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I am having a very hard time with Katherine this week. She seems to be very clingy. It is really making me tired and honestly at times I just want to get away from her. She did have a fever on Friday and Saturday but seems fine now. We are going to go ahead and go to the doctor tomorrow just to make sure there is no ear infection or sore throat or something I can’t see since she is just not acting herself. Then again, it could just be that she is at the age where kids often have attachment and separation issues and she wants to be with her mama all the time. I know that I have been really busy lately and we have not spent as much quality time together as usual. Sooooo, all those factors are making for a very clingy toddler and a very tired mama.

An update on another recent frustration. We got a call that our camera has been fixed and is ready for pick up. It was supposed to take 4-6 weeks and it was ready in only 3. Yipeeeeee! I have really hated being without a camera for the past three weeks and am excited to have it back. Get ready for more exciting blog posts with pictures. 

You know, there are things that before kids you say you will never do when you have kids. I have learned that when you have your own kids all those things go out the window.

One such thing that I said I would never do was use a leash on my kids. Many years ago I saw poorly behaved toddlers leashed to frazzled moms and I said NEVER will I do that. Well, I bought a leash. Katherine is a very active toddler who loves to be outside and loves to walk where she wants to walk.

When I was in Target I saw this cute harness for a toddler. I thought it was so much better than the leash I had seen before. I bought it and took it home. Sam was not excited about it at all. Other friends have had the same experience with their husbands. My theory is that they do not understand what it is like to keep up with a toddler all day.

I got it out today so that Katherine and I could go on a walk down the street. When I first showed it to Katherine, she did the sign for monkey. Then when I put it on her she said, “backpack”. Sidenote - how does she know the word backback, that seems like a pretty advanced word. Anyway, she loved it. We walked about 15 houses down the street and back. She stayed close and did not go in the street. It took a little getting used to for me since I am used to having a 60 pound hyper dog at the other end of the leash. There were a few times I almost pulled a little too hard.

So, overall, I like the harness, Katherine likes the harness, and she is safer. So, the harness stays. 

Doesn’t that bring back the memories from the intro to the Sports shows that are on the weekends. Well my thrill of victory is nothing like winning and Olympic gold medal and my agony of defeat is nothing like the face plant off the ski jump but it was a day of both good and bad in parenting.

The thrill of victory - Katherine went to the bathroom in her potty THREE TIMES today! One of those times was #2. She is getting good about signing when she has or is about to have a dirty diaper. I am excited that she seems to understand the process and does not mind sitting on her potty. After she goes, she looks at it and says, “yeah”. Then we go to flush it down the toilet and we always say “bye-bye” I know it sounds weird but I have heard horror stories of kids who are not able to flush their waste because they are either scared of the toilet or they feel like they are flushing a part of themselves too. We want to avoid that. I am sure it will be embarassing in a public restroom when Katherine cheers for herself and then waves bye-bye to her poop.

The agony of defeat - we are still having a battle at naptime. Katherine took a nap at Nana’s house on Sunday and a 2 and a half hour nap at Ms. Lori’s on Monday. Yet, she is refusing to nap at home. My new theory is that she is going through that separation anxiety phase and she does not want me to leave her yet it is not as big of a deal with other people. Nana was over so I had her put Katherine down. She cried for a little. Nana did not want Katherine to hate her for making her nap so I went in with her to get Katherine up since she was crying anyway. That as a mistake. Katherine was actually laying down as she cried so she would have gone to sleep. BUT, once she saw me, there was no turning back. I rocked her and nursed her and she was totally asleep. When I put her in the crib, she started screaming. We let her cry for quite some time. Nana left and I went back to get her (at least 30 minutes). I laid down with her on our bed and I fell asleep but she did not! I put her back in her crib (at 3:45 by this point) and after about 30 minutes of crying she finally fell asleep for about 45 minutes. When she woke up she still seemed tired so I had her lay down with me again and she slept another 30 minutes. So, she did finally take a nap, but it took longer to get her to sleep than the amount of time she was asleep.

Hopefully both areas will be improving.

Sorry there are no pictures. Right now we are without a properly working camera. It really stinks. 

 

Our poor dog Hooligan is so neglected. We have been so busy lately that we have taken her on very few walks. She seems sad. To top it all off, her birthday was last week and I forgot until 2 days later. What a bad mommy. At least she was not aware of the neglect. We made it up to her and gave her a yumy dog treat.

Hooligan really is a great dog. She protects us and loves us. She is great with Katherine.

I have not read or even bought the final Harry Potter book. I am looking forward to reading it but just don’t have the time right now so I can’t even buy it. I know that if I do I will not put it down. Anyway, Alice’s blog had a link to where you could take a quiz and find out what house at Hotwart you would be in. I would be a Hufflepuff. What are you?

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

Having a toddler is a blast. Challenging at times, but overall so much fun.

Katherine, you are really becoming a master communicator. I am so glad that we decided to do sign language with you. It took longer than I had hoped for it to catch on but now you are doing so well. Not only is it fun to see you do signs for all the animals when reading a book, but it is also so practical as you have many words that sound the same but with the sign we know exaclty what you want. It really helps ease frustration. I look forward to you learning even more. Today after swim lessons someone saw me signing with you and they hesitated but asked if you were hearing impaired. When I explained why we are doing sign language with you even though you are hearing, they were so impressed and thought it was a great idea.

You love the sign for “swing” (see above photo). What amazes me is how many different things you realize swing. When we went to visit Charlie, you saw his baby swing and signed. At Nana’s house you went to your room to see the swing and signed. Of course every time we are at a park you find the swing. When we read a book with a monkey you do the monkey sign followed by the swing sign. Today it was rocking in the rocking chair that prompted you to sign swing. I guess it is a swinging motion.

My favorite sign that you do is the sign for “dirty”. it is my favorite because it has made me realize that you are aware of your diaper and when you are using the restroom. You do the sign for dirty and point to your diaper and say “poopoo” and usually either you already have a dirty diaper or you dirty it pretty soon. I am now trying to take you to your little potty when you do this and we have had some success. It would be great if you were potty trained early.

You are very aware of what is dirty and what is clean. Today you took off your diaper cover, said “dirty” and walked from the den to your room to put it in the diaper champ. Amazingly you knew to put it in the hole and to turn the handle so that it disappeared. It was a cloth diaper cover though so Mommy had to get it out. Now we know where to look when something is missing. You have also started to throw trash into the trash can and then you sign “thank you” because that is what we always say next.

As an infant you never had any kind of special binky or lovey. There have been several times that we tried to get you to attach to a blanket or animal by putting the same one in your crib all the time or traveling with the same one. You never seemed to care at all. Recently however, you have finally become attached to two things.

If you take a look at this picture of your stuffed animals and blankies, which one do you think is the likely lovey? Katherine, when you saw all of the animals in your crib, you started crying, “bear, bear, bear”. You wanted in the crib. You grabbed your favorites and threw the rest out.

 

A pretty dramatic way to tell mommy which one is your favorite. “Mr. Bear” and the pink “play silk” are your favorites. You usually carry them around as a pair even wrapping Mr. Bear in the play silk. Mr. Bear and the pink play silk were not my first choices of loveys because there were several cuter ones but I guess I am glad you finally have one if it helps you to go to sleep in new places. We will see.  They help you fall asleep at home.

You want to be such a big girl now. For a few days you did not want to get into your high chair. Instead you want to sit in a regular chair. The problem is that you often want to stand in the chair. You can climb on up by yourself so we are learning to make sure the chair is always pushed in. We are trying to make you always eat in your high chair and it has helped to lower it so that you can sit at the table without using the tray.

You are really enjoying coloring. Last week I bought you a small table and chairs set at IKEA and we leave your special toddler crayons and paper on the table so you can explore it. You think it is a lot of fun but your favorite is to use my pen and my paper.

We are having to work on discipline a lot more which is no fun. You have an independent and strong willed streak which is probably common to all 17 month olds. I love seeing your independence but it is not fun when it manifests itself in disobedience. I pray that your daddy and I would be able to know how to best discipline you and help you to grow into a godly woman.

Currently Katherine is on a nap boycott. She is at the age where most kids move from 2 naps to 1. She has only been taking 1 nap for a few months now. She seems to think it is time to stop taking a nap altogether.

It started Wednesday when we had a busy day. She went to Sammy’s house for the morning. I took her home and fed har and tried to get her down before I was going to babysit Hannah. Katherine said “NO WAY”. She totally refused to nap. That night my college roommate came in town with her two kids and Katherine was so excited that she would not sleep. At least she went to bed early though she did not sleep that well.

On Thursday we went with our friends to the Wiggles Play Center in Frisco. We grabbed lunch and went to our other college roommate’s house specifically so Katherine could nap. She would not. We left her in the pack and play crying on and off for about an hour. When I finally got her out, she was in the happiest, most playful mood. So we went to IKEA. She had a blast playing with the toys. At 4, she had a TOTAL MELTDOWN! I have never seen her so out of sorts. She all of a sudden was desperate to nurse but I had not brought in my cover and there was no good place. IKEA is a place where you get trapped. We were ready to check out but Katherine was such a pill that my friend offered to pay for it and meet me in the snack area so I could take Katherine and nurse her in the lounge. She was so squirmy and screaming so much that I did not think I could make it there without dropping her. Finally, I got to the lounge and nursed her to sleep, yet every time I would try to get up to leave she would start screaming. I was so frustrated. We left and I thought for sure she would fall asleep on the 45 minute drive home. NOPE! She was totally happy but 4 year old Helene fell asleep for over an hour. We did finally get her to bed at 6:45 (and she missed swimming lessons). She woke up at about 10:30 and thought she had taken a really long nap and was ready to play.

Friday she went to MDO at Ms. Lori’s. Somehow Ms. Lori got her to take a 2:15 nap in a toddler bed. Good job Ms. Lori. Umm, can you teach me what to do with my own child?

Today she refused a nap again. We tried to get her down from 2 to 4. We did our usual nap routine resulting in a long bout of crying. Then dad went in to rock her and try to get her to sleep. Crying. Mom went in again. Crying. After 2 hours, I decided to just get her up. The frustrating thing is that we had planned to go to the zoo this evening at 5 for a members only extended hours event. With no nap, we decided to miss it because it just isn’t worth the risk of a total meltdown. We tried to tell her that we wanted to take her to the zoo and to go to the zoo she had to take a nap but reasoning with a 17 month old is a little ambitious.

She did finally go to bed at about 7:10, an hour or so earlier than usual. She usually takes a little over an hour nap. I guess that means her cumulative daily sleep is the same but I think that it is still important for her to take naps. This week she goes to Ms. Lori twice and the other three days I am going to drop everything and make the nap my number one priority. It is too important.

Katherine went to a new Mother’s Day Out this week. Actually it is an in home day care that a friend uses. This wonderful lady is a mother of 4 and watches my friends son every day. She is adding Katherine one or two days a week.

Ms Lori is great. I have no idea how she can have all of her kids and 2 others actively engaged in educational activities or constructive play, feed them all wonderfully nutritious meals and have a spotless house. I fail miserably in all of those areas with only one child.

Ms. Lori said that Katherine had a great day. She had a fun time with her daughters playing with dolls. She also loved to color and made this cute craft. The scanned copy is hard to see but Katherine colored the sun, dirt and grass. The cow and pig are her hands.

I was really proud when she said she had never seen a toddler who knew so much sign language. There were a few times that they were pulling out their sign book to see what Katherine was saying.

The whole group (almost) ready for our first hike

 

Finally I am posting about our trip to Colorado with our church. This has been a very busy week for us.

Our trip was great. Our family really needed a vacation after a very hectic June. We flew to Colorado Springs which was so much easier with Katherine than driving. The week was full of a lot of free time to relax which was great. We spent some time doing activities like hiking and other times we just hung out at the lodge. It was an especially great vacation to take a toddler because there were times when there was childcare provided and times when she could take a nap.

Most of the group went on an “acclimation hike” that was pretty easy and designed to get us used to the altitude before we took more difficult hikes later in the week.  

Most of the group went on an “acclimation hike” that was pretty easy and designed to get us used to the altitude before we took more difficult hikes later in the week.  

Katherine “hiked” in the backpack. She has the hat on in this picture but it was off most of the time. All week we were trying to make sure she did not get a sunburn. She liked the back pack until we stopped at the stream. We let her out and she walked around.  

Katherine “hiked” in the backpack. She has the hat on in this picture but it was off most of the time. All week we were trying to make sure she did not get a sunburn. She liked the back pack until we stopped at the stream. We let her out and she walked around.  

 

For the 4th of July we went into Westcliff to see the parade. It was quite comical and yet refreshing. Pretty much anyone could be in the 15 minute parade. We saw the American Legion, the Purple Heart recipient, a few tractors, some horses and llamas, some kids twirling batons, etc. Katherine did enjoy it and waved to the pony. 

Much to Sam’s delight there was also a car show going on. It was surprisingly very good with a large number and variety of old cars. He was in heaven and probably took about 80 pictures of cars. There were at least 25 pictures of the truck that was exactly like ours except for it is finished! 

Much to Sam’s delight there was also a car show going on. It was surprisingly very good with a large number and variety of old cars. He was in heaven and probably took about 80 pictures of cars. There were at least 25 pictures of the truck that was exactly like ours except for it is finished! 

Katherine got tired after the parade and walking around at the car show and she fell asleep. She could not be comfortable in there. As it goes with toddlers, she thought that 20 minute nap was all she needed for the day.  

We had a bit of a camera fiasco on this trip. Our new DSLR has been acting up. I took it to two camera shops and called Nikon. I thought I had it working again but when we were at camp, it would only take pictures about 50% of the time. I had already decided to return it to be repaired under warranty when the lens broke off! Very frustrating because now it was working 0% of the time. We had a smaller camera as well, but the LCD screen on that was always white and that was the only way to see what you were taking a picture of. Luckily our good friends Jen and Richard had 3 or 4 cameras with them so they let us borrow one for the rest of the trip. The lens that was available was a single focus 55 mm lens so we had no zoom but it had a much lower fstop capability than my camera so I was able to take some different pictures. All of the rest of the pictures were with their camera.

 

We went to a nature hike that ended up being an outdoor education time where we learned about fossils. Katherine did not care too much about the fossils but did love collecting the rocks.

The camp has a pony named Glory that is great for the kids. Katherine had her first horseback ride.  

 

She enjoyed “hiking” around. I was really amazed at how far she could walk and how well she did on the uneven terrain.

 

One day a large group of us went to Bishop’s Castle. It was pretty crazy. One man has been building this castle using all of his free time and extra money since 1969. Anyone who met him while there would hear him explain how the entire thing was built “with my own two hands.” I admire someone who has such a passion for something that they devote all of their resources to it yet I pity him because he has chosen such a worthless pursuit.

 

We were really glad that we had Katherine strapped to Sam’s back. The place was very dangerous. There were balconies with no railings, windows several stories up with no railing, a bridge that went nowhere but dangled over nothing. We will not take Katherine back until she is old enough to not wander off.

 

Don’t you love men who wear their daughters on their back for the day? What great dads you guys are.

 

On the last day a large group of us went to the Royal Gorge. I have been there before but we only went to the edge and looked over. This time we paid to enter the park and do all of the fun things. I was not sure if it would be worth it but it was a lot of fun. They had a carousel, inclined railway, aerial tram, petting zoo, western town and movie. 

 

Katherine actually was not too fond of the carousel. She kept shaking her head no and signing “all done” and grabbing on to mom for dear life.

 

 

Katherine was not scared at all. She walked all the way across the bridge by herself. It was a quarter mile long. She loved to look over the edge at the “waaa” (Water).  

 

Mommy and Daddy were a little nervous. I knew that there was no way for her to fall but being 1530 feet above the river was a little scary, especially when there would be a larger 2-3″ crack in the boards and you could see down to the ground.

 

It was hot and Katherine fell asleep. Again, the mid day map in the carrier ruined the rest of the day. She did not take a nap later and had a hard time getting to sleep for the night.

 

  

It was a great vacation. Our family was able to reconnect after a very busy and stressful month. Katherine really enjoyed spending so much time with her mommy and daddy. In fact, this week she changed from calling us mama and dada to mommy and daddy. I love the way that sounds.

Also, there are more pictures posted in my google album. Just click on any of the pictures (except the large group shot) and it should take you to the album.

I have made a number of posts tonight so make sure you scroll down and read all of the new material.

We were able to join our good friends, the Ramsey’s, at their lake house for an early Independence Day celebration. Several other good friends were there so it was a fun evening.

For the kids there was a bounce house with a slide. At first Katherine was really scared. She went in with me but was shaking her head “no” the entire time. Later I was able to get her a little more interested and she even went down the slide by herself.

Katherine really enjoyed watching the fireworks with her daddy. She was not scared of the noise at all.