This month has been a very difficult month for Shaelyn, with being sick, being on steroids (again), having a Mommy hurt and on bed rest, and having a Mommy gone for three days while giving birth - the longest Shaelyn and I had been apart before that was 8 hours! As a result of lots of stress and changes in her life, she has been very difficult to deal with and has had several violent and out-of-control moments. (Some of you even got to witness these - lucky you!) After 3 bad days in a row, we actually had a good morning of playing in the blue room where she acted like her old happy self and played with her toys. She was so happy that I decided to take pictures of her smiling and having a good time to help us both remember the day in case another bad one was on the way. So the pictures don't always coincide with the story. But in spite of the bad month, we still managed to have some funny moments. And I'm happy to report that the behavior problems seem to be over (for now) and my happy, vibrant, creative toddler is back. Thank goodness!
Earlier this month, it was raining outside when we got to church. We have to walk up some stairs to get inside, and I didn't want Shaelyn slipping so I told her to hold my hand (something she never does) because the stairs were wet. When we safely climbed them and were inside, Shaelyn said "bye bye wet" to the wet stairs.
Shaelyn has now learned the words to "Life is a Highway" (or the chorus at least) that plays during Cars. No surprise there - it was bound to happen with how often she watches that movie. But Michael taught her some cool new moves to go along with the words. So now when the song says "drive it all night long," Shaelyn pretends to be holding a steering wheel and starts shaking it violently back and forth, while the rest of her body shimmies along. She gets very into this and now goes around the house driving it all night long (or "aw nigh wong" according to her).
One afternoon earlier this month, Shaelyn woke up from her nap and asked me if she could watch Cars. When I said that she could, she said "YES!" and punched her fist up in the air. I guess it doesn't take much to get this girl excited.
Shaelyn now has a new catch phrase for when she makes a mess: "Oh man!" It is hilarious to hear, especially because she really puts a lot of emphasis on the "man" and really drags it out. Good strategy - be cute when you make a mess so you don't get in trouble!
Curious George has a kitty cat friend named Gnocchi. In one of the episodes, one of the characters is allergic to cats, and of course Gnocchi causes all kinds of havoc and George inevitably saves the day. The allergic character sneezes like crazy any time Gniocchi is around. So after watching this episode, Shaelyn started following Maggie around the house, yelling "Achoo!" at the top of her lungs. She did this for days. Maggie did not appreciate it.
Over the holidays, I got bought some break-apart-and-bake Christmas cookies with snowmen and Christmas trees on them. Shaelyn loved being my helper and breaking apart the dough and putting it on the cookie sheet. I'd turn the oven light on so she could watch them bake. This was a real treat for her. One day she asked me for a cookie, and I had some leftovers in a tupperware container, so I got one out for her. So looked at me confused and said, "no, oven." She wanted to bake more cookies, not eat them. Yes, only my child would turn down a cookie offered to her.
While she was on day 4 of her steroid treatment, Shaelyn was running through the house at 9:30 at night like someone had pumped her full of 4 liters of Mountain Dew. She was absolutely crazy, running from room to room, swinging her arms so fast they looked like they would dislocate from their sockets, and singing random songs that she was making up at the top of her lungs. Not that this behavior is much different from her normal avoid-bedtime-at-all-costs behavior, but it was hilarious to watch nonetheless.
I wish I had a video of this... Shaelyn has invented a new walk that Michael and I have dubbed the "bent knee walk." If you're familiar, it looks a lot like a jazz walk, just exaggerated like 10 times over! It is the result of one of her new favorite activities: knee slides across the hardwood floor downstairs. Shaelyn has discovered that if she runs real fast and then drops to her knees, she can slide across the floor pretty far. I think one or two drops to the knees in a full-fledged run made her realize that if she ran with her knees already bent, she could avoid a hard (and painful) fall to her knees by shortening the distance to the ground. Makes sense to me. Only now she does the bent knee walk even when she's not about to do knee slides. Marches to her own drummer...
Shaelyn takes showers with me now - no more baths. Perhaps we'll go back to baths when she's bigger and can do it herself. I just go so sick of getting soaked and leaning over the edge of the tub. Plus it's much faster to wash two people at once. Anyway, the other day when we got in the shower, Shaelyn looked up at me and said, "OOOH! We stink!" Hmmm...
I got these really big tote bags from a friend, and of course left them laying out instead of finding a place for them right away. Shaelyn found them and decided they would make fun necklaces. She also took of her pants while playing with the totes and put her legs in one of the bags and hopped around like she was in a potato sack race. While she had the bag around her neck, she filled it with all kinds of goodies that were laying around: Mr. Potato Head parts, cat toys, tissues, you name it.
When I was a little girl, I used to say "I wanna hold you" any time I wanted my parents to pick me up or carry me somewhere. Shaelyn has adopted a similar phrase: "Carry you." This was a source of great frustration at the end of my pregnancy when I couldn't pick her up. All I heard all day was "Mommy carry you!" and it broke my heart that I couldn't. And now she doesn't say it so much anymore. Glad I caught it on tape:
Christmas is not officially over in our house. We still read Christmas books, we're still working on eating our Christmas candy, and as long as Jingle Bells are being sung (on a regular basis, along with Silent Night and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer), Christmas is still alive and well:
Shaelyn has really taken to her blue room, pretend play, and especially her tea set. All tea parties now involve her big stuffed bears, since they sit in the chairs the best. Pooh always has to sit in the green chair. Just thought you should know:
Growing up, my dad used to sing a song he made up called "My little baby's gonna bust her butt" while we ran around the family room like maniacs. Here's Shaelyn getting crazy to the song while I sang it, then making up a little chant of her own:
One day while watching Signing Time, Shaelyn pulled her chair up in front of the t.v. and faced it out. I wondered what she was doing at first, but it became clear that she was "teaching" to her audience: me, my mom, and Rachelle. She did a great job. And loved doing it.
And even though we didn't make it home from the hospital until February, Rachelle was born in January and I felt should be represented in this month's Baby Talk. Her most hilarious antic to date: her crazy eyes. I crack up laughing every time!
My beautiful girls this month:
I'm not a proud Mama or anything...
