Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Weekly Bible Verse
There is no one holy like the LORD;
there is no one besides You;
there is no Rock like our God.
there is no one besides You;
there is no Rock like our God.
1 Samuel 2:2
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Have we entered the teenage years already?!
My little girl has developed an attitude. I have no idea where it came from ;-) She has begun screeching to get our attention, which is lovely when we're out in public. I always said I wouldn't be one of those parents who try to reason with their young kids mid-tantrum, but for some reason I do. I'll start trying to explain why now is not the time, and then realize...hey, I'm talking to a 20 month old. She doesn't care. She also apparently didn't get the memo that she is supposed to listen and obey. Every time. Don't get me wrong, she's not a terrible child. Nick and I are very sensitive to her behavior, because it's important to us that she, you know, behave. And she really does seem to act like she's about the turn 13. I can only imagine what I have to look forward to.
It has been amazing for us to watch her development. She's her own little person now, with distinct likes and dislikes, and moods and preferences. She's still a picky eater, but it's not as bad as it was. We're introducing new foods at dinner, and she usually looks at it, touches it, plays around with putting it on the fork or spoon, and sometimes will even put in up to her mouth. After several attempts, I was successful at getting her to eat some corn. Then the next time she wouldn't touch it. She is so stubborn...she is her mother's child. Tonight I put her green beans in her pudding, and she ate it up. I also fixed fish sticks, which she loved (please don't judge...I spent many an hour fixing homemade meals, only for her to dump her plate on the floor. Convenience foods are my friend). She has gotten pretty good at feeding herself with a spoon, but still needs to master the fork. Which is ok, because the fork foods can also be eaten with fingers. There are some meals now that she can entirely self-feed. It has made my life so much easier.
Her communication skills continue to amaze us. She has been repeating most everything we say for awhile now, but she has picked up the meaning on a lot of the words and phrases now. She says "I sorry" all the time, but we didn't think she knew what it meant. But just this week, she's started saying it when she spills food or drops something. It is so sweet. She is saying sentences, albeit short ones. When she is looking for something, she raises her arms and asks "Is?" to ask where it is. She asks for specific foods and drinks, especially milk, water, fish (goldfish), chicken, pudding, oatmeal, yogurt, muffins, and grapes. I can hum Rock a Bye Baby, and when I'm done she asks for "more baby." Her favorite song is WKU's fight song (told you she's her mother's daughter...I am unspeakable proud), which she calls "Red Red" (her name for Big Red). Anytime she sees anything related to WKU, she yells "Red Red...yay!" She can see one of my Western t-shirts, a red towel, a cup from a game...and she just claps and gets excited. I am so happy that she loves Big Red so much. I think I have a theme for her 2nd birthday party! It's just unreal to us how much she is able to communicate to us, and how clearly she does it.
She is still in that phase of wanting so badly to be independent, yet at the same time, scared to let me or Nick out of her sight. You can literally see in her face that conflict that is going on inside her...it's funny to watch her think about things. She is beginning to become a little shy with strangers, though not always. Some days she still says hi to everyone we see, others she stays quiet. I always feel like I have to make an excuse if she doesn't respond, which is stupid. She has also finally started to form attachments to other people, besides just me and Nick. She knows her grandparents names, and seems to get excited when we tell her she's going to visit. She usually will let them pick her up now, and hasn't cried the last few times we've left her with one of them. She loves my sister, and will just stare at her. She always asks to sit in her lap. She's also pretty attached to one of the girls in the nursery at church. Which has made it easier for us to leave her, unless she's not there yet. Then it's a toss up as to what she'll do.
I've been trying to work with her for a few minutes each day on some specific learning activities. We started with the letter A (uppercase), which she will now recognize (if she wants to...her attention span is still not so long). We read alphabet books, watched some videos, sang some songs, colored, and even painted and made our own apple shaker. She loves to paint...anything but the object she's supposed to be painting! That's how she prefers to color to. Thank goodness for those Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. We also have casually started working on numbers. I count with her to 10 whenever I can, and she will now say three after I have counted one and two. When I started counting, she will start putting up fingers, and pointing at things to count. She is also able to recognize her name. I try to write it out for her a lot so she sees it. I am honestly amazed how fast she is able to learn new things. I think babies and young kids are so awesome...I know at my age, I seem to be losing knowledge, not gaining any more. Ha, maybe that's just me.
Sorry this has been such a long post, but it has been so incredible to watch her development and growth in just a few short weeks. She literally learns something every day.
It has been amazing for us to watch her development. She's her own little person now, with distinct likes and dislikes, and moods and preferences. She's still a picky eater, but it's not as bad as it was. We're introducing new foods at dinner, and she usually looks at it, touches it, plays around with putting it on the fork or spoon, and sometimes will even put in up to her mouth. After several attempts, I was successful at getting her to eat some corn. Then the next time she wouldn't touch it. She is so stubborn...she is her mother's child. Tonight I put her green beans in her pudding, and she ate it up. I also fixed fish sticks, which she loved (please don't judge...I spent many an hour fixing homemade meals, only for her to dump her plate on the floor. Convenience foods are my friend). She has gotten pretty good at feeding herself with a spoon, but still needs to master the fork. Which is ok, because the fork foods can also be eaten with fingers. There are some meals now that she can entirely self-feed. It has made my life so much easier.
Her communication skills continue to amaze us. She has been repeating most everything we say for awhile now, but she has picked up the meaning on a lot of the words and phrases now. She says "I sorry" all the time, but we didn't think she knew what it meant. But just this week, she's started saying it when she spills food or drops something. It is so sweet. She is saying sentences, albeit short ones. When she is looking for something, she raises her arms and asks "Is?" to ask where it is. She asks for specific foods and drinks, especially milk, water, fish (goldfish), chicken, pudding, oatmeal, yogurt, muffins, and grapes. I can hum Rock a Bye Baby, and when I'm done she asks for "more baby." Her favorite song is WKU's fight song (told you she's her mother's daughter...I am unspeakable proud), which she calls "Red Red" (her name for Big Red). Anytime she sees anything related to WKU, she yells "Red Red...yay!" She can see one of my Western t-shirts, a red towel, a cup from a game...and she just claps and gets excited. I am so happy that she loves Big Red so much. I think I have a theme for her 2nd birthday party! It's just unreal to us how much she is able to communicate to us, and how clearly she does it.
She is still in that phase of wanting so badly to be independent, yet at the same time, scared to let me or Nick out of her sight. You can literally see in her face that conflict that is going on inside her...it's funny to watch her think about things. She is beginning to become a little shy with strangers, though not always. Some days she still says hi to everyone we see, others she stays quiet. I always feel like I have to make an excuse if she doesn't respond, which is stupid. She has also finally started to form attachments to other people, besides just me and Nick. She knows her grandparents names, and seems to get excited when we tell her she's going to visit. She usually will let them pick her up now, and hasn't cried the last few times we've left her with one of them. She loves my sister, and will just stare at her. She always asks to sit in her lap. She's also pretty attached to one of the girls in the nursery at church. Which has made it easier for us to leave her, unless she's not there yet. Then it's a toss up as to what she'll do.
I've been trying to work with her for a few minutes each day on some specific learning activities. We started with the letter A (uppercase), which she will now recognize (if she wants to...her attention span is still not so long). We read alphabet books, watched some videos, sang some songs, colored, and even painted and made our own apple shaker. She loves to paint...anything but the object she's supposed to be painting! That's how she prefers to color to. Thank goodness for those Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. We also have casually started working on numbers. I count with her to 10 whenever I can, and she will now say three after I have counted one and two. When I started counting, she will start putting up fingers, and pointing at things to count. She is also able to recognize her name. I try to write it out for her a lot so she sees it. I am honestly amazed how fast she is able to learn new things. I think babies and young kids are so awesome...I know at my age, I seem to be losing knowledge, not gaining any more. Ha, maybe that's just me.
Sorry this has been such a long post, but it has been so incredible to watch her development and growth in just a few short weeks. She literally learns something every day.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Christmas Fun
I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures from December. We had a great Christmas, though Emma was still more into the boxes and wrapping paper than anything. She loves her toys now though. Each morning when she gets up, she goes right to her toys instead of her breakfast.
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| Enjoying a cupcake |
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| Helping Mommy organize her coupons |
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| Christmas parade |
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| Christmas baking |
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| Baking cookies with Daddy |
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| She loves this car |
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| Blowing out the candle on our Happy Birthday Jesus muffin |
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| Gifts from Santa |
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| She has apparently seen Mommy on the computer, because she sure knows how to use it |
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| Another cupcake |
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| Finger painting at a birthday party |
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| Playing with her new bath toys |
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| Learning the letter A with A shaped PB&J sandwiches |
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| Trying to do it herself |
A New Year
Everyone has been posting about their new year's resolutions and goals. I'm also kind of hesitant to make resolutions, because let's be honest, I'm not going to actually give up candy or fast food or caffeine for an entire year. But there are some goals I have for 2011 as well as just some general areas in which I'd like to grow personally.
1. Bible in 90 Days - Momstoolbox.com is leading this program to read through the entire Bible in 90 days. It started today. I've seen this before and thought about it, but I've never known where the time would come from. I'm still not sure, but I'm enough of a morning person now that I can set apart at least half the time then. Once I finish this, I'd also like to read through the Message version of the Bible. I've always read the NIV, so I'd like to read through some different versions.
2. Teach Emma - Emma is more than likely going to start a two day a week preschool / Parents Day Out program later this year. In the meantime, I really want to start structuring our days better so I at least feel like I'm accomplishing something. I'm going to try to create weekly lesson plans, focusing on letters, numbers, shapes and colors. This week we're starting with the letter A. I'm hoping to incorporate books, videos, songs, crafts, activities and whatever else I can come up with. I'm not a teacher and I'm not very creative, but there's already a lot of resources online for me to build on. That should take me through almost the whole year.
3. Improve my health - I don't usually do the weight loss resolutions, because they never last. But this year I'd really like to become more active. I sure wouldn't mind losing a few pounds, but that's not my goal. I want to be in shape and tone up, and improve my overall health. Nick and I both need to improve our eating habits, and make an effort to be more active. It's always harder for me in the winter, because I can't get outside with Emma. We have considered doing P90X, but it's kind of expensive and a big time commitment. I'm starting off by doing Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred. If I can stick with it consistently, then I might try P90X.
4. Potty Train - This isn't so much my goal as it's a goal for Emma. We're still making progress but I know well enough not to push her. She's got my personality (seriously, she's a little me, which is scary sometimes), which means she's stubborn! But she's really starting to tell us when she has to go. Today she woke up from her nap to tell me she had to go potty. And she went. I'm so excited about taking her to pick out big girl underwear!
5. Financial - We've been doing really well since we got married at having a budget each month. However, having a budget and following the budget are not always the same. Nick and I want to sit down each month for a budget meeting, so we can add any upcoming expenses to it together. I'm generally the budget person, but I have to do better at including Nick in the process. Oh and also not going to Target. That's definitely my biggest budget buster.
1. Bible in 90 Days - Momstoolbox.com is leading this program to read through the entire Bible in 90 days. It started today. I've seen this before and thought about it, but I've never known where the time would come from. I'm still not sure, but I'm enough of a morning person now that I can set apart at least half the time then. Once I finish this, I'd also like to read through the Message version of the Bible. I've always read the NIV, so I'd like to read through some different versions.
2. Teach Emma - Emma is more than likely going to start a two day a week preschool / Parents Day Out program later this year. In the meantime, I really want to start structuring our days better so I at least feel like I'm accomplishing something. I'm going to try to create weekly lesson plans, focusing on letters, numbers, shapes and colors. This week we're starting with the letter A. I'm hoping to incorporate books, videos, songs, crafts, activities and whatever else I can come up with. I'm not a teacher and I'm not very creative, but there's already a lot of resources online for me to build on. That should take me through almost the whole year.
3. Improve my health - I don't usually do the weight loss resolutions, because they never last. But this year I'd really like to become more active. I sure wouldn't mind losing a few pounds, but that's not my goal. I want to be in shape and tone up, and improve my overall health. Nick and I both need to improve our eating habits, and make an effort to be more active. It's always harder for me in the winter, because I can't get outside with Emma. We have considered doing P90X, but it's kind of expensive and a big time commitment. I'm starting off by doing Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred. If I can stick with it consistently, then I might try P90X.
4. Potty Train - This isn't so much my goal as it's a goal for Emma. We're still making progress but I know well enough not to push her. She's got my personality (seriously, she's a little me, which is scary sometimes), which means she's stubborn! But she's really starting to tell us when she has to go. Today she woke up from her nap to tell me she had to go potty. And she went. I'm so excited about taking her to pick out big girl underwear!
5. Financial - We've been doing really well since we got married at having a budget each month. However, having a budget and following the budget are not always the same. Nick and I want to sit down each month for a budget meeting, so we can add any upcoming expenses to it together. I'm generally the budget person, but I have to do better at including Nick in the process. Oh and also not going to Target. That's definitely my biggest budget buster.
