Best Santa Photo Ever! And by best I mean, uhhh...

Carina's photo with Santa last year was picture perfect, so I had high hopes for this year's. My fingers were crossed for two smiling babes perched upon Santa's lap.

Somehow I knew in the back of my mind that it was highly unlikely that our reality would include happy children, let alone grins of any kind. I silently prayed that Carina wouldn't try to head butt Santa, and that Aurelia wouldn't cover him in her lunch.

Here's what we got:

Aurelia looks unimpressed, but hey I'll take it. The last stranger I handed her to resulted in her first ever screaming fit so we're already much better off here. She is actually wearing the same dress that Carina wore in last year's Santa photo...when she was days away from turning 1. Yep: my not-so-little chunklet is wearing a size 12 Month dress. The scale yesterday said she is over 15 lbs. STOP GROWING SO FAST ::breathes into paper bag:: Her feet, though? Just as small as Carina's used to be. Her teeny shoes kept on falling off so I just gave up.

Carina is revolting against her furry white restraints, tongue out and eyes ablaze. Repeating, "nope nope nope nope" as I handed her to Santa, I knew it wasn't going to go well. She wouldn't even let me pull down her plaid jumper that got stuck in Santa's grasp. As I backed away so the photo could be taken, I thought to myself...thank goodness Mike insisted on finishing her outfit off with the little plaid bloomers despite my telling him not to worry about it. Daddy wins...for once ;)

Fortunately, Jolly old St. Nick was spared a spit-up shower and did not have to press charges for toddler assault so I guess we can count this as a quasi-success.


How did your kids react to Santa? Did your photo turn out well? Feel free to link to it in the comments if you've posted it somewhere :)

Carinaisms

I know that everyone thinks that their kid is hilarious, and I'm no exception. As Carina has become more verbal her personality has emerged and I love it. She is such a curious, talkative, friendly, and funny little kid. Her words aren't all quite clear yet, which leads to lots of adoring giggles on my part. Some of my favorites...

• On the way to one of my very last OB appointments, someone cut us off pretty badly, to which I exclaimed, "oh crap!" Little did I know that would begin a barrage of "oh kyap! oh kyap!" all the way to the clinic. Unfortunately, this has not let up. She still randomly yells, "oh kyap!"

• Last month I made tortellini for lunch and she devoured it. She asked for more and I had to tell her that sadly, the tortellini was all gone. She echoed, "all gone tortelleelees!" She still says it at least a few times a day. I have no idea what makes her think of it.

• When we gave her a couple chunks of Mozzarella the other day and told her what kind of cheese she was eating, she exclaimed, "Cinderella cheese!" Close enough, Carina, close enough. Mozzarella is now Cinderella in our house. No matter how many times we try to tell her the right word she stubbornly repeats Cinderella.

• She has an obsession with clementines, although she doesn't call them by their proper name. To Carina, they are "oratimes", which must be (in her mind) a combination of orange and {sort-of} clementine. "More oratimes, please!" just about makes me stop whatever it is I'm doing and fawn all over her innocent adorableness. (is that a word?)

There are also a few things she says clearly, but crack me up nonetheless...

• One day when I was busy tending to Aurelia I later found Carina elbows deep in kitty litter. I yelled, "no, Carina! Kitty litter is yucky!" So now whenever she sees it, she rather matter-of-factly informs me, "kitty litter yucky! kitty litter yucky!"

• We have a book entitled Why oh why does baby cry? and it begins with the sentence, "baby's crying, why the tears?" Whenever Aurelia starts crying, Carina asks, very concerned, "baby's crying, why the tears?"

• According to Carina things come in 3 sizes: the biggest thing is the "Daddy", the middle sized one is the "Mommy", and the littlest is the "baby". This applies to everything...including apples, buttons, stuffed animals...you name it. It's either Daddy, Mommy, or baby to Carina.

• Along the Daddy lines, she has called Mike "Daddy-doo" for the last 6 months or so. It makes him melt, and makes me smile ear-to-ear every time.

What funny things do your little ones say?

Will she want to wear pants to her wedding, too? ;)

When I was young, I was a tomboy. I wore the same red baseball cap every day for years and refused to wear skirts or dresses. Not kidding, I even joked with family and friends that I would wear pants to my wedding someday. Playing with bugs was one of my favorite pastimes and in general I spent most of my time outside whenever possible.

I've changed quite a bit since then. While still fascinated by bugs (my favorite college course was Entomology), I would rather not touch them. Skirts and dresses are now my favorite things to wear and I bet you can guess that there were no pants at our wedding. Wait...there were, just not on me ;)

Observing Carina's budding personality has been almost like a flashback for me. I see so much of myself in her. She wants to explore everything: from rocks to sticks to leaves to insects. She would rather poke and prod at dirt - and sometimes eat it, too - than play with dolls. She much prefers to be outside and trying to get her to come in has become a challenge!

Outside!

Her new favorite thing to do? Climb. On everything. Up and down the stairs at the playground over and over again...Momma can't keep up with her anymore.

The one problem this has led to? Skinned knees. Almost every time we go to the park she either falls down or scrapes her knees on something. The folks at KneeBees sent us some pink knee pads and they have been the perfect way to keep her skinned knee-free. Most of the time they just look like little leggings underneath her skirts or dresses, but unlike leggings, they are thick enough to not rip or fray when she falls. Sure, they might be a little geeky looking, but would you expect anything less from me? ;)

Wearing her KneeBees

Thanks to KneeBees for letting Carina run and climb to her heart's content without worrying about booboos. Oh man, did I really just type "booboos"? ::shakes head at self:: I've gone soft.

Were you a tomboy growing up? And/or are your girls turning out that way?


I received the item(s) mentioned above free of charge for reviewing purposes. All opinions are honest, and my own. 
 

Carina's first masterpieces

I was so in love with Carina's jumbo triangle crayons. She squeals with delight as she colors on the paper taped to our coffee table and she thoroughly enjoys gnawing on them as well. What's not to like?

Well, I am sad to report that the love affair has ended. While I was in the bathroom yesterday, Carina went on a colorful rampage.

Her Roadster now boasts a decorated seat.

Our WALL, previously bare, now has some green and red embellishment. At least she was trying to be festive?

Mike's {ridiculously expensive}computer is now sporting quite a few red and black adornments.


I took the crayons away for now. At least until we can figure out how to prevent her from coloring on everything. In the meantime? Thank God for Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

Has your little one destroyed decorated anything lately? ;)

Who doesn't love rolling around in dirty socks?

The first time that Carina came toddling out into the living room with the delicates bag full of dirty socks (that we hang on her hamper), I took it from her and brought it back into the nursery. "No Carina," I told her, "we don't play with dirty socks."

A few minutes later she emerged again with socks in tow. Since it was pretty clear there was no stopping her, I let her be. While they wouldn't be my plaything of choice for her, they certainly can't do any harm. I was not prepared for what happened next.

Who doesn't want to roll around in dirty socks and throw them all about the room?

The eyes say it all

I swear my child can communicate her thoughts and feelings with one glance, or glare.

With furrowed brows, or wide, bright eyes.

They themselves smile or laugh, or simply say "enough, Mom".

These were all taken at my parents house on Easter. I think a few of them make quite a funny contrast to the oh-so-happy and excited pictures of the Easter Egg Hunt the same day.

Does your little one have a signature look or glare? Carina's furrowed brows have become legendary within our families ;)

Never trying that again!

Last week our library had a one-time demo music class given by a local children's music instructor. I was excited to go to this free class, since they normally charge what you think would be a tiny college tuition for a "semester" of classes consisting of few minutes of banging on a xylophone and handful of songs. I noticed it was during Carina's naptime, but figured it would be just fine. I mean, how bad could postponing her nap a little while be?

How bad could it be?? Have you ever been that Mom sitting in a room full of happy, well-behaved children and their composed parents/caregivers while your precious little one is screaming like a banshee and trying to escape from your arms every 10 seconds?


She was NOT happy. Nothing at all would calm her down - not her binky, cheerios, sippy cup, toy, cuddling, and definitely not paying attention to the instructor whose Itsy Bitsy Spider was creeping up the water spout less than 3 feet away.

In retrospect I should have just left, because I spent the remainder of the 45 minutes feeling like everyone there was silently judging my parenting skills and cursing the fact that their happy little toddlers couldn't enjoy Twinkle Twinkle Little Star due to the demon child screeching like a barn owl in the corner. But, we were on the far end of the room and I had the giant stroller with me. There's nothing more conspicuous than Mommy-with-tantrum-baby plowing the City Mini through a roomful of staring children and their relieved parents.

So, never again will we postpone or skip Carina's nap unless it's an absolute necessity, or unless Mommy wants to exact revenge on some unsuspecting persons. "Oh! What a cute baby!" Heh, just you wait until it's past naptime...  ;)

Does your little one turn into a terror if naps are late or get missed?

Are you sure this is my child?

I have had a 28 year love affair with chocolate. I just can't get enough...ever. I may or may not have eaten chocolate cake for breakfast a few days ago. There's a probability possibility that my afternoon snack yesterday was chocolate frosting out of the can.

So when we offered Carina a little bit of chocolate cake for the first time, we expected that she would devour it faster than her beeline for the door when M comes home from work. Yet, she met it with suspicion, and ultimately, apathy.

What is this crumbly brown ugliness you have set before me?

I will try it, despite my better judgment

Hmmm...

I don't think so.

I am not impressed. NEXT!

Who is this child? Surely she can't be mine.

Does your babies enjoy the same things you do? What foods don't they like?

Mommy is not enjoying this game of hide and seek

Carina has this hilarious compulsion to hide things. She'll sequester away her toys, favorite stuffed animal, shoes, and I've even caught her trying to hide food in between the cushions of the couch. All this, I don't mind so much; I think it's funny.

Toy stash in the media center drawer

What isn't funny is when she steals objects I need (read: phone, keys, remote control) and simply smiles when I ask her where they are.

Remote control between the couch and wall

Car keys in the seat of her "car"

This is what happened yesterday. We were all set to go outside and enjoy the nice weather when I couldn't find my phone. Bad timing: M was in the middle of a doctor's appointment, so there was no response to my e-mail asking him to call me so I could hear the phone ring. After searching for 20 minutes, I remembered that Gmail allows free calls within the US so I typed in my number and sure enough a few seconds later I heard my phone ring.

I turned around but couldn't find my phone for the life of me. Then, I tried to see things from a baby's point of view. Do you see that black thing in the hole? She dropped my phone inside her activity table and it got stuck at the opening of one of the legs.



I laughed and laughed and laughed. How can you get mad at this sweet little thing?



Does your little one steal and/or hide things?

My first "conversation" with Carina

A few days ago Carina was playing at the table while I was enjoying a cup of coffee. Her face contorted into a funny little grunt as she spread her hands out on the side of the table and got up on her tippy toes.

"What are you doing, Carina?" I asked. She looked at me, flexed her feet up and down, and then returned to a state of deep concentration.

"Carina, are you pooping?" I guessed.

"YEAH!" she exclaimed.

"Would you like me to change your diaper?" was the next logical question.

"Yeah," she replied.

So I brought her into the nursery and sure enough there was a turd, so I changed her diaper.

Simple, sure. Gross? Probably. But after we went back to playing I sat back and smiled. For the first time in her almost 15 months of life, she verbally communicated her needs to me. Amazing. Seems appropriate that it would be about poop, right? ;)

So happy to have a clean diaper ;)

Just for fun - I added a little poll at the top left. Do you think baby #2 will be a boy or girl? Get your guesses in!

I think she's a little young for this obsession

Boots. She is OBSESSED with them. I thought I'd have at least another 15 years before she can't stop thinking about footwear. Oh well.

If she spots her boots from across the room, she charges towards them, squeals as she grabs them, and then brings them to me and holds them up. She opens her mouth and exclaims "bssss!" Which I have come to realize means, "Mommy put these boots on me NOWWW!"

Bssss!

Put on my boots, pretty please?

I'm getting impatient

STOP TAKING PICTURES AND PUT ON MY BOOTS!

After I stick her tiny feet in them and fasten the velcro nice and tight, sometimes they fall off. When this happens, she stops whatever she is doing and glares at the errant boot. I like to imagine she is thinking, "how dare you abandon my foot, you furry sherpa deserter?" Then, she'll pick it up again and bring it to me one more time, "bssss!"

Does your baby have any "obsessions"?