Nice weekend

We had a great time this weekend. Saturday morning breakfast was a success. We had a good turnout, lots of cute kiddos in costume, some good food, and mimosas and bloody marys to top it off.



Let's see... We had Roan the giraffe, Audrey the puppy dog, Camilla the lady bug, Isis the fairy princess, Morgan the hula girl, Brady as Yoda, and Morgan's friend who came as Buzz Lightyear (he refused to go by his real name all morning!) That morning when I was getting Roan dressed she refused to get into her costume. She just wanted to carry it all over the house and hug the stuffed giraffe head. But once Audrey showed up in her puppy dog suit, Roan suddenly wanted to get her costume on. Ah, the power of peer pressure!

Once we had our fill we headed down to Tennyson. Of course all the toddlers wanted to walk, which put us at an absolutely glacial pace. It took us a while, but we had fun. We stopped in and got a piece of candy at every shop. Roan got her one piece for the day - a lollipop - and was content for the most part just to get to hold the rest of the candy. Truth be told, I hear that Aunt Jen slipped her a second piece when we weren't looking, but that's not too bad. And she hasn't asked for any more candy since Saturday. More for Mom and Dad!

Here are just a handful of pictures, but you can see the rest (plus a couple videos) here: http://www.flickr.com/gp/11647815@N04/jP5RD8

On Sunday we headed downtown with Scott, Molly, Audrey, Jen and Micah to hear Obama speak. I say "hear" rather than "see" because the crowd was so huge we never got a look at him. It was really amazing to see so many people gathered together all excited about the same thing. And really neat to see how diverse the crowd was. They say there's a good chance Colorado may go blue this time around - that would be neat. So far in all of my voting life my vote has never contributed to my candidate's electoral count.

Arwen and I voted early this year by mail in ballot. What a great idea! I highly recommend it. It was so nice to be able to peruse all of the ballot issues when we had time, rather than scrambling to the polls on their schedule. No lines, no crowds, no waiting. Then when we were done we just carried them over to the polling place and turned them in. Easy peasie.

Roan is of course far too young to appreciate the finer points of political discourse this election year. But she can say "Obama!" with plenty of gusto. And she looked so cute in "piggy tails" as she calls them for the first time that day.



She and Audrey had a lot of fun that day. It was an adventure just getting there - with a walk over the Millenium Bridge and a short but very crowded bus ride. Then they spent all morning running around on the capitol grounds staying warm in the sunny but chilly weather. After it was over, on our walk back to the car Roan took a little cat nap in her backpack to recharge.



The good times keep rolling with our little angel. She has been so much fun lately. Sunday I took her shopping for some winter clothes. I wasn't sure how she would feel about being dragged around from one store to the next all afternoon, but she kept saying "We shop Roan clooooothes," and "go shopping!" so I think she enjoyed it. And she took it pretty well when I didn't buy her a toy at every store we went into (she of course found something she had to have at every stop).

She continues to amaze us with all she does. Her latest trick is singing. She can sing most of the words to Twinkle, Twinkle, a few of the words to The Wheels on the Bus, and she can make it most of the way through the alphabet song. There is just nothing like hearing that little cherub voice try to sing. Here's a video. You kind of have to strain your ears to make out what letter she's trying to say but it's not bad for an 18 month old. ;)

Little Angel

The roller coaster ride of toddler-dom has taken an upswing the last few days. Roan has been as sweet as can be, so happy all the time, even an outright giggle box. She has been particularly sweet and loving, overflowing with hugs and kisses. The other morning as I was helping her brush her teeth in the mirror, she put her arms around my neck and said "My Mama, my mama." So sweet.


This morning she picked out her clothes - her red corduroy dress with hearts on it. She's just about outgrown it but she loves it so much I hate to pack it away just yet. She was so cute I had to snap a couple of pictures.







I better get myself to bed. Tomorrow is a big day. We've invited a bunch of friends over for Saturday Morning Breakfast followed by the Tennyson Trick or Treat Street. All the kiddos are coming over in costume. Can't wait!

Friends

I've been doing a lot of belly aching and not a lot of picture taking lately. Here are some cute ones of Roan with her friends Scarlett and Isis last week when we all went to the park on a gorgeous Fall day.

Sippy cup friends


Holding hands with Scarlett




They had a blast riding this 3-seated bouncy toy together.






And for the latest Terrible Twos update, last night Roan again refused to put on jammies. We tried everying and finally had to put her to bed in just a diaper - which she later took off. And we had to listen to her cry herself to sleep. I hate this! It just stinks being unable to comfort her. We found her this morning asleep, naked, bum in the air, curled up on her blankie, soaked in pee. So cute and yet so gross.

More fun

Thanks everyone for your words of encouragement and support. That has helped, as well as keeping things in perspective: At least we don't have twins!

I read an interesting article in one of those (usually not so helpful) parenting magazines that talked about how kids tend to be "easy" around their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th birthdays but "difficult" around their half birthdays. They quoted some psychologist's theory that was a little over my head - something about vacillating emotionally from secure and confident to insecurity over new abilities/changes/expectations.

Interestingly Roan is right around 1-1/2 and also lately she has been showing much more interest in potty training. (She kind of took a breather from it for a while.) Who knows, maybe she's getting ready to get serious about potty training - or some other new skill - and that comes with some additional clinginess and unpredictable emotions.

In any case we've just been rolling with it - what else can ya do right? And generally she is just the sweetest most fun inventive adorable person. It's just that 10% of the time when you're thinking How in the heck am I gonna handle THIS one?

Like this morning when she refused to let me put her diaper on or get her dressed for a half hour even though we were late getting out the door to daycare. I just gave her some space, let her run around naked, used the time to get myself ready, and used eating breakfast as a motivator to get her to comply: We can eat as soon as you get dressed. Let me know when you're ready.

Even though I would consider this morning a success - I stayed calm and collected, the situation never escalated into a big temper tantrum and eventually she got dressed happily - you can't help but second guess yourself. Should I have "gotten tough" with her to demonstrate that sometimes she has to do what Mommy says? Am I letting her "get away with too much" by waiting it out and trying to convince her to make the right decision herself? Maybe so. But I have to admit, this approach seems to result in a less frustrated Mom and a happier toddler, even if it does take longer.

Last Thursday night proved more of a challenge. Arwen and I decided to be brave and test out another evening without Mommy. I went to Knit Night, less for the knitting than as another opportunity to see if we can make some progress on this front. Arwen said she did great all evening and they had a ton of fun, which was easy to see by the mess in the house when I got back. But right at bedtime she had another episode - not I want my Mommy, thankfully - but No diaper! No no no no no!

He tried to be patient and wait it out, but it was getting past her bedtime. He didn't want to force her into a diaper and jammies so finally resorted to putting her into her crib buck naked and crying. There was no consoling her. Not long after I got home and we decided to be brave and go in there together. And we found she had made us a big surprise: she took a giant dump in her bed. Poor thing, she wasn't happy about it at all. She was crying saying, "Roan poop bed, poop bed." We told her it was alright and tried to explain (in toddler-ease) that one of the benefits of wearing a diaper is avoiding these kind of unfortunate situations. She seemed to understand. Before long she was back to her sweet happy self.

I wish I could say the trauma of this incident had a positive lasting impact on Roan's recent attitude toward diapers, but that does not appear to be the case. Lately she never wants her diaper changed to begin with, and even once you get her down and cleaned up then she doesn't want the new diaper on. She'll say she wants to go on the potty but either won't actually sit down on it or gets up and down 10 times without doing any business. Whoever said parenting requires a lot of patience was right!

The picture up top is Roan and me with our friend Doug, who recently visited us for his first week with our company. He will be holding down the Houston office now that the Big Boss has moved to Denver. Below are pictures of our new front door. It's been quite a process. It took a whole day to get the raw door hung. Then another week before we picked out a stain to apply. We stained it a dark brown (not pictured) and it took the better part of two days to dry. Now we still have four coats of varnish ahead of us! But it has already made a huge difference in the look of the house.

Hmm... maybe *this* is what they meant

... by "terrible twos." Boy I tell ya, tonight was a doozie. It started off nice enough. We picked up Roan from daycare and decided to stop off at the park on the way home. She had fun on the slide with a family of 6 kids (ages 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8... how do those parents do it?!?!).

When we got home she set about eating dinner with enthusiasm: mixed veggies, chicken and blueberries. Tuesday has been our night for running club, but now that days are getting shorter and colder, we're switching to a new schedule. Arwen and I thought we'd try taking turns on Roan duty while the other hits the gym.

I made it to a weightlifting class just a few minutes late; it was great to be back in the gym after too many months off. I was home an hour later, walking in the door with a spring in my step. Arwen greeted me at the door with a wild look in his eye and exasperation in his voice. In the short time I'd been gone all hell had broken loose.

After playing happily with Daddy for a little while, Roan fell to pieces over something small and had spent a full 45 minutes kicking and screaming for Mama on the floor by the front door. Arwen swears he's never seen anything like it. She was crying and screaming with such intensity that she was wheezing, coughing and having trouble breathing. She was absolutely inconsolable, and Arwen was very near that point himself by the time I got home.

As soon as I walked in the door she was happy again... for a little while. Before long it was time for bed though and I saw for myself a little what Arwen was talking about. One moment she was happy and playful and the next she was completely freaking out about the pajama bottoms I put on her. I mean she totally lost it. Wailing, shrieking, snot coming out both nostrils. At first I tried to comfort her with some snuggles, but there was just no calming her. I left the room for a little while, then came back in and waited it out. Eventually, still in tears she brought over a different pair of pajamas and when I offered to help put those on her instead she was placated.

We managed to get through the bedtime routine uneventfully but as soon as I put her in bed the real crying began. We had already decided not to indulge in a bunch of back and forth picking her up and putting her back to bed; we have to be clear with her that when it's bedtime, that's it.

She made it quite clear, however, that that was not it. She proceeded to cry and scream for an hour. Then after about half an hour of quiet, just when we had poured ourselves a beer and breathed a sigh of relief she started up again. And this time it wasn't just crying. She started saying things. Like "help." And "down." And "dada hold you." It was soooo sad. We were nearly fit to be tied by this point.

The thing is, we would love to be able to go in her room, give her a hug and fill her with enough happiness and security to drift off to sleep with a big ol smile on her face. But we keep getting bit on the ass on that, excuse my french. Every time we walk in there it seems to just prolong the suffering and make it more likely that she'll wake up crying again.

So we steeled ourselves with alcohol and toughed it out tonight. All I can say is, I hope we all have a good night of sleep.

In any case here is a video of our, ahem, little angel, just goofing around in the mirror.

Happy 18 Months!

Roan is 18 months today. Yay! She has changed so much over the last six months, it is incredible. She shows more and more personality every day. This is how I would describe my daughter:

• loving
• smart
• curious
• strong
• friendly
• happy
• enthusiastic
• beautiful
• caring
• strong willed
• independent

Here are some things I enjoy watching her do:

• draw and draw and draw in the bathtub with tub crayons
• pull all of her blankets out of her drawer and put all her babies "night night"
• hug and kiss her daddy, Aunt Jen and GaGa
• hold hands with her friends
• hide under a blanket or a towel, then reveal herself exlaiming proudly, "boo!"
• share her toys unprompted with friends
• climb on top of Arwen and say "hop pop!"
• run to her teachers and friends at daycare and say casually "bye mommy!"
• "help" mom and dad in the garden with her very own shovel
• climb up to take a look out the front window and mumble endlessly to herself about what she sees
• tell herself what sound like fantastically imagined stories late at night and first thing in the morning when she's alone in her crib
• wander off confidently to explore a new place or new people
• run to me, grab my legs and say "hold you MaMa!"
• hear her say unpromted "love you Mama" and "love you Dawee"
• swing in the hammock with me pointing out every plane and bird that flies overhead
• run into our room each morning to say "morning Dawee!"

You can view more pictures by clicking here: http://www.flickr.com/gp/11647815@N04/1qc7KN

In other news

I must be setting a record tonight for the most posts done in one evening. But there's been so much going on with Roan lately, now that I got a few minutes I want to finally get caught up.

In tonight's headlines: Three Children Bitten at Local Daycare Center. Yes that's right; I went to pick Roan up from daycare one day last week and the center's operator had to sit me down and tell me she bit three kids that day! Older kids! Bigger kids! One because she was riding the rocking zebra and Roan apparently felt it was her turn. Another because the kid had the audacity to want to slide down the slide while Roan wanted to scramble up it. And a third was completely unprovoked, seemingly just for fun!

Isn't that every parent's nightmare? To find out your kid did something not just rude but brutal to other innocent children? As Aunt Bunny said, "There's a crack in the halo!"

Fortunately there haven't been any other "incidents" since. We borrowed a friend's book called "Teeth are not for Biting," and have been reading it regularly. I've also been putting a little more thought into her episodes of acting out, which have been growing in frequency lately. We've been trying a couple of new things. Some advice I read at some point said to try to take the "now" out of it and see if that reduces the conflict. In other words instead of "It's time to put your shoes on now," I let her know we will be putting shoes on soon. If she is resistant, I say firmly "We don't have to do it now, but we will have to put shoes on soon." Sure enough, next thing you know she is bringing me her shoes to put them on. It's really been helping. It seems to provide a balance between requiring certain standards of behavior from her while at the same time giving her a shade of autonomy on when those things have to happen. Who knows. These little tricks seem to work for oh too short a time, but they're good while they last.

In other news, Roan has been freaking us out a little with all she's been learning at school. Her vocabulary is beyond my ability to count it (over 300 words). She is even beginning to grasp the concepts of you/me/I. She tries to count to 10. Normally that goes something like this: one, three, five, six, seven, eight, seven, five! with great enthusiasm. Occasionally she throws nine and ten in there. The other day she brought me a triangle puzzle piece and said "triangle!" She constantly identifies circles she sees as we're strolling or driving down the street. And she's been working on her colors. It's funny, sometimes she will get 5 or 6 colors right in a row. Other times, every time you ask "What color is this?" her first reply is "piiiink" and then when you say, "What color is it really?" she says "wewow" [yellow].

Ok, I'm finally fading tonight, but before I go here are three, count 'em three, videos for you. Enjoy!

Riding the big bike


Ride 'em cowboy


Counting

When Gramps Came to Town

Gramps' visit was fun filled and busy at the same time. We squeezed in a ton of quality time together while also getting Jen & Micah's bathroom remodel project off the ground.

Here we are one fun filled afternoon at the park. Well, we had our ups and downs getting there actually - including car trouble for Jen & Micah (nothing that a couple gallons of water couldn't fix.) But it was a gorgeous late summer afternoon, and they had these fun little bike-mobiles we could ride around the park.

Roan was pretty excited about riding the "big bike." And also about seeing geese. She can actually tell the difference between ducks and geese, and she knows which ones quack and which ones honk. I'm not actually sure who taught her that to be perfectly honest!

Here are Uncle Micah and Aunt Jen lookin foxy and cool as always.

Roan knows who Dad is, but can't quite say his name right. She calls him "Bwamps." We even worked with her on the g-sound a bit. The best we could get her to say was "G-g-g-g-Bwamps!" She really put a lot of effort into it; it was so cute. She also says "bwapes" instead of "grapes." "Roan's bwapes" and "my bwapes" and "bwapes pwease" are phrases we hear frequently around here.

Roan at the helm, as she prefers to be.

Here's Roan getting a ride on Gramps at the zoo.

Playing ball with Gramps

While Dad was here we managed to catch up with our friends Molly and Scott and their little darlin Audrey at the Denver zoo for a fun-filled morning. Roan was excited to see the giraffes once again, but rather crestfallen that she was unable to feed them. At least there was a baby giraffe for her to marvel at.

And here is an action shot of the jacuzzi tub going into the bathroom... right before it had to come back out again for a few "adjustments."

Let's just say this has turned out to be the project from H - E - you know what.

Updates galore

Ok, I have put aside some time tonight to get this blog up to date for pete's sake.

Let's see, the last time I had a chance to post a bonafide update was way back when Lolli & Pop were visiting. Here are some pics from the 2nd half of their trip, particularly from our visit to Cheyenne Mountain Museum which has to be one of the most gorgeous museums around:



Cheyenne Mountain isn't as big as the Denver zoo, but they place an emphasis on highly interactive exhibits, for example where visitors can feed the giraffes or pet the baby wallabies. Roan is *still* talking about the crackers she fed those giraffes!

The other thing Cheyenne Mountain has in spades is incredible scenery. It's basically on the side of Pike's Peak, so you wander up the mountain to see the exhibits and marvel at the views.

They even have a gondola ride so you can get a good look around. It was Mom's first time on a ski lift (Stephen's too?) and she was like a little kid, she was so thrilled.



This is after feeding the giraffes.

This is at the koi pond

And here is my little wall flower on the carosel. I tell you what, you'd never guess her mama spent her whole life trying to overcome pathological shyness.

While they were here we managed to squeeze in a few good meals. Here we are out to breakfast with the whole family, including GaGa and Jen. Somehow that morning I managed to wrestle a ponytail holder into her hair. I think I deserve a merit badge for that!

But it pales in comparison with the magic Aunt Jen was able to do for Crazy Hair Day at Roan's daycare. Not only did she get pigtails in, she even managed to dye the tips black with some temporary hair dye mousse. Impressive!

Another photo on Crazy Hair Day. Pay no attention to the grass we're intentionally trying to kill in the background there...

More updates to follow... stay tuned for updates from The Visit from Gramps!

so behind...

It seems I'm always "so behind." So behind on the blog, so behind at work, so behind on the housekeeping... If "so behind" has become a constant state of being for me, then perhaps I should just accept I am simply where I am.

Ah, I feel better already.

In any case there is so much I have been wanting to blog about for weeks: our trip to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo to feed the giraffes (which Roan is still talking about in her own shorthand way: "raff... cracker!"), our visit with Gramps (or Bramps in Roanspeak), and all the shenanigans Little Miss has been up to lately, including saying "No!" to everything under the sun.

But for tonight I'm going to keep it short and just share with you one precious video from this afternoon. We had a couple of Roan's (and my) friends over this afternoon for an impromptu playdate. They hung around the water table soaking themselves, they ate themselves silly on our homegrown grapes and a friend's peaches till their faces and shirts were running with goo, and they played in Roan's playhouse. Here are Roan and Scarlett playing house. So sweet.



It's those moments that keep me going through the temper tantrums and the Epic Battles over diaper changing and getting dressed in the morning.

One more quick photo - this is of the cooler full of grapes we harvested off our back vine. They taste like grape hubba bubba bubble gum!

A few photos

It's been far too long since the last time I posted photos. Roan has been cute as a button lately. This photo is after a recent trip to Target where we bought her a new bike helmet for the hand-me-down bike trailer a friend gave us. While there we invested $2 in the ball you see her holding. And you can tell by the look on her face it was money well spent. She thought Christmas had come early!

Here are some photos from the current visit with Lolli & G-Pop (known as Pop or PopPop by Roan). We did a burger cookout in the backyard one lovely evening. Summer is winding down in Denver and I for one am sad to see it go. We no doubt have a long stretch of beautiful, if slightly cooler weather ahead of us, but now that Arwen got a whole house fan installed I'm finally enjoying tank top weather.

While Lolli & Pop were here we took a day trip to Boulder. We went for a nature walk with incredible views, had lunch at the tea house, and spent the afternoon with Andye and McKenna, now 11 months. Here we are dipping our toes in the creek that runs through town.

Here is Jen with Andye and McKenna. It was such a picture perfect day!

Here are Lolli & Pop at a gorgeous overlook on our nature walk.

Roan is apparrently a budding geologist. She is fairly obsessed with rocks. We could hardly persuade her to toddle down the trail there in Boulder. She just wanted to pick up every rock she saw or rub gravel all over her clothes and hair. Here she is taking a rest on one of her beloved rocks with Aunt Jen.

And here's our big girl going on our walk with Pop and Aunt Jen. She likes to say "hands, hands" to let you know she wants you to take her hand. Often this leads to her going completely rubber legged in the hopes that you'll swing her by the wrists.

We had to say goodbye to Pop and Lolli today. It was a really nice visit filled with all kinds of fun stuff. Which is nice because the last couple of times they've come to visit we've been so exhauseted/ overwhelmed/ overworked that we hardly left the house or the neighborhood. This time was so much fun it's going to get a follow up post with the other half of the pictures. In the meanwhile you can enjoy this video of Roan with her ball (and no, I don't make a habit of putting a helmet on her just to play outside!).

So this is wild...

I will post photos soon. August has been a crazy month, and it ain't over yet baby. Right now we have Lolli and G-Pop here for a visit, and that's been really fun.

But I didn't want to let a day go by without capturing something so strange that happened last night. After a long day out and about seeing the sights in Boulder, Aunt Jen and Roan were drawing some pretty pictures with her jumbo crayons. Jen spelled Roan's name out in letters and then said the letters. ONCE. Jen then said "R - O - " and Roan finished "A - N." We all looked at each other thinking Did she just really do that? Then a few minutes later as Roan was distractedly putting crayons into the container and taking them out of the container she did it unprompted all by herself. "R - O - A - N." (She says her Rs "aww"; it's so cute!) That seemed really crazy. Jen also wrote Sasha's name down and she said some of its letters as well. Then an hour or two later as she was sitting in the bathtub, I used one of her tub crayons to write her name on the wall. I didn't spell it out for her, and she didn't take much notice of it at the time. She played happily in the water with her cups and her rubber duckies and drew a little on the tub with the soap crayons. Then at the end of the bath as we were getting ready to get her out, I asked her to help me clean the crayons off the tub. She looked at what I had written earlier and said completely unprompted "R - O - A - N."

Now is that weird or what? She is spelling her name and she is not even 18 months! It actually seemed slightly spooky to me. I haven't been working at all on the alphabet with her. I can only assume this is something she's picked up at school. I do not plan on sharing this latest development with the neighborhood mommies either; they already refer to her somewhat self-consciously as Baby Einstein. One asked me for tips and pointers on how I have gotten her vocabulary so high. It must be all the hours we keep her locked in her room going through flashcards. "You can eat as soon as you say antidisestablishmentarianism, Roan."

No but seriously, people might think I'm hell bent on getting her to read by age two or become the next Doogie Howser, but I'm not. From the day she was born I have told myself that we all have different sets of gifts that make us who we are, and I want to honor them in her. It's important to me to encourage Roan at whatever she's good at, whether it's building train sets or making art or reading. Whether it's an interest I share or not.

And anyway last night could have been some kind of a fluke. I can't help but feel though that Roan is a very bright little cookie though. Not only because of her large vocabulary or the way she is now stringing two words together at a time. But also because she has been so physically advanced from the begining - sitting up, crawling and walking early. She's been going in the potty every morning - just pee; poop is still giving her trouble. And she's a complete social butterfly, saying "Hi!" to every person we pass at the grocery store and going on hugging sprees with her little friends at daycare. It makes me wonder whether we're doing enough to challenge her and keep her interested in learning.

I guess you can drive yourself crazy with that though, and if you're not careful end up being the mom shuttling her between chess club and math tutoring at age 5. Don't want to be that mom. And anyway, just because you get a bright start doesn't mean your life is all roses. There's the friend of a friend who got a free ride to Yale and ended up as a clerk at a bookstore. Or that evil little genius on CSI who conspired with her brother to murder a cheerleader in her high school. Yes I know CSI is only for pretend, but she had a line in that episode that went something to the effect of "When I started spelling words at 18 months, my whole life changed."

Roan is 16 months, by the way.

Home again home again

... jiggity jigg. I got a lot accomplished on my trip to Houston but boy oh boy is it nice to be back home in Denver. Especially since things have cooled off this week. Temperatures have been in the 80's mostly - beautiful and sunny. Tonight we even got a refreshing little rain shower to cool things down a little more.

Way better than the weather though is just being back with my sweeties. I missed them all so much! Predictably, Roan seems bigger. She seems skinnier too - I think she's growing. I don't have long to chat tonight - I want to get upstairs and snuggle a few minutes with Arwen. It's UFC Fight Night - yippie!

But I did want to at least say a quick hello. Today was Roan's last day with Lindsay, the best nanny the world has ever known. Roan doesn't know it yet but she about this time next week she will really be missing Lindsay. She snapped these pictures of Roan today in her high chair. Frozen fruit has been a staple at our house. Between her teething and the heat it's a big hit. Blueberries are her favorite. She calls them "boo boos."

More later... goodnight!