Pediatrician visit!

Elise and one of her birthday
balloons. "Boon!" she calls
them. She thinks it's really
cool that she can walk with
them.

Elise is one year old! And as a special treat, we would be seeing a brand new (to us) pediatrician! Whee!

Although not exactly looking forward to our appointment, I was, nevertheless, relieved when the day arrived. I had a million questions, including whether the baby had an ear infection (she's been sick and having trouble sleeping), what to do about Kalina's cough, what several red spots that had appeared on Kalina's arm were, and a couple other things.

Not to mention the unspoken questions of, "Will we like this doctor and her staff?" "Will this be a place I'll want to/be able to rush my kids to next time they're a little sicker than I'm comfortable with?" and "Would I rather stick with her for the next who-knows-how-many years or drag the kids around the city for someone we might like slightly better?"

I packed half a dozen snacks, water, Elise's best toys, Kalina's cloth book, the paperwork the office had sent me, a couple social security cards (just in case) and our temporary insurance card in preparation. I researched the route using several different route planners. And to prepare Kalina, I told her that this was Elise's checkup, but that the doctor might look at her, too. Fortunately Kalina didn't ask the "Will I get a shot?" question, because I couldn't honestly say she wouldn't: it is almost flu season, after all. And off we went!

Upon arrival, I immediately missed our old office, slightly crazy receptionist and all. Instead of entering a bright, sunny, spacious, well-stocked waiting room, we were walking into a dingy old building with lots of offices, and a tiny, windowless waiting room. There were a few books and a mural. Not even a fish tank, even. Blech. I hoped the wait wouldn't be long.

We had arrived early because I was confident there would be paperwork to fill out, or insurance hassles, or both. Fortunately, there were few of either. Kalina sat patiently and waited, and Elise munched her snack. Both enjoyed watching the antics of several other kids. The waiting room filled up, but we passed the time with a book. So far, so good.

Our wait was probably about 20 minutes; it may have been less if we'd had an appointment earlier in the day. We were ushered back through a narrow hallway and crammed into an exam room proportional to the waiting room. Blech. Our stroller, and its bag of toys, waited outside, and I was left to wrangle a very squirmy baby with nothing but my own two arms.

The nurse asked us a few questions about Elise's development, and I was able to answer "yes" to pretty much all of them. Yes, the baby is walking, talking, trying to stack blocks, putting things in buckets, "helping" me dress her and more. No, I haven't yet allowed her to try eating with a spoon and fork so I don't know whether she's able to wield them. Who would at this point? Enough of her meal ends up in her lap/on the floor/all over her high chair at this point.

And then the nurse left. Elise was happy in my arms for about two seconds, after which she wanted to explore her new surroundings. She and Kalina took reluctant turns spinning on the doctor's stool (if you leave me with nothing more than a computer and a trash can to entertain my kids in a tiny then yes, I will let them spin on your stool), and Elise played a bit with the crinkly paper on the exam table, but soon demanded more. A small room and a squirmy baby don't mix, as I've learned many times over. "Come on, Mommy, I'm hardly a baby anymore! I need more interesting things to do." So I pulled in the toy bag from the stroller in the hallway and started digging through it. Meanwhile, Elise caught sight of her snack cup and starting eating the contents/strewing them all over the floor. I had just finished picking up the last couple pieces, with Kalina's gracious help, when the doctor arrived.

The first thing the doctor did when she walked in the door was enthusiastically comment on Kalina's armful of friends. For this reason, I liked her immediately. Since she seemed interested, I explained that the littlest one's name is Little Gray, and she's Whitey's baby. Whitey had to stay home to work, however, so Pounce, Book, Car and a random little lamb are taking care of Little Gray. The doctor just laughed, as did Kalina and I. She then turned her attention to Elise, who smiled and hid her face in reply.

We began the exam: the doctor evaluating Elise, and me monitoring the doctor's style. Everything checked out, as the baby is healthy (except for her cold and an ear infection that yes, she does have) and the doctor seemed sensible.

We found that Elise weighs 19 pounds even (with her diaper on! How lax compared to the old practice!), which puts her in the 15th percentile. Her head is in the 25th, and her height is in the 50th, at 29 inches. We also learned that while she does not cry when put on a scale at the doctor's office, she does cry when handed over to the doctor to be laid down on the exam table. I guess there's only so much she can take. The doctor worked lightning-fast, and the baby immediately calmed down when I scooped her back up.

Kalina got to decide whether the doctor should listen to Elise's tummy first or her heart, and chose tummy. I miraculously kept Elise relatively still for both, and was dubbed by the doctor a "champion baby wrangler," due to the baby's persistent squirms. No sign of the heart murmur, even after a good listen!

The doctor mentioned sleep (she brought it up, not me!) and seemed sympathetic to hear we'd been getting up in the 4:00 our for the past few days, probably thanks to Elise's congestion. She said most babies drop their second nap around 15-18 months of age. Elise is getting a head start on that (in addition to many other things, so I can't complain), as she's utterly refused to take two some days. That's kind of okay--I'm glad she can survive on just one.

The doctor also gave me a wealth of suggestions about sneaking protein into Elise, which the baby generally resists about as vehemently as sitting still in a tiny exam room. The doctor went through the usual gambit of options, most of which I'd tried several times with no success, before we settled on French toast with cream cheese, and tofu. Both were avidly refuted at the next two mealtimes and sent immediately to their rightful location: the floor. Did I insult her tastebuds?

I was relieved at the doctor's suggestion that we save the shots for next time, as we'll be returning in a couple weeks to make sure Elise's ear infection has cleared up. I was not so relieved to hear that we'd have to find our way to a different location for the anemia and lead test. And even less relived to hear later that this will be a blood draw and not a finger prick. Are you kidding me??? I think it's required by the city, but I will be doing anything I can to wriggle out of this one, as we don't honestly believe we need to worry about lead, and they can test for anemia with just a prick.

And then I sneaked in a few questions about Kalina. The doctor seemed utterly unconcerned about her cough, as well as the little red spots, and Kalina seemed unconcerned about the doctor taking a look at the spots.

With the visit over, we headed out with several printouts with our prescription and other information. The baby is every bit as healthy and happy (well, except the ear infection) as we'd all assumed, and was made even happier by her arrival home, where she could squirm to her heart's content.

So, do we like the doctor? Although she seemed loony enough to relate well to kids, she also came across as reasonably sensible to me. I appreciated that she worked really hard to establish a good rapport with my kids, as then maybe they won't dread their visits quite so much. Best of all, if you ask Kalina's opinion she'll tell you that yes, she does like the doctor. I think we'll be back.

P.S.
Have I mentioned, by the way, that Elise has been sleeping through the night for several weeks now? We tried, yet again, sending Matt in to comfort Elise in the middle of the night. She did little more than fuss a bit, and got the picture after a couple nights. We had, by the way, tried this many times before. I guess at 11  months, it was finally time.

Little one turns 1!

Happy first birthday! Here's some cake!

Can anyone believe it's been a year? I certainly miss my sweet little newborn, but am thoroughly enjoying my sweet little one-year-old. Some things have changed, some things haven't.

The celebration started on Friday night with the arrival of Grandpa Hanks. Elise, having just been put to bed minutes before, was oblivious.

On Saturday morning, however, we were all thrilled to find that she managed to remember Grandpa, possibly due to our weekly video chats. The baby  insisted on being held almost immediately.



Elise kept her balloon close at
all times.



If Grandpa was the first birthday gift, the next was almost as fun: our cat arrived with him. Elise, who loves anything furry that moves, was over the moon as she followed the cat around, squealing with joy and occasionally giving it a surprisingly nice little pat. Also deserving a mention is the piano that rode along in Grandpa's SUV. It's now in our living room, and Elise, being a big fan of music, buttons and anything new, likes it too. It was a good day for the girl.

The city we live in had apparently found out about Elise's big day, and threw a parade, probably in her honor. We soon headed towards the downtown to find our spot to watch. This was both girls' first parade, and a huge success. Although Kalina buried her head in Grandpa's shoulder for the occasional loud noises, she loved waving her flag at the floats, watching people do flips as they made their way down the road and gathering candy that she soon forgot about. Elise bobbed up and down to the various bands, having recently developed the propensity to dance,  played with the leaves on the tree above us, and wondered why we wouldn't let her walk out onto the road. Both girls enjoyed their free balloons, the overall spectacle, and the dogs and horses that were allowed to march around. In fact, Elise loved her balloon so much she hugged the air right out of it. Aw.



Horse wanted to see the parade,
too.



By the time we made it home, it had already been a big day. But it was about to get bigger, as we had planned a small, yet festive, birthday party for Elise with a few friends. We all crashed for varying amounts of time, but probably not long enough for any of us, and then it was off to the races blowing up balloons, making a cake, decorating, cleaning and preparing some finger foods to celebrate our 1-year-old.

The theme of Elise's party was fruit, it being one of the things she loves best in the world and an easy motif for a low-key party, since the decorations doubled as the fare. Her cake was flavored like cherry and shaped like a watermelon (confusing, I know), and I also made a few fruity appetizers.

Which I was feeding to both girls as our guests arrived--our first in-town friends, with two girls who are each about a year older than ours. The youngest gave little Elise a big birthday hug (does it get any sweeter than an almost 2-year-old hugging a newly 1-year-old?), and everyone played and talked about the balloons until dinner.

Our guests!

Which we ate at our "new" dining room table, which actually held everyone comfortably! Congratulations, Elise, on being our first big event in our new house!

The older girls then helped me get the cake ready (one chose the color of candle while the other stuck it in), and the birthday girl insisted on gnawing on a toy as we attempted to get a good picture of her with it. Swapping out the toy with a party blowout thingy improved the pictures considerably.



Us! Not pictured: Grandpa!



Elise fidgeted impatiently in her high chair, either to sample her cake or simply get down and play. She perked up when we all started singing. When it came to blowing out the candle, she looked a bit clueless, so the bigger girls gave her some help. As did Daddy, who delivered the final blow and put the brave little flame out of its confused, flickering misery. 

[Side note: since then, I've a few times  asked Elise to "blow her nose" into a tissue I've held up for her. What does she do? She blows with her mouth! Cute!]

Elise got to choose which one
to open first!

Elise first dug into her cake more out of curiousity than anything else. A few gentle pats and pokes, though, led to some frosting in her mouth, which led to more squishy playtime and frosting on her nose and forehead. She surprised me only by how clean, relatively, she stayed. 

We timed things well enough that I was able to transfer the baby directly from the high chair into her bedtime bath, and put the exhausted little birthday baby down for bed shortly thereafter.

The next morning at 4:30, it was clear our baby had come down with a yucky cold, and that between Elise and I, only one of us would be sleeping the rest of the night. Being the birthday girl, she won.

But it was a birthday, at least, and once a normal hour rolled around we had fun playing, visiting the cat and, once everyone else was awake, digging into a couple presents.

We celebrated with an easy outing to the bison/elk preserve, as well as the bird sanctuary. From her carseat, Elise had trouble seeing more than treetops and a very cloudy sky. From the skylight in Grandpa's Vue, however, the view was grand (see picture). We wouldn't want her to miss the buffalo, would we? In addition, we also spotted elk, deer (and a fawn!) and wild turkeys, all of which were brave enough to be quite close to the car.

And then there were more presents, which Kalina was more than happy to help Elise figure out how to unwrap (and did a very nice job, too--letting Elise get a few fistfulls of paper alongside her own). Fortunately for Kalina, Elise soon became far more interested in the gifts than the unwrapping, so the bigger girl got to finish the job.

We also ate out at a real restaurant for dinner, where Elise enjoyed flipping through a few animal books, woofing at the dogs and mooing at everything else, before filling her mouth with apple chunks for the rest of the meal. Kalina ecstatically ordered a hot dog from the kids' menu, all by herself, and also wolfed down half of Grandpa's catfish. Yes, you read that right--we got to experience a relatively peaceful restaurant meal even with two kids. What a treat!



Kalina picked out some maracas for
Elise, who loved them!



And then the big day was over. I realize that when your nose is stuffy and you have to nap twice, against your will, it's probably not as exciting of a day as it should be to celebrate such a huge occasion. But I'm pretty sure even with all that, Elise got the picture that she's loved very much and the world has been a much better place ever since she was given to us. We love you, little one!

At one year old, here's what Elise can do:



-Walk halfway across the room. Holding a giant balloon.



A much-loved train from Grandpa
Les and Grandma!



-Crawl like the wind.

-Bop up and down to music.

-Shake her head no whenever I try to get her to eat meat, beans, and lots of other foods.

-Say: Mama, Dada, ball, dog, cat, duck, bowl, grapes, Grandpa, moo, bunny, bear, again, more, balloon, bird, back, bubbles, napkin, drink, milk, woof, doll, that, and more every day.

-Chase the cat.

-Brush her hair.

-Help me pack (and unpack!) my diaper bag.

-Understand and obey "no."

-Shape sort circles and the occasional star.

-Pick up a pine needle between her thumb and forefinger and transfer it into her mouth.



Elise got two new friends!

-Avoid putting sweetgum seeds into her mouth with only a few reminders.

-Put things into a bucket and carry it around.

-Push a toy grocery cart and ride a toy car.

-Bend in half and view the world upside down from between her ankles.

-Climb a slide.

-Hide. (Or, "hide.")

-Take small bites of a cracker or slice of cheese.

-Wipe up her own high-chair tray with a napkin. Sometimes before the meal has even begun.

-Cause mischief.

-Take the lid off a pot and put it back on. Over and over and over.

-Wake up with pretty incredible bedhead.

-Light up the room with her smile.

Burying her face in the nice,
soft "friends."

Most of all, we're excited to watch our littlest's personality develop and see her grow happy and healthy in our family. We are truly blessed. Happy first year, Elise!

 



Storytime



This seriers of pictures will focus on the
fun we've been having settling in. This
first one was taken at Matt's department
picnic, held at the spectacular Purina
Farms. We loved it!



There's nothing more natural than parental pride. We can't help but grin and find ways to slip it into conversations with other parents (or even with our cat) when our child walks and talks, counts to 10 or jumps in a swimming pool.

But I have to say, despite having an early walker and an early talker, respectively, there's not much I've been prouder of in either of my girls' histories so far than their old and new loves of stories. One's enjoyment of reading has morphed into a highly entertaining enjoyment of storytelling, and the other's has become the ability to differentiate between a bunny in one book and a bear in the next--read upside down, no less.

Elise, who only rarely stops squirming long enough to even hear a story, loves thumbing through her board books, exclaiming about the soft-looking animals within and nuzzling them on occasion.

Elise has been waiting her whole life to pet
a bunny. So honored to be with her the
first time.

The storyline Elise likes best is in her bunny book which asks, in the end, "Do you ever wish you could hold a bunny?" (page turn) "Of course you can!" She always cracks up and smiles. I think she wants to hold a bunny, and probably bury her face in it.

Among her favorites is also a certain book with a cow picture in it. The storyline in this one invites the reader to "moo," just like a cow. Elise enjoyed this so much that she sponaneously leads Kalina and I in a chorus of moos every so often.

The baby also shows a fascination for library books that's less than wholesome. After all, what 11 1/2-month-old can resist the crinkly dust jackets and fresh, unfolded pages? Not mine. Let's hope she soon learns to devour books a little more figureatively and a little less literally soon.

Kalina pet the bunny, too. The white
fuzzball is a very soft chicken walking
around.

And since the baby is only 11 1/2 months old, the rest of this post will be about Kalina and some of the cute things she says (don't worry, a certain baby with a birthday coming up will be the star of the show soon enough).

We've all known for some time that Kalina has come up with her share of elaborate schemes for her animals. But did you know that she now labels each of them "stories?" For instance:

Kalina: The next story will be about White kitten's new baby!

Mommy: Sounds like a great story! I'd love to hear it!

Kalina: White kitten has a new baby!

Mommy: That's great! What's the baby's name?

Kalina: The story is just starting.

Mommy: Oh. Well, where did White kitten get the new baby?

Kalina: The story is just starting, Mommy.



Mooo!



I guess we hadn't gotten to the good part yet. Or maybe she's still working on character development.

And then there's Kalina's unquenchable, irrisistable, unstoppable need to anthropomorphize anything and everything. We have a mommy, a daddy and a baby rubber spatula. When Kalina puts away the silverware from the dishwasher, the spoon gives the forks baths and puts them down for bed. Trash jumps into the garbage can for a party. Marbles become inseparable friends. Her pinky finger (Pinky) has a baby named Fan, whose birthday we often celebrate. 

Mooo!

And, last night, as Kalina watched me dredge chicken tenders in flour, then egg, then seasoned bread crumbs, she had her own take on the system. "The egg is the bath!" the girl exclaimed. "And this is where they get dried off," she noted, pointing to the bread crumbs. "And the flour is where they take off their clothes!" The cutting board, where I carefully laid each dredged chicken tender, became the bed. The first four tenders represented our little family ("And Mommy will eat the mommy one, Daddy will eat the daddy one, Elise will eat the Elise one, and Kalina will eat the Kalina one!"). The rest were our guests. "And then we'll eat the guests!" So I guess you could say we had a lot of guests for dinner last night.

It's a good thing she has fun with all these personalities around her, because it seems that this is a mode the girl can't turn off.

At the World Bird Sanctuary within 15
minuts of our house. I didn't expect
Kalina to want to be an eagle, but
after some deliberation, she decided
that she did.

We enjoy watching Kalina play like this, but I admit we're often at a loss for words when she asks us to "talk to the triangle" or rubber band or watermelon, or whatever. Fortunately, she usually feeds us our lines

And finally, the story of Kalina's first movie, Winnie the Pooh:

Taking Kalina to see a movie in the theater was never on my radar until I heard that Winnie the Pooh, in the original style, would be there too. And that it was short, and sweet. I debated the idea in my head for a while, until I'd convinced myself that it really would be the perfect activity for a Mommy and Kalina Date , and that Kalina would be drawn in by the talking animals, and that we could always leave if we needed to. I also noted that it's good for Kalina to face new experiences, but really I just thought it'd be fun to go to a movie with my oldest. Kalina readily agreed, excited to see a "big TV show about a bear, donkey, piglet" and all the rest.

At the elk and bison preserve next to the
bird sanctuary. Note the elk on the hills
Note the giant elk's head in the ravine.
Note that Elise and I headed for the car
when she started to get loud.

Meanwhile, Kalina had been highly involved in drawing up her own random stories about bears seeking honey, friends falling into holes, animals carrying balloons and more.

On the way, I told Kalina what to expect at the theater. I detailed how we'd buy a ticket, find a comfy seat, wait for the movie to start, and sit quietly to watch it (but if she needed anything, she could definitely let me know, as I'd be right beside her). I told her it might be a bit loud. I didn't want to tell her too much, lest she become intimidated and decide we should turn around and just go back home (which she almost did). I didn't want to tell her too little, lest she be caught too much by surprise and want to go back home. It's a fine line we walk, sometimes.

I cajoled the somewhat nervous 3-year-old out of the car before she could protest, and without even digging into the yogurt raisins I'd tucked into my purse so we could snack movie-style. We bought tickets, happily learning that it would only cost us a grand total of $3 to enjoy the show.

It was easy to find seats, but a little more difficult for Kalina's 32-ish pounds to sit in one. It kept folding upwards on her. Having refused a booster seat and my lap, she eventually settled back in a fairly comfortable position and managed to keep the front part from popping up.

Until the movie began, anyway. After two short commercials and one short preview, during which I tensed up at every possibility of seeing something even a bit scary (there was nothing too worrisome), the girl scooted up to the front of her seat and sat there for the entire movie, entranced, until near the end when she stood.

And what was the movie like? A bear sought honey. Friends fell into a hole. And animals carried around a balloon. They all sang and danced and did funny things. It couldn't have been more perfect. I spent the whole thing looking back and forth between the movie and my girl, to see her reaction. She stared, she smiled, she laughed, and she did not cry. We sat through every single one of the credits.

It turned out, too, that there was the exact right number of kids in the theater. They helped us all know when, exactly, to laugh--although at one point Kalina did become that one person who laughs when no one else does. I thought it was cute, even if no one else did.

Although Kalina was a tiny bit confused on the plot when I quizzed her later (what part did you like best?), she thoroughly enjoyed the overall storyline, possibly since she practically wrote it herself ahead of time, as well as the characters. Her favorites alternate between "the donkey who loses its tail" and Tigger.

On the way home, Kalina told me that the movie theater was her new favorite place. Maybe when they play Winnie the Pooh again, we'll see another one. Or maybe The Adventures of an Armful of Cute Kittens? Isn't that supposed to come out next year?

The best part about this movie was the stories it inspired in the next few days. Shortly after our adventure, Kalina decided that Pinky was painting signs for her garden, just like Rabbit did in the movie. What did the signs say, I wondered? A few of Kalina's rules for living:
Don't start a fire if the baby is in the chimney.
Don't fly in the sky unless you have a bird with you.
Don't fall into a hole unless you have a friend with you.
Don't hang kittens from trees because a fire truck might have to come get them down.
Babies shouldn't go high up into trees because they might get stuck.
And many more that I've unfortunately forgotten.

One final related quip. What does Kalina want to be for Halloween? A sign. What should the sign say? "Don't touch any signs."

And that is the cuteness going on right now at our house.

More pictures from Aunt Laura and Uncle Chris's visit!

We covered Aunt Laura's and Uncle Chris's July visit (to our old house) in miniature in my previous post, but I came across these pictures, from Aunt Laura's camera, today as I was looking back. Hope you enjoy these highlights (in random order) as much as we did!



With lots of props, you can almost, but not quite, get two kids looking at the camera. At least they're both pointed the right way.

 

Elise could've played "drop the thing over the baby gate and get it handed back" with Uncle Chris all day!

What's a family visit without a fishing trip? Kalina using her new pole.

Train ride at the museum! (Aunt Laura rode, too!)

Water play at the museum. Kalina looks like she knows full well she's doing something a little bit silly (barefoot in a public place?!? Walking down a waterfall?!) but has thrown caution to the wind.



Swimming! And, I imagine, maybe getting chased by Aunt Laura?

Kalina almost never fails to catch at least one nice littel fish.



Have you noticed Kalina holds at least one kitten at all times?



Five kittens and some bait.



Kalina showing off her mice! And another kitten.

Who's cute?

Baby talk

Taken more than a month ago at
the old house, but it
certainly hasn't lost its cuteness.

Have you heard Elise's shriek lately? I can't imagine anyone hasn't, as it resonates from one end of a Super Target to the other, or likely across our nice, new, quiet neighborhood.

I'm not even talking about a frustrated, angry or sad shriek, and in fact, many times it's a "LOOK NOW!!! UP THERE ON THE LEFT IS A DISPLAY OF LARGE, FLUFFY STUFFED ANIMALS, THE LIKES OF WHICH I HAVE NEVER SEEN. WHEEL ME UP THERE RIGHT NOW, I MUST BURY MY FACE IN THEM!" I think it's pretty cute (in these instances), but I'm not sure people on the other side of the store do. Rarely do I let her indulge, as taking away the large fluffy thing (or whatnot) produces a string of even louder shrieks, and not the good kind. (And there is no toy in my diaper bag that can distract her from that.)

[Kalina, by the way, has caught on to Elise's happy shrieks and mildly comments, "Maybe she wants to see those." Yes, she probably does, Sweetie.]

In fact, if we were to use alliteration to describe Elise, and even if we weren't, one good word would be "enthusiastic." I don't know if it's more her age or more her personality, or both, but Elise gets really excited at things like fruit, the bunny book, the puppy page of the animal book, anything soft, and anything remotely resembling a ball.

But what's really cool is that Elise is finding a new way to demonstrate her excitement: with words! If she likes something, she wants to say it (and not always scream it). And the whole household is right there with her, helping her along.

It started with "Mama." The baby may have been saying it for weeks without me believing it was the real thing, but eventually I got the picture. How sweet! I'm her first word! This word, however, soon became a catch-all for anything that had gone wrong. "Mama!" Elise would moan to say, "My cup got tossed off my tray again!" or "I can't reach that light bulb!" "Make it better, Mama!"

Aunt Laura and Uncle Chris visited
more than a month ago! I have never
seen Kalina so excited.

"Dada" soon followed, as did ball, duck, bear, dog, cat, book, and balloon.

Yes, that's right--the baby can say "balloon." It all began when the neighbors tied a couple balloons on the mailbox for one day to celebrate their daughter's birthday. Elise and I talked about that balloon for hours, until finally, she came out with a, "boo," instead of "bah." Close enough for me, as it's enough to distinguish the word from "ball." The balloons were gone the next day (I know because Elise sadly pointed out their absence), and the poor baby has been disappointed several times a day ever since as she unsuccessfully seeks them out.

Elise adds to her vocabulary every couple of days, and probably more often, except we're usually too busy cleaning up the tiny pieces of tissue Kalina has strewn across the house, or trying to get the baby to eat any protein at all, to notice.

It's a good thing Elise is already showing an aptitude for strong verbal skills, as she will have a careful teacher as she gets older. Kalina, who has taken on Elise's vocabulary as a kind of a mini-project,
has been working with Elise to teach her new words.

Lots of fun!

For instance, if Elise grabs her cup at the breakfast table and randomly mentions, "buh, buh," Kalina corrects her with, "Cup doesn't start with B, Elise!!" I can't not smile. I also find it ironic that while I was working with Kalina today to help her pronounce "drink" so that it doesn't sound like "krink," Elise was following right along. "Duh!" she proclaimed as I showed her her cup. Maybe between the two of them they'll get it just perfect!"

And then there are the "mystery" words. "Bah!" Shouts Elise joyfully in the library. "Where's the ball?" is my first thought. But there is none. Apparently, "bah" is a catchall that will be revealed specifically at a later time.



She's also wriggling her way into conversations. "Look, Kalina, there's someone walking a dog!" I commented on the way home from the library today. "Dah!" replied Elise, looking around. I believe Kalina ignored me.

The baby can even make requests. "Buh," Elise told me after finishing her bedtime milk. She was pointing toward a small stack of books, at the bottom of which was the aforementioned bunny book (she remembered it was there because we'd read it a few minutes ago). I could tell by her face that it was just the nighttime story she wanted.

We will miss the purple
dinosaur. Wouldn't you?

Nothing, by the way, makes Elise happier, and prouder, than to be understood at this young age. Because when I do hand her her toy "bah," after she askes for it, I'm rewarded with smiles and gurgles that surpass everything except, possibly, a good tickling by skunk puppet.

Also making Elise proud lately: setting her cup upright on the floor, sorting shapes in a shape sorter (with only a little help!), taking a few teetering steps in a row (she still prefers crawling), handing you anything and having you thank her for it, and stacking two objects. In case you hadn't noticed, this has the same effect on her mommy.:)

Excuse our mess

Our stuff arrived in our new house the Tuesday after we did. Which meant we only had one full day in our new house without any furniture! We spent it taking long walks around the family room and cleaning, and wondering if it could, in fact, be true that our stuff would be arriving so soon.

I knew Tuesday would be a bit of a challenge, as it was my job to wrangle the kids while Matt directed the movers. While child-herding has, in fact, been my "professional" employment ever since Kalina was born, it always becomes a bit more difficult when there are lots of strangers going in and out carrying heavy, non-baby-proofed things, and in a town I don't know my way around in. One could compare it to doing taxes while a band marches through, or cutting diamonds during an earthquake.

I decided to take my chances out on the road--and besides, the movers were hungry and thirsty and we needed groceries, too. I loaded up the GPS, which I've come to rely on after only a few weeks of use, took McDonald's orders, and headed out to the store.

Ten minutes later the GPS was still trying to get me out of our little neighborhood (which is, in my defense, quite twisty), and Kalina was openly questioning its every instruction and wondering if we were lost. Elise was hoping we'd be out of the car soon.

Finally, thanks to a road that I'd thought was only a service road for golf carts, we were on our way, for real. Second problem: the grocer the GPS was leading us to seemed to have misplaced its store--we couldn't find it anywhere in the residential neighborhood we were led to.

Now we'd been gone a good 30 minutes and were no closer to bringing home sustenance for our poor movers, let alone filling the fridge. I maintained a cheery attitude while I located a store--any store--that could help me cross at least one thing off my shopping list. We ended up at a gas station fronting a busy road. After I mispronounced the grocery store's name, and got actual directions to it as well as to a nearby McDonald's, the cashier took pity on us and helped me carry out my bag of ice and Gatorade, thus accomplishing mission #1: acquire cold liquids so the movers don't collapse.

By this time I had given up on grocery shopping, and managed to pick up lots of McDonald's food (mission #2), including Chicken McNuggets for Kalina for being so patient (plus, there wasn't much else for her to eat in the house, let alone protein), and I made it back home relatively safely. At least I had also fulfilled mission #3: keep the kids safe from the movers and the movers safe from the kids.

Fortunately, by now some of the toys were unpacked and we were able to carve out a place to play. Better yet: the movers were done and gone before naptime/downtime.

At which point Matt and I dug in and started the long process of putting our house in order. I began in the kitchen while Matt opened whatever boxes had ended up in the living room. We found some of the pairings comical--he found his PhD diploma packed next to his circular saw, while I kept pulling fine china out from in between Tupperware.

Several hours later, having found great places for an angel food cake pan, our blender and two sets of popsicle molds, I realized we still didn't have anything we could use to actually eat.  And that was when we began the process of trying to find the stuff we really needed, which is much more difficult than unpacking camping gear and decorative vases at random.

By this time, the kids were up so unpacking became a dance of "Don't grab that!!!" and, "We'll read that story right after I'm done with this box." Eventually we gave up on everything but kid care, and went out to explore the backyard.

The swingset is sound, we discovered, and both kids are fans of the slide. Which generally means there's one at the top (Elise being held by one of us as she climbs up) and one at the bottom at all times. This was fun in a sense, but soon wore on our muscles and our nerves as we tried to protect the children from each other and themselves.

We met some neighbors, and found that there are a couple girls next door just older than Kalina, plus a lot of empty nestors who think our girls are cute. Perfect.

As both girls were sleeping well in their pink bunny sleeping bag and pack-and-play, and seemed comfortable enough in their rooms, we actually didn't rush to set up their real beds. We focused on living quarters, including the basement, and Kalina cheered with each addition of an unpacked toy.

"My fish!" she'd declare. "Elise's exersaucer! Put her in it!" She was delighted. Elise was simply glad to be part of the hullabaloo. She, too, hooted with joy when some old favorites were unpacked. She then got a bit overwhelmed and stuck to me like glue for the next week. Endearing, absolutely. Conducive to unpacking, no.

Within a few days, we all had bedrooms that resembled bedrooms, a living room that resembled a living room, and a family room that lived up to its name. The kitchen functioned--and even cooked meals--and the basement was becoming every bit as fun as Kalina had hoped.

So we took a break went to the large local park. I'm not sure we got more than 100 feet from the parking lot the whole time, but that was okay: within that distance there was a little lake with ducks, a bridge over the lake and in between two tiny waterfalls that Kalina pointed out, steps up to a gazebo and, naturally, a gazebo. We were set. There was also a short trail outlining the lake that Kalina and I did eventually run around (yes, run, but that's okay, I was just glad she was happy).

Elise was elated to seek the ducks--so much so, that she decided to learn the word. "Duh!" she exlaimed at every opportunity. "Duck!" we'd always reply. We were glad, too, that we'd packed her shoes, as we hadn't packed her stroller. While Kalina and I ran around the lake, Elise explored at a slower, but no less enthusiastic, pace with Daddy.

We've also been on some neighborhood walks, even discovering a neighborhood park within walking distance. (How did I not know this ahead of time?!?) Most of the neighbors are chatty, which suits me just fine.

So, how are we settling in? For the true test, ask the 3-year-old. I asked Kalina the other day whether she missed the old house. "No," she said. "And what's your favorite part of the new house?" "The basement!" she shouted.

Kalina doesn't seem to be looking back. It took her a good (albeit hectic) week to explore the farthest reaches of the family room. She wasn't too sure about crawling on the stone kitchen floor at first, but has now ventured through it and beyond, and has not only found the living room and dining room, but has discovered two ways to get to the staircase. Previously, we weren't actually sure she knew that the stairs were part of our house. They seemed so far away. Now, they need to be babygated ASAP.

Elise has also taken quite a few independent steps in the house, and has added "dog" to her repertoire, ironically, before "cat." Possibly because although the baby owns a stuffed puppy, she's not allowed to play with Kalina's prized kittens, who have spent the past month or so tucked firmly under her arm at all times. A doggy person she will be, then.

In fact, the only downside to the new house, it seems, has been the brown recluse spiders. We killed close to a dozen brown spiders before we got the bright idea to look them up online (it also took getting internet hooked up), and we're confident that we've seen at least a few of the real deal here (the others being harmless house spiders)--several in our bedroom and one, caught in a sticky trap, under Kalina's bed. After a healthy amount of freaking out, Matt filled a few holes he thought they might be coming from, got rid of as much cardboard as he could (they enjoy cardboard), sprayed some pesticide and put out a bunch of sticky traps, and we haven't heard much from them since. Needless to say, we're still a bit on edge.

Incidentally, ridding the house of poisonous spiders is only one of the jobs Matt's taken on. Every time I see him, it's, "I caulked around the shower," or, "I just scraped mounds of mouse and bug droppings out of the outdoor storage," or whatnot. The garage is clean enough that we could picnic out there, and all the lightbulbs function.

We're now in the process of polishing off the final boxfuls, which are always the trickiest because all the momentum is lost. The only picture we've hung so far has been a calendar, but we hope to get to those soon, too. And we've made our first Craigslist purchase to fill in some of the gaps: Matt got a nice computer desk that will hopefully help keep us all more organized. I'm still blaming the mess on moving, and plan to for a while. After that, we'll revert back to our usual excuse of, "I have two young kids at home all day long."

And last, but certainly not least, in our book, anyway, Elise slept through the night last night, for the first time ever, at just over 11 months. And all it took was a couple nights of Matt going in to settle her instead of me. Incidentally, we tried this a few months ago and it didn't work. Better yet: I slept through the night, too! Probably the first time I've gotten 7 straight hours of sleep in at least a year and a half.

Stay tuned for more of our adventures as we tour our new home and city. So far, we like them. Maybe we'll stay a while.

Photos: Our house, very much in progress. About a week ago I took the camera around and got some snapshots of the rooms as we settled in. The dining room was full of boxes until this past Thursday.