Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Conversation coming from the kitchen.....

Erin comes running into the living room holding a bucket of crayons. I tell Erin to go put them back. She says "No" and walks further into the living room. I then say "Erin Ainsley Lambe, you go out those right back in the kitchen" (when did I start the total mom throwing in the middle name thing?). She actually listens and heads back towards the kitchen. The part that follows was absuloutely histerical ( and quite eye openign to Dave and I).

Erin walks back in the living room......
Taylor: "ERIN LAMBE, you get back here".(Erin walks back) "Put those crayons back!" (Erin puts them back we assume) "Good girl, thank you for listening to me".

Starts over, Erin walks back into the living room...(you get the picture, this happened 7-8 times). However, Taylor's parenting got funnier and funnier. She always started with "ERIN LAMBE" followed with a variety of orders or praises, such as:
"You put those on the table right now"
"You get back here"
"Thank you honey, good job"
"I am going to have to take those away from you for you don't listen to me" (let me explain "for"....she substitutes "for" or "why" for "if" all the time. For example "we can go upstairs to read books why you want to")
"I am getting very upset with you"

How we wish we had the video camera at hand. It was in the kitchen and we knew if we went for it, she would have stopped.

Dave just reminded me she also said "you are making me very angry and I can't even talk to you anymore". I say she got that one from Daddy :-)

Monday, August 10, 2009

Potty training and other "big girl" stuff....

Last night Taylor and I were in the kitchen. I was doing the dishes and somehow we got on the topic of Grandma being the one to change diapers when Taylor visits her house. I said to Taylor "you know....Grandma might be so happy if next time you were there, you wore big girl underwear. She might give you LOTS of marshmallows" (Grandma introduced the girls to marshmallows and they are NUTS about them). Anyway, I was fully expecting the normal reaction she normally has which is a very loud "noooooooo.....I don't want to wear underwear" or "I don't want to talk about it" (yes, she says this all the time - kinda funny). But this time, she says "OK, I want to wear big girl underwear, let's go get some". Not wanting to act *too* surprised, I follow her upstairs thinking she doesn't know what she really just agreed to and go get a pair of undies. Well, she puts them on, and keeps them on all the way to beditme. She tried sitting on her princess throne potty (hey, gotta do what works right? This thing even plays a royal tune if you pee in it) and never hit success. She actually ended up wetting her pants, but seems truely surprised, like "hey - how did THAT happen?". She went to bed in a diaper and asked for undies again this morning. Well, after 2 accidents and exclaimations of "pee pee on the floor!!" we are still no further with actually getting pee in the princess potty. I think she is still figuring out that whole "pee sensation" thing.

Which leads me to a bittersweet moment tonight. Dave goes to pick her up to take her to bed and she says "No Daddy, I can do it myself, I'm a big girl now!". She said it with such passion, it really made me sad :-( (I just realized when I typed that that it sounded like a pull ups commercial - haha). Then she gets her PJ's on and Dave tells her to give mommy kisses night night and she turns in my direction and blows me a kiss and says "night MOM"!!! Great, now I'm not even mommy anymore. Sniff.....where is my baby going???

In other random news...Taylor had a follow up with her GI doctor today and got a nice clean bill of health. 3 feet tall and 27.5 pounds!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

How Taylor uses Erin's vocabulary to her advantage....

Taylor just LOVES having a baby sister that she can "use" to get what she wants (or at least try to). Erin's vocabulary is suddenly taking a leap. Her latest is that 99.9% of the time you ask her something in a tone that indicates something might be "fun", Erin responds with a lively "yeah, yeah". This works well, for example, at bedtime. Rather than telling Erin it's time for bed and watching the lower lip protrude and the tears flow, we just say in an enthusiastic tone "Erin! Would you like to go read a BOOK before bed?" (she currently LOVES books - yay!). She picks up that something fun is going to happen and responds "yeah, yeah" and goes to bed without any issues. Well......Taylor has figured this out (being the quiet observer she is).

I will often be doing something when I will hear Taylor oh so quietly talking to Erin. She will lean right into Erin and say, in a very excited tone (but ever so quietly thinking I can't hear her), "Erin, do you want to play outside on the deck?". Erin, thinking, this sounds fun, says "yeah, yeah". Then I hear Taylor say, "Mommy, Erin wants to play on the deck". This happens for wanting to go in the driveway for sidewalk chalk, having a snack, going upstairs to play in the big girl bed, watching a movie, you name it! Pretty darn clever if you ask me. It is even funnier when Taylor then, makes a funny face and shakes her head and then says, "That silly baby", like she just can't BELIEVE Erin would ask for something so silly.

The thing it, I think this is just something older sisters do! I remember doing this sort of thing with Jeni all the time. I also think Taylor takes after me in so many ways. Birth order thing? Just a coincidence? Who knows! Regardless, it's quite entertaining :-)

While we're on the topic of vocabulary, here is what Erin can say as of now (and I am sure I am forgetting some):
more (she has known this one forever)
book
no
yeah
fish
Daddy
bear
bee
uppy (pick me up)
juice
car
truck


Notice Mommy is missing? Little stinker......

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Taylor's "big girl" bed!!

This is monumental for Taylor. Monumental because she seems to fight anything having to do with being a "big girl". We originally thought of trying to get Taylor out of her crib around the time that Erin was born, and then we thought, are we nuts?? She likes it in there, she doesn't try to climb out, she sleeps through the night, why fix it if it ain't broken?! So in her crib she stayed. Ever since she turned three we have been talking to her about it (along with potty training and getting rid of her binkie, but that's a whole different post, grrr). She has gone back and forth between really wanting to go into a big girl bed, to not wanting anything to do with it. Then a couple of weeks ago, she learned how to climb out of her crib. She only did it with me in the room (or right outside) so it wasn't an issue at bed/nap time or in the middle of the night, but rather a reminder that maybe she was really ready to be out of her crib. We also thought that maybe one step in the "big girl" direction might give her a little nudge towards other "big girl" milestones (again - the dreaded potty and binkie departure). So we went back and forth between wondering if we should move her to a twin bed or put her right into a full size bed (her crib sides become a headboard and foot board for a full size bed).

Anyway, last week we went to a friends son's baptism followed by brunch. This family also has a three year old girl whom Taylor has played with off an on since they were babies. At one point during the party, Taylor and Dave were in Alexa's bedroom and Taylor saw that Alexa had a "big girl" bed (aka - toddler bed - crib with three sides). She thought that was REALLY cool. We went home bummed, thinking it would be nice if Taylor's crib had the option of converting to a toddler bed. Then I got to thinking, "wait, her crib IS a convertible crib, it MUST have that option". We got home, looked at the crib instructiuons and guess what? It converts to a toddler bed!

That night we ask Taylor if she wants a bed like Alexa's. She says "YES!!". So Dave goes to get the tools to take the side of the crib off and Taylor starts to freak out "no, no , no......don't take the side off". We were thinking it was going to be a bust, but we told her that we would just see what it was going to look like and if she didn't like it, we would put the side back on. So Taylor watches Dave like a hawk while he transforms her crib into her bed. When he is done, she asks "is it going to be loud?". Turns out that she was skeptical about this transformation because she thought it was going to be loud! She hasn't ever liked the sound of vacuums or power tools, and she thought Dave was going to have to use a drill - lol. Well, he didn't, and imagine Taylor's surprise when her crib changed into a bed without any noise!

The outcome? She loves, loves, loves her bed!!! She told us to put that missing side of her crib away. Bedtimes have been smooth, she doesn't climb out and chase after us. She asks to go to bed, wants to play in her room, drags her sister into her "big girl" bed to play. It's such a great milestone for her. We did have to put up a bed rail on one side because she still sleeps right up against the side, but the fact she can climb in and out herself is all that matters.

Now......if only she would use the potty......sigh. Here are some pictures!

Look at me!


I can see you!


Jumping out!

Monday, August 3, 2009

Oh - and just a "haha"

I swear Erin is the boy we never had. She is a bruiser. Has fallen down the stairs twice (once landing us in urgent care), climbs on tops of things VERY high up, walks into things, you get the picture. No fear.

Anyway, yesterday I am in the living room with Taylor when I hear Dave:

"Erin, no no!....Erin...ERIN......ERIN!!!!" (getting progressively louder). Then I head THUMP followed by tears. Turns out Erin had put a dish towel over her head and then RAN across the kitchen. She couldn't see an thing and she was booking it! Well, she ran straight into a wall. Ok, I know I shouldn't laugh, but please get the visual on this one and tell me it's not a tad bit funny?

She was ok, just for the record. Guess we'll hide the dishtowels

Allergy stuff updates.....

Well, for those of you that don't know, Taylor's allergies seem to have disappeared! All the doctors were right I guess, they told us she'd outgrow them around age three at the latest. Leave it to my kid to wait all the was until she was three! In fact, six months earlier, she was still reacting to milk, so this is monumental. She has been enjoying all sorts of new foods, ice cream being her absolute favorite - banilla (aka - vanilla) is her current favorite. She really dislikes mint chocolate chip, leaving me to wonder of she is really my daughter. How can anyone dislike mint chocolate chip? Actually now, that I think about it, she doesn't seem to really like chocolate in general. Some chocolate ice cream was in her bowl along with her banilla the other day and she wouldn't eat it, said it was "dirty". Then at Target last week, she picked out some M&M's as a treat and spit them all out in a gross multi-colored mess. Oh well, more for me!! Anyway, that's Taylor's update!!

Erin - well, she has been a bit more difficult to figure out all these months. Her reactions have always been so much harder to see. She doesn't get the typical "yucky diaper" like Taylor did, or the lovely throwing up, she just starts to lose weight. SO, per her doctors orders, she has never had wheat, eggs, soy, or dairy...pretty much everything. Feeding this child has not been fun. So, she saw an allergist last week and he was the same guy we saw when Taylor was 7 months old. I didn't like him then, and I don't really like him now. Anyway, just to back up a second.....when we could not figure out what the heck Taylor was allergic to, we gave her skin patch testing which is basically putting smooshed up food on the back, covering it up, and seeing if a poison ivy type of rash appears. This was new to the allergist office for food (been used a lot for environmental allergy testing) and they were not sure if would work for Taylor because she was on steroids at the time. They did the test anyway and her positive reactions were VERY positive despite the steroids. In fact, they took pictures and had every single doctor in the office come in to look. They had never seen so many strong positives. Again, leave it to Taylor, haha. So, I was hoping to get this testing for Erin as well, but jerko allergist guy didn't think it was appropriate for her based on "her typical reactions". She doesn't vomit so the test wasn't that great for her. I am in the camp of thinking "how can it hurt"? but he wouldn't do it. He did do the skin prick testing, but that was negative (always was for Taylor too) just to make sure there weren't any IGE related allergies (aka - "real" allergies). Another side note, we did NOT see him when Taylor got her testing, it was a PA that we really liked, but has since left. So we left there with instructions to give her peanut butter and then other foods and see how she did. I smiled, thanked him and thought to myself "Is this guy flippin (ok - I didn't really think flipping, but trying to keep it clean) crazy?? PEANUT BUTTER for a one year old??"

So, I get home later and am trying to decide what food to give her a try on, when I accidentally gave her soy flour - oops. Well, she did fine! Then, after a few days, I accidentally gave her wheat (yeah - bad week reading labels). Again, she was FINE!! Wheat particularly shocked me because she had always had such a horrible reaction to wheat when I would eat it when I was nursing her. Go figure. Anyway, since then, she has had wheat bread, pasta, and waffles. She has had most of these things, but made with special flour that costs an arm and a leg! Oh - she had normal pretzels too. This made me very happy since she LOVES pretzels and the wheat free kind I have been having to buy her were $6 for a smallish bag! yeah - gluten free food is ridiculously expensive!!! $5 for a small loaf of rice bread that is only edible if you toast it - lol.

Anyway, that's where we're at. I suppose we'll try egg with Erin next, dairy is last since it's the most common allergen. Not that that means anything with my kids - again, Taylor's strongest reaction was to RICE which is almost unheard of.

I wonder when all of this is said and done, I will ever stop reading labels - ha! It's such a habit everytime I shop. I also can't wait to just go out to eat or to a birthday party and not have to bring our own special food. The little things.....

Sunday, August 2, 2009

here we go!

I have been wanting to start this blog for ages, so here we go! The girls are at such great ages and are constantly cracking me up with their antics. I know I will never remember everything unless I start keeping track, plus I know family members would love to hear this stuff too (at least I like to think they would)! Anyway, as of today, the girls are 3 (Taylor) and 1.5 (Erin). That 1/2 is very important at this age!!

More to come, but this is a start!