Lets Chat!

Hi Ladies! I've been away from here for awhile due to moving and internet issues and pregnancy.org being so hard to access on my phone but I hate how our board is dying. Anyone want to chat with me? My goal is to get on here at least once a day. I don't want to sit on my computer when I should be playing with Claire and we seem to be in a no napping phase so I can't promise more than that but I'd love to chat a little. So....lets start with a random question....What has your tot been doing recently that surprised you? Good or bad or post one of each!

Today Claire dripped water all over the floor walking around with her sippy and I didn't notice because I was cleaning dishes. Until she walked into the kitchen, dropped the sippy, opened the cupboard, took out a rag, and wiped up the water. She even stood up, walked over to where there was more and wiped that up. Isn't it amazing how much they notice of what we do when we aren't even trying to teach them??

Now tell me what your little one is doing!

That is amazing! Ryan is better at making a mess than cleaning it up... the other day he pulled a bag of oatmeal out of the fridge and scattered it all over the kitchen within seconds. Ugh. I can't say it surprised me though!

Does he go straight for the fridge every time you open it? I'm getting so I try not to open it or the dishwasher with her in the kitchen because she gets so mad when I won't let her play with them. And as cute as it is that she is "cleaning", its not all that helpful. Today she dragged 10 rags out one at a time to take and "wipe" the floor in the living room. Just what I needed, more laundry.

I'm so glad that some folks want to chat again! I know what you mean about fridge and dishwasher being a baby magnet, especially when DS tries to play with the dirty dishes when I have the dish rack pulled out or to make out with a mustard bottle in the fridge. Mostly, DS just tries to highlight all our shortcomings when it comes to baby proofing our house :) He loves to play in our cat's drinking water fountain, pull on our window blinds and push our kitchen chairs around the house. I love how your little girl cleaned up her own spills! DS pulls down and drags the kitchen towels around on the floor but not in any way to be helpful, unless he is hinting that I should clean the floor more often :p

I do love seeing his personality developing and showing through as he transitions into this toddler stage. I stop frequently and stare at him because it baffles me that he is growing out of being my little baby. His little fat rolls are starting to melt away and he doesn't want to just sit on my lap and cuddle unless he's upset or taking a bottle :(

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Originally Posted by xtinagreen

I'm so glad that some folks want to chat again! I know what you mean about fridge and dishwasher being a baby magnet, especially when DS tries to play with the dirty dishes when I have the dish rack pulled out or to make out with a mustard bottle in the fridge. Mostly, DS just tries to highlight all our shortcomings when it comes to baby proofing our house :) He loves to play in our cat's drinking water fountain, pull on our window blinds and push our kitchen chairs around the house. I love how your little girl cleaned up her own spills! DS pulls down and drags the kitchen towels around on the floor but not in any way to be helpful, unless he is hinting that I should clean the floor more often :p

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The dog's water bowl is a favorite here too and she doesn't seem concerned with helping to clean that up. :P Have you noticed how they seem to zero in on the most dangerous items? Full dishwasher and she grabs straight for the handle of the steak knife! We can't baby proof much because we are in a rental and can't put anything in our cupboards or drawers. Thankfully the kitchen has a door so I can close it off when I'm not in there but cooking is getting to be very difficult because I spend the majority of my time in the kitchen stopping her from getting things she shouldn't be playing with.

Yes. I'm thankful that we can close him off from the bedrooms and bathrooms. Unfortunately, the rest of our house is open layout rambler and pretty much fair game, though it does mean he can't wander off too far where I can't find him quickly.

How is your dog reacting to your little one and vice versa?

Our cat tends to steer clear of DS (she is a little on the skittish side), probably doesn't help that he squeals and zooms after her when he sees her. But she will sometimes sits next to us if I'm feeding DS a bottle, feeding him in his booster seat or reading on floor, I guess whenever she thinks he is too preoccupied to notice her.

They actually do pretty well together. We have a 3 year old female yellow lab. She has never really seemed to care about Claire. We have taught Claire how to pet her nicely and our dog seems to actually like that but we watch them very carefully bc she did get bitten when she was about 9 months. She crawled behind the couch and the dog followed her, I got up to see what they were doing but before I had them in view I heard the dog growl and Claire start crying. She had a bite on her hand. It was super scary but not actually too bad of a bite, only broke the skin in one place but that spot was from the canine so it bled pretty bad. That was also the first time she saw the pedi here and I have loved them since because when I called they just said come in and when we got there we saw the pedi within 5 minutes even tho it wasn't bleeding anymore or anything so it wasn't really an emergency. I think what she did was try to pull up using the dogs mouth because she was pulling up on everything then and the only thing the dog is sensitive about it her mouth. I've seen Claire poke her in the eye and yank on her ears with no problem so I'm 100% sure she did something to cause it but we are still super careful about them playing together. The biggest problem now is that our dog doesn't know her own size and tends to accidentally knock Claire over when she goes past. Oh, And Claire likes to try feeding her things like toys by shoving them at her mouth but I think I've finally got her to stop that by telling her no when she does it and taking away whatever she was doing it with. Its definitely not easy having a dog and a baby but I think they are going to be great friends when Claire is a little older.

Evelyn spilled a huge glass of DH's water in the living room and when we walked in and saw it, she looked up at us and said, "Uh, oh!" It was the cutest thing. :) She does all kinds of cool stuff everyday, but I think what is really impressing me right now is that she is starting to say so many words. She repeats a ton of words and is starting to use them on her own now. We've almost completely stopped with signing because she is starting to use the word instead...we should probably stick with it though, since she definitely understands a lot more than she can express.

We haven't had any problems with our pets yet. Our dog pretty much just walks away whenever the baby heads in her direction. I have to admit that now that we have a baby, I am really regretting having the animals. The pet hair is impossible to keep up with and we just aren't able to give them the attention they want. The idea of a dog bite really scares me and we keep a pretty close eye on them.

Evelyn isn't much of a risk taker, so she's not walking yet. She can move though...and quickly! We have our house set up so that there are 3 rooms where she can play without much worry about her getting into any trouble. The kitchen is not one of them, so she doesn't go after the refrigerator. Occasionally, when we have put her down in the kitchen, she will head directly for the dishwasher if it's open.

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Originally Posted by xtinagreen

I'm so glad that some folks want to chat again! I know what you mean about fridge and dishwasher being a baby magnet, especially when DS tries to play with the dirty dishes when I have the dish rack pulled out or to make out with a mustard bottle in the fridge. Mostly, DS just tries to highlight all our shortcomings when it comes to baby proofing our house :) He loves to play in our cat's drinking water fountain, pull on our window blinds and push our kitchen chairs around the house. I love how your little girl cleaned up her own spills! DS pulls down and drags the kitchen towels around on the floor but not in any way to be helpful, unless he is hinting that I should clean the floor more often :p

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This is exactly what Ryan's favourite things are! Dishwasher, fridge, electrical cords. Anything dangerous and/or messy is the most fun. He tries to climb into the dishwasher. When I open it he comes crawling as fast as he can, squealing with excitement, only to start screaming and crying when I close it before he gets there. And he adores sucking on electrical cords so we really have to be careful not to leave any plugged in. Thank god we put door latches on all the kitchen cabinets.

On another note, he has also started throwing little tantrums, screaming bloody murder when we prevent him from accessing the fridge or dishwasher, or take away the other high-prized items (e.g., cell phones).

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Originally Posted by science_gal

On another note, he has also started throwing little tantrums, screaming bloody murder when we prevent him from accessing the fridge or dishwasher, or take away the other high-prized items (e.g., cell phones).

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Claire just started doing that about a week ago. Not a fan. If she is in a good mood and I make it fun she might give me whatever she has but if I move her away from the dog bowl or something she screams/cries. If I ignore it she usually is fine in just a minute but I get really sick of it after a couple time.

Also, she tried to open the OVEN today. While it was on. She likes to look at her reflection in it or at the stuff inside and its not hot to the touch, I checked it everywhere, but apparently she can reach the handle now. I guess I'll be buying an oven lock tomorrow.

Carrie - Your husband is home with her during the day right? Where does he put her while he cooks? My DH is only home a couple hours a day so I cook all 3 meals with just me and Claire and so she ends up in there with me while I cook and clean up.

I know what you mean about regretting having the animals. Our dog was our baby until Claire and I still love her but I've been seriously considering sending her to my in-laws somehow because they would have more time for her and then I would have one less thing to worry about.