Currently, Rebecca is taking books off her little shelf... and picking them up and putting them back... incorrectly! I guess, at least she's putting them back!
I spent the morning yesterday getting out the next size of clothing for Rebecca. It's very odd... there's not a huge difference in the size of the sleepers (just a little more length in the legs), but the clothing is actually very large on her! She's starting to fill out some of the clothing in the 3-6m size range (though most still fits her well), so we decided we would get out the next stuff so it can be put to use as well. :-)
Justin has decided to keep a tiny tree frog as a pet... I'm not sure I like this idea yet. I may ask him to get rid of it. Nothing wrong with the creature, I just don't see us as having anywhere really to keep the thing, and it's existence seems a little boring in a container that is about a 1/2 gallon size, I think!
This afternoon we have knitting group, which Rebecca really enjoys. Of course, when it's a room full of grandmothers (aside from your own mother) how could you help but enjoy yourself?! They spoil her rotten, one day a week, hehe. :-) They even bring little toys, clothing, and books, for her on occasion! She spends the couple of hours chatting with them all, sitting on laps, and entertaining everyone, especially now that she is extremely mobile, because you never know where she's going to pop up next! :-)
And, last of all, I picked up a book I heard about from the library yesterday. (Oh, and Rebecca walked, holding my finger, from the car to the library, through the library, and all the way back to the car... you wouldn't believe the stares a kid that small gets when they walk, hehe!!) The book is called "The No-Cry Sleep Solution", and I have to say, it was quite reassuring! Now, it affirmed my suspicion, that Rebecca is definitely lacking in the sleep department. it said that a baby the age on the chart they give should at least come close to the number of hours given, and if they're not the baby is probably chronically over tired, which is why they don't generally tired! I'd been thinking for a while that she had to be lacking, and this book confirmed it for me-- she's about 3 hours off from their low end of the average sleep needs of a baby her age! So... I'm aiming for the "minimum" number of hours right now. We actually accomplished the night time sleep, for the most part, last night, so we'll see about day time sleep today! It also told me that all these people who tell me that by 9/10 months my baby needs to be sleeping through the night every night(!!), so I must be doing something wrong, are actually incorrect! According to the book, first of all, many babies actually need a mid-sleep feeding, even all the way up to two years old! WOW! It also said that 1-2 night time wakings, one of which requires a feeding, and one of which simply requires comfort in some other way, is perfectly normal for a baby up to age 2 (and sometimes beyond... and then it said that even a lot of parents of 2 year olds are up every night at least once with the child because they need something or other! The book states that a "through the night sleep" is actually about 5 hours... even though people try to tell you that it is 8-12! Apparently it is a social construction that babies should sleep for 8-12 hours straight, not a biological fact. I feel so much better knowing that!
So... we're working on a bedtime routine... again. I know, I'm always working on one, lol. But, it worked last night, so we're going to try it again. Rebecca is lacking about 3 hours of night time sleep, and 1 of day time sleep. I'm not going to worry about the day time sleep, we're working on the night time sleep. So, the way to increase the sleep at night, is to make her go to bed earlier. We've been working to move her bed time back for a couple of weeks now, and my goal is to eventually have her in bed between 7 and 7:30 pm. Right now the goal is 8... which we made, and she was quieter settling down than she has been in ages, but the book says that when you find the "right" time, the baby will generally be very peaceful lying down to sleep... so I think perhaps 7:30 is the "key" time for her. We'll get there eventually.
The routine that seemed to work really well last night was this:
6:30 supper
7:00 walk
7:30 run bath
7:35 read story (which she sat still for, amazingly!)
7:40 bath
7:45 massage
7:50 nurse
8:05 bed (she quit nursing and was trying to play so I put her in bed)
Eventually, I want to have supper at 6, and basically shift everything 1/2 an hour earlier, and see how it goes, but they say in the book to go by 15 min increments every 2-3 days, so I guess next week she'll be going down (most nights) at 7:30. We have two nights a week that we are going to be out past that time... which is why I really want to have her going down at 8, but I guess she really needs somewhere in the 7:30-8 range, so we'll have to work around that.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
This and That
Okay, so I was thinking, I haven't said much about what is happening in Justin's and my lives lately... I keep talking about Rebecca! So, I'm going to try to give some information about what's happening with Justin and me... as well as Rebecca. Sorry, you can't read a blog entry from me that doesn't include Rebecca... just think, when we have two or more children, the entries will be lengthened accordingly! Maybe you'll eventually have to set aside 15 minutes or more to read an entry!
So... Justin first.
Justin has been working on a number of programs that I had no idea he was working on, but he was apparently working on them for things he thought would be helpful at Canon. It turns out, not only are they helpful, but when he sent them to their tech team, the leader of the team proceeded to send them out to each supervisor with the instructions to have each team member under them load it onto their computer so they would be able to make use of it! Justin also got an email thanking him for taking initiative, being creative, and doing something that helps Canon stay in their highly competitive position with other companies. :-) He also has made what is called "A-Player" for a consecutive 6+ months, and for making it the 6 months he gets a monetary bonus, plus he gets taken out to dinner by his company! Very exciting... especially the extra bit of money, lol. :-) Too bad it isn't going to also mean an increase in wages. I don't know if I mentioned it, but Canon had to give everyone a pay cut a couple of months ago. Thankfully, Justin had just been given a raise of 6.5%, and the cut was 5% in his tier level, so he actually ended up still making more than he was, but most people did not get that much of a raise if they even got one, and the higher tiers lost 15%, 25%, 35%, and 50%! Kinda makes one thankful to be at the bottom of the pyramid!
Justin has also been looking at other job possibilities. He's somewhat qualified to take a position as a Linux systems administrator, because places will hire on experience and knowledge rather than requiring a piece of paper for that one. He's got plenty of both (it's his favourite hobby!), and we discovered that jobs with Linux range in pay from double what he earns up to 4x the amount! Whoa!! He applied for at least one position, though he never heard back, so I guess that was probably a no go. However, there are many that come up in the area on a regular basis... so while we are quite happy with Canon and their benefits and such, we are also keeping our eyes and ears open for positions that would get us similar (or better!) benefits, and a MUCH better pay range! Another thing we would like is a 40ish hour work week somewhere closer to where we live, so the commute doesn't add an extra 1.5-2 hours each day! However, as a systems admin, he would also be on call through the night and on weekends, which would be a real pain, but hey, when overtime will get you at least time and a half around here, if not more... it's not too bad! I told him that I wouldn't want him working Sunday mornings though, and if he got a job that called him in on a Sunday they would have to wait for him until at least afternoon, if not evening. Hey, we only get so many family days! :-)
Me... well...
I'm teaching piano to my niece and nephew starting this Saturday, and trying to recruit more students. We'll see, perhaps this year it will only be the two of them, but maybe next year I'll find more!
I finally seem to have conquered the mildew staining issue we've been having, though it did result in a bit of lightening in some places on some of the garments. At least they're usable again!! We also thoroughly cleaned the washer. I took the soap dispenser apart, washed it, washed inside that area, and we poured 4 cups of bleach into the washer, ran an empty hot load, and then poured in a gallon of vinegar and ran another empty hot load! It was rather cheap, I guess, when you think about it, but the instructions I found for keeping mould out of a washing machine say that you should do that every 3-4 months, and every 6-8 weeks you should run an empty hot vinegar load. I guess a gallon of vinegar at about $2.50 every couple of months is worth it if we're going to get consistently clean clothing out of it! The clothing and diapers are coming so much cleaner since I got that done, it's been nice!
I've been really working hard at getting the house organized, because I don't want to child proof, per se (it's pretty much impossible to do in our house) but I would like *most* things that are within Rebecca's reach to be at least somewhat safe for her to get at. All I have left is my dining room table, and kitchen counter... and then my horrible mudroom/bathroom area, which will always be last on my agenda, hehe! I'm currently trying to figure out a storrage solution for all our tupperware/gladware/other containers! I'm starting to think one of those plastic tote containers under the sink might do the trick... just have to get Justin to clean out all his mouse traps so I can do it! Maybe one of the plastic drawers would be a better idea. Regardless, I think it's a potential solution. I also need to come up with some organizational strategies for our purchased cupboard, because the top shelf, wonderful as it is, needs to be split in half, and each of those spaces need to be split in half again. So, I'm thinking a wire rack organizer, and a set or two of plastic drawers might do the trick in there as well. If only those things weren't going to cost money, I'd be all set! :-)
I guess, finally, on my part, I made a new header for our blog (in case you didn't notice!). Seeing as it is rather oriented around the past year of our lives, I'll probably have to make a new one next year! I guess that's incentive to take lots of good pictures over the next year as well. :-)
Rebecca is walking somewhat well now, but is still preferring to crawl to get places. She looks at what she wants, crawls close to the place, stands up, and walks the last 3-5 steps to get close to the item!
She is not sleeping overly well through the night, though we are really working to teach her to sleep through the night at least somewhat. We're back to 1-2 wakings in a night (normally just one with a very early waking), which is so much better than it was most of the summer! She does not, however, believe that I need more sleep than I get. Often times she is up from 7:30am until 10:30 or 11pm, with maybe a 1 hour nap once or twice in the day. She actually just finished napping on me (I was holding her and typing this post at the same time), and now she's sitting beside me on the floor insisting that the frog in the picture book says "sss" even though I keep telling her it says "ribbit" not "ssss"! We're not doing so well on animal sounds, as you may have guessed, LOL!
Our big thing right now, is teaching her not to leave the house without an adult. We're trying to establish that she may not put her hand on the door except to look out. Both our screen doors do not latch properly, and with the cooler weather, we like having the breezes that come through all the screens. She makes it very difficult to get anything done, however, because every time I get occupied doing something, she heads for the nearest door (usually the back door)! So, I've been setting up training sessions for the past couple of days, in the hopes she will clue in... eventually! Any ideas on how to teach a baby not to cross the threshold of a door to the outdoors would be very appreciated!
Oh, yes, and my victory celebration of last night... we got home from sign language class and choir practise, and she was fussing at me for who knew what reason, and suddenly she just quieted right down, looked sweetly at me, and signed "milk" very clearly! She actually has been using the sign on occasion for the last couple of weeks, but it was more something we had to guess at than something she clearly knew what she was saying! She's also started telling us "finished" when she's done eating! If only we could convince her to just tell us, and not tell us and then put all the food on the floor!! :-)
So... Justin first.
Justin has been working on a number of programs that I had no idea he was working on, but he was apparently working on them for things he thought would be helpful at Canon. It turns out, not only are they helpful, but when he sent them to their tech team, the leader of the team proceeded to send them out to each supervisor with the instructions to have each team member under them load it onto their computer so they would be able to make use of it! Justin also got an email thanking him for taking initiative, being creative, and doing something that helps Canon stay in their highly competitive position with other companies. :-) He also has made what is called "A-Player" for a consecutive 6+ months, and for making it the 6 months he gets a monetary bonus, plus he gets taken out to dinner by his company! Very exciting... especially the extra bit of money, lol. :-) Too bad it isn't going to also mean an increase in wages. I don't know if I mentioned it, but Canon had to give everyone a pay cut a couple of months ago. Thankfully, Justin had just been given a raise of 6.5%, and the cut was 5% in his tier level, so he actually ended up still making more than he was, but most people did not get that much of a raise if they even got one, and the higher tiers lost 15%, 25%, 35%, and 50%! Kinda makes one thankful to be at the bottom of the pyramid!
Justin has also been looking at other job possibilities. He's somewhat qualified to take a position as a Linux systems administrator, because places will hire on experience and knowledge rather than requiring a piece of paper for that one. He's got plenty of both (it's his favourite hobby!), and we discovered that jobs with Linux range in pay from double what he earns up to 4x the amount! Whoa!! He applied for at least one position, though he never heard back, so I guess that was probably a no go. However, there are many that come up in the area on a regular basis... so while we are quite happy with Canon and their benefits and such, we are also keeping our eyes and ears open for positions that would get us similar (or better!) benefits, and a MUCH better pay range! Another thing we would like is a 40ish hour work week somewhere closer to where we live, so the commute doesn't add an extra 1.5-2 hours each day! However, as a systems admin, he would also be on call through the night and on weekends, which would be a real pain, but hey, when overtime will get you at least time and a half around here, if not more... it's not too bad! I told him that I wouldn't want him working Sunday mornings though, and if he got a job that called him in on a Sunday they would have to wait for him until at least afternoon, if not evening. Hey, we only get so many family days! :-)
Me... well...
I'm teaching piano to my niece and nephew starting this Saturday, and trying to recruit more students. We'll see, perhaps this year it will only be the two of them, but maybe next year I'll find more!
I finally seem to have conquered the mildew staining issue we've been having, though it did result in a bit of lightening in some places on some of the garments. At least they're usable again!! We also thoroughly cleaned the washer. I took the soap dispenser apart, washed it, washed inside that area, and we poured 4 cups of bleach into the washer, ran an empty hot load, and then poured in a gallon of vinegar and ran another empty hot load! It was rather cheap, I guess, when you think about it, but the instructions I found for keeping mould out of a washing machine say that you should do that every 3-4 months, and every 6-8 weeks you should run an empty hot vinegar load. I guess a gallon of vinegar at about $2.50 every couple of months is worth it if we're going to get consistently clean clothing out of it! The clothing and diapers are coming so much cleaner since I got that done, it's been nice!
I've been really working hard at getting the house organized, because I don't want to child proof, per se (it's pretty much impossible to do in our house) but I would like *most* things that are within Rebecca's reach to be at least somewhat safe for her to get at. All I have left is my dining room table, and kitchen counter... and then my horrible mudroom/bathroom area, which will always be last on my agenda, hehe! I'm currently trying to figure out a storrage solution for all our tupperware/gladware/other containers! I'm starting to think one of those plastic tote containers under the sink might do the trick... just have to get Justin to clean out all his mouse traps so I can do it! Maybe one of the plastic drawers would be a better idea. Regardless, I think it's a potential solution. I also need to come up with some organizational strategies for our purchased cupboard, because the top shelf, wonderful as it is, needs to be split in half, and each of those spaces need to be split in half again. So, I'm thinking a wire rack organizer, and a set or two of plastic drawers might do the trick in there as well. If only those things weren't going to cost money, I'd be all set! :-)
I guess, finally, on my part, I made a new header for our blog (in case you didn't notice!). Seeing as it is rather oriented around the past year of our lives, I'll probably have to make a new one next year! I guess that's incentive to take lots of good pictures over the next year as well. :-)
Rebecca is walking somewhat well now, but is still preferring to crawl to get places. She looks at what she wants, crawls close to the place, stands up, and walks the last 3-5 steps to get close to the item!
She is not sleeping overly well through the night, though we are really working to teach her to sleep through the night at least somewhat. We're back to 1-2 wakings in a night (normally just one with a very early waking), which is so much better than it was most of the summer! She does not, however, believe that I need more sleep than I get. Often times she is up from 7:30am until 10:30 or 11pm, with maybe a 1 hour nap once or twice in the day. She actually just finished napping on me (I was holding her and typing this post at the same time), and now she's sitting beside me on the floor insisting that the frog in the picture book says "sss" even though I keep telling her it says "ribbit" not "ssss"! We're not doing so well on animal sounds, as you may have guessed, LOL!
Our big thing right now, is teaching her not to leave the house without an adult. We're trying to establish that she may not put her hand on the door except to look out. Both our screen doors do not latch properly, and with the cooler weather, we like having the breezes that come through all the screens. She makes it very difficult to get anything done, however, because every time I get occupied doing something, she heads for the nearest door (usually the back door)! So, I've been setting up training sessions for the past couple of days, in the hopes she will clue in... eventually! Any ideas on how to teach a baby not to cross the threshold of a door to the outdoors would be very appreciated!
Oh, yes, and my victory celebration of last night... we got home from sign language class and choir practise, and she was fussing at me for who knew what reason, and suddenly she just quieted right down, looked sweetly at me, and signed "milk" very clearly! She actually has been using the sign on occasion for the last couple of weeks, but it was more something we had to guess at than something she clearly knew what she was saying! She's also started telling us "finished" when she's done eating! If only we could convince her to just tell us, and not tell us and then put all the food on the floor!! :-)
Saturday, September 12, 2009
More misadventures!
So... this is what happens when your child is on the verge of walking! They disappear on you, and do things you never imagined would happen! However... it's great for photo-ops! So... here are some pictures from the last of August, of things Rebecca has gotten into (and a few "normal" things thrown in)!
Rebecca discovered that I keep my powdered sugar on the lower lazy susan, and thought it looked like great fun. She figured out how to open the bag, and had about a cup of it on the floor when I found her! I had been sewing Justin a pair of pajama pants, and hadn't noticed her playing in that corner of the kitchen. But... like any good parent... when I saw what she was doing, I grabbed the camera so we would have pictures for posterity!
Rebecca is very determined to go where she wants, and when she wants. If she wants to go inside, she tries to take you along with her... and if you don't come, she goes and waits by the door until you come. Of course, the opposite is true as well, and if she wants out, she'll wait at the door until you take her out!
Waving bye-bye to Mummy!
Standing!!
One of the things Rebecca likes to think she is doing, is helping. In reality, she's making a biiiiig mess most times, as in the case of the above picture! I Had just finished putting all our clean clothing away, and she came along and removed nearly everything I'd placed in that drawer!
We moved a book case from the dining room to the kitchen, and she thought it was something interesting to look at for a while. NOW she just empties the lower shelves again, and again, and again...
And, finally... the latest "interest", which is climbing... into the basket of her stroller, which has a 10lb limit! I haven't figured out how to stop her from doing this, because she doesn't do it every time, and actually, most times only does it when I'm far enough away (like two rooms and a door away) that I can't stop her... she's too smart for her own good! Anyway, the following pictures are from a day on which I heard her giggling to herself, and I figured that since she was in the living room she was pretty much safe... the stroller hadn't occurred to me at that time!
And there are the last of my August pictures! I do have some September ones (of course!)... I just have to take the time to get them ready to post!
Rebecca discovered that I keep my powdered sugar on the lower lazy susan, and thought it looked like great fun. She figured out how to open the bag, and had about a cup of it on the floor when I found her! I had been sewing Justin a pair of pajama pants, and hadn't noticed her playing in that corner of the kitchen. But... like any good parent... when I saw what she was doing, I grabbed the camera so we would have pictures for posterity!
Rebecca is very determined to go where she wants, and when she wants. If she wants to go inside, she tries to take you along with her... and if you don't come, she goes and waits by the door until you come. Of course, the opposite is true as well, and if she wants out, she'll wait at the door until you take her out!
Waving bye-bye to Mummy!
Standing!!
One of the things Rebecca likes to think she is doing, is helping. In reality, she's making a biiiiig mess most times, as in the case of the above picture! I Had just finished putting all our clean clothing away, and she came along and removed nearly everything I'd placed in that drawer!
We moved a book case from the dining room to the kitchen, and she thought it was something interesting to look at for a while. NOW she just empties the lower shelves again, and again, and again...
And, finally... the latest "interest", which is climbing... into the basket of her stroller, which has a 10lb limit! I haven't figured out how to stop her from doing this, because she doesn't do it every time, and actually, most times only does it when I'm far enough away (like two rooms and a door away) that I can't stop her... she's too smart for her own good! Anyway, the following pictures are from a day on which I heard her giggling to herself, and I figured that since she was in the living room she was pretty much safe... the stroller hadn't occurred to me at that time!
And there are the last of my August pictures! I do have some September ones (of course!)... I just have to take the time to get them ready to post!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
First Half or so of August
So, as I mentioned, I have a couple of dozen pictures to get up here. These ones feature some of the many adventures (or misadventures?!) of Rebecca.
Rebecca has taken a real interest in our bathroom. She follows us into it, watches us use the toilet (if applicable), and then she likes to try to flush the toilet after we've done so... thankfully our toilet takes a little more effort than some!
She also has a particular interest in the toilet paper. Now that is one major cleanup job when we don't realize where she is and what she's doing! She pulls pieces off, shreds them, and keeps going. Sometimes she just pulls lengths off, and leaves them on the floor, and it just a lot of work picking it all up and figuring out what is and isn't salvageable!
Rebecca's had a lot of new foods, including watermelon, as seen in these two pictures, and broccoli, which is in a picture below. She's now had Cheerios, so she's been introduced to wheat successfully as well, but she had a pretty bad reaction to cantaloupe of all things! She got a funny purplish red rash under her skin that was little lines of some sort, and she didn't nurse well for the next 24 or so hours, which Mum suggested may have been because there were potentially sores in her mouth or throat. Further research indicated that there are often cross reactions between mango and cantaloupe (they're both part of a pollen family), and seeing as we know she spits up everything for about 24 hours after eating mango, it could explain the cantaloupe thing!
Rebecca is becoming more of a copycat every day. She likes to "help" sort laundry for me... unfortunately, that currently means that it's normally clean (or already sorted) laundry that she "sorts" for me, but I figure if she's starting now, she'll eventually do it right.
When she sorts her diapers, she actually (generally) puts diapers on one side, and the wash cloths on the other side of her! So she really is sorting, just not the way I need them to be!
Rebecca watches as Daddy leaves every morning, normally standing at the door like the above picture shows.
When she sees his truck is gone, she says a string of words that ends with "dadada!" and then she leaves the door! I'm interested in knowing exactly what she thinks she's saying about Daddy!
I got a copy of The Toddler's Busy Book from the library, because I'm running out of ideas about how to keep Rebecca busy, even for five or ten minutes. She's beyond every "age appropriate" activity suggested in Dr. Sears The Baby Book, and every suggestion I've found online as well. So, I thought if she's beyond those, perhaps she's functioning more in the range of that book, and lo and behold, it worked! Now, admittedly, a lot of the ideas are just things you could come up with if you looked at what you had and what your child was potentially able to do with things, but for a quick "what do I do with her now?!" thing, it's great, because you don't have to think! So, anyway, one of the ideas was to give the child a dish of water, and some utensils to play with. I think it actually suggested that it happen at the table, but Rebecca isn't sturdy enough to play with this stuff at the table yet, so I sat her on the floor, and she had a great time! Even better... she stopped playing in the dog's dish! LOL!
When Daddy is on his way home, Rebecca likes to spend the time talking to him. I'm not actually sure if she's talking to him or just having fun with my phone though!
She just loves the fact my phone lights up, which is why I'm not sure she's actually talking to Justin!
We were given a pair of guinea pigs, as I mentioned in my last post. They were given with the promise of "food for life"... they're kind of timid, but their babies are a lot easier to hold on to! Maybe the babies will be more personable when they're older as well. In the mean time, we're thinking we need to figure out where to get a bigger cage, because that thing is only 4sq. ft, and they need at least double that! I did find plans for how to build one, so I think that's what we'll end up doing.
And, Rebecca discovered this little white box that is in her hand... it has a level in it! She just LOVES to play with the thing. Not sure why, seeing as there's not much to see, but I guess if she enjoys it, I won't argue! :-)
Rebecca has taken a real interest in our bathroom. She follows us into it, watches us use the toilet (if applicable), and then she likes to try to flush the toilet after we've done so... thankfully our toilet takes a little more effort than some!
She also has a particular interest in the toilet paper. Now that is one major cleanup job when we don't realize where she is and what she's doing! She pulls pieces off, shreds them, and keeps going. Sometimes she just pulls lengths off, and leaves them on the floor, and it just a lot of work picking it all up and figuring out what is and isn't salvageable!
Rebecca's had a lot of new foods, including watermelon, as seen in these two pictures, and broccoli, which is in a picture below. She's now had Cheerios, so she's been introduced to wheat successfully as well, but she had a pretty bad reaction to cantaloupe of all things! She got a funny purplish red rash under her skin that was little lines of some sort, and she didn't nurse well for the next 24 or so hours, which Mum suggested may have been because there were potentially sores in her mouth or throat. Further research indicated that there are often cross reactions between mango and cantaloupe (they're both part of a pollen family), and seeing as we know she spits up everything for about 24 hours after eating mango, it could explain the cantaloupe thing!
Rebecca is becoming more of a copycat every day. She likes to "help" sort laundry for me... unfortunately, that currently means that it's normally clean (or already sorted) laundry that she "sorts" for me, but I figure if she's starting now, she'll eventually do it right.
When she sorts her diapers, she actually (generally) puts diapers on one side, and the wash cloths on the other side of her! So she really is sorting, just not the way I need them to be!
Rebecca watches as Daddy leaves every morning, normally standing at the door like the above picture shows.
When she sees his truck is gone, she says a string of words that ends with "dadada!" and then she leaves the door! I'm interested in knowing exactly what she thinks she's saying about Daddy!I got a copy of The Toddler's Busy Book from the library, because I'm running out of ideas about how to keep Rebecca busy, even for five or ten minutes. She's beyond every "age appropriate" activity suggested in Dr. Sears The Baby Book, and every suggestion I've found online as well. So, I thought if she's beyond those, perhaps she's functioning more in the range of that book, and lo and behold, it worked! Now, admittedly, a lot of the ideas are just things you could come up with if you looked at what you had and what your child was potentially able to do with things, but for a quick "what do I do with her now?!" thing, it's great, because you don't have to think! So, anyway, one of the ideas was to give the child a dish of water, and some utensils to play with. I think it actually suggested that it happen at the table, but Rebecca isn't sturdy enough to play with this stuff at the table yet, so I sat her on the floor, and she had a great time! Even better... she stopped playing in the dog's dish! LOL!
When Daddy is on his way home, Rebecca likes to spend the time talking to him. I'm not actually sure if she's talking to him or just having fun with my phone though!
She just loves the fact my phone lights up, which is why I'm not sure she's actually talking to Justin!
We were given a pair of guinea pigs, as I mentioned in my last post. They were given with the promise of "food for life"... they're kind of timid, but their babies are a lot easier to hold on to! Maybe the babies will be more personable when they're older as well. In the mean time, we're thinking we need to figure out where to get a bigger cage, because that thing is only 4sq. ft, and they need at least double that! I did find plans for how to build one, so I think that's what we'll end up doing.
And, Rebecca discovered this little white box that is in her hand... it has a level in it! She just LOVES to play with the thing. Not sure why, seeing as there's not much to see, but I guess if she enjoys it, I won't argue! :-)
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
September!
The weather is finally tolerable again! It's been so nice out lately. Rebecca and I have been outdoors a few hours every day for the last week (and I've been putting bug spray to good use... the mosquitoes are terrible!!!). We've moved the location of Rebecca's swing to being under the deck to the FROG, because in one of the storms of this last month the bracket we'd put in the tree fell down. She still loves to go for swings in it! I have dozens (literally) of pictures to get up here... hopefully they'll all be up by the end of the week... hopefully? Depends on how things go around here this week.
Anyway, here are a few of those pictures!
It is so hard to get pictures of Rebecca lately, because she's so interested in everything besides Mummy... so giving her something to keep her hands busy often results in decent...ish... pictures.
Rebecca and Daddy had some fun in the pool a few mornings, and she slept WONDERFULLY for nearly the full afternoon every time they had played in the pool. Rebecca adores playing in water, whether it is in our kiddie pool, the bath tub, or at the beach. I've even had comments from people at the beach about just how comfortable my baby is in the water. She even tries to swim away from me on her own!
This is some sort of spider... I have no idea what kind, but I thought it looked neat. I definitely need to look into a macro lens for my camera to get better pictures of these teeny tiny creatures though!
Rebecca just loves her alphabet blocks! Well, really, blocks of any sort, and balls of any sort as well, but these blocks make a hit any time they're out. Probably because I put them up in a location she can't reach when no one is watching her with them since she likes to take bites out of them (and has actually succeeded at removing little pieces of a couple! YIKES!).
Ah, yes... she's started pointing. She actually started more like 5 or 6 weeks ago, it's just been that long since I posted something with pictures, hehe! She points at everything and either says "at, at, at" or "ut, ut, ut"... we think the words she's saying are "that" and "what", but we're not entirely sure just yet, lol.
We introduced Rebecca to watermelon, which she loves, but the exterior was not particularly interesting to her. That is about as much interest in it as she showed at all!
And... she's getting really good at giving these funny looks. :-)
Other update stuff... Rebecca took her first, very short, walk on Wednesday, September 2. She still prefers crawling. Maybe one of these days she'll decide to get on those feet and stay that way though, hehe!
We were given guinea pigs, one of which was pregnant... she's no longer pregnant... she had two babies! They're very cute, though I haven't taken any pictures of the babies yet. All four creatures are multi-coloured, with black, caramel, and white all over.
We went to Richmond yesterday to do some of the Battlefield Tour thing they have out there (we need to go back to finish it!), and we found a lame turtle. Did you know turtles can limp?! Well, we've now acquired a box turtle who has yet to receive a name... and I have yet to convince it should eat things. I guess I'll have to catch it a worm or something. Anyway, we don't figure that the thing will survive too well in the wild when it is missing a foot, has two chips out of the top shell, a chip out of the bottom shell, and looks like the shell was crushed at some point... so we're going to do our best to keep it happy and healthy, we hope!
Anyway, here are a few of those pictures!
It is so hard to get pictures of Rebecca lately, because she's so interested in everything besides Mummy... so giving her something to keep her hands busy often results in decent...ish... pictures.
Rebecca and Daddy had some fun in the pool a few mornings, and she slept WONDERFULLY for nearly the full afternoon every time they had played in the pool. Rebecca adores playing in water, whether it is in our kiddie pool, the bath tub, or at the beach. I've even had comments from people at the beach about just how comfortable my baby is in the water. She even tries to swim away from me on her own!
This is some sort of spider... I have no idea what kind, but I thought it looked neat. I definitely need to look into a macro lens for my camera to get better pictures of these teeny tiny creatures though!Rebecca just loves her alphabet blocks! Well, really, blocks of any sort, and balls of any sort as well, but these blocks make a hit any time they're out. Probably because I put them up in a location she can't reach when no one is watching her with them since she likes to take bites out of them (and has actually succeeded at removing little pieces of a couple! YIKES!).
Ah, yes... she's started pointing. She actually started more like 5 or 6 weeks ago, it's just been that long since I posted something with pictures, hehe! She points at everything and either says "at, at, at" or "ut, ut, ut"... we think the words she's saying are "that" and "what", but we're not entirely sure just yet, lol.
We introduced Rebecca to watermelon, which she loves, but the exterior was not particularly interesting to her. That is about as much interest in it as she showed at all!
And... she's getting really good at giving these funny looks. :-)Other update stuff... Rebecca took her first, very short, walk on Wednesday, September 2. She still prefers crawling. Maybe one of these days she'll decide to get on those feet and stay that way though, hehe!
We were given guinea pigs, one of which was pregnant... she's no longer pregnant... she had two babies! They're very cute, though I haven't taken any pictures of the babies yet. All four creatures are multi-coloured, with black, caramel, and white all over.
We went to Richmond yesterday to do some of the Battlefield Tour thing they have out there (we need to go back to finish it!), and we found a lame turtle. Did you know turtles can limp?! Well, we've now acquired a box turtle who has yet to receive a name... and I have yet to convince it should eat things. I guess I'll have to catch it a worm or something. Anyway, we don't figure that the thing will survive too well in the wild when it is missing a foot, has two chips out of the top shell, a chip out of the bottom shell, and looks like the shell was crushed at some point... so we're going to do our best to keep it happy and healthy, we hope!
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