Naughty

Kat is in a very naughty phase right now. She doesn’t listen, and doesn’t seem to care at all when she is disciplined. I’m not real sure what to do now. She hasn’t taken naps for almost 3 months now, and her doctor said not to keep pushing it. She supposedly gets enough sleep at night. The problem is, come “nap time”, she is tired and irritable and naughty. We battle for a couple of hours trying to get her to stay in her room, then she’s fussy for the rest of the day. I don’t feel like anything we do is particularly productive. We’ve tried time out, ignoring her, sitting in the room, leaving her door open, we’ve even yelled at her I’m sorry to say. She’ll just look you in the eye and get up and jump on her bed, or get out of bed and smuggle a toy back in. We’ve told her she can read in bed, or sing, or talk to her friends. She wants none of that. We go in time after time and find her standing on the edge of her bed, or something else dangerous. She’s fallen out a couple of times and that doesn’t even teach her. I don’t want her to break her neck in there but I also don’t know what to do with her besides get rid of her bed that took us so long to be able to buy. It’s a very frustrating situation.

When we do put her on time out, she gets up and leaves. We start her time over, and time after time she’ll get up just to make us angry. I don’t know where along the line she stopped caring. She used to be such a well behaved little girl. We’ve never slacked in discipline so I don’t know where this is coming from. We give her lots of attention and praise. I don’t know what we’re missing but I hope we figure it out before she’s all messed up.

I can't

So this morning she wanted to make cookies. I was getting together all the ingredients and we had this conversation:

KK- "Wait, I need my rolling pin"
ME- "OK, where is it?"
KK- "It's in my bedroom"
ME- "OK, well go get it then"
KK- "I can't!"
ME- "What do you mean you can't?"
KK- "IT MEANS... I can NOT"

I wonder why I always feel like I need a nap?

sassafrass (this will be the title of a lot of blogs I fear)

OH where to begin? Well as I was reading my last entry which I wrote a while ago, I noticed that she was almost singing “twinkle, twinkle little star”. Now she sings the whole thing like a pro, as well as “farmer and the dell”, “pat a cake”, “happy birthday”, “abcs”, “wipe your bottom” (a song from the potty training video) and many other songs I can’t think of right now. Oh, “itsy bitsy spider” too. She calls it “ibsy bibsy pider” which is adorable to me.

Kat is in a very defiant phase right now. When we tell her it’s nap time, she turns very naughty. She’ll jump on the bed, argue, hit the wall, shake her bed rail, anything to be naughty. She’ll actually yell, “Mommy! I jumping and being naughty! I not sleeping!” Before and after nap she is pretty much an angel, just not during the actual nap. She’ll fight for a full 2 hours and basically wait until we say nap time is over. It’s very frustrating because nothing has changed with our routine. We still read, sing and put her down. She’s fine until we leave and then naughty, naughty, naughty. We’ve tried punishing for not taking naps, rewarding for when she does, letting her have “quiet time” and just read books. So far no success but I’m not giving up. She is so tired when she doesn’t sleep so it’s not as though she doesn’t need them anymore. Something will work, I just hope I remember to write it down when it does so I can refer back to it in case it happens again with baby #2.

It seems like Kat has allergies now, poor thing. She has had basically clear snot for over 2 months now and unfortunately she takes after me, nothing seems to work for her. I’ve tried Claritin, benadryl, Rondec DM, Dimetapp Elixer…. I think maybe that’s it. Oh Triaminic. Nothing seems to work, and most of them make her hyper instead of sleepy, so she really doesn’t nap on the days she takes those!

Kat’s problem solving skills still amaze me daily. She heard me talking about swimming at my grampa’s soon and ran into her room and grabbed her floatie. I told her we would try to go soon. (the pool is too cold right now). She said, “yeah, I want to go to my grampa’s house” The rest of the conversation went like this:

Me: “oh? You want to go to Grampa’s house?”
KK: “no! not Grampa’s house! BIG PAPA’s house!”
Me: “oh sorry, you said Grampa, so you want to go to Big Papa’s house?”
KK: “yeah! Not regular Grampa who brings me coins, Big PAPA!”
Me: “Ok baby, you want to go to Big Papa’s house”
KK: “yeah, not regular Grampa who brings me coins. Big Papa. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!
Me: “yes baby, I understand what you’re trying to tell me.”
KK: “yeah, regular Grampa is Papa Jeff!”

She’s right, she tends to call my dad Grampa and my grampa Big Papa. I don’t know what started that but rest assured, Kat knows the difference!

Kat loves to nurse her baby now. She puts the baby’s head over her shoulder and pats her back and says “oh, c’mere” and then tells me, ‘”quiet Mommy! I’m nursing my baby!”

Her memory is getting even longer too! We took her to the beach yesterday and she told me, “remember when we went to the beach and looked for shells?” That was back in February! We had a really good time at the beach and right before we left I took her on the carousel at the boardwalk. She rode by herself and as we were leaving she told me, “I had a good time at the beach today Mommy!”

Kat and I go on Starbucks dates pretty often and we just sit there and talk to each other. Actual, real conversations. She is so amazing. She orders her own stuff too! “Kids manilla milk and a banana coffee cake pwease”.

Every night we ask her what her favorite part of the day was. She usually says, “when I got my kids manilla milk”. I think it’s just habit now to say that.

A few days ago Kat was sitting on my lap while I was typing something and she sneezed. I didn’t do or say anything and she looked at me and said, “um, bless me!” It was so cute. It was filled with attitude, but it was cute.

Not so cute, the other day we were at Taco Bell and she did something naughty… yelled at Hubby I think. When she says things that aren’t nice, we tell her that it’s sassy talk and it will not be tolerated. Well she mouthed off to Hubby and then looked at me and said, “and don’t’ tell me sassy talk!” GRRRRRRRR!

Driving to Mrs D's the other day to drop her off, she started growling. I said, “Oh! Are you being a dinosaur?” She said, “No! I not a dinosaur! I just tending to be a dinosaur! I not really a dinosaur!” Ok then, my bad. She’s just pretending to be a dinosaur, but let the record show… she is not really a dinosaur. Stinker
Also the other day she was telling me she had a baby in her tummy. When we both have something that is the same, we touch and say “cheers!”. Well I was driving, so I couldn’t touch my belly to hers and say “cheers!”. Instead, I reached my hand behind me and said, “cheers!” She said, “no! You don’t have a baby in your hand, you have a baby in your belly! Not in your hand!” Man, she knows everything. If you don’t believe her, just ask her!

She is constantly correcting us, she really believes that everything we know, she taught to us. Crazy kid man. I love her.

sweet little kitty

Well this is going to be short because I'm in a hurry, but I have a few things before I forget.

First of all, I was in Kat's room and I told her to go get something. She was gone too long so I called her again. On the third time I was annoyed and I said, "Kat! Get in here right now!" She came in very calmly and said, "I just heard you calling me". Oh she's so full of it, I love it!

Kat sings her ABC's from beginning to end with no mistakes. She even does perfect on the LMNOP part. She is very proud of herself when she finishes the song, and I love to hear her do it. She is also singing most of Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star.

Two days ago she went on her first errand with Daddy... while wearing panties! They went to get milkshakes the first day and then the day before yesterday she went to the grocery store with him in panties and didn't have any accidents! Finally we're turning a corner!
Chad went into her room the other day to find her sitting in the rocking chair, holding her baby wrapped in a blanket and singing "Rock A Bye Baby" to her baby. It was very sweet. No one tells her to do these things, she just does. She's a very smart little girl.

Today I asked her if she'd like to count to 10 with me. We hadn't done that in a while so I expected her to move slowly. She counted 1 to 10 like it was second nature. She surprises me a lot.

She asked me to get into her bed the other day and I told her that Mommy was sick and I didn't want to put sick germs into her bed and get her sick. She thought for a moment and said, "I got sick once in the car. I threw up." Then she went on to say, "It's OK though because Daddy cleaned me all up. I got some on my book too and Mommy cleaned it off for me". This happened well over a month ago but she still remembers the details. I just can't believe she can remember that far back, especially since we never talk about it.

Sometimes I take a bath with Kat for time's sake. She will get her cup of water and pour it on my belly button and say, "I'm bringing the baby water". She'll pour it and listen to my belly and say, "The baby says thank you". She is going to be a very good big sister I think. Also, she sings Rock A Bye Baby to my tummy because I told her that the baby can hear her. She talks to my belly button and says, "Baby! Come out soon baby!" Poor thing, there is a long wait yet for that!

Also strange for her age, she is very good at sharing. She loves to divide up her jewels and put them in different purses and give one to me, her daddy and herself. She'll say, "Here this one is for you".

The other day I was at the doctor and when the doctor came in, my little tiny 2 year old said, "Look Mommy! She has a stethoscope!" She is so smart. The doctor just looked at her and said, "you're very cute, aren't you?" Kat said, "yeah" very matter of fact like. I didn't notice at the time, but my life must have been very boring before she came along.

My little helper

Oh my it's been a while. I'm sure I've forgotten most of the amazing things that Kat has done in the last month, and there have been many! She unfortunately doesn't care to take naps anymore, she thinks she's the boss of this house, she speaks like a 5 year old, and sings. What else? Oh she wears panties during the day and usually goes without accidents.

The other day it rained and then there was a gorgeous rainbow. She said, "It's far, far away isn't it Mommy?" I said yes it is. She said, "Let's go find it Mommy!" Little sweetheart. I asked her how much I loved her, expecting her to reach her arms as far as they would go and say "thiiiiiiis much!" Instead she smiled and said "with all your heart". Well, she's right.

She was making me angry the other day (Probably from not taking a nap) and I told her that she was making me angry. She says "I don't make you angry Mommy, I make you happy".

Also I've been very sick with this pregnancy, so when I gag or say I feel sick, she runs and gets me sparkling water, which she calls "sprinkle water". She holds my hand and say "I'm helping you Mommy! I'm helping you!" The down side of that is that she always says "my tummy not feel too good. I need medicine." or "my bottom is red. I need atemeal (oatmeal) bath". She always has some sort of ailment and she usually knows just what she needs for it... be it tylenol, tums, etc. Usually she's right, too, about which fix goes with what problem.

When Hubby is feeling especially jack assey he says "bah!" Kat doesn't like it apparently because she tells him now, "don't say that daddy! That not nice!" Everything she disapproves of is "not nice" to her now.

When she asks for something and you tell her no, she says, "Just two?" I still say no and she says, "OK, 1 then". She is her own little thinker and doesn't like being told what to do. Oh well, life sucks sometimes! She is bossy and we're working her helping her to understand that Mommy and Daddy are the boss, not Kat. It's coming along, slow but sure.

I had a chocolate bar the other day and she picked it up and said, "I need this!" I told her that is was Mommy's and she said, "well I'll share it with you". She's a smart one!

hodge podge

Geez, it's been over a month since I wrote last, and I'm so far behind. A lot has happened in this last month!

Kat speaks in full, comprehensive sentences now. You can have full conversations with her that make perfect sense. Today while watching "Dora The Explorer" there were two trains in the same tunnel and she said, "there's another train in the tunnel." just as plain as that.

Kat can sing her ABC's almost all the way through. She skips the LMNOP part but she gets up to QRSTUV YZ. She's so close! She also counts from 1 to about 16... then she says 20, 21, 22.... She's a smarty artie.

She can also sing the happy birthday song and rock a bye baby. She loves to mother her little babies that Santa brought her. She says, "oh my poor baby!" and rocks the baby and give her a bottle or a paci. Then she'll say, "my baby is cold, she needs a blanket".

When we hug her we say, "give me the best hugs ever!" So now she'll just put her hand on your shoulder and say "BIG HUGS!" and when you hug her she says "best hugs ever!" They certainly are. I love those hugs.

We found out the day after Christmas that baby number 2 is on the way come September. Kat seems to understand this. She'll say, "Mommy have a baby in her tummy. She'll come out soon". Then she says she has a baby in her tummy, too. Very cute.

After Christmas everyone took down the Christmas lights, which were a total obsession for her the whole month of December. She would say, "more lights Mama!" or, "Look Mama! There's lights". When they came down we had to explain that lights go up at Christmas time and then we have to take them down, but they'll be back next year. So now when she has to leave somewhere, she says "I'll be back next year". She was also VERY into snowmen, she loved them. She could spot a snowman a mile away.

She grasped the concept of Santa this year. She met Santa twice and he gave her a bag full of coins for her piggy bank and a baby doll. If you ask her where she got her baby she'll say, "I got her from Santa". If you say, "what else did Santa give you?" She'll say, "he give me... coins. and my baby... and... coins". Amazing what she can remember.

Kat got a new snail to join the fish tank and after some careful consideration, she named him "Boo Boo". We suggested tons of names for her, but she chose Boo Boo. She's a crazy monkey. She says that they live in the fish tank and that they live in water. She's very smart. I know I've said it before but the kids just keeps on amazing me.

Kat's vocabulary is far advanced to a normal 2 year old. We have a book where she is supposed to find things, and since she mastered that on the first day, we had to start looking further into the pictures. Now she knows what a man hole is!

She also knows where her mandible is and her clavicle.

We are having a set back on the potty. She was in panties for the month of December, but now she says "I don't want to" when asked if she needs to go potty. Either that or "No I NOT GO POTTY!"

Kat isn't taking good naps these days. You tell her it's nap time and she says, "no I not take a nap, I just woke up". She argues about just about everything actually.

She is dressing herself much better! She can definitely undress herself, and now she'll put on her own pull ups and pants. Shirts are still a bit of a challenge, but we only have to help a little.

The other day she grabbed my face and said, "I make you happy Mommy". Man, she does! If you ask her who's bossy, she'll say, "you're bossy!" (When really it's HER that's bossy!)

I know I'm forgetting a whole lot of stuff. Oh, when I go to the bathroom now, she'll look into the toilet and say, "good job, Mommy!" Too bad she won't go too! I wish I would journal more as I remember. A New Year resolution perhaps?

A, B, C D....

Boy it's been a while! I don't even know where I left off. I have a 2 year old! (Well, almost, but she acts like she's 7 already!) Kat poops on the potty every day now, and has been for a little while. She also pees every day, though not all of her pee happens on the potty. She has pee pee accidents once in a while, but not very often. She still wears pull ups at nap time and bed time. During the day though she wears panties! Such a big girl!

She is speaking in full sentences. "Mommy I have a baby kitty!" And then she'll continue on to take care of her baby kitty, sing "rock a bye baby" to him, put him in a blanket, etc. She's very much into mommying her little friends now. She is a very happy, spunky little girl!

Last night she was sitting on the potty before bed time. Hubby and I were both there. She has a terrible habit of trying to grab the toilet paper before it's time. So last night she was being naughty and she grabbed a big handful of toilet paper before I could stop her. I grabbed it away and scolded her for it and ended with, "Do you understand?" She said held up her little hand and her eyes were shining, and she said, "I got a PIECE!" Sure enough, she had a little piece in her hand. Chad could barely contain himself! She's so naughty, but she's so funny too!

Today she announced that she is a snowman. I said, "Oh really? You're a snowman?" She said, "no, I'm me. I'm a Kat". Smart little girl.

If you show her almost any letter, she'll tell you a word that starts with that letter. She knows very well that C is for Cat, A is for Angel, E is for Ear, F is for Froggie, G is for Goat...M is for Milk. These are the ones she always gets. She usually gets all the rest too, except for Q seems to be tricky for her. She is doing so well though. Two years old and starting to spell! She can spell cat. Sometimes if you take away the c and put in a b she knows that it turned into bat. She's just so smart. It's going to be a challenge to keep her challenged!

She loves building towers with blocks and then knocking them down. She loves playing Mommy and house, and she loves to pretend play with her animals in her barn. She knows every zoo animal and what they say. She knows farm animals too, as well as domestic animals. She loves to sing Old Macdonald and say the part of the animal! She loves to sing "how much is that doggy/kitty in the window?" and when it comes to the "woof woof" or "meow meow" part, she does that part.

She can finally do two footed jumps, and she can gallop. Still no summersalts on her own, though she tries. She's my love love.