Brushing Our Teeth is Fun to Do!

We have been working on brushing teeth for months now. I would really like Elise to be in the habit of brushing teeth, and have made it part of our after meal, and bed time routines. She doesn't really like it. She lets me brush them, and for the first little while was excitedly curious. Logan's grandparents sent a cute Hello Kitty toothbrush and some special drops to use on new baby teeth to help prevent cavities in babies and toddlers. We've been using this stuff, and brushing teeth, but Elise really struggles with letting me brush all of them. We think she may have sensitive gums, especially on the top front ones. I have felt frustrated as I've tried to help her have good dental hygiene, and so I read a couple articles from a baby developmental website called BabyCenter. One suggestion stood out to me. They suggested you let your toddler brush their own teeth, and then maybe help a little at the end if they didn't quite get them all brushed. I didn't really think this would work, but thought it couldn't hurt to try. To my surprise and amazement, Elise took to this idea like a fish takes to water. She loves brushing her teeth now. She will spend several minutes 'brushing' her teeth. She loves to look in the mirror and makes sure she's getting the back ones, and that they are all looking more clean. Mostly she chews on the brush, and swishes it around, but when I brush mine at the same time, she seems to do more brushing. She absolutely loves being in control of the toothbrush, and will even let me help just a bit before we rinse. While I'm still not sure this is the best way to get all those teeth as clean as possible, she is much more excited about the whole process, and will go in the bathroom and sign brushing teeth to remind me. I'm glad what was once a struggle has turned into a fun time for her to exercise her independence, and remind me how grown up she's getting!

Scared of ....

Our little one is a unique child. She is very good with lots of things, but there are some things holding her back from reaching her full potential. These things are stuffed animals and dolls, and puppets too. She loves balls, books, puzzles, pop beads, toy trains, and many more things. Pull out a doll, and she shakes her head while backing away from you and the doll/puppet/stuffed animal. I don't know why she has this terrible fear, but every once in a while we try to pull out the Big Bird doll, or a stuffed teddy someone has given her. We usually get a look of curiousity, and then the shaking head and backing away, even tears if the item can move or make noise by itself. Grandma came to visit and brought an Abby Cadabby doll that sings. Elise knows and loves Abby Cadabby on Sesame Street, or a puzzle, or even on her shirt. The doll, she's terrified. She cries if I suggest we let Abby sing to us. I think she may over come this fear with time, so I put them all away, and periodically bring them out to see if she'll take to them. We were going through one such box in the midst of packing, and she didn't want to have anything to do with these items. She wanted me to pack them away again. She did find something she liked. I had some small, 2 inch tall Cabbage Patch figurines from when I was little. Elise loves them. She put them in her basket and has carried them around and played with them. I guess because they are small and plastic, she is more okay with them. She is still scared of the other stuffed animals and dolls though, which I have noticed can be an ok thing at this stage of our lives. She keeps getting into boxes she shouldn't be in, and while this is usually just a frustration challenge for me, it can sometimes be not safe for her do to. One day I had such a box, and saw Abby Cadabby lying not far away. I put the doll on top of the box. She hasn't touched the box since. I was able to get it packed, taped shut, and out of her way without her getting into things that she shouldn't. Not that I was trying to scare her, I just decided that if she was going to leave Abby Cadabby alone, the most advantageous place for the doll was on top of the unsafe box. Hopefully by the time she makes friends with the Abby doll, we'll be done with the unsafe boxes!

Wonders of Modern Medicine

I have a head cold. Not that it is incapacitating me to the point of insanity, but I have never really enjoyed the times I've gotten sick like this, especially since I can't just curl up in bed and rest. Elise, fortunately isn't sick, so she has all the energy of a 19 month old, and doesn't understand that Mommy doesn't. So, as this is the first time in a couple years that I am able to, I've taken some real medications. Nothing too big, but something more than rubbing Vicks on my nose and sucking on lozenges. I love that there are brilliant people in the world who have come up with safe medications that can help us deal with symptons that would dull our senses so we aren't as focused as we need to be when dealing with a crafty and adventurous toddler. I am still sick, but not anywhere near as debilitated as I've been in the last couple years when I wasn't able to take medications like this. What a wonder modern medicine is!

Just Packing

We've been having new adventures this week. We've been packing. As we are taking a prolonged 'vacation', and will be putting all our belongings in storage until we come back and are in a different apartment (we hope), we've been packing it all up. Four weeks to go, and we're making good progress. Logan and I have each had the experience of moving several times during our lives, but this time there is a new element. The unforeseen variable that makes this a true adventure is having a 19 month old. She likes to imitate whatever it is we are doing. She sees me taking things off shelves and putting them in boxes. Sometimes she takes things off shelves and puts them in the boxes. Sometimes she takes things out of the boxes. Each time, she turns to me and claps for herself as though she is doing something new and amazing, while giving me her huge wrinkly nosed grin. While this makes the packing experience more fun filled, it also makes it a bit more challenging as I like to make lists so I am organized in the packing. I like to know what is in each box, and where each box will be (here or in Oregon), what is going down, what is staying here, and what is being gotten rid of. My little helper doesn't see things in the same light. She thinks if she can reach it (and her reach has grown by leaps and bounds, no longer is the table or counter top a safe place), then it should go in the box. Sometimes I'm surprised by what I find in the box, especially in the relatively short time span it takes me to go to the shelves for another load. I've tried giving her a box of her own. She doesn't want it. She wants to help me with my box. I am choosing to see this as a sign of affection and attachment. I also think it will be an accomplishment if we get everything organized in the way I had hoped, and if we make it onto our trip with all the things I hope will make it into the right boxes to go with us. So for now, our updates are probably going to be fewer and farther between, as we're up to our knees in boxes and a helper. Anyone need help loading up boxes? I've got an expert on my hands!

High Chair or Booster?

Since Elise has shown lately that she wants to be a big girl and not use her high chair, I've started wondering if I should bring her high chair with us on the plane, and cart it around as we visit, or if I should find a little booster seat for her. The advantage of the high chair is that I can strap her in, and it'll be a familiar thing, in an unfamiliar place. The advantage of the booster seat is that it'll be small, and I'd have one less large item to check on the airplane. Tough choice....any suggestions?

New Technology

In an effort to prepare for our upcoming 'vacation', we've been getting things ready, technologically speaking. I am joining the age of electronics, and am finally converting my music library to an iTunes library and putting it all on an iPod, which will make it easier to cart around the lower 48, and to still have music in the car for Elise while we're in the process of moving. This has been an interesting process, and I guess I hadn't realized how much music I have. It is kind of fun to have it all on one small device, even though its been a long process. It is incredibly convenient, and hopefully we can learn more songs together, as we sing a lot in the car over the next several months. So, I guess I'm very grateful we have that option, as this leaves more room in the luggage for her board books, and some flannel board stories. This also opens up the options for the long day of flying and entertainment for Elise, as there are podcasts of Sesame Street we can download, so if we are desparate as we sit in Portland for 6 hours, we can watch a bit of the letter of the day!

Mommy Recliner

Yesterday we were trying to get everyone up and ready to go to church. Elise has had a bit of a rough time sleeping, and hadn't gotten to sleep until 11:30pm, so she was trying to sleep in. I picked her up, came downstairs, and sat on the couch while she leaned against me and tried very hard to stay asleep. She would open her eyes, then shut them again, and try to make us think she was still asleep. Finally I sat her up tall, and sat up too. She put both hands on my chest, and started pushing. I thought that was kind of funny, and asked her why she was pushing me. Finally I let her push me back, which she did quite forcefully, then she layed back down on my front. She just wanted her 'Mommy chair' to fully recline so she could rest. Logan and I haven't had a good laugh like that in a long time!

Flannel Board How To

Ok, this is for Sister Held, who asked how we were making flannel board stories. We have our flannel board, which just has flannel glued on a hard surface. Ours is masonite, but foam core board would work too. In fact I'm working on making a little one just for Elise, so she won't keep tipping over the huge heavy one. So you have your flannel board. Next the stories. There are three ways we've been working on making stories.

Way #1: We just cut shapes out of felt. There are lots of colors, and you can do it free hand, or with a pattern. These shapes work great, and you can add details with a permanent marker. I use a very fine tip one, and it works great. You can even cut felt with some of the scrapbooking machines, like the Sizzix. The cricut ones you can't do felt with yet, but they are coming out with a deeper blade soon, so they will cut felt shapes as well. And there are some felt shapes you can get at the craft store, like letters.

Way #2: I made the prophet dress up game with some heavy duty non-fusible stabilizer, or interfacing. You can trace the pattern on the stabilizer with a pencil, then color the pattern in with crayon. Take a brown paper bag, or some brown wrapping type paper, place it over your pattern, then iron through the paper with an iron on low setting. This is just to set the crayon. Some of the crayon will melt onto the paper. Some kinds of stabilizer you will start to see the crayon from the wrong side, that's how you know it is set. Others, you just see the crayon on the paper. Then you can outline your pattern with a fine tipped permanent marker (I use the Ultra Fine ones) and cut it out. They turn out pretty cool. I use this method for things I need to trace, as well as things that will stick together. The pieces of the prophets needed to stick to the body, and the stabilizer sticks to itself enough to hold it onto the flannel board. Make sure your stabilizer is NOT FUSIBLE, and that your paper is between the stabilizer and the iron, and/or the ironing board.

Way #3: This is for things that are too detailed to trace, and don't need to stick on top of each other. You can photo copy your design onto a piece of cardstock or heavier weight paper. Then color them, cut them out, and laminate them. This helps them last longer than the felt or stabilizer pieces might (especially if your kids are a bit tougher on the pieces). Once the pieces are laminated, you can use felt to stick on the back. You can find felt that is sticky on one side at the craft store. The whole back of the piece doesn't need to be covered in felt, you can just use small squares or circles, and stick them to the back of your laminated pieces. This will allow them to stick to the flannel board.

The church also sells some figure sets separate from the Gospel Art Picture Kit. These can be laminated and have felt stuck to the back, or just stick felt onto the back, and they work great for some fun story time as well.

I have been using the primary partners books to come up with ideas for stories or pieces to make. There are some really cute ideas for the nursery/sunbeam age manual, and they make great visual aids for learning songs or stories. You can also find or make patterns for other figures or pieces from coloring books. You can use the computer clip art to make patterns as well. Today I also cut out a bunch of circles, squares, and triangles, with the idea that my girl can just experiment and make things with the different shapes.

All in all, flannel board stories are way fun, and we're getting the chance to be creative in a re-usable way.

Little Basket

My little one is quite the helper. She loves to help with laundry, and various other household tasks which require carrying things in baskets. She loves to take things out of the baskets, and sometimes to put things in as well. She also loves to try and pick up the huge basket, full or empty, and 'carry' it around the front room or kitchen, usually when it is full of laundry. To encourage her desire to be a helper, and make it easier (for both of us, as I would like to keep clean, folded laundry IN the basket) I started looking for a small person sized basket. Wendy Dalton, the wonderful friend, let us borrow one that was incredibly perfect, and it turns out it is just the right size for blanket and glow worm to go in, and for my helper to carry around. She loves this basket. She carries all kinds of things, and because it is her special one, she gets to take things out or put them in, and mommy doesn't try to stop her! She loves it, and it has been a life saver (or a laundry saver, in this case). Thank you Wendy!!!

Nursery Update

The little boy from last week didn't remember Elise, and there were fewer kids this time, so it was a bit easier to handle.

Big Trips Coming Up

"The time has come," the walrus said, "to talk of other things. Of shoes, and ships, and ceiling wax, of cabbages and kings."... or in our case our upcoming plans. We've been making big decisions, and the jist of it is that we want to move out of our apartment, and while things are slow work-wise this winter, we'll take advantage of the circumstances to move out of our apartment, and squeeze in an extended vacation for visiting family. Elise and I will pack everything, and hopefully organize it really well, in the next 6 weeks. Then she and I will get on a plane and go visiting down south. We'll be staying mostly with Logan's parents in Oregon, but are going to rent a car to go visiting for my family as well. I haven't gotten to see my grandparents in over 4 years, so we'll drive down to Southern California, and hopefully get to talk Beth into going with us as an extra adult for the trip. I'm excited to see them, and for Elise to meet them. We'll also get to go to Northern California and visit my mom. We're even contemplating driving up to Utah, but that looks a little more challenging, and we're not sure about that. We're hoping to get our driving visits done before the winter weather starts to set in, so the trips will likely be in October. We're excited for Elise to get to know her grandparents better, and even get to play with her cousin, as they are only 4 months apart.

Logan will stay up here, and live with the Daltons, and then come down for about 3 weeks for Christmas time in Oregon. We will miss him A LOT!!! We're trying to come up with ways to stay in touch, so Elise will not be freaked out at Christmas. We've updated the laptop situation to one with a webcam, and will be able to call and talk with Logan everyday, as well as see each other with the webcam. I made Elise a poster with pictures of Daddy, for us to hang on our wall in Oregon, and we're laminating some little wallet size pictures for her to put in her quiet book, that she can carry around with her. Hopefully that helps her remember him and stay connected so she'll be comfortable seeing him when he comes down.

I'm also a bit nervous about helping Elise be happy for a whole day of flying and waiting around airports. She doesn't usually do well with lots of people or new places, so I'm a bit concerned about her feeling calm in some challenging circumstances. I'm also a bit worried about bringing enough food, or finding food for her in the airport, which mostly is fast food. So food, and entertainment are my big concerns. I got her a new board book, and put that away for the flight. The day we got it, she fell in love with it, and wanted to read it repeatedly, so I disappeared in with the hope that she'll love it just as much in 6 weeks when we get on the plane. I'm still looking for other ideas to occupy a 20 month old little girl for about 14 hours of traveling, so anybody got any ideas?

Big Girl Now

My little one has recently been asserting her independence. She is becoming extremely resistant to sitting in the high chair, and has learned to crawl her way onto a normal, big girl chair, and even to get down relatively safely. The other day she refused to sit in the high chair, and insisted that she have a bedtime snack in a big girl chair. She is a bit short for this, but enjoyed to experience all the same. I thought it was pretty funny, and a bit scary how independent she is getting, but I guess that's all part of growing up!

She has also started pretending to take pictures of me with a camera, when I am trying to take a picture of her. It makes it a bit tricky to get a smiley face!...at least on her end!

Nursery Hugger

There were 18 kids in nursery at church on Sunday. There were several visitors, and a couple new kids. Two of the boys, who are regulars in this class, did not get along. They were constantly fighting over toys, pushing and hitting each other, and just butting heads, not seeing eye to eye. There were fewer leaders than normal, as one was out with sick family, so it ended up being good that I could stay in nursery with Elise, and be an extra adult as well. Things went ok, although they were very caotic. One of the two rowdy clashing boys had a toy at one point, which he accidentally hit Elise with. I asked him to say sorry, and to be more careful with the toys. He is 3, and is at least a head taller than Elise. To say sorry he came over and grabbed her in a bear hug. Then he didn't let go. She finally pushed him away, and went back to playing with lego blocks. After that, everytime I turned around, this kid was bear hugging Elise. I repeatedly tried to get him involved in separate activities, but every couple minutes he would come over and hug her. She likes her space, so she didn't really welcome these occurances, but we made it through class time, and went our separate ways. We'll see if he remembers her next week.

Merry Kiss Mice

We have found our Christmas ornament project for this year, with the help of my mom. We are busily making Merry Kiss Mice, and are surprised that the most challenging part is finding pink pom poms for noses, especially in the right size. We're trying to finish up projects in the next week or two, so we can be ready for packing. Elise is eager to help, although she's scared of the mice, so she's thankfully not right in the middle of this project.

Flannel Board Stories

I love making flannel board stories! I have only made one, a dress up the prophet game, as we're trying to get all our other projects done, and start packing, but it was so much fun, and came out pretty cool! It has hair and clothes that you put on the face and torso to make different prophets, like Noah, or Nephi, or modern ones too. Here is one I think lookes like Heber J. Grant, one of the modern prophets:

I'm having a hard time restraining myself from making some more, as Elise loves them, and we're having lots of fun with them!

Sesame Street

Since we've been introduced to Abby Cadabby, the new fairy in training on Sesame Street, we decided we should try to find the show, so Elise could see what it is all about. We finally found it, and have let Elise 'watch' several episodes. She doesn't really watch TV, we don't usually have it on, so this is a new thing for her, and she still doesn't have that long of an attention span (the show is 1 hour!), with activities that are more passive. Ususally she'll watch a bit, go play with toys, or get a book, and then come back for a bit more watching. The other day we noticed that she was dancing when the theme song came on during the opening credits, and that as soon as Abby came on, she pointed and got a big smile. She is starting to recognize the main characters, and has a couple books with them as well, so she knows Elmo and Abby. Unfortunately, the new Sesame Street seems to be missing the favorites from when I was a kid. It is rare to see Big Bird, Grover, Snuffalupagus, and even Bert and Ernie. I have watched several episodes and have only seen Big Bird once for less than a minute. I found that slightly disappointing, and was a bit confused on who all the new characters are. We are sure to figure them out soon though, as Elise seems to enjoy parts of the show, and is becoming more familiar with some of the characters. It is fun to see her show preferences for things, and display more of her personality. And we get to learn a letter and number everyday!

Hummingbird Stained Glass Quilt

We saw a pattern for a beautiful wall hanging quilt in a store down town. We fell in love with it, and after much anticipation waiting for the pattern and fabrics, we finally have had time to make this project. Parts of it were easier than we'd imagined, and parts were more difficult, especially with a 1 year old helper. However, we finished this last weekend, and are so excited that it worked for the most part! We think it looks pretty good from a distance, which is ok with us! We're hoping to be able to do this again, as a gift maybe...

Here is the finished product:

New Range Hood

We live in an old apartment building, built in the 70s. We have already had our stove replaced, and for the last several weeks have had issues with the hood over the stove. The fan was dying, and would sometimes work, sometimes not. We asked for maintenance to come take a look, and the office people told us they were getting new hoods in, and would just replace ours when they arrived. A few weeks later we asked again, and they told us they'd misplace the hoods on their arrival, but had then located them, and would send someone over soon to take a look at ours. Yesterday the maintenance man arrived. He tried to turn on the fan, which has been completely dead for a couple weeks, and said he thought there was a build up of grease in the motor, and that we should just get a new hood. We thought that sounded ok. He removed the old one, and installed the new one, as Logan helped with the lifting and placement in the hole in the wall. He got it all wired, and had Logan turn on the breaker. There was a loud pop as the switch for the light was turned on. The man decided to take it back apart to see what had happened. Apparently the wires hadn't been connected properly, and the part that made the fan go on high mode was burned out. He reconnected everything in the right way, and offered to switch out the part that burned out. Since we're only going to be here a few more weeks, we said it wasn't that big a deal to us, but if the next tenants wanted it done, maybe they could fix it for them. He agreed, packed up his tools, and left. So we now have a brand new hood, but only one speed on the fan. That is way better than nothing!, but kind of funny at the same time.

The Twitchy Eye

I have recently noticed that my eyelid is twitchy. It has been happening a lot lately, and is really starting to bother me. I mentioned it to Logan, who went to find out anything he could about twitchy eyelid causes on the internet. He found that it isn't a big deal, I'm not coming down with a disease, but the causes include stress and fatigue. The solution is to get more sleep, and decrease your stress and caffeine levels. I had to laugh. I guess it is just something I'm going to have to endure until I can magically schedule myself some more sleep!

Climb Every Mountain

It seems like forever since I've written here, but we've been working on getting things back into place, like our daily routine without visitors. We've also been making some big decisions about the next few months, which will be the subject of another post soon. This morning however, my little love bug displayed a desire for learning a new skill that I haven't seen from her before. She decided in the last few days that she wants to climb onto things. She has been using interesting household items like the Capri Sun boxes, or the Apple juice jugs as good places to sit, and has now graduated to trying to use them as step stools. This is not always effective, and she is now learning about gravity. This morning she tried to climb onto a chair all by herself. She made it, and had a tricky time turning around to sit down. She very quickly figured the whole thing out, and all day I have seen her quick as a flash crawl her way onto a chair, turn around smoothly, look at everything from her newly aquired vantage point, and then start to pick at her toes. She is even intent on getting down by herself, which is a bit more scary for Mom to watch. She still has trouble getting down from the bed, although she has figured out the couch and the stairs for the most part. I am so amazed at how quickly she has mastered the chairs, and am vigilant to be the net for while we learn about getting down. What a new adventure climbing is. It is as though she can hear her life soundtrack, and someone is belting at the top of their lungs "Climb every mountain!" from Sound of Music. She is just showing this urge to climb, to see new sights, and get into new things. Any ideas to keep her from climbing up the bookcase?