Heidi updates
Gas Station
About two weeks ago we were driving around. Heidi sounded a bit annoyed that we were still in the car, so I explained that we were looking for a gas station. She promptly made some very excited noises that made me turn around. She was pointing out the window at, yes you guessed it, a gas station. And looking between it and me to get me to pull in. I had been thinking about the gas station up the street that was cheaper that I hadn't noticed my surroundings. I had to explain that yes, that was a gas station and good that she saw it. Then I went on and explained we were going to a different one, which she did understand and stopped looking at me as if I were crazy to not be turning the car into the one we were at.
Puppup and Camel
Heidi really loves several of her very small animals by Playmobilel and Schreicht. She frequently takes puppup on adventures including moving his snack bowl and his dog house around. He's best friends with the Schreicht camel, and they frequently smooch both each other and me on the cheek.
Colors
Heidi knows great deal of her colors. I did a drop-off day care, and they were amazed at how well she did at color and animal recognition already. She likes looking at a mosaic tabletop we have and pointing out the colors as I call them out.
Bed
Right before I came down with the flu, about a month ago, I put Heidi down for her nap. She got a very focused look on her face, grabbed the railing of her crib and hoisted herself over and out. Hoping that it was just a fluke, I immediately put her back in and shut the door. It wasn't. She managed to get out in a few seconds flat. So much for a gradual transition to the toddler bed.
We had just bought a toddler bed, so Wolf managed to get it up that weekend. So far, she mostly prefers lying down by the door so she can cry MOMOM and put her fingers underneath. She also spends a great deal of time playing around instead of napping during the day. The worst thing, though, is since it broke her routine, she now goes to sleep later, moving final bedtime from 7:20ish to 8 or later. And naptime has moved from 1 p.m. to either 2 or 3, too. It is just enough to really wear both of us out and disable the nightly caretaker from having enough time to really do a project or go out walking, so it's having a BIG effect on both of us.
Hand signals to songs
Heidi knows the hand signals to many, many songs now thanks to the music class she's been regularly taking for about a year. She often uses these outside of the song, like the horn movement from "Wheels on the Bus" when she hears honking.
She also uses hand signals to let us know which song she wants us to sing or play on her DVD player. (Side note: the DVD player is the single best toy we bought.) She is way into "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands" and anything else she hears frequently in music class. Auntie Kate bought us a bunch of these songs, and they always go over well. Sometimes the nursery rhymes are good, too. Caught her singing along to U2's, "I Still Don't Know What I"m Looking For" in the car the other day; she gets frequent doses of my music whenever we're driving around. She's a good influence on me, because I make sure I keep the music down more than I would if on my own.
Carnage!
Besides the regular toddler vocabular, and the D&D monster vocabulary, and the song vocabulary, we've been adding important SAT words like CARNAGE. We frequently point out when she's in the middle of creating carnage and she always laughs and laughs, nodding her head in agreement.
Uncle John
Due to my flu and calligraphy class, Heidi got Uncle John (Rateliff) to baby sit her a couple of times recently. He's already introduced her to anime, in particular, the dance sequence featured HERE. Initially, he tried to get her to watch the storyline, but she kept insisting on going back to the dance sequence. She's been watching a few other musicals with us: The Aristocats, The Jungle Book, and Lilo & Stich. But, she managed to push the wrong buttons on the DVD player and we have yet to undo the damage. So no videos for a while.
Heidi is starting to remember other people outside the family, attaching them to their pets. If sees their picture or in person, she now says "Katkat." She loved spending time at Auntie Kate's and Uncle Jeff's (The Grubbs) over the holidays, because it meant many trips to the upstairs bedroom to pet the cats.
One
Spontaneously held up one finger earlier this month. Has done it many times since. We're working on 2 next, since she'll be 2 soon.
Climbing
She's been climbing things like a fiend. Our bed, the couches, stairs, on the booster seat. She's our little monkey.
Pictures
Almost every day, sometimes several times a day, she insists on looking at pictures of herself (by pointing to herself) or online photos in the local Seattle P-I.
Hawaii
We've been talking about Hawai'i for a couple of months, and she knows about turtles, birds, swimming, and some of the things we'll be doing. We've got a list of stuff to buy there like a hula skirt and sand toys. She's not at the point where she's really anticipating the trip, though. Same with Christmas.
Christmas
Loved the tree. She was fairly careful, though we kept the breakables higher than her reach. She wanted to unwrap everything once we showed her how it was done. That was more exciting that what was inside.
A few of the packages had chocolate on them, which she discovered before we did. She happily smeared it all over her face while we surruptitiously tried to remove any more chocolate so she didn't get sick.
She was still too young to really anticipate Christmas or worry when we were done unwrapping things. Is suspect this will be the last year she'll let us sleep in, though.
M&Ms and cupcakes
Went to several Chrismtas parties including one at Uncle John's house where she discovered M&M's. Now she can recognize them from their wrapping at the store. She also enjoyed petting the bunny at iamnikchick's as well as the two parties we had at our house.
Besides the M&Ms, she also enjoyed the cupcake carnage at our house. Cupcakes are featured in Kevin Henkes' book, Julius's Candy Corn, which she loves reading. To paraphrase from there, "No cupcakes!," said mom mom, "They're for the party!" Julius proceeds to eat the candy corn off the top, but he doesn't eat any cupcakes.
Playdate
While I've been at calligraphy class, Heidi went twice to a day care and twice to a drop-off play arena called Dizzy's bus stop. My class time interferes with going to the playgroup that was assembled from the birth group.
Update on potty training
Found size 6 diapers -- lifesavers. Wait until we're back from Hawaii. Set up toddler bed soon. So ready, she changes her stuffed animals.
Lies
Heidi is already able to lie, though she rarely does it. Usually it's only when she shakes her head NO to say she's not stinky when she needs a diaper change.
Grown-ups
Heidi calls any grown woman a mom mom and any grown man a pop pop. She does understand the difference between her particular set of parents and the general populace, though. Also, anytime she sees a big animal with a small one, she refers to the smaller as "Bebe" and the larger as either Mommom or Poppop.
About two weeks ago we were driving around. Heidi sounded a bit annoyed that we were still in the car, so I explained that we were looking for a gas station. She promptly made some very excited noises that made me turn around. She was pointing out the window at, yes you guessed it, a gas station. And looking between it and me to get me to pull in. I had been thinking about the gas station up the street that was cheaper that I hadn't noticed my surroundings. I had to explain that yes, that was a gas station and good that she saw it. Then I went on and explained we were going to a different one, which she did understand and stopped looking at me as if I were crazy to not be turning the car into the one we were at.
Puppup and Camel
Heidi really loves several of her very small animals by Playmobilel and Schreicht. She frequently takes puppup on adventures including moving his snack bowl and his dog house around. He's best friends with the Schreicht camel, and they frequently smooch both each other and me on the cheek.
Colors
Heidi knows great deal of her colors. I did a drop-off day care, and they were amazed at how well she did at color and animal recognition already. She likes looking at a mosaic tabletop we have and pointing out the colors as I call them out.
Bed
Right before I came down with the flu, about a month ago, I put Heidi down for her nap. She got a very focused look on her face, grabbed the railing of her crib and hoisted herself over and out. Hoping that it was just a fluke, I immediately put her back in and shut the door. It wasn't. She managed to get out in a few seconds flat. So much for a gradual transition to the toddler bed.
We had just bought a toddler bed, so Wolf managed to get it up that weekend. So far, she mostly prefers lying down by the door so she can cry MOMOM and put her fingers underneath. She also spends a great deal of time playing around instead of napping during the day. The worst thing, though, is since it broke her routine, she now goes to sleep later, moving final bedtime from 7:20ish to 8 or later. And naptime has moved from 1 p.m. to either 2 or 3, too. It is just enough to really wear both of us out and disable the nightly caretaker from having enough time to really do a project or go out walking, so it's having a BIG effect on both of us.
Hand signals to songs
Heidi knows the hand signals to many, many songs now thanks to the music class she's been regularly taking for about a year. She often uses these outside of the song, like the horn movement from "Wheels on the Bus" when she hears honking.
She also uses hand signals to let us know which song she wants us to sing or play on her DVD player. (Side note: the DVD player is the single best toy we bought.) She is way into "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands" and anything else she hears frequently in music class. Auntie Kate bought us a bunch of these songs, and they always go over well. Sometimes the nursery rhymes are good, too. Caught her singing along to U2's, "I Still Don't Know What I"m Looking For" in the car the other day; she gets frequent doses of my music whenever we're driving around. She's a good influence on me, because I make sure I keep the music down more than I would if on my own.
Carnage!
Besides the regular toddler vocabular, and the D&D monster vocabulary, and the song vocabulary, we've been adding important SAT words like CARNAGE. We frequently point out when she's in the middle of creating carnage and she always laughs and laughs, nodding her head in agreement.
Uncle John
Due to my flu and calligraphy class, Heidi got Uncle John (Rateliff) to baby sit her a couple of times recently. He's already introduced her to anime, in particular, the dance sequence featured HERE. Initially, he tried to get her to watch the storyline, but she kept insisting on going back to the dance sequence. She's been watching a few other musicals with us: The Aristocats, The Jungle Book, and Lilo & Stich. But, she managed to push the wrong buttons on the DVD player and we have yet to undo the damage. So no videos for a while.
Heidi is starting to remember other people outside the family, attaching them to their pets. If sees their picture or in person, she now says "Katkat." She loved spending time at Auntie Kate's and Uncle Jeff's (The Grubbs) over the holidays, because it meant many trips to the upstairs bedroom to pet the cats.
One
Spontaneously held up one finger earlier this month. Has done it many times since. We're working on 2 next, since she'll be 2 soon.
Climbing
She's been climbing things like a fiend. Our bed, the couches, stairs, on the booster seat. She's our little monkey.
Pictures
Almost every day, sometimes several times a day, she insists on looking at pictures of herself (by pointing to herself) or online photos in the local Seattle P-I.
Hawaii
We've been talking about Hawai'i for a couple of months, and she knows about turtles, birds, swimming, and some of the things we'll be doing. We've got a list of stuff to buy there like a hula skirt and sand toys. She's not at the point where she's really anticipating the trip, though. Same with Christmas.
Christmas
Loved the tree. She was fairly careful, though we kept the breakables higher than her reach. She wanted to unwrap everything once we showed her how it was done. That was more exciting that what was inside.
A few of the packages had chocolate on them, which she discovered before we did. She happily smeared it all over her face while we surruptitiously tried to remove any more chocolate so she didn't get sick.
She was still too young to really anticipate Christmas or worry when we were done unwrapping things. Is suspect this will be the last year she'll let us sleep in, though.
M&Ms and cupcakes
Went to several Chrismtas parties including one at Uncle John's house where she discovered M&M's. Now she can recognize them from their wrapping at the store. She also enjoyed petting the bunny at iamnikchick's as well as the two parties we had at our house.
Besides the M&Ms, she also enjoyed the cupcake carnage at our house. Cupcakes are featured in Kevin Henkes' book, Julius's Candy Corn, which she loves reading. To paraphrase from there, "No cupcakes!," said mom mom, "They're for the party!" Julius proceeds to eat the candy corn off the top, but he doesn't eat any cupcakes.
Playdate
While I've been at calligraphy class, Heidi went twice to a day care and twice to a drop-off play arena called Dizzy's bus stop. My class time interferes with going to the playgroup that was assembled from the birth group.
Update on potty training
Found size 6 diapers -- lifesavers. Wait until we're back from Hawaii. Set up toddler bed soon. So ready, she changes her stuffed animals.
Lies
Heidi is already able to lie, though she rarely does it. Usually it's only when she shakes her head NO to say she's not stinky when she needs a diaper change.
Grown-ups
Heidi calls any grown woman a mom mom and any grown man a pop pop. She does understand the difference between her particular set of parents and the general populace, though. Also, anytime she sees a big animal with a small one, she refers to the smaller as "Bebe" and the larger as either Mommom or Poppop.