Swings and Biting

I am so proud of Emmaline! She finally has learned how to swing all by herself! We have been trying to teach her and yesterday it finally clicked. She spent most of the day outside today just swinging and swinging. It was awesome!



The bad part of the day came at the end. About 45 minutes after we tucked the girls into bed, I heard Emmaline scream. Apparently Liliana had climbed into bed with Emmaline (which is common) and they started to fight over the pillow. Liliana ended up biting Emmaline on the shoulder. This picture was taken not long after it happened. Luckily it didn't break skin but I do not look forward to seeing what it will look like in the morning!




Rating: 1 Pixie Dust and 1 Sour Patch Kid

Words, Words, Words

Imogene: Yesterday she started saying "uh-oh!" Of course she did it in the context of game - you know the kind. It's where the baby drops something over and over again and expects you to pick it up. I just loved that she would purposefully drop it and then say, "uh-oh!" - as though it were some accident!

Liliana: She is finally going through a verbal explosion! Maybe all that speech therpy is finally paying off. The last few weeks she has been trying out saying new words, and has gained some new sounds and clarity she didn't have before in her speech!

Emmaline: She is learning definitions! Yesterday she asked us if "dozen" meant twelve. I told her that it did and she responded by saying, "So we have lunch at dozen!" So then I got to teach her when to use the word dozen and when not to!

Rating: 3 Pixie Dust

So now what?

This afternoon it started to rain. Liliana came to me and begged to go outside. "Outside? Outside? PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE?" ("Please" is her newest word and she is great at begging with it!). I didn't want to send her out since she was only in a t-shirt and underwear, but I figured that instead of fighting with her about it, I would just let her go. I was banking on the fact that she would realize that it was all wet out there and want to come in!
So she went outside and has been happily playing ever since - and Emmaline followed her out soon after.

So now how do I get her back in since my plan backfired?

Rating: 2 Lemon Drops (if all the raindrops were Lemon Drops and Gum Drops . . .)

Pilferers and Potty Humor

So first today I caught Idgie doing this. She somehow got a box of cereal that had been left out, and was pilfering them under the table. Sneaky!

Then later today I caught Lil coming out of the bathroom like this. I swear to you she did this all herself - nobody taught it to her! Luckily I had the camera nearby from the aforementioned Idgie incident! I also think it quite odd that this is the ONE time that I didn't have to fight with her to look are the camera and smile. Hrmph.

Rating: 5 Pixie Dust

Cherry Jelly

Well it took work on 4 different days to do this, but we went from this:


To THIS:

It is hard to do it all in one day when I have kids underfoot so I actually spread it out over a week. Day #1 - pick the cherries, Day #2 - sort and clean, Day #3 - turn into juice, Day #4 - turn into jelly and can.

I ended up with 11 half-pints of jelly. It is deliciously sweet and tart and the best part is that it all came from our tree! We didn't have to buy any of the fruit like we normally do!

Rating: 11 half-pints of Cherry Jelly!

Weaned

My little Idgie is officially weaned. I haven't nursed her in 5 days now. This is the first time in 3.5 years that I haven't had a little someone sucking life out of me from either the inside or the outside - or both! I miss having my tiny little baby but it sure does feel great to have my body back to myself!

Rating: 2 Pixie Dust

Cherry Pie

Look! Cherry pie! The good news is that it was totally yummy. The bad news is that it overflowed and burnt sugar all over the bottom of my oven.

Also - I had extra pie dough so I made cute little cherries in the middle. See?

Rating: 1 Cherry Pie!

Cherry Picking

Our cherries are finally ripe so we went out this evening to pick them! They are just pie cherries - only good for - well - pies. I'll probably go ahead and make up the pie filling and freeze it for future use.

So from May to July we went from this to this:




Lil kept trying to steal cherries!

And we ended up with about 12.5 lbs total (we still need to do a second sort). Not too bad!

Rating: 12 lbs. of cherries!

Allergist

I took Emmaline in for her yearly allergist testing. We are doing it a few months early this year since we knew the allergist wanted to do several challenges this year since she is turning five. Today was just the skin testing. We will go get her blood work done in a few days. Then based on the results of both of those in comparison to past years - will determine what we challenge.

I don't have the wheal sizes for the hives on her skin testing but this is what she tested positive for:

Peanut
Soy
Almond
Pecan
Cashew
Brazil Nut
Hazel Nut
Pistachio
Egg
Milk
Cod
Salmon

Borderline Positive:
Shrimp

Negative:
Halibut
Walnut


What is interesting is that last year she tested positive to halibut!

I do recall that her two biggest hives were cashew and egg, her smallest one was soy and one of the nuts - I forget which ones. Not that it really means anything necessarily.

Rating: 1 Lollipop (maybe she can finally outgrow soy!)

Potty Training - Day 3

So much success today! The only accident was first thing this morning - Lil was rushing to the potty and tried to sit down with her panties still on!

After that we decided to continue to go bare for awhile longer. She did so great! Not a single accident all day and she even woke up dry from her nap!

We are getting there!

Rating: 4 Lollipops

Potty Training - Day 2

I didn't feel like today went as well as yesterday. We didn't have any in-the-potty success. However, Lil definitely knows the sensation. She is telling us she has to go - but she won't sit long enough to go and dances back and forth off and on the potty. Then she ends up peeing on the floor!

We'll get there!

Rating: 1 Fireball

Potty Training - Day 1

I noticed last night that we are almost out of diapers for Lil, so I decided the time to potty train had come! I set my alarm to wake me up early this morning so I could hopefully catch Lil before she peed first thing this morning. Unfortunately, the alarm didn't go off so I missed it. I went ahead and introduce the panties though and talked about going pee in the potty.

All morning I pumped her full of all the juice boxes she could drink and took her constantly to the potty. We ended up with more accidents than successes but not to bad so far. We had twice where pee actually landed IN the potty. The bad part of course is that both times she had started to pee on the floor first but then stopped as soon as I grabbed her to run for the potty - and then she peed the rest of it in the potty.

We have 8 pairs of training panties (those really thick cotton kind that still absorb something) and she ended up peeing in all but one. I decided finally that maybe she felt too comfy in those. The rest of the day I let her wander the house in nothing at all but a shirt, and she had a LOT less accidents that way, and every time she did have an accident, she was headed to the potty and saying she had to go.

Overall I'd say that we had a successful day. No worse than expected certainly!

Round 2 tomorrow!

Rating: 1 Lollipop

Pickles

I made pickles!

They had pickling cucumbers at the CSA this past week and I just had to try it out. It wasn't actually all that cost effective in comparison to just buying a jar but I have the satisfaction of knowing how to do it for myself and that is priceless!

From this:

Into this:

Rating: 10 Jars of Bread and Butter Pickles

12-Month Check

Idgie had her 12-Month Well Child Check today. It was pretty uneventful. She is doing well and looking good. Here are her current stats:

Height - 27.75 inches - 12% (up 1.75 inches from 9 month check)
Weight 16 lbs 8 oz. - less than 3% (up 1 lb. 6 oz. from 9 month check)
Head - 17.5 inches - 30% (up 0.25 inches since 9 month check)

Rating: 3 Lollipops

Happy Birthday Idgie!

One year ago my cute little firecracker came shooting into the world! I think time gets faster and faster with every kid!

Hasn't she grown into a beautiful little girl? Not nearly so squishy and red! I promised her that this would be the one and only birthday that would be 4th of July themed in Red, White, and Blue - unless that is something she asked for in future years. I had fun making her cake. I got the technique from Our Best Bites and I think the colors turned out really well!

Idgie certainly enjoyed eating it anyway:




And of course don't forget the present opening - she sure didn't mind that part either!

Happy First Birthday Imogene!!!!

Rating: 1 Birthday Cake!

Ladybug, Ladybug

Today while the girls were playing outside, Emmaline caught a ladybug. She was so excited and spent a long time just letting it crawl all over her!

Rating: 3 Lollipops