That's Not Kleenex!

Little Miss is a curious little lass.  More than once I've found her pulling the kleenex out of the box on my nightstand.  It was time to harness this curiosity for good.  I found an activity where you could stuff kleenex boxes and then have your child pull out those instead of your real ones.  I forgot I had an empty kleenex box tucked away for this very purpose, so this morning when Sugar Pop found it and brought it to me, we decided today would be a great day to give it a try.  

She really enjoyed it and it turned out to be a very colorful activity.  Now if only I could teach her to restuff the box herself. 

Hanging Out

Hubs has really been on a roll lately. He's getting all sorts of projects done. Technically, clothes lines are forbidden in our neighborhood, but we have a lot of privacy in our side yard. We figured that if we kept the line below the fence we'd probably be ok. Last week hubs ordered the clothes line and this weekend he installed it. It was so nice to be able to hang out the diapers so that they all had access to the sun. There's actually a second line that he's going to engineer so that it hangs below instead of parallel to the first line, but we have to figure out the placement of that one yet and see how it'll work with the water table and a 'little helper' with eager hands to remove the clothes as soon as you hang them.

Daddy's Lap: Then and Now

While at restaurants, we like to spend some time cuddling with Little Miss before throwing her into the high chair.  A restaurant trip this weekend reminded me of one on a road trip last summer.

THEN: (June 2013)

 

NOW: (June 2014)

Checking out the Tool bag

One of the side effects of the mud room project is that we have tools everywhere- the mantle, the island, the portico, etc. Little Miss is used to being outside on the portico as that's where we have her water table set up.  This weekend she was way more interested in Daddy's tool bag.

Maybe if she handles the tools enough, she'll be able to hand them to him when being asked and become really helpful in building projects.  Maybe.

Future Macy's Balloon Handler?

We went to a friend's house last week.  This friend always has the coolest stuff to play with.  This time when we went there was a Hello Kitty balloon.  Little Miss was fascinated with it.  She loved watching it flow in the breeze from the air conditioning, playing the the weight at the bottom of the string and batting at it if I brought it down to her level.  Now that she's mobile, Little Miss likes to go on walks through the house.  It usually concerns her friend's mom if we can't see her, but it wasn't an issue on this day.  We could usually tell where she was by watching the balloon bob above countertops or through the stair rails.  I missed the picture through the kitchen, but this is how we could tell she was hanging out in the family room:

Here's the same shot from another angle:

Honestly, this girl finds endless ways to amuse me- I love getting to spend time with her so much.  I didn't do balloons for this past birthday, but judging by how much she liked it, I'll have to reconsider for her next one.  Heck, my birthday is the next one in our family- I may get one for mine to watch her play.

Pillow Prison

Little Miss loves going on the bed in the play room. She thinks it's really fun to throw herself on all the pillows, move them around, and jump all around on the soft surface. Sometimes I'll lightly hit her on the head with some of the pillows and she loves it. On this day I piled them all around her. She had a reserved look on her face as she pondered her situation, but quickly crawled over them and resumed her play. I wish I found all things as common so much fun.

Hugs & Cuddles, Cuddles & Hugs

One of the nice things about living just a few hours from one side of our cousins, is that we get to see them fairly regularly.  The girls are particularly interested in each other.  It's a horrible angle for Tater Tot, but here is a cousin shot from when Tater Tot was 3 months old:

 

Then there were special cuddles at her 1st birthday party:

And last weekend we got to see her again.  She and her mom were in town for a friend's birthday party and were able to break away to have lunch with us.  Sweet Pea just kind of studied her cousin throughout lunch, but when it was time to go and asked if she wanted to give her cousin a hug, she wasted no time:

She's never given a hug on command before and definitely isn't one to do anything she doesn't want to do.  I love to watch the relationship build between these two.  I have some cherished memories with some of my cousins and I hope that these girls will have the same.  

Like Daddy, Like Baby

There's absolutely no question whose baby she is.

A Budding Beethoven

In December I posted this picture of my Baby Schroeder:

Since then everything's grown, including the piano.  My mom found this at her house, it got delivered to me, shoved under the bed and forgotten, and recently resurrected.  Little Miss loves playing with all the functions for her audience (Huck):

This is motivating me to look into music classes for her starting this fall.  That, and watching her try to dance when music comes on that she likes.

Construction Zone

After finishing the learning tower, hubs felt inclined to start another project.  There is a small hallway at the back door.  It's a great place to take off shoes, but they look messy and it was gathering stuff such as garbage and recycling as well.  I suggested we build in a bench and some shelves below to store our shoes.  Hubs agreed it was a good idea and would help keep things organized.  Then I suggested adding bead board because, wouldn't it just look so cute?  Hubs agreed to it, but I have to admit I feel sorry for the guy.  I always seem to make projects way harder than they have to be.  Anyway, hubs has been busily building away and Little Miss is very curious.  Since she'll take his tools and run, and some of his tools aren't kid-friendly, he erected this barrier.  It works really well and she often likes to check in on what he's doing and listen to his explanations.

Two tools that did get left out were stud finders.  Little Miss brought them to me one morning while I was making breakfast and handed them over.  I quickly showed her how to use one in the hallway.  I kid you not, she took it to the wall and used it perfectly.  I couldn't get to the camera quick enough, unfortunately.  I did, however, get this one.

 

Then I suppose she became curious about what else the stud finder would find.  She checked her belly for studs.

I was quite shocked with the tool started beeping at her.  Makes me question how well it does his job.  Either way, looks like our Little Miss may have a future in construction.  She definitely seems interested. 

Walking the Dog

As a tactic to tire her out for bedtime, we've converted our evening family walk from being parent-led to being baby-led.  We carry her down the stairs and let her dictate where we go any given night.  These walks are very slow, but if the objective is to spend time together as a family, then they continue to serve their function perfectly.  Huck also joins us on these walks, but since Little Miss is desperate to walk him, and since the leash often trips her up and makes her fall, we walk him off leash unless we see other dogs.  One evening we did see another dog and hubs leashed him.  You wouldn't believe the drama this caused when hubs tried to put the leash away again.  We tried letting her walk him, then picked her up to come home and hubs walked Huck the rest of the way.  Tater Tot was still upset when we got home so I let her walk Huck around the kitchen.  She was thrilled.

Car Seat Comparison

I don't have to adjust the straps on the car seat very often so I don't really think about it, but this week it hit me how much more String Bean is filling out her car seat.  I had to take a photo to show the comparison.

THEN: (When she first got that car seat in October 2013)

NOW: (June 2014)

Do you see how her feet hit the back seat?  She's just growing up way too fast.

 

Baby Hikes

We've been pretty good about sticking to a Sunday family hike.  A few weeks ago we took the jelly bean out for a hike.  A common trail we do is a two mile paved loop.  I wore her for a while and she was able to get a nap.  She seemed to be so happy that we decided to do another lap.  That's when she woke up and started to get restless.  We decided to take her down and let her stretch her legs a bit. We're blessed with a child that doesn't really run everywhere.  She was really good about staying on the trail, and only stopped occasionally to look at plants or things on the edge.  Girl is getting fast!  Here she is walking all by herself.

Inevitably, after a while she started to tire, as all little legs do.  She wasn't thrilled about going back in the carrier, however.  Daddy decided that the easiest thing to do would be to put her on his shoulders.  

She liked that and stayed up there for a while.  At one point some weird salt lick thing started happening with his ear, but I wasn't able to capture that for posterity, unfortunately.

 

Father's Day- Then and Now

2013:

2014:

Both times hiking.  Both times asleep in the carrier.  My, how she's grown...

Happy Father's Day 2014!

Last year hubs was a new parent at Father's Day and we celebrated with a hike at a local park.  This year he's much more seasoned, so we celebrated with a hike at a different local park:)  Here we are just getting started out.

Gotta love family selfies.  Just like last year, hubs got to wear her and the carrier's sleepy dust kicked in.  (She'll only sleep in her carrier as long as you continuously move.)  

Happy Father's Day to all the great fathers in our lives.

A Family Ride

Hubs likes cycling.  Baby enjoys the trailer.  The only two left to get with the program were Puppy and me.  Since my knee is keeping me from running I decided that it may be time to take up cycling.  Hubs got out all the bikes, added air, hooked up the trailer and began to load us all inside.  We decided to cover our local greenway (5 mi) and then head to get some peaches at a nearby stand.  Since we weren't going too far, why not bring puppy?  We loaded Sweet Pea into the trailer as usual, put a blanket over her legs to protect her from dog nails, and loaded in Huck.  You should've seen her face light up when she realized she got to share with Huck.  She got a big smile, gave a little giggle, and immediately began petting him.

When we put the cover on, puppy decided that he would prefer to hang his head out in the breeze.

Everyone did great on the ride.  I was able to manage the hills, puppy didn't jump out and hubs further impressed me by towing a nearly 60 lb trailer on a fixed gear bike.  We even squeezed in a visit to the new Goodwill before heading back home.  We all enjoyed it, I think.  I'm never sure if puppy's love of hanging out with the family outweighs the situations we put him into that he might not enjoy, such as riding in the trailer on in a kayak.  

Park Intermission

Now that we have a walker, our evening walks are usually spent around the neighborhood at a very slow pace, trying to wear a little one out before bedtime.  It's pretty effective, but hubs and I are missing our exercise.  Last week we were able to load everyone up and go for a longer family walk like we used to take.  At the turnaround point on the greenway is a little park.  We decided that since we weren't letting Little Miss walk, we should stop at the park to stretch her legs.  Daddy took her down the slide again.  

Puppy was very interested in this and also came to investigate.  While they didn't get stuck on the slide like at the other playground, it still wasn't a fast smooth ride.  We may wait until she's a little older and let her try going down solo.  We also spent some time on the swings.

She seemed to enjoy it, but we weren't out there very long before the mosquitos started finding us, so we decided to pack back up for the walk home.  I don't understand why the mosquitos are so bad considering the winter we had.  Makes me a little sad.  Hopefully we'll be able to get some more park adventures in soon.

Learning Tower of the Kitchen

Hubs and I decided it would be nice for him to make something for Pumpkin's first birthday.  We thought about it and I came up with the idea to make a learning tower.  They're great for safely getting kids to counter height so they can be more involved with whatever you're doing.  She could help me do things in the kitchen, but also help Daddy to things out in the garage.  They're also expensive to buy, but the materials are relatively cheap.  He agreed it would be a good idea and started the project.  Here it is finished:

He added cute details like the fruit for her to put her feet in when she figures out how to climb into it.  In the meanwhile, I just lift her in.  We decided to try a little art time since she was up there.  This is her first time working with markers.  

She enjoyed drawing with the markers, but seemed to enjoy playing with the caps and putting them back on the markers more. I'm so grateful to hubs for building a tool to allow Little Miss to be a more active participant in our daily activities.

Visiting Puppy's Pad

Meal time was becoming frustrating in our house. Sweet Pea and Puppy were in cahoots. He would wait eagerly at her feet during meals and she would obligingly drop food just to watch him eat it. Hubs and I were both getting frustrated. Enter, this pillow. It lived in our master bathroom for a while, got soaked with water by a tipped water bowl, spent some time outside drying and then came into the living room, where both Sweet Pea and Puppy enjoyed jumping and laying on it. Hubs got the inspired idea to move it to the dining room. Now we have Huck lay on the pillow while we eat. This has drastically reduced the amount of food thrown on the floor, he still gets to be with the family, and we have less cleanup. Puppy must really like his pillow because he often hangs out there throughout the day. Sweet Pea likes to drop in and visit as well. They were cuddling really cutely, but this was all I was able to get by the time I got back with my camera.

Air Play

A few days ago we went to a friend's house to play when Little Miss disappeared for a little while.  I found her sitting right next to the air register playing with the air conditioning pumping through the house.  In our house, the vents are in the ceiling, so she never has a chance to feel the air directly.  It never occurred to me how interesting this would be.

She really liked waving her hand over it.  At one point she put her face over the vent.  

Imagine hearing little giggles as the air blew on her face.  I love experiencing things new again through my baby's eyes. 

Sippy Victory

While Little Miss is an excellent eater and happy to feed herself, we've really struggled in the drinking department.  She happily takes bottles, but refuses to hold them herself.  We spent lots of money finding a sippy cup that she would use and were thrilled when she would pick it up by herself, but she would never tip it up so she could actually drink from it.  When I was in California my speech therapist cousin told me that I needed to have her off both the bottle and the sippy or it could result in speech issues.  Great.  She recommended either straws or normal cups.  

I happened to have some straw sippy cups from our earlier searches, but when I pulled them out she didn't like them.  I tried it out and discovered you needed to bite the straw to get it to come out and even then it wasn't much.  I agreed with her that they stank.  I then tried holding up normal cups for her, jelly jars, shot glasses, and she wasn't interested in any of them.  I bought a Klean Kanteen water bottle and she will drink from it if she's desperate, but it wasn't a good everyday option.  Even though I'm really not thrilled about plastic, I went to Target willing to buy anything that would work.  I found some straw cups that you didn't need to bit to get to work and snagged a 2 pack praying she would use it.

Not only did she happily sip water from the cup, she was willing to hold it herself.  

Words cannot describe the relief I feel to finally have a developmentally appropriate cup that she'll use herself.  The only disadvantage is that now I often have to go around the house searching for where she left her cup.  Now I just need to go buy a bunch more.  Victory!

Nature Play Day

There is a place a few towns over that has lots of nature activities for children.  What's even better, they claim one of these events is even appropriate for 1 year olds.  I was intrigued and willing to brave the 45 minute drive to get out there.  I dressed Little Miss in play clothes and had her nap in the car so we could get there in time.  It did not disappoint.  

The first activity was using fish nets to scoop toys out of a kiddie pool.  Other kids loved this and challenged their friends to see who could scoop up the most toys.  I knew that activity was too advanced for my sweet pea, but thought she'd at least like splashing in the water.  Instead, she was just content to look at it.  That's her pink shoe you see in the photo.

Okay, no problem...plenty of other activities to choose from.  I looked across the pavilion and spied mud painting.  Perfect, I thought!

Really what happened was just holding the paint brush before returning it to the bucket and splashing her hand in the muddy water. She never actually touched brush to paper, even after I modeled it for her. Ok, strike 2.  However, all was not lost.  The next activity was probably the most successful of the day- hula hoops.

Not exactly nature-y, but if it makes her happy to be outside, then I'm in full support.  Off we went to an outdoor chalkboard.

Not a super shot, but it's difficult to hold her in one hand and take pictures with the other.

See those three dots in front of the caterpillar?  That's my Picasso:)  There was an area where some kids were climbing a tree, but we skipped that.  Next it was off for a very short hike.

She stopped to check out a log.

She stopped to play with some gravel.

We came around to a big dirt hill.  We found an orange truck and she enjoyed watching me roll it down the hill.  I would roll it and she would retrieve it and hand it back to me.  It was a good deal until it stopped half way.  This was as far as she got before her sense of balance would allow her to go no further.

It was fun, but I'm glad that we got there on time because it only lasted an hour.  We had a picnic lunch and then headed back home.  It was enough driving that I think if we go again we'll need to find something else down there to extend our day.  

I'll close with this.  As we walked back to our car, Little MIss stopped to give it a pet.  I'm not sure why she does this, but she's also started to do it to parked cars in driveways around our neighborhood.  At least with the neighborhood cars she stays at the rear bumper.  She really amuses me, that one.