It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

Posted on February 22, 2008

Oh wait, its February.

What’s she doing now?!

Posted on February 20, 2008

I spent a few moments this evening watching the videos of our friend Teresa’s baby and it brought back so many memories of Chloe when she was itty bitty. Now, as I am planning her second birthday party, I am just astonished on how quickly these little monkeys grow up. Just yesterday, we were giving her sponge baths because she was too small to fit in the baby bath tub, folding up the sleeves on her 0-3 month clothes at four months, and wondering when, if ever, she was going to sleep through the night.

Now, she is running around the house, proudly announcing, “I’m runnin’!” She’s playing peak-a-boo (she calls it be-a-boo) and then says, “I see you.” She asks, “Mommy, what doin?” “Where go” when missing something, and “I find it, ” when finding said object. She loves playing pretend with her baby, even going so far as to scold the baby for “cookies on floor.” She gives her baby walks around the house in her doll stroller, proudly announcing, “I’m walkin!’” and loves to pretend she is eating or drinking off of her play dishes. Of course, her favorite activity is playing dress up, from head to toe, asking me, “help me please,” with her shoes, gloves and sunglasses (aka gagas). For some reason, all her sentences begin with “mommy.” “Mommy, bubbles,” “Mommy, tickles,” “Mommy, milk,” “Mommy, chicken,” “Mommy, abd’s.” Unfortunately, sometimes she is talking to daddy. And she has just started saying, “I don’t wanna.”

Her vocabulary has just exploded, we haven’t counted lately, but she can name almost everything in our house, and if she doesn’t know what it is, she asks, “what this?” and then mimics my answer. She can name almost all aquatic animals, including octupus (opupus) and sting rays, (a ray). All farm animals, plus their sounds. And she is starting to be able to distinguish circle, square, and triangle, and knows red, blue, yellow and green (although, she is not always accurate). She counts “1, 2″ and “9, 10.” Sings about 1/3rd of the alphabet, “row row your boat,” “ring around the rosies,” and “twinkle twinkle little star.”

Physically, she is becoming a climber. She is not as adept as some of her friends, but she’s getting there. She is finally going down the stairs by herself (backwards and very slowly). She’s climbing ladders, stairs, blocks, and up slides (trying to break that habit, but all kids do it!) She can pull herself up onto the ottoman and sofa, and onto John and my bed. She is trying to jump (she gets up onto her toes, but has only left the ground once or twice.) And she loves to kick and throw balls.

John and I have also accepted that Chloe has her own agenda. We don’t always understand the rules of her game, but as long as we follow them, we’re ok. And she is very SPECIFIC. When we play ball, daddy has to sit against the bathroom door, mommy sits in the chair, and Chloe sits in her princess chair, and she directs, “mommy roll ball daddy, PEEESE!” and then she runs over to daddy to collect the ball and bring it back to mommy. We haven’t figured out why daddy isn’t allowed to roll or throw the ball back to mommy, but we’ve learned not to ask.

She definitely has the patience level of a typical two year old, and even though she says a lot, she doesn’t necessarily understand a lot. She difinitley struggles with the concept of waiting. If she asks for something, she wants it to magically appear right then and there, and if it doesn’t, we get a fit. She knows she usually gets what she wants if she says please, but sometimes she forgets to be specific about what she wants. She will come up to me and say, “Mommy, peese.” and I will say, “Please what?” and she’ll return with, “peeeeeeese” and I’ll ask, “Please, what, you have to tell mommy what you want.” Then she’ll say, “peeeeeeeeeeeese” and then throw a fit. I try to explain that I am willing to get her what she wants, but she has to tell me what it is, but by that time, she is not longer listening.

Her sleeping patterns are odd, but I am happy to announce the blanket roll in the sheet continues to keep her from rolling out of bed, after bringing the pack-and-play into her room when she was up at 3am, she figured out it was better to stay in bed all night, and she actually sat in John’s lap for story time tonight (she has been flipping through her own book while we were reading stories.) Unfortunately, she is still getting up earlier than the crack of dawn (she averages between 5:30 and 6:00 am every morning.) I am trying to accept this, but with my night owl ways, and the fact that I am an unbelievably light sleeper and prone to insomnia, I am falling further and further into the abyss of insanity (cue dramatic and ominous music. Oh, and violins, don’t forget the violins.)

All in all, my baby still rocks! She has come so far, and I just can’t wait to see where she goes next!

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Organizational Tip #3 (Still looking for a decent title)

Posted on February 19, 2008

Step 3: Space Planning

I cannot stress enough how important it is to plan your space before you go shopping for organizational tools. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself spending more time and money reorganizing later when you discover that your systems is not as efficient as it could be.

Make a list of all the categories in your house. Example: Bath, Kitchen, Chloe’s room, Master Bedroom. Then make a list of each of the sub categories for each of these areas. (I find the graphic organizer called a web the best way to organize this information.) This way, when you begin repurposing tools, or purchasing tools, you know exactly what you are looking for.

Get out the graph paper. Take those all important measurements. And begin to think about where you want to put everything.
Make a list of your daily routine, what will you need to make it more efficient? Example: I always put in my contacts, then brush my teeth. So, I have a cubby that holds my contact stuff and a cubby next to it that holds toothpaste and floss. They are all in the same drawer, so I only have to open the drawer once.
What’s the easiest way for you to clean up? Is it all day long as you go, or is it at the end of the day?
How do your kids learn? Are they visual learners , kinesthetic learners or auditory learners? You can design their organizational systems from this information. For visual learners you can label all baskets with either words or pictures of what is inside them, have a chore list that has visual reminders, make a map of the room and where everything belongs so they can see it when they need to clean up. Use colors as a cue for where items belong: blocks go in blue bin, markers in a red. For kinesthetic learners, use a magnetic white board with the chores listed where they can move a magnet into a different column when they have finished the chore. Use sticker charts as a motivational tool. Create clean up “games.” (beat the clock is a common one where the kids can either try to beat their previous time or compete against each other.) For auditory learners, create songs to use as reminders for routines and when it’s time to clean up. Chloe loves songs, so I end up making up a lot of songs as transitional cues when it is time to clean up one activity and move on to the next.
How does your spouse organize? Can you learn from or improve their systems?
What systems work and don’t work for you? I am constantly reevaluating what works, especially now that I have a toddler whose needs change almost on a daily basis. For example, for as long as we have been in our current house, I have kept all our cleaning products in a bucket in the shower, that way when I had a little extra time to shower, I would clean while I was in there. But now, Chloe can get into the shower and the other day she took everything out of the bucket. So, I purchased a set of shelves for the shower that attach to a pressure mounted bar, I placed these shelves higher in the shower so that Chloe can’t reach them. Now, I can still use a system that works for me (cleaning while I am in the shower) without endangering my child. And trust me, I realize that once she gets taller or starts taking showers herself, I will have to change this again.

Remember, for a house to stay organized, all members of the family have to “buy in” to your systems, so have a long “heart to heart.” Without judgment or punishment, talk to your kids and your spouse about what they think will and won’t work for them. If you try to force a system that seems to make sense to you on them, then it is likely to be doomed. My example for this is my husband’s tools. He has a work bench in the basement that has a peg board attached. I bought him several hooks and cubbies that attach to the board, thinking if he can just hang up his tools when he is done, then he will stay organized. He never “bought in” to this system and the tools are still all over his work bench, because it is still easier for him to leave them where they land. That was $20 wasted.

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Perfectly Content

Posted on February 15, 2008

Went to target today, and purchased the Transformers movie, and Becoming Jane. And yes, they are both for me. I mean, sure John may watch the Transformers movie once or twice. But I will watch it over, and over, and over. Because that’s what I do for fun. And Becoming Jane feeds my obsession for all things Jane Austen. I am also currently reading the book that the movie is based on, as well as halfway through rereading Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility. I am not ashamed of my obsessive personality, I am embracing it!

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