No! Nonononono!

We have officially entered the world of NO! How does this just happen without warning? It's not as if she hears the word all the time. We try to limit the use of it for things that really matter, like dangerous or completely unacceptable behavior (read: hitting the dog, etc) but here we are in No-ville. Which coincidentally, is just down the road from Mine-town - a place we've also been frequenting lately. Oh well, at least it's the dog that catches most of her grief. She just can't do anything right. This morning she was pre-emptively fussing at Georgia, wagging her finger and telling her "No! Nonono!" lest the silly beast think she might get a bite of MY breakfast, which EGR graciously shares with me. She can also be heard telling her to sit and move, and Heaven help us all if the poor dog acts like she might eat the Goldfish crackers she spills on the floor. It's a full contact scramble between the two of them to recover and eat as many as possible before the other one gets them. The credit goes to Georgia for being an amazingly gentle and patient dog.

Ella's vocabulary has exploded recently. She wakes up in the morning labeling the things in her room ("trash" "baby" "shoes" "Pooh" "dog") and continues labeling all day long. She also repeats things back to us now, so she is trying new words all the time. I think "trash" is her favorite. She looks for trash cans to point out to me, and she creates trash so she can put it in the can. She has taken ownership of the chore of putting dirty diapers in the big can outside - going so far as to wear the tied-up grocery sack, diaper inside, on her arm like a purse. She also likes to put her laundry in her hamper, though I think there may be some confusion about it being "trash".

I fully indoctrinated her into the joys of Christmas shopping Monday while I was on vacation. She rode in the pouch on the front of me all over the Galleria, so she had a front-row seat for all the picking and purchasing, even helped by handing the debit card to the cashier. I made my annual stop into Bath and Body Works, and she immediately recognized all the tubes and bottles. She was insistent on having some lotion, so we stopped by a tester tube on the way out the door. I squirted some onto her upturned hand and watched as she grinned with sheer glee and rubbed that lotion all over her hands. It warms my heart to know I've passed on my love of good hand cream. We shopped and shopped, and by the time we were leaving the mall she was yelling at me to "Pay! Pay!" I had to explain to her that we didn't actually buy anything at Sears, so we didn't have to pay before we left.

We had one blurry week when time stood still while she was sick with a residual ear infection (left from the first one she had in October) and virus that caused her mouth to break out in sores. For two days she had nothing but warm green tea because that was all she could drink without crying. She barely even nursed because it hurt too bad. Talk about a fish out of water, that was me trying to figure out how to comfort her without my secret weapon. She is fully recovered now, and officially got the all-clear on her ears so hopefully we will be free of antibiotics for a while. Getting them into her is feat in itself, and I can say that sitting on and wrestling a toddler into a strangle-hold while squirting medicine down her throat makes me feel less than dignified. Should we really both be breathless and panting after the ordeal? I think I have an easier time poking a pill down my spastic cat's mouth.

Now that she is well and her sleep is back on track, she is generally waking once in the night and has taken to getting out of the bed and going to the kitchen all by her big self to get her milk cup. Generally, I intercept her along the way to assist with opening the fridge, which she can't do yet, but she's getting quieter and quieter about the operation. Last night, I don't even know why I woke up because she was so quiet. Once she has her cup, we pile back into her bed and I stay with her until she falls asleep. She might nurse for a minute, or she might not; sometimes she sings to herself "a-bye Baby", sometimes she chats for a minute, sometimes her eyes roll back in her head like she was never awake, and last night she climbed right on top of me and flopped down with her face in my neck. We definitely seem to be in a transistion that is ultimately resulting in more, easier sleep for both of us, even if it is way inconvenient to go to the kitchen for the milk cup and then make sure it gets back in the fridge. Nursing all this time has spoiled me in that respect and I don't regret a minute of it, but I think we are nearing the end of that phase of our relationship. I think she may nurse for a few more months, and the bed time session will be the last to go but I can see that other things are becoming more important to her, like her bedtime stories and her milk cup in the middle of the night. It makes me very proud to see her growing up this way, even if it does mean she's not a baby anymore.

I Wear My Sunglasses at Night

I think Aunt Becca is EGR’s favorite aunt because she lets her play in her purse. It is one of Ella’s favorite past times. She has good stuff in there. Lipsticks, receipts, credit cards, body spray, and sunglasses. Aunt Becca came to Grandpop’s house Saturday night to see the little Sprout, and this time instead of just emptying and sorting the contents of the purse, EG actually put it to good use. She grabbed the sunglasses first and put them right on the top of her head like she’s been doing it all her (long) life. Then she found the lipstick and pretended to put it on her lips. She pulled out the wallet and found the receipts so she could balance the checkbook. Then she decided it was too bright in Grandpop’s house, so she put those glasses on her face. Of course, the paparazzi was there to capture all of it on film.

We have most definitely entered the world of make believe. There are times when I watch her play and I know that she has created an entire little world around herself. It goes beyond pretending to feed the babies and stuffed animals. She now puts on makeup, gets herself ready with her purses and hat, loads her car and gets in it. She will run back and forth from the cabinet, “filling” one cup from various other cups to create a concoction only she can explain. Sometimes she pretends to throw things away – making trips back and forth to the garbage can holding invisible bits of trash. She also fills plates and bowls in this same manner. Dave tried giving her actual trash to throw away, but she ignored it in favor of her game. I love to watch her play this way and try to figure out what she is thinking.

She recently developed a love for coloring, probably due to the Sunday school lessons she’s been participating in. (Can I get a Hallelujah! about the fact that she’s stayed in Sunday school and Wednesday night Bible study for two weeks in a row without crying?) I set her up in her high chair with some paper and crayons the other night while I sat at the table and wrote thank you notes. She colored all over that paper, then put her crayons back in the box when she was finished (this is another topic entirely). We stuck her picture on the fridge and put the crayons away in the junk drawer. The next night, she scurried into the kitchen when we got home, pulled that picture off the fridge and went to the junk drawer for the crayons. Now we have two pictures on the fridge. I like this new interest; it’s creative and it keeps her busy, though she does get distressed when the crayons don’t go back in the box easily. The walls of my house will soon be papered with her artwork.

The child has developed a rather disturbing 16 month-old behavior. She picks up and straightens things. How will I be able to maintain a modicum of general disarray if both my husband and my child need every thing to have a place and be in its place? I guess I’ll rest easy in the fact that this new habit doesn’t seem to apply to her toys except in special circumstances. They are usually still strewn from one end of the house to the other. Seriously though, she made me do a double take when I saw her put her toys back in the hat box they live in, put the lid on it, and put it back on the stack where it stays at Grandma’s house so we could go home the other night. All with absolutely no prompting from anyone. When I saw her move the dog’s food bowl three feet from where it was to where it was supposed to be in a completely absent-minded gesture, I groaned inside. Then she followed her Da into the bathroom so she could straighten the rug he kicked up, and I later watched her pick up the couch pillows from the floor and put them back on the couch. All of these were sort of casual, absent-minded things she did on her way to whatever she was planning to do. Weird. Yes, she sees me do these things in the same absent-minded manner, but it took years of training and self-discipline to make me that way, and Dave will tell you that I still love a pile of clutter. He told me the other night that I will be in trouble when she starts cleaning up after me and I can’t find a thing. He’s absolutely right. Maybe she’ll at least put my things away instead in the middle of the bed where I’ll be forced to deal with the pile like he does.

Finally, though I believe it is a double-edged sword, I’ve been trying to teach her to dress herself. Mostly I just dress her while she stands or sits instead of on the changing table where she is contained. It makes the chore more interesting when I have to follow her around with her clothing, or trap her in my legs, but at least she’s actively participating now. Last night I wrestled her diaper on her, then thought, “What the heck?” and tossed her Tinkerbell shirt at her with instructions to put it on. When I turned back around from whatever I was doing, she had one arm in. She got distracted at that point, so I helped with the rest of the process, but I did tell her to pull up her pants and she did it for the very first time. This is double-edged because having the ability to dress herself is one step closer to potty readiness, but it will also mean she has the ability to undress herself. Since the child frequently asks to have her clothes removed, I’m thinking nakedness might present an issue in the future. In public of course; I couldn’t care less if she wears clothes in the house.

Crocs with Socks: A Story of a Young Shoe Diva

The Shelby Baptist Association is running a Christmas Gift Shop fundraiser store – think flea market, but cheaper. Retailers in the area donated truck loads of holiday and seasonal items left over from last Christmas and Thanksgiving, so the Shelby Baptist Association is selling it at super low prices to raise money for their Christmas Gift Shop program. Reports say that they have everything in any color you could want. I’ve heard tell that ladies have filled 3 giant bags chock full of Christmas decorations for the bargain basement price of $40.

It is one of Ella’s favorite places to shop, so she and Grandmother go there often. The decided to go yesterday despite the fact that pickings are slim now that the holidays are upon us. Oh, what a fateful day it was for EGR. A day that I can only imagine she’s been patiently waiting on for quite some time. As they entered the door of the store, she spotted them – the long sought-after pink crocs. Oh, yes, I believe she’s been looking everywhere we go for pink crocs like Mama’s as she often tries to wear mine around the house. She was beside herself with glee, trying to climb out of the buggy as Grandmother was putting her into it. Nothing else would do but to search the racks for a pair in her size.

They found a pair in size 5 that seemed to do okay, and a pair of size 7 that were too big for her to wear right now. There were no size 6, but she was adamant, so they purchased the 5s for only $1. She tried and tried to put them on as they browsed through the aisles, but they were tied together. Finally, at checkout, the cashier cut them apart and Grandmother put them on her feet. She proudly wore them all day – only taking them off for nap time with the promise that she could put them back on as soon as she woke up. She did indeed march straight to the crocs and insist on wearing them once the nap was finished. She even pointed to them and said, “Shoes Mama!” I don’t know if that meant she wanted to show them to me, or that she has shoes like Mama’s, but she was ready to show them off when I got home.

She wore them until bath time, and this morning she brought them to me when it was time to put on shoes. Of course, since it’s sock season, she is committing the fashion faux pas of wearing them with socks, but I believe I am powerless in this matter. They are just on the brink of too small, but she doesn’t seem to care right now. I will not be at all surprised if I get home tonight to find a pair of size 7s so that she’ll have some to grow into. They are pink with pink leopard print fabric around the edges and insoles, and she loves them so. She does love shoes.

Fall Festival Pics

I was right; it took the full two months to make the Green Giant and Sprout costumes, but I got them finished. Without further ado, here they are.

They posed on the fire truck and listened to the siren. Ella liked the siren so much that she wanted the fireman to turn it on again. He did. She has been making the fire truck noise when she sees pictures of them since we took her to the Fire Prevention Parade at the beginning of October.
When we all sat down for awards and supper, she entertained herself with a giant bucket of crayons. She did actually color on the cardboard, then she piled and sorted and when there were enough crayons on the floor, she left to find something else to do.

This is my favorite picture. She is "feeding the frogs" at the bean bag toss - which she did over and over again, barely waiting on other kids to take a turn.

She and The Giant went fishing for prizes. She also played the ring toss, bounced in the bounce house, and generally ran all over the place with the rest of the hooligans. There was one boy there with a wolf mask and every time she saw him she said, "Doooog!"

She had a great time, and after the Fall Festival we went to Grandpop's house to trick or treat. She and Grandma gave out candy to the other trick or treaters, and she had so much fun that got upset when the kids stopped coming to the door. Grandma taught her how to put the candy in their pumpkins, and when Grandma said, "Where are the trick or treaters?" she gave a great big "I don't know" shrug. She was convinced to go home with the promise of a bath. She was one tired Sprout tonight.

A 2 for 1 Deal: Roll Tide and Happy Halloween

We carved our "Puh!" Saturday night, and in the spirit of the activity Ella insisted on wearing her Halloween leggings. They are her favorite pants. She needed me to get them out of the bottom of the laundry hamper and put them on her. She didn't care that they clashed badly with the cheerleader outfit she was already wearing. I'll admit that I had a few moments of inner struggle over allowing this to be recorded on film, but the part of me that thinks it cute when she insists on wearing Halloween pants won.
Her favorite part of the pumpkin carving process was stomping around on the garbage bag on the floor. She wanted nothing to do with the pumpkin guts, and seemed a little concerned that we were cutting up her "Puh!" I definitely think she liked it better before we carved it. She was so proud while she rode in the grocery cart with it, and she needed it to sit in the living room floor so she could pat it. Now that we've cut it, she's interested in the candle inside it when it's lit, but otherwise she's indifferent.
This is the whole Halloween outfit, but she really could care less about the shirt. The pants have "ki-kis" on them (that's "kitty kitties" if you don't speak Toddler).

You can't really see it in the picture but there is a huge white stain down the front of her shirt because she spit her antibiotics back at me when I tried to give them to her. She has a double ear infection thanks to the yucky cold she caught from her Da (that's Daddy) last week. He caught it from the Jefferson County Jail. (Thanks so much, County Jail. I was really due the character building exercise of taking care of a husband who was coughing up his spleen and a toddler who couldn't breathe and cut two teeth last week.) Now everyone is feeling better, but we have 15 more doses of antibiotic to get down the little hatch and the diaper rash to deal with. I can't blame her for spitting out the medicine; it is really, really nasty. I even took it back to the pharmacy and got it flavored, but that didn't matter. We reached an unspoken agreement that she would eat it with a teaspoon of yogurt as long as we pretended it wasn't in there, but she knew. I think that trick has expired. Chocolate pudding will be my next approach. I guess that I'll also be exercising my creativity along with building my character.

She now has 8 teeth on bottom and 6 on top. The bottom canines came in this week, so now we are waiting on the top ones. They don't look like they will make an appearance any time soon. I really just wish those and the 2 year molars would come in now so we can get it over with. It's really no wonder that most kids don't sleep through the night until they are three-ish with all these teeth coming through all the time.

This is just a cute picture I found on my camera when I uploaded the new ones. That shimmery thing is her Invisibility Cloak, which she wraps around her fist and gnaws on as she falls asleep.
Here she is in her new tent with a tunnel. We bought the tent to hold the balls. Yes. I wrote that. Are you laughing yet? I laughed quietly to myself all the way home from Target that day because my poor disillusioned husband actually thought the balls would stay in the tent! He moaned and groaned about the basket full of toys and general strewn about mess in the living room, so he "solved" that problem by buying her 150 ball pit balls and a tent. :) She does love it.Aside from recent illness, everything is well with us. EGR is talking about everything, though lay people wouldn't understand most of it. Last night she came into the bathroom while I was cleaning up the tub toys and told me: "Mama! Jabberjabberjabberblahblahblah!" while pointing candidly at her bedroom. I followed her, telling her to show me. Indeed she did. She bent down, pointed under the dresser and said, "Ba!" Her ball was under there, just out of her reach.

The Case of the Missing Phone

"Mischievous and conniving." That's what Dave said about dear, sweet EGR this morning. He was referring to her absolute refusal to let him hold her until she realized there was a pen in his pocket, and then she didn't want him to put her down.

The latest report from Grandmother's House tells a similar story. Apparently the phone was missing all day. Grandmother searched high and searched low for it, but it was nowhere to be found. She even asked EGR if she knew where it was. Oh, she did, but it was stuck so she didn't give it up. The search continued. Grandmother turned off all the other phones and the answering machine, then called the house from her cell phone. She followed the ring to the musical playground, which happens to have a convenient ball hole/tunnel thingy. It was in there, and it was stuck. Grandmother was working hard to dislodge it when she heard a suspicious giggle from behind her. EGR was happily sitting in her highchair, watching the whole scene and laughing. Mischievous? Most definitely.

Everything I've read says that between 15 and 18 months is a weird, difficult age. I'm here to say that it's true. It's weird. It's difficult. It's hilarious. It's oh so sweet. Sleep is weird - fabulous one night and horrible the next. Bedtime is so easy one night, and takes an hour the next. The tantrums have already started - including a nice fake gagging noise whenever she's not getting her way. It's somehow funny and annoying at the same time. If it actually produces vomit one of these days, that will be a different story.

Separation anxiety has reared it's head again. For the first time, the well-baby information from her doctor's office said we should expect it at this age. I should really have considered that a warning. She's had it during every major milestone phase, but this is the worst yet. I'm thinking it's because she's turned into a monkey-child and she now not only cries when I attempt to leave her, but also climbs my body and hangs on for dear life - whether it be around my neck or around my legs while she stands on my feet. Honestly, I think if the child could get into my skin with me, she would do just that. Again, both funny and annoying at times - though I do love the feeling of little arms clamped around my neck.

She's talking more every day, and more and more words are becoming clear. A baby crying on TV woke her up and she pointed and said, "Baby!" I was asking her to come to me so I could put her shoes on, and she pointed to her feet and said, "Shoes." When I was telling Dave about it this morning, she got her shoes and brought them to me to put them on her. She got new shoes last week, and she loves them. She barely took them off all weekend. When she found them sitting next to mine on the floor, she needed to put them on. Then she went outside in tennis shoes and pajamas - straight to a mud hole to get them broken in.

She pays so much attention to conversations going on around her. We've always thought this, but now she demonstrates it by acting on what we are saying - like getting her shoes, or laughing when we say something is funny. Now when we correct her for hitting or throwing or generally acting out in anger/frustration, she leans her head toward us to give us love. I'm finding that I can tell her something privately in her ear, and she is much more receptive. This has worked when asking her to give a toy back to another little girl in the nursery, or asking her to give bye love to Grandma and Grandpop.

Her 15 month check up went well. She weighs 21.5 lbs and is 31 inches long. She did not like the doctor this time, but he says that all kids are like that at this age and it will be better when she's three. He had to pry her mouth open with a tongue depressor to look at her teeth, and that was really only successful because of the screaming.

EGR: 15 Months

EG turned 15 months old last Friday. I've been back at work for an entire year now. Wow.

This morning was the first time she cried when I left her. It only lasted a minute, and she had stopped by the time I was out of the driveway.

I swear the little scamp does something new and funny every day. Over the weekend she started walking on her tiptoes, just because she can, I guess. She can now walk up a few short steps without holding on to anything - well, really she can run up them. She has finally started holding her baby to her chest, right side up, (instead of by the head/leg/arm, etc), and now she cuddles it and makes the "Hmmmm" noise we make when we snuggle her. She also feeds it with a toy bottle, and makes the slurping noise as if it's drinking. She feeds all of her stuffed animals and Georgia with the toy bottle. She'd like to feed the cats, but they don't appreciate the effort. Saturday morning she wanted both cats to sit on the couch with us, so I was making the "tch, tch, tch" noise that gets Gypsy to come to me. The whole rest of the weekend she called every cat she saw by making that sound. I saw her try to pick Gypsy up for the first time. The attempt was unsuccessful, mainly because Gypsy was having no part of it.

Now when we (me) are trying to get out the door in the mornings, she "remembers" something that she has to go back and get. Usually it's a few stuffed animals or the baby. Yesterday, she fed the baby on the way to Grandmother's house, slurping all the way. She tells me she wants milk in a cup by going to the refrigerator, or that she wants snacks by going to the snack cabinet (or pantry at Grandmother's house). If Grandma and Grandpop come to our house, she goes to the door and points to their car to tell them she wants to go to their house. She tells me that she's "all done" or something is "all gone" by using the sign. When she's ready for bed or nap (!) she goes to her room and pats the big bed, where we cuddle to read her story and nurse. (It still might take half an hour to get her to sleep, but at least she admits that she's ready now.)

She is finally letting me brush her teeth for her, primarily because I sing the "This is the way we brush our teeth..." song. We also have a song for putting on a diaper and pajamas after the bath, and she likes to "sing" that one with me. She "sings" with me when I sing the Winnie the Pooh song, or if I stop singing and she wants me to continue. She understands and follows simple instructions; for example, yesterday she was playing with my hair clip and lost it. I asked where she put it, then I saw it under the rocking chair. I said, "There it is under the rocking chair, will you get it and bring it to me?" She did just that. It still amazes me to see how much she understands when we are talking to her. She isn't very verbal yet, but if you are watching her while having a conversation, you can see her respond to your words. Amazing.

Sunday night I read Goodnight Moon to her for the first time. Apparently it's been America's favorite bedtime story for the last 60 years for a reason. It put her right to sleep. She was sitting straight up and nodding off. I had to stop myself from laughing at her and breaking the spell. I remember being bored with the book as a child, but I must have been much older than her at the time.