I know better than to start something that will just turn into a chore and not be fun anymore.  But it is really intriguing to me to hear my friends planning to do the very same thing. 

Birthday Bash is also at Adventures of Paul & Natalie

    "Get Ready to Party! Natalie from The Adventures of Paul & Natalie and Rachel from Second Time Around  are celebrating their Birthdays in October. So from October 3rd to October 29th, you can enter to win lots of great prizes! Go check out either of their blogs now to get extra entries into the giveaway! "

Big Birthday Bash Event at Second Time Around and The Adventures of Paul & Natalie!

Get Ready to Party! Rachel from Second Time Around and Natalie from The Adventures of Paul & Natalie are celebrating their Birthdays in October. So from October 3rd to October 29th, you can enter to win lots of great prizes! Go check out either of their blogs now to get extra entries into the giveaway!

The Pink Pancake Adventure

I made pink pancakes from the recipe in Jessica Seinfeld's recipe book that I told you about.  Wait til you see what the batter looks like.  It has pureed beets, ricotta cheese, shredded apples, cinnamon, and some other ingredients in it, but they tasted like pancakes!  The only thing I have found with the sweet potato pancakes and these as well is that they are thick and tend to not cook through well enough.  I need to lower the heat and cook them longer.  Otherwise, delicious!  I was a little nervous about tasting them, but I took a bite of one with no syrup on it, and it just tasted like a pancake.  You can't taste the beets or cheese or apples. 

 

This is the batter.  It is really this PINK!!!!

 

 Here are some pancakes cooking.  They look so disgusting!

Here they are cooked.  They don't look as bad now, and they tasted yummy!  (Really, I swear!)

Now if you don't know me well, you wouldn't know that I am the world's pickiest eater.  I'm not kidding.  I hate food.  Except chocolate.  I looooove chocolate.  But other stuff?  Nah.  I'm kidding when I say I hate food, but it's so much easier than listing the things I do or don't like.  The example I usually give to people to showcase my extreme pickiness is: I hate steak.  I really, really hate it.  I also dislike hamburgers, pepperoni pizza, sauce on my spaghetti (I prefer butter), and dressing on my salad.  I do like fruits and most common vegetables (broccoli, green beans, peas, carrots, mashed potatoes, and so forth).  I do not like squash, beets, cauliflower, spinach, or romaine lettuce.  So this hidden-veggie stuff is working out for me, too. 

Day For Me

Today became a day for me.  It started this morning when I snuck out of the house (Bill knew of course) while he was taking a walk with Karina.  Last week when I tried to leave, she broke down sobbing and I couldn't go.  So to avoid that, I left while she was out.  Bill gets up with her on Saturdays so this was no big deal.  I went to a new store that's like a consignment shop but they buy the items up front.  It's called Once Upon a Child and it is a franchise, I think.  I know the lady who owns or runs this one with her sister.  Anyway, they just opened up and I really wanted to check it out.  Holy moly.  They have so much stuff!  First there were about 30 strollers outside the store.  Then inside, they had about 20 high chairs, tons of exersaucers/gyms, Bumbo seats, and toys.  And then the clothes.  Racks of them.  Of course I always find the cutest things in the sizes Karina can't wear, but I got a bunch of great stuff still.  I found the prices to be good.  Some items were a little higher than I wanted to pay, but a lot of things were really well priced.  I got four pairs of footy fleece Carter's brand pajamas for $3.50 apiece, which is a steal.  I got a couple of cute dresses and things, too.  And then in the toy section there was a Fisher Price Little People farm with some animals, and I got that for less than $7.  That was a huge steal because there was another one that had a few more people with it, and it was marked $20.  I really enjoyed shopping in the store.  And when I saw my friend she gave me a big hug and was so happy I had come in. 

Next I went to Ross Dress for Less because I wanted to look for a box to put Karina's growing stash of hairbows and clippies in.  I had gotten one box at Ross a few days ago, a small one.  It's about 12 inches long, 3 inches deep and 2 inches high.  It closes with a magnet and has a cute pink bow on the front.  It was perfect for the small clippies.  But then I realized that she has so many bows now that the four (yes, four) loooong ribbon bow holders were full.  It's just not going to work to add more, so I needed a box.  I wanted to get one to match the first one, and I knew they had two larger sizes.  So I went to get it.  Of course, I was at a different Ross and they didn't have it.  I did get a cotton footy pajama for the transitional weather, and I almost bought a pair of shoes but decided against them at the last minute.  Next up, I realized it was 1130, and if I wanted to see Karina before her nap I'd better hurry.  I rushed back to my city, (the new consignment shop and this Ross were in the neighboring city--about 10 minutes away from my house) and decided to run into the Ross I'd originally found the box at to see if they had the larger one.  They were gone!  But then I found the big one on another aisle, where someone had set it down.  Phew.  I was very happy, and went home just in time for her nap.

She slept until about 340pm, and when she got up, we read some books and then went downstairs to do some laundry and start thinking about supper.  Supper.  I stood in front of the refrigerator, after I had taken out the nuggets to reheat, and looked at my calendar.  Today is Saturday.  Today is Saturday the 25th and it's young adult night at church!  Ack!  In 15 minutes!!!  I had totally forgotten about it!  It's a new thing that a couple started, and we get together to eat and talk and not have our kids around (they have child care provided).  The first ones they did, the couple, Wendy and Sounthoune (Shu), showed us how to make sushi and then spring rolls.  This time, Shu made the spring rolls ahead of time and we all ate those and the other food people had brought (I didn't bring anything because I had forgotten!).  Then Kelly got out some games and we played Apples to Apples with about 20 people!  It was so much fun, but the whole time I was feeling terrible for running out on Karina a second time in the same day.  I came home in time to put her to bed, so I have seen her for about 90 minutes today.  Ugh.  But it was a nice day otherwise. 

My friend from My Little Anchors made some kid legwarmers and gave me a pair tonight.  They're super cute--light and dark pink stripes!  I think there is a picture of them on her blog, but I'm not sure.  She does have pictures of her daughter in a pair of brown ones, though.  She did a really good job on them, too!

Pictures of my cutie pie

Here are a few shots of my girl just looking cute.  We were going to Musikgarten I think, when she had this red polka dot dress on, but I'm not sure.  I just think she looks really funny with her purse on her arm.

Here's another one where I just thought she looked adorable and couldn't help myself.

She's checking out my hairband there.  Some books at her feet.  Typical. 

This last one with the pink is at Musikgarten.  This shirt came from The Children's Place about a year ago, no kidding.  It must have been a year ago, because it's a 12 month size shirt!  It fit her perfectly.  I've been waiting for the exact right day for her to wear it.  She only had those pants to match, so it had to be cool enough for the pants but warm enough for the shirt.  Why didn't I just get her some shorts to match?  I don't know.  See, she's got a book again. 

I couldn't find her

One day, I was doing dishes in the kitchen, and hadn't heard Karina for a few minutes.  Bill was around, somewhere, doing something else, who knows what.  I went looking for her.  She wasn't playing in the dining room.  She wasn't in the living room.  She can't get into Bill's music room (gated off), and the stairs were gated off, too.  Where was she?  I started to panic.  Then I walked back into the living room and saw this.

I hadn't seen her the first time I went in there (this photo is taken from the doorway of the living room, just off the hallway at the bottom of the stairs.  The living room is pretty long to the right; there's a couch and our TV down at that end.  Next to that little table and chair on the left is the front window).

She was just hanging out there on her little bench with her buddy, Taxi, the dog there with the big red wheel-feet and the green bead on the end of his tail.  Next to Taxi are two trains.  Taxi is named Taxi because I had a pull toy dog just like that when I was little, named Taxi (I do not know why) and he was lost when my grandfather's shed was torn down.  So I found another one on Etsy, and he is also named Taxi.

My Dinner Battle

I am distracted and I keep meaning to get some pictures on here, but Karina's nap times have been shrinking and I'm obsessed with making hairbows right now, so I just haven't gotten around to it.  But that's not what I'm going to write about.

My mom gave me an early Christmas present.  It's the cookbook called "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld. Karina is a picky eater, as you may or may not know, and doesn't eat any vegetables willingly.  This cookbook has been really great.  The first thing I made wasn't even in the cookbook because I didn't have any of the stuff.  I had a bag of frozen California mix vegetables--broccoli, cauliflower, carrots--so I cooked them and pureed them up.  Then I added them to tomato sauce, boiled some pasta, added some Colby cheese and some mozzarella (because we happened to have these on hand) and (finally, after about 45 minutes) mixed it all together and voila.  A meal.  It was good.  I ate it.  Karina...sort of ate it.  She would only eat what I put on the fork for her.  Sigh.  We had so much of this pasta that I tried it several more times with similar results.  Well.  At least she did consume small amounts of it. 

Next was the mini pizzas.  You're supposed to use little pitas but I didn't have any so I used sandwich thins.  I used the same sauce leftover from the pasta and a bunch of mozzarella cheese.  Cooked in toaster oven, tasted good, rejected by Karina.  Completely.  The second time I made them, I went all out and cooked them in the oven, thinking maybe they weren't crusty enough or something.  Rejected.  Sigh.

Next, sweet potato pancakes.  Finally, something she'll eat!  Yay, she ate two whole pancakes, which is good.  They were actually really, really good.  I have made them again, and she eats them.  Next time I'm going to try the pink pancakes using the beets I made today.  I can't help it.  I like pink. 

Next I made tortilla rollups.  I didn't have chicken so I used ham (I did have chicken, but it wasn't cooked yet because I didn't read the recipe ahead of time, so I didn't have the chicken cooked ahead of time.  I'll know next time).  I mixed everything up as instructed.  It made this weird orange paste that, to be honest, looked really really gross.  I am a super picky eater, so I was very hesitant.  But I have to eat the stuff if Karina does, so it encourages her.  Well, they came out okay.  Bill even sat down to eat some, until he found out there was cream cheese in them, which he doesn't like.  (He doesn't like cinnamon, either.  What's up with that?)  Now, I don't like cream cheese plain, but it was okay in this.  I think there was too much though, so next time: more cheddar and less cream cheese; also, going to use cooked chicken instead of ham.  The ham was good, but it's a little sweet, and I think it was too much.  Karina started out really excited about them, she was grabbing it and biting it, and I was going on and on about how she had helped put the ham in, so she had "made" dinner... and then after about 2 1/2 bites, she stopped.  I begged and pleaded with her to finish about a third of it.  I tried to get her to take polar bear bites, tiger bites, lion bites...but she was taking ant bites.  Sigh.  She eventually ate about a quarter of one.  That isn't much. 

In her defense (tonight) she has had a rotten cold all weekend, and has not had much appetite for anything other than strawberries.  Even her breakfast, she hasn't had much interest in it.  Even waffles with syrup.  Even her banana! 

Anyway, that's what I've been up to.  So far I have cooked and pureed: sweet potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli, carrots, and beets.  I have some eggplant (which I later discovered is not in the book, but I'm going to do it anyway), avocado, more carrots, another sweet potato, and some bags of frozen peas and spinach.  I'm not doing the fruit ones because she will eat that with no problem.

Tomorrow night I'm going to try the chicken nuggets.  Wednesday we eat with my mom, and then Thursday we'll try the lasagna.  (Did you know there was such thing as no boil lasagna noodles???)  I just hope Karina will start to eat some more of this stuff.

Final heavy sigh.

Nobody paid me to write nice things about the cookbook.  I just like it; my mom gave it to me, and I wanted to tell you about it.

Britax Chaperone (Edited: I added pictures)

I didn't tell you all this yet, but I won a big prize from Listen To Lena.  A very, very big prize.  So big in fact, that it arrived in 2 boxes, BIG boxes, that took up my entire foyer (well, it's a small foyer).  I won a Britax Chaperone infant car seat AND stroller!  (Breathe, breathe)  When I got the email from her saying I had won, I almost threw up with excitement and nervousness, because it had been several days!  How did I miss it?  I don't know, but we've been having internet issues, and that could be why, but luckily, I had a whole week to respond (wow, that is so generous!  Most blogs only give you a day or two!).  Plus, Lena was SO nice.  I emailed her immediately, and she said I was in time to win.  I'm telling you, I was sick to my stomach.  I can't believe this thing arrived so fast!

I really, really like Britax.  I've never won anything that came so fast.  When it arrived, I opened up the boxes, and took out the car seat because it didn't have to be put together.  It was so cute!  It's perfect for a new baby!  Now I can't wait to have a new baby to put in it.  Heehee!  (There's no rush, really).  Then, when Bill came home he put together the stroller and holy cow is this thing nice!  I feel really awful because we're going to retire my other stroller that my mom gave us.  I really like it, and it is a great stroller, but this one is soooooo smooth, and so nice and so comfortable for Karina.  The whole time he was working on it, she kept pointing to it, and then pointing to herself (her way of saying, "That's my stroller!")  She just had to go for a ride in it.  First she put her toys in it and she wanted to push them, but the stroller wasn't completely finished yet.  I promised her a ride before bedtime, and she got one.  It wasn't hard for Bill to put together, once we found the cleverly hidden instructions (he hadn't opened everything before starting to put it together.  Typical engineer, right?).  The only thing I am not crazy about is that it's kind of hard to fold and unfold.  It is not a one hand fold operation, like my other stroller.  So that's going to take a bit of getting used to.  Fortunately, Karina is really good at standing next to me when I ask her to, or I can just put her in the car and then fold it.  But overall, the stroller is amazing.  I just had to tell you about it.

I have always been a big Britax fan, ever since I heard of them and, of course, had a baby.  Their safety reputation is great, and I've heard stories about children surviving horrific accidents because of being in a Britax.  My best friend was rear-ended with both her kids in the back seat, and she has been dealing with really awful problems ever since.  Her kids--totally fine.  My friend: currently, losing her sight because of brain damage; in constant, excruciating, and difficult to control pain from nerve/spine/brain damage; Celiac's disease triggered from intense stress (runs in her family but she was not affected; they told her it sort of "turned on" from all the stress her body was under).  The kids are fine, completely fine, not a thing happened to them.  They were both in Britax seats.  So that's why, when Karina graduated to a bigger car seat, we got a Britax.  Now I'm so happy to know that any future baby will never have to ride in anything other than Britax.  The cost of the car seats is high, but in my opinion it is totally worth it.  So I definitely recommend (if you're looking for a carseat, or a stroller, because it's really nice) checking out Britax.  Watch for them to go on sale and sometimes you can get a good deal on them.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure Listen To Lena said she was going to have another giveaway from Britax soon.  Don't quote me or anything, but I could swear she did.  (Oh, she did!  I just checked, and it's not just one but TWO giveaways, so watch for them before Christmas.  Go here to see.)

Oh, and I have to say this, too, that nobody paid me to say this.  I did win the Britax carseat and stroller in an unrelated giveaway on another blog, but I already own a Britax Marathon which I purchased (well my mom did).  Basically, nobody bribed me to say any of this, it's my honest opinion and I'd say it even if I hadn't won these things. 

Hearthsong Book Rack Giveaway ends tonight at One Frugal Lady!

Oh yeah, it's late to post this.  But you still have time to head over to One Frugal Lady and enter to win a fantastic book rack from Hearthsong!

I love everything from Hearthsong, and the book rack is no exception.  How much better would this be for storing books than the floor?  (strewn wildly about, to be walked on because there's not floor space left, if your kids' bedrooms look anything like Karina's!)

See, you need one, too!  Now go quick, quick and enter!

Day Two of Playgroup

We had our second day of playgroup today, and Karina loved it again!  She was excited as soon as I said we were going.  I was surprised she even remembered that it was called playgroup.  She ran around and laughed and squealed the whole time.  Bill came with us and took a bunch of pictures, but he's so slow to upload them, it'll be a long time before I see them!  Karina played with lots of other kids today, as well as by herself.  She wanted to ride on all the ride-on toys, and push all the push toys, and she discovered the book section.  She is read to so much at home, that we decided to pry her away from those and get her playing with the other kids again.  When it was time for art, I wasn't going to take her because she didn't seem that into it last time, but she came and got me, and pulled me by the hand in this funny little way she has.  She wanted to do the art!  It was a spaceship and an astronaut to color, and they were orbiting a moon or a planet (paper plate) via a brad in the center of the plate.  Very cute.  She actually made more than one line to color, which was good. Usually, one line per page/image and that's it.  Since discovering my pens, she has been making more lines when she draws.

The afternoon was kind of crazy, schedule-wise, with her lunch and nap getting pushed back a bit because of the playgroup.  So then dinner was pushed back and bedtime, but at least she did go right to sleep.  Tonight, she did not want to go to bed for the first time ever.  She actually shook her head "no" when I asked her to come get her jammies and diaper on.  Well.  I knew it was coming.  I've been waiting.  Here it is, I guess!  But seriously, she was okay once we convinced her to come get her jammies on, and she did go to bed quietly as usual.  She was just overtired.

Simply Stacie's blog today had a link to another blog that told us how to add pages.  So I tried it out and added a page up there.  I just did your typical About Me page, but there it is.  You can find the link to Simply Stacie's blog over on the sidebar.

Musikgarten!!!!

Tomorrow, I am soooooo excited that Musikgarten is starting back up!  If you have never heard of Musikgarten, it is a music program that goes from babies to age nine and beyond, depending on the instructor.  Ours is wonderful and we love her.  She has piano classes all the way up to adults.  She even taught her dad!  What's great about it is that it's not taught the traditional way you think of music being taught.  Karina has learned body parts from her classes.  Her little friend "Buggy" learned body parts and animal sounds (she's a year older) and some other things.  Now Buggy's sister Miss O is going to be in our class while Buggy's at preschool.  We'll be missing Buggy, but we heard there are going to be two other little girls in the class close to Karina's age--yay!  We sing songs, do rhymes, dance, and play simple instruments.  Karina learns about following instructions, too, and everything is geared toward the age of the children.  Classes are not free, but I value what we've learned and experienced, and the cost is worth it to me.  You can get more information at www.musikgarten.org.  You can also search for a teacher, too.

Then, on Thursday we're going back to our playgroup!  I can't wait for that, either.  Karina had such a great time. 

I'm glad to have things to do with Karina now that it's gotten to be fall.  Some days, I would wander around and be so bored here at home, but she would be playing and having fun, so I didn't want to spoil her day by dragging her out shopping or something.  Now, I'm glad to have reasons to get out of the house!

Yard Sale Score plus I ramble some

Today, while I was out with the youth group, Bill and Karina discovered a great yard sale in our neighborhood.  The lady had lost 4 of her 6 day care kids, and was cleaning out.  When I got home, I went over there, and here is what I got:
A huge tub of regular Legos
An even bigger tub of Lego Duplo blocks (larger, for little kids)
Two gallon baggies of kitchen play food and dishes
A box of imitation Lincoln Logs
A Spiderman frisbee and pinata (Bill wanted them for Colin but I think I will end up using the pinata at the youth's Halloween Party.  I don't see Colin carrying it home on the plane!)

I got it all for only $10!!  The one tub of Legos alone would be more than that it a store, and this tub had more than what comes in those tubs!  I am so excited--I looooove Legos, and even though she can't use them til she's older, I think Karina will like them, too.

The Duplo are for Christmas, as are the Lincoln-esque Logs, and probably the kitchen stuff, too.  With her birthday falling the day after Christmas, I have got to stock up when I can!  I've got quite a stash going in my closet now.



The other cool thing that happened today was that Bill and our friend Cali put up some paneling on our porch.  The porch was installed by the previous homeowners (or someone before them) and it has nails sticking out all around the bottom part.  We had just put up some exterior fabric for aesthetic purposes, but it's no good for protecting rambunctious children from falling through it and being stabbed by nails.  So now we've got this beautiful white beadboard up that is going to be even better when he puts up the rest of the trim.  I promise to share pictures. 

The final thing that was accomplished was that I dug through our (overflowing) shed and found a bunch of my teaching stash picture books.  I have really been wanting to go through them for Karina and to hopefully find some to donate to the group that helped us get Karina's speech evaluated.  (If you remember, if I mentioned it, the first place we had her evaluated was in downtown and the building had conference rooms with some toys and books for little ones to play with, but they were all beat up and just a mess.  So I wanted to give them at least some newer books for the kids)

Phew.  It was a busy, busy day!  Tomorrow is another one!

Cloth Diaper Blog Makeover Giveaway

Diaper Junction, as you may or may not know is one of my all-time favorite online retailers.  They sponsor a blog, like a lot of other sites do, and it recently underwent a bit of a makeover.  To celebrate, CDBlog is hosting a huge giveaway, including a grand prize of $500 to spend on diapers!  They also have the following prizes:  a 12 pack of Fuzzibunz in choice of colors, a Gro Via Half Time package (a Diaper Junction package that includes 6 Gro Via systems and some accessories, worth over $185), and a six pack of bumGenius 4.0s.  Wow.  Those are some great prizes!  To enter, go over to www.clothdiaperblog.com and follow the instructions.  There are 12 ways to enter!  Ends October 12.

First Day of Playgroup

My city offers some great resources to parents that I had no clue about until Karina's speech problem came to light.  For instance, not only do they do free testing for things like speech, they also have free playgroups and classes to city residents, and the cost to non-residents (for playgroup) is only $2 per time! 

We went to one of the playgroups for the first time today.  It was 90 minutes, included free play time, snack, art, and music.  I had no idea what to expect, but when I first got there, another new mom was coming in with her daughter, so we went down to the room together.  The room was nothing like I expected--it is huge, and they have a TON of toys!  Kitchen toys and building toys and music toys and blocks and puzzles and a huge climbing thing.  I didn't take any pictures today because at first I wasn't sure if it was okay, since other people's kids were there, but then even when I did find out, I was too busy watching Karina play and talking to other moms (yay!).  Karina attached herself to a little boy a few months older than her, and basically followed him around all morning.  She'd watch him play on something for a few minutes, then she'd hesitantly try it herself, see that she could do it, and then do it a bunch of times.  She was so proud of herself when she went up and down some soft stairs without holding on to anything (so was her mom)! 

At snack time, it was no problem to be able to read the box to check the ingredients for peanut information, and fortunately she could have the graham crackers they were all having.  I hope that she will be able to have the same snack as the other kids most of the time.  Oh, I skipped art time.  That was right before snack.  Today they were making collages on these little choo choo trains that had been drawn for them.  Karina didn't really understand the concept of gluing things down, but she did use the glue stick for the first time, and I did manage to get a couple of things stuck on permanently, before she could rip them off. 

Then it was cleanup time, then snack, and then I thought the day was over, but there was still music time!  By this point, she was so tired that all she did was sit in my lap.  Usually she really loves anything music-related, but she was just wiped out!  I thought she'd fall asleep in the car on the way home.  I gave her the grapes I'd brought with me, and she didn't even eat them right away, she was that tired!  Finally, she munched a few of them, perked up a little so she could have her lunch, and then slept for about 2 1/2-3 hours. 

This particular group is for up to 24 month olds, but they're pretty flexible about the ages.  For example, the little boy and his twin sister that she followed around had turned 2 in May.  This group was great, because they were all little, very non-threatening, and a small group.  There were no more than about 10 kids at any given time.  There's another group that meets twice a week, on Monday and Wednesday (we would not be able to go on Wednesdays because of Musikgarten) that is for 1-4 year olds.  We are planning to add that in after a few weeks of this one, so that the older kids can help her with her talking.  The group today wasn't really a talking group, as they were mostly younger than Karina.  But it was still good for her and since she's not been around large groups of kids very often, I think it's a great way to introduce her to the playgroups. 

I can't wait til next week!

Cloth Diapers Oorah Event at Coupon Mommy of 3

Check out Coupon Mommy of 3's huge diaper event going on through September!  There are lots of giveaways so if you were thinking of trying cloth, already love cloth and need want more, now's your chance to enter a bunch of giveaways for different brands.



Head on over to Coupon Mommy of 3 and check out this great event going on until September 30th!

Toys Under the Chair

Tonight at my mom's house, Karina was wild.  She was playing so hard, she got all sweated up!  She was up and down off the couch, back and forth from the bedroom where her toys are and the living room, and up and down off Grandma's lap.  She had some toy horses she was playing with and arranging, and then towards the end of the evening, she started putting her toys under one of the living room chairs.  When we started to leave, I had to go hunting for my shoes, which were under the hassock, and then my reusable bag (in whichI had brought some stuff back to my grandmother).  The bag was under the chair, and there was so much stuff under there, I couldn't help but laugh!  I usually help clean up before we leave, but that I just had to walk away from!

When we came home, we had just a little while to read to her, and she was so tired.  I thought.  Karina goes to bed at 8pm every night, like clockwork.  It's now 9:20 and she just fell asleep.  Sigh.

Zoo Pictures

Here she is, full of anticipation to get into the zoo!

The prairie dogs were so cute.  We spent about 15 minutes just watching them run around.

Karina's watching the small fowl walk past her, in front of the kangaroo pen.  There was this wood fence, then some space, and then the real fence.  The birds were between the fences.

Not the clearest photo, but you can see the male (top), a young lion, a female, and another young lion.  The young ones are lolling and rolling and flinging their legs about in a most casual manner.

She is ready to go to the next exhibit.  We had to pick her up to see most of the things, but she would walk a lot in between.  There were a lot of kids there, and one girl tried to take Karina's sippy cup.  She thought it was hers!  (She was Karina's age)  It was so funny!

A giraffe.

Reunited with the baby.

The fountains.

My ecstatic child getting her feet wet.  This giant black thing is a globe, and it spins in the water if you're strong enough to push it.  Karina thought she was making it go, and she got to have her feet in the water at the same time.  What is better than that? 

The Zoo!

We took Karina to the zoo today.  Bill's been wanting to go for a while, and since he was off today, we decided it was the perfect opportunity.  The zoo is about 20 minutes from our house, maybe less, and opened at 10.  We left a few minutes early, got there and had to wait, but not long.  It was a good thing we were early though because by the time we left, the parking lot was full!

As soon as we got there, Karina was beside herself.  She has never been to a zoo before, but I was telling her all about it as we drove there.  When we got out, she practically ran up to the (closed) gate!  She was laughing and babbling and just couldn't wait to get in there.  Finally they opened and we got our tickets.  The first thing you see when you go in is a bunch of those fountains that spring up from the concrete so you can walk on them.  Karina loves water, so that was a great start.  We decided to take the route with fewer animals first, and so we saw the prairie dogs first.  They were so cute, but there were flies everywhere.  Karina loved watching them.  She pointed at them and laughed.  Then we saw a bunch of other small animals, like owls, a Fennec Fox (very small with big ears, and super cute), some lizards, and a few other birds.  Then we got to the kangaroo pen.  They were kind of boring, but there were some small fowl walking outside the pen, maybe grouse?  They were the size of chickens, but they looked like turkeys.  Karina thought they were great and followed them down the fence as they walked. 

Finally we started getting to the areas I wanted to see!  Lions, giraffes, zebras...the big animals!  Let me say now, that I'm not actually a huge fan of zoos.  I just always feel like the animals must be unhappy.  Like the lions:  unless they put wild, live animals in there for them to chase and kill, what else are they going to do but lie around, really?  So I feel bad for them, even though this zoo is pretty good.  The pens are roomy and they've tried really hard to make sure they have plenty of things to do; rocks to climb, water to swim in, grass, and whatever else their natural habitat has that is feasible to provide.  Still, it's a zoo.   Anyway, we saw the lions, hanging out on rocks and just kind of sunning themselves.  There were two young ones, and a male, and a few females.  Karina saw them and enjoyed watching them swish their tails.  I think she was actually enjoying watching the other kids, too, though! 

Next we saw a few more small animals, which I admit I don't remember well because I was so enjoying watching Karina.  Then we came to the giraffes, and they were the highlight of my day.  There were about 4 or 5 of them, and we could see a baby that was separated from the adults.  I don't know why.  I think they were either feeding it or cleaning it, because shortly after we got there, she was let out into the pen with the other giraffes.  She went running across the field to her mom, who was so happy to see her!  It was so sweet, they were nuzzling and cuddling each other, and there must have been a dad too, because three of them were all getting in on the cuddling.  Then the baby followed her mom across the field.  The pen is also shared with at least one gazelle, who was infatuated with the baby giraffe.  The gazelle was following that baby around like her shadow!  We also got to see a giraffe splay out its legs to reach some foliage that was lower down.  That was pretty cool.  Bill was taking pictures, but Karina was done with the giraffes, so she went down the path ahead.  I went with her of course.  We got to the end, and she turned around and went back up towards Bill.  But he was still over near the rail.  Karina was desperately trying to tell him to come on, but she doesn't speak, so she was grunting and motioning energetically.  I told her she had to go over to her dad to get his attention and then tell him.  Of course, Bill could hear me say all this so when she did go over, he knew what she wanted.  By this point, we'd been there about an hour, seen most of the zoo, and Karina was getting tired.  I had to carry her a little more after this point, but stills he did very well. 

We saw a zebra, rhinoceros, some wild hogs, and a few more animals.  Then we meandered back to the entranceway, and let her play in the fountains some more.  We took her shoes off (I brought all extra clothes except shoes, so those had to come off) and let her get wet.  It was really hot by this point, so it was quite refreshing to splash in the water.  The funniest thing I saw was a boy about 10 years old sitting on one of the fountains and actually preventing it from shooting up! 

Finally, we left, bought two 25 cent Pepsis (I know, right?) on our way out, and went back to the car.  We made a quick drive over to the park next door and got out our lunches.  And then the flies attacked.  There must have been 9,750,196,251,026,501,278,351,249,321 of them.  It was disgusting.  We somehow managed to eat our lunches, in spite of the flies (partly because I put out some food and let them land on it just to keep them off of us!) and then went home.  Karina fell asleep in the car about halfway there.  I watched her little eyes try to stay open, but fail. 

It was such a great day, and of course she napped a long time so I got to do a lot of fun stuff in my craft room, too!  I hope everyone else had as much fun on their Labor Day as we did!

Etsy shop for hairbows

I have to share this Etsy shop, Little Hailey, with you, because A. the bows are so super stinking cute, 2. they are a really good price, and d. they are very well made.  I just received the ones I ordered from there and they're even cuter in person.  I got a bunch of bows and, crazily, I ordered twice in two or three days, because I'm such a loser that I actually forgot I had placed the first order!  But I would have anyway because they added some bows I couldn't resist.  At $1.50 a bow (small--about 3 inches and perfect for Karina's size), I just couldn't beat that.  I have learned how to make similar bows now, but they are a lot of work, and frankly, the $1.50 is definitely worth it to me.  Here are a few bows that I purchased from the shop:

This last one with the horses is why I placed that second order.  Karina's grandma gave her a dress from Gymboree that's blue with little horses on it, and I actually got the shirt from the same series for her.  They are two of her favorites.  If I let her, she'd wear the shirt every day.  Well, that and the two puppy shirts she loves.  This hairbow is made to match, and I have no idea where she got ribbon like this, but I just couldn't resist!  I was going to put Karina in the blue dress for church tomorrow until I remembered that the second order hasn't arrived yet.  The first one came sooo fast so I bet it will come this week and she can wear the dress next week. 

Check out Little Hailey's other things, too.  The shop has snap clips and headbands and beanies, too.  There's a $1.00 clip section and some holiday sections.  I just thought the prices were the best and the shipping is really reasonable, too.  Plus, once I got the bows and saw how great they were and well-made, I had to post this.  I didn't get any compensation and no one asked me to write this.  I just really like this shop and I wanted to share it with whoever happens to read this. 

Karina's Speech Evaluation, part 2

Yesterday Karina and I went to have her second speech evaluation, this one to determine which services she qualifies for, developmental or speech.  They had already determined that she would get something, but this was to decide what and how often she'd be getting it.  When we got there, we had to wait in the lobby because we were early (as usual), and we were sitting on a couch reading when people started arriving.  I only recognized our case worker, Robin.  There were two other people there, Lisa for speech and Keith for developmental.  (Okay I have to pause here because I swear I've posted this already.  I must have sent an email to someone or something, because I can't find evidence of a post.  But it is the strangest feeling.).  When we were called in to the room, which was largely empty except for couches all the way around the edge of the room and a little coffee table in one spot, Lisa was on the floor with a bag, Robin was on one couch with a computer to take notes and fill out the forms, and Keith was walking in with me.  Karina made a beeline to Lisa and sat right down next to her.  We'd never met her or Keith even once before.  Karina acted like she'd known her forever!  She started playing with her right away, doing all the little tasks she had to do.  Of course Karina just thought she was playing, but they were actually evaluating her.  Keith asked me a lot of questions about what she does at home, and Lisa asked me some social as well as speech questions.  In the end, they shared what they had found and determined.  Aside from the expressive speech (talking) her lowest score was one of the physical categories (I don't remember which one) where she scored 21 months (she just turned 20) and her highest was 33 months!  But then, her expressive speech score was 12 months.  That's  like a year behind!  Not surprising though.  Robin was really great and very positive.  She said she feels like Karina is really bright and will probably pick it up really fast.  The document (kind of like an IEP but for little kids) expires in a year, and her long-term goal is for 6 months.  Her goal is to use words to express her needs to others.  It was so strange being on the parent side of this kind of meeting.  As a teacher, I have always welcomed the special education students into my classroom and really enjoy working with them and teaching them.  I also actually enjoyed the process of determining eligibility, setting goals, and so forth.  So I have sat in quite a few of these meetings, as the teacher of course.  It was so bizarre to be in a similar meeting as the parent.  Even though I know that Karina's problem is not serious in the grand scheme of things, and is definitely fixable, it is still not the best feeling to know your child has something--anything--going on that is outside the expected development.  Then again, I'm so grateful that we're going to be able to work with her and help her in this area.  I can't imagine sitting in meetings like this every year because my child has a learning disability that they will be living with permanently.  As much empathy as I thought I had for those parents all those years I was teaching, I now realize I still had not the first clue how they were feeling.  When I go back to teaching someday, I know that this experience will definitely help me to better understand how those parents are feeling in those meetings.

I know this got long, but I have one more thing to share, that's cute.  This afternoon, I was sitting in Karina's room with her while she played, and I was putting away her laundry.  She brought me a book to read to her, and signed for me to read to her.  I asked her if she wanted to read the book to me, and she did....in her way.  She turned all the pages, pointed to the pictures and babbled for each page!  The book was by Eric Carle and is called "A House for Hermit Crab".  Karina's Uncle David and Erin gave it to her.  It's about a hermit crab who goes through the months of the year decorating his new shell until he outgrows it.  Karina pointed to all the things on Hermit Crab's shell, like the sea anemones and the coral (which he used to decorate his shell) and some fish that were swimming nearby.  It was the best book ever because she read it to me!

Have a good Labor Day weekend everyone!