Week 83

Dear Jorie,

This week it was my turn to be sick! Luckily for me it's just been a persistent cough, so it really didn't affect our week much.

The big news this week happened this morning. Your father and I were getting ready for work, and we heard you grunting, and then a bang, and you started crying. We went flying into your room to find you on the floor! You had climbed out of your crib and fallen on your head. We're both so glad you're ok, but now we have to figure out a plan for transitioning you to a toddler bed, already!

This weekend was full of the usual mayhem, with the added fun of a mall trip! We had to go do some shopping, so while we were there, we let you play in the "play area" they have for kids. It's full of all these climbing "sculptures" that are made out of a kind of hardish foam plastic stuff. As soon as you started walking around you attracted the attention of the most friendly young girl I have ever met. She was somewhere around 7 or 8 and spent the entire time we were there walking around with you talking to you and me and helping you up onto things. Most of the stuff was a little tall for you, but you did have a great time running around and going down the "tree slide". By next winter it'll be perfect for you.

Putting the "baby" on the "horse"

Cheese Stick & Orange!

Your vocabulary is growing too fast for me to keep track of these days. The one notable thing is that you learned to say grandpa this week! It comes out sounding like "appa", which makes both of your Grandfathers very very happy. The only down side is now you constantly ask for "appa" or "nannie". You also came up with a word for your Grandma Ross, "amma", and you now say "essey" for your cousin Wesley.

Snack Time!

On Monday at Day Care you took a tumble and wacked your chin, which resulted in you bitting your lip. I was told there was a little blood and some crying, and by the time I picked you up, there was still some swelling on your lip and I could see the bite, but you seemed not to notice it at all.

I'm sorry if this letter seems a little light on content...It's been a rough week for your momma. With Super Bowl and Wesley's 1 year party coming up this weekend, I promise the next week will be a long letter!


I love you baby girl!

Helping Mommy roll her foot

Using Mommies Foot Rolling Ball

Coloring is one of your favorite activities!

Toddler Fashion!

Week 82

Dear Jorie,

Right now, mommie is without her cell phone. Which means I have no access to all the pictures I took of you this week. I've got a couple that I can use to show what you've been up to, but they really don't tell the story of this week.

This weekend there was more sickness, this time on your fathers part. There was not a lot of fun things going on for us because of it.

Things you've been doing lately that are super cute:
Saying "Goodbye Turtle" or "Night night turtle" to everything. (It sounds like "Nigh Nigh Tutue" when you say it.) This started after we moved you into the big bathtub, and you got to play with the turtle toy your Uncle Chris got you. Ever since then everything is "tutue."

Asking for Zetta whenever she is not around, which is most of the time, and pointing to her picture on the wall to remind me that that is in fact Zetta.

Pointing to the picture on the fridge of our Friends Terri and Guan's daughter Ava, whom you've never met, and saying "Ava!" I really hope you get to meet her soon!

Using a cup! We gave you a tiny cup with a little bit of milk in it at dinner the other day, and you used it like a pro! Very minimal spillage!

Spinning! Recently you've added spinning to your dance routine, it's super cute, especially when at my parents house you make the little keyboard they have for you play a song and start spinning and dancing wildy until the song stops, then run over to hit the button to make it do it again....repeat!

Repeat after me! You've started trying to repeat words when we say them to you. You don't often get the entire word out, but you usually get something that sounds like the word out! At Ross family dinner the other night, I kept asking you if you wanted meat, to which you would grin point at your chest and say "ME!"

Animal sounds! We've got this cute thing going where we ask you "What does the sheep say?" and you go "BAAAAA!", you do doggie ("woof woof!"), Kitty ("meow!"), Cow ("Moo!") and the cutest one is Horse, which makes you go "Neeiiighh!" very enthusiastically.

"Blow your nose", When I ask you to blow your nose and hold a tissue up to your nose you blow, albeit out your mouth, but it gives me a moment to be able to wipe your nose. You also like "cleaning your face." We give you a boogie wipe and you wipe your face off with it.

You have been doing a lot of pretend play lately, feeding your baby doll, cleaning it's face, "reading" to the baby doll and putting it to bed, pretending to pour stuff into cups and drink from them, or using spoons in cups and pretending to eat from them.

On the negative side of things, you've been having a lot of separation anxiety lately, throwing fits every time I drop you off at daycare. You also spent most of the day Sunday plastered to my side. You even made your father bring you upstairs twice to see me while I was doing my long run. I'm not sure where it's coming from, but I am simultaneously trying to enjoy the cuddles while I can get them, and hoping that this doesn't last too long.

Speaking of cuddles, you have been giving the best hugs lately! You recently started actually hugging back, instead of just leaning into us for hugs. You now throw your arms around our necks and hug, some times adorably patting our backs while we hug you.

The other bad thing lately is that you've been getting very frustrated with your inability to communicate what you want to us. You keep trying and when we don't understand  you throw little fits, shaking your head and going "NO NO NO!" while stomping your feet and starting to cry. I feel awful, and can't wait until you can actually tell us what you mean.

I love you so much baby girl, You've been growing and changing so much lately, it's wonderful to see who you are becoming!

Week 81

Dear Jorie,

Another week marred by sickness. :( It seems like it's happening a lot lately.

Thursday we headed over to Jaimee, Bill and Zetta's for a "study night" for me and Jaimee, and some play time for you and Zetta. You guys had a blast running around together, and us adults had a great time working on our respective projects after you two went to bed. Zetta is turning out to be a great friend for you to have! Apparently you guys are inseparable at daycare, and you get along great. It's really cute when you guys hug before we leave, and how you guys ask for each other when you're apart. I hope you guys stay friends for a long time (it helps that I really like having Jaimee and Bill as friends too!)

Friday morning your father noticed you were warm when he was getting you dressed, and you actually told him "Brrrrr." So he took your temperature, and lo and behold, you had a fever. So he stayed home with you on friday. Saturday morning, I was sick, so your father let me sleep in, and then by the time I woke up (at 11!), he had a migraine. So you went down for a nap and so did he.

We did manage to get all of us relatively healthy feeling for dinner with Nannie and Grandpa O on saturday night, but that was about it. And you slept awfully at their house, you didn't go down to sleep until almost 10:00!

Sunday we did a little better, and managed to go to the consignment shop and get you new shoes, some new PJ's and a few new shirts. We went up another size in the clothing so hopefully you wont out grow this stuff for a while!

We had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa R early this week, Monday instead of Tuesday, and unfortunately your Uncle Michael came down with the flu, so it was just us and the grandparents.

This weekend my big accomplishment was getting the kitchen set your Grandma & Grandpa R got you for christmas put together. It was quite hard to get together, and I'm very proud of myself for doing it all by myself. You really love it too, so it was worth it.

This week we graduated you out of the Infant tub and into the "big tub." You reacted similarly to the way you did when we removed the infant sling. You cried and clung to my arm when I first put you in the tub, but eventually relaxed and enjoyed playing in the tub. The second bath you got in the big tub you spent a really long time splashing around in it, and seemed sad when I made you get out.

Lately you're starting to show a preference for certain  types of play, you really like "pretend play", like where you have a play cup and spoon and pretend to eat from the cup or to feed one of us. You also really like "drawing" with your crayons, and either having us read to you, or pretending to read to us. It really makes me happy to see all the things you're into, and that they aren't all typical "girl" stuff. I was (and am still always) worried that you'll get pigeon holed into the role of "girl." I want you to feel free to pursue whatever makes you happy.

Recently I was thinking about why I run, and also similarly, why I am still working. I am still working mainly because we need my health insurance, but now with the Affordable Health Care Act, we might be able to survive without my income, and get insurance through that, so I had to think seriously about why I'm working, which ties into part of why I run.

I run so that when you look to me, as a role model, you see someone who is strong and capable. Someone who does something that makes them happy, and can balance their life. I want you to see that women can choose their own path, and it can be working, or staying at home. I want you to see that being healthy is important, and that exercise is fun. It's hard, a lot of the time, for me to justify to myself taking the time away from spending time with you and your father to go for runs, or even to be at work. Recently I've started to realize that I should not feel bad for taking this time, because it shows you how strong you are capable of being, how dedicated, and how independent. It shows you the importance of making yourself a priority, even among the myriad of other demands on your time.

I love you baby girl. I hope you learn all of this from me, and become the strong, capable, independent wonderful woman I know you will be!

Week 80

Dear Jorie,

This week flew by. There was a lot of cold and snow, the usual visits to both sets of grandparents, and your father and I just trying to get our house back to normal.

What happend this week seems so insignificant next to how you're growing. More and more often I'm struck by just how big you're getting, how capable already. You are a small person now, getting more and more words every day. You "read" books now, pretending to say the words out loud. You are so incredibly curious, and want to get into everything!

You still love siting in a lap and looking at pictures or videos on our phones. As soon as you see one of our phones you're trying to climb in our lap saying "Baby?"

One of the things you've been doing lately is playing the piano. Your father lowered the keyboard and pulled the rocking chair up to it, so you can climb up in the chair and reach the keyboard. It started with you sitting in his lap, but now you always want to play yourself. And you don't just mash keys, you hit individual keys, usually in a rhythm. Who knows if you'll still like it when you're old enough to take lessons, but it is really cute to watch now.

Your hair is getting really long now. This morning I was finally able to pull it all back into a ponytail that was on the back of your head, instead of right at the top like we had been doing. Of course you pulled it half out by the time we got to daycare, but I have photo proof it happened!

Recently you've been waking up in the middle of the night a lot because you loose your binky. Your father and I have decided this is an issue, so we're going to try to ween you off the binky. I'm sure this is not going to be a popular move with you.

I love you so much Jorie-bear. Stop growing up so fast!

Weeks 78 & 79

Dear Jorie,

Christmas and New years and Relatives and Friends Galore! These two weeks were jam packed with places to go and people to see.

The friday before Christmas, we hung out with Jamiee Bill and Zetta at their house. You and Zetta had a great time running around and playing with all the toys. We gave Zetta a little people set with hay bales and a tractor, and they gave you crayons and a drawing pad! You guys were so cute playing together, and you even were really good and went to bed easily so us adults could hang out for a while. We couldn't stay too late though, because Saturday was the Reindeer Run!

You and your father came out to watch me and Jenn run the 5k, and to watch Jenn's daughter Rose run the kids run! Rose had a great time hanging out with you, and took a lot of cute pictures of the two of you together.

Later, after I had gotten a shower, you had a nap, and we had eaten, we went back to the Strong National Museum of Play with Nannie and Grandpa. A lot of the exhibits were a little old for you to really enjoy, but you did have fun playing on some of them, and us adults had a great time too. We spent the extra money to go in the Butterfly
room, and it was REALLY worth it! you were very interested in the little quail birds that were running around everywhere, and the turtles and the koi in the koi pond. We spent a good two hours in the museum. By the end we were all really tired.

Christmas Eve was a blur of last minute shopping, and seeing all the grandparents. We had dinner at Nannie and Grandpas, and then headed over to Grandma and Grandpa R's where a bunch of your Father's family had gathered.

Christmas morning we woke you up and brought you downstairs to open presants. You saw the corn popper with a bow on it, and lost interest in any of the other packages! We did manage to coax you away from the corn popper for a bit to open some of your other presents. It was funny because it took you so long to open each gift. You would tear off a little tiny piece of paper, then hand it to me, tear off another piece, hand it to me, repeat. After we got your gifts open, and your father and I got ours open, we bundled you up and headed over to Nannie and Grandpa's for the Gift Opening Extravaganza Part One.  And an extravaganza it was. You got so. much. stuff. Way too much to list here. At some point I'll catalog all the stuff you got, maybe. We had breakfast, and put you down for a nap, and then had lunch when you woke up. Your father cooked blueberry pancakes for breakfast. They were delicious! We headed over to Grandma and Grandpa R's in the afternoon for Gift Opening Extravaganza Part Two. Again, you got so much stuff! Including a giant kitchen play set which we're still figuring out how to get back to our house. We had dinner there and then headed home since both your father and I had to work the next day. Boo.

Thursday we had dinner at Nannie and Grandpa's again, because the Girshes' were over! Brooks, Sid and Rose were in town from England, so we got to see them. You and Rose (who is just about a year older than you) played together really nicely, running around the house and sharing toys. It was really great to see them, and we're hoping we'll get to see them again before they head back across the pond.

Saturday and Sunday were kinda low key, just the normal amount of crazy for us. We decided to hit the "after christmas" sales and get you a potty. We were told by your doctor at your last appointment that if you were showing interest we should start in on the potty training, so we got you a potty. It sings if you go, and it has a flush that makes noise, lights up and then cheers. You are very amused by the flush. We've started having you sit on the potty when you wake up in the morning, before and after naps, and before bed. You have not gone on the potty yet, but you sit on it very nicely for us!

Sunday night, you decided to get sick, and were all stuffed up and had a crazy runny nose and cough. The cough got so bad that Sunday night you ended up puking all over your crib after we put you to bed. So your Father stayed home with you on Monday.

He was off tuesday as well so he got to stay home with you two days in row by himself. He loved it, but was completely and utterly exhausted by the time I got home Tuesday!

Tuesday was New Years Eve, and we spent it over at your Aunt Becky and Uncle Michaels house. They had a full house! Your Fathers Aunt, uncle and cousin from Seattle were there, along with your Cousin Sienna (up from boston), your Great Grandma Ross and your Great Uncle Howard were there too! We did presents with your Great Grandmother, who got you a cute baby doll and a cradle with a hand knitted blanket she made for it! You did not make it to Midnight, you were out by 9 I think, but you had a great time running around before that.

Wednesday, we had a nice low key day at home. You spent most of the day putting your new "baby" to bed in the cradle, while your father and I worked trying to get the house back to some semblance of pre-holiday order.  We went back over to Aunt Becky's for dinner to see everyone again. We missed your Uncle Michael and Cousin Sienna, they had left to take Sienna back to Boston about a half hour before we showed up. You had a great time playing with Wesley, and you said his name for the first time! It sounds like Esstey right now.

You've recently started saying more words, like Sit (Although that sounds like a dirty word right now) and wait. You've also started asking to watch signing time by either handing us the remotes or pointing at the tv and doing your version of the signs for signing time. It's really really cute.

With you getting bigger, we're having to rearrange our living room to accommodate your toys, and your need to run, jump and climb. It seems like every time I turn around you're trying to climb something. I'd like to get something for you to climb, but I'm not sure where we could put it right now. We may have to work on rearranging the living room yet again, or maybe start working to get the back room set up upstairs as your play room. (Right now it's storage and where the treadmill is.)

I know I'm forgetting a lot of the little moments from the past two weeks, but I did manage to take a lot of pictures...so I'll try to let them fill in some of the details.

I love you baby girl.