Spring is FINALLY Here (a few days late)

Written 4.27.09

It was finally warm (okay hot) at home this weekend.  We spent lots of time outside!  Rebecca loves to be outside.  

On Friday we met some friends at the zoo.  The zoo was an actual zoo.  It was SO crowded.  We did not spend much time there, but Rebecca loved seeing the animals we were able to see.  Here she is looking at the Gorillas.  She kept calling them monkeys.  Notice her monkey harness.  I swore I would never do that to her, but she is such a runner that I had no choice.  She refuses to stay in a stroller, and I can not let her roam free, especially in big crowds.  It was so funny to see other parents stare in awe at my child on a "leash".  I got several smiles, lots of "I need one of those!", and a few "Where did you get that?"  I got it at Target.  They have other animals other than monkeys, but since Rebecca is part monkey, I couldn't resist.

Strolling with Julie

Saturday, Mimi and Poppy brought over Lucy and Caroline's old turtle sandbox.  Rebecca was so excited.  We stayed outside most of the day.

Saturday night we met the Gorneys for dinner at Galla's Pizza.  It was so nice outside that we were able to dine al fresco.  After dinner we went to Bruster's for some ice cream.  Here is Rebecca enjoying her first ice cream cone.  She loved it!

After church on Sunday, Rebecca spent most of the day outside.  

On Monday her allergies were in high gear.  Ever since we got back from Jamaica her allergies have been horrible.  She has a constatly running nose, lots of sneezing, and a very itchy face.  The doctor suggested Zyrtec, but it made her very hoarse and dry.  Then we tried Clairitin.  It did the same.  After this latest flare up, we tried Benadryl.  It made for a horrible night.  I am not sure if it was the Benadryl or not, but I am not willing to try again right now.   I need my sleep.  

It would help if we kept Rebecca indoors all day, but like I stated before, she loves to be outside.  So last night I gave her 1/8 of a teaspoon of Zyrtec.  She slept a little better.  She is still stopped up this morning, but her nose is not draining constantly like it was yesterday.  She does not seem hoarse either.  We will try this route for a few more nights and see how it goes.  If anyone has any suggestions on dealing with allergies, please pass them along.  

Updated 4.30.09:  It is now Thursday and we are still giving Rebecca the small amount of Zyrtec.  She wakes up hoarse and very thirsty.  She has been drinking a lot of water with a splash of juice.  The hoarseness goes away after a while.  

Her allergies seem to be under control as long as she keeps chugging liquids.  

Wordless Wednesday

Play Ball

In case you were ever worried

Rebecca is definitely our child.  She loves her Friday night Mexican fix as much as her daddy and I do.  

Here she is licking the bowl of queso.  

Mmmmmm...delicioso.  

Payback is a You Know What

Rebecca and I took our first road trip alone last week to Mississippi.  Rebecca was wonderful in the car.  It could not have been an easier trip.  

She was so excited to see her Nannie and Pop Pop.  She had so much fun playing with her cousins, John and Carrie.  But her favorite playmate was Kato.  She absolutely LOVE him!  

When Kato would be eating she would go and lay down right beside him.  When he was sleeping, she would go look at him and say, "Kato sleep.  Kato sleep, Mamma."  She tried to tell him to wake up several times, but he is a 14 year old cat who loves his sleep.  

We were able to go and watch John's first baseball game of the season.  He did such a great job.  He is a wonderful athlete, but a better nephew and cousin.  He is the sweetest boy I have ever known.  Rebecca adores him.    

 

Carrie is a funny little thing.  She has more personality than a little girl should.  Rebecca had a lot of fun going to Carrie's house and playing with her toys.  Carrie has a Dora backpack toy that Rebecca fell in love with.  As soon as we pulled into Carrie's drive way, Rebecca would say, "Backpack!  Backpack!"  We had to get her one before we got back to Atlanta.  

Rebecca had such a fun time with Nannie, that I left her there and met John in Memphis for a wedding.  This was the longest time that we have both left Rebecca at the same time.  We were not worried though because we knew she was in good hands with Nannie.  (Pop Pop was on a statewide turkey hunt.)

They went to the park,  outside, and watched lots of Dora and Ming Ming Tuck (That is what Rebecca calls The Wonder Pets.).

John and I had a great time at the wedding, but I was up bright and early on Sunday morning ready to get my baby.  I missed her like crazy.  She was excited to see us, but she did not want to leave her Nannie.  She cried for 5 minutes after we left.  

Things were fine on the way home.  It wasn't until we got home that things turned sour.  

We already know that Rebecca has started the terrible twos early.  On top of that behavior she has been so dramatic.  If she doesn't get her way she has a major melt down (worse than before).  A lot of times she starts crying for no reason at all.  At the park the other day she lost it as I was pushing her in the swing.  Swinging is her all time favorite thing to do, so for the life of me I could not figure out what the problem was.  I finally called Nannie to see if I was doing something wrong.  She also gets very angry when we blow bubbles now.  The worse part of this behavior is putting her down to bed.  She screams and cries for an hour before she finally falls asleep.  This is not like her at all.  

I am hoping that these behaviors are all residual effects from leaving her with Nannie for the weekend.  I always heard that children never come back the same from a weekend with the grandparents.  Hopefully it will not last long.  

Practice Round of the Masters Easter Egg Hunt

Today was the Ashford Park Easter Egg Hunt. It was Rebecca's first ever egg hunt. Last year the Easter Bunny came to see Rebecca, but since she was not yet crawling she did not hide any eggs.

Rebecca was so excited about her Easter basket. She was really excited about the eggs on the ground. John and I had to hold her back from the eggs until the Easter Bunny started the hunt.

Once the hunt started, Rebecca ran to the eggs. She ended up getting about 4 on her own. That is a lot considering that it was a madhouse and kids of all ages were going wild for the eggs.

Most of the older kids just wanted what was inside of the egg, so they would find an egg, empty the candy into their baskets, and drop the egg on the ground. This was perfect for Rebecca. She just wanted the eggs. In all, she took home 7 eggs.

She had so much fun carrying around her basket. She did not want to let it go. She even held on to it while she was swinging.

Once we were home we played and played with the eggs. She would take them out of the basket; then she would put them into the basket. She even wanted to take the basket and eggs to nap with her.

I kept telling her, "Just wait until tomorrow! You will be in egg heaven."

Easter Cookies...Okay

Rebecca and I spent the afternoon making a mess and painting Easter cookies.  It was a lot of fun, even though I ended up with all the hard work.   For some reason, my little helper quit after painting about 5 cookies and started eating them.  (No wonder it took an act of God to get her asleep tonight.)

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Whenever Rebecca takes a little spill she will say, "Okay, Momma.  I okay."  I guess this is from me asking her if she is okay.  

Today I was in the kitchen on the phone.  Rebecca was playing in her playroom.  All of a sudden I heard a loud boom.  Then I heard in a very whinny voice, "Okay, Momma.  Okay, Momma.  I, I, I okay."  I quickly finished my phone call and ran in the playroom.  She was still on the floor.  She looked up at me and looked as if she was trying not to cry.  She whined, "I okay."  She was so pitiful.  She then hopped up and really was okay.  

I am still laughing about it.  She is too cute.  

Back to Normal?

We are finally feeling somewhat back to normal in our house.  Unfortuately, it has been very rainy and pollen is everywhere, so we are spending lots of time indoors.  

What have we been doing?  Let me show you:

I normally do not like to vacuum, but Rebecca LOVES it.  If she hears the big vacuum or the handheld vacuum, she gets so excited.  I personally do not like the process of getting the floors clean, although I do love a clean floor.  Needless to say, we have vacuumed the downstairs 3 times in the past 5 days, just because it makes Rebecca happy.  Sometimes she gets her small vacuum and follows me around.  Sometimes she tries to ride on the vacuum.  Sometimes she is busy trying to push the buttons on it.  But if I am lucky, she wants to do the big vacuum herself.  There is nothing wrong with early training.  

We started art class at Gymboree.  It was SO much fun.  We (and I do mean we) played with playdough, painted apples, talked about the color red, played with blocks, and made ladybugs.  It was hard for me not to step in and do the art projects for Rebecca.  I have to learn that art does not have to be perfect.  It is more about the process.  

Rebecca has started and then stopped eating tomatoes.  She loved them for a few days; now she will not touch them.

Rebecca is back to climbing into things.  

She is also talking so much more these days.  She can almost always communicate what she wants or needs.  She is even talking in short sentences.  My favorite is "Gets you, Momma!"  which means, pick me up.  

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In the craziness of our "getting back to normal" I forgot to post about weaning Rebecca off of milk right before bed.  It is something that I have been wanting to do for a while, but I have been dreading because Rebecca has always had milk right before bed.  It was also my favorite snuggle time with her.  She would sit in my lap, drink her milk, and rub my face.   But the doctor told me that it was not good for her teeth to have milk right before she went down for the night, because it could lead to cavities.  

At any rate,  being in Jamaica helped with the weaning.  Rebecca did not like the taste of the Jamaican milk, therefore she would not drink a whole lot, even before bedtime.  When we got home, instead of giving her a whole cup of milk, I would give her half a cup.  After a few days, she got a fourth a cup of milk.  After a week of this, we would give her milk at dinnertime, but only took water to bed with her.  

The first few nights she would ask for milk, but we would tell her she had water instead.  She cried a little, but it finally sunk in that she was not getting milk. Now she loves taking her water to bed with her.  We put it in the crib with her which is something we never did with her milk.  

When she wakes up in the morning, I often find her chugging her water down while she waits for me to get her out of bed.

Just another sign that my baby is growing up.  

Honk!

One reason that I am probably not getting through to Rebecca about the hitting:

Yesterday she hit me because it was time to leave play group and she did not want to go.  I got her in her car seat, got in her face, and calmly said, "No hitting Mommy.  It hurts and makes Mommy sad."  Rebecca responded my grabbing my nose and saying, "HONK!"

How am I suppose to keep a straight face?  

How am I suppose to stay mad?

I am in trouble!