Paige is saying a ton of words now. I don't think I could count them all if I tried. A lot of her words are only things that Daddy and I can translate. There are some words that she picks up at daycare that it takes us a while to figure out what they are. Her newest phrase that she is constantly saying is "Help Me". Except when it comes out it sounds like Ow-wee. It's not really a cry for help. Just what she says when she is doing anything. If she is trying to pull out a toy from the cabinet she says it. If she's trying to sneak something through the small opening of the pantry with the child lock she says it. If whatever she is trying to do can't be done in less than 2 seconds, she'll be asking for help!
She is starting to put a few other words together as well. She mimicks us a lot. Daddy and I were talking during dinner the other night and he shrugged his shoulders when I asked him a question. Then I look over at Paige and she's shrugging her shoulders too. So then I say "I don't know" and shrug my shoulders. So she repeats "I dun know" with a shrug. I'll have to get a picture of the shrug, it's really cute.
Daddy is working 3 nights a week now, so Paige and I have really had a lot of time together. She's doing great as long as we keep to a routine. When we get home from school I make a quick dinner (quick is key) and then we usually watch an hour of Elmo (Sesame Street) while we play with some toys. She is having a great time building with her lego blogs. Around 7pm we'll turn off the tv and turn down the lights and either continue playing with toys or start reading books. Bedtime is at 8pm so at about quarter till we move into her room with really dim lighting and read a few more books in her pjs. Then I'll sing her a song and she knows it's bedtime. She's been doing great lately with going right to bed and being fairly quiet. There were a few weeks that she was really struggling with us wanting to stay up and play, but ever since we started this night-time routine she isn't as persistant.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
More Christmas Pictures
These pictures are from our holiday visit with Grandma Stephenson:
http://picasaweb.google.com/buckeyeberners/PaigeChristmas2007
http://picasaweb.google.com/buckeyeberners/PaigeChristmas2007
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Cous Cous Tacos
We tried new dishes tonight, both for Paige and for us.
Paige had a mixture of cous cous and rice milk. She devoured it. Paige's friend Anabelle has this all the time, though her mom usually adds in some cranberries and honey. We may try it with Craisins or Raisins next time.
We had Cous Cous tacos--ground turkey, cous cous, salsa, flour tortillas from a tortilleria near Mom's work, and our new discovery, do-it-yourself taco seasoning. It's fabulous--much less salty than the typical taco seasoning pouches you buy at the store, and more flavor. Here's the recipe:
Paige had a mixture of cous cous and rice milk. She devoured it. Paige's friend Anabelle has this all the time, though her mom usually adds in some cranberries and honey. We may try it with Craisins or Raisins next time.
We had Cous Cous tacos--ground turkey, cous cous, salsa, flour tortillas from a tortilleria near Mom's work, and our new discovery, do-it-yourself taco seasoning. It's fabulous--much less salty than the typical taco seasoning pouches you buy at the store, and more flavor. Here's the recipe:
* 1 tablespoon chili powderWe found that throwing about 3/4 to 4/5 of this recipe in with a pound of ground turkey plus ~3/4 cup water worked really well. You could use all of it if you wanted tacos with a bit of heat, but these are still pretty mild. We also substituted ~1/8 cup of chopped onions for the onion powder and cooked them up with the meat, and used kosher salt instead of sea salt.
* 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
* 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
* 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
* 1/2 teaspoon paprika
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 1 teaspoon sea salt
* 1 teaspoon black pepper
Thursday, December 6, 2007
No rest for the wicked
Paige hasn't been sleeping well over the past few weeks. Two or three times now (it all blends together, so I'm honestly not sure how many time it's happened), she has woken up screaming and refused to go down again for at least two, if not three hours.
Thing is, she's been waking up once a week or so for months now, but usually we could just stick her in her chair and feed her, and then put her to bed once she's done a half-hour later. I usually would just doze on the floor by her high chair while she ate her cheerios.
Not anymore. Now, if she wakes up, she'll eat fine, but then will absolutely refuse to go back to sleep. Or, she'll go to sleep, but only for about 15 minutes before she's up screaming again. Sometimes, she's just inconsolable. Other times, she has just simply been wide awake and wanting to play, read, etc. When it's 12:30am, I can deal with that, as I've always been a bit of a night owl. But at 2:30am or 3:30am, I'm barely functional. It's one thing if she just needs to eat, or when she needed to suck down a bottle in my lap when she was younger. But my God, she wants me to read to her?!? It's inhuman!
Apparently, whacked-out sleep patterns by 18-month olds is fairly common. "Moxie" (see link) indicates that it can last anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. I'm hoping for the former. In the meantime, we've tried everything you can imagine to get her back in bed. Teething tablets, Tylenol, Oragel, milk, water, fruit, those cereal bars she loves, "new" stuffed animals from her toy hammock, night lights, dimmed lights, door open, door cracked... We've tried laying down with her on our bed, trying to get her to rest on the couch... We've tried having Mom put her down instead of me... We're not fans of letting her "cry it out," but we've given that a shot for 10 minutes at a time or so.
I've been half tempted to go try to find some kids Benadryl to drug her back to sleep, but I doubt that Mom'd let me. So our best solution just seems to be to try to split the staying up duties as best we can based on whoever is functional. The first time, that was mostly me. This most recent time, it was mostly Mom. ... I just put a pillow over my head to muffle the crying and tried to get some sleep.
One thing that might help in Paige's case is that she actually sprouted her first new tooth since June today, her right upper canine (or cuspid, if you prefer...though canine is a cooler word). The other isn't far behind. Hopefully, once they've finished cutting through her gums, she'll be less inclined to wake up. We'll see... In the meantime, I had better go get some sleep while I have the chance!
Thing is, she's been waking up once a week or so for months now, but usually we could just stick her in her chair and feed her, and then put her to bed once she's done a half-hour later. I usually would just doze on the floor by her high chair while she ate her cheerios.
Not anymore. Now, if she wakes up, she'll eat fine, but then will absolutely refuse to go back to sleep. Or, she'll go to sleep, but only for about 15 minutes before she's up screaming again. Sometimes, she's just inconsolable. Other times, she has just simply been wide awake and wanting to play, read, etc. When it's 12:30am, I can deal with that, as I've always been a bit of a night owl. But at 2:30am or 3:30am, I'm barely functional. It's one thing if she just needs to eat, or when she needed to suck down a bottle in my lap when she was younger. But my God, she wants me to read to her?!? It's inhuman!
Apparently, whacked-out sleep patterns by 18-month olds is fairly common. "Moxie" (see link) indicates that it can last anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. I'm hoping for the former. In the meantime, we've tried everything you can imagine to get her back in bed. Teething tablets, Tylenol, Oragel, milk, water, fruit, those cereal bars she loves, "new" stuffed animals from her toy hammock, night lights, dimmed lights, door open, door cracked... We've tried laying down with her on our bed, trying to get her to rest on the couch... We've tried having Mom put her down instead of me... We're not fans of letting her "cry it out," but we've given that a shot for 10 minutes at a time or so.
I've been half tempted to go try to find some kids Benadryl to drug her back to sleep, but I doubt that Mom'd let me. So our best solution just seems to be to try to split the staying up duties as best we can based on whoever is functional. The first time, that was mostly me. This most recent time, it was mostly Mom. ... I just put a pillow over my head to muffle the crying and tried to get some sleep.
One thing that might help in Paige's case is that she actually sprouted her first new tooth since June today, her right upper canine (or cuspid, if you prefer...though canine is a cooler word). The other isn't far behind. Hopefully, once they've finished cutting through her gums, she'll be less inclined to wake up. We'll see... In the meantime, I had better go get some sleep while I have the chance!
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Santa
The weekend after Thanksgiving I was in Walmart doing some returns (from my Black Friday spree) with Paige. They had a Santa there and were doing free 5x7 pictures, so I thought I'd give it a shot. As soon as we even got near to Santa she started freaking out. She was actually trembling in my arms. I know, I probably should've just turned around at that point and forgot about it, but I really wanted her picture with Santa and this one was free.
I was only about a few inches away from Santa and I quickly passed her to him so they could take this picture and then he quickly passed her back to me. She was so frightened at one point she even gave him her candy cane hoping he'd be satisfied with just that. In her defense, this wasn't the best looking Santa I've ever met. I probably would've been scared myself if I was in her shoes. Hopefully she'll be able to laugh about this one day!
I was only about a few inches away from Santa and I quickly passed her to him so they could take this picture and then he quickly passed her back to me. She was so frightened at one point she even gave him her candy cane hoping he'd be satisfied with just that. In her defense, this wasn't the best looking Santa I've ever met. I probably would've been scared myself if I was in her shoes. Hopefully she'll be able to laugh about this one day!
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