When bloggers unite....

This morning Paige and I went to meet some new friends (Cara and her daughter Leyla) at a drop in play group. We met through our blogs, and after months of exchanging blog comments decided to get together. You could call it a blind play-date (except I knew who to look out for from the pictures on the blog...and felt like I knew a lot about them, so I suppose it wasn't a blind play-date at all). And there was one time over a year ago when I saw them in a drugstore, knowing very well that I recognized them from the blog, but didn't say anything since that would come across and stalkerish and strange since I didn't even know they lived in Burlington, and I hadn't introduced myself as a reader online. How weird is that?

But anyway, it was fun to meet some new friends since we have been reading about them for a long time! Unfortunately the drop in place was a zoo, and looked like a daycare from Hell with kids running all over the place (it was in a church though so I guess I shouldn't say that). It's really nice that they offer these things for free though, and even have crafts and circle time.

I normally do a lot of cleaning on Friday afternoons, but instead I'm blogging and banking online. The reason for this lack of cleaning can be attributed to the following: We have a door mat in our house that I had never cleaned before. I'm embarrassed to say that I thought it was something that you used until it was too dirty and then threw out. Well, apparently it can be cleaned. After I washed it and then had to clean both the washer and dryer from 3 years worth of mess from the mat, it was spotless. Now our hardwood floor is immaculate since Paige isn't traipsing dirt all over the place. I was about to mop and thought, "what's the point??". Now I will just wait till Paige is up so I can do jobs that might, God forbid, wake her up.

Paige is off to a sleepover tonight so Mike and I can go out with Amanda and James for dinner. I promise at some point over the weekend I'll take some Paige pictures and put them up since I have been seriously slacking lately.

Boy vs. Girl

It dawned on me the other day that I could try to teach Paige boy vs. girl. So I said "Paige--girl, mommy--girl, daddy--boy". And then I name off other people and she guesses if they are a boy or girl. I say guesses because I'm not quite sure she has grasped the concept of gender yet. She said "Tyson Boy!" right away, but has gotten mixed up a couple of other times. I think she can basically understand it, she just needs to get the words memorized. Now I often find her pointing to herself and saying "Paige girl", or saying it as she is in her crib.

Next semester...

I keep referring to each round of sessions of programs for Paige as "semesters". haha. So next semester we have Diaper Fit on Tuesday morning, Water Stars on Wednesdays at 5:30, Our Special Time on Thursday mornings, and Tumble Tots on Friday mornings. That should keep us busy. Add in grocery shopping and playdates, and we're good to go! I felt like we could do with one more thing (gymnastics is new) since Paige wakes up so early now and by the time 9:00 hits she has played with most of her toys and done a craft (and watched a Dora or Wonder Pets). I don't feel like I need to get her any more toys since I know she won't play with them. She just likes getting out of the house and seeing new things and burning off energy on slides and that sort of thing. Summer will be great for that when we can just go outside. I've been looking into kids tables or a sandbox for outside. I'm thinking we need something for her outside that has an umbrella. Our backyard has sun for the entire day. But anyway, we've got a lot of time to think about that.

Back to the toys though. When I see her at Our Special Time, her favourite thing to do when she is in a room filled with toys is collect things. She will find anything matching...like these coloured ball things. She will then walk around with all of them at once. Or get the baby stroller and push them around. This is the exact same thing that she does at home. So I'm not seeing anything new in the way of toys that I have to get her. Actually, I think she could do with a new puzzle. I like that...educational, easy to store, lasts for a long time.

Trip to the zoo.....

We decided to go to the zoo this past weekend since it wouldn't be busy and I had a super long week with the "no napping malarkey". We had a fantastic day, and there were only ever about 3 other people looking at each exhibit. Paige said hi and bye to all of the animals. We spent around 3 hours at the zoo and Paige slept in the car on the way there and back, so she was in good spirits all day. I think her favourite part was walking around on her own in the pavillions. The floors were inclining and declining and she kept saying "climb climb climb!!!". She got enough walking in that she didn't mind going back in the stroller every so often for a rest.

We had a nap!!!

Woohoo! Yesterday I tried a different approach and brought Paige upstairs right after lunch and put her to bed. She fell asleep right away and slept for 2 hours! I'm trying really hard not to get my hopes up and think that she will nap every day now. I'll continue to try the nap right after lunch. What's the worst that could happen? She won't nap. Well that was happening anyway.

She has been spending a lot of time practicing talking (probably why she isn't napping), and I have noticed that she has started to make up sentences on her own rather than repeat them. For instance, she saw some paints on the top of my desk and said, "mommy reaching paints?" when she wanted me to get them for her. I thought this was pretty smart! Normally it would be "PAINTS! PAINTS!".

Not sure if I mentioned this in a previous post, but I'll mention it again. Paige has been perfect. No tantruming happening at all! Even despite the no naps. I''ll take the no naps over tantruming anyday. At least we can go places in a civilized manner.

No naps....

Paige has had 1 nap this week. If I put her in her crib she just talks and eventually calls for me and yells OUT OUT OUT! DOWN DOWN DOWN MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY......etc, etc.

I refuse to believe this is it for the naps....but 1 nap this week? She's also starting to get mad when I bring her to her room to get ready for her nap since she knows I will make her go in her crib.

Shape Sorting and Counting...

Painting....

I think she may have a little Great Grandpa Leon or Uncle Chris in her!!

This tadoodles brand of craft supplies is usually really good on the mess factor. Her stamps can drop on the ground and nothing happens. These paints were a different story, and I realize she is wearing a completely innapropriate sweater for painting. I thought they would be far less messy. But on the plus side, they wash right out, and she loved them.

Commenting....

I just had to turn my comment moderation on since my blog was just spammed 7 times with advertising comments. So that is why you have to complete the word verification if you are leaving a comment...annoying but apparently neccesary....

Peanut butter sandwich....

That's what Paige had for lunch. Since she doesn't get much protein I was hoping to introduce peanut butter into her diet, but was worried for obvious reasons. After concurring that in neither Mike's family or mine do we have ANY allergies, I decided it was probably safe. Also, in the summer she held peanuts in their shell numerous times while feeding chipmunks...this should have been clue #1.

The other day I put a tiny bit of peanut butter on her lip and nothing happened. Then yesterday I put a thin layer on a banana. Today I decided to go for the full blown sandwich.

I think when I was in school I had a peanut butter sandwich for lunch for about 5 or so years. I guess Paige won't be doing that.

Attitude adjustment....

Paige has been infinitely better this past week. No temper tantrums, and few crying angry episodes. For the most part, she has been very agreeable. We were out buying some diapers at Snuggle Bugz yesterday and she was interested in the toys. I let her walk around for a bit, and when it was time to go I asked her to hold my hand so we could leave. NO NO NO and starts to squirm away from me. I asked her if she would like to go to the fishie store (the aquarium store next door--which was our next stop anyway). Ok she says, and grabs my hand. So this example is pretty typical of our past week. Any time she starts to lose it, she is easily reeled back in. Knock on wood.

It was funny....at the aquarium store there are some tanks that are really low to the ground, a perfect height for Paige. She was running around looking at the fish saying "COOOOOL".

It's only this week, too, where she has cooperated with hand holding for the most part. Before that it was often "NO!". Today when we were done at the indoor playground (she was ready to go and walked to the gate all on her own), I told her that mommy had to use the bathroom. She held my hand all the way through the playground to the washroom and back to the front door.

AND, her appetite has increased immensely. She is now onto breakfast, 2 morning snacks and a full lunch. I think she can probably have a snack before her nap as well since she is going down later. She can't get enough of fruit either. Afternoon snack and dinner have been good too. I'm really really happy that she is eating now. It was painful to have no food options and watch her pick away at the same old things every meal.

On a less positive note she is waking up more at night. Ugh. Yelling things too. Like AWAY, NUM NUM, and NO. It is kind of frustrating, and I am really thinking about putting the bumper pads back in. Sigh....

No time for blogging...

I have begun to read "Twilight". If you have ever read this book you will understand why I do not have time for blogging. When Paige is sleeping, I quickly get chores done and settle down in the living room with a tea, a baby bell cheese (not sure why this item), and Edward...er I mean my book. Sorry Mike.

However, Paige is not cooperating today and is still not asleep, hence the blogging. It is too hard for me to read when I can hear her chatting away. She is still unable to settle herself, and once she stands up she needs me to go in her room eventually to lay her down and give her a soother from the floor. I can only hope that she will sleep and I can get in at least an hour of prime reading time. My only concern is that at the moment I can hear her saying "climb climb climb". Good thing she's too short to get out. The other word I am hearing is "away"...which leads me to believe she's saying "put my num nums away"....as in, I'm done with this non-existent nap.

Here are 2 pictures from today of Paige playing with a number puzzle that she loves...she actually smiled and said "cheese" for this first one since she overheard someone else doing that this morning.

So far so good!

Having a really good day! No crying of any sort so far!

Yesterday we made a trip to Ikea to get Paige a tent and a craft table. Upon bringing the tent home to out house, we discovered it is massive. But we're not going to keep it up all the time, and when it folds up it is super small. You have to watch her while she plays in it to make sure she doesn't dive bomb into the sides or anything, since it might get wrecked/fall over. But it will be fun to play with in the summer on the grass. I love the igloo look.

We also bought Paige an art table since we found we had nowhere to use her stamps, or do any colouring upstairs. It is a nice sturdy table that will last her forever. I'll post a picture once we get the matching chairs that were out of stock. Now she's pretty set for a while. She doesn't have a ton of toys, and the ones she has she gets good use of. A super great buy recently was a wooden numbers puzzle. She is really interested in learning numbers and she loves doing the puzzle.

Here are a few pics from Friday when I babysat Amy.

This next picture makes me laugh. It looks like Amy has just been caught by Paige (on the left) while stuffing her monkey down the toilet. Or, as Katharine said, it looks like the monkey is being sick in the toilet while Amy helps. I took the picture without the flash which is why it is a bit blurry, but I think that adds to the effect.

Sick

On Monday I started feeling slightly odd, and Paige was definitely not eating very much. Yesterday I could barely get out of bed and wanted to sleep all day. Let's just say that Paige was blowing out diapers left right and center. Since she ate no more than a bit of applesauce yesterday and no breakfast this morning I took her to the doctor. On cue in the doctor's office she says "snacK!? SNACK!!??"and proceeds to eat some arrowroot cookies. The doctor checked her out and said we probably both had a Norwalk-like virus that comes and goes quickly. I'm still not feeling perfectly normal, but have no desire to sleep or anything like that. I just have a small appetite, and didn't even drink my mandatory 2 cups of coffee this morning. Paige ate barely any lunch but then wanted a snack before her nap. Soooo it looks like we're on the upswing! Until we can be sure that it is gone though we have to skip our activities this week. :(

Paige has been making me laugh lately with wanting to change the words of "row row row your boat" to "row row row your Amy". As I start singing that version she yells Tyson! and I have to insert Tyson for Amy, and then she yells Katharine! Earlier we heard a plane overhead and she says "Oh plane!"", then says "row row tyson plane". What?? too funny.