Monday, March 28, 2016

Arwyn Week 40: Crawling, Creeping, Dancing, and Singing at 9 Months Old! - 3/24/2016

Arwyn is on a bit of a sleep strike these days, having a hard time going to sleep, taking short naps, and waking up 2 times at night.  I'm chalking it up to all her new skill developments and the change of routine with all the visitors around.  Hopefully I'll get back to getting a good night's sleep soon!  Arwyn has really perfected her standing skills, and can now pull herself up on things that are above her head (like taller coffee tables) or things that are rocky and unstable (like her jumper).  She also discovered how fun it is to stand over the humidifier and get a fan blowing in her face and hair (this is something that Leia also loved at her age).  We had a fun ride up the Funi at Squaw when we took Leia skiing.  Arwyn loved pressing her face up against the window and looking down at all the sights below.  One funny story happened on the car ride home from school with Daddy this week.  Leia and Josh were bantering back and forth saying "Daddy" over and over in different voices, when all of a sudden Arwyn decided to join in on the fun too and made her contribution of "Dad dad dad dad dad!"  The next day it was a little different.  Arwyn is constantly watching, studying, and listening to her big sister, and she's learned that Leia talks A LOT, and it's pretty hard to get a word in edge-wise.  So as soon as there was a break in the conversation and Leia got quiet for a second, it was pretty clear that Arwyn wanted her turn because she didn't waste a second in piping up and making her voice heard with more of her "Dad dad dad dad!"  She's also getting pretty adept at just rolling through all her best modes of communication; she goes from "Dad dad dad's" to clicks to raspberries without missing a beat!

After a few difficult weeks of dealing with Leia's toddler tantrums, Josh and I finally read a new parenting book to see if they had any new insights.  Using some of the new skills that we picked up from this book, we actually got her to clean up her toys in the living room for the first time ever, as well as getting her to sit next to me and be PATIENT while I had a full pumping session!  Hallelujah! She doing better on the potty training as well.  She still tends to realize that she needs to go a little too late to actually make it to the toilet on time, but she's doing better with the preemptive requests (also thanks to our new parenting techniques).  Her first day back at school she didn't have any accidents all day, but as soon as she got to the car with Daddy, oops!  The second day didn't go so well, accidents all day long.  Oh well, learning curve.  She saw her first full feature movie in a real theater with Grandma and Grandpa this week, Zootopia.  She was too light for the movie seats, which kept folding up on her, so she had to sit in their laps, but other than that, she did great and totally loved it.  She's been really Mommy needy this week, which is always a mixed blessing.  I assume it has to do with the potty training, but who knows.  She's also been constantly telling us "I'm not big, I'm little." I think that's she's both jealous of Arwyn and conflicted about this whole potty thing for big girls.  I hear you Leia, it's hard to have to grow up!  Another thing that I'm learning about my daughter is that she's able to shrug off adversity quite easily, which I am not.  I always let things bother me for quite awhile before I can get over it, which is why she is always telling me "it's ok Mommy."  Normally this is a good trait on her part, but the other day, after decorating Easter eggs, she insisted on putting about 6 of them into her Monkey Bag, much to our distress.  But she insisted she would be careful, which she was, until she got angry at me for turning off the TV.  Then she decided to use the bag as a weapon to whack me several times (take note all you would be purse snatchers out there, don't mess with Leia!), and of course ALL the eggs broke!  Well, we were hoping she would learn a powerful lesson out of all this, but Leia, ever the optimist, says "It's ok Mommy, I'll just have to hunt and find a lot more eggs!"

Family trip up the Funi!

Arwyn was really liking the view from high up in the air!


"Mom, are you seeing this stuff?  Where are we??"


"Oh yeah, I love to feel the breeze flowing through my hair!"


Wind tunnel!

9 Months Old and cute as can be!

Still loves that tongue!


"So how did you say I am here?"


Look at me everyone, I'm 9 Months!

"Well you don't say!"


Love those sweet cheeks!

"Yep, 9 tastes good!"

Just loving her ability to stand.

Concentrating very hard at some important matters at hand.

Leia just found her happy place...treasure hunting with the other professionals!


So psyched to be outside and enjoying the pretty view!


It was not the cold air or water temps that were slowing her down, just the missing water sandals for navigating the rocks!


Beautiful day to bring your own rainbow!



Happy baby in her snuggly new suit!

The rarely seen somber side to Miss Leia.

"Oh yeah, I'm standing!"

Power stance!

Loving all her new dresses from Grandma!

Leia and Mommy's Wedding Ceremony...doesn't she look beautiful in her wedding gown and "wedding hat"?


Could this happy and proud little munchkin be any cuter?


Looking better in my glasses than I ever have.

Hippy Leia with her sword of power!

Arwyn's first ever "happy food dance"...guess she likes cottage cheese!

Hard to believe someone would refuse to eat something this cool right?


So fired up about dying Easter eggs!



"Oh yeah, I'm good!"


The creative juices are flowing.

She definitely gets into her art.

Fighting about whose turn it was to put their egg in the cup...two peas in a pod!

Any question here about who won?

Arwyn's contribution to egg dying was trying to eat the box!

One happy kid!

Two pretty eggs!

Pretty great batch of Easter Eggs Leia made this year!

Fun with marbling.

Turquoise and orange to match her room.




Thursday, March 24, 2016

Arwyn Week 39: Clicking with the Dolphins - 3/17/2016

It was a big week of visitors at the Transue household.  Uncle Cody, Aunt Jen, Cousin Soren, Grandma, and Grandpa all came to see us, so Leia and Arwyn stayed home from school all week.  Arwyn really increased her crawling distance, but still doesn't wander much for the heck of it.  She's too busy playing and standing where she is, but if you leave her alone, she'll crawl over to your vicinity to continue her business.  We busted out the tunnel and got her to go through it once, which was in stark contrast to Leia, who always enjoyed doing marathon laps through the thing!  Not sure what the attraction is, but Arwyn has also started eating my hair.  She'll grab a chunk and suck incessantly, grab it back when I pull it away, and by the time she's done, my hair is soaking wet!  Time for pony tails I guess.  Arwyn's only human word is still "Da da da da," but amazingly enough she has learned to talk to dolphins!  Her tongue clicking skills are off the chart, and she doesn't understand why we just smile, laugh, and randomly click back instead of responding to her code like the animals do!

Leia's week was a mix of good and bad.  Her grandparents spoiled her properly, so we were able to bribe some nice behavior out of her, but she also had her fair share of tantrums.  She made lots of improvements on the potty training front, which was great, and is getting more amenable to our constant requests to please try and use the potty, but we still had several accidents.  She even got out of the hot tub to pee one day!  We went skiing with her best friend McKenzie, and as soon as "Kenzie" arrived, she went from wanting me to hold her all the time to wanting to do everything by herself and totally showing off.  This was a good thing for her skiing confidence, but unfortunately she just wasn't quite ready to go by herself from the very top!  I was trying to get her to turn, but she just wiggled her butt back and forth, so apparently she takes after her Uncle Worm.  Kenzie was able to snowplow and make turns on her own while her Dad held her on a ski leash in case she got out of control, and I was pretty impressed with her skills.  I decided I am way behind schedule with Leia, that she too is actually ready for a leash, and that we need to get our game on this spring!  I prepped her by saying we have a "Magic Leash" just like Kenzie's and got her fired up to ski by herself while we just hold her leash.  The next time we went out with Dad and PopPop, she did very well with her leash.  Plus, we had her pick names for her legs (left leg is Izzy, right leg is Jake - characters from her favorite TV show), so we were finally able to tell her to push on her Izzy leg or Jake leg to make turns.  It worked really well!  She may not know her left and right yet, but she sure does know her Izzy and Jake!  We even got her to snowplow a little bit, but she really prefers to go fast.  Another huge change was her ability to have her friend Echo over to play, and she shared all her toys with no fussing.  It was so great, the two of them went off playing and doing their thing, and we didn't hear any tears or fights!


Husband out of town, Grandma babysitting the kids = girls dinner out!



Always concentrating so hard on her tasks!


Love, love, love how much these two already love each other!

Fun and silly...life is good!

Password = Arwyn



Soren dancing with the singing Care Bears!

First time through the tunnel...this is cool!

Cousins!

So many interesting things going on at once!





Aunt Jen and Soren celebrating his 1st birthday!

Such beautiful blue eyes!

Oh, now that's a devilish look...not possible from my angel Arwyn!

I guess Uncle Cody was a little too close for comfort to this wild one!
 
Snow babies...so serious!

"Happy Aunt Patty's Day!" says Leia and thinks Arwyn.

Fired up about her new "Magic Leash"!

I think this will be a life long theme...Daddy was not ready to give her a longer leash!
 
Password = Leia
 



Warning? Danger?  Ok, sign Leia right up!

Uh oh, first big crash!  No big deal for this tough kid.
 


After skiing ice cream treat with PopPop and Grandma!

"Pink Ice Cream," aka Raspberry Sorbet, is her new favorite!


Tongue contest!  Don't mess with Arwyn the Tongue Master!