june - aug 2011

june

WEANED!!!
Yes, after 27 months of nursing Mimi has finally given up the "Bobbies." It was a gradual thing, and the clincher was one day when she said "Bobbies are for babies" and I confirmed that indeed, they were. She never turned back.
Mimi started dance class this month and loves it. She spends much of her time running around in circles and staring at herself in the mirror. Can't blame her, she's dang cute in her tutu and leotard.


She had an issue with fear for about a week or so... "rocks have faces" is what she would say, then cry and need much soothing. We never did figure out what her comment referred to.

july
Lots of emotional tantrums, needs to hold the Bobbies and needs lots of Mommy. We began reading books about emotions and have tried to help her identify her emotional distress after the tantrum happens.


Pretend play has started! She has a pretend cat on the end of a purple shoelace named Simba and a baby named Baby July who is growing in her bellybutton. She also initiates pretend train rides to all sorts of places (especially restaurants that serve potatoes).
Mimi started to request to stay home all day. Often. And shes started to drop her afternoon naps. Yikes.
Oxnard beach trip! Mimi's first real beach experience. It was super fun... Overcast when we first arrived, so she played with Poppy on the pirate ship themed playground. The sun eventually broke thru the marine layer and we headed down to the beach. She plopped right down and started scooping sand - in her dress and socks! Eventually we got a swim suit on her and Poppy showed her how to play in the waves.



august
She has a new imaginary friend, Baby Bird. She dresses him/her (Baby Bird is a bit tricky). She also discovers Dora the Explorer via her Leap Pad. Dora also becomes a fun imaginary friend to play with and dress up. She dresses her friends by laying out her clothes in a neat stack on the floor - panties 1st, then leggings, shirt, socks, shoes.



More staying in all day. Which is kinda ok since it's a hot summer. Luckily I persuaded her to leave the house a few times, since our friends were visiting from New Orleans. We went to Disneyland with them and had a great time. Then Mimi fell ill on the way home. She had a cold that lingered for 2 weeks.



We went on a family vacation to San Diego. Our landlord had to do a termite treatment beneath the house and suggested we leave for a few days. So we put Luna and Captain Henry up at the cat hotel and headed south. San Diego was lovely, such perfect weather. We went to Sea World and Historic Point Loma for the touristy stuff and spent the rest of the time chilling out at the hotel and the pool (and hot tub - Mimi loved it). Mimi was super attached to Poppy the whole trip which was a wonderful thing for Mommy to watch. :) Unfortunately, we cut the trip a bit short due to a rattle in Mimi's chest and Mommy getting a nasty crink in her neck.
Mimi got tooth #18, bottom molar.



Breakthrough: Mimi asked to fall asleep with Poppy. For the first time since she could tell the difference between Mommy and Poppy! Must have been all the time they spent together during the week Greg had off.

jan - may, 2011

Better late than never.


January

• Bob Baker Marionette Theatre for friends b-day party
• Diagnosed with labial adhesion, used premarin for 3 weeks. Moody Mimi during that time! It was not what we really wanted to do, but the adhesion was so major that our doc. said we needed to. Luckily it was only for a short time. She had it when she was an infant, too, but not as severe.

• Night Wean (2nd time)

• Mimi 2nd birthday at Disneyland!!

February

• Auntie Danielle visit

• 2 teeth! #14 (lover left canine) & #15 (upper right canine)
• POTTY TRAIN! (3-day method, success!) Mimi uses her little potty all the time and we take one on the road.

• Mimi bobs her hair! (She hates getting her hair shampooed or brushed. This makes it easier for us to care for and looks darn cute.)

March

• After a few great potty training weeks we get pee strike and constipation. All remedied with some rewards (plastic bugs!).
• Night Wean (3rd and final time)
• Cranky Mimi from not enough rest...

• NanaSue visit
• Mimi sings all the time, usually songs from The Sound of Music and Jungle Book.

• She's starting to talk with/to her toys and is more independent in her playing.

April

• Start Sleep Log, focus on bedtime routine. Learn a lot, back on track with sleep! Whew. Mimi is a 9 or 10 hr, a night sleeper... and wakes up between 5:30 + 7.

• Pony rides! Yeehaw, finally our little cowgirl gets up the gumption to ride the ponies. And loves it. Of course.

• Tooth #16 (top left canine)
• Transition from little blue bathtub to grown up big tub.
• Mimi uses big toilet! She divides her time between the little potty and the big toilet, but luckily we don't have to lug that potty around with us in public anymore.
• Cutting back on daytime nursing in hopes of weaning in the next few months.
• Lots of spinning and dancing!

May

• Daytime nursing cut WAY back. Started with only 3 times a day, by the end of the month it was down to 1 or 2 a day and sometimes 0!
• Mimi asks to sleep in her Own Room!! We moved her in that very nite and she's been happy ever since.
  
• Mimi starts swim lessons at the lovely Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in Pasadena. Heated saline pool. Very nice. For never having been in or seen a swimming pool she did rather well. No tears, no major fear... but she did cling to Mommy rather tightly.

• Mimi is starting to say some not-very-nice things. Usually about babies, and how she doesn't like them. Or how she doesn't want to play with certain people (usually at a playground). It's not really noticeable to anyone other than us, but it's not a good habit and we're addressing it.
• Uncle Billy was in town for work, so we went to meet him for dinner at Border Grill downtown. Mina had a blast running around the patio and dancing with the twinkle lights.

Nov, Dec 2010

Bullet points ok? I hope so, because I'm behind on this post and wanna get it done with already!

November

• counts to 10
• calls herself 'Mina' not Mimi, and wants to do stuff on her own "Big Girl Mina do"
• starts singing songs, usually the kukuburra song
• can identify the letters in her name and sings the ABC's
• still nursing, but not as often. start weaning at night.
• celebrate Thankgiving in La Jolla at The Lodge at Torrey Pines
• visit San Diego Wild Animal Park

December

• Gram visit!
• lots of singing, adds Jungle Book songs to her repertoire
• more adventurous at playgrounds, masters walking up slides
• after 1 month of night wean, a few bad nights and it's all over :(
• speech continues to explode! asks "what this is?" and "what's his/her name?" and "where is this from?" all the time. she loves long multi-syllable words, such as: mismatched (missymatch) combination, comfortable, restaurant (reserant).
  
• Christmas day she used her potty - pee and poop!
• Uncle Billy visit

Sept, Oct 2010

September
Tooth #12, bottom left molar arrived the first week of September.

Making huge strides in potty training. (sarcasm) Mina sat on the potty for the first time without a diaper and farts. No pee, no poo. Just toot.

Mina discovers peacocks at the Los Angeles Arboretum. She falls instantly in love and calls them pea-ca-cocks.

Grandpoppy came for a visit. Mina had lots of fun with him. Uncle Billy came in town for work so we got to see him as well. Mina impressed Uncle Billy by eating most of his hot link sausage when we were all out to dinner at Zekes BBQ. Mina loves to eat meat.

The following week NanaSue came to visit. Mina was temperamental the whole time, maybe because she was fighting off a cold. Although she was cranky she impressed us all by saying "I love you" on a very tough no-nap day. NanaSue babysat while Mommy + Poppy went to a wedding celebration (post-elopement party). We were gone 3 1/2 hours. Mina cried 1/2 of that time. :( Poor Mina, poor NanaSue.

Mina now has an indoor slide. She really likes slides. Yes, our house looks like a playground now.


October
Coloring is something Mina enjoys quite a bit. She moved from making scratchy lines to loopy circles. On a coloring page of 2 cats she scribbled/colored inside the lines of each cat. I was kinda amazed, she really did color the cats!!

Mina's favorite animals (other than Captain Henry) are birds. She pretends to fly, begs to look at pictures of birds on the computer. Mostly peacocks, of course, but she also likes to look at ducks and geese.

Poppy went out of town for a almost an entire week. We missed him. He went to Austin, TX. Mina learned to say that, too. If I asked her where Poppy was that week, she would answer "austintexas." Toddler-speak is so much fun!!!!!! By now she's actually speaking in complete sentences. Pretty cool. She's also been very loving, hugs and kisses and I love you happens often. So often we've had to teach her to ask her friends if they want a hug or kiss first otherwise she'll almost attack them with one! Hugs are sweet, but an unexpected one can knock ya over if you're little.

Another huge stride in potty-training: Mina peed in her potty... 1 droplet of pee.

We started "outside school" at the end of October. It's a mommy-led pre pre-school that we do outdoors. Crafts and books and stuff. Mina enjoys it and so do I. It's something we organized ourselves (the other Mom's and I). Oh, and Mina can now count to 5.

Halloween was fun, of course. Mina had 3 costumes. Yes, 3. The weekend before Halloween she was a Pixie/Fairie at Descanso Gardens. The Tuesday before Halloween she was a flamingo for a little celebration at the local outdoor mall. The Friday before Halloween she was a peacock. We went to Poppy's work to trick-or-treat. Mina had a great time collecting candy and Poppy taught her to say trick-or-treat. She's not a shy as she used to be and had no problem asking strangers for treats (as long as Mommy or Poppy was right next to her). She was a peacock again on Halloween. We went to our friends house for a little party. 3 toddler girls and their parents.

Big big news!! Mina slept through the entire night in her own bed without waking up. 9pm to 6am. It was like a gift. We're still nursing to sleep and back to sleep when she wakes in the night. She sleeps in her own bed, coming into our bed sometimes in the early morning...

July, August

SO MUCH, SO FAST!! and so damn cute
Yikes... Starting with a few words here and there, then up to a few new words a day, Mina has begun to really talk. We tried to track them as they came tumbling out...



July

Mina announces when she makes a peepee. Can identify the colors red, purple, green and blue. Asks for yogurt by requesting "baby" because there is a baby on the organic plain yogurt for babies. Begins to call us by pet names: Poppy Titi and Mommy Nini. Calls herself Mimi. She starts to really play with her toy dolls/animals by wiping their butts and putting them to sleep.



The big move into The Big Girl Bed (right next to Mommy + Poppy's bed).



Words: henry, ice, happy, poppy, baby, bowl, spoon, eat, oatmeal, mommy, meow, moon (and pointed to it), who (points to owl), moo (points to cow), cold, flag, animal, pet, tea, bean, book, goat, car, cut, crow, food, shoes, socks, blueberry, popsicle, hop, cup, dirt,

Teeth #'s 8, 9 and 10. Molars - ouch. Tooth #11, front left bottom.

We went to a wedding. Mina was super cute.



August


The first week of the month Mina has a high fever for a few days followed by a rash... she got roseola. :( At the end of the month she has a tummy bug, vomit and diarrhea.



Words: cold, hot, cracker, box, teeth, cheese, "abcd", toes, water, faucet, have its.... At this point we can't seem to catch them and journal them fast enough. She's talking. A lot. :)




Now she strings words together... the first being "happy bowl strawberry". The following week she recounts her day for Poppy "eat Esme house. apple. cookie." Mina-speak is adorable. "Purple ducks" could mean either polka dots or porcupine.

Mina is also becoming more independent and adventuresome... She slid down the slide by herself this month while playing with Poppy at her favorite park, Big Turtle Park. She has started to ask to go to this park in a combo sign language/word sort of way. Big slurp park. (slurp = sign for turtle)



She can identify and say most of the colors now as well as the letters A, B and C.

May, June 2010

May

May began with a visit to the pediatrician for Mina's 15 month well-baby visit. She is still in the 85th - 90th percentiles for her height, weight and head circumference. She had a DTaP vaccine and was feverish for about 5 days afterwards. Not sure if it was related to the vax since she had a slight fever of 100 when we were at the office. In retrospect we probably should have waited to do the vaccine, but we thought the fever was just teething-related and very minor.



Mina has begun to experience frustration. She either has trouble doing things by herself, or she doesn't want to do something we want her to do. This frustration usually escalates into a tantrum. Luckily she is starting to speak up. Words are coming out... interesting ones, too. Soup, scissors and broccoli.
Gram came for a visit. Mina had a wonderful time with her. We think Gram had fun, too.



The petting zoo at our local farmers market is a favorite past time for Little Miss Mina. She was a bit nervous at first, but quickly became comfortable with all the little animals. Oh, it's a small animal petting zoo. So cute!


Lots of time socializing with friends at Descanso Gardens, Mothersong and random parks.

June
Lots of words! Butt, pee-pee, baby, down, apple, bye-bye, strawberry, sock, please, Poppy, purple, foot, up, octopus, cookie. Her sign language vocabulary has grown as well. So exciting!!
Mina has started to tell us when she has a wet diaper!
Tooth #7, bottom right in front.
Chest cold that lasted almost an entire week. :(

March, April 2010

More...
More willful, more emotional, more social and more teeth!!



Mina's personality is emerging, she's quite a thoughtful and nurturing girl. She loves to kiss, hug and feed others, her friends as well as Mommy and Poppy. A silly sense of humor is developing, too! She is still fairly quiet, but a few words come out now and then. We expect her to start really talking some time soon.



Her appetite for solid food has increased. She absolutely loves broccoli, yogurt and strawberries and has been known to enjoy a pickle or vinegary cucumber. :)



March:

Mina really started to come out of her shell this month, enjoying herself and participating more at the library story hour as well as at Mothersong, our two regular organized activities. She's made a few new friends, too.



Some pretty big emotional outbursts this month pave the way for tantrums. Lots of babbling and experimenting with words as well as a surge in sign language!



For Vernal Equinox we planted some seeds in our garden. Mina enjoys watering her garden daily and watching the sprouts emerge. Visiting her backyard Fairy Garden is one of her favorite things to do. We spend quite a bit of time at Descanso Gardens. Mina loves to smell flowers and herbs (she pinches leaves to smell them) and look at the koi in the ponds.



April:

The month began with Mina's first official tantrum and a sudden fear of the bathtub. The tantrums are almost cliche - flat on her tummy pushing backwards while kicking her feet and, of course, screaming. Luckily they are not frequent. The bathtub fear was a surprising bummer, but Mina is slowly getting over her fear and learning to love bathtime again. Although baths are a challenge, washing hands is not. Mina loves washing her hands!!



NanaSue was here with us for a week and Mina loved having the extra attention. Although she was teething and not feeling her best, Mina had a fun Easter hunting for eggs that Poppy hid in her Fairy Garden. She had a blast one day playing with the hose in the Fairy Garden with Mommy and NanaSue.



Two teeth emerged this month, #'s 5 & 6 (top front). Teething sucks. :(



Mina likes to sit in a chair like a grown up. She also likes to climb all over stuff like a monkey. And have tea parties with her new tea set and play dress up (such a girl). Reading is still fun. So is her play kitchen.



Mina went to her first wedding... a traditional Hindu Indian wedding. She had fun looking at all the pretty outfits and enjoying curry samosa sandwiches!



All in all Little Miss Mina is doing great and keeping us on our toes. We couldn't be happier (or more exhausted).