Oh My, It's May!

Holy moly, how is it already May and the last time I posted on here it was March?! Oy.

Well, I do have a 19 month old toddler -- so I suppose my hands are a little busy here lately! :)

Here's a quick update on our little miss:

New words and phrases:

•  "oooohhh nooo, no, no, no, no" - said very exhaustively and forlornly when something goes wrong...very cute
• lots and lots of "what's that?" - not a new phrase but definitely noticing that she uses it all the time - will point to pictures in magazines and ask "what's that?" or point to plants and things outside and ask "what's that?" :) barely have a chance to answer her question before she's on to a new one! :)
• "nanana" (banana) a new love for her
• "that's alright" - also when something goes wrong or falls down or something
• and an unidentified word but she says it alot - will be exciting to find out what she is trying to say here eventually...sounds like "gervaiis" or "gervice"...no clue..yet. :) 
• "puppy" - not terribly new but she is using it more than "dog"
• "Lola" - also not brand new but new since I last wrote up something like this. :) Lola is our chihuahau's name...but she uses this for any dog - really when it is time for them to come inside or go outside...she yells "Lola!"

Another new thing: Babies! She loves carrying them around all of a sudden. :

)

Stages and Phases: 19 Months

Teeth: the first set of molars both top and bottoms are in...thank goodness that was crazy. :) - might possibly be working on her canines now...

Stages/Phases:
She is so very fearless and nothing slows her down...scares me sometimes. She will peter close to the very, very edge of the concrete that drops off down to a creek by the ice cream we frequent...just FREAKS.ME.OUT! She delights in adventure...dancing atop our picnic table despite frequent attempts to get her down and keep her off. She has even fallen off during a misstep in her dance routine and received a little goose-egg...yet where was she trying to go within the very next hour?? Yup...right back to the top of the table...goodness!

The few things that do freak her out on occasion:
- thunder
- us leaving - this is new...and no fun at all... :(- even just going upstairs when she is downstairs sometimes elicits a cry

Grocery stores and restaurant visits are a tad exhausting at this stage/phase of toddlerhood. She loves to walk around and meet people, perchance to ask of their food - haha, and to ease her inquisitive mind...why yes, I CAN fit under this chair! And as my husband puts its, she loves to try to do adult things but just doesn't quite understand...at the grocery store she wants to put things in the cart like she sees us doing. Only that requires her not being seated in the cart and actually roaming the store picking at toddler level items...why oh why would anything glass/dangerous etc be at toddler level? pickles? - which is frustrating for us...we are getting smarter - slowly...bringing distractions and choosing the best time to go..i.e. not at nap time. :) And making sure if it isn't going to be a quick trip that we go in numbers...instead of trying to do it alone with a little one. Side note: I don't want to sound like we don't try to keep her seated at restaurants or in the cart at stores...we do...just the screaming at the restraint or the Houdini-ing out of the straps and the near leaps out of the chairs/carts are more than we (and I am sure our other shoppers/diners) can bear...choosing which battles to fight here people...

You know what grocery stores need? Little play zones like at malls...or a little childcare area where you can pay for 45 min of shopping...why hasn't this been dreamed up yet?

Mother's Day Dinner 2012 Recap

We had the loveliest time at a local pizza place on the Northside for dinner on Mother's Day that could have ended in disaster if it wasn't for our kind-hearted waitress. We attempted to eat inside at first...take note that this had been a busy day...no naps except the knocked.out.in.the.car.for.the.20.or.40.min.trip-variety...and it was going on 8PM...so very dangerously near bed time. Seemed ok for the first 5-10 minutes...we had ammo...a banana, pen to color on the brown paper table cover, etc...she was even strapped in the chair...THEN she wanted down...so we tried sitting next to daddy in the booth...ha. No...she wanted to roam...and we hadn't ordered our drinks yet. :( Thankfully, we are good at eyeballing a place as soon as we enter...and we noticed they had a screened-in outdoor patio, all enclosed and nearly devoid of any diners...perfect. Baby could roam for a second while we waited for our food to arrive and we could relax for a millisecond.

And our waitress...so nice...helped us move everything over and truly saved the mood of our experience there...from harried and on the edge to relaxed and at ease...and she delighted in our little one. Exclaiming that all that energy and adventure - was good. :) That as she grows into an adult that kind of spunk will serve her well...always having a desire to learn, to explore, to go. :) This made my heart happy...and pretty sure made the food taste even better. :) A very happy mother's day dinner indeed.