New cute sayings from Milena.

"Roger That Mama!"

"Mommy, you're a woman and you have lot's to do"

Also, fun new developments and activities include counting to 30 (especially with peas or grapes), pointing out her favorite colors (blue, pink and yellow), identifying shapes, riding her red trike, planning her 3rd birthday party, reading books, singing songs and dancing in the living room and playing dress up at bedtime. There other night she came out in four different costumes after bedtime (pirate, princess, ballerina and pirate-fairy). Cute! At least we don't have the sleep on her floor anymore :-).

Small Victories

So happy to declare a small victory (at least for now) on potty training! No accidents for two weeks today- hooray!! M is also now getting herself in and out of the car which is a huge weight off this pregnant mommy and she is helping me prepare dinner and starting to clean up her room before dessert. I can't believe how much a 2 year old can do! I never expected such independence at such a young age. Now, if we could just make some progress at bedtime which is still a major undertaking every night. Thankful for patient papa these days!

Me: M, how was your day at school today?

M: I cried all day, "mommy, mommy where are you?" (usual answer every day after school)

Me: Hmmm really? Just cried all day- nothing fun at all? Dancing? Yoga? Playing Outside? Craft time? Puppet show? Dress up time? Books and show and tell? Snack time? All crying for mommy?

M: Oh, well....I guess I did dance like a ballerina :-) AND there are puddles in the playhouse!

Me: Oh good, I'm glad school's not all bad!

Bunny

One of M's favorite Christmas gifts is a bunny puppet from grandpa S. While she asked and asked for a teddy bear, "bunny" has become the absolute must have at all moments of the day since she opened him. Bunny has also become quite the little helper for mommy and daddy. M will do almost anything Bunny asks her to do- use the potty, change her clothes, eat more dinner, get her coat on for school. Who knew that this stuffed beast would make our life just a little easier with an independent two-year old!! We will all see how long this last but for now I'm always willing to stuff my hand in that fuzzy guy's back end and squeak out some directions.

M is developing in leaps and bounds and her vocabulary is taking off in both languages. She knows her numbers from 1-15 in English and Spanish, both alphabets, colors, shapes, days of the week, and animals. They say she fully understands the predominately Spanish speaking educators at daycare and is very active in helping other toddlers- especially with leading dance circles and helping other kids paint inside the lines. She can't get enough books, sings songs like "A Boy and A Girl in a Little Canoe," "Twinkle, Twinkle." and ABCs and happy birthday song. She also was introduced to Lauri Berkner from Auntie E and loves "Pig on Her Head" and "DoodleBug Song."

She loves riding her bike around and around the block looking for cats in the neighborhood, playing at the park, visiting the library and helping mommy cook and cut fruit with her big girl toddler knife. She is painting daily and doing puzzles and building towers out of blocks but still gives priority time to her babies. She loves playing with her cousins and friends and asks for them regularly. She is off the pacifier, in her big girl bed and on her way on potty training. She is the sweetest little thing and a joy everyday!

First night M has gone to bed without the pacifier. She didn't ask for it at bedtime so we just went for it. Sleeping soundly so far!! Fingers crossed.

Bi-lingual daycare is paying off! M shared her multi-lingual prowess when she counted from 1-10 in English and Spanish to Mimi last week! I was blown away because I had no idea she could count that high at all! We had just covered 1-3 at home :-) I guess she was showing off just a little bit. Since then, she counts everything in whatever language she feels like. Her teachers say she is starting to learn up to 20 and her alphabet is coming along as well. She knows many of her animals in both languages and who knows what else! I only hope I can keep up. Love being a mama!

Just celebrated a 2nd Birthday for M! Seems like yesterday that I held my tiny little baby in my arms for the first time in the hospital with her dark hair and her squishy daddy W face. I can't believe I just celebrated her 2nd birthday. Her birthday party was fun- Florida Keys with cousins galore and a tasty underwater themed cake- but the real surprise was how grown up my little baby seemed already the next day. Her vocabulary has exploded and her ability to do and say and express things for herself is exciting to experience. Right now she is infatuated with stickers and tattoos, with "da-da-da-da-Dora" and "go-go-go-Diego" and with her big cousin E. She loves taking photos with her elmo camera and with mommy's camera too. Her favorite food is "monkey cheese and hotdogs".. big surprise, right? She is starting to use the potty everyday and started pre-school this week. Yikes! What a grown-up!!

I love being her mom and I love every minute I get to spend with her. I only hope time slows down just a little bit so I can savor every moment with my baby.

Milena is a complete chatterbox these days and her new favorite work is "AWESOME!!" as in picking strawberries is.... AWESOME!! or hanging out with dad is... AWESOME!!! She also like to point out colors, shapes, things that are dirty, wet or icky. She loves being in "Nena's house" most of the time and insists on doing everything herself. Watermelon and tortillas are the favorite menu items right now.. not necessarily together :-). She has a blast picking strawberries this last weekend and picked and ate, picked and ate for about an hour non-stop. I was worried we were going to have a massive stomach ache on our hands but she was just fine.. stems and all! You can see the evidence all over her happy, juicy red face!

Blood Root Tattoos

One of my favorite memories from childhood is skipping through Hixon forest in the spring, picking blood root and making bright orange streaks on my hand. M had her first ritual "marking" today at Perrot State Park on the Brady's Bluff trail from Mimi. Along with her new word "oriole", her worn path through the garden trail, and her new habit of hugging and kissing trees, I think little M is turning out just like her Mimi :-)

Spent a great weekend in The Dells at an indoor waterpark...crowded? check. noisy? check. overstimulating? check. The kids loved it! ...and so I did too :-) M loved playing with her cousins and her pawpaw K. To top it off, M and K hunted for Easter eggs with about 50 other toddlers at MagiQuest, an indoor interactive video game environment.. this will be an Easter to remember- dragons, fairies and giant trees, oh my!

M is mastering the stairs- up, down, up, down, up, down. Scares me half to death!

Milena woke up this morning with the giggles. After bringing her to bed with me around 6:30 am she proceeded to sit up in bed and start doing... the chicken dance! How cute is that?! She, of course, insisted that I join in :-)

I'm Baaaack!!

I'm baaaaack!! I decided to start blogging to document M's super cute fun little things she does everyday. 19 months is sooo cute!!

Good week so far:
1) M started her new bilingual daycare, loves her teachers, and said her first Spanish words "aqua" (water) and "negro" (black)- yeah!

2) M's new favorite word is "soup" and this week she helped daddy make and slurp up potato leak soup and.. much to our wide-eyed surprise tonight... red curry soup with edamame. With every bite she says "soup, soup, yum, yum"











3) She's talking alot and says mama, dada, baby, bye-bye, hi, thank you, wow, soup, cheese, ice, milk, more, this, eat, eye, ear, hair, beep-beep (to get me out of the way), ewwwww (for diapers and gross stuff in general), uh-oh, nuh-uh, puppy, woof-woof, moo, mimi, yah-yah, much more, I can't remember and of course the ever popular.. MINE! She said her first phrase "Bye-Bye Baby."

4) M started pointing to herself and saying her own name but instead of M she says, Nina, which W and I kind of like as a nickname!

12 Hours in the Life

12 Hours in the Life of a Working Mom...

Midnight: I finally fall asleep after staying up working on laptop.
12:15 M wakes up for feeding.
12:45 M falls back to sleep.
1:00 I finally fall back asleep in bed.
3:15 M wakes up cranky with wet diaper. I change her, feed her and burp her.
3:45 Both of us fall back to sleep on futon in nursery.
5:00 M wakes up smiling and ready for the day.
5:15 I finally get up, feed her, change apoopy diaper, sing a few songs, and read her a book.
6:00 Decide to wake up W to take shift while I sleep for extra hour.
7:30 W wakes me up to feed her before leaving for work. I try to feed her, she's not interested.
8:00 Need to pump so I have enough for daycare. While pumping, W tells me he needs to leave- argument begins about insensitivity.. and house-cleaning.
8:15 W leaves to take M to daycare. I shower, do dishes, pick up house, make my lunch, get ready for meeting with funder, wash bottles and pump accessories and pack up laptop bag, pump bag, and back-up drive from work- carry all bags to car....back aching. Reminder myself to make massage appointment.
9:00 Drive to St Paul for meeting with funder.
10:30 Drive back to office for rest of 5 meetings of the day.
11:00 Pump
11:30 Meet with new accountant about coding records for new software.
12:00 Quickly eat dry cheese sandwich while running between meetings and checking email
1:00 Online training for new software- eat banana while on speaker phone and try not to make banana noises. Talk about kids and ski conditions to trainer in Utah.
2:00 Pump
3:00 Lead staff meeting.
4:15 Head out door to pick up M at daycare, sit in traffic.
4:35 Home from daycare and sit in traffic.
5:00 Arrive home, carry M's carseat, my laptop bag, the back-up drive, and bottle cooler in from car..back really aching now.
5:00 Try to get computer set up to print out documents for board meeting with M on my lap. Computer dies, unplug light under desk, digging around under the desk while M pukes on my work clothes.
5:30 Sis shows up to babysit. Both change clothes, M starts to cry. I make a bottle while E tries to calm her down. We trade off feeding her, calming her while I print board notes.
6:00 Grab ice cream out of freezer for potluck and finally leave house to drive to board meeting.. 30 minutes late.
6:15 Arrive and lead board meeting.
8:30 Leave board meeting for home. Arrive home, talk to E about work and kids. Wash bottles and pump accessories for tomorrow.
9:00 Watch TV show while eating snack and answering emails.
10:45 Head to bed after long day
11:15 Wake up to feed M.
12:00 Back to bed thinking about the last 12 hours.... 5 hours of sleep, an hour and a half in the car, 12 hours of work and meetings, 1 hour washing bottles and accessories, 30 minutes eating, 2 hours feeding, changing diapers or pumping, and only 2 waking hours with my 4 month-old beautiful little daughter today.

Milestone! I spent my first night away from M and W took on the full-time daddy duty.. the whole night! I was incredibly nervous when I took off on the 30 minute drive to my friend's new digs in exurban Minnesota. With music blaring and foot tapping, I resisted calling W every three minutes to see how things were going. When I arrived, I poored a glass of wine and wolfed down some pizza with my girlfriends, we watched a cheesy horror movie and I slept my first night alone and baby-free in four months. Ahhhhh... sleep (actually I didn't sleep well but probably to be expected). I woke up in the morning, called W and everything was A-OK. What a relief! Now I know I can get away, get some time to myself and all the world won't fall apart :-).

I attached a photo from the "game" that I was in charge of for my friend's baby shower this weekend. I bought plain white onesie's of different sizes, fabric markers and we had a decorating contest for the new baby. My friend J will be able to keep all the new one-of-a-kind creations and think about us each time she dresses her little one this spring. I think it went over well and would recommend it for anyone looking for a unique shower game.

To Market, To Market

Today was M's first visit to our neighborhood international market for lunch. Too bad she couldn't join us for the tasty grub but at least she took in the sites, smells and sounds..all the stimulation brought on a much needed nap too. 

While munching on fish tacos and crab cake burgers from a Latin seafood bistro we ran into an old friend, got an offer to stay in a colleague's South Beach condo on our next vacation and met a baby that was in utero last time we met him in our birthing class. Phew! Definitely the cool part about living in our neighborhood! 

Ahhh, the last nice weekend of fall. Yesterday W, M and I enjoyed visiting the Bakken Museum, where W works as the exhibit technician. It was my first visit to the Frankensteinian house on Lake Calhoun where Earl Bakken, founder of Medtronic, opened his museum of electricity (ask W sometime what "interesting" medical devices they keep in the vault :-). Later, we found a great spot under some maple trees to get some family shots and loved what we were capturing until the battery ran out on the camera- DUH!

Last night was our first night out as a couple since M was born and Auntie E came over to babysit so we could go to our friend's annual NE Mpls Halloween party. It felt good to be back in the company of adults, hanging around a bonfire, drinking weak keg beer and wearing a used clown wig and suit. Yep, that's what I call a good time!

This morning M and I met the high school girls for breakfast and talked about life, love, and reunions. Yep, our 15 year is coming up this summer. Man, we're gettin old.

Tonight M surprised us by chatting away and blowing rasperries all night..maybe we have another early talker on our hands like cousin L!

Welcome to my blog! I'm taking after my big sis and putting my thoughts and stories down for the world to share. Looking forward to staying in touch with everyone this way. More soon! T