Playtime is changing

Karina is becoming much more independent in her playing.  Today, she played by herself for at least 30 minutes while I just read a magazine at the table.  It was amazing.  It helped that her dad was home, of course, so she had someone else's attention for part of the time, but he was busy, too.  So she was really just on her own for most of that time.  Then she'd need one of us, and we'd play with her, or do other things, and then she'd be okay for another half an hour or so again.  It's really amazing and kind of great.  She's gotten very busy-always doing something.  Tonight, she suddenly was able to ride her little toy "car" (it's just a little plastic ride-on toy)

(You can find this at a lot of places, but ours came from Toys R Us  via a friend).  It converts to a push toy, and that's how she usually played with it.  For whatever reason, Bill converted it to the car tonight and she just got on and started riding.  We've tried it a couple times before, and she has either not been interested, or couldn't do it and got too frustrated.  I guess tonight she was ready. 

She still loves to be read to and to do her three puzzles.  She is happy being read to all day.  I could literally read to her from the time she gets up until she falls asleep or I lose my voice.  Her puzzles are all by Melissa and Doug, (coincidentally) and are the wooden kind with the little pegs, where each piece is totally separate (as you can see in the picture).  The first one she got was this one of wild animals, that my brother and his girlfriend gave her for Christmas.  The other two I got later, at a consignment shop, because she had gotten so good at doing the jungle one.  The jungle one is a sound puzzle, but we don't have batteries in it because it was acting strange and making noises all by itself.  It was really scaring Bill.  :-)  She can do all three of the puzzles really easily; the only trouble she has is if the pieces are upside down--she doesn't understand the idea of turning them around.  Other than that, the girl can do them lickety split!  The jungle puzzle and one of the others, with farm animals, have the same image underneath as on the puzzle piece.  The third one is a hide and seek style jungle scene, where there are different images underneath the pieces.  She can still mostly do it by herself!  I can't believe how well she does with this one.  She needs help with where a couple of the pieces go, because they look very similar, but other than that she knows them.  She has the most trouble getting them turned the right way--more so than with the other two puzzles, which have clear right side up animals and things--but the jungle one is a lot of leaves and bushes and it's hard for her to tell which way is up for the images.  I finally found a picture of the puzzle online.  (Thanks, Amazon).  See that flower?  There's a bee under it.  And the big leaf underneath it is the one with the frog.  I'm so proud of her for being able to do this puzzle!  (She's funny when she can't get the piece in, if it's upside down or even just not lined up right...she throws it away!)

A few new pics on an older post

I posted some pictures on my post about Karina helping at church, if you're interested in seeing them. 

Her Bunnies

I used to live alone in an apartment that I loved.  I decorated it exactly the way I wanted to, and one thing I had were these three resin rabbits that were intended for use in a garden.  One is white and tan, one is gray and white, and one is black and white.  They are pretty big, probably 10-12 inches long and about 6ish inches tall.  I kept them with me because I really love them, and I had never used them outside (in an apartment, I couldn't, but they were so cute I couldn't resist them).  Once we moved into this house, I intended to put them outside.  They sat on the porch for a while, and one day, I went out there and found one had been knocked over in the wind by the blinds on the porch and his little face broke.  I gathered up as many pieces as I could find, but sadly, many pieces are missing.  I am still trying to figure out a way to fix him.  Meanwhile, he and his two buddies sat in another location on the porch for more long months.  Until last week.  I decided it was ridiculous to keep them all together like that when I could put the two whole ones out in the yard.  I decided to put them in with the one wild rosebush in our backyard.  Karina was with me when I made this decision, and I took her out into the yard with me to set them in the rosebush area.

She had a fit.  She did not want me to leave them with the rosebush, she wanted to keep them with her!  So now the little white bunny and the little black bunny are sitting outside next to Karina's slide.  Whenever we go out there, she picks up the black one (he is her favorite) and carries him around.  She hands me the white one (I'm supposed to cuddle that one while she's cuddling the black one) and walks around with hers.  The first day I let her do this, she kept kissing the bunny over and over again.  She has been very careful with them so far, and every time she holds them I remind her to be careful and gentle.  She knows these words, and she's doing a really great job.  Now I really need to fix the gray bunny so he can join the other two and be equally loved by my sweet little daughter.

 She pets them.

She points to their eyes and noses.

She loves them!

Funny face girl

Today, Karina was hysterical.  She was in the absolute best mood today, which isn't saying much since she is actually a very good-natured child and is usually really happy.  But today she was extra happy and playing all day (except for her 3 hour nap!!!)  Tonight after dinner, Bill and I took her for a short walk, and then she played in our front yard with this plastic yellow ball from her ball pit.  Bill and I kept throwing it across the yard, and then she and I would race for it.  The few times she didn't run with me to get it, and I got it, she made this face that I will try my best to describe.  First, she put her hands under her chin.  Then she opened her mouth as wide as it would go, with no teeth showing on the bottom, but showing on the top...like the kind of face you'd make if you were shocked beyond reason, and happy and excited at the same time.  It was the funniest face ever!  I was just rolling!




Oh, and when we went for our walk, she insisted on bringing this small version of those reusable grocery bags--like a mini one--with her, that she had filled with about a handful of driveway rocks and the same yellow ball.  She had one handle over each arm, and I was so afraid she'd trip and fall and not be able to catch herself, but she didn't, thank goodness.

Family Cookout and Separation Anxiety

This weekend, Bill, Karina, and I went to my uncle's house for the annual family BBQ.  This is my dad's side of the family, and I don't see them that often.  Usually at the regular holidays and this yearly cookout that Uncle Dave started up.  A little background:  my dad is the middle child of 5.  He has an older brother and sister, and a younger brother and sister.  Rick is oldest, then Judy, my dad, Dave (host of the cookout), and Jackie.  There are a lot of cousins: 12 biological (one passed away), plus spouses; a bunch of my cousins have kids of their own (in total there are 16; 13 of those are Judy's grandchildren, one is Karina, and the other two are Jennifer's kids).  Most of the cousins are older than David and me.  Only Jackie's kids are younger.  I have relatives in Indiana, Florida (I think), Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and possibly some other places.  It's a big family.

Karina slept in the car on the way to visit, because it's about an hour drive from my house.  When we got there, she woke up and was greeted by David and his girlfriend Erin, who arrived at the same time as we did.  We walked up to the house together, and my dad came out to see us, Dave and his wife Terri, and my cousin Jennifer.  Karina had not met my cousin (I hadn't seen her in 15 years!).  I expected Karina to be really clingy and scared because there were so many people she either didn't know at all, or had only met a few times.  It was totally the opposite. 

First, she stood in the middle of the circle of the family members who were greeting each other--me, Bill, David, Erin, Daddy, Uncle Dave, and Jennifer--spinning around and making her fake-shy-coy face.  Then she tried to dump out all of her toys on the driveway, but we managed to get her up to the porch before she could finish doing that.  Then she had lunch, and was ready to play.  Then my cousin Cat arrived with her 3 year old twin daughters, and that was the best.  Karina followed them around, and they followed her around.  Karina did not pay the slightest bit of attention to me.  It was so different from what she is usually like, Miss Clingypants, and what a relief!  She wanted to go out into the yard with her dad, she wanted to play inside with the girls.  I got to eat my lunch.  I got to talk to my family.  It was fantastic.  Karina had a wonderful time, and she really seems to be less stressed about being away from me now.  Could Separation Anxiety be on its way out?  I sure hope so!

GroVia giveaway at ClothDiaperBlog

New Colors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did not like the 

old ones,  the Kiwi, Mandarin, or eggplant shade.  I thought I would

 like Vanilla, but it really looks sort of like dirty plastic.  Not happy. 

But these new colors look like they will be GORGEOUS!!!Now I just 

wish they would have made some Wonder Wraps out of the new 

colors so I could have bought a bunch of them before they stopped 

selling them online.  :-(  

But :-) for the new GroVia products and COLORS!  

Dream House dreams (See, I daydream about all kinds of things, not just diapers)

I used to enjoy drawing house plans.  Not the official kind, just ones I did for fun as a teenager.  I used graph paper at first, and then I moved to a ruler and measuring carefully.  I guess it kind of goes along with my love of househunting (we looked at over 100 houses when we moved here, and I still wish I could have seen more).  I love seeing the layout and how the house flows.  I also loved--and still love--imagining my own designs.  I never really wanted to be an architect, though, because, frankly, I hate math.  But it was still fun to play around with the designs. 

Lately, I've had the home design bug again, this time in the form of imagining my dream house for my family.  Here are some of the things I would have if money, time, and reality were not issues:

1. A 3 story (basement, main level, second floor) music/man room for my husband, where he would be required to keep all of his crap stuff, as opposed to my living room.  The basement is because he really likes basements, having grown up in Chicago.  We can't really have basements around here because we're too close to the water and they'd just flood.  So he'd get a basement, plus a second floor.  I imagine that the basement would be for music, the main level would be for TV and stuff, and the second floor would be for storage and photography stuff.  The room would be at the back of the house, in a wing almost separate from the house, so that three walls faced the outside and one wall was connected to the rest of the house.  To get there, you'd go through a family room or study or library, I haven't decided.
2. A 2 story craft room for me, with stamping/scrapbooking stuff on the main level, and sewing stuff upstairs.  (No basement for me.) My craft room would have the most fantastic storage solutions and cubbies, shelves, and paper organizers enough to make my head spin.  It would have an island in the middle to work on, plus a desk along one wall, sort of like what I have now but a lot better.  There would be beautiful units to store all my stamps, ink, ink refills, punches, and embellishments.  I would have tons of storage for completed albums and a space for my computer and printer, too.  The upstairs would have shelving for seemingly miles to store my fabric and supplies.  The sewing machine would be on a table in the middle of the room.  My craft room would be opposite Bill's room, on another wing of the house, so I would never have to hear his annoying music blasting while I'm crafting. 
3. Our master bedroom would have the best walk-in closet the world has ever seen, and 2 beautiful bathrooms, because I don't share with Bill.  He's too messy.  The master would also have a separate little room with one little twin bed in it for Bill on the night's when he's snoring, and the room would be soundproof with a door.  I hate kicking him out of our bed, but man, sometimes I just gotta sleep! 
4. Lest I sound like I'm trying to get rid of Bill (I'm not!  I love him, but he has quirks that irritate me, and I have quirks that irritate him, so we need some separation for sanity's sake), we would also have a family room and dining area open to the kitchen.  Not that I do a ton of cooking, but I do have to boil water to make tea and oatmeal, and the refrigerator tends to be in the kitchen.  That would be where I store microwavable meals and cheese.  We like cheese here, and fruit.  These rooms would all be open, unlike what we have now (which is actually working fine for us) because Bill would not be keeping his miscellaneous TV/stereo components and stuff in these areas.  So Bill could watch TV and play with Karina and we could eat and still all be together.  And I could put dishes in the dishwasher or make tea or sandwiches or eggs and be there, too.  See, togetherness and separation!
5. In the kitchen, I would have a fantastic, French door refrigerator with NO ice or water dispenser (we barely use the one we have, but Bill wants the ice to be convenient to reach, so he would have a separate ice dispenser somewhere else in the kitchen).  Just thinking of a fridge like that is making me drool (figuratively, of course).

So these are just some of the ideas I've been sorting through, mainly in my head, thinking about a dream house.  Of course, we'll never live in anything like that, and I don't dislike our house now.  I actually really love our house.  But, just like 100+ houses wasn't enough to look at, having the best house out there doesn't prevent me from dreaming.

Karina Helped Them Practice for the Youth Service at Church

Sunday was our annual youth service at my church, where the youth group members lead almost the entire service.  We assigned roles a few weeks ago, and practiced the week before Mother's Day.  Sunday morning, we met at church at 8am to practice again before the single 10am service.  Since no one was in the nursery yet, Karina got to hang out with us while we practiced.  Kelly (my friend and fellow youth advisor) had her two children with her, too; the older one was drawing (he's 4) and the younger one was being tended by StephQ--a former youth, now college student who often babysits for Kelly's boys and Karina.  Karina is between their ages and was so excited by everything that was going on.  She had fun watching the kids singing, watching Erik and Linda play the guitar and piano, and most especially playing on the three steps at the front of the church. 

She had her banana in a plastic bag (half eaten already) and she just carried it around.  She would periodically set it down on one of the steps, or throw it onto another section of the floor, or hand it to one of the kids.  She was underfoot and in the middle of things the whole time!  Then towards the end of practice, she took off her shoes and thought that was hysterical.  Then she took off out one door, went down the hall past the nursery, around the corner to the hall behind the sanctuary, around the next corner, back into the sanctuary, and around again.  She thought this was the most fun game she'd ever played.  Finally, she had to go into the nursery because the real service was starting, and although she didn't like that part, she had a good day overall.

 (She is "helping" them bring up the offering plates.)

When Karina gets really tired, she starts to act...different.  She will become totally absorbed in some kind of mundane task, like arranging and rearranging items or pulling out all her washcloths and then putting them away again.  This time, it was diaper inserts.

If you don't know what they are, here's a picture of one.  This is a BabyKicks Joey Bunz insert made of hemp.  This is the kind of liner Karina was playing with tonight.  Remember, I won a bunch of stuff ($250 worth) from BabyKicks? These were some of the things I won.  We use them every single night for maximum absorbency.  They are fabulous.  I'm not just saying that because I won them.  I owned some that I purchased before I won and I wanted more anyway.  I would have bought more but I didn't have to.  :-)  

Anyway, back to the story.  She was tired and she decided to play with these liners.  She started laying them out, perfectly flat, on the floor.  One at a time, she would get one out of the basket where I keep them, walk over to the Perfect Spot, lay it down, smooth it out, then get up and get a new one. Her toys started getting in the way, so she would pick up the toy, walk over to me and fling the toy onto the floor.  One of the toys landed on Lambkin, her most special stuffed lamb, and she stopped, turned back, picked it up off Lambkin, and again flung it down on the ground. 

Here is what Lambkin looks like.  He is a Gund Comfy Cozy plush called "Lopsy" and he can be found at Neiman Marcus and online.  

Watching her do this over and over again was so funny.  She was like a little robot in her movements.  After a while, she got tired of it and laid down on Lambkin and her doggie bed.  She laid there for so long that Bill and I thought she might fall asleep there!

Yes. My child has a doggie bed.  She loves my grandmother's dog, Robbie, and all things that belong to him.  She loves to flop down on his dog bed, and we used to joke about getting her a bed of her own for the same purpose.  Then my mom found a really nice one at Tuesday Morning for $6 covered in this brown microsuede or microfleece type fabric.  It looks nice, not stupid. Really. 

Trying them on for size

Karina loves to wear my shoes and Bill's shoes right now.  She's always trying to put them on.  I guess she feels like a big girl when she's wearing them.  She will even bring us matching pairs of shoes that she wants us to put on.  Yesterday, she brought my brother a pair of my brown sandals that she wanted him to wear.  To his credit, he tried.  I wish I had taken a picture of that!  I'm just amazed that she can find a matching pair.

Now she's given up on the black shoes in favor of the white ones.  Slip ons are so much easier, aren't they little girl?  She is growing up too fast. 

My Mom gave me cute peeps at Easter and I can't eat them.

Look how cute these little peeps candies are.  Yes, these are peeps, and they are the cutest ones I've ever seen.  My wonderful mom put them in Karina's, Bill's, and my Easter baskets (I know.  Easter was a long time ago.  I procrastinate.).  Except my mom might have forgotten that I can't eat cute animal food! I mean, just look at that cute little yellow puppy!  I can't eat him!  All these peep animals are still sitting in my living room.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do about them.  I thought Bill would just eat all of them, but he hasn't.  Maybe he can't eat cute animal-shaped food, either.

I can eat the vaguely chick-like ones and the sort of bunny-ish ones (and I did, because Mom gave us some of those, too).  I can't eat these cute little guys!  I remember once, in second grade, my teacher was reading us a story about a bear or something, and she gave us a gummy bear to eat during the story.  I didn't eat it.  I held it in my mouth til story time was over and then I put it in a napkin.  That is so gross, but I was 7 and I didn't want to eat the bear because it was a bear.  One time, I saved a cheeto that looked like a horse's head.  I was 6 or 7 then, too.  I also wouldn't eat popcorn shrimp because I thought they were baby shrimp, and I wouldn't eat hush puppies because, of course, they were puppies.  Even though my mom explained what they really were, I remember crying in some restaurant because Mom and Nana were eating baby shrimp.  I was probably five. 


I really hope I don't pass this on to Karina.  She's got enough picky-eating problems as it is. 

Karina's Hats

Not all of them, of course. 

Karina will not wear sunglasses, but she will wear her hats.  She is so adorable in them, too!  Here's one she wore on Mother's Day.

I have a bunch of flowers that clip or pin onto her hats, and I loved this one with her sunflower romper.

Here's another one.  I sometimes get them on sale at different places.  We learned the hard way that if the hat doesn't have a strap, I have to add one.  Otherwise, the hat blows away while we're out walking around, and I can't go running off to get it.  Then it gets run over, and the guy from the store has to run into the street for me...it's just not good.  So I add a strap.  You can kind of see it in the first and last pictures.  I love putting her in hats.  I think it might be an obsession, kind of like shoes, before I had Karina.  Sigh.  There is just no hope for me!  :-)

My Azaleas, When They Bloomed

I meant to include these in my Azaleas post but I had not uploaded them to my laptop, etc etc excuses whatever.  So here they are.  This year, I had 5 out of 6 azaleas bloom (something was wrong with the white one; I hope it didn't die).  There aren't pictures of the whole plants because they're really small and kind of pathetic looking.  That's okay.  They'll grow.  And I still love them.

Azaleas

I love azaleas.  LOVE them.  This is not my azalea bush.  Mine are....tiny.  I planted them two years ago when we first moved in to our house.  They're still blooming and living.  Well, five out of six of them bloomed this year, and a different five are looking bigger.  One got stepped on by my husband, so it's really small, but it's blooming.  The one white one, I don't know why it didn't bloom this year.  Maybe it still will.  This bush, in the photo, is in the yard of someone around the block from us.  It is soooo pretty.  Someday I hope my little bitty azaleas will look like this. 

I also have plans to plant some rosebushes.  I know they're supposed to be really hard to grow, but I love them so much, and I think I need them.  My grandfather, Nana's husband, always had tons of them growing in our yard.  He passed away over 10 years ago, and I often think I should plant some roses.  I think I will eventually do that.  I'll let Karina help pick them out with me.  :-)  She likes to choose things.  I think we get enough sun, so I don't think that will be an issue.  If I go for it, I'll let you all know. 

We have rocks next to our driveway.  Lots of rocks.  The previous owners used it as another parking space, and we have, too, on occasion.  Karina thinks the rocks are fantastic.  She loves to pick them up and play with them.  Rocks have come inside with her, they've gone on walks with us, and they've been moved to different areas of the yard.

Lately, Karina's been doing something else with the rocks.  Very diligently, she has been cleaning them up for us.  Such a little helper.

This used to be David's and my toybox when we were kids.  It is awaiting a cleanup by my husband, and so the lid has been removed.  It is sitting on our rock-driveway area.  Every day, she puts some more rocks in the box.  "There are rocks in my box..."


(Ever read that book, "There are Rocks in My Socks Said the Ox to the Fox"?  It's by Mordicai Gerstein.  I highly recommend it.)