Where does she learn these things??

little bean decided to HANG from her swing set today. why did she decide to grab that bar and where did she get the idea that she should lift her feet?? it just amazes me at the things that her little brain thinks up for her to do. two night ago it was all about climbing on to the ottoman and falling face first into the matching chair... WHAT?!?! WHY?!?! that little toddler brain of hers is just working overtime trying to come up with new things to baffle her mother i guess. i guess all i can say is "bring it on little bean! bring it on!!!"

on an even happier note... the magpie and the bean were playing together yesterday. what, what?! yes, it is true. they were happily chasing each other around the yard. then later... the magpie let bean pet her. oh yeah, normally the magpie gets up and moves when the bean gets close, not this time! she laid on the ground quietly and little bean carefully rubbed her tummy. the look of complete joy on little bean's face was priceless! she got to pet her dog without being growled at, without mommy having to hold the dog still. what a great day! let's just hope this continues... the magpie's moods are about as easy to predict as a toddlers! HA!

Spring

the grass is greener. in the past few days the grass has become noticeably greener. this is how i know spring is really here. little bean can't get enough of being outside. if we are inside she is constantly asking "go outside?" and of course, we do "go outside".

gotta love this picture. why do kids stick their tongues out when they are concentrating? i've seen many kids do this and it always make me giggle. little bean does it when climbing the ladder to her slide too.

oh yeah, potty training... she no longer wants to go unless it is bed time. we are talking about a child that will start bawling if you ask her if she wants to go potty. what??? last week she didn't want to get off the darn thing and now she wants no part of it! arrrrrrgggggghhhhhh! sigh. toddlers are strange little beings aren't they?

Big Girl

remember doing this as a kid? running into the breeze with your arms stretched out hoping that you would lift into the air and fly. i watched little bean do this in the park yesterday and remembered what it felt like. i really wanted to just fling my arms out and run by her side... i should have, but someone had to push the stroller. sigh. maybe next time...

and what happened to my little bean?!?! she got big and grown up all of a sudden! that and sassy. bah, i have a little sassy pants on my hands. she has never been the kid to say "no"... until just recently. now there is a 90% chance she will tell you "no" when you ask her to do something. OR even worse... she will look at you smile that little demonic grin and do EXACTLY what you told her NOT to do. oh, and the tantrums they have went up a notch too. sigh, the terrible twos come early... and my mother claims three is much worse than two! yay, something to look forward too. HA HA!

all that being said, she is also funnier than she has ever been before. she randomly says big words like remarkable. if someone is crying she gets very concerned and asks the person "what matter?" and puts her arm around them. she can climb the ladder to her slide all by herself. she tells me she is sad/happy/mad. she is a big girl and proud of it... i am too.

she will turn 2 in a little over three months. 2 years old. sigh. where did the time go?

Best Shot Monday

ahh, spring is finally here. we get to go outside... well, if it isn't raining we do.
here is my picture for best shot monday- little bean "flying". daddy was lifting her up into the air and she would fling her arms up and out into this superman pose. she was loving being outside that afternoon. running around the yard yelling "i play outside, i play outside!" i love this picture. it makes me smile. and you know, it really makes me wish that i could "fly" too.
don't forget to go see other great photos over at tracey's!

The weather is here...

yesterday was LOVELY! so nice that we ate dinner outside. little bean got to eat at her little picnic table. wow, did she like that!! we were outside from 4:15 (when she woke from her nap) until 7:00. it was so nice. bean kept running around the yard screaming "i play outside, i play outside!" she was a very happy child yesterday.

today we took a short walk in the rain. it is warm but cloudy and rainy. bean was SO into the umbrella. she wanted to hold it. of course i told her "no because mommy will get wet". that made her laugh and she said "wet mommy" and tried to reach for the umbrella! we were a little damp when we got back but it was definitely worth it!

the magpie is not feeling well. i couldn't get her to come in the house and that is always a bad sign. i finally carried her in and she has not left my side since. she usually isn't a clingy dog so something has got to be wrong. i guess we will have to wait and see what happens.

Manipulation!

ok, this is starting to drive me crazy. the bean wants to sit on the potty which is awesome, BUT it has become a game to her. whenever we need to go somewhere or she needs to do something, like GO TO BED, she magically has to go potty. does she ever go? once in a great while. mostly she is using it to stay up later or get her way. i feel like i need to let her sit on the potty whenever she asks so that she can learn but i don't want her up past her nap/bed time every freaking day! last night i put her in her crib and told her good night, she looked at me with a big grin and said "i go potty mommy." then she laughed! arrrrrrrg! i sat her on the potty and gave her 5 minutes. the problem with that is that it sometimes takes about 10-20 minutes for her to go. i feel bad about her crying that she has to go potty after i've put her to bed but i have to draw the line somewhere, right? ahhh, don't you just love toddler mind games?!?!?

so now i've read that there are new recommendations on sippy cup use. "they" say that you should use them for water during the day but a regular cup should be used at meal times to give milk or juice. the new advice is to start training your 12 month old to use a regular cup. what?? i do get their point, that milk/juice through a sippy cup is bad for kids teeth. when they sip it through a sippy all day their little teeth are constantly being exposed to all those sugars and can create cavities. all i can see is the huge mess involved in getting a 12 month old to drink from a cup! of course there was alternative advice- if you give milk/juice in a sippy it should be with a meal only and NOT carried around the house all day. that makes more sense to me. but what do i know? ;)

No nap and Strange mail...

it is one of those days. it was good in that the bean got to see her nana, aunt and cousins. it was bad in that she took no nap and by the evening everything made her cry. i put her to bed early, that was nearly an hour ago and she is still talking! she is tired enough that she was hitting herself in the head with her little fist! But will she go to sleep? NO. you are thinking, oh but she will sleep in tomorrow at least. and to that i say, "HA!" my child wakes up between 7:00 and 7:30 everyday regardless of when she goes to sleep. the only time she sleeps later is when it is all gray and cloudy and she doesn't realize it is morning yet. this is a picture of what she will probably look like at 7:15am tomorrow morning. she will want to get out and play. i will be all bleary eyed and cranky. how did i get a child that is a morning person?!?!?

true story: my sister got a card in the mail. she opened it, assuming it was to her. it was actually for the people who used to live in their house- it was a sympathy card from the veterinarian on the passing of their dog. these people moved over 5 years ago, why doesn't their vet know this?? then 1 week later my sister gets a package addressed to these people in her mailbox. she is kind of freaked out because from what she is reading on the outside of the box she believes that it is either a tombstone for said dead dog, or (shudder) the "remains" of the dog! personally i believe that it is likely a tombstone because i would like to think that "remains" aren't delivered by the mailman, but who knows. so right now, as i type this, a stranger's dog's "remains" might just be sitting on my sister's kitchen counter. (again, shudder) do you think they send "remains" in the mail?? surely not... right?

Best Shot Monday

bubbles are fun! bubbles inside are perfectly acceptable, especially when it is 37 degrees outside. i'm finding it difficult to pick a "best shot" for monday since i post at least one picture everyday! i really do like this one. i just can't explain why. it just makes me smile when i see it. make sure you visit tracey and see everyone else's best shots!

Eating with a fork like civilized folk

bean is working on it. we always give her a fork but usually it is tossed aside because it is frustrating and gosh darn it she can eat faster with her hands! on this occasion she managed to spear her pasta and later some broccoli. she seemed quite pleased with herself and put way more effort into it than she normally does. at the end of the meal i'd say at least half of what went in got there via the fork. AMAZING! we are very impressed. of course i'm not counting on this continuing. i mean, we all know how toddlers can be, right?

as for the potty. ah, i'm so pleased. really i am! yesterday she did 1 pee pee and 2 poo poos and today 1 poo poo (so far). she actually is proud of herself. when i get happy and excited about what she has done she just glows with pride. she even told me "my so proud" the other day. i didn't think a kid her age would understand the concept of pride but i think she does and it is awesome. little bean is also so very excited about the stickers that she gets when she uses the potty. stickers are something that she doesn't normally get so she sees it as a special treat. we have a "chart" that hangs on the bathroom wall that she gets to stick them on. so cool in her 20 month old mind! mommy thinks that it is so cool that she has gotten 5 stickers in the past two and a half days. :) of course, i'm not counting on this continuing either. you know, that whole toddler thing again! HA!

Some mornings TV is a must...

yes, i am the mom who plops their kid in front of the tv- the four legged one too!
no, not really. we do watch tv but never more than an hour a day. a say an hour because that is how long sesame street is and she really likes it. i have found that some days morning tv is necessary. i try so hard not to do it but when i'm not feeling great i do turn the tv on and let her watch the disney channel for a half an hour. i really admire those who keep their kids away from the tv i just can't imagine how they do it!

daddy had little bean fill out her first ncaa tournament bracket yesterday. he would ask her to choose between the schools playing each other. some of her pronunciations were pretty cute. examples: ohio state= "hi stake", ucla= "sea-way", and old dominion= "o min-non". she is not going to be a winner because i'm fairly certain that old dominion is not going to be in the final four.... ;)

p.s. more potty training success today. hooray! you are probably tired of hearing about it, i know. it is our life right now though, there really isn't much else going on! HA!

Daddy's Hat and all that

little bean likes to play with daddy's hats. she puts them on her head, she puts them on my head, she even tries to put them on the magpie's head. in bean's world baseball caps MUST be worn backwards. she does not like to have in with the bill in the front. every time she puts on a hat she puts it on backwards. does daddy wear them backwards? no. where did she get this idea? we don't know. she had her own baseball hat but it is too small for her now. we are currently shopping for a new one.

we had another exciting episode of potty training today. she told me "i go poo poo." i said "you want to sit on the potty?" she said "yes". when we got there i noticed her diaper was wet. i asked her about it and she insisted she needed to go poo poo. i waited and waited. i decided to give her some privacy. i stepped into the hall. a couple minutes later she did go poo poo in the potty. AWESOME! she got a sticker which she promptly ruined. what a great day. ;)

"Hi manatee, how you?"

it was a beautiful day. we went to the zoo. i personally love going to the zoo and if i was my choice we'd go everyday. but seeing as it isn't all my choice we don't. we will go nearly every week once the weather stays nice though.

little bean loves the animal sculptures in the zoo and has to get out of the stroller and talk to them. she will say "hi", ask them how they are, the usual small talk the people engage in. it is SO FUNNY! there is nothing better than hearing your kid say "hi manatee. how you?" she also enjoyed the gorilla sculpture. however, the tiger sculpture is new and apparently very scary. "no!" she flatly refused to get close enough for a picture of that one! yes, we really do look at actual live animals- she just can't get close enough to talk to them. :) her favorite real animals today were the flamingos.

little bean's friend bubba found out yesterday that he is going to have a baby brother- so congrats to bubba and his parents! also, another of bean's friends is going to be a big sister today or tomorrow (depending on how the induction goes)- congratulations to them too! hey, is everyone having a baby but me???? ;) HA!

Best Shot Monday

holy cow! look, it is a good picture of the magpie! yeah, usually pictures of her come out all weird looking. but this one is not weird. this one is actually really good! it may be my all time favorite picture of her. go here to check out all the other best shot mondays!

in other news: bean did go back to the playground and play. she even climbed the steps she fell down on friday. she was very hesitant but i'm not sure if it was because she remembered the fall or because there were some big kids (read 11-13 years old) playing on the equipment. the girls of the group were very interested in the bean and kept following us around and when they were around bean would NOT do anything but stare at them. hmmmmm.

and we are slightly confused by the time change. my body hates it but bean... well, she woke up earlier than normal this morning. then when i didn't go get her she... WENT BACK TO SLEEP! what?!?!?! yeah, i need to go wake her now so she will take a nap later. wish me luck! HA!

It is all fun and games until someone gets a split lip!

hooray! it is finally beautiful outside! we can play on the playground and walk in the woods! it is going to be awesome!

so.... we go to the park. it was great. i marvelled at how well little bean was doing. she was climbing the steps and going down slides- even the big slide- by herself. she even climbed the "rock wall" without any real assistance. i was amazed and feeling very proud as i walked up the steps behind her. then it happened- she slipped. oh yeah, it was awesome. i thought she hit her fore head, nope. freaked out a little when i saw a tiny spot of blood on her nose- because i didn't have anything with me to take care of a nose bleed! then she opened her mouth... yeah, this was no nose bleed. i gave her her sippy cup and told her she had to "drink the water" because there was pretty much a mouth full of blood and i could not see what was going on in there. of course i was NOT ALLOWED to look in her mouth but i saw enough to know that she still had all her teeth so i was happy with that. split lip, no major trauma we will be fine... after the swelling goes down!

i don't really mind that she got hurt. i would much rather her want to go out exploring and doing for herself than sit inside and be "safe". she loves doing, she loves seeing, she loves life and i love life when i am with her. i mean, this sweet little child with the fat lip and slightly swollen nose asked me "go back playground?" a mere 15 minutes after she got hurt. you gotta love that! i told her we would try to go back tomorrow.

about a half an hour after this picture was taken she was dancing around like a crazy person giggling uncontrollably. i love that about her. i know that she will probably tell me that she fell down at the playground tomorrow but it won't make her want to stay home. she will most likely insist on going back because she will remember that i said we could. its not that she isn't scared- she just isn't afraid of being scared. don't you wish we could all be like that?

Sucess and LARGE sunglasses

ok, so maybe when i said that little bean was definitely very not ready to potty train i was exaggerating. she woke from her nap yesterday, readily agreed to sit on the potty, and after about 10 minutes she pooped. yes, you heard me, LITTLE BEAN POO POOED ON THE POTTY! it was quite exciting. we ceremoniously flushed the poo and she enjoyed flushing so much that she did it four times before i stopped her! we tried calling people to tell them but no one was home. so several people got cryptic toddler messages on their answering machines! HA!
maybe if i don't expect much great things will happen.........

are you checking out the sunglasses in that picture?? are you saying "oh my god, what decade did those come from?!" sadly i must admit that i'm pretty sure they were mine when i was in 5th grade or something. (the eighties were such a terrible decade for fashion!) when we were at nana and papa's house bean found them in a closet they were cleaning out. she LOVES these sunglasses and it cracks me up! i especially enjoy this picture- you know it is adorable, don't deny it!!!

My Little Monet

the bean truly enjoys coloring. sometimes it is one color per page, sometimes she uses every color in the box. sometimes on blank paper, sometimes it needs to be from a coloring book. regardless, it is always very animated and intense. there is a great amount of concentration going on during the coloring process, even if it only lasts 30 seconds. recently she has started telling me what she is going to draw when she has a blank sheet of paper. today she made a butterfly and a kitty. do they look anything like a butterfly and a kitty- of course not! they are lovely, colorful, artistic scribblings that i carefully label with the title, date and artist's name. i know i can't keep everything but there are SO many that i deem worthy! where is a mom to keep these types of treasures?? my heart is full when she is creating. i always loved art, i even studied it in college. now, my daughter seems to love it too- how awesome is that?! i'm beginning to wonder if we should branch out from crayons. would she like play dough? finger paint? glue? it all seems so messy yet i can see the joy that she would get from experimenting with new materials. i'm going to think on it.

potty update: he-he-he ha-ha-ha! no really, nothing is happening. she does tell us when she needs a poo-poo diaper changed right away. sitting on the potty though- just a means to get naked and run through the house. :) not quite ready, definitely not quite ready.

Gotta Have Wipes

ok, this picture is to illustrate how little bean is hooked on baby wipes. from the time she could get up and move around she has always gone for the baby wipes. she "washes" herself, her toys, the floor, pretty much anything with these wipes. the worst though is when she chews them. why oh why must she put it in her mouth and chew it???? she tells me they are yummy, i'm going to have to take her word for that because i am NOT going to try it to find out. of course, this is the girl that drinks her bath water and licks the lotion off her body too... yeah, my kid is gross!
her father gave her the wipe that she has in the picture. she carried it around for several hours. when she dropped it and couldn't find it, we had about 5 minutes of "my wipe! where my wipe?! wipe mommy!" sigh. at least it kept her busy i guess.

oh yeah, little bean has started calling us "mom" and "dad". she doesn't do it all the time but she is TOO LITTLE to be calling us mom and dad, don't you think??

Best Shot Monday

ahh, best shot monday again! first of all i have to say that "my best shot monday" is not my creation. should have said it last week- i blame my excitement over bean using the potty. anyways, tracey over at picture this created this fun event. go visit her here to see other peoples great pictures and add your own! :) tracey is also the one who clued me into picasa and started my addiction! thanks tracey!

this week i couldn't decide on a best picture. actually, the picture i posted thursday was probably my favorite (scroll down and check it out if you want) but since i already posted it once this week i had to pick something else. so here are the two that i can't decide between. the first is of little bean playing in her kitchen, the second is of her playing the piano and singing the alphabet song at her nana's house.

in other news, the husband is back at work after being home for two weeks. hip hip hooray! don't get me wrong, i love him very much but he was just constantly in the way. now we can get back to our regular schedule!

The Streak!

so.... yeah, the bean likes to run around naked. this didn't happen until we started with the potty seat. she will sit on the seat happily reading a book then, when mommy turns her back she is off to the races. i call out "get back here!" and she laughs hysterically and runs faster. i guess she is enjoying her "freedom from pants". i have heard about kids that LOVE to be naked, i've even met a few. i just never thought that i would have one. i guess this is how it starts though. now... how do you get it to stop??

as you can see, today the magpie got into the act too. it cracks me up to see them do something together because the magpie does not consider the bean to be her friend- not at all! the magpie considers the bean to be some sort of invader in her otherwise peaceful existence. i don't think it has occurred to the magpie that the bean is NEVER going to leave- even after 20 months. we've tried to get the magpie to warm up to the bean in many ways but nothing has really worked. so, we leave it as is. the bean trying manically to be the magpie's friend and the magpie burying her head in the couch growling slightly... in my direction. hmmmm.

oh yeah... potty training update: ha ha ha! yeah, that's right. ha!

Loving Friend

little bean saw her friend bubba for the first time in almost a month today. (they go to the same playgroup but we have been unable to attend for several weeks) when it was time to go home they decided that they need to hug and kiss each other. they also were trying to give each other "five". it was so cute! it is so fun to watch toddlers interact with each other.

oh, don't say anything around the bean that you don't want repeated. she listens to everything and repeats 80% of it. some good, some bad, a little of it very bad. oh yeah, i have a child who loves to say "shut up" because i said it one too many times to the dog. i know, it isn't the worst thing a toddler could say but she says it all the time. we are trying to raise a polite child and she is, until she tells you to shut up. sigh. we are currently telling her that we can't talk to or play with a little girl who says bad words. we just turn away from her when she says it. she is starting to get the idea. when i turned away from her today she said "no bad words". i replied "that is right." she said "sorry mommy." maybe i'm not that bad of a mom after all!