A Mother's Day Birthday

My birthday fell on Mother's Day this year (like it does every 5-6 years).  When I was little it made me upset.  I mean, my mom is a mother every day, my birthday only came around once a year.  Obviously I didn't get it.  When I hit my late teenage and college years it made me sad for my mom.  People remembered me, but my wonderful mom was getting forgotten.  Well now that I am a mom - I kinda liked it.  I used it as an excuse to do things I really wanted to do - since my toddler had no say in the matter.  We woke up and cuddled.  She gave me loads of toddler kisses - from both her and her stuffed animals.  I think I got about a dozen kisses from the lion's butt - we will work on what end gives kisses in the future.  Then we went to church.  After church we got some lunch and headed up to my grandparent's house to watch baseball with my grandfather.  My daughter had other ideas.  She DEMANDED that Papa play catch with her.  She was very insistent.  He was more than happy to oblige.  After the ball game we went to my mom's house and visited with her until she had to go to work.  By this time my husband was off work, so we picked up him and went to the park to walk around and let our daughter play on the slides.  We ended the day with a movie and more kisses from stuffed animals before she passed out.

PERFECT birthday and Mother's Day!

Toddler Games

So as this is Holy Week I found myself (mindlessly) singing Christmas carols to my daughter.  I mean, why not sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to an upset toddler in the backseat of the car on Holy Thursday?  She didn't want to be strapped in, but how was she to know that if she could be patient for 5 minutes, we would be at the big park with the big slides and fun swings?  All she knew was it was about 70 degrees outside and she had to be out there enjoying it.

So I got to thinking, what in the world are "reindeer games?"  I mean Monopoly is listed in the song, but how would a reindeer play a board game?  How would it move the pieces or roll the dice?

I may be unfamiliar with what reindeers play, but last night I got a good dose of "Toddler Games."  You see, I had recently been sent a link to this blog about a lady who gave up screaming at her kids out of frustration and has successfully been able to be calmer and nicer to her kids and they have responded in kind.  I am trying to be a better mommy and got to thinking that I could probably be kinder to my daughter when I am super tired and all she wants is more mommy time.  Well yesterday was a pretty lazy day in our house (most Wednesdays are since Tuesday is the last of my three in a row night shifts), so it didn't surprise me when the little lady wasn't exactly sleepy at bed time.  She hadn't gotten in her daily dose of maniac time.  So instead of being highly frustrated at her for still being awake 90 minutes past her bed time I spent those 90 minutes playing Toddler Games:

-- Itsy Bitsy Spider - she has recently learned this song and the motions that go with it and LOVES it.  Plus when the sun comes out and she starts swaying back and forth, sometimes she falls over and it is super funny!!

-- Rock-a-bye Baby - Lets just say this has always been a personal favorite of hers.  She likes the actions and the fact she gets "dropped" - oh the giggles!

-- Ruffled Feathers - Since my little lady has always had a head full of hair, I occasionally (more so lately) will tussle her hair and say, "I'm ruffling your feathers." Which this of course makes her giggle.  Well last night as I was laying next to her, she started ruffling my feathers.  I started laughing so hard because I didn't think she would do it.  I don't know why I didn't think she would do it - I guess it was just funny in the moment.

-- Making Baby's Nose Numb - I haven't been getting a lot of baby kisses lately.  When I ask for a kiss or a hug I have been getting a lot of "no" head shakes.  It saddens me, but I know she is just testing her bounds and I know eventually I will get my kisses and hugs again.  Well last night I decided she may not be giving me kisses, but I am going to continue giving her some.  I kept blowing raspberries on her little button nose.  Well the vibrations had to tickle, because she would just start laughing, then pull away, rub her nose, then after a couple minutes she would put her nose against my lips again.

So basically I spent 90 minutes making my daughter (who really just wanted to sit on my lap and cuddle) laugh and squirm.  Did she finally go to sleep - absolutely.  When she was ready for sleep, she curled up on her pillows, tried a couple different configurations for comfort and finally settled on the original one, then went to sleep.  She may never remember these times, but I will never forget them.  Had I gotten frustrated with her and kept trying to tell her to lay down and go to sleep, I probably would have still spent 60-90 minutes wrestling with her and it would have ended with both of us in tears.  This way, we both went to sleep with smiles on our faces and good memories.

Keeping Mommy Humble

My daughter does a GREAT job of keeping me humble when I need it.  This past week I was paid a pretty awesome complement by an uncle.  He reaffirmed me (completely out of the blue mind you) by telling me that I am a great mom and he is proud of me.  I was feeling pretty puffed up.  I won't lie.  Well about 3 hours later I decided to take my little pumpkin to the local library for a reading/play group.  My little angel decided to turn devilish in public.  She started throwing toys, hitting, and screaming for no known reason.  Of course we left immediately - no need to subject anyone to that!  On the walk to the car she started showing that she was sorry (hiding her eyes, hugging me, kissing me - the usual when she knows she did something wrong - her way of saying "sorry" even though she can't verbalize it), so I told her we would go to the grocery store real quick.  That was a bad idea!  After about 3 isles, she started screaming again.  I leaned over to quiet her (and give her a kiss, which can quiet her) and she reared back and headbutted my nose with all her might.  Of course I instantly started crying in pain and my nose started lightly bleeding.  So I got the pleasure of going through the checkout line crying, with a screaming baby, and a possibly fractured nose.

So I'm such a great mom that my kid felt the need to have multiple melt-downs in public.  I guess I should be happy that it took her 16 months to have her first true meltdown in public and hopefully it is her last.  I am not holding my breath about that though!

Bathtime for my little button pusher

My daughter gets to enjoy the joy that I had growing up.... experiencing the fun of having her grandma (my mom) living next door to my grandparents (her great-grandparents).  I always enjoyed being able to run next door anytime I wanted.  (And there was always a nice neighbor to get a cup of flour or a couple eggs!)  So here are a couple fun stories from yesterday.  My little stinker was causing havoc at both houses.

We went to Grandma's house first.  Grandma fed her a banana, cheerios, and milk.  Well since it has been a few years since Grandma had to deal with babies she has forgotten a few of the essentials.  Like, if you give the baby food and don't sit by, a BIG mess will be made.  Well that mess meant the little lady got a bath.  So my mom undressed my baby, including taking off her diaper, THEN decides to run the bath water.  (If you have never bathed a baby, she did that backwards, water should be ready before the diaper comes off).  Well I don't know why my mom thought the baby would just sit next to her while she got the bath tub ready, but she thought this.  My little ornery angel decided to take full advantage of her new freedom and took a couple steps, then realizing that she could cover more distance faster on all fours, fell down to a crawl and took off like a greased pig after food.  She made it out of the bathroom, down the hall, and halfway into the living room (a pretty good distance in this house) before my mom caught up to her.  When I heard the unmistakable sound of the pitter-patter of little hands on hardwood I look in the direction it was coming from only to see my little angel in her birthday suit giggling, smiling, and crawling as fast as she could with my mom chasing after her saying, "Come back here you little squirt! Get back here! Come back! And DON'T PEE ON MY FLOOR!"  She got her bath and fun playtime in the tub.  She was in heaven!

Later we walked next door to play with the great-grandparents.  She crawled loads of laps around the house, giggling, and generally having fun.  When everyone was trying to watch the Saturday college football games, she kept trying to change the channel.  You see my daughter has learned to push the buttons on the remote and phone.  She had made 6 phone calls from my phone the day before (that was before I took the phone away from her).  Well at grandparents' house, she kept trying to get the remote, so my uncle gave her a remote from an old VCR player that was still in the house.  She kept pushing the buttons, then would look at the TV to see what would happen.  When nothing happened she got confused, yelled at me, then threw the remote.  Later I gave her a plastic phone to play with.  It took her about 5 seconds to realize it wasn't real, she yelled at me and threw it across the room.  You see my little button pusher actually knows what happens when you push buttons and doesn't like it when she doesn't get her intended results. 

Daddy thinks it's funny!

My husband has trained our daughter to do what I call her little "parlor tricks."  He says "clap, clap" and she starts smiling, giggling and clapping.  When he says "dance, dance." She starts bouncing up and down. 

I have taught her to give kisses and hugs.  Also, I have her trained to giggle when I shake my head.

This being said, tonight I was laying on my back with my daughter sitting on my tummy when her dad called saying he was on his way home from work.  When I put him on speakerphone he said, "dance, dance," and she instantaneously started bouncing up and down.... ON MY BLADDER that wasn't exactly empty. 

She started giggling.  He started laughing when he found out what she did.  It was cute though.  She was excited to hear his voice and couldn't contain herself.  It was so cute.  LOVE!

Daddy's Little Girl

I like to watch my daughter.  It is better than TV!  She never ceases to amaze me.  I have also noticed that she is kinda transitioning from a mama's girl to a daddy's girl.  And why wouldn't she?  He is the fun one.  He sings silly songs.  He has endless energy to bounce her (since he bounces his legs almost non-stop anyway as a side effect of his ADHD)  He makes a great a great seat (I have a number of pictures of her sitting on his shoulders, head, arms, etc.)  He's just a big teddy bear.

He took us to feed the ducks, geese, and fish at a local pond today (a favorite activity of both of us).  It took awhile to wipe the grin off her face.  She was bouncy, giggly, and all smiles.  We even walked through a park and took some time stopping to smell the flowers. 

How do you cap off a great evening?  You come home, eat dinner, (get a diaper change of course), and then spend a couple hours singing Disney songs and bouncing on Daddy's legs. 

We know you are jealous!

Swim play date

The little lady had a play date in the pool with my friend Amy and her dear son "Junior".  (Side note: Check out her blog - she's pretty resourceful!)  The babies had loads of fun.  My little lady proved herself a good flirt.  Junior was a little scared at first at the little lady's forwardness.  He is timid at first - needs to warm up to people.  She is instantly friends with everyone.  If he wouldn't have been scared off, she would have been all up in his business.  She tried to kiss him (and I am not sure she didn't succeed at least once).  EEEKKK!!  I thought I would have a few more years before the kissing of boys would start!  I mean a few months back she got kissed by a couple of boys, but this was the first time that SHE tried to kiss a boy.  I repeat EEEKKK!

So this pool play date allowed the mamas to talk.  Well kind of between Junior trying to crawl off a raft and my little lady doing her best snow angel impression and splashing me in the face.  It has been way too long since our last lunchy-lunch date to chat, so we had some catching up to do.  Since he is 7 months older than my little lady, I got to see what kind of ball of energy I can expect to deal with.  Oh boy!  I am not ready for that much energy!  Good thing it will be a gradual increase!

Melted heart - day 2

So if singing our daughter to sleep wasn't enough to melt my heart, there was a new heart melting moment at our house last evening.  My husband was sitting in our papasan chair with our daughter laying across his chest and they were playing a cute little game.  He would kiss her, she would giggle.  They played this game for quite a while (considering her attention span is that of a nearly 7 month old's).  When that game was done, he started tickling her, and lo and behold, the giggling started up again.  Who needs toys when you have a dad who can bring you more joy by simply being silly with you?