Thursday, April 2, 2015

Mischievous Munchkin Manages Mayhem and Monkeyshines

Almost......
Parenting books, magazines, and blogs have a lot of stuff in them. A lot of the information repeats from one to another, and it gives you this idea that there's a "normal" for kids. Heck, even doctors use charts to map out what should be "normal" milestones, weight, and height. I have decided that either they are wrong or God in His infinite humor decided to give me one that doesn't fit any molds. (Case in point - rolling over. Normal is about 6 months. She rolled front to back at 17 days and then refused to roll from back to front until just before 10 months.) Luckily we have a pediatrician who is not beholden to charts and is accepting of her doing things on her own schedule. We had a visit with him this week for her 12 month checkup. She came in at the 40th percentile for weight and the 84th for height. (She is way above average in head size....97th percentile. No wonder we have so many shirts that would fit her if we could only get them over her noggin. All those brains just need a place to reside I guess.)
What's in here?
For those keeping score at home, here's the most recent statuses:
  • Standing up against furniture or even drawers is now "kid stuff," and she has started the process of attempting to stand in the middle of the room. (Feet and hands down with butt up in the air.) She will not do it when I have the camera out. I have stood there watching for 20 minutes with no success only to have her try as soon as I put the camera down. Sass pot. There has also been great improvement in the area of sitting back down. No crashing with bonked noggin since before Chicago. (Just wait, she'll do it now.)
  • Efforts are continuing to jail break her puppy. Tonight she was able to reach the top latch but not get it to slide. Gretl may be graduating to no daytime kennel sooner than we thought unless we can find a way to "lock" the latch. Otherwise, are going to need to figure out a way of having food and water accessible to her that is not going to become yet another toy for the tiny tornado.
  • Putting things in things is a great game. We have had to move all the rubbish bins to make sure that she doesn't throw out something that she shouldn't. It's been interesting finding things in the strangest places - like potatoes in laundry baskets. Either that or Charlie is becoming senile. We will wait to see if I notice things out of place that are above her ever increasing reach or if he starts carrying around doorknobs in his backpack a la Aunt Clara from Bewitched.
  • Bubbles have been voted delicious. While Charlie still attempts to keep her from eating them, I have decided that it is just not worth the effort. Plus, it is funny to watch her chasing them around the bathtub like Ms. Pacman.
    Nom nom! I love bubbles!
  • Picking noses is fun. Her own, mama's, daddy's....really, any nose within reach is fair game. She has even managed to get some of the boogies out of her own nose. At least this somewhat solves the problem of her hatred for all boogie sucking methods. 
  • Our budding scientist has discovered that waving at people gets her attention. As she adores being the center of the universe, just about everyone gets a wave. All of the mall walkers seem to find this a welcome addition to their morning when we go. Well, everyone seems to enjoy it. 
  • Depending on the day, everything is "da," "der," or "dis" with an occasional "ma" or "yay." 
  • We successfully completed the "100 Books Before One" program at the library (with two days to spare) and have started on the "1000 Books B4K" program. The librarians are probably starting to recognize us. We go a LOT.
  • Upon returning from Chicago, we resumed two a day naps. It seems that all of the new tricks she's learning are wearing her out. It is ok - they are wearing her mama out too.
Let me pull your ears while you attempt to rest! Mwahahaha!
The rest of the household does not have nearly as much exciting news. Gretl has been continuing to improve with her training although she has had a bit of a setback. While she was home alone with Charlie, she decided that she did not want to listen, so she has been back to wearing the training collar. With it on, she has been able to spend more and more time as a jungle gym as well as sleeping in the middle of the living room floor. Hopefully by next week she will be back on track, and we will not have to go through the nuisance of putting the collar on her all of the time. We will also probably be deciding soon if we are going to start cart training first or begin the classes/certification for being a therapy dog. As much as I want to start cart training immediately, we will probably go with the therapy dog certification first, so we can take her with us more places.

Charlie is entering the homestretch for his first term. Classes end at the end of this month! He will then have a month off to work on other projects and get acclimated to getting up and going to bed early for the start of the summer term. Hopefully we will all sleep better once that happens.

My routines are getting a bit more established. Most days I get the house straightened, do the cooking and/or baking, run errands, go for a walk, read, and practice the banjo.....in little snippets of time between chasing an increasingly mobile toddler. I actually finished my checklist yesterday and might be able to pull off two days in a row. (Before you think that I have actually gotten my act together, there is still only a narrow path by the crib on the way to the changing table. The rest of the room is at least as big of a mess as it was two weeks ago and probably worse.) 

The goal (weather permitting) will be to get out into the garden this weekend and start to get the ground ready for plants. Yes, it will be two months before we put anything into the ground, but I have been told repeatedly that we are already behind the eight ball on the garden this year. I have no idea. I'm just thrilled that the aloe plant that I was given two weeks ago is still alive, and the stevia plant has managed to reroot itself and start over. We also will need to figure out the best placement for the rain barrel with scored for cheap off of a Facebook rummage sale. Maybe we can use it to irrigate the lingonberries that I still need to order. (Bugger. I forgot that item in the budget for this month. We are going to need to call an emergency meeting of the budget committee to vote on a revised budget.)

From our home to yours, may God shine on you this paschal triduum. Safe travels to all who will be on the roads.

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