Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
moving :)
sorry for the silence, i had no internet or tv for the past week....but some how i survived LOL. I was happy to have missed the royal wedding, and ok about missing the osa.ma news, fac.eb.ook has its' own way of keeping you informed and i still had access via my sm.artp.hone.
so i am back, living out of boxes but back. sneaking on here while the girl naps. I purposefully pushed her to one nap today and so far so good. She has slept about 2 hours with a few little wakeups that i smoothed over. She has been awesome at night in her new room, even without curtains! I put them up today, so hopefully she will sleep past sunrise tomorrow!
so i am back, living out of boxes but back. sneaking on here while the girl naps. I purposefully pushed her to one nap today and so far so good. She has slept about 2 hours with a few little wakeups that i smoothed over. She has been awesome at night in her new room, even without curtains! I put them up today, so hopefully she will sleep past sunrise tomorrow!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Eas.ter
We were supposed to close on our new house, tomorrow, the day after Eas.ter, so we had planned to have a low key stay at home day. We went to a family party last weekend where we had an egg hunt so I didn't feel too bad about Willow's second Eas.ter being a disappointment. She found some eggs so she was happy. BUT, our closing has been delayed until Friday so we had a nice lazy day. The weather was perfect! We walked to the boardwalk and Willow and I took off our shoes and socks and walked barefoot. Back home and she took her morning nap. A little lunch and she was ready to go. She really really wanted to play in a puddle in front of our house, but it was pretty gross.....so instead I let her do this.....
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Fun at the park
oh how my girl loves to play. anything active and she is happy.....except the swings....she doesn't like to be "trapped" but headfirst down the slide? anytime!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Things I love Thursdays
In an effort to keep up my string of blogging.....I want to put some structure to some of the days. This way I don't have to be "creative" every day, and you don't have to hear about W's latest adventure "every" day :)
So, I want to put together some of the things I love. What it is will vary widely; it might be something that helps me with W; it might be a new television program; it could be a new piece of clothing. It WILL be something I own, and paid for myself. No reviews of freebies here LOL.
Today:
I love Cadb.ury min.i eg.gs!! something about the crisp shell and the milk chocolate....mmmmmm! and they only come out at Easter (well, they do have a yummy xmas version) so I can only enjoy them for a short period of time ;)
So, I want to put together some of the things I love. What it is will vary widely; it might be something that helps me with W; it might be a new television program; it could be a new piece of clothing. It WILL be something I own, and paid for myself. No reviews of freebies here LOL.
Today:
I love Cadb.ury min.i eg.gs!! something about the crisp shell and the milk chocolate....mmmmmm! and they only come out at Easter (well, they do have a yummy xmas version) so I can only enjoy them for a short period of time ;)
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
W
She looks so sweet and peaceful here; not like the crazy fearless monkey that she is 99% of the time.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
a window
Into a toddler's thoughts?
When we finally realized that we were indeed going to be parents, J and I wanted to sign with our child. We witnessed a friend's baby signing when we were out to lunch with them. She was around 16-18 months? and she was pointing to birds, signing bird. We thought how neat that was.....to see what she was seeing.
So around 4 months, I started signing with W. Just the basics, fully aware that she wouldn't be signing back, but I wanted to get into the habit. Around 6 months we started watching babysigningtimes videos together. One thing I will say is that she loved them from the start. She was captivated by the babies and children on the videos and the singing, oh the singing, my girl loves her music.
I was delighted when she started signing around 9 months, simple signs, more and milk....but she was communicating.
as she gets older, I find her personality leans towards impatient and she can get frustrated. the signing has helped me understand what is going on in her head. Toughest is when she wants something, but doesn't know the sign. she will fall back on a sign that she knows, even though it isn't what she means....that is tough LOL.
She has over 30 signs right now, ranging from milk,water and more to bird, dog, cat, music, please, thank you, flag, balloon, etc. i love having the technology of a smart phone to look up a sign when/where needed.
here are two small windows into the toddler's eyes:
1. at around 11 months, we were walking in the mall and W was slightly behind me taking it all in. I notice that she is signing "water" to me. thinking simply, i ask her if she wants a drink of water. she shakes her head and points down. she has noticed that someone has spilled water on the floor. something that didn't even register to me. she of course is much closer to it!
2. at 14 months, we are again walking in the mall. W is taking it all in as usual. She points to a boy. Again, I simply think "yes, that is a boy" but I watch her, and she is signing "train".....confused momnetarily I look back to the boy. and o course, he is carryng a thomas the train bag.....something that I did not originally note.....I am guessing that she would make a much better witness than I would, LOL. So instead of "yes that is a boy, or "you see a boy, I say "yes, the boy has a train bag" she smiles knowing that I understood what she was showing me ....even typing it makes my heart grow, remembering her satisfied smile.
these are two of many circumstances that have made me realize that without the "tool" of signing, I would never realize how complex the toddler (even baby) brain is so quickly. and how many details they take in that you would not think they catch. I know that children are sponges.....but how much they hold is amazing.
while I know that not everyone has the time/patience/interest in signing, i have found it wonderful and recommend it, even if you only plan on using a few signs! i am hoping to keep signing with her even as her vocabulary grows (we have about 7 spoken words right now, though she will mimic any word i ask her to say). I think of sign as our "secret" language. just W, J and I together :) we will see if my hopes materialize....but for now we are enjoying it!
When we finally realized that we were indeed going to be parents, J and I wanted to sign with our child. We witnessed a friend's baby signing when we were out to lunch with them. She was around 16-18 months? and she was pointing to birds, signing bird. We thought how neat that was.....to see what she was seeing.
So around 4 months, I started signing with W. Just the basics, fully aware that she wouldn't be signing back, but I wanted to get into the habit. Around 6 months we started watching babysigningtimes videos together. One thing I will say is that she loved them from the start. She was captivated by the babies and children on the videos and the singing, oh the singing, my girl loves her music.
I was delighted when she started signing around 9 months, simple signs, more and milk....but she was communicating.
as she gets older, I find her personality leans towards impatient and she can get frustrated. the signing has helped me understand what is going on in her head. Toughest is when she wants something, but doesn't know the sign. she will fall back on a sign that she knows, even though it isn't what she means....that is tough LOL.
She has over 30 signs right now, ranging from milk,water and more to bird, dog, cat, music, please, thank you, flag, balloon, etc. i love having the technology of a smart phone to look up a sign when/where needed.
here are two small windows into the toddler's eyes:
1. at around 11 months, we were walking in the mall and W was slightly behind me taking it all in. I notice that she is signing "water" to me. thinking simply, i ask her if she wants a drink of water. she shakes her head and points down. she has noticed that someone has spilled water on the floor. something that didn't even register to me. she of course is much closer to it!
2. at 14 months, we are again walking in the mall. W is taking it all in as usual. She points to a boy. Again, I simply think "yes, that is a boy" but I watch her, and she is signing "train".....confused momnetarily I look back to the boy. and o course, he is carryng a thomas the train bag.....something that I did not originally note.....I am guessing that she would make a much better witness than I would, LOL. So instead of "yes that is a boy, or "you see a boy, I say "yes, the boy has a train bag" she smiles knowing that I understood what she was showing me ....even typing it makes my heart grow, remembering her satisfied smile.
these are two of many circumstances that have made me realize that without the "tool" of signing, I would never realize how complex the toddler (even baby) brain is so quickly. and how many details they take in that you would not think they catch. I know that children are sponges.....but how much they hold is amazing.
while I know that not everyone has the time/patience/interest in signing, i have found it wonderful and recommend it, even if you only plan on using a few signs! i am hoping to keep signing with her even as her vocabulary grows (we have about 7 spoken words right now, though she will mimic any word i ask her to say). I think of sign as our "secret" language. just W, J and I together :) we will see if my hopes materialize....but for now we are enjoying it!
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