Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Arwyn Week 54: Arwyn Starts to Sing - 6/30/2016

Arwyn has really found her voice and has decided to express her desires much more.  Luckily she doesn't usually want too much.  She does apparently want to play in the hot tub though.  The other day she just saw the hot tub cover go up, and scrambled to the door and started fussing and crying until Grandma let her get into the hot tub with Leia!  She also tells me when she doesn't care for the food I'm giving her, which was just about everything I gave her this week since she was sick, but tries to shake her head or put her hand up to tell me no thanks, or she just grabs stuff off her plate and hands it back.  She's definitely saying Leia more, and I think she said "yeah" the other day.  Arwyn is starting to like singing.  She hears Leia do it, and now she's been trying to sing along to the music on our car rides to school.  I hear both words (aka, garble) and humming.  It is the cutting thing ever!  Her laughing skills have moved up a notch; she really gets excited about things and lets out huge belly laughs.  She's still into climbing on everything, and recently added to her repertoire an attempt to climb up the vertical latter rungs on the high chair at Nana's.  She also tried to climb up the rungs of the wooden stool, but when it started tipping over on top of her, she was smart enough to stop, get back down, and move along to something else.  Arwyn has figured out how to open the kitchen cabinets and drawers without pinching her fingers now, so she's found a whole new world to explore (and so far she's agreeable to stopping when she gets into a cabinet that I tell her is not allowed).  She's also able to stick two of the large Mega Block Legos together and pull them back apart over and over.  Arwyn did give us a little scare this week when, a few hours after taking a dive out of the wagon, she because extremely agitated and unconsolable for almost an hour.  Josh, Poppy, and I agreed that this was not characteristic of our sweet Arwyn, and we were loading the car to head to the ER (only thing open on Sunday) when she finally calmed down.  We delayed the trip and I tried for the second time to feed her, she finally accepted, and afterwards was happy as a clam for the rest of the day!  Not too sure what her problem was, but glad it wasn't too serious.  She's also started what appears to be the 12 Month Sleep Regression: refusing naps, crying before bed, and waking up at night.  All her symptoms seem pretty textbook, so hopefully we'll be able to push though this pretty quickly.  Plus, she's always been a bad napper at school, hardly have more than 30 or 40 minutes, and this weeks they've had a particularly hard time with her, especially with all her screaming while the other kids are trying to sleep.  So Lynsey ended up taking her outside for a nap one day.  They just laid down in the shade and Lynsey rubbed her until she stopped crying and fell asleep.  Still only lasted 30 minutes, but at least she didn't wake up all the other kids.  Welcome to toddlerhood, it seems to start the second they turn 1!

Leia was surprisingly sweet and really grateful for things this week, despite getting totally spoiled with presents.  It was much better than Christmas when she just wanted more, more, more.  This time everything was accompanied by a big smile and a genuine "Sank you so much!"  She's also been having very sophisticated conversations where she's genuinely sorry about something she's done and is working through the consequences: "I'm really sorry Mommy.  This was a bad idea, I'm not going to do that again.  I promise."  Leia's been a full week now in her toddler bed, and it has been going really well.  Josh told her that the rule was, she still had to stay in bed and call us when she was ready, and she has actually done exactly that.  Exactly one time I heard her and saw her in the monitor get up to peek out the door, but then she got right back into bed to call me.  She even stays in bed at night, and when she throws something out, she calls us to get it for her, as if she's incapable.  I do try to go up a little sooner in the morning, considering she can actually get out of bed if I piss her off by waiting too long.  Leia had her second ever visit to the dentist, which went really well again.  Unfortunately we have to start making her brush her teeth twice a day and floss now, so that's going to be a pain.  A while ago we had to introduce Leia to the concept of squatting in the woods to go potty because the bathrooms weren't open at the park.  Well, now they are open, and available at almost every park we go to, but it has become her favorite thing to "squirt in the woods."  I try to tell her that if it's a poop, she needs to use the toilet, but she lies and says it's pee only, then poops anyway.  Now I'm like a dog owner, running around looking for poop bags to scoop up my kids poop and toss it.  So ridiculous (but better than cleaning poopy underwear)!!  I was really tired and frustrated from lack of sleep and stress, so the other day when Leia pissed us all off by not getting dressed or putting on sunscreen, and I told her I was angry, she says her usual, "Are you happy Mommy?"  "No Leia, I'm very sad and angry right now." "Well Mommy, if you are sad, you should sit in the quiet box until you are happy again.  You can sit in my quiet box in my bed if you want."  I'm thinking this must be something from school, but it put a smile on my face and did make me happy, at least for a second.


Arwyn helping PopPop build Leia's new toddler bed.

You might think this looks messy, but it's actually much cleaner than the old one!

Arwyn finally sprouted up just enough to more effectively grab the handles, now she's ready to really get jumping just like her big sister does!

Password = Arwyn


Surprise eye dilation at the eye doctor sure makes it hard to drive!

Beautiful sunset over Tahoe!


"Uh, can someone tell my why there's a huge flower growing out of my head?!"

For probably close to a year now, Leia has slept with her head at the other end of her bed.  The new bed was also set up that way, yet here she is with her head at the foot end. New bed, new direction!?

Lying peacefully with her cool cat (dentist supplied) glasses watching Frozen on the ceiling, in total cooperation.  I'm glad she likes the dentist, but why can't it be this easy at home??

Relaxing in the grass at Bear Creek Pond.

So many things to smile about when you're at the pond!

Love this cutie in her new bikini!

Sand play is serious business!

Leia loves making us all "cakes" to eat.



All fresh and clean!

June 26th...Happy Actual Birthday Leia...lucky girl has been celebrating all week!

Fast asleep, her new iPod clutched tight in her hand!


With her new Cow Cooler, adult lady purse, and eclectic spotted clothes, the bag lady is back in full force!

Bloody crime scene or awesome tasting booger?  Either way, I felt bad at having put off her morning bed cries for help for 5 whole minutes, but not as bad as if it had been the 10 minutes that I usually wait!


Off to Wisconsin...first plane ride as a family of 4!

Arwyn loved the plane...she smiled and flirted the whole time...no crying, but also no sleeping!




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