Roller Coaster Training

When both Mommy and Daddy LOVE roller coasters, I guess it's in the genes. The faster we pulled, the steeper the hill, the bumpier the ride, the more she laughed and squealed with glee.

I see the future ... and it involves putting tissues in her shoes. :)

Penelope the Peacock

The farm in the valley below us has peacocks. Since it is winter and the leaves are off our trees, we can usually see them wandering around down there (and we can certainly hear them) but they are usually very far away. This morning, however, this little guy wandered up the hill through the woods and much to his delight discovered the birdseed that falls from our feeder.

We had a wonderful time watching him from the deck. We named him Penelope - because that just seems like an appropriate name for a peacock even if he is a boy-peacock. Keziah was pointing and giggling.

He never showed his feathers. But he is absolutely beautiful. Michael Paul says he is now in our front yard. He may be thinking of adopting a new home. Which would be fine with us as he might be the only bird to actually be able to scare away the squirrels from our feeder. He has already been squawking at squirrels who are trying to share in the fallen bird seed.

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On an unrelated note, I've been meaning to post a picture of this adorable strawberry apron I made a few weeks ago. It is reversible and I can tie it in the front or the back.

So when I finally got around to taking pictures of my apron, we had been outside shooting guns and Michael Paul said, "hey why don't you hold your gun in a picture". He loves this picture and has been nagging me about posting this. Now don't I just look like a (wanna-be) prairie wife!

I got into a real sewing mood in March and in addition to this apron I sewed an amp cover for my darling husband, made some black-out curtains for our very bright bedroom so he can get some sleep in there during the day, and recycled a dead cloth diaper by making it into a mama-cloth pad. It was a very crafty month for me.

Keziah Is ...

... A Diva. This picture says it all.

... A girly girl. She loves pink. She loves glitter. She LOVES shoes (she actually brings me her shoes and then sits down for me to put them on her - no fussing). Her favorite shoes are sparkly silver MaryJanes and she insists on me putting them on her even though they are too small and she has to curl her toes up. She prefers dresses to pants. And she has to have her purse with her to go bye-bye.

... Polite. She says "thank you" (actually it sounds more like "day-do") all the time. We never taught this other than modeling it when she handed us stuff. Now she says thank you when we hand her something, when I change her diaper, when she asks to be picked up and I do, when we put food on her plate, and a few days ago she said it after nursing - absolutely melted my heart!

... Not interested in toys - at least not for very long. Most of the day she prefers to explore outside or 'help' me do whatever I'm doing. She loves to water the plants, and fold laundry more than anything. Bubble wrap, however, is hours of entertainment.

... Mischievous. She loves to steal things when you're not looking and hide them in her purse, toy box, or other place. The i-pod went missing for days and I eventually found it buried under clothes in her laundry basket. I once found the tv remote in a house plant. Most of the time though, we just have to wait for her to retrieve the missing object - (and she always remembers where she hid something). She also loves to sneak up behind me when I'm in the fridge, quickly grab a block of cheese and run off with it. She loves to sink her teeth into a big block of cheddar.

... Clean (and a little OCD). If she sees paper or wrappers laying around, she will pick them up and put them in the trash. We never taught this - she just started doing it one day. She loves to organize her things and put them away in baskets.

... Talkative. Her current understandable words are: mama, dada, bye bye, hi, thank you, kitty cat, and baby. She has also said dog, cici (that's my mom), ga-da (for grandaddy), and num num (nursing). But she talks baby-talk all day long. She is never quiet!

.. Expressive. When she talks she uses her whole body. If she is angry, she is screaming and kicking. If she is unhappy, she is scowling. If she is happy, she smiles, purrs like a cat, and waves her arms. If she is excited, she is wide-eyed - mouth open.

... Beautiful.

Happy Pi Day

Well, I was going to say Happy Pi Day! But this video really got me thinking. I can't believe I never saw this before. Although I did have some of these same thoughts when I took Trigonometry in High School.

I think I will celebrate Tau Day this June!

The Silver Bullet

That's what I've named my new van. Not very original but it was the perfect, if not obvious name for it. Isn't it awesome? I am so excited!

So I've been driving the same 2-door Toyota for 7 years and it has been so good to me, but getting a baby in and out of a car-seat in a 2-door car was quite challenging. I have bumped Keziah's head more times than I can count getting in and out of that car. So Michael Paul and I had been talking about getting something bigger for a while and I have always wanted to drive a mini-van. Yeah I know I'm weird. Maybe it's just the whole wanting to be the "stereotypical stay-at-home mom" fantasy. But a van certainly seemed more practical than a car and gets much better gas-milage than an SUV.

Of course I know nothing about cars and so this was very much Michael Paul's decision and he is convinced that the Toyota Previa is the best van they ever made. Unfortunately, they stopped making them in '98 (I think). So he's been on the look-out for a low milage one. We weren't planning on buying one just yet, but when this one came up with only 87,000 miles at a great price, he decided he should jump on it. Can I just say I love my hubby! I couldn't be happier. He said he really wanted to pull it into our driveway with a big red bow on it like they do in commercials but he didn't know where to find a bow that big. In any case, it is still a wonderful present! It is so roomy and nice and if it proves to be as reliable as our other Toyotas, (both of our current Toyotas have over 220,000 miles and still run great) we will get at least a good 150,000 more miles out of it.

Keziah seems to love being able to run around in the van. We actually went out and just played inside the van in the driveway yesterday. And I am sure she will appreciate me not bumping her head getting in and out of it!

The only down-side - it's an automatic. I loved driving a stick-shift. They are especially great for driving in mountains and it is much more fun to drive a manual. I will definitely miss that part of my old car. But Michael Paul says finding a van that's not an automatic is pretty impossible, so I shall get over it.

So the Silver Bullet is hopefully the vehicle I will be driving for many years to come. And it is also my hope and prayer that those extra back seats will be filled with more children :o)

Playing Outside

We've been having some unseasonably warm days here recently and Keziah is loving playing outside. We have an amazing and huge yard now in our new house and there is much exploring to be done. These are the first days she has really gotten to stay outside and play since she started walking. Too much fun!

I LOVE these pictures! My husband is such a great photographer.

Bath-time Success

I don't think I have shared this on the blog yet, so in case you haven't heard, Keziah HATES baths. In fact she hates large amounts of water. And by large amounts, I mean anything more than what is in a drinking glass.

She wasn't always like this. The first eight months of her life she LOVED baths. This was the typical reaction:

She loved to swim in the lake. One hot July day when our air-conditioning went out, I filled her infant tub with cool water and put her in it on the kitchen floor and she played happily with toys in the water for an hour.

Then around eight months old, something changed. We did bath-time like we always had, but she screamed and cried throughout the bath. I thought maybe she was just extra tired. I double checked the water and it was fine. But she was NOT happy. And every bath after that was more and more traumatic.

And I'm not just talking, oh she's a little unhappy. I mean she would scream and cry and shake with the most awful panicked expression. Seriously, she acted like she was being tortured. It broke my heart.

So for five months I've been trying to deal with this situation. I tried everything: showers, cooler water, warmer water, getting in with her, nursing throughout the bath, bath in the sink, bath outside. Every time it was so traumatic for her. Any expert would have told me, surely she must have had some traumatic experience with water that brought about this intense fear. I have racked my brain trying to figure it out, but there was never any such experience.

I realized it was more than just baths when we went to my SIL's and hiked through the wood at the back of her house down to a little creek. As soon as Keziah saw the water, she panicked. Even though she was wrapped right next to me in a sling, she freaked out and didn't calm down until I walked far enough away that the water was out of sight. A few days later my MIL tried to take her to their hot-tub and as soon as the cover was lifted - again - major panic attack.

I hated that she couldn't tell me why water scared her so much. I felt so helpless. I felt like I was breaking our attachment and her trust in me every time I attempted to bathe her.

And then it got worse. About two months ago, soon after our move, she started to have the same reaction whenever I took a shower. If she was in the bathroom and saw me get in the tub or shower, she would have a major melt down. Even if she was playing with Daddy in another room, she would hear that water running and would scream and scream as if someone were killing her mommy. I was at my wits' end to the say the least. I just stopped baths all together and resigned myself to the fact that she would be getting sponge baths for the indefinite future. It's not like she was ever super dirty. Her bum gets cleaned with each diaper change and her hands and face get cleaned at meal times. I just decided no more baths. As for me, I tried to take my showers when she was in deep sleep.

Then, yesterday, A light at the end of the tunnel!

So if you are still reading (yes I realize this is really long and most of my readers probably don't care about my daughter's bath-time drama) I have something amazing to share. But I had to share all that back-story so you would know just how amazing this is.

Yesterday, I got an idea. I wasn't consciously thinking about this problem, but I believe my subconscious hasn't stopped working on it. I got a large mixing bowl and filled it with warm water. Then Keziah and I got in a dry bathtub and I set her in my lap. I gave her a mini shower by dipping a washcloth in the bowl and squeezing it over her. She had easy access to nursing but chose to nurse only about half the time. She let me wash her completely with no crying. She wasn't laughing, but she was clearly not stressed and panicked. It was a definite step up from a sponge bath and I was finally able to really scrub her hair and rinse it well. I think the key was the fact that the water was a small amount and she wasn't submerged in it along with the fact that it wasn't as noisy or hard-hitting as a regular shower is.

Icing on the cake: So after our wonderful success, I handed her off to Daddy for drying off and dressing and I decided to see if I could get away with a shower myself. And it was the best, longest, most wonderful shower I've had in months because Keziah played happily with Daddy the whole time and was not at all distressed that Mommy was in the scary scary big bad shower!

So we have a new bath routine. Is it perfect? no. But I am thrilled with the thought of a clean little girl with out all the trauma. I am still worried that she will not be interested in swimming this summer and that even a hike by a creek might send her into a panic attack. I can't wait for her to start talking more in hopes that she can maybe explain what's so scary about water. In the mean time I am rejoicing in our small but incredible step yesterday!