Thesis

This thesis won't write itself.
This thesis won't write itself.
This thesis won't write itself.

Time to focus, Cheyanne!
Easy to say, hard to do
;)

Comet, the fish

About a week before Petey went to my dad's, I bought Grace a fish as a new pet. I wanted her to have a pet of some kind and figured a fish would be the least allergic choice. I am finding that my allergies are getting worse over time.

One Saturday morning while Grace was with Gordie, I went out in search of a fish for her. I had quite a scary experience at the pet store when the guy working there came around the corner with a torantula on his shoulder. I do not have a phobia of spiders, but one that large bought out quite a fearful reaction. It was right at my eye level only about a foot away. The guy reassured me that it would not "jump" onto me and I was safe, but I still made him put it away while he helped me choose a hardy fish for Grace. I ended up choosing a beta fish with a small tank to match.

Grace was very excited to see the fish when she got home and quickly named him "Comet". My nephew Jasper has a hamster named Comet, so she may have remembered that name or maybe it comes from all the Christmas stories/songs as Comet is a reindeer. It is hard to tell where a 2 year old gets these things.

She hugs the fish tank and gives it kisses as well. Too cute!

Petey the Bird has left the building.

Petey the bird (see pictures on previous posts) has gone to live at my dad's house. He was quite a noisy pet that made me sneeze anytime I went near him. This made it quite hard to properly care for the little guy. My dad and his girlfriend offered to take Petey and give him a good home. Grace is excited that she will still get to see him when we visit them. They also have a skinny pig (that deserves a whole other post) so Grace that it was great that they could play together. I am not sure how much playing they will do....but whatever you have to tell your child to make the transition goes smoothly works for me.

She thinks she is a princess

Grace is convinced that she is a princess.

We have to watch the princess movies over and over again. This really goes against my views of television watching...but she gets so much pleasure out of watching these movies. It is really the only TV that she gets...but it is a little too often for my liking. The only other thing she likes to watch is "the kids" aka. Jon and Kate Plus Eight. She loves watching all of the kids playing.

Okay...back to the princess bit.

Anything that has a princess on it is automatically a hit with her. If we want her to do something then we tell her that princesses do it as well. I had to start telling her that princess (meaning the princess on her movie) was going to bed to help with bedtime. She wears her princess party shoes all the time, even to bed. This morning she had to take her princess tiara to school with her.

Here is a picture of her with one of her crowns on. Too cute!

Transition to the toddler bed

Okay...so I have been really neglectful of this blog. I didn't think anyone was really reading it until I got some emails saying "Why are you not writing on your blog?". So, I will make an effort to keep this more up to date.

Grace has started sleeping her toddler bed this week. I wanted to wait until the last possible moment to put her in the toddler bed, as I really like having her in the crib. She still fights bedtime and naptime almost every day, so she often cried for a few minutes after I put her in the crib. It was so easy to put her in and walk away.
Well....on Tuesday night I put her in her crib, said goodnight and walked out of the room. Something made me look back to check on her and there she was...sitting on top of her crib rail. One leg swung over the edge and one leg still in the crib. What a little monkey...so quiet and so sneaky. So, that was the end of the crib era. Her crib does convert to a toddler bed, but it still seemed so high off the ground...and I did not have a bedrail to put up. I had a toddler bed in the basement that I was planning to use instead. So, I dragged this heavy toddler bed up the stairs and set it up for the little princess.
Then, the real challenge begins. How do you get a 2 year old to sleep in a bed? She does this at daycare, but like most children, Grace does miraculous things at daycare that she does not do at home. I put a baby gate up in the doorway (another trip to the basement) and tried leaving her alone. That did not go well. In the end, I ended up sleeping on the floor beside her toddler bed until she fell asleep (about an hour later).
Last night, I was all prepared to bundle up on the floor again to get her to sleep. Gordie had offered to inflate an air mattress for me, but I did not want to make sleeping on the floor attractive to her. She tried sleeping beside me once on the floor and decided that the hardwood was too hard and cold for her. This time it was 2 hours later and she was not asleep....little rascal. And, I was sore from laying on the floor. So, I ended up leaving her in the room alone and within 15 minutes she was asleep.
I can only wonder what tonight will bring....I wish that Nanny 911 show had a 1-800 number you could call 24/7 with these questions. I

Happy Birthday to Me

Thanks for the cake mom, it was delicious! I found Grace with her hands in it about a hour later. She was eating cake for all she was worth! It was so cute that I did not scold her.

Having fun with her cousin's gifts

Grace had a great time playing on the plasma cars that her cousins got for Christmas. This cars are really fun. I even tried them out!

Christmas Photos

Eating Santa's Cookies

Santa's cookies looked so good that Grace had to try one.

How long can a stomach flu last?

Okay, seriously-- Grace is approaching the world record to how long a child can have the stomach flu. I have done so much laundry that my washing machine is saying "no, not again". She must have snagged two stomach viruses back to back as one could not possibly last for 12 days. Hopefully, it will clear by Christmas...and I can stop checking my shirt for throw up stains before I go out of the house (attractive, I know).
On the bright side, she is not dehydrated (by some miracle) and seems to be taking it all in stride. We have been to the doctor twice and received reassurances that she is suffering from a transient virus.
Get well soon sweetheart!
(and knock on wood that I won't get this stomach flu)

Update on the Felt Board

There are two more three sleeps until Christmas, but I may not get any of them unless I get to work on finishing my homemade Christmas gifts. Why did I want to make them myself again? Oh yeah...I remember....frustration with the commercialization of Christmas, instilling wholesome values in my toddler, doing crafts to relieve stress (???)....

Tonight I finished the felt board. I covered a spare board with an old flannel baby blanket and secured it with the glue gun. Man, why don't I use the glue gun more? Everything goes so quickly!

I sat down to watch TV with a pile of felt and scissors. One episode of "Little People, Big World" later and Voila!!

Below are the milk cartons that I have painted to make the homemade bowling set. I need to do some embellishments to make them more fun! I think I will make some bean bags for another game as well. How many hours to Christmas again?

Homemade Christmas Cards

Shhh...I have not given these cards yet...but I wanted to show you a sneak peek. I challenged myself to make four different Christmas cards (for the girls at work) from the same core materials.

I suprised myself with how creative I was. It is hard to see all the details in the photos, but are each quite unique. I think I forgot how much I liked to do paper crafts.

Family Photo from this fall

Talking in Sentences

Grace has started talking in sentences.....
This started about one week ago and she has been getting better each day. In early October she started to be able to tell us stories about things that had happened that day at daycare. She would say that she went on the bus or that they did crafts; however, now that she talks in sentences (at times) she is able to elaborate more on her stories. It is very cute!

Last week her daycare class when Christmas shopping at the Dollar Store. The parents provided the money and the list of people to shop for. Tonight on the way home she told me about wrapping the presents for mommy, daddy and "Pete" (the bird). She won't tell me what she bought, so I think we will have to wait for Christmas.

Petey, the budgie bird

A few weeks ago, we took in a budgie bird that needed a good home. A family member of one of Gordie's co-workers was giving away their budgie bird. It seems that their family cat was eyeing the bird quite closely. We debated taking him for a couple of weeks, and then I relented. He came with his cage, toys and food, so we needed to do little preparation.

Grace quickly named the bird "Pete" (also called "Petey"). We have no idea where she came up with that name! Grace seems to like the bird, but it is on-going struggle to keep her out of his cage. She loves to help Gordie feed Petey and gets most of his food in the dish.

Petey seems to be settling in well, despite my terrible idea one afternoon to let him out to stretch his wings. An hour later, with three major bangs into the patio door and no tail feathers (I don't know why they fell out!) he was back in his cage. Needless to say, I won't be doing that again soon! Sorry Petey.