December 13, 2008
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Brat Farm Nursery School is in Session
I thought I would use this time to bring you up to speed on things happening with Chewlee. I try to make our time together during the day a learning opportunity since she has a mind like a sponge. Right now she is plagued by her speech limitations but that is improving all the time.
If the Princess has to work the early part of the day, it means she is usually gone before Chewlee wakes up. My morning then becomes changing her diaper first of all and then it’s some time for hugs and kisses if she’s well rested. If not, then I spend some time trying to change that by playing with her and chasing her around. She’s easily entertained that way. After about a half hour, she’s ready for breakfast but you can’t feed her. Oh no! She will only allow you to feed her yogurt (don’t ask me why…I still haven’t figured it out). I tried to feed her some oatmeal one morning and she clamped her mouth shut. She wants to feed herself but she hasn’t mastered using a spoon quite yet. She DOES try. By trying, I mean that she will hold the spoon (sometimes it’s even vertical) and put whatever it is she’s been given on it and try to put it in her mouth. She actually looks more like she’s going to lap it up out of the spoon rather than put the spoon with the food into her mouth. It usually ends up on her tray where she will then pick it up with her other hand and put it in her mouth.
Personally, I think she limits her choices by being so insistent on feeding herself. It means scrambled eggs, waffles cut into small pieces, dry cereal like cheerios, cut up pieces of warm ham, bacon (which she loves but I make sure it’s small pieces since she doesn’t really chew bacon well), pancakes or french toast. The Princess will often feed her things like spaghetti or chicken but I am kind of traditional. Although I remember my kids eating odd things for breakfast, they WERE a bit older. I, myself, loved cold pizza or second day White Castle hamburgers (I still love those sliders….LOL) for breakfast when I was a kid. Truth be told, I still do to this day. My hubby and the Princess shudder when I grab pizza that’s cold and eat it. THEY will heat it up in the microwave but I find it does something to the taste. C’est la vie!
After I clean up Chewlee and her tray (the dog has dibs on any leftovers, whatever it is), I will let her run around and play with Baron. She will start off like a shot and they will chase each other around for a while then Baron will plop down by the front door (which we open in the morning) and enjoy his *sunbeam* shining in on sunny days. On dismal days, he will plop down on the loveseat (I keep a special blanket on it for this reason). I know then that he’s had about enough of the baby for the morning. At that point, Chewlee herself seems to be calming down because she will grab her blankey and her bottle and try to lay on Baron comfortably. It means she ends up laying down next to him most of the time. It’s a quiet time for all of maybe 10 minutes or so and then she will head for what we call *my room*. That is where her toys and books are and my TV.
Have I mentioned that Chewlee LOVES commercials? She does and some commercial will make her stop dead or come running. She will stand in front of the TV and do what I call her little butt wiggle to the music they all seem to have. If one of the Progressive Insurance commercials comes on (you know the one…it’s made to look like a game show), she will clap her hands when the woman gets her custom insurance coverage and she has to kiss me when the woman in the commercial kisses the host. It’s hysterical how she INSISTS that I have to kiss her.
I try to put on at least ONE of her dvd’s each day. She has some Dora ones, Curious George and Baby Einstein ones. If they don’t hold her attention, I switch to some of MY dvd’s. I have several Disney ones and some that are animals that she just loves. We also read her books. She just loves books and I have a difficult time keeping her from removing all my books from the bookcase in the living room. She really just wants to see pictures and she will point to ones she doesn’t know and expects me to tell her what they are. ALL children’s pictures are *babies* to her. She can’t make the leap yet to the difference between a doll and a baby. I can understand why since all her books are kids books and I am sure you know how they pictures are all drawn and not photos.
She will sit in my lap, the books open in front of us. She takes one of my fingers and points at different pictures. Then she looks at me while I say the name of whatever it is she has my finger on. If it is an animal, I will say the name and try to make the sound that animal makes. At first, any animal that walked on four legs was a *doggy*. She now knows the difference between a *doggy*, *kitty*, *lion*, *elephant* and *mouse*. After she points my finger at each thing, she will point my finger again, I say the name of it and she will try to say it after me. She also is learning things like numbers. We are up to the number two…LOL. BUT, she DOES know now that she has two feet and two hands. She made the leap to the fact that she (and I) have two eyes and two ears.
Some things she has learned to say very clearly. Like *get down*, *no*, *yes*, *stop that*…(and you can probably imagine why…LOL). She is trying to say clearly words like papa, shoes, banana, apple and a few others. Words that have an *L* in it are really funny to watch her say. She will watch your mouth intently to see how you use your lips and tongue but she tends to say the word without the L and then sticks the end of her tongue out after the word.
Since she is only 17 months old, words that have more than one syllable in them tend to confuse her a bit. She will usually make them into a single syllable in her baby way. Banana becomes *nana*, which is pretty much what all babies say at that age. But she also calls ME *nana* because Gramma is two syllables. That confuses ME because I am not sure if she is trying to get my attention or she wants a banana. She will take my hand and lead me to the counter where we usually keep bananas and then she points to it and says *nana* so I know.
I feed her a lot of different fruits after her meals like dessert. She loves peaches, bananas and apples. She isn’t sure if she likes pears or not yet but she will eat a few pieces. She can’t get enough mandarin oranges but I limit that because of the acid. After lunch is her nap time. She takes a nap for an hour and a half to two hours. Then it’s diaper change time (I have changed her a couple times before this, just so you know) and then toy time for a bit. If the weather is nice, I try to let her run around outside for a while, weather permitting. Baron usually joins us for that and it helps her drain off some of her energy.
I will usually have something on the TV for her while I rest and play a game on Pogo….IF SHE LETS ME (she sometimes decides she wants my FULL attention and will grab my hand from the mouse so I can’t play). And she will be insistent about it and has quite a strong grip. What I do now is play a game of solitaire so I can leave the game without any penalty being made (it’s not timed). Some days, she wants to watch me play and will clap when I clear the board. She throws her hands up in the air and says *all gone* and claps again. If I don’t clap for myself, she takes both my hands and shows me that I should clap. It then becomes a session of both of us clapping because I made the cards *all gone*.
By then, the Princess gets home and I can go and make dinner for us while she spends some quality time with Chewlee.
I will talk about when the Princess works the second half of the store day and I have to prepare dinner with Chewlee wanting to see and touch everything in the next blog. THAT was a real problem since she doesn’t really understand what is and is not hot yet. She also has not learned that knives can cut fingers and other things either. I DID find a way to keep her interested and occupied, however.
Well, it’s late and I need to get to bed. Tomorrow the Princess works later in the day so I will have my morning free. I need to run to Walmart to get my prescriptions filled and pick up some things for making cookies. The Princess still remembers having fun doing that for Christmas and she wants to introduce Chewlee to it while she can. I also have some decorating for Christmas I need to get done so that is another thing on my agenda.
Love you all and I shall return. Have a great weekend and I hope it’s good weather for all.
