By Popular Demand

So a few people have been asking me to post more about the baby, so I thought it fitting to do that today, when we officially mark the halfway point of this pregnancy (!).

Actually I don't know all that much about what's going on with the baby, other than the daily kicks and wiggles I get periodically, which is always fun. Actually a few days ago Valerie was lying across my torso and, whereas I usually have to tell her, "don't kick your baby brother," this time I had to tell my belly, "Don't kick your big sister!" I doubt she noticed anything but it amused me.

In two more weeks I go in for the full anatomy scan, where they measure all the major body parts and check that the internal organs are developing properly. Hopefully we'll get some good pictures :-) That's usually the scan where you also have the option of finding out the sex, but since we had a fancy schmantzy 3D scan at 13 weeks we already know!

We have a short list of boy names in mind, which I plan to put up in the sidebar as a poll - so you can actually submit a vote for your favorite! Not that we'll use the results to choose a name (I have a pretty strong feeling for one of them in particular) but I'm kind of curious what people think.

As for the pregnancy from my point of view, it's been uneventful so far. My blood pressure readings have been lower than they were at this time in my previous pregnancy, which is reassuring, and chances are slim that I'll develop hypertension again. I had very mild symptoms in the first trimester, and even though I still seem to need a daily nap I think that has more to do with Valerie's night-waking than the pregnancy. This trimester I've been adapting to the growing belly, and feeding it well :-). I've not had really strong cravings, per se, although I've developed a greater-than-usual fondness for ice cream. Normally I'm pretty indifferent to ice cream, I could take it or leave it, don't really care, but now I'm going through a pint a week. And not really interested in the chocolate flavors. My favorite flavor right now is Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Cheesecake. Cheesecake being another dessert that I'm normally indifferent to. So, Dairy! Yes, this baby is definitely a Jantzi!

I've sorted out all Valerie's old clothes and set aside the ones that are neutral or actually boy clothes, and we've got quite a lot for the first 6 months or so. After that it's pretty much all pink, or embellished with hearts and flowers. I'm working on a couple knitting projects - a purple sweater and a sky-blue hat - and soon plan to start a newborn set in green (socks, hat, and possibly vest if I have enough yarn). The green yarn I bought in Savannah right after finding out we were pregnant, for the new baby, before knowing the sex.

So that's a quick update.

Because I'm a nerd

I had to go back and fix the line breaks in the "Halfway Down the Stairs" poem (observant or, more likely, obsessive readers may also notice that I at one point changed it to "Up", having mis-remembered the words, and then changed it back to "Down").

Here's a fun link to the Muppets' version of this poem set to music - very sweet!

***

And some random Valerie-isms - she has a new sign but I can't figure out what it means: she brushes the fingertips of one hand against her face, almost like pulling something from her nose/mouth/chin area. I'm still trying to figure that one out. It's similar to the sign for "sleep" but that's not how she's using it.

She also has invented a word, "Hmo," which Terry claims is a rude word in Albanian (but it's not actually), which I figured out means "where is it?" or, more succinctly in Spanish, "dónde?"

Another onomatopoeic word she's come up with is "Tlha," with a sort of aspirated "l", which means click or clap - the sound of two wooden or plastic objects coming together.

And, just for cuteness, here's a picture of her wearing a dress that's really for a bigger child but she pulled it out of a basket and asked me to put it on her.

I should also mention that she is sleeping much better now. Not perfectly - she still sometimes wakes for about 45 minutes during the night - but much, much better. She falls asleep between 8:30 and 9 and wakes up around 6. I've been cutting her naps short at 2 hours, even though it makes her grumpy, and I think that helps. The one time last week I let her sleep 3 hours she did the 2-hour night waking again and I decided I wouldn't do that again.

Valentine's Day

I told Terry that I wanted flowers for Valentine's Day (pretty much joking, since I don't really care and I figured he wouldn't remember or get around to it). Sunday morning he came up with this:

"But you said you wanted FLOURS!"

(just for the record, they are corn, wheat, and self-rising). So pleased with himself! It did crack me up :-)

Halfway Down the Stairs

Halfway down the stairs
is a stair
where I sit.
There isn't any
other stair
Quite like
it.
I'm not at the bottom,
I'm not at the top;
So this is the stair
Where
I always
stop.

~ A. A. Milne

The toothbrush has become a near-constant fixture in her hand or in her mouth. It's her new comfort object; she usually falls asleep clutching it in one hand. It's a bit of a challenge maintaining hygiene but it's also kind of hilarious.

21 Months

Wow, just 3 months to 2 years old!

I've been saving up some cute stories for this post. In the past month, Valerie has learned some key new words and skills.

1) "No." (Nancy Reagan would be proud.) When she first started saying "no," it was more like a game - apropos of nothing, she'd just sort of sing "no no no no no no no," only it was more like "ñoñoñoñoñoño." Now, however, she uses it appropriately and with full meaning. I actually prefer it to her previous method of communicating the same sentiment, which was to wave her hands back and forth, shake her head vigorously, and scream.

2) "House." Suddenly, everything is a house. Of course there's the doll-house, and all the pictures of houses in her books, but one day she surprised me by pointing to the space underneath the belly of a plastic toy sheep and saying "houe" (she doesn't pronounce the "s"). A few days later at a department store, she pointed to a space between several boxes of shoes and said "houe!" It's like pattern recognition on steroids!

3) Drawing. She's getting better at handling crayons, as evidenced by the marks on the walls of the dining room... and the sketchbook we've been keeping around for doodles.

Then there's just a cute story from church yesterday. I took her forward for children's time, even though she usually can't really follow the story, and prefers climbing around on the pew to sitting on the story blanket with the other kids. She was kind of sleepy, and was just sitting on my lap with her snack cup, when the pastor pulled an apple out of his bag (it was part of the story). She immediately jumped off my lap saying "Ap! Ap! Ap!" and ran around the seated kids to the steps where the pastor was sitting. She stood at his elbow signing "eat" over and over again, but unfortunately he didn't see her. Luckily at the end of the story all the kids got a few homemade apple chips to eat so that made her happy. That's really the first time she's ever gotten "involved" in story time so it felt like a bit of a milestone to me :-)

Right now she has a stuffy nose but other than waking up and crying inconsolably for about 20 minutes around midnight, she slept through the night. So we're gettin' by.

Albania

I've been meaning to write about this for awhile - over a month, actually - but finally getting around to it now. Life is so full of distractions. I wonder if I could just move into a monastery for a while? (not really)

A lot of people might think we're nuts for planning to move to another country - a country neither of us has ever been to before - just 2 months after having a new baby. Here is some of the backstory - although there is a little more to it that I won't put on a public blog, but if you want to know more you can e-mail me and I'll fill you in privately.

Back about two years ago, when we were expecting Valerie shortly, we started talking about what to do when Terry went on sabbatical. According to our calculations, I would be at the dissertation writing stage at the time when he'd be eligible. Since the writing can be done anywhere - and in my program, it seems like most grads do the writing away from the university, for family or other reasons - I told Terry that we could go wherever he wanted, we'd figure out how to make it work.

So this past fall he started scouting out options for next year. Of all the nibbles he got, the one the appealed to me the most was Albania - probably a romanticized notion of that part of the world - and the position they have for him is a really good fit both in terms of the qualifications they are looking for, his skill set and expertise, and the timing. So even though there were some other options brewing this one sounded really good.

Then we found out that there's another baby on the way... and we had to do some strong thinking and considering. There were two things that really came up for us in this conversation:

1) When we got married, we had the vision of living and working together overseas in some kind of service/development/social justice role. Ten years down the road, we haven't made that happen yet. We've taken a number of students on semester-abroad trips, and Terry has done a TON of consulting work in various parts of the world (including Mongolia!), but really LIVE somewhere? No. How much longer will we keep putting it off?

2) We want to raise our children as global people. Why not start now? What kind of clinched it for me, though, was when Terry said, "who are the people I admire most and want to be like? The ones who say 'oh yeah, we were going to do x and y, but then we had kids, so we never did'? Or the ones who backpacked across Africa with their 6-month-old?"

We did think seriously about taking an opportunity in Colombia, which is closer to my family, and where V. would be able to learn Spanish. But in the end it was going to be too much for me; in that situation, we'd be joining up as a couple and I'd have to work part-time as well as trying to write my dissertation and mother two small ones.

The week that we had to make our decision final, I was able to have a Skype-to-phone conversation with the wife of the program director in Albania and ask her a bunch of questions. They have 3 kids, and moved there when the youngest was 2 months old. She LOVES Albania, says it's a wonderful place to raise children, and answered all my logistical questions such that it all sounds doable.

So now we just have to figure out the logistics of packing up our house and getting it rented out. We're planning to be there for 2 years (actually a leave of absence for T.). It's true that there were some good reasons for postponing this move for a year, but in the balance of things, it felt like defeat to stay here. I think we'll be able to manage it.

One Week

Well, we're 8 days (and nights) into our new schedule, with mixed results. Apart from the first night, when V. went down in 15 minutes and was asleep at 7:30, she's been falling asleep mostly at 8:30 but two nights at 9:30, and one night at almost 10:00. This despite lights-out close to 7 every night. That's a LONG TIME to be lying next to her. Some nights we take shifts. We usually follow the same routine of books, lights-out, lullaby for about 15 minutes, then play possum - but she'll come over and crawl on us, head-butt us, etc. I'm not sure how effective it would be to leave her alone and let her fuss. We did that when she was in a crib, and she NEVER went to sleep without crying - sometimes for 10 minutes, sometimes for 30 or more, but she ALWAYS cried.

As for the night waking, she's slept through the night 3 nights out of the 7 (tonight I don't know yet what the outcome will be). And two of those nights, she did wake up a couple times but then put herself back to sleep right away, so I'm still counting them - simply because she didn't do the 2-hour waking thing that she did the other 4 nights.

So.... it's somewhat better, but not where I hoped we'd be by now. For now though we're going to keep trying with the dinner at 5 and lights-out at 7, mostly because I have no earthly idea what else to try. I guess the options are 1) put her back in the crib and let her cry it out, or 2) leave her on her little bed but move ourselves into another room. I think with option 2 we worry about her wandering around the room at night on her own.

What IS working better is the earlier mealtime. She is more focused on eating, and eats a good meal in about 45 minutes, when we start dinner close to 5. So this is working well with my having the sitter come every morning and then just caring for her myself in the afternoons.

As of tonight, we've stopped giving her a snack at bedtime, wondering if maybe she's overfull when we put her down, or having heartburn or something.

She's still fighting naps, too. It takes 40 minutes or more to get her to sleep in the afternoon even when she's obviously tired and ready for it. I don't really know what that's about. She usually falls asleep between 1:30 and 2:00 even though I put her down between 12:30 and 1:00. So that's really frustrating too.

The other struggle we're having right now is with bath time. Last Sunday, she was soooo tired from 3 weeks of poor sleep, and Terry thought he'd entertain her with the toddler shower head he bought a long time ago. It's a little dolphin, and you attach it to your own shower head but it comes down closer to toddler level and the water comes out its mouth. We'd never used it before, but it was hanging in the shower and V. always points to it and wants to play with it.

Well, it terrified her. Ever since then she has not wanted to take a bath AT ALL. We've made her bathe twice since then, just because her hair was starting to smell funky, and she fought it crying all the way. So hard. Not sure what to do about that either.

I've been feeling pretty demoralized and discouraged about the sleep issue. She's such a sensitive little thing, it's hard to know sometimes how to help her cope with life. Sometimes I think this time of year is just hard for her - it was precisely at this time last year when we first had our horrendous sleep problems - coming after the holiday travel, into a new schedule with a new babysitter. Hopefully by the end of this week we'll have some better news.

Because I'm late...

Because I missed posting on the actual date, I just put up an anniversary picture for my parents to mark their 39 years of marriage!

Sleep, Eat, Smile

So last night Valerie slept through the night for the FIRST TIME in almost THREE WEEKS. She went down fighting but was asleep by 8:30, which is an improvement on the previous night when she spent 2.5 hours jumping on the bed until 9:30, and woke up at 1:30, 4:30, and 6:00 - although she did fall asleep quickly every time. Well last night she didn't wake up AT ALL until 6:15! And was in a much better mood this morning. With our extra time until 9:00 when the sitter comes, I made this recipe:

Mumologic's Unoffensive Recipe

It smells soooo good. I don't know if V. will eat it, but we still have rice and beans hanging around and she likes that a lot. I add chopped tomato, olive oil, salt, and maybe a little meat and she really enjoys it. I'm trying to teach her to eat with a spoon (I know, recien???) but she still turns it upside down to put in her mouth. We're working on it. She prefers to spoon-feed me pretend food and let me do the shoveling for her.

Also, we got yet more snow last night... and more is predicted for the weekend... I was digging around in a box of stored baby clothes yesterday and found a bag of winter clothes I'd forgotten we had - all size 2T and pink! There may be time to use it yet!

Church

So I joined the church today - although I was baptized at 17, this is the first time I've ever officially been a member of an official church. It was kind of a last-minute decision (literally - I made up my mind and called the pastor at noon on Friday, just as the bulletins were going to press - but got my name in the program) and wrote my confession of faith at 10 p.m. on Saturday night. Here it is:

When I was five years old, an older friend led me in a prayer to ask Jesus into my heart. When I was fourteen, I recommitted my life to Christ and I was baptized at seventeen by a visiting minister at the mission in Peru where we lived. I understood then that as I continued to grow up, I needed to periodically reorient my spiritual life along with my growing understanding and knowledge. In college I found myself working through a number of questions and doubts as my simple understanding of God and life and faith was continually challenged. As a young adult I felt strong and secure in a deepening spiritual life.

About 12 years ago, a series of painful tragedies in the lives of my loved ones derailed that sense of security, and for a long time I have felt adrift and without anchor as my beliefs were pared down to a bare core. Today, I feel a renewed sense of purpose and freedom in my faith. I am prepared to affirm the doctrines of this fellowship, and to commit to walking in the light with you all as together we seek to know God more fully, and to live out his love and justice in this world.

It's kind of funny, since I've been attending this church now for almost 10 years, ever since we moved to the Valley, and have served on I think 3 different committees. I was worship leader one time and helped serve Communion once as well. Terry has been a member since high school, and Valerie was dedicated here when she was 3 months old. We're planning to dedicate the new baby here before we leave for Albania (oh, I haven't posted about that yet, have I? I'll have to do that soon). I didn't want to be the only person in my family who didn't formally "belong" I guess!

There was a nice potluck after the service and all the new members (8 of us) got a potted plant and didn't have to bring anything, which was nice :-).

Flabbergasted

So, this week I decided that in addition to the revised child care schedule, I'd try something else as well: early bedtime.

Once upon a time we were putting Valerie to bed at 7 p.m. every night, then pulling our hair out as she fought sleep until 8:30 or 9:00. We got tired of fighting this fight every single night so ended up just going with the flow - bath time at 7:30, then snack, then lights out at 8:30. But watching her get progressively more and more tired and cranky every day this week - even though she's been getting good solid naps on a regular schedule and still eating well (with 1 or 2 off days) - I decided desperate times call for desperate measures.

Tonight was the first night of this new regime. We also plied her with protein - yummy salmon patties with rice and beans and sweet potato - and 2 glasses of milk - for supper, which started a little after 5.

She was asleep by 7:30. IT'S A MIRACLE. We'll see how she does tonight in terms of night waking. I've braced myself for waking at 11:30, 1:30, 4:30, and 6:00.... just in case - but hopefully we'll be pleasantly flabbergasted yet again.

Regardless, the plan for the next 7 days is dinner starts at 5, and bedtime is at 7. No ifs ands or buts.

Feliz Aniversario

Dear Mom and Dad,
Congratulations on 39 years of marriage! "For better, for poorer, in sickness and in health..."
Love you lots!

wiggles

Started feeling the baby move over the past few days! Overall I'm feeling like this is easier the second time around; knowing what to expect, knowing better how to take care of myself. I'm eating much better than I did with Valerie, partly because I'm cooking and keeping around lots of healthy food for her, and partly because I eat at home most of the time instead of on campus (where it was a lot of cinnamon bagels and decaf soy lattes). So more fruits and vegetables this time.

Valerie has been going through another difficult phase with the sleep. For seven nights straight she fought bedtime (sometimes past 10 p.m.) PLUS would wake for about 2 hours sometime after midnight. Last night though she went down easily, was asleep by 9 (it tells you something that that felt like a major accomplishment) and only woke for about 45 minutes in the night. It seems like changing her diaper when she wakes up helps her get back to sleep more quickly. We're trying to be super-consistent with the night-time routine, and I want to see if we can creep bedtime to an earlier hour as well. The biggest challenge is getting enough food into her before bedtime. I've been tracking it, and it seems like it takes a good 2 hours for her to eat supper. I'm not kidding. That's how long it takes until she's full. Of course she doesn't sit in her high chair that whole time - she gets too bored - but whatever it takes to get food into her, I'll follow her around with her bowl and spoon as long as she keeps eating.

We're also making some adjustments with her childcare schedule so that the days are on a more predictable rhythm. Hopefully that will help. I hired a new babysitter 3 weeks ago who we love, but it's taking some time for V. to get used to having her come. I was having her come Tues/Thurs for 3 hours in the a.m. and 3 hours in the p.m., but I think it was too confusing for Valerie to have that split schedule. She never knows from one day to the next what's going to happen. So now we're going to have the sitter come 4 mornings a week - luckily her schedule is flexible enough that she can make that change. The afternoons are just tricky, anyway, with V's naps sometimes going long, and her waking up cranky sometimes too. I'm also hoping this change will allow us to start dinner earlier (like 5!) so we can move bedtime earlier too.

Hopefully this will all come together soon because Terry and I are POOPED and GRUMPY.

20 months

I missed the 20-month mark! Last Friday was the 15th, and Valerie was 20 months old. Yeah, I don't think I'll be keeping up with these after she turns 2.

She's been talking a lot more these days, and babbling more as well - experimenting with different sounds and different things her mouth and voice can do. A favorite new word is "hou" (house); also "Emo-mo-mo-mo" (Elmo). She just starting saying "dado" (for cuidado, Spanish for "careful," which I always say when she's close to the edge of something) especially as we come down the stairs. She says "Hi!" now, and seems to really derive tremendous pleasure from this simple word.

She loves to climb things, and since she's getting taller there's a lot more she CAN climb! Her legs are still short (some 18-month pants are too long) but she can get up and and off of adult-sized chairs by herself. I'm continually surprised to see what she can now reach that she couldn't a month ago - shelves, drawers, etc.

She's experimenting with crayons and magnetic drawing boards, just making little marks usually as opposed to lines. But she can identify at least 6 shapes, the basic colors, 40 different animals, and nearly all the letters of the alphabet (still confused by G, J, Q, U, W, and X). She likes putting together Lego blocks - and pulling them apart again.

And she continues in her love of dogs, elephants, turtles, and cows.

I think we need to work on her social skills, though. Her latest thing is kicking people off the comfy chairs. She'll pull on your knee and say "Off! Off! Off!" insistently, until you get off, and then she climbs on and sits like a queen on her throne.

She's still eating really well, a great variety of foods, although the sleep is still a bit hit-or-miss. We have "problem" nights about 1/4 to 1/3 of the time (meaning night waking for an extended period of time).

I'll probably think of 20 more things after I publish this!

Announcement

Guess what? If you haven't heard already, Valerie is going to be a big sister! We were very surprised - and excited! - to learn shortly before Christmas that we are on our way to becoming a family of four. This week we move into the second trimester. So far I'm feeling pretty well, just some mild nausea especially in the evenings, and of course the daily naps. Our due date is July 19.

more pictures!

The day before we tried to leave Harrisonburg:
The day we left Savannah:

My lovely sister posted some of her own Christmas pictures, where you can see Valerie making funny faces and a lovely photo of Solana and Lotus in their matching Christmas dresses that my mom sewed for them (this was, I believe, during a Valerie meltdown).

Christmas Pics!

Here are some of my favorite snaps of Valerie from Christmas. She had so much fun!





We did get some nice portrait-ish shots of her and Lotus, too. Sadly poor Solana was feeling quite unwell by this time, running a fever and just miserable. But here are the babies anyway:

Picture!

Here we are! The Phelps/Jantzi/Lukawitski family. Clockwise from top left: Terry, Grandpa Conrad, David, Anita, Solana, Lotus, Grandma Irma, Valerie, and me.

Note the serene expressions on the men's faces; the strangely contorted looks on the women, and the dazed/confused expressions on the kids. I have a new-found respect for professional photographers who do family portraits! Getting this shot took planning, strategizing, manipulation, split-second timing, and even a few downright white lies. We learned the hard way, after the Christmas Day fiasco with the adorable matching dresses my mom had sewed for the three girls. You'll just have to imagine how completely adorable they would have looked, lined up like little dolls on the couch in front of the tree. What with non-synchronized naps (all three of them), a fever (Solana), and a screaming hissy fit about the sleeves on the dress (Valerie), it was just not in the cards this year. Maybe when they're all old enough to be bribed.

Post-Christmas

Wow. I have been neglecting the poor blog, eh? Eventually I hope to update this post later with some photos from Christmas Day.

We survived the 8-hour drive to Savannah after postponing our trip for two days due to a massive snowfall (photos of that pending as well...). We tried to leave town the day after 20 or so inches got dumped on us, but it was not to be. Traffic on 81 was at a standstill, and the secondary roads were covered with a thick layer of ice and packed snow. Our friends who left town a little before us reported that they traveled 10 miles in an hour and a half. So we called it quits for the day.

It's been great hanging out with my parents and my sister's family here, Savannah is a beautiful city and the weather is of course much milder here. This is our last time together as a family before my parents head back to Peru next week-ish so that makes it an extra-special time.

Christmas was mainly for the kids this year. Valerie didn't really grasp the whole gift-opening concept, though; in fact, my little introvert wandered off from the wrapping-ripping extravaganza into Solana's room, where she played happily by herself with all the books and toys there (the whole "sharing" thing has also been a challenge for her here). Her favorite gift so far has been the magnetic drawing pad from Aunt Anita that she scribbles on for long stretches at a time.

I hope all my readers had a lovely day yesterday and are enjoying a happy holiday weekend!

Merry Christmas!

Feeling much better now

Good appointment with chiropractor; massage tomorrow; 2-hour nap today...

Poor Terry, though, has got a man cold. :-)

19 months

Already??? I feel like I just wrote the 18-month post!

So the big thing that happened for us this past month was that I went to a conference in Philadelphia, and was away from her for two nights and the better part of three days. I was incredibly apprehensive going into it, but we all weathered the separation pretty well and from the vantage point of two weeks, it seems like so not a big deal. I might not have even considered it except that Val's sitter did a weekend trip away from her 16-month-old (at the time) and they survived. It was seeing how happy little E. was when B. came back that sealed the deal for me: nobody was traumatized for life.

So we did it! I left on a Wednesday; Grandma D. pitched in for an all-day Valerie-watching marathon on Thursday while Terry taught classes all day, and on Friday he and V. drove up to Philly to meet me. We all drove back together.

The worst part was actually getting on the train in DC to Philly. It was like going past the point of no return. I actually teared up a bit; it felt wrenching.

The best part, of course, was opening the hotel room door and seeing her face light up in a big smile and hearing her little voice say "Mama!" as we ran to each other with our arms out.

Bloodied and Bruised

Sunday morning I took a tumble on our front steps, luckily NOT while holding Valerie, as I thought the wet sheen was just rainwater rather than, as it turned out to be, ice. (I was running out to the car to fetch a toy we'd left there the day before.)

Ouch.

My upper left arm and left butt-cheek are both bruised and sore, and my neck feels out of whack. I'm going to see the chiropractor tomorrow.

And then my baby's been beating up on me: she bit me really hard on my left forearm yesterday, to the point where it hurts just having my sweater sleeve brush against it. She was mad because I was taking pictures of my finished socks instead of paying attention to her - but she got a time-out regardless!

Then last night she was thrashing around in bed while I was trying to put her down, and she whomped me on the lip with her head, cutting it against my lower incisor. Not only did I get a mouthful of blood, but I now have a huge swollen and blackened lump on my lip - not very pretty!

I call these the red and blue badges of parenthood!

Nearly 19

Although Val is nearly 19 months old, we just had her 18-month check-up today. She is still a skinny minnie, at only 23.8 lbs. (we were surprised, she feels heavier than that!) which puts her in the 25th percentile for weight, and 33 inches long - 75th percentile. So following the same growth curve since she was tiny.

It's funny to me that some of the charming, amazing things she does turn out to be run-of-the-mill developmental milestones to be ticked off the nurse's checklist. To whit, walking backwards. For ages she's been backing up to sit on low surfaces, like the bottom step, or her little chair, or the stomach of an adult lying on the floor. But recently she's been very deliberately and consciously walking backwards. By this I mean, she'll pause in what she's doing, then very deliberately walk forwards about 5-6 steps, in a posture that shouts "Now I'm walking forwards," then stop, and just as deliberately walk backwards in a "Now I'm walking backwards!" kind of way until she bumps into something. Then she'll do it again. It's so incredibly cute! She's not walking to or from anything, she's just walking because she can! And I'm really no less charmed by it, knowing that it's something apparently all toddlers do. I'm just resentful that the entire world isn't as charmed and amazed as I am.

Giving Thanks

Rather than try to make a comprehensive list of everything I'm thankful for, or even a top 10 list, I the top 3 best moments of Thanksgiving Day, 2009:

3) Collard greens. Holy YUM, Batman!!! That Brian Diener knows his way around a pot of collard greens. Most delicious dish of the day and that's saying a lot!

2) Watching Valerie figure out how to connect the magnetic pieces of the Music Train together, after MONTHS of playing with this toy, and then watching her spend a good 45 minutes connecting and disconnecting the pieces to her heart's content!

1) Last night at 1 a.m., Valerie slid off my lap and held her arms up to Daddy saying "A" -- in a word, asking for him to sing her to sleep again. The previous three nights she was up for 3-4 hours between midnight at 5 a.m., rolling around and asking for food. Last night, she faked us out by only being awake for half an hour before going down again! The best sound ever was hearing Terry start to snore lightly (he wants you to know he doesn't actually snore) after she fell asleep.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Grammy and Grandma

The grandmas had a few things to add to my last post:

From Grandma Irma: "Algo que no has mencionado es que reconoce los símbolos de los números y también de las notas musicales que para ella representa la música y el cantar, algo que seguro la mayoría de los bebes de su edad no saben distinguir!!!" Something you didn't mention is that she recognizes numerical signs and also musical notes, which represent to her music and singing, something that surely the majority of babies her age don't distinguish!!!"

This is true. In her books at home and in the hymnal at church, she points to musical notes and makes her sign for music - waving one hand like a conductor's baton. At church she does this very insistently every time people stop singing to talk. If it were up to her, church would be all singing!

From Grammy Dot: "She's been clapping and doing more of the motions with the songs on the tape. She also gets this grin on her face and looks to me expectantly to see if I'm doing them, especially the "wheels on the bus". She's also remembered some of the things that I did with the can of blocks for the Here we go Round the Mullberry Bush for the phrases "this is the way we....." using one for sweeping, one for painting, round one for rolling bread, etc. She anticipates that song and goes for the blocks, but she's also been pulling them out for things in other songs. She's a delight!"

I know for a fact now that she recognizes that capital E and I, as she has called them out in new situations (the DELI sign at the store) without me prompting her first.

Doot *updated with photo

I missed an important new word in your lexicon - dirt! Or, as you like to say, "doot!" I'm still mystified where you learned this word. I usually (I think?) say "Basura" (Spanish for garbage) instead of dirt. Your babysitter says she hasn't made a point of talking about dirt, and Grammy says the same. However, at some point in time a few months ago you became fascinated by the broom and dustpan. One of your favorite things to do is to run to where I keep it next to the fridge, and try to pull it out, saying insistently "Mam! Mam! Doot! Doot!" You're not content until I get out the broom, unhook the dustpan and hand it to you, sweep up the crumbs from under the table or from the kitchen floor, sweep them into the dustpan, and then throw them away.

18 months today!

Little Valerie, 18 months old today! A year and a half. Six months until you are TWO! Two years of happiness with our little one.

You are growing so much, in so many ways. "Milestones" are nice benchmarks, but really right now what I see happening before my wondering eyes is just so much development - you are getting better and better at doing the things you love to do. Your hands are becoming more dextrous at opening and closing things; your feet trip you up less and less. You are losing your fear of our big blue exercise ball - you've always been fascinated by it, now you are brave enough to run up and give it a big push to watch it roll across the basement floor. You have no trouble at all now putting together your puzzle, or shoving the plastic shapes into their respective holes in the play workbench-with-hammer set. You easily slide the wooden stacking blocks onto their pegs.

And, my genius baby, you now know almost half the alphabet!!! You can consistently identify A, H (which you call "hat"), I, K (which prompts you to lean in for a kiss), M, N, O, S, T (which you call "turtle"), U, and V (for Valerie!). Some of your new words include:

- "am-m" (album)

- "tr-tr" (turtle)

- "dow" (down)

You're still more of an animal person than a people-person. I've realized there's a real, strong cultural preference for babies and toddlers to be sociable and extraverted. People generally like to see babies and small children, especially if the little ones respond to them with smiles and friendliness and like to be held. Well, not this baby! You continue to be very wary of strangers, slow to warm up to our friends, and suspicious of other little ones. That's ok - I think both your parents were probably the same way when we were small (and maybe still are!). You can only be yourself.

But you LOVE animals. Real ones, toy ones, pictures in books, on videos - it doesn't matter. You always offer them a snack (and then eat it yourself) and imitate their sounds. The cutest ones you do are the elephant and the rooster sounds which are unfortunately un-transcribable.

You have short legs, long feet, a long torso, and intelligent forehead :-). Your hair is growing long, with cute little curls when it's damp. You still have your "Mongolian spot." You have two or four new teeth (I'm losing count!).

This month you weaned yourself, which still amazes me. You just decided you were done, didn't want any more, and that was it.

I love you so much and can't wait to see how much you learn and grown in the next six months!

Writer's Block

Because I'm stuck on the turn of a phrase, here are pics from Terry's and my hike last weekend. Gorgeous day, great conversation, fun times.

Again with the Sleep (or lack thereof)

I have some great shots of the hike Terry and I did over the weekend (nothing major, just to Hone Quarry - and yes, that's correct - it was only the 2 of us enjoying some long, uninterrupted adult conversation!) but I haven't downloaded them yet so you'll just have to wait.

Meanwhile, more sleep drama, as always. My poor cousin Sachiko has THREE little ones who not only don't sleep well but all have H1N1 as well. Please keep her in your thoughts!

As for me and my household, we were lulled into unwarranted optimism when, for four nights in a row, V. not only fell asleep in under 10 minutes of putting her to bed, but went on to sleep for TWELVE uninterrupted HOURS. And then? Monday night, she slept for THIRTEEN HOURS STRAIGHT. And that was after a THREE-HOUR NAP!!! I woke up on Tuesday morning having slept myself for TEN (10) hours straight - a first since May 15, 2008!

At that point, however, everything went to pieces. Tuesday night she went down quickly but then was up for about 3 hours in the middle of the night. And in the nights that have followed since then, it has taken at least 2 hours to get her to fall asleep. Oh yes - and naps are also becoming a huge battleground. That loud noise you hear is my banging my head against the wall.

I think part of the problem is the head cold that she and I both have (and apparently passed on to Grammy). I don't know about V., but I had a wicked raw sore throat for about 36 hours followed by total sinus stuffiness that is still working its way out of my system. I also had a very light fever Tuesday evening (99.8).

I just hope this is a phase, and that she will go back to that blissful state we had achieved over the weekend. Tonight I spent about half an hour rocking her in my arms and listening to her swallow the mucus that was draining from her sinuses. (This was after Terry had spent over an hour trying to get her to go to sleep.) It was another 20 minutes after that before she fell asleep though.

Coming soon: more of the cute things she is doing, less of the drama, at least I hope so!!!

See you soon!

My mom and dad left today; as evidence of how spoiled I got while they were here, I didn't prepare or eat lunch for myself until 3 p.m. when I finally boiled some pasta and threw shredded cheese on it. A far cry from the daily menu of stir-fries and steak we've been having around here!

Valerie cried and cried this morning when they left.

Here are some photos of our excursion to the Arboretum on Saturday (where she also nursed for, apparently, the last time...!)

Wha'....?

So... Valerie has QUIT NURSING. Pretty close to cold turkey. Since Friday morning she has only nursed once - Saturday at the Arboretum. I have no idea why, she just doesn't want it anymore!

I'm both elated and sad!

Misc Family

So Terry has been back for 5 days now, and Valerie has settled back into her normal nighttime routine. It took that long. But we're all getting a little more sleep around here now and it feels GREAT.

We're really enjoying having Grandma Irma and Grandpa Conrad in town, helping out in a thousand different ways (playing with V., cooking 3 hot meals a day, scanning slides of Terry's babyhood, running to the post office...). I haven't downloaded photos yet but will have those up soon. Ish.

Yesterday was my beautiful sister Anita's birthday! Happy birthday, P! I love you!

Quote

As a fledgling anthropologist, this thought struck a chord with me - Pam writes about the commodification of "traditional" or "native" cultural practices:

"I have to believe that the difference between exploration and exploitation is the heart that we bring to the experience, the knowledge and respect."

You can read the full post on her blog, Blood Signs.

Flying Solo

Terry left for the airport at 3 a.m., headed out to do some workshops on international development in Colombia. The house feels really empty.

Maybe because his clothes aren't piled all over the couch anymore :-)

17 Months!

Top two photos were taken at the Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale, and the bottom two at church (nursery and library)

17 months old today! I uploaded my pictures, and I noticed how much harder it's getting to get a good face shot. For one thing, she won't hold still! For another, every time she sees the camera she wants to look at the pictures on the back display.

I'm happy to report that the sores on her tongue are gone, and her gums look better. Phew! We should be back to normal by the weekend, according to Dr. Google.

Here are some 17-month markers:

Favorite song: still "Old MacDonald," which she requests by hooting "Ooo! Ooo!" in a very high-pitched voice.

Favorite food: green peas

Favorite activity: going to the Children's Museum

Favorite toy: hmm.... probably the bath toy that Lorie P. gave us recently!

New words:

- boat (see above)

- church (though it comes out more like "T-ch"

- hot

Things that make her smile:

- playing peek-a-boo

- being flipped upside down

- "If I Were A Butterfly"

- dogs

- Daddy

Answers

So the nurse says it is stomatitis (I had her spell it for me), and it should go away on its own in 5-7 days, although the web site says 10. Looking back, I remember now that I noticed a little red granule on V's tongue maybe 5-6 days ago, which has since developed into what looks like a double canker sore. Poor little thing - I'm glad she's eating as well as she is, all things considered. Tonight she ate a lot of green peas, and some applesauce with pureed spinach mixed into it. Thankfully she's been drinking plenty of water. The nurse said the main thing is to head off the dehydration. And she's still nursing plenty. So we just have to wait it out.

Gums

This morning I noticed that V's gums around her top and bottom front teeth were all inflamed and red. I took a toothbrush to her teeth and INSTANT BLOOD - oh so sad! I googled "toddler bleeding gums" and it came up all about gingivitis and taking her to to the dentist. But B. thinks it's all about the teething. She (V) also has two cold sores on the tip of her tongue.

POOR BABY!

No wonder all she wants to eat is yoghurt, applesauce, mushy peas, oatmeal, and mama's milk. And her usual morning egg yolks (hard boiled).

I feel so bad about nursing her to sleep and not brushing her teeth better. She is getting two new bottom teeth and we've been putting Orajel on them, which has definitely helped her sleep better since Saturday. I'm pretty sure the redness/bleeding is new as of this morning. So maybe it will pass quickly as well.

Anyone else have experience with this?

Thoughtful

Here we are in early October. Today is the deadline for a small grant that I was eligible to apply for, but I wasn't paying attention and missed the e-mail announcement when I still had time to apply. I maybe could have pulled it off, but for one reason and then another I procrastinated and then it became too late.

I'm frustrated with myself - it was a small amount of money, and Terry didn't think it was worth the effort of applying for it, but I still feel like I should have. I enjoy writing, and I'm good at it, but it seems like the logistical details of the grant process trip me up every time. I'm not particularly good at multi-tasking (although I've been hearing a lot on NPR that recent research shows nobody really is, they just think they are), which was one reason I left my last two jobs. Juggling a lot of little details is also what I find most difficult about parenting.

It's a beautiful fall day today, and I would love to stare out the window and daydream all morning. But I'm paying someone else to mother my child so I can do my academic work.

Techno-yay

If you scroll back through previous months' posts, you'll notice a sudden sharp drop in the number of pictures posted here, starting around the end of July. This is because my camera battery charger has vanished. I have been taking pictures on my cell phone camera, however, so that V's young life might not go wholly undocumented. I finally got around to uploading them onto my laptop. Here are a few favorites from August and September!
This one was taken at the Harrisonburg Children's Museum quite recently:This one is at our neighbor's sandbox, where we spend a lot of our free time:This is one of her favorite activities, which she requests by leaning towards the car door going "Bvvvvv!"This is right before I trimmed her bangs a couple weeks ago:

She is getting so big! The 18-month onesies are already too small - although the 12-month pants fit just right!

Genius baby

This noon while eating lunch, Valerie was looking at the cover of her "My First 100 Words in Spanish" book. Lately she's been pointing at all the letters and asking me (with her sign for "sing," which is to brush her hands together) to recite the Dr. Seuss rhyme that goes with each one.

So today I decided to test her a little bit, and asked here "Where is the T?" and she pointed straight at it.

She can correctly identify, at least on this book cover, T, W, and S. And sometimes M.

Also, when I sing the alphabet for her, she'll chime in at the correct time with "M."

***
Another cute thing she did this morning took place when we were looking at the church directory at all the pictures of babies. I showed her our family picture, pointed to her dad, and said "who's that?" She immediately lay down on the floor, curled up against me, and said "A!" - because this is how her dad sings her to sleep every night (singing the ABCs). It was adorable.

new first

When I dropped V. off at B's house, no tears! Just a little "mama!" as I walked out the door. The window was open so as I walked away I clearly heard nothing but crickets chirping.

Sixteen months!

Valerie is sixteen months today! Since I recently did a "milestones" post, maybe I can just do a "day in the life" post.

This is our new routine.

Valerie wakes up sometime around 6 a.m. Since Daddy is on night duty, he brings her up to me and I either nurse her in our bed or take her back downstairs to nurse. Daddy goes back to bed for 1-2 more hours of shut-eye.

After nursing, Valerie goes straight for her books - she pulls them off the shelf and I groggily read a few of them to her. I change her diaper while singing a song (usually "The Wheels on the Bus," with our own added verses, e.g. "the tractors on the bus go brrrm brrrm brrrm!") and then go play in the living room while I make breakfast.

For breakfast she eats two egg yolks, some of my oatmeal, and a piece of fruit - as much as she wants. Often we watch youtube videos of farm animals, or read books while eating breakfast. Then we play in the living room while I get dressed, put pants and shoes on her (she sleeps in a clean onesie, which is then what she wears for the next day), and get her bag ready for the babysitter. If we have time and if she cooperates I might wash the dishes, do a load of laundry, or knit a little bit.

She likes to play with her electronic keyboard that plays "Old MacDonald" when you stick a certain block on it. Another current favorite is the Princess puzzle from Aunt Anita, or the Lego dinosaur with Lego cavemen that ride on its back, from Grandma Irma. She's getting quite good at the puzzle! Some days we go outside and watch the neighbor boys ride off to school on their bikes, or sit in the neighbor's gazebo and play in their sandbox. We have great neighbors. :-) She also likes to feed their dog a snack, and even if we have no treat for him, will extend her hand towards him and make smacking noises with her lips. She does the same thing with her toy animals - tries to feed them books, even!

A little before 9 we head out to B's house, where I drop her off for the morning. During the drive she likes to look at her Baby Einstein lift-a-flap book that has musical buttons as well. Actually pretty much any lift-a-flap book will do - she LOVES them right now.

After I drop her off I drive away crying and try not to think about how much I miss her.

At noonish I go pick her up and hear a report of how the morning went. She's been doing great over there! She's playing well with baby E. and yesterday got all rambunctious with the two dogs! They are very gentle dogs although full of energy. Evidently she would deliberately run into them, fall down, and laugh her head off!

We go home, have lunch (often not much because by this time she's very tired), and then nap for a couple hours.

Yes, she is down to one nap a day!

Sometimes I nap too, sometimes I do other stuff. Like blog. Like right now. :-)

After nap we go do something fun, sometimes with Daddy, sometimes just us, depending on if he has class or meetings. On Mondays, she goes to Grandma Dot's for a few hours and I get even MORE stuff done!

Then supper around 6, then bed.

Since she went to one nap, she's been falling asleep a little earlier, within a half hour of 8:00, and I think sleeping in a little later - say 6:30ish. Although, she's also been waking for about an hour every night as well. So I'm not sure what her total hours of sleep are in any given 24 hour period, but I'm SURE it is less than average. Oh well.

Speaking of sleep... I think I'm going to go try and grab some right now myself, while I have the chance!!!

Thankful

It's all good news today: even though Valerie woke up at 5 this morning, she went back to sleep at 6 for another TWO HOURS! Since she went down at 8 last night, that gave her a total of 11 hours of sleep! Fantastic! So even though we had to rush to get to the babysitter's on time before my 10 a.m. meeting, I was glad.

And she had a great day with B. and baby E. I'm so happy. She cried and clung to me when I left, but soon calmed down, B says, and was fine the rest of the 3 hours I left her there. She was happy to see me at noon, and wanted to nurse immediately, but that's normal for her - she does the same thing when I leave her with Grandma. Yay! She was happy and content all the way home and ate a good lunch, and is now napping. Again, yay!

I think she is feeling better from the cold that she's had since Friday, which came immediately after a bout with roseola. All this on top of cutting her first-year molars. She's had a rough couple of weeks.

I have incredible piles of housework to catch up on, and grocery shopping. Hopefully we can get through some of that this afternoon.

one more cute thing

Tonight when I was nursing Valerie to sleep, she sat up and made (her version of) the sign for "butterfly"... because she wanted to nurse on "the other side"... Maybe it's coincidence, but maybe she's really using homophones to communicate! Through signs!

I know, I know, nap when the baby naps

I know I should be trying to catch some shut-eye while Valerie naps here, but there are so many cute little things she is doing these days that I can't let them go undocumented much longer or they'll be lost in the grand scheme of things.

She's making connections: when she sees a picture of an animal she knows, she will run to find more pictures of it in other books or on her puzzle pieces - cows, especially - maybe because of the distinctive black and white markings on most pictures of cows. She also recognized a picture of an owl on a wooden block, and made her own sign for spider (tips of pointer fingers together, trying to do the move from "Itsy Bitsy Spider") when she saw a picture of a ladybug that had particularly long legs. She identifies the coffee shop by the sign for "gorilla," because in the one we frequent most often there are some children's drawings on the wall of "wild hair guys" that apparently look to her like gorillas. They're not even the same color, but something about them evokes gorillas for her. Which is weird because she also signs "gorilla" when she sees something black, even if it's a dog (and she knows what dogs are!).

Physically, she's climbing more and more. She also likes to back up and sit on anything that's the right height for her - even Grandpa, when he's lying on his back on the floor! That was pretty funny.

Her favorite music right now is a Putumayo reggae cd that we have. At first she just wanted to look at the pictures in the liner notes, which are printed like a little booklet inside the cover, but when I played it for her she really enjoyed it - especially if I hold her and dance around.

The funniest thing she did, though, was when I was reading her a book that included the line, "nine nimble bugs a nibbling," she started going "pbpbpbpbpbpbp" - you know, the sound it makes when you sort of twang your lower lip with one finger? Every time I get to that line, she does it - it's hilarious - it really does sound similar!

Other sounds she makes: for sheep, she says "M-m-m-m" with a little stop between "M"s, and for pigs she says "shhhhssssss" - I guess that's what the snore/grunt noise I make for pigs sounds like to her. She has a respectable "moo," and a very cute "eee-e-eee-eeee" for roosters crowing.

It's really funny - she always says "Mama" (or, often, "Mamamam") in a high-pitched little coo, but almost everything else is in a normal tone of voice, including "da[dd]y." One exception is the "ba" she says for cat, I guess because their meow is also high-pitched.

Check-up Stats

Yesterday was Valerie's 15-month checkup. She is still 75th percentile for height (now 31.5 inches), 24th for weight (22.6 lbs) with a head circumference of 18 inches (hat knitters take note) :-) She endured 3 shots and a general look-see with weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. As long as she didn't have to be up on the table she was fine, but any movement towards it and she went ballistic. Poor little thing.

We took along some of her current favorite toys - the book that we refer to as the "ha ha bunny" book, a plastic donkey she likes to chew on, and a lift-the-flap book about a Christmas snowman. These kept her happy while we sat around waiting for the next thing to happen.

For some reason she has come to hate baths, I don't know why. So nowadays I stand her in the tub and give her a quick wipe-down. With the cooler weather we also don't have to wash her hair as often.

Right now she is at B's house, the new babysitter. B has a daugher, E., who is just a month younger than Val. Again with the weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth this morning when I left. It's so hard. Terry keeps saying she'll get used to it, and I know she will, but how long will it take?

15.5 months

So I missed the 15 month update post, but as you've probably noticed my blogging in general slowed waaaay down this month. Not sure why exactly; I just never felt like it, whenever I sat down at the computer (which, granted, wasn't often). It's just... August.

But today marked the beginning of Fall for me; the weather dawned cool and clear, and Valerie and I had our first day with her new child care person. I'm so content with her - a fellow mom who goes to our church, her little one is exactly a month younger than V. They live in an old farmhouse out in the country with two friendly, gentle dogs. V. had a great time running around the toddler-friendly house, snacking on yoghurt and grapes, playing with the wooden blocks and warily eyeing the other toddler. Tomorrow I'm going to try leaving her for about 45 minutes, and then maybe 2 hours the next day. I was pleased with how quickly she took to the new environment there.

Today marks four days straight that V. is down to one nap a day. She had flirted with this arrangement a few times in the past month or so, but it's starting to feel more like a pattern now. This reeeally frees up our mornings - we actually all went to church yesterday! Three days out of the four, she went down at 12:20 - although length of nap has varied quite a bit - from just over an hour, to three hours.

Right now, she is asleep in her car seat, which I brought into the house. I know I should be napping too (I tried! Really I did!) but I'm a bit on hyper-alert in case she wakes up and wants to get into bed.

So, other updates/milestones? Hmmm.... well, her favorite book right now is "Corduroy," and consequently she is very interested in buttons. She beats on her chest to signify "gorilla" or (inexplicably) "dinosaur," or anything that is black (like the gorilla) - even her dad's black T-shirt. Speaking of dad... she's getting very attached to "Da-ee" and even cried a little this morning when he left for work... And she will take "no" for an answer when she wants to keep nursing but I'm ready to stop.

She just seems to looooove being able to walk and run, to be self-propelled, to get where she wants to go on her own two legs. Ever since she took off walking her overall affect has been markedly happier, more laughs and giggles. She does this thing now where something will tickle her fancy and she'll say "hahahahahaha!" with a big grin on her face. Another thing she loves to do is pretend to feed the neighbor's dog, her toys, or even pictures in books with whatever she is holding in her hand (a rock, a cheerio, another toy) - she'll hold it to the other's mouth and make smacking noises. It is too cute.

Quick Pic

Trek Camping 2009:
Probably the funniest moment was when Terry was in our tent changing V's diaper, and she jumped up and ran out without a stitch on... the little grin on her face was very cute. She looooved watching the ducks that kept wandering in and out of the campsite. She was not such a big fan of her fan club - the two 6-year-old girls who just wanted to sit next to her and pat her arm and touch her hair and tickle her and talk to her... a bit much for our little introvert!

A Matter of Perspective

We had back-to-back family reunions in July; here are a few pictures of Valerie with her cousin Lotus.

But I find this picture below particularly hilarious because of the way the forced perspective messes with the viewer's perception of the relative sizes of the two kids:

It will be so fun to show the girls these pictures when they are older!

Bad Blogger, NO BISCUIT!

Summertime = relaxed schedules = no babysitter (other than Grandma of course) = drastically reduced computer time. Hence lack of posting lately. That, plus the back-to-back family reunions last month and subsequent exhaustion. Last week I said to Terry, "I MUST get some work done soon," so we arranged a schedule that gave me 3 afternoons this week to work. And I made enough progress to feel ok about taking time to download pictures from the past three or four weeks, I'm not sure exactly how long... but...

V. IS WALKING!

Yes! Full-on walking! July 27, she took off after a book and never looked back.

Also... she RECOGNIZES LETTERS. My baby may be a late walker, but I reckon she'll be an early reader. We were playing with alphabet blocks, and suddenly something clicked in her little head and she said "A!" From that moment forward she consistently and 98% of the time correctly identifies all writing as "A." Granted, she's not actually reading, but she recognizes this abstraction known as the "alphabet" as a visual pattern, and it has a name: A. She gets a huge kick (probably because of the lavish praise we give her when she does it) out of identifying letters everywhere we go - on storefront posters, road signs, T-shirts, stickers, and of course books. She loves to watch the youtube video of Ladysmith Black Mambazo singing the "African Alphabet" song (she points to the laptop and says, what else? "A"). Occasionally she will mis-identify something as "A" that is not a letter - e.g. a diamond pattern on a toy she has, or the picture of a lightning bolt in a book. But pretty nearly all the time she is right.

So here I offer pictures of the walking baby, taking off after her alphabet book:

Viva el Peru!

In Peru, everyone is celebrating the Veintiocho de Julio - 28th of July, Independence Day.

Lima, near the Plaza de Armas

Cusco, Plaza de Armas

Peekaboo at the Farmer's Market

14 months old today!

And what a day it was ...

Actually it was a pretty normal day, up until bedtime.

V. woke up around 5 with a poopy diaper, didn't go back to sleep despite Terry's most soothing efforts. He brought her to me a little before 6. We nursed, played, had breakfast (egg yolks, blueberries, and bread for her) and then went to the playground for about an hour until naptime.

On the walk back we stopped to watch the neighbors tearing shingles off their roof, to admire another neighbor's wind chimes, to smell the flowers, and to look for bees in our coneflowers. Also to pick and eat a cherry tomato ripe from the vine. *happy sigh*... summer!

While V. napped, I dug a splinter out of my heel and then took a nap myself!

After naps, we dropped her off at Grandma Dot's and then ran around trying to do a zillion things on the to-do list. Mine all got done! Plus I packed for our upcoming trip to Lancaster for the Jantzi family reunion. Side note: I have found that I am a MUCH better mom (more patient, understanding, kind, and happy) when I have a few hours to myself in the middle of the day. It makes a huge difference later during the 4-7 p.m. lead-up to bedtime.

Picked up Val, came home, fed her supper (sweet potato, spinach, cheese, bread, mandarin orange slices), played some more, then moved into bedtime mode. That was all pretty much routine until I tried to lay her in her crib - she popped right up again, crying. I went through the usual routine we have to soothe her back down again (letting cry for short periods of time, checking in at 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5, 7, etc.) but in the middle of the 3-minute period she made gagging noises... I went in and she was throwing up.

Oh dear.

Terry cleaned up the crib and floor while I put her in the bath again, where she asked to have her teeth brushed again (I would have too!) and played happily for a good 15 minutes. Just as we went to lift her out - she pooped in the tub! Fortunately we're still using the baby tub and could dump the dirty water straight into the toilet. Terry did that (clean-up guy again!) while I wiped, dried, diapered, and dressed her again for bed.

She finally fell asleep at around 9:45.

I had been planning to go to bed early tonight...

365th Post

Valerie has taken a few more unassisted steps, but mostly she likes to walk around while hanging onto someone's hands. We've been going to the park playground every morning around 8, and that's been a lot of fun - we swing, we go down the slide, we play "uh-oh" (throw stuff off the picnic table and then peer through the cracks while Mom picks it up), we look at birds and grass and trees and flowers and bees. She loves watching bees - she points to the flowers and goes "Bvvvvvvvv!"

Other new words:
"ow" = owl (mural on the side of our shed)
"Ayish" = Alex (the boy next door)
"esh" = eggs (favorite food)
"babbo" = bubbles
"da-ee" = daddy
"mama" = yours truly

I think "bvvvv" counts as a word, too!

**
edited to add:
"edz" = edge (usually in reference to stairs)
"jish" = this

I also have to add that she used to call the green tomatoes in our garden "eggs," but now has been calling them "owl" - I think she got confused because the mural is right next to the garden, and I would point out the owl whenever we went past it towards the tomatoes. She loooves to eat the little cherry tomatoes the minute they get ripe enough!

So I'm Told

Valerie walked 6 steps unassisted today at Grandma Dot's house!!!! Of course I missed it, while out to lunch (literally, not figuratively, I hope) with a friend.

4th of July

Memorial wreath for David Sparks (veteran)

New Blog Title

So... you may have noticed the new blog title - punny, eh? :-) For those who don't know me in real life, "Phantzi" is a melding of my last name and my husband's. And "yarns," of course, can refer to the knitting kind or the narrative kind.

On this light note, I list here three new games Valerie has initiated:

• Bonk. Not for the thin-skulled, the primary object of this game is to provoke hilarity by bumping your forehead against someone else's (if you are V., that would be mine). Laugh, repeat. And again. Game ends with a nose rub.
• Feet. Alternately known as "Happy Feet." Sit in Lazy Boy. Hand mom your pink bunny or the toy known as "green guy" (kind of a dragon-ish thing, with little mirrors on its feet) and brush your hands together to signal "do it again." Mom flips bunny or Green Guy over twice, then holds out his feet saying "feetfeetfeetfeetfeet!" You hold up either one foot or both feet, then laugh and giggle while she tickles your soles with the toy's feet!
• Where is Valerie? Edition 2.0. Unlike the prototypical cloth-over-face version, this more sophisticated version of the game involves standing behind mom's back, sometimes gripping her shirt for support but sometimes unsupported! Stay very still while mom swivels her head back and forth looking for you. Then slowly leeeeaaaaaan over to one side where she can see you. Mom cries, "There she is!" and grabs you for a hug.

Happy Canada Day!

Christmas 2006, Cuzco, Peru

Happy Canada Day to all you Canucks out there, but especially to Valerie's one and only Uncle David!

Thanksgiving 2008, Savannah, GA