Not a baby anymore...

So it's been forever since I posted...in the life of a two-year old, lots changes in the span of 8 months!

I find it difficult to have time to post (no kidding, right?). And far too much has happened with Marissa to even make an attempt to capture it in one post. But I'll try to hit the highlights.

Terrible Twos? Who says so? I don't believe they exist. My girl turned two in February and I have yet to see the "terrible" part. In fact, I enjoy her more every day. Seriously. I know I sound like a ridiculous, gushing parent (the kind I swore I would never be), but I can honestly say that getting to watch this little girl grow, learn new things and develop into her own fabulous person is the best thing I could ever experience. She's truly a great kid. Not perfect (she's human and TWO after all), but damn close!

She continues to be a very advanced learner. She amazes me every day by what she knows, how she can communicate and what she remembers! We really have to watch what we say around her because she is a sponge...absorbs everything. And remembers everything.

She's really getting into the potty training. For weeks now all poos have been in the potty (no more poopy diapers to change...now our role is bottom-wiper instead)...huge milestone!

Kid is super-easy to reason with. Truly. Don't get me wrong...she flies into a tantrum if she doesn't get her way...but if you stay calm and get her to talk you can really reason with her. It's almost weird. But it makes life a lot easier.

She's still rocking the curly hair and in my opinion continues to get cuter :-)

She loves to dance, sing, read books, go to the pool, play outside, color...very active little girl. Keeps us busy.

She continues to develop relationships with her peers "Davis Bites...he's not nice. No, No Davis!" or "Amy go on airplane to China. I going on airplane to China."

We have some funny conversations, too:
Me: "We're going home"
MET: "To Marissa's house?"
Me: "To our house, mommy and Marissa and Daddy's house."
MET: "No, it's MY house"
Me: "But mommy goes to work to pay the bills so it's OUR house"
MET: "No, I pay the bills"

Let's see, before I log off I'll share some "vitals":
Great eater, still. We don't make her different food most of the time...she eats whatever we're having for dinner and does great.

Small for her age, but still within the normal range. She's adorable, though, so who cares? Not like Matt or me are big.

Sleeps great...still takes a long nap (2 hours) and sleeps about 11-12 hours at night.

The threat of time out is most often all it takes to snap her back to good behavior...and bribery with food works well to get her to do most anything else :-)

Talking up a storm...

I haven't done a very good job of keeping this post updated...and I realized today (on my commute home...which often is the only time I have alone to think) that I really need to do a better job of keeping it posted. It's my "online baby book." Seriously. It's the only place that I have a record of all of Marissa's milestones...

My child is a talker. It's become so apparent in the past few weeks that she is talking more than kids her age typically do. Of course, since she's our only child...I don't realize these things until it's pointed out to me.

First, her doctor (at her 18 mo well baby visit) is asking us all the routine questions about eating, sleeping...yada yada yada. Then she asks whether Marissa has 5-10 words. What? Matt and I look at each other then proceed to tell the doctor that she knows just about every word. In fact, we look around the room and figure that she can say at least 15 things JUST IN THAT ROOM! Let's see...some of the things in the room that she knows: chair, mommy, daddy, trash, every body part...seriously...all of them, so that in itself is over 15 words...phone (and the associated "hello" and "bye bye") water, book, blankie, Rissa (that's what she calls herself)...that's about it. There's not a whole lot in those exam rooms.

On that same topic...I don't make it to her daycare very often anymore. Since Matt's not working and my job continues to be insane, he does the dropoff/pickup on most days. Recently I picked her up because he was going to the Thurs night Ga Tech game. I asked the teacher how she's been doing, and asked her if she talked their ears off. She said "Marissa talks a lot. She talks much more than the other kids." Hmmm. I find it fascinating, but she knows all the other kids names. When I walked in the room, she was excited to see me and ran over to another kid and pointed at her and said "Amy" as if to show me that she had a friend. Too cute.

We recently went to the lake with our friends Amanda and Matt (and their kids Andrew and Caitlin) and Amanda's parents. She immediately loved Caitlin, who is 4. It's so weird to see her developing relationships with other kids...I love it. She still looks at me and says "Andrew. Caitlin." As if asking me when they're coming back. Anyway, we saw Amanda the following weekend and she said to me "I think Marissa might be really smart." It seems funny to me that an 18 month old can be assessed as "smart"...but I digress. So I said, "really?" And she said "my mother said the same thing and was shocked that she can count to 10." I guess that is pretty unusual? Like I said...I don't know these things. I just assume that she's in the range of normal. And she IS in the range of normal...maybe just on the early talker path. And her counting to 10 is usually: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10.

She also sings songs with me...my favorite is her rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. My particular favorite is the way she says diamond -- "di-mon." SO FREAKING CUTE. I wish that I could remember forever the way her voice sounds now and the way she talks. My memory sucks, though, so hopefully just reading this blog will be enough.

She is just truly so fun...even with the temper tantrums (which are few and far between yet very very very loud and long when they do happen) and I love watching her grow and change every day. She's not like me or Matt. She is just her own (chatty) person and I think that's fabulous!!

Potty!

We've had quite a busy summer! Last month Marissa, Matt and I went to St. Augustine Beach and had a lovely vacation. We got to see my parents, which was great. It was just a really enjoyable trip...and MUCH-needed for me. In the months leading up to the trip, my work was totally insane so the trip was really terrific.

Marissa started a new room at daycare a couple of weeks ago. This one seems good, too. I have to say, we're pretty pleased with kids r kids and the teachers, the programs, and everything she's learned there. She loves the day that they go to the "waterpark"...and they do lots of other fun things with the kids. She gets a great variety of foods there, too (probably a much better variety than at home)!

And...big news today...she went peepee in the potty for the first time today! Hooray!

I know potty-training will take a long time, but who cares? We're off to a good start.

:-)

No, No, No

So here we go.

Marissa has known for quite some time what "no" means...when she means "no" she has shaken her head to indicate it. But now, much to my dismay...she knows how to say "no" along with the head shake. And she says it CONSTANTLY.

"Time to put on your shoes."
"No, no, no." (visualize a head shake here)

"Here's your Elmo book."
"No, no, no." (and she takes it immediately after)...

I think she likes to just be "in control" -- which she clearly isn't (hehehe...we're going to have this battle for the next 50 or so years). So when I offer the Elmo book, no good. But if it's HER decision to grab the Elmo book...great.

She also is starting to swat at my face or pinch my skin when she isn't happy with what's going on (for instance, I want to put her down when I can't hold her anymore...damn, the kid's getting big and I'm not all that strong). That's somewhat annoying but, again, she's expressing her feelings in a non-verbal way...it's OK...I just say, "don't do that, Marissa." And she looks at me for a minute like she's processing. Hopefully she's computing "I shouldn't do that because mommy isn't smiling and looks fairly stern." Perhaps too ambitious...

I have figured out that this child LOVES books. I find it truly heartwarming when she pretends to "read" the books to me...she'll hold the book, point at things and babble, and then flip pages. I know she's imitating me (that's how I read to her, I point at a lot of things in the book) and I find it so funny how she imitates.

Summer's going to be fun (minus the 'no, no, no')...weekends at the pool...swinging, etc. Love the summer...

Amazing!

I can't believe it, but I actually have a few minutes to post an entry today. Marissa is napping, Matt's out shopping for a grill...I finished cleaning two bathrooms and ate my lunch. I'm taking a break before laundry-mania begins. It's amazing what you can shove into a two-hour nap period...

Where do I start? It's been forever since I actually posted anything. Hmm...let's see. I can see by the previous post that the last time I wrote was when Marissa started walking. Now she's really good at it...a pro! She can go up stairs (crawling) and down (backwards crawling) but you have to watch her very carefully on the stairs. She tends to want to dive head-first...

We took her for a visit to Charleston, where we discovered, not surprisingly, that she loved playing in the sand. It wasn't too hard to keep it out of her mouth. It only went in there once when she mistook her shovel for a spoon. Honest mistake.

Her personality is really blossoming. She is shy at first...it takes her a little while to get comfortable in new situations with new people. But once she adjusts, her funny little self appears as if she's known you forever.

She loves to go out to restaurants with Matt and me. We always have a nice time and she seems to enjoy the change in scenery.

Keeping her occupied is more and more of a challenge. She likes to see new things, explore new challenges. She also loves to engage with you rather than play by herself (though she will play alone periodically).

She has started talking up a storm...she learns a few new words each day, it seems. She sometimes confuses their meaning but for the most part she gets it. Let's see...here is a sampling of her vocabulary: mama and dada, of course. More (which I think she also says when she wants to eat), all done, baby, bubble, book, water, bath, Elmo (she just learned this 2 days ago and it's so cute when she says it).

She understands lots of things. For instance, today we were in the kitchen and I told her "go get your Elmo book." She walked into the sunroom, found her Elmo book and brought it to me. Weird that she can understand so much yet not say it all yet...it's amazing how her brain works!! She also does a few really funny things. Every time I take her shoes off, I say "oh that's a stinky foot." So now when I ask her where her foot is, she puts her feet in the air and says "stinky stinky stinky." To me, this is hysterical. Once she knows what stinky means, she may be offended, though...

She also knows how to give kisses...she puts her lips in an interesting formation (not really puckered...more flat) and goes "mmmah". Love it.

Yesterday we went to our friend Shayla's dad's house (he has a really nice pool) and she got in the hot tub (don't worry, it was just warm, kinda like a bath). First I let her dip in her toes, then she pointed and kept trying to dive in so Matt and I got in with her. She loved it and oddly enough was more than happy to put her face in the water...which I thought she'd be afraid of.

She's moved up to the next room at school (daycare, whatever...it feels a little more like school now). Things in this room are much more structured. In the previous two rooms the schedules for eating, sleeping, etc, were very much parent/baby -led. In this room, they are much more scheduled. They all eat at the same time, sitting in their little chairs around little round tables (breakfast is 8:00-8:20, lunch is at 11:00, snacks are at 2:00 and 5:00). Nap is about 12:00-2:00. They have schedule story time (which, when I watch on camera, absolutely amazes me. How you can corral that many 1 year olds and get them to sit and pay attention is really beyond me). She sleeps on a mat now instead of a crib.
Mind you, this change took a bit of transition work...her old teachers started easing her into this schedule and into the new sleeping arrangement. Then, before she officially moved, she would spend a few hours a day in the new room to get used to it and the teachers. She has done really well with the transition. I just can't believe how big she's getting and how much more independent she seems to get every day! It's bittersweet, I guess. I'm really proud of everything she accomplishes, but a little wistful about my baby girl growing up!

Work has sort of been stressful lately. True to the economic times we're in, we have too few people and too much work. I will not complain too loudly, though, because I still have a job, good benefits, etc. Have traveled a bit recently which has been a little tough, but hopefully that's a fluke. Matt is still looking. He met with a recruiter last week and has revamped his resume. I have a good feeling that the next month will be a little better than the past couple in terms of getting some leads...and hopefully a job.

That's the update for now! I'll post some photos soon.

P.S. I'm sure I made my little angel sound perfect in the above post. Fear not, we do have our challenges...with her new independence that's developing also comes some pretty interesting behavior. Let's see: waiting until you're watching and then throwing food/cups on the floor. Pinching or hitting you when she wants your attention or you're trying to correct her. A lot of whining and crying the second she doesn't get her way. She is a baby, after all...:-)

I'm Walking!!

I have lots to post, but no time right now. For now, I'll just post this video...my dad wanted to see her walk. She looks pretty silly with her tongue sticking out...she did that before when she was teething, so I think she has more teeth on the way.

Holidays and general craziness...

The last month or so has been hectic, and full of changes in little Miss Marissa! First, We spend Thanksgiving down in Florida with my parents. It was a really nice trip...relaxing, and good to spend time with them. It was Marissa's first trip on an airplane, and she did great. I went ahead and bought her a seat, which I'm glad I did. We were able to put her in her carseat and she slept the whole time...both ways!! Woke up right before landing. Pretty great. Here's a picture.

So Marissa went through a phase where she refused to be fed the Stage 3 baby food anymore. During that phase, I decided to start trying more table foods. She is almost totally on table food (instead of jarred baby food) now. She loves feeding herself the little chunks. So her typical meals involve 2-3 of the following: chicken, cheese, avocado, sweet potato, carrot, pineapple, canteloupe, banana...you get the idea. I usually do a protein with either a fruit or veggie at each meal. I can't believe how big she's getting. So grown up.

She is now also doing what's called "cruising." She walks holding onto furniture. She will even move from one piece to another (say, from the coffee table to the couch) without any help. Leads me to believe walking may be soon...then watch out!! Not ready for that. She has stood for a few seconds on her own, without holding onto anything. Super crazy to see that.

The teeth have finally come, too. For the past couple weeks she's gone through the process of "cutting" them...so there are two on the bottom that are peeking through her gums. They are not fully "risen" yet, but they are definitely there.

Christmas was hectic and a little bit tiring, mainly because Marissa was sick. A little over a week before Christmas, Marissa had some goopy eyes so I took her to the doctor. Sure enough, she had an ear infection (the last time she had goopy eyes it was for the same reason) and was put on Amoxicillin. That was on a Tuesday, I think. That Saturday, Matt and I got home from being out and she was very hot...I took her temp, and it was 103. We gave her some motrin and I was up a few times that night comforting her but in general it seemed OK. I called the doc on Tuesday and we decided to check her out, since Christmas was on Thurs. Unfortunately, after having 7 does of the antibiotic, her little ears were still infected. So, we switched her to a stronger antibiotic but it was basically like starting over on the treatment. So, her illness dragged on and she was pretty miserable over the holidays. It was too bad, but what can you do? She was so much better a day or two after Christmas...now she's back to being her usual, playful, fun self! She's so fun. I, however, have gotten sick (this happened last time, too). I am really susceptible to getting sick after she's sick because I am pretty much the one who is closest to her when she's sick (she becomes quite the mommy's girl when she's ill) so I'm very exposed to all of the germs...AND, I don't get a lot of sleep when she's sick, so that lack of sleep also leaves me vulnerable. Of course now I think I have a raging sinus infection...because I rarely can just get a cold...it always turns into something more serious. If I don't feel better in the next day or two, I guess I'll have to go to the doctor for an antibiotic.