Category: Tales from the Crib

Cookies Gone Wrong

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Yesterday afternoon, Bay and I put on some Christmas music, lit a cinnamon candle and fired up the oven to make some Christmas cookies.  B was thrilled to play in the left over dough, flour and sprinkles while the cookies cooked. It was a lovely afternoon.

That is until two cookies escaped the baking sheet and dropped into the oven where they broke into a million pieces. Crap. I decided to just close the door and let it cool before I attempted to clean them up. Until the kitchen began to fill with smoke.

“Why not let it self clean??” I thought. So I put on the self clean setting and returned to icing the trees. Until I noticed that it appeared we had a yule log in our kitchen…yup the cookies had ignited in the oven. I quickly turned off the oven and stepped back trying to decide what to do next – get the extinguisher? Call 911? As I contemplated, the fire quickly went out. Bay casually looked over from her sprinkling duties and said “Mommy, there’s a fire in the oven”. Yes, yes there is kiddo.

Despite our house smelling like a camp fire, all is well. The oven cooled and is no worse for the wear (I think). I cleaned out the chunks of cookie and it is now happily self-cleaning (I think). The windows are open, the fans are going and there are holiday scented candles burning so hopefully by this afternoon there will be no evidence of our almost fiasco.

When my cousin Will arrived last night to watch UofA and eat us out of house and home (I was prepared with 3 lbs of tacos) I told him what had happened. He responded “what’s with you guys and fire??” – referring to the grill fire of 2009. It’s nice to have family who cares about you.

On the bright side, the cookies were delicious! Chef Mini Wand does it again!

The Chef hard at work.

Check out that post nap hair.

Much like shoes, you just can’t have too many sprinkles.

BFFs

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Baylor’s new things are favorites and bests. As in her favorite song, animal and meal and bests friends.

She is constantly asking me if the song we’re listening is my favorite, or if my shoes are my favorite pair, or if my car is my favorite car. And in turn, she tells me when she’s wearing her favorite outfit, hair bows and Bear the dog.

After a weekend spent with her step cousins, soon to be cousin and second cousins (yes, we are the actual Big Fat Greek wedding family – just English decent), Baylor is into picking her best friends. On Thursday, it was her cousin Madi. Then her cousin Zoe. On Saturday, it was her cousin Abby. And on Sunday, it was me.

While getting ready for bed, B looked at me and sincerely said “Mommy, you mine best friend”. My heart melted. I reciprocated and told her she was my best friend and she responded with “No mommy, you mine best friend”. There was no need to argue. It was better to just snuggle up with my BFF.

I Like You

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This morning while changing Baylor’s Pull Up, she put her hands on my face and said:

“Mommy, I like your shirt. And you ponytail and your headband. And I like your eyes and your mouth. And I like your boogers.”

With “boogers” she cracked up. As did I. I asked her if she meant the rest of it but she was too busy giggling at her own joke to respond. I like to think that she meant all of it!

I NICE NOW!!!

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Baylor has been working on pushing her boundaries lately. She’s exercising her right to ignore me and flexing her 2 year old muscles when it comes to doing the exact opposite of what I am asking/telling/screaming at her to do. In all? It’s been a fun two weeks.

I decided it was time to get tough so on Sunday, I instituted “two times and then time out” – meaning I will ask her two times to do something (just in case she didn’t hear or understand me) and if she still doesn’t listen, it’s to the crib for some quiet time.

Her school describes the use of time outs as a chance for the child regain control of themselves. Which I think is a nice way of saying “we make them sit by themselves until they get their sh*t together and can rejoin their pals”. Which I am totally down with.

I lost my temper on Sunday when she just. would. not. sit. and. eat. her. food. It was making me insane and she was doing everything except eat including dancing, crawling across the counter, singing, screaming and feeding her carrots to Bear. I had had it so I scooped her up and deposited her in her crib and said “Call me when you’re ready to be nice”. Maybe 5 minutes later, I can hear her saying Mommy and then something else, but I couldn’t make it out. Then PW started cracking up – she was saying “MOMMY!! I NICE NOW!!”. And she was nice. She came out, finished her dinner with only a little fussing and we had a great rest of the evening.

Then yesterday morning, 6:45, she was right back in the crib for not listening when I asked her to sit down in her seat rather than stand on it. Again I hear ” MOMMY!! I LISTEN YOU NOW!!!” and she did listen and the rest of the day went smooth.

I’m not sure if the time oust are more for her or for me, but I can say that her humor cracks me up.

Baylorisms – part 2

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Because our sweet girl has a language all her own:

“Frog” – Bay has a humidifier that looks like a frog. Therefore all humidifiers are called Frogs.

“Hopsitle” – or hospital to you and me

“Gubs” – gloves

“Cookie” – her cousin Quincy

“Nahma and Nampa” – grandma and grandpa

“Poppynoni” – the fast way to say Pop and Noni

“NumNums” – her favorite stuffed rabbit – Peter taught her that rabbits say “num num num” when their little noses twitch

“Loga” – yoga

“Busssssss” – when she was just starting to speak, she would only say Buh for bus. I would accentuate the S sound and now bus has a super long s!

“Baylor lock” – the lock on the door that she can’t reach and therefore keeps her inside. When Peter comes home, I hear “Mommy!! I can’t open door because the BAYLOR lock!!”

 

 

 

The Littlest Blockwatch

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Ever since we’ve become friends with our neighbor, Melissa, Bay has had an eye on her house. B was hooked with the first high-five “Missa” gave her and now she is constantly on the look out. I know when Missa has left her patio light on. I’m told when her kitchen blinds are open and if her car is there all because the Littlest Block Watch is filling me in. I know when Missa is cutting her grass and when she’s missed a spot. I know if Missa has gotten her mail or if it’s still in the mail box.

The funniest part is what Missa is allegedly doing when she is or isn’t home – if the blinds are closed, I’m told that Missa is very tired and still sleeping. If her car is gone, then she’s probably at “Loga” – or yoga to you and me. And when Bay’s door is open with the baby gate and Missa’s windows are open, there is a constant stream of “HIII MISSAAAAA!!!” being shouted out the door until I explain that she probably can’t hear her – or that Missa probably thinks there is some kind of wild animal making crazy sounds.

I finally broke down and told Melissa a few months ago that there is little that she does that goes unnoticed at our house. I was expecting her to freak out and decide to put up a privacy fence or something (and rightly so). Instead she responded “Oh good, I’m glad someone’s got an eye on the place!”. And now I get a text once in awhile asking the LBW to keep a close eye while she’s away.

This will be a great story when Bay is a detective or a FBI agent some day….or as evidence against her in a stalker trial. Either way, it’s cute.

Today is Scottsdale Moms Blog day! Be sure to see my post on cute Thanksgiving themed crafts. 

Croupy Kiddo

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We’ve been hit with the croup. B came home early from preschool with a fever and then woke up from her nap barking like a puppy – but not in a fun way.

So I reluctantly took her to the doctor. I say reluctantly because she’s still at the super fun “we don’t give medicine other than Tylenol” age so there’s not always a point to handing over the $20 copay. But they do check her oxygen levels so it’s worth it when she’s got a cough. We’re lucky that she is very healthy and had clear lungs, just the inflammation in her trachea. We did walk out with a prescription, which felt like a small victory.

She’s on the mend and the cough has drastically improved. But the lack of sleep all the way around in our house is starting to take its toll. We broke down and let her sleep in bed with us last night – and now I remember why we don’t do that. She’s like sleeping with a badger. Even though she is totally asleep, she kicks, flails, throws punches, headbutts, rolls – God help her when she’s not in a crib any more, we’ll have to make her sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor to prevent injuries from falling out of bed.

I’m praying that we will all sleep well tonight and wake up ready for a busy and fun weekend. Fingers crossed!

Oh! And it’s Scottsdale Moms Blog day. Check out my snazzy bar stool makeover. It would be the perfect chilly weekend project. http://www.scottsdalemomsblog.com/

 

How Fast They Grow

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I was struck by a picture I took of Baylor this weekend. I occurred to me just how fast she has grown. Here’s what I mean:

                       March 20, 2010                        October 22, 2011


Same kid. Same bench. From cruising to climbing.  Several inches and a lot more hair in just a year in a half!

Happy (belated) Halloween!

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Yeah I know this is a day behind, but trying to create Halloween too far in advance is just too much work!

We had a great weekend filled with lots of pumpkin carving – or drilling in Peter’s case (don’t ask because I can’t explain). We had a blast scooping out the guts, trying to interpret what Baylor wanted hers to look like and watching Peter create a master piece using pipe cleaners. Here’s how they turned out:

{Baylor’s classic “pumpin”}

{Peter’s. Enough said}

{And the pièce de résistance – Cannibal Pumpkin!}

This is the first year that Bay really got the whole enchilada. She likes to dress up and she totally got the hang of trick-or-treating once she realized there were M&M’s involved. We were also lucky to inherit a hand me down Minnie Mouse costume from Bay’s cousin Madi. It was the real deal too; dress, ears, gloves, ring, tights and shoes. She was in love. Minnie is one of the only characters she really knows so she was excited to look like one of her favorite “amimals” or stuffed animals.

The gloves didn’t last long and the tights were too hot, but the important parts were there! Including a Minnie bracelet from our super cute neighbor.

First stop of the night

Aunt Christiane  (Titi) and cousin Zoe the Gnome

Enjoying all the candy she could eat!

It’s Nice to Know

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I think every mom worries/wonders/prays they are doing a good job raising their children. And I think often, the little buggers are quicker to pick up on the “bad” or less favorable things we say rather than the good stuff (read Baylor yelling “WHAT DID I SAY?? DID I SAY YES OR DID I SAY NO??” in my tone and inflection).

But once in a while we see them doing something that we know they learned from us. And it’s a nice thing. And it shows that maybe they are getting as much of (or more hopefully) of the good things we’re teaching them and not all the “patience lost” moments. I got a little of this reward on Saturday when I walked by Baylor’s room and found her snuggled in her chair with Minnie Mouse, a blanket and a book. She was quietly “reading” the story to Minnie. I watched her for a few seconds before she looked up and smiled and then went back to her book.