Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
I scream...
"Fona" loves ice cream and cheese pizza, separately. Wonder where she acquired those tastes??
Loitering around, calling on her best pitiful expressions and hopeful big blue eyes, she swiped this cookies n'cream cone from grandpa. He gave it up with little fight then watched her scramble away at first not really knowing what to do with her prize. After acclimating to cold on all those teeth we have a certified ice cream gobbler on our hands. 
Babies who endure two shots and
exam at the pediatrician's get what they want afterward.
Fiona went in for her 15mo check-up yesterday and we caught up on her weight, height, and milestones. She keeps getting taller and more active but hovers around 21lbs. I think in addition to being tall she burns more energy than most kids, running on maximum with little nap breaks, snacks, and "night-night" for recharging. I consider her lucky girl who may just wear whatever she wants when she's older and still get to run off with a big ice cream cone :)
Her doctor asked if she can articulate a few words and demonstrate fine motor skills...areas where I think she's way over the curve. A few words? Our day usually starts at 730am with constant chatter..."hi...hi...hi....hi momma, hi kitty, kitty..." She madly signals "more" with her hands at breakfast, urging me to fill her milk cup and cut up some more strawberries. If she sees any form of a cat or the cat walking by she grins and bursts, "hi kitty!" Another trick she's learned is volume. In the morning when I'm short on coffee and not quite ready to banter back and forth, I often whisper back "hi" and "yep, there's the kitty" so my little sponge soaked that up and now first thing in the morning she may start on high volume, but soon she lowers her head and softly whispers, "hhiii kitttyyyy...hhhiiii momma."
Although it takes much longer than me feeding her, her little independent streak demands she often hold the spoon and at least try to get some bits to her mouth. Mostly when we're out of the house she'll manage a cup and straw but at home goes for the speed of a sippy cup. Every day we see her learn more about her puzzles and pages in books. She's gone from observer to doer, pointing to pictures she wants us to name or rotating the blocks closer and closer to their correct slot. My dad seems to have a knack for teaching her odd tricks like finding her shadow, answering the phone, or clapping for herself when she's accomplished a task. She continues to love music and has added unique arm choreography to her knee bending and bouncing routine.
With good progress comes some bad progress...we have moved into to tantrum country and I'm afraid after thinking I was in the clear, separation anxiety has hit us. Sometimes tantrums involve a piercing scream, which isn't so funny and we meet with a firm "No." Other acts like this new fist clenching, red face, yell she has going on when we take something away from her or redirect her, are so hard not to laugh at I'm afraid we're encouraging them ( I need to snap a picture of this).
I've seen a whole new concerned & afraid Fiona when I leave her now. She's always been so social with strangers I thought I was in the clear, in spite of not having many outsiders watch her. With the hot weather I had been trying to go to the gym and leave her in the enormous, well stocked, kid paradise there but have little success. In fact I pretty much know I can run about 1-2miles at top speed before the overhead music stops and the loudspeaker summons me back to a hysterical Fiona held by the equally frightened teenage sitter. That situation I'm really trying to figure out as mommy needs some time to watch Oprah and burn calories.
In a nut shell, that's aour little person at 15 mos. Only a few more weeks until she's a big cousin and can pass on her pretty dresses and all she's learned.
Her doctor asked if she can articulate a few words and demonstrate fine motor skills...areas where I think she's way over the curve. A few words? Our day usually starts at 730am with constant chatter..."hi...hi...hi....hi momma, hi kitty, kitty..." She madly signals "more" with her hands at breakfast, urging me to fill her milk cup and cut up some more strawberries. If she sees any form of a cat or the cat walking by she grins and bursts, "hi kitty!" Another trick she's learned is volume. In the morning when I'm short on coffee and not quite ready to banter back and forth, I often whisper back "hi" and "yep, there's the kitty" so my little sponge soaked that up and now first thing in the morning she may start on high volume, but soon she lowers her head and softly whispers, "hhiii kitttyyyy...hhhiiii momma."
Although it takes much longer than me feeding her, her little independent streak demands she often hold the spoon and at least try to get some bits to her mouth. Mostly when we're out of the house she'll manage a cup and straw but at home goes for the speed of a sippy cup. Every day we see her learn more about her puzzles and pages in books. She's gone from observer to doer, pointing to pictures she wants us to name or rotating the blocks closer and closer to their correct slot. My dad seems to have a knack for teaching her odd tricks like finding her shadow, answering the phone, or clapping for herself when she's accomplished a task. She continues to love music and has added unique arm choreography to her knee bending and bouncing routine.
With good progress comes some bad progress...we have moved into to tantrum country and I'm afraid after thinking I was in the clear, separation anxiety has hit us. Sometimes tantrums involve a piercing scream, which isn't so funny and we meet with a firm "No." Other acts like this new fist clenching, red face, yell she has going on when we take something away from her or redirect her, are so hard not to laugh at I'm afraid we're encouraging them ( I need to snap a picture of this).
I've seen a whole new concerned & afraid Fiona when I leave her now. She's always been so social with strangers I thought I was in the clear, in spite of not having many outsiders watch her. With the hot weather I had been trying to go to the gym and leave her in the enormous, well stocked, kid paradise there but have little success. In fact I pretty much know I can run about 1-2miles at top speed before the overhead music stops and the loudspeaker summons me back to a hysterical Fiona held by the equally frightened teenage sitter. That situation I'm really trying to figure out as mommy needs some time to watch Oprah and burn calories.
In a nut shell, that's aour little person at 15 mos. Only a few more weeks until she's a big cousin and can pass on her pretty dresses and all she's learned.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Twinkle
No matter what every day Fiona's is a bright little light. In the months since I've religiously blogged she continues to develop a personality unto her own. The contradiction of what a big girl she is versus how much she's still a soft, little baby amazes us. More than expanding her verbal skills, she's grasping the intricacies of communication more and more. Since she was about 7-8 months old I've repeated little sign language gestures for common things like "milk", "more," "kitty," "doggy," "all done," along with the simple yes & no nods. It must have been churning around in her little head just waiting to burst out because suddenly she's tapping two hands together to demand "more" and about 75% of the time "yes" means "yes" and "no" means "no." My favorite new phrase is "night-night" or an eager nod to the question, "night-night?" She's often happy to let me know she needs her nap or is done for the day. What tired mommy doesn't like to hear that?
Somehow she eats enough but is a little pickier now-a-days, more partial to anything she can cram in her mouth herself or stuff we're eating. Favorites are strawberries, graham crackers, yogurt, gold fish crackers, green beans, cut tortellinis, and anything with marinara sauce. Before she was a year she tossed the bottles- Fona only wants a cup or sippy cup and likes it even better if it's whatever mommy or daddy is drinking. It's best to see in person but over breakfast she's gotten into the habit of popping a single cheerio a top each heaping spoon of yogurt while simultaneously sounding "boop...boop....boop..."
She loves her books and seems to understand their basic images like the bunny in the bed is going "night-night" or the duck says "quack, quack..." Brown Bear is still top on the list as she likes to be asked to find each animal as she sorts through pages searching for the right picture. After Fiona gravitated to Karen's little girl Brooke's toy kitchen and dolls, Carolyn showed up with Fiona's first baby doll. Without prompting our baby cradles and feeds her baby a bottle... what a little mommy she is!
She tools all around house steering push cars and putters about the driveway on her tricycle...She mostly enjoys the pool but is hesitant to get her face wet. Climbing, rocking her little rocking chair, sorting and unpacking anything she finds...all perfected skills. Walking, however, is a different story. Our child does not want to give up the security and speed of crawling. She can walk, she has walked, but in a flash she'll drop to the ground for a fast get-a-way or grab hold of a cart to roll out of site. I suppose there's a whole new set of precautions for avid walkers so I should be thrilled but the suspense is driving us all crazy!
If you haven't seen her lately you'll be surprised when you catch site of this little person. Here are some of the latest pics. You may notice I had to take down some of the earlier albums to make room on Google. I'm trying to figure out the best place to post video and photos and will eventually re-post everything somewhere accessible.
Somehow she eats enough but is a little pickier now-a-days, more partial to anything she can cram in her mouth herself or stuff we're eating. Favorites are strawberries, graham crackers, yogurt, gold fish crackers, green beans, cut tortellinis, and anything with marinara sauce. Before she was a year she tossed the bottles- Fona only wants a cup or sippy cup and likes it even better if it's whatever mommy or daddy is drinking. It's best to see in person but over breakfast she's gotten into the habit of popping a single cheerio a top each heaping spoon of yogurt while simultaneously sounding "boop...boop....boop..."
She loves her books and seems to understand their basic images like the bunny in the bed is going "night-night" or the duck says "quack, quack..." Brown Bear is still top on the list as she likes to be asked to find each animal as she sorts through pages searching for the right picture. After Fiona gravitated to Karen's little girl Brooke's toy kitchen and dolls, Carolyn showed up with Fiona's first baby doll. Without prompting our baby cradles and feeds her baby a bottle... what a little mommy she is!
She tools all around house steering push cars and putters about the driveway on her tricycle...She mostly enjoys the pool but is hesitant to get her face wet. Climbing, rocking her little rocking chair, sorting and unpacking anything she finds...all perfected skills. Walking, however, is a different story. Our child does not want to give up the security and speed of crawling. She can walk, she has walked, but in a flash she'll drop to the ground for a fast get-a-way or grab hold of a cart to roll out of site. I suppose there's a whole new set of precautions for avid walkers so I should be thrilled but the suspense is driving us all crazy!
If you haven't seen her lately you'll be surprised when you catch site of this little person. Here are some of the latest pics. You may notice I had to take down some of the earlier albums to make room on Google. I'm trying to figure out the best place to post video and photos and will eventually re-post everything somewhere accessible.
Bye Bye Zoe...
For many reasons this has been an "off" week. Hitting closest to home was the sudden loss of our Zoe dog this morning due to a rapidly transpiring canine illness called gastric tortion. (It's a bloating process leading to gastric twisting & constriction in large breed, big chested dogs, requiring emergent surgery, high risk of complications, and a long, painful recovery.) After waying pros & cons with the Vet Hospital staff, Jim & I felt Zoe would be most comfortable if put to rest. She was a lovely, gentle shepherd, who tolerated a toddler's growing curiosity of doggy ears and snout, and who no matter how frustrated I was with her underfoot, insisted on looking out for me with every trip I made up and down the stairs and faithfully protected my shower door. I will be a little more paranoid of that Psycho scene without my girl standing guard. :(
Zoe and Fiona April 2008.
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