Sunday, January 31, 2010

Potty Time

On New Year's Day, I decided it was time to start teaching Naomi about going potty. While I'm in now rush to be rid of diapers, she is very good about telling us when she's gone poopoo and sometimes even tells us ahead of time. Sometimes she'll tell us she went poo-poo and realize that since she's in the middle of playing, that she'll have to stop playing and get a diaper change, so she quickly changes her mind and says, "no poo-poo" and backs herself as far away from us as possible so we can't do a quick check.
Anyway, the day after New Year's, Austin had to work (yes on a saturday, and yes, on Jan 2nd). So Naomi and I made a trip to Babies R Us to pick out a potty. We ended up picking out a frog potty by Fisher-Price, mainly because Naomi loves frogs and kept saying, "ribbit ribbit" and trying to pull the potty of the shelf. Plus it was the cheapest one! Win-win situation right?




As soon as we got home, I tore off the packaging and Naomi ran to it and said, "poo-poo"! Yay she gets the concept. Except, here's where the problem lies. I didn't realize this frog potty was built with boys in mind. See the eyes on the potty are splashguards. Splash-guards? For what? Oh...I've never really had to think about how a boy's anatomy is going to make it hard for him to pee without "splashing" ok gross. So yes, the eyes are taller than the rest of the potty to prevent sprayage. The problem is, is that these eyes prevented Naomi from being able to sit properly on the potty. She would either sit on the eyes, or try to straddle around the potty..but given that she's my daughter, and therefore extremely small...ok..short, her legs weren't long enough, and she'd end up with one leg IN the potty. Definitely not ideal. We did figure out a way that she could sit between the eyes and the back, but her legs were so squashed together, it just wouldn't make for comfortable potty usage. Back to the drawing board...we did keep the frog potty in our downstairs bathroom, and anytime Austin or I go to the bathroom, Naomi goes right in there and tries to sit on the potty as well. A couple of times we've had her sit without her diaper on the potty when she's said that she has to go poo-poo. The funny thing is, that when she sits on the potty she wants to take all her clothes off. I've gone as far as to let her take her sweater, pants and socks off, but to her disappointment, made her keep her shirt on. Weird child. She must get that from Austin.

Anyway. Today we finally made a trip to Buy Buy Baby, and picked up this new potty by Baby Bjorn.


I've seen tons of people with it, and never really got what the big deal was. I mean it's just plastic, how different can one potty be from the next. Well this time, I decided to make sure Naomi tried it out at the store before we purchased it. So I pulled it off the shelf, and let Naomi sit on it. She yelled out "POTTY" and went and sat down. No problem, it was easy on and off, no awkward straddling or maneuvering necessary. The only problem we did run into was that she wanted to take all her clothes off in the middle of the store!!


Saturday, January 30, 2010

Babysitting

Austin and I had to go to a church function in the afternoon today and couldn't bring Naomi, so we hired our first babysitter! It's actually cheating really since we hired one of Naomi's daycare teachers who Naomi absolutely loves (she asks for her at dinner time). It just so happens that she lives less than 3 minutes away from us. Naomi was actually so happy to see her that she didn't cry, much less whine, when Austin and I left. She simply gave us a kiss, said "bye bye" and continued to color. When we got home, she was completely happy, had a great afternoon with not a single tear shed. Hmmm guess we'll be taking more advantage of this whole babysitting thing.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Our car was recalled

Toyota expanded the recall last night, and now the recall includes our Toyota '08 Highlighander. The worst is that the company says to keep driving the car unless you notice a "stickiness" in the gas pedal. And if you notice it, to stop driving right away. Until then, they have no fix or solution but will contact owners when they have one.
Great thanks Toyota. I feel really safe driving my 19mth daughter, in the dead of winter, in a recalled vehicle!!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Steve Jobs thinks so too

Steve Jobs just called the new iPad "Awesome". Clearly he and Naomi are on the same wavelength

Awesome

Naomi's new word, is "awesome" followed
up by a high five. She learned this trick last night at dinner during a conversation where I said that the new Apple Tablet sounds LAME and Austin responded, "no it doesn't, it sounds AWESOME".

>

Monday, January 25, 2010

19 months


Naomi turned 19 months last week.
This month we've really noticed that she's becoming more adventurous, and more open to new people. She warms up to people so much quicker now, and gets upset when people leave, literally...when the waiter leaves our table out a restaurant, she throws her hands out, says, "where'd go?" and then whines a little bit.
She's also incredibly affectionate. She's always very generous with her hugs and kisses for Austin and I, but nowadays, she'll hug just about anyone. Today when I picked her up from school, her daycare teacher told me how she spent a good part of the morning laughing as she figured out how to climb the steps of the slide and go down by herself at the playground. Each time she went up, she'd laugh, and squeal with delight as she slid down. One of her "friends" Matthew, joined in with her in her delight and laughter. When Naomi saw him laughing, she ran over to him and gave him a big hug. Then she ran around the class room and gave the rest of the kids hugs.
She's also becoming more and more stubborn. We've been running into hitting issues, she'll hit herself, or whoever is within reach, when she gets frustrated. We're trying to teach her to only use gentle touches and that we dont hit, and when she gets really bad, we'll give her a timeout. I think she's starting to get the idea that she'll get a timeout if she hits, but it's definitely a slow process. Of course it doesnt help that she sees kids at daycare hitting each other all the time. Twice now I've witnessed kids grabbing each other and whacking each other in the face!
She's also picked up the lovely word, "MINE". This has to be another daycare skill since we don't use that word with her at home. She used to be pretty good at sharing, but now she'll pull things away and say, "NO MINE". Is this the beginning of the terrible twos? Who knew it actually started before you actually reached 2.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Naomi's First Lollipop

As a self-proclaimed Type A Neat Freak, I can't stand a mess. So it's been a transition getting used to having a toddler in the house. You clean up a room, and Naomi can mess that room right back up in 5 minutes flat. I'm trying to let go, while also teaching Naomi that putting things away can be fun too...and seeing as how much she enjoys putting things away now as well, I think she inherited my OCD-ness.

Anyway, this weekend we went to Boston to visit Naomi's Nai Nai for her birthday. After dinner, Naomi received her first Lollipop and she loved it. Now if you thought I cringed at the sight of a mess, just imagine how I felt about this...

Thursday, January 14, 2010

High five!!

High five! Excuse the mess, it's been a rough couple of days! But
maybe if we cleaned up some of naomi's toys, she wouldn't fall as
much.....

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Motrin the miracle drug

I'm back at work today and Austin is at home taking care of Naomi. We decided to keep her home again today since she was uber fussy and refused to let us put her down and still isnt eating. When I spoke to Austin this morning I could hear Naomi screaming and crying in the background. She refused to eat anythign except for one dried mango and a little bit of her milk. 3 hours later, Austin called me back and I could hear Naomi laughing and chatting in the background. The difference between 7am and now? MOTRIN. We've been giving her motrin for the pain in her ear, but were trying not to give her too much since my brother said long term use could be potentially damaging to the kidneys..or wait..was it the liver? Anyway, she really needed it today, and it totally has made a difference. I almost wish I wasn't allergic to the stuff myself!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Mommy's

Naomi has grasped the concept of who a mommy is. A mommy has a baby. She loves pointing out baby's and mommy's. In her storybooks if any character is smaller with a bigger character, one is always the mommy and one is the baby. She also likes to point out babies and mommies while we're out as well.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Ear infection

Took naomi to the pediatrician this afternoon. She was pretty much miserable all afternoon. Turns out on top of whatever cold/cough/stomach bug she has, she also has an ear infection. Great. We're giving her antibiotics for the next 10 days....
Good news is that she's really picking up on people's names. She can say Doctor Schein (shine). Pretty cute cause she always says, "doctor schein..Shine. Sun! Sun!! Kai Lan" Kai Lan is this Nickelodean character that speaks bad chinese and always talks tries to tickle the sun to wake him up.

Sick again

We made it 9 days into the new year before Naomi got sick. She came down with a fever on Saturday night, and still had one on Sunday, so I stayed home with her today. She was still warm this morning, so not sure she can go back to daycare tomorrow. Poor baby is so tired she fell asleep while eating her lunch (you know she was tired when she fell asleep in the middle of mac n cheese!!)


Thursday, January 7, 2010

Refocusing on what's important

This has been a long and stressful week for Austin and I, and I feel like I've spent most of the week feeling burdened with all that I have to do at a certain point in time.

This has also been a week of really bad news. A friend of mine was diagnosed with leukemia, a co-worker had a stroke at the airport, a friend's mom was having heart pain and rushed to the ICU, Austin's co-worker's babysitter had a heart attack.....seriously, compared to all of this news, my little issues are really just that...little.

Both Austin and I are in tip top health, Naomi is a happy, cheerful and beautiful child. We have everything in the world to be thankful for and unfortunately I allow myself to forget all of this and get lost in the moment of what I need to do to be improving things and getting things done.

So here's to a great year of not complaining about all the things we have to do, and to instead, cherishing all the little miracles we do have in our lives.

Running a rat race....and probably coming in last

My parents left after Christmas, and this is my first week back to work after the holidays. Since October, we've had one or both of my parents at home while Austin and I work. Naomi was still in daycare save a few days here and there, and my parents pretty much spoiled all of us by having dinner ready when we came home. And to top it off, my dad walked the dogs so we didn't even have to worry about them!
Now, I feel like I'm constantly on the go, trying to get from one point in the day to the next without a chance to breathe. And to make matters worse, Austin has been super busy at work, so with the exception of yesterday, we've had dinner every night without him. Tonight he didn't even make it home before Naomi's bedtime.

My daily schedule goes something like this:
4:30am - wake up
5:30am - go to work
5:50am - arrive at work
4:15pm - leave work, run to catch train at the WTC
4:40pm - arrive at Hoboken - run to catch NJ Transit train
5:15pm - arrive in Lyndhurst, run to car
5:30pm - arrive at Naomi's daycare
6:00pm - arrive at home, take care of dogs, deal with a fussy Naomi who's hungry and tired from daycare, prepare/reheat/cook dinner
6:30pm - feed Naomi dinner
7:20pm - Naomi's bathtime
7:30pm - pj's, storytime, milk, prayer time
8pm - Naomi's bedtime
8:00-8:30 relax
8:30pm - go downstairs, clean up dinner
9:00pm - cook/prep dinner for next day
10pm - relax/get clothes ready for next day
11pm - go to bed and start all over again.

phew, even typing it makes me exhausted


Monday, January 4, 2010

18 month check up

Naomi went in for her 18 month check up today. All things checked out fine, and she got her 18 mth immunizations as well as her boosters for the h1n1 and flu vaccines.

Here are her stats:

weight 21.5lbs (12%)
height 30 3/4 (20%)
head: don't have the measurement, but it was 85%


Moving on up

Naomi moves up from the infant class to toddler class at daycare
today. She absolutely lives her infant room teachers and all of her
classmates, so it's a little sad to know he'll be in a somewhat
unfamiliar environment. Other than the people, the biggest change is
that she will nap on a cot rather than a crib. The daycare center
teachers assure me that the kids never has a hard time transitioning
to a cot, but I just envision all the kids napping while Naomi jumps
up and just starts walking around on her own, taking advantage of her
new freedom!!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Let it snow!!!

On New Year's Eve it snowed early in the morning. While it wasn't a ton of snow, it was enough that Austin had to shovel the driveway, and enough for Naomi to get outside and play in the snow for the first time this year.
She was a little tentative walking in the slippery mush, but quickly learned that it was a lot of fun, and even threw herself into the piles of snow that Austin was shoveling.
We had a sled that my boss gave me that his kids used when they were babies, and it was perfect for Naomi. We ran around our yard a couple of times and she loved it! Even though I hate the cold, I kinda hope it snows again really soon!!!






At least she knows my name...

So if you ask Naomi what her name is, most likely she'll respond, "Ella" or she'll ignore you, or she'll just laugh.
But recently she started calling me Amy instead of Mommy. At least she knows my name right?

Friday, January 1, 2010

Milestones good and bad

Happy New Year's. We've had a great holiday season with family and friends in town. It was a great Christmas with my parents and both brother's as well as Austin's sister staying with us! The last time my whole family was here was last Thanksgiving, so it was nice to have everyone here. Naomi loved having so much family in our house and constantly was asking for ah-ma, dodo, gu-gu, fish and sris. It was definitely sad when everyone left and we had a quiet and empty house on Tuesday evening. Every once in awhile, Naomi says someone's name and asks where they are (her exact words: "Ah-ma...go??" with her shoulders and arms shrugged).
It has been so nice to have a week off during the holidays, and as usual I'm amazed by how much Naomi learns every day.
- She tells us when she's gone "poo poo"
-She's starting to recognize letters of the alphabet, and asks for her "AB..(pause) C" book all the time.
- She can count to 4 but knows numbers up to 9 (after 4 it chaos is the only type of order)
- Her back molars are coming in...probably the reason for the couple weeks of bad sleep which have thankfully passed
- She walks around pretending to make and serve coffee
- She knows how to get into the pantry, find the dog treats, get Lilo and Stitch to go to their crates and give them one treat each, then walk back to the pantry and put the treats away
- She still loves to dance, but now is constantly singing while she's playing. incredibly cute.
- She's learned to use my iPhone...she knows how to unlock it with the slider, and navigate to either elmo or ni hao kailan videos, or one of the two games that i have on the phone for her. I thought it was a fluke when I found her watching an elmo video with my phone which i mistakingly left within her reach...until i saw her navigate over and over again this week.
- She's learned that her toys are hers and now says, "MINE" if you have something she wants.
- She's learned to hit, mainly out of frustration, but she swats at whoever is near her
- She has learned NOT to share, and will hit or push kids if she doesn't want them near her toys
- She's noticing what she is wearing and has a STRONG opinion about what shoes she's wearing (she is my daughter afterall) She also loves to wear her new winter boots that Ah-ma gave her, all around the house. I kept laughing at her and thinking she was weird...until Austin caught me wearing my new boots around the house after a trip to woodbury commons. sigh i guess she really does get it from me.
- She's learned to throw temper trantrums and cry when she doesn't get her way, which then causes her to have time outs.

There are so many more developments that I've noticed in Naomi this week, too many of which I can list, and some that are just simply escaping me. It's been a great week and I'm already feeling sad that I'll be going back to work on Monday. At least it's a short day since I need to leave work early to take naomi for her 18 month pediatrician checkup.