"Mommy"

Mikaela’s really good at saying the word, “Mommy”. Of course she has no idea what it means. Or maybe she does.
Every time she wants something, especially when it’s more food, she yells out, “mommy!” Over and over again until she gets what she wants.
My theory is that she’s so used to hearing Naomi say, “mommy, can I have”, or “Mommy, I need, “ or “Mommy I want” etc, so of course, she’s learned that “mommy” is simply the term to use when she needs something.

She also knows the word, “Apple” which we got really excited about last week because she pointed to an apple and said it. But then later this weekend she was holding a ball and said, “apple” as well. Oh well.
Other words she’s picked up: “Uh-Oh” whenever something drops, “Whoa” when she’s excited, “up” when she wants to be picked up.

Growing up and learning to let go

The weather is quickly turning to spring, although, did we ever really have a winter this year? Not that I’m complaining. We enjoyed the warmer weather this weekend and spent some time outdoors. Austin’s mom and dad have been visiting us this past week, so the girls got to spend some extra quality time with them as well. On Saturday, we all went out for a walk for lunch, and stopped by the local bike store. At a playdate last week, Naomi had a chance to ride her friend Emily’s “big girl bike”. She could barely reach the pedals, and had a hard time getting the bike to move at all. I spent a lot of the afternoon pushing her around the block while Emily zoomed around us. That experience definitely wet Naomi’s appetite for getting her own big girl bike, and after watching how well Emily could ride, I realized we definitely should be spending more time outdoors just playing with all of the outdoor toys we have. Sometimes we get so tired and busy from work, it’s just easier to let the girls play indoors in a contained environment. Anyway, at the bike shop, they had two bikes which Naomi could fit, she picked the pink one, surprise!
After lunch she spent the afternoon practicing, I’m so impressed at how good she’s gotten. She practiced more on Sunday afternoon as well, and can confidently pedal all by herself now, in fact if I try to grab the handle bars she’ll usually knock my hands off. She can turn on her own (with only one small spill so far), break, and is starting to get more confident with braking.
Watching her bike around, I couldn’t help by get a little anxious. Ok, a lot anxious. When she goes down hill, it took a lot for me to not yell out for her to slow down, or to simply grab the bike and slow her down myself. I kept having to brush off thoughts of her falling and getting all scraped up. When she did fall down yesterday, it took a lot for me to not rush to her and baby her immediately. Instead, knowing it was a small spill, I stood back and let her pick herself up, and watched with pride as she jumped back on her bike, instead of wimping out and declaring she was done.
I guess we’re all growing up in a way.

A Visit from the denist

At the daycare, a pediatric dentist paid Naomi's class a visit a few weeks ago. She's seen the dentist several times, and has had a dentist visit the school in the past as well, but this time, the visit really caught her attention. Apparently the dentist talked about how sugar was bad for your teeth, and that there was lots of sugar in juice and candy.

Not exactly sure what she said, but Naomi is now incredibly scared of eating candy and refuses to drink any kind of juice and just prefers water. Fine by me!!

One thing that made us laugh, and worry at the same time, was that it was a female dentist that went to visit the school. When Naomi saw me she said, "Mommy, the FAKE dentist came to visit us today!" When I asked her why she was fake, she said it was because she was a girl. Since then I've been trying to explain to her that girls can be dentists, doctors, etc. Didn't realize I'd have to teach my 3 year old about women's rights!

The funny thing is that a week after the dentist paid a visit to the school, we had our own appointment with the pediatric dentist, which happens to be the same practice as the visiting dentist. Naomi's regular dentist must have been out, because she ended up getting Dr. Choi, who was the female dentist that visited her school. I think that helped reinforce the message that she wasn't a fake dentist =)

First Words

Mikaela is pretty good at imitating some of our sounds, but I'm never really sure if she understands any of the words she's saying. Last week when I went to pick her up from daycare, she reached up to me and said, "Up!" And today I asked her if she wanted more cheerios and she said, "No" and vehemently shook her head, then she burst into giggles at the realization that she had said a word. Or maybe it was cause Naomi and I were both shouting in excitement, "SHE SAID NO!!!"

I know in a few months I'll wish she still couldn't say "no", but for now it's all very exciting.

Naomi-ism's

I'm obsessed with Downton Abbey. I finished both seasons in less than a week. Thankfully, both Mikaela and Naomi, for some odd reason, like watching the show as well. Watching with Naomi definitely requires patience though as she likes to ask questions throughout the entire show. She does say the funniest things though. Here are two of her quotes:

Naomi: "Why is Matthew with the wrong girl!! What a mix up!!"

After a scene where one of the maid's enters into one of the many grand rooms in the mansion -
Naomi: "mommy, that looks like our house"

Diaper Free and only Three

LOL that is my attempt at rhyming. So clever I am.

So after months of Naomi waking up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, having to deal with her sleep diaper, taking it off, putting it back on, we decided it was time for her to be in undies, 24/7. No more diapers! We tried awhile back when she seemed to be sleeping the entire night and waking up with dry diapers, but on the first day she soaked the bed. She was distraught at having to wear diapers again, but seriously, it was not fun changing all her sheets in the middle of the night.

But now she can get out of bed and go to the bathroom on her own, but she couldn't while wearing a diaper, so why not just put her in underwear and tell her to go on her own if she has to!? Seemed like a good plan at first.

Except the first day I told her to do that, she "HAD" to go pee 50 times before 9pm. Every 2 minutes I'd hear her feet landing on the floor as she jumped out of bed, tromped over to the bathroom, and did the whole routine.

Thankfully the excitement and freedom of being able to leave her room on her own at night has worn off, so she's only going when she needs to go.

But here's knocking on wood for no accidents in the near future.

Cutest Pats fans ever