Our little family's second Christmas Eve together

Today was her best behavior in over a week. It was truly my old Anna. Maybe it was a desperate last-minute attempt to get on Santa's "Nice" list? She's smart, this one.

Spacemama to Anna: Baby, what does Santa say?

Anna: Ho-ho-ho!

Today was Christmas Eve, but Paul had to work. So it was another Mommy-Daughter day at home. Her majesty spent the first part of the morning borrowing MM's princess dress that M forgot when they were here a few nights ago. Notice the super cool light-up necklace my mom sent her...

We spent most of the morning outside since the weather wasn't too hot or too cold, finally. We walked around the cul de sacs, and after investigating several different yards full of Christmas decorations, she found some water puddles to play in. The neurotic side of me was told to keep quiet and let her get wet and muddy. So she did.

After that fun was over, we went inside for a hose down, change into clean/dry clothes, and a morning snack. Then back outside for more fun with nature...

...and with more water...

After her nap, there was some fun in the kitchen...

When Paul got home, we went to TJ's for pizza, cookies (the kids got to decorate them), and a walk through some of the neighborhood to look at lights. Anna had lots of fun with the kids and especially enjoyed riding in the wagon with M. It was so great to see them interacting...priceless.

Throughout the day she switched singing songs to herself between Rudolf, Away in a Manger, and something about "amen". I guess she was full of the Christmas spirit, thanks to her Lutheran day care (those Halloween Haters!).

OK, I MUST go to sleep. Too tired...

I love her and Spacedaddy.

Now that's REAL Christmas Spirit!

These pictures crack me right the heck up. Seriously. JK sent them to me this morning in a funny email and I laughed out loud. So I was glad that no one was really at work today because I was just about in tears.

The thing is I THINK I got this email last year too. I remember thinking it was funny, but I think now this year I get it a little more and laughed a little harder. Here's why:

Now, we could have gone the route of funny screaming toddler like the above hilarious photos. But frankly, we were having pity on Santa. Anna clung to me like that mom in the picture above...stuck to my hip saying ,"nononononono" while at the Moody Gardens Festival of Lights last weekend with TJ & LB & families. No amount of talking her into Santa's lap was going to work, and a line was beginning to form behind us while the other families who paid $10 were waiting to put their screaming toddlers on Santa's lap for a photo op. Since we didn't think Santa got paid enough for this kind of crap, and I wasn't sure what resistant-toddler-Santa-line-forming ettiquite is, (how long are you allowed to take to coax your toddler to sit on the fat guy's lap before people start asking you to move along?) we opted for the quick and painless route of family photo with Santa. Alhough the woman who took the picture almost seemed hesitant, like: "Really? OK...if that's what you want."

Is it so weird? I admit it's not nearly as hilarious as the above photos.

Music for the Christmas Mood

http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/000570.php

Thanks, Liz. This makes my blog all Christmassy.

Click above for a giggle. Or at least for a train wreck-type reaction.

This one's for Liz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5_OSsawz4

I wish I knew how to embed the YouTube video right into my blog. Anyone know?

I support gender bias. Oops.

Well, I love having a little girl. Girls are cool, boys drool.

Today I ventured to Target to look for a Christmas gift for her. I had a few ideas, but none were there. So I looked around a bit. I found the doll aisle.

She doesn't really play with dolls. They're just not her thing. She does have one at home she got last Christmas and she puts it in her hand-me-down doll stroller, with Elmo by its side, and pushes them around the house. That's about the extent of that.

But I think her baths are getting boring for her. There's only so much fun you can have with bubbles after you've eaten most of them. Plus I think she's getting over the same plastic sea creatures and rubber ducks she's had in that tub since she was around 6 months old. It's time for some water adventure in the tub.

And I frankly don't care whether she plays with dolls or not. So let's consider this just an experiment, without the gender biased intent...honestly.

I picked up this baby doll you can get wet and bathe in the bath with you. Anna likes to wash her own legs and feet and belly and hair. Maybe she'll enjoy this on a doll or something too. And the doll comes with a robe and undies that resemble a diaper.

"There's a thought" as I saw a package of tiny little baby doll diapers sitting on the shelf, belonging to some other doll type. Will she be less combative during diaper changes if I get her to change her baby's diaper too? Hmmmm...I picked up the box.

The downside for her is that first I have to throw that doll all around the room to make Anna catch it, get Anna to try to hold it down from the squirms and squeals, get Anna to come up with a cool toy to distract it, or else call for another set of two hands before she can put the baby's diaper on.

Girls.

All over the place

OK, hang on for a second so I can go back and look at the last blog entries I made when she was making us completely nuts...ah yes, it was sinus infection plus early teething of her bottom canines. Actually it was the onset of all 4 canines but as it turns out, the top ones slooowwwweeeddd down and are just now making their way through the gums.

Now this time around, we have teething plus disgusting diapers. Why not just pile it all on at once? The thing that sucks so bad is that she's normally a pretty good toddler as far as toddlers go. She can push my buttons and test my limits but nothing that makes me constantly run around the house after her or pray she doesn't burn the house down or break her neck (or basically what horror a real toddler is depicted as in my inexperienced mind). She's pretty cool when she's not on a cranky streak, which is usually induced by illness or teething. So what sucks about this is that when she does hit that cranky streak that will last for about a week, my brain can't reconcile that this is my daughter and I tend to fight it rather than accept it, which shortens my patience. And makes me use the F word awhole lot. It's very unbecoming.

Like this morning.

5:45AM Anna wake up came way too soon (she usually sleeps till 7am). This is another symptom of her typical teething bouts. Please oh please let this be the case. This early waking crap has gone on for about a week and I am starting to fear it's a new habit. But I have to have faith in her. She's done this before and it stopped when the teething did. This morning I left her to cry in her crib when she woke that early. She screamed. And proceeded to attempt to climb out of her crib. That got me up there to her liking, but not to mine.

Paul is soooo getting up with her tomorrow morning. I have to run anyway.

It started my own day off cranky and PO'd but I sucked it up, went to work, then went back to watch her Christmas chapel (ah-ha, this is why she's been singing Happy Birthday to Jesus at home!) and have pizza and cookies with her fellow crazies in her classroom. And crazy they were. Holy cow, even my own child was acting so silly and not paying attention while the poor teachers were trying to do color flash cards. In their defense, the teachers swore it wasn't always this crazy. Today was an "off" day for their screwed up schedule. It was a side of Anna that was obviously initiated by her peers and fueled by the fact that she'd been up for 6 hours straight by then and super sleepy.

Waiting for chapel (notice no pigtails due to cranky Anna)

Home for a nap that was much too short, then off to the public library for rolling around in toddler books to her heart's content, and as an obvious effort to keep her public so I didn't internalize her bad attitude. She made a friend in a 4 year old there, whose mom works at Carters. Mmmm...CARTERS. Needless to say I did recognize her. It was a fun few hours and slowly I think I saw my old Anna come back.

A recap for you all. Even up till this morning for the past week Anna's been so clingy and cranky, waking early, crying in her sleep, refusing to brush her hair and her teeth, refusing her baths, requiring the strength of two adults to get her into her car seat, dramatizing the day care drop-offs again, screaming on all car rides, and melting into a puddle of tears on the floor with every simple "no" (this also may explain the horribly bad reaction she gave us when we introduced her to pop rock candy. Hey, don't blame us for not realizing someone could actually hate it!). It's been MMMOOOMMMEEEEE upon wake up at 5:30AM, and sobbing after me from room to room when I simply try to get dressed in the morning (thank GOD Paul's been home this week in the mornings to help me get us out the door). MMMOOOMMMEEEE even as she sits in Paul's lap. And she wants "up!" to be held. And constantly asking for her paci, and not just in the car and for sleep...even though she's still never asked for one in her new classroom.

(as for the stupid paci...Paul and I cut holes in two so we are down to 3. Because of her sucky attitude this week I decided to suck it up and buy new ones to replinish our supply and just deal with it. Same paci's, different colors bc they didn't have her exact same colors. The joke's on me: this child looks at the new paci's, puts it in her mouth, GAGS, and refuses them. She refuses the $8 worth of paci's that I had to talk myself into walking down the baby aisle to get in the first place (I shouldn't be in the baby aisle!). She refuses them like the ones that we cut holes in. Which would be great except this week she's been asking for them frequently. So we shot ourselves in the foot with that one a little too soon (I should have stuck with my original game plan for the paci: after the teething and after the holidays...just what posessed me to suddenly cut the things up?)...

This is a bad week for me to have attended two baby showers in which everyone feels the need to ask when we ever plan to have another. Hardee-har-har, people.

But as of yesterday, her diapers look normal again, so thank GOD we paid that co-pay. As you know, the second you pay the $20 co-pay and take sick leave to go to the doc, all illness magically clears up. I guess I should have done it sooner, huh? At least we didn't have to attempt that stool sample. Ah, perspective!

The ride home from the library was fun and she sang along to Jewel with no screaming. She sang Jewel with me while she ate dinner, and enjoyed her bubble bath (which she fought a few nights ago). She ran around the house with Paul, then me, and rode around on her little firetruck, even allowing me to go to another room without chasing me, sobbing.

This is an improvement, but as I watch her sleep, she's a little restless still. The other night she was running in her sleep yelling, "no!no!no!" If she sleeps in tomorrow, I will be hopeful that we are on our way to getting over this crappy week. Please, please, please!

Nuts

Something is making her make us nuts.

Not.
Good.
Pateince = bye-bye.

Dirty Talk

OK seriously, I am supposed to scrape her poop by collecting it from a diaper that is inside out so that the poop doesn't touch the inside of the diaper's fibers. Then I put it into a bunch of these test tubes and then take this crap over to the doc so they can tell me whether she's got some kind of bacteria or infection or parasite or whatever else. Paul and I were perplexed about how the heck we are supposed to get the day care teachers to agree to an inside out diaper that doesn't obviously absorb poop or urine, to call me to run over with the test tubes to scrape it into and clean her up (and all her little buddies who happen to be near her at the time). We were thinking those rubber little undie-pants things, till my officemate (who has an Aerospace Engineering degree) suggested putting a correct right side in (?) diaper on over the inside out diaper. Ah-ha! That's why she's one of the 450 highly qualified astronaut applicants this year, folks! We'll have to give it a shot I guess.

If you're wondering about the petting zoo, put that out of your mind. Her first impressively nasty diapers came just a few days before she sucked her fingers between petting the goat, pigs, horse, cow, bunny, and chickens before I could even sterilize her hands or stop her little hands from reaching her mouth.

And concurrent with the progressively disgusting diapers, a wonderful toddler temper has erupted. So magnificent are these tantrums, all I can do is tell her I love her and walk away with her kicking and cursing on the floor. Just telling her "no" induces pathetic, heavy sobs! At the doctor's office today she was perfectly polite and allowed the doctor to do his exam. After he left, it was time to get her dressed again and she just didn't agree. So Paul got her clothes on while I held her down and she screamed like she just got shots. I am sure it could be heard down the halls...

but to the folks in the other rooms who could hear her screams: this wasn't because of the doctor. My kid did GREAT with the doctor! Seriously!

Screams and floor-rolling at the cashier. We didn't even get shots.

Screams through the waiting room on the way out the door. Faces of kids and parents staring...some with empathy, some with horror, some with "holy crap, what was going on in there?" It was like watching the faces of people who are waiting to get on the kick-ass roller coaster ride you just got off of.

"My GOD that was BAD in there!" I announced to the waiting room, who collectively got the joke. Well, the good news is that for all my anxiety over the first real toddler public tantrum it wasn't all that bad. Maybe because:

A) I knew it was coming sometime.
B) Who else understands it better than a room full at the pediatrician's office?
C) Paul was doing the wrangling while I took care of the cashier, etc.
D) I'll never see these people again. Who cares?

This weekend TJ told me about a display of amazing tantrum skills while the mom just calmly tried to attend to it and go on with her shopping, letting the kid just do his thing. I just reminded myself of that story. People without kids: this is really all you can do.

Despite the fact I wanted to beat her butt. But then that might beat the poop out and I didn't want to waste a perfectly-right-side-in diaper.

So what's to do about this diarrhea? Wait and pray for the best. Pray that her 5:30AM wake-up calls end with the poop very shortly. Pray that this tantrum series is due to feeling crappy about the diarrhea (yes pun intended). Pray that I continue to sympathize with her over wanting to hire a full-time nanny. Otherwise, if all tests come back OK, then we fear it may be a case of Toddler's Diarrhea (and no, she doesn't even get any kind of juice).

I asked the doc if her bad attitude might continue if this is truly Toddler's Diarrhea. He said, maybe once she gets used to the diarrhea...

People, would your attitude improve once you got used to the diarrhea?

Pictures of Endeavour

Here are some pictures of the oribert Endeavour piggy-backed onto the 747 that we saw last weekend. These pictures are from the NASA online imagery collection. This is what we saw last week in our skies.

Quick hits

Anna's teachers in her old classroom were apparently fired on Monday. I haven't heard the gossip as to why, but I do know that several parents had complained about them to the school director, and they had been warned a few months ago to improve, which I think they did. To be fair, I wasn't at all pleased with having them as teachers, since I'd seen how they interacted with the kids before Anna got there. But I never expressed it to the director, and I dropped in several times unannounced until I felt comfortable with her care. I gave it a chance, and after an initial equilibrium period, and their attempts to improve, I think they were fine and Anna really came to like Ms. P. especially. Alas, I guess their apparent improvement wasn't good enough. The irony is that I dropped of their Thank You cards (for Anna having been in their room for a few months) and they weren't there. At the time, I didn't know they were fired yet and the sub just kinda hesitated when I said I'd just leave this for them by the sink....yeah, I guess she knew they weren't coming back. I wonder if they'll get my thank you cards anyway? And will they too realize the irony?

All that being said, I guess my agreeableness to average-standard teachers got the best of me...or as a mom I accepted them as just fine after some initial settling in period. Afterall, toddlers need less nurturing and more independence than babies, and these teachers definitely seemed less hands-on in some things. But now having been in Anna's new class with the new teachers, I'm reminded of what we were missing from August-last week when Anna was in their old classroom. Before her previous classroom, Anna's previous teachers were all energetic and fun and loving. So are her current teachers. The two who were fired were so-so but I'd talked myself into thinking "that's just their way". Besides, Anna never showed any dislike towards them or other strange behaviors at home to indicate I should pursue worry. Though I have heard that other babies were showing some negative signs from being in their class. Anyway, these teachers had been in the same program for several years. So this is a big change. Just like that.

So I guess it's not the super smart capabilities of my little Anna that prompted her sudden shift to the next level up (though, let's face it, she IS super smart- ha!)! I am thinking her move was motivated by the need to refigure staffing with the impending firing of her two teachers!

Now to go pick up my diarrhea baby who had another blow out today at school. Good thing I brought them extra back-up clothes to the back-up clothes I already had there! ICK. God I hate the D word.

What's that white stuff in my yard and why is the orbiter over my head?

What a 24 hours! Where else can you get a Category III hurricane and snow all within a few months of each other? Houston, baby.

Today started with the second morning of horribly scary (and by scary I mean disgusting) poopy diapers (sorry but this is a toddler-centric blog so the topic of poop is inevitable) that woke us at 6AM for the day. I suppose we have grown too comfortable with her usual 7AM wake-up. With the crap that was in that kid's diaper, I certainly wouldn't have lasted as long as she did. This runny poop thing has been an issue for the past 5 days or so, but it's only gotten worse recently. She's even had a few pants changes at school! Tonight Paul could hear her tummy grumbling around and she's been extra clingy, cranky, and just "off". She even asks for her paci out of nowhere, when she usually only takes it for sleep (and you know about the car) and she really means it. I think it's her soothing method. That plus clinging to my hip or bawling (mommeeee, mommeeee, mommeee!) at my feet. I can't say I'd blame her. I wouldn't be too happy if my bowels were treating me that way. Hopefully it clears up soon but when she was a baby once it went as long as 2 weeks. You veteran mommies reading this already jumped to the punchline: this must be a virus. Oh joy. Toddler diarrhea is more disgusting than baby diarrhea. Had to share but enough of this. On to cleaner topics...

*****

SNOW! You've already heard by now, and actually Louisiana is stealing our thunder because it's snowed there by now too (and the night before in Austin at my mom's). But it started for us around 6pm last night...first it was wet and sleet-like. In fact, when Anna and I walked into the house, she touched my Jeep and said, "wet!" Yes baby, yucky, don't touch the truck. Then she said "ice!" Well, I'll be darned, she's right. Look at that little bit of ice on my fender.

Then the next thing we knew, it was seriously large, fluffy, Colorado-like REAL snow. No fake icy Houston crap-rain. It was white and fluffy and just coming down! So we of course went out in it. I guess for fear that it wouldn't last long, we didn't even take the time to put on our coats, and we just grabbed a snuggly blanket to wrap Anna in and ran outside.

Houstonians outside in snow in short sleeves. That's us.

It stopped around 11PM. That's a good 5 hours of solid snow. Not just sleet and ice, trust me. It was really snow. It made Paul and I miss Colorado a little more. But I, realizing the agony of what it must be like having to get a toddler in and out of snow clothes and the car seat just to go to the grocery store, took a second to appreciate that once per year (for us right now in our lives) would be the ideal plenty for me. I wish it would snow like once per year...or twice per year...in Houston. Though we played in it a bit, (and for Anna that means just a direct route from the ground to her mouth) I don't think Anna's old enough to fully appreciate it. Though this morning she just kept asking about the snow and ice and wanting to "seeit" (see it = touch it). All the way to school, there was still plenty of snow on the ground so all I heard was "Snow!" (and the usual: BUS!). She definitely knows what snow is!

When I went out at midnight to take some of these pictures, I could still hear the laughter of kids playing in the neighborhood. Why not? It's a school night? Pish!

For a second, the conditions perfectly reminded me of all of those years Paul and I threw newspapers every morning at 2am while students in Colorado. We probably did hundreds of these snow days. We were mindful that this time was the first time that we were in snow, in our own warm home that we owned, with our beautiful daughter sleeping peacefully upstairs, both of us with the careers we worked so hard to achieve. It was like we had everything all at once. It is a minute like that that reminds me to be grateful for how far he and I have come. We are good together and we are happy. (And that goes even without the snow, but it's much less sexy, isn't it?)...

My office at JSC this morning

***

Today's events were highlighted by a super cool shout out to the JSC area from the pilot who's flying the 747 that's carrying the Endeavour space shuttle orbiter from where it landed in California last week back to Kennedy Space Center, Fl. It didn't stop here to refuel at Ellington or anything, and I'm not sure the details, but it circled low and beautiful over our area several times. All of JSC was out on the streets to watch it, including some on rooftops with cameras. Paul called me because his clinic is right across the street from Ellington, and the plane buzzed low and loud right over the clinic! He loved it, you could hear it in his voice :) Another thing we like about living so close to Ellington (all those cool jets!)...At this time, however, I was en route to pick up Anna for her Thursday mommy afternoon time so I figured if I didn't want to crash my Jeep, I would miss the show. But Anna's class was running late on lunch so I sat outside with a bunch of excited pre-schoolers and got some great views of the show! Including one flight directly over my head. Really close. That was the orbiter Endeavour going right over my head. I was on the phone with Paul and he could hear all the kiddos' excitement! I happened to have the camera with me...but the pics posted on this blog do it no justice. If you check on my Flickr you can get a larger picture and even see the shuttle wings (when I post them). Also I imagine Space Monkey will post some on her blog shortly. Way cool. Too bad Anna's class was inside eating lunch. But I thought it was really cool that the school director was outside excited with the kids as well!

The day was topped off with a wonderful 3-hour nap, compliments of Anna-Marie, which allowed me to get some serious work done on cleaning up my desk at home. (You didn't think I took the 3-hour nap, did you?). Oh yeah, then another super-dooper poopy diaper. Wouldn't be right for me to end it without one last poopy cheap-shot, would it?

OK, instead I'll end it on egg nogg. This morning she had her first taste and you could see her brain sucking up that glucose. YUMMY!!!

You've been asking about what to get Anna-Marie for Christmas

Here's a brief list I compiled for Anna's Christmas gift wish-list. I'll probably get some of these for her myself...

http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=10&e=lpproduct&pid=33051 (I think she'd LOVE this)

http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=10&e=outdoorfunproduct&pid=44792 (this will be good when we get our outdoor patio)

http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=10&e=lpproduct&pid=44769

http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2058&e=product&pid=42695

http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2058&e=product&pid=35234

http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2058&e=product&pid=46508

http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2058&e=product&pid=41787

http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=10&e=outdoorfunproduct&pid=44979

http://store.babycenter.com/product/toys/12+-+24+months/bath+toys/flo+--+faucet+cover.do?asc=false

http://store.babycenter.com/product/safety+-+baby+care/safety/bathroom+safety/rub+a+dub+abc+and+123.do?asc=false

http://store.babycenter.com/product/safety+-+baby+care/bathing/bath+toys/rub+a+dub+stickers+for+the+tub.do?asc=false

http://store.babycenter.com/product/toys/12+-+24+months/bath+toys/five+sea+squirts.do?asc=false

http://store.babycenter.com/product/toys/12+-+24+months/bath+toys/baby+einstein+water%2C+water%2C+everywhere.do?asc=false

Happy Birthday, my 21 month-old

Happy 21-month birthday, baby! Tonight we finished decorating the tree and daddy even got some lights put up in the front of the house, even with his fever. This time last year you were learning to crawl, which I think you hated because you'd whine while you did it. All the other babies in your classroom were crawling. Even the ones younger than you. You'd rather sit there and watch or else have us tote you around or hold onto our fingers while you "walked". But you showed those other babies, next month you got into walking on your own, as well as pulling up in the crib, which disturbed everyone's rest when you'd practice in your sleep then freak out because you couldn't get back down. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

This year, you're saying "Christmas Tree" and "Santa Clause" and "OH MAN!" every time you see a house with lights on it. You ask for "moe" when you want the new train in the tree that daddy bought you to go round and round again. You're learning Jingle Bells and making Christmas art at school, which you bring home daily. In decorating the tree this year, we came across the ornament with your baby picture in it that you made at school last year. Fantastic! You're learning to jump and drinking from a regular cup and going to bed with books and songs before lights out. You are helping me do laundry and dishes, instead of pulling them all out of the cabinets and licking them.

Like last year, though, your nose is still runny. Tis the season.

This year we don't have our kitties. This will be the first Christmas in about 22 years that we don't have cats that eat the Christmas tree needles. It's just the three of us. They both passed away last year over the holidays, within 2 weeks of each other.

This year you'll get egg nogg instead of soy formula! Bring on the goodies!

The girls' play day

Bummer Spacedaddy had to work all weekend. We missed him so much.

But we couldn't sit home without him, bored. It is Christmas season, afterall. Festivals everywhere you look! After a make-up class at the Little Gym again today, and another fabulous Anna nap (not me, I surfed the net and cleaned the house), we ventured out to the League City Christmas on the Creek festival.

On the way, she asked for her paci. Of which I had cut the tip off with scissors, since I've heard stories that it's worked (I know about the safety warnings in doing this too...disclaimer). Interested to see what she'd do. In the car:

Anna: Paci? Paci?

Spacemama: Here's your paci, baby! (watching her reaction)

Anna (pulling the paci out her mouth): Paci boke! Paci boke!

She threw her paci down to the floor and told me the entire way to the festival that her paci was BOKE BOKE BOKE! She wasn't upset, just adamant that I knew it was broken (boke). And I also heard in there that paci's are for babies and yucky. I asked her a few times if she wanted it back and she said no every time. Hmmmm...could it really work this well? Time will tell...

In the meantime, Anna rode her first ferris wheel, and played her first carnival games. She won them all and even negotiated an extra prize :) She also watched the band play Christmas music, and played on the playground. But we did miss Paul.

On the ferris wheel

She won! No sympathy for the 5-year old challenger

Pick up the duck, win that prize. Don't drink the water.

On the way home, she proceeded to remind me her paci was "boke." Nor did she want it.

Exhausted back at home, we started decorating the tree till we all got too tired to go on. And it was early. Paul is running a fever, Anna was pooped from hard play, and I was tired from the whole weekend.

Helping to decorate the tree



In the Christmas Spirit

In bed tonight, Anna reminded me that her other paci was "boke". This one was apparently OK. Night-night, baby.