Making Music

I brought out a few toys which I've put away a few weeks ago. Amazing how if you don't see something for a long time, it's almost like a new toy again. These two were definitely a hit!

20 months

You are one energetic 20 month old. You get more and more independent wanting to do things on your own without any of our help. Most of your meals are now eaten with a spoon or a fork, in fact sometimes you will eat the food off the fork and refuse to have it any other way.

You're repeating a ton of words, although I've noticed that you don't talk much when we are out or around people you may not know too well. You have to be in a talkative mood. Most of the words that we've heard are in English, however your body parts you know better in Russian. When I ask you where something is for some reason it has always been in Russian, and you seem to understand it pretty well. You can say your name, you've been pointing at pictures of yourself and saying "Sascha". Also just the other day I heard you say "Net" which is no in Russian. I couldn't believe it, it's your first Russian word! haha... should have known it was going to be "NO".

You love running, and climbing lately. Sometimes your feet move so quickly that the rest of your body has a hard time catching up and you fall. You have fallen numerous times and either hitting your lip or biting it with your teeth making your mouth bleed. One time your lip got swollen pretty big, and we tried to put a cold ice pack on it, but you start crying even harder when that's attempted. The next day it was back to normal... amazing how quickly things heal when you're so little. You also love to climb, I've seen you top of coffee tables, chairs, sofas... whatever it is that you can get up on. Luckily I haven't seen you climb the stove or anything crazy like the kitchen counter top. Today I saw you hanging on a bar at daycare which you can just barely reach, you grab onto it and hang on while swinging your legs back and forth. I've never seen you do this, but you held on for a long time, and clearly were having such a fun time. Taking you to a park is always an adventure, you go on swings, and then tell us that you're all done, then slides, and I've even seen you climb up a little bridge looking structure... so indeed you are a little monkey girl!

Your love singing and hearing music. I've now figured out that one of the song you attempt to sing is "twinkle, twinkle little star" as well as the "abc" song. You start out singing and the words really resemble the ones in the song, and then it just trails off into baby talk but the actual melody stays.

When it's time to change your diaper, you now seem to know what's going on and if we're down stairs sometimes I see you carry the little mat that we change you on and lay it out, other times I bring it over and tell you that we need to change your diaper and you will just go ahead and lay down right on it. Other times you decide that you don't want to get your diaper changed and you start running away... you seem to love being chased.

Your bully reputation is still true. In addition to it, we've notice how your face changes when something you don't like is going on. You have this frown or a mean look that you give, like you're mad and unhappy. So amazing to see your personality come out in so many ways.
Well I am sure I have forgotten a bunch of other little things you do, but that pretty much sums it up for now.

Daycare & Swim play group

Just wanted to post about how well you're doing in daycare and about other little things that you do now days.

Dropping you off has now become harder on us than you. We are always sad to let you go, while you just run in without a problem. So no more crying, which is great. Last week you and daddy arrived at the same time as another boy and his mommy which means you didn't get to ring to door bell like you usually do. So he went in first and you hesitated and seemed like you didn't want to go in or were just being shy. Galya - the woman that runs the daycare asked the boy to take your hand and help you inside and the little boy crossed the doorway back outside and reached out for your hand, you then took his hand and you guys went inside together. How cute is that?! I only wished I was there to see that in person. Also I heard from another mommy, that her son called you a little princess. :) My little princess...I've definitely gotten so many comments about your curly blond hair and your big blue eyes. Looks like we may be in trouble later on because it seems like the boys have already taken to you.

You also started eating much better, which is a big deal because I've been so picky and are always on the smaller side wight-wise and of course it's always been a consern of mine. I still give you 8 oz of milk in a bottle in the morning and the same in the evening, you still refuse to take milk in a sippy cup. Before you wouldn't have milk with your cereal and now you do, and you wouldn't eat any of the soups that they prepared and now you even use the spoon to eat them. I am so very happy to hear that. Now I need to be more encouraging with you at home and offer meals with utensils, something I am not used to doing because you make such a mess and food gets flung all over the place. Also seems like you love peanuts, I've never given you whole peanuts before, I've tried peanut butter but you didn't seem that fond of it, but at least now I know you definitely don't have an allergy to them since you've had them a bunch of times. Galya always tells me how the day went, how you napped well, and eat well (in the last week or so), and that you are one active little girl. You seem to be one of the youngest kids there right now, but that doesn't stop you from taking toys away from others. She tells me that you know what you want and you go after it. When you don't get your way you scream, grunt, push, and some of the other kids get scared of you. I certainly hope that you don't always get your way there, and that you learn how to share better, I know that doesn't really happen until kids get older, and sometime I do see you offer a toy to other kids, it just seems like you take toys away a lot more often. I was thinking that daycare type of environment would help with this kind of behavior and I am still hoping that it will. Little miss bully. The other thing you love to do is pick leaves and flowers off plants, and they have a few in their back yard that you have now gotten your hands on. I think pretty soon, there wont' be much left.

It's always fun to pick you up, you're usually very excited to see us and you say "mama" or "daddy" and run up to us. Once we get home, I usually try to start dinner, which is such a challenge, unless it's something quick. It's pretty tough to do that and keep an eye on you. Unless I get you occupied and interested in some toy, you are roaming around all over the place, basically getting into everything that you're not supposed to be getting into. Like yesterday you moved the gate that is blocking the tv, tv components and fireplace. You got into there and grabbed the PS3 remotes and started playing with them. I removed you from there 2 or 3 times and told you No. Then you started running around and screaming, not sure if it was just excitement or because you needed to release all that energy you still had. Then you got into the cabinet near the couch that has breakable things in it. Usually you don't care much for that cabinet which is why I haven't really moved the items in there to be out of reach, but yesterday it seemed like all you wanted to do was cause trouble on purpose. You were definitely were testing my patience and at the same time I was frustrated at myself that I wasn't just paying 100% attention to you and playing with you since I miss that so much during the day... all because I had to get dinner ready too. I wish sometimes dinner would just magically appear once I got home, but that doesn't happen, unless we get take out on the way home from work.

Once we're done with dinner, you seem to have a ton of energy and not ready for bed, so we usually hang out and play for a bit. You run away and then come back to give us hugs and kisses, you sing, and dance. You're so playful that sometimes it's hard to stop and say ok... "bedtime". When you hear "bedtime" or "night night" you look at the stairs and once I open the gate you start heading upstairs. You're now pretty heavy to carry up and down the stairs so I let you crawl up or help you up by holding your hand. On the way down, we usually tell you to sit on your butt and to hop down on your butt. You know the routine now. Although daddy wants to remove the gate (mostly because it's scratching up our bottom stair), I definitely think it's way too early.

Another activity that is going on this summer is that in the beginning of July we started a swim group through a place called Aqua pros at the Boys and Girls club in Clairemont Mesa. It's a bit of a drive for us to get there, but it seems totally worth it. It's very inexpensive and a lot of fun for you. It's half an hour long and the main point is just to get babies/toddlers used to the water and learn some techniques that may help you become more comfortable in the water. You now close your eyes more often when you go under water, you still start kicking like crazy, but you're less scared of it, also when sitting at the edge of the pool, you now jump in on 1, 2, 3. When we first started going to the pool this summer you'd get a little scared and it would take you about 5 minutes to adjust and start liking the water, but now you go in without a problem. You have so much fun splashing around and singing the songs w/the rest of the group. It's your special time with daddy! I just get to enjoy watching you guys in the water.

Flying high

Twinkle twinkle little star

Vegas and Zion Camping Trip

You survived your first camping trip! I am way behind on this post, since it's been weeks since we have returned from our trip and it still feels like I am trying to catch up.

I must say I was a bit nervous about going camping with a toddler. After staying in Las Vegas for 2 nights to see Jeromey's family, we drove for 2+ hours to visit Zion National Park in Utah, planning to stay at a campground for 4 nights with friends and their baby. The campground was actually one of the nicest I've ever been to, it was such a great facility, bathrooms, showers, a store that had just about everything you may need or have forgotten, and even a pool which we used every day! But I had no idea how you were going to deal with the whole napping/sleeping/eating situation, but you adapted just fine. Sure the usual routine was out the door, but it was ok and I guess that's part of being on vacation. You still napped, sometimes in your stroller, sometimes in the carseat if we were heading somewhere, and sometimes even in the baby backpack (although I must admit that was probably the least comfortable for you) and you did fuss a lot while in it ... if you were tired. Our friend's baby Kingston napped in his backpack all the time, but we all decided that his backpack was a lot more comfortable and we're now thinking of replacing yours for future hikes. Sleeping at night was great, you didn't fuss much and did your usual talk and sing, and eventually just fell asleep. You did figure out how to open the window that was right next to your pack n' play and your little head would peak out and look outside and say hello to us. It was fun! Our tent was so big that it fit your pack n' play in it along with our blow-up mattress.

Sure we didn't have all the luxuries of our home or a hotel, but I think we made the best of it and I would even say that we'd do it again. The only thing that I wouldn't repeat would be going camping when it's so hot, otherwise everything else was very enjoyable. Great friends, good times, and wonderful memories were made!

Instead of posting a bunch of pictures, I'll post just two of my favorites along with a link to a great slide show our friend Herbie put together that sums up the trip pretty well! We went on a total of 4 hikes, some short, and some long, all drastically different. The scenery was amazing. Zion is truly a magical place. There is definitely so much more to see and come back to, and I certainly hope that we will do that someday.

Zion National Park Montage

This is how far we made on our Angel's Landing hike, the hardest, longest, and the most amazing hike we attempted

Strolling down a path on our way back from the Narrows hike

Doing a puzzle

We got you this puzzle and this is probably your 4th or 5th time playing with it. You get pretty excited when I pull it out. Here is a little clip, you struggled with the diamond, but got it eventually and was very proud of yourself.

19 Months and starting daycare/preschool

You are talking up a storm. I have no idea what you're saying most of the time, but you sure do mean it! You pick up books and pretend to read them, or sometimes you're just in a chatty mood and you go with it, it's so much fun. Other times, you are attempting to repeat what we say... and come pretty close. Phrases such as " Here you go", "all done", "lets go", "thank you" . Water is "wawa". You love saying bye and hi. When you see us go up the stairs you say "bye"! You've also become a lot more affectionate lately, you come up and give us hugs, and pats on the back while hugging, and kisses as well. You've also finally blown kisses, with sound too.

We had your first dentist appointment and that went ok. You of course didn't not want to have her look inside your mouth, even after she let you play w/her tools, you were still uncomfortable with it, so we had to hold your hands down and you cried, but it was quick and didn't hurt at all. Your teeth seem to be fine for now, we do need to do a better job brushing and the little white spot I noticed a while back is not soft which is good, so they'll just keep an eye on it. Also we need to have you stop using the bottle and the pacifier. The bottle battle I've lost once again (for the third time). You cried for it, and wined and would not touch the milk if it's in a sippy cup. Also we tried putting milk in the sippy cup and water in the bottle and you will take water. You don't seem to care if the bottle has milk in it, you just want the bottle, may be it's comforting to you. The pacifier will be another battle.

I think I am going to let you get away with these for now because you just started daycare and it was a tough adjustment for you, so I don't want to add any additional stress on you or ourselves. Day 1 you went for a few hours and you cried a lot when we left, you wouldn't eat much, and you didn't even let them change your diaper, you also cried when daddy picked you up. Of course it didn't help that you've been w/us for a whole week while we went on vacation. Day 2 was a full day but shorter than usual, you cried once again when we left, but calmed down once distracted, and you didn't eat much and you slept for a little bit, but not in the pack n' play. It was so hard for us to leave you there knowing you didn't want to be left alone. Day 3 was the same. Then we started another week, and you are doing better. You start wining when you see the house and you don't particularly want to get out of your car seat either, but once you go in, see all the kids, you don't cry much, they quickly occupy you w/toys and other things. Picking you up is much more fun. You run up to me or daddy as soon as you see one of us, and you say "mama" or "daddy", there is so much excitement in your eyes, it's so cute. Also you immediately start saying bye to everyone and now the kids say "Bye Sascha!". You've become very familiar w/the routine of meal time and nap time as well as all the play areas. You're eating a little bit better, and you started to sleep in the pack n' play! Horray! You play well with the kids and all the toys too, seems like you have a lot of fun when you're there, so looks like you will be just fine, just takes time! Also after 3 days, I saw you using the spoon... which is so cool. I think you'll be learning a lot from the older kids, since you're one of the youngest ones there.