I love how excited Munchkin gets about little things sometimes.   Like toast.  It's one of her favorite foods.

"Toast and margarine? Yay!  I'll get the margarine, and you get the knife!"

Then generally she will take off to her room with the margarine yelling "call me when you need the margarine" as she goes.

If I don't chase after her and get it back right away, she will then proceed to take the lid off and eat it with her fingers.  Yuck.  She also likes what follows that though.

"Let's go wash my hands.  I can reach now!"

Her new stool is about four inches taller than her old one was, so she can reach the knobs on the sink quite easily now to turn the water on and off by herself.  She's gone from hating to wash her hands to inventing excuses to wash them more often since the purchase of the new stool. 

Perhaps that's why she is once again eying the shelf where her fingerpaints sit mostly unused.  Finger painting has been one of the things that has always made her want to wash her hands even before she could reach easily by herself.  She hates having goopy fingers, but she thinks fingerpainting would be fun.  So we go through a cycle every few months where she talks me in to getting her fingerpaints out.  Then she gingerly sticks one finger in the pain and then it's 'wash my hands!  wash my hands!' and the fingerpaints are forgotten until the next time we go through the cycle. 

Today's latest temper tantrum: "I wanna go play hockey! I wanna go play hockey! I wanna go play hockey!"

M's comment: "At last! The words I've yearned to hear."

My comment: "Oh God. There go her teeth."

Then after M. left we were discussing how he wouldn't be home in time for bedtime and she had this to say:

"Daddy's going to bring me some new booze from the store!

Huh?!?!?!?!

When asked to repeat herself: "Daddy's going to bring me some new boots from the store."

Ah yes. That makes more sense considering she found last year's boots and tried them on just before dinner which lead to a discussion about how they were too small and we'd get her some new ones this week. But the first version just about killed me.

In other news, Baby Bear has a second tooth! Perhaps this is the reason for his recent spate of crankiness. He's also almost crawling, but not quite. He moves all over the floor by pushing with his hands which causes him to move backwards. He finds it quite frustrating when there is a toy just out of reach and his attempts to get it result in him moving farther away.

- woke up screaming this morning. When she finally calmed down, she told me that her bed had jumped up and down and there were "scary things" in her sheets. She didn't elaborate on the scary things then, but later when we phoned Daddy at work so she could tell him, she mentioned something about butterflies. I'm not sure if butterflies were the scary thing in her dream or what the connection was since he loves butterflies and often pretends to be one.

She was also burning up, poor girl.

She asked for tylenol, and it seemed to help, but she still has a bit of a fever. It's almost time for a second dose, but we brought her pillow and her favorite blanket out so she could be comfy on the coutch while watching DVDs, and she pulled them down to the floor where she is now fast asleep as The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ("Pooh Bear's Blue Balloon Movie" in the household vernacular) plays on.

And my poor little boy... he had to go in for his needles yesterday afternoon, and he was quite the unhappy little boy most of the night. I had thought it was the needles, but now I'm wondering if it wasn't just that he is getting a bit sick too and I hadn't noticed yet. He's back to being his normal happy self this morning though, other than having a bit of a stuffed up nose.

We were planning to take Munchkin swimming tomorrow. I was even considering taking the Baby Bear in too for his first swim (usually M takes Munchkin while Baby Bear and I stay home, these days). And then there was so much I wanted to get done around the house. Now I'm thinking, so much for those plans.

I hate it when my poor little babies. On the other hand, one small selfish part of me is glad that Munchkin is sleeping on the floor at the moment instead of bouncing around and wanting me to play with her and take her places, because I am just so tired. Sick kids at night are a horror, but sick kids during the day can be a bit restful, at times.

She really, really wants to play with her finger paints.

But she hates to get her fingers goopy.

This is causing her much angst.

"Want some toast, Sean? Noooooooo, babies don't eat toast. Morgans eat toast 'cause they're big girls!"

Okay, it doesn't look like much typed out like that.  But it was just so cute the way it happened.

All too soon Seans are going to be big boys eating solid food too.  Where did my little baby go?

Earlier, when it was still daytime and not long after I should have gone to bed, Munchkin brought her alphabet magnets over from the fridge one by one to be identified.  It went like this:

Munchkin: I find letter R.

Me: No, sweetie, that's actually a letter B.  B is for boy.  And ball.

Munchkin: I find letter.

Me: That's an H.  H is for hat.

Munchkin: I wear hat on my head! Where's my hat?

and a moment later...

Munchkin: I find letter R.

Me: That's right!  R is for Rain.

Munchkin: Tut tut, looks like rain. Where's my umbrella?

and an umbrella plus a few other letters later...

Munckin: I find letter.

Me: That's a U.  U is for umbrella.  And underwear.

Munchkin: I wear underwear on my BUM!

She's right.  My big girl wears underwear now.  And what's more, she's had no accidents today or yesterday or the day before.  The day before that is best not spoken of.

She's actually been without a diaper for quite a bit of the last few weeks, but just when we've been at home and when we've been letting her run around nude - it's been a bit hot.  Three days ago was the first day she's actually worn clothing without a diaper - thus the confusion on that day which resulted in a bit of a mess - but now she's got the hang of it quite well.

I think she'd have been potty trained quite a bit earlier if not for the disruption of the new baby,  but I'm actually glad that it took this long.  She did it when she was really ready, and if we'd pushed it before, I'm sure there would have been many more accidents.  Also, I'll admit, diapers have just plain been easier for me.  She can wait a bit for a diaper change if I'm in the middle of something when she needs one.  On the other hand, she can't wait so well when she needs to use the bathroom, and she's still too little to take herself, so I feel I have to drop whatever I'm doing and rush.  And she has a great talent for needing to go right as I'm getting my sweet baby boy down for a nap.  This has resulted him not going down when he needed to (he wakes up all the way when I put him down to help her, and then usually I can't get him back to sleep again for a long time) and the poor boy has been quite cranky from lack of good sleep during the day.

We have't tried underwear out of the house yet though - at least not any farther than our backyard or the park right behind us - and I'm quite nervous about that.  Munchkin has had a bad cold or a mild flu, and so we've been staying away from other kids so as not to spread the germs.  The thought of public restrooms are bad enough, but what about where there is none?  The park we usually go to is a bit of a walk from home, and there are no bathrooms there (the one behind us is very small and usually no other kids are there).  Is she going to be able to wait until we get home?  And what about when we go for long walks?

Looking back at what I've just written, I'm a little horrified by how many words I just devoted to potty training.  Even worse - how much discussion and praise and angst there's been in my household due to it lately!  I'm so proud of my big girl, but oh my, does it ever take over everything.

And if I hadn't crossed over before, I think this puts me over the edge, and this is officially one of those bogs.
In other news, I haven't had a good night's sleep in ages, thanks to certain sick kids who aren't sleeping well either.  I really should be in bed now.  But Angel is on, and it's the one from the last season where they go to Italy to save Buffy from the Immortal... and... and... I love that one.  Oooh, it's the part where Illeria pretends to be Fred now for Fred's parents.  That was a bit hearbreaking the first time I saw it. How am I supposed to go to bed before it's over?

It's called self control and will power or responsibility.  Whatever it is, I guess I lack it, because I'm still watching.

From the description and other bits, does anyone else think the Immortal is supposed to be Duncan McLeod?  Sort of a joke or homage or something?  I can't remember if it was a hundred and fifty years or not, but McLeod did spend some time in a Tibetan Monestary, didn't he?  It's been ages since I've seen Highlander, and my memory is terrible.

Hee.  Now Angel just said "I'm not riding on the back," and Spike said, "he's getting away!"  and the look on Angel's face when he does climb on behind Spike.  I love this show!  Stupid, idiotic network for canceling it.

You'd think that getting two kids ready to go out would take about twice as long as getting one kid ready.  You would be wrong.  It really takes about five times as long.  Thus we were a few minutes late to Sean's two-week checkup this morning.

He's doing great though.  He weighed eight pounds and seven ounces which is one pound and three ounces more than his birthweight.  Of course, he was wearing a cloth diaper for this weighing, so really he had probably only gained an ounce or so less than a pound.  That's still doing quite good for exactly two weeks.

One of these days I'm going to have to think up and Internet nickname for him.  It doesn't seem quite right that he gets called by his real name while Munchkin is Munchkin.  Alas, I am stuck for a name.  Oh well.

Speaking of Munchkin, she did not want to leave the doctor's office today because there were lots of toys there.  I haven't been getting her out enough, poor girl.

The toys are one nice part of seening a real pediatrician.  Our family doctor has aboslutely none.  And the waiting rooms at the family doctor's office is horrible and the miniscule exam rooms barely leave you enough room to stand beside the exam table.  I chose our family doctor because she was the closest one accepting new patients when we moved to this house, but I'm thinking I need to find a new one just so I don't have to go in that horrible office again.

Also, the ped gets points for having a poster with Health Canada breastfeeding guidelines (no solids for six months, breastfeed for two years or beyond) on the wall of the nice big, toy filled exame room.

- who doesn't have a gym membership.

That's right. My two-year-old has a gym membership. Hee!

It's funny to say it, but really it makes sense. Last night we headed over for M. to sign up for a membership at a new gym (he hasn't had one in a few months), and they have an indoor playground. We need to get poor Munchkin out to play more, so we thought we could go along when he works out and play there (too cold outside!). But the cost per visit was rather high and the cost for a child's memberhsip was so low that three visits without a membership would come to more than the monthly fee. So now my two-year-old has her first picture ID card and a gym membership.

She needs a membership to play, but I don't need one to watch, so no membership for me. It's not as if I'll be up to doing much in the way of working out for quite a while.

But the gym also has a leisure pool, so perhaps I'll have to pay for a visit sometime and get some more use out of my maternity swimsuit before I no longer need it. The pool by us where she had swim lessons is closed for maintenance until March, so I didn't think I'd be able to take her swimming again for a long time.

But a two-year-old with a gym membership. What a strange place this world is.

Rising sometime in the early morning hours for a snack the other day, I thought that as long as I was up, I might as well check on my daughter. This is what I found:



Silly girl!

Our schedule - which has never been good - has become absolutely horrific after being messed up first by all the travel and then by a slight cold which kept waking Munchkin up. She slept in rather late today, and as she often skips naps these days, I thought perhaps she would skip and we could go to bed at a decent hour.

Not so. She was so tired that she fell asleep around five and slept and slept and slept and slept. I should have woken her up, but I'm not feeling that well myself, so I enjoyed the quiet instead. She slept until a little after nine.

Oh am I paying now. I'm tired and my head aches and I just want to go to bed, but she is still up and going strong. Just a bit ago she pulled her swimsuit/wetsuit off the top of her chest of drawers, where I'd left it, and insisted I help her into it. Now she's happily dancing around in it, cute girl.

I have a feeling that there will be a temper tantrum in a couple of minutes when I make her take it off so we can try for "beddybye."

Munchkin is fascinated by the water outside the window, but she keeps saying she wants to go swimming and won't believe us that the water is too cold.

Christmas was good. The flight down here was fine though we accidently made off with the airline's seatbelt extender that we used to install the carseat as it got caught up in the bottom of the carseat and I didn't notice until I went to install it in my parents' car. Oh well. We'll give it back when we fly home - but that will be just a little embarassing.

I'll update more when we are back in Portland tonight. We're almost to Seattle now.

This trip is so short. We fly home on Friday :(

The waves did not go over well Thursday night. We retreated to the safety of the calm, warm teaching pool pretty quickly because Munchkin was freaking out. Most of our class did the same. Only the two oldest toddlers - who must have been pretty close to three years of age if not more - stayed in the big pool. They seemed to have a great time. Perhaps when Munchkin is a little older and a little less timid (she still won't put her face in the water) she'll enjoy them too.

The older kids in the other classes erupted in cheers when the buzzer sounded meaning the waves were about to turned on.

Munchkin enjoyed swimming for the most part though, and I am sad that the course is over. I'd like to sign her up for another one right away or even just take her to the open swims (where we'd probably spend most of the time in the warm pool since they do turn on the waves for half the time in the big pool - and we get cold there anyway), but alas, they are closing the pool for maintenance during January and February. And in March, well, I don't think I'm going to be up for swimming for a while after that. Perhaps in the summer though if we can find a class on the weekend or late enough that M could join us after work to watch the baby. Or he could even take her.

I don't know why it took me this long to take her swimming to begin with. I wish I'd started her younger.

"Wow, busy day here," said a man coming in the door behind me as we entered the doctors' waiting room and saw that there was only a couple of empty seats. It was apparently his girlfriend's/wife's/whatever's first visit.

Meanwhile I was thinking "thank goodness, a relatively slow day."

The waiting room is stuffed so full of chairs that another couldn't possibly fit in. There is a sign on the wall asking men to allow the pregnant ladies to sit. Still there are usually at least a few women who have to stand, and the men often can't fit in the waiting room standing and so end up crammed into the entry way between the outer and inner doors or even outside.

I miss the doctor's office from last time where there was always plenty of places to sit and usually only a couple of patients waiting. They also had a neat little kid-sized table and chairs set up with toys and crayons and paper as well as the normal magazines and books. This office has no toys and only a couple of kids' books. Alas, it is only five minutes from here, while we've moved across town since I was last pregnant so it could take up to an hour in bad traffic if I used that doctor again.

Baby is fine with a heartbeat of 147, my blood pressure was nice and low, and best of all I passed my one hour test so I don't have to worry about gestational diabetes. On the downside, I now weigh three pounds more than I did when Munchkin was born. Ugh. And I still have almost three months to go. I'm reached the point where I am supposed to go in every two weeks now, though it will have to be three weeks until my next appointment since I will be out of town.

Off to find something for Munchkin and myself to eat, and then it will be time to head out for her last swimming session. I'm sad about that – she really enjoys them. And the pool close to me will be closed for maintenance during January and February, so we can't even go to open swims here. And then there will be the new baby keeping me busy, so who knows when I'll be up to taking her again.

The pool here is a recreational pool rather than the sort appropriate for laps and swim meets. It starts really shallow – like just step into it shallow and then gradually goes deep which is nice because even little kids like Munchkin can walk in on their own power and stand with their heads above water until they've made it quite far out.

It also has wave capabilities. On Tuesday the instructor told us that they would be turning the waves on for eight minutes tonight! I'm wondering what Munchkin is going to think of that. I suspect it won't go over well, but the instructor said that if any of the kids get really upset we are free to leave and head over to the shallow, warm kiddie pool which Munchkin loves, so it will be fine in either case.

I'm pretty good about marking the calendar with Munckin's big achievements - laughing, sitting, walking, teeth coming in, etc. - but not so good with some of the little things. And really, the little things may not be such a big deal, but they are special anyway.

So today Munchkin peeled an orange for herself for the first time.

She bit through the peel first then used her little fingers to pry it off. Of course she left the peel in little pieces all over and made a big mess.

It's not much. It's not big. But it is just another sign that my baby isnt' really a baby any more.

On Tuesday Munchkin and I made our way to the pool and changed into our suits for her first swim lesson. Our second mistake (the first was that she didn't have a nap that day) was to change in one of those small privacy rooms so that she couldn't run off rather than changing in the main changing area. For all that she loves climbing into our lower cabinets and closing the door after herself, she hates small rooms. Crying ensued.

Then I forced my poor girl to have a pre-swim shower as pool rules require. She used to be okay with showering, but for some reason, she is terrified of the shower now. This brought on more crying.

All in all, it was not a happy girl who entered the pool last Tuesday.

She cried for the first part then calmed down. Still, she was so cold that she was shaking terribly, and she didn't seem to enjoy herself. At least not until the instructor had us move from the big pool to the kiddie pool which is kept quite warm. She loved that so much that she threw a temper tantrum when it was time to get out.

I swore an oath to myself that she would have a nap before her next lesson on Thursday.

Alas, on Thursday I didn't get seen for my 2:15 appointment until nearly 4:00 because the doctor had to deliver a baby. By the time we got home and I got her down for her nap, poor Munchkin only had about fifteen minutes to sleep before I had to wake her up to get ready to go. Fortunately even a short nap can do wonders, and she was a much happier girl at the start of her lesson and seemed to enjoy herself quite a bit, though she still protests when asked to float on her back (with help, of course).

The only bad part was that by the halfway point of the lesson in the big pool she was shivering and shaking again. She still seemed to be having fun, but I felt bad seeing her so cold. Moving to the warm pool was nice, but she started shaking again just as soon as we got out and headed back to the changing room.

So this afternoon we bought her one of these. We got the blue one you see if you hover over "SEA." It was forty-four dollars after tax, but it will be so worth it if it ends the terrible shivering. We also thought to get the most value out of it by buying one slightly too big – room to grow – and unisex so our son should be able to wear it when he's older. After, you know, he's born since he's still fo negative age at the moment.

So now we just have to wait until next Tuesday to see how it works. And she will be having a good long nap before this lesson.

It's winter again. I can hear that familiar scrape, scrape, scrape as my neighbor across the street shovels her walk.

It's not really the first snow - that was a few days ago, but it was a piddly little thing that didn't stick, so I'm not counting it. Now we have about an inch on the ground from last night.

We haven't bought Munchkin new boots yet, but I think she can still squeeze into last year's, though they are a little too small. So later I'm going to have to take her out and see what she thinks of the snow. Last year she wouldn't even walk in it - she would just stand there until we came and picked her up or cried if we didn't come fast enough.

This year she's older though, so I hope she has fun. I just have to get her out there while it is still shallow enough.