The Babe's Baby

Over the past couple of days, the Babe has been playing with her imaginary baby, Barbara.  She has her at the table, puts her to bed, etc.  Barbara isn't always around, but often enough that she's made her presence known.  Today the Babe and I went to a craft store, and while checking out, she made sure to tell the clerk and person in front of us that she had her baby Barbara with.  What do you do when a young child mentions a baby, and there's none in sight?  Immediately look at the Mommy's tummy.  Ahem, no baby on board.  I made sure to clarify she was referring to her imaginary baby in the buggy.  The Babe repeated this at the other store we went to and the local Bookmobile.  The Babe took an extra minute to exit the car at each locale to make sure her baby was taken care of, and when we were leaving, to make sure I put the baby buggy in the trunk.  We'll see how long this lasts.

Sticky Fingers

It seems early in the year for this, but a cold has hit our house.  The Babe has a lovely bit of chest and nasal congestion.  It started last Wednesday afternoon, and just won't go away.  What have we learned this week?  How to cough into our elbows when in public, and if we stick our fingers in our nose, we then need to wash our hands.  You gotta learn that sometime!  The Babe kept sticking her fingers up her nose, and I finally had to explain how we spread germs and make others sick.  That seems to have stuck, so now she lets me know when she's washing her hands because she didn't use a Kleenex.  Fortunately, that isn't too often now. 

We did see the pediatrician on Friday.  That's when the coughing in the elbow lesson was taught, because she didn't want to wear the mask the receptionist gave her.  The doctor prescribed an oral steroid, which the Babes been better about taking, but still dislikes it.  Oh well.  Tomorrow we'll be done with it, and hopefully finally on the mend. 

This morning she may have had too much juice with the steroid, because soon after she threw up just a little.  Now, the Babe isn't much of a puker (thankfully!).  However, if she's in my bed, somehow she knows how to hit the one pillow that only has a pillow case on it, no pillow protector.  And for some reason, when I changed the sheets last, I must have let one protector air dry, and didn't realize that I left one off.  And of course it was from one of our more expensive pillows.  And the Babe only puked on that one.  Good job!

Dioramas and Suits

So this may be a tad graphic or vulgar, depending on your tastes, but hopefully you'll find it funny.  In my family, conversations somehow windup discussing plumbing- either bodily or mechanical.  In this event, bodily.

Before we knew the Babe had food allergies, she had frequent blow-out diapers.  We're talking up the back (and on a few occasions, need to cut her clothes off her) messes.  The pediatrician initially lumped it up to her being a nursed babies.  Well, we can guess about when her food allergies started based on when these nasty diapers started.  Once she was diagnosed, and our diet changed, things improved.  She's been potty trained almost a year now, and for the first time had to use the D word with her.  She seemed a bit confused and I had to explain it to her.  Later, she told me how she had "diorama".  Have you had diorama?  Nope, that wasn't a diorama she constructed in the bathroom.  My child with the great big vocabulary has now added "diarrhea" to it.  Lets hope its used infrequently. 

Coming home today from an errand, she started discussing going to the Daddy store.  She then called it the "Daddy Toot store".  Hmmm.  We refer to another bodily function with her as a "toot" (I'm sure you can figure out what).  Ok, its cute when discussed with a toddler.  I wouldn't use that term with others.  Anyhow, back to the Daddy Toot store.  I asked her what you buy there.  She told me ties and shirts and pants.  Oh, a Daddy suit store!  Good to know, cause I wouldn't want to shop at the other. 

School time

Now that its almost time for back to school, I'm trying to plan things for the Babe as if she were in pre-school, like her friends.  While I can't make up for the socialization aspect, I've been trying to work on a modified curriculum.  No, I am not a teacher nor do I have a teaching background.  And no, I do not want to homeschool her.  However, at this time, she cannot be in a school setting due to the presumption that during a three hour or less learning program a child must eat.  So, I have purchased some pre-school teaching books and classroom tools, and borrowed some curriculum materials from my aunt, who after being an elementary education teacher for several years and then being a stay-at-home mom, returned to work for several years as a pre-school teacher.  Does this make me an expert?  No.  Does this give me more patience to work with the Babe?  No.  However, its a start.  The goal is to ease her into writing the alphabet...properly.  As of now she can write her name and some letters.  However, they aren't properly drawn, although mostly legible.  And she keeps asking how to write words, so she's definitely ready. 

In addition, I've been thinking about how to get creative with lunch.  The Babe eats just fine...the same thing over, and over, and over again.  My father-in-law regularly raises his concern about the fact that she almost daily eats hot dogs at lunch.  Yes, I don't like it either, but I try to block it from my mind.  For a long time she was too thin and barely ate anything so now, if she likes it, its hard not to give it to her.  If you saw her, you wouldn't know she was an Allergy Babe (knock-wood), because she's not too thin, and proportioned for her height and weight.  Anyhow, as for lunches, I also partially give in due to laziness.  Yes, fessing up here.  I cook every night, and do the clean-up, too.  That makes me not want to do it more than once a day.  So if she wants the same, easy to make, minimal mess meals during the daytime, I'm not fighting right now.  However, I have begun to research lunchbox ideas, which led to searches of cute Bento boxes.  So, long story short (ha), I bought some cookie cutters.  The first thing I did was make a heart, flower, and butterfly out of an apple.  The Babe loved it, and ate it all too. 

Then, I made hearts from toast (the attached picture isn't great since it was taken on my phone). 

Today, after enjoying some fresh air and a nice bike ride by the Babe, we juiced an orange and I made her flower-shaped chips from toasted corn tortillas. 

It was both a snack and an activity.  Yes, she would have eaten the chips in a regular shape.  However, its more fun this way (for both of us).  If I can come up with more cute ideas, I'll try to incorporate them at lunchtime, so she is willing to go beyond the hot dogs.  Maybe that will be another post one day, "beyond the hot dog".  For now, baby steps.

Straps

My father, who was very actively involved in the raising of his two daughters, was recently embarrassed by the Babe.  Yes, my three year old said/did something that is both amusing but embarrassing enough that he isn't comfortable sharing it with his friends.   So, I'll share it with you.  While at my house a few weeks back, the Babe lifted her shirt and told him that when she's older she'll have straps.  She meant a bra.  I don't think she understands the purpose of a bra, but apparently the idea of wearing straps intrigues her.  To the best of my knowledge, she hasn't made this request to anyone else.  And while in the store today buying her underwear, she was oblivious to the training bras we passed, so I don't think we have anything to worry about...yet.

Television viewing

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends less than 2 hours of television viewing for young children.  Well, we exceed that amount exponentially.  So, when I'm trying to curtail the Babe's television viewing, I usually will tell her that I'm going to get in trouble with her doctor because of how much t.v. she watches.  So, this morning I turned off the t.v.  She'd already watched over an hour of it.  She didn't like this, so she said doctors are bad.  She then asked me to draw a picture of a doctor so she could draw an "x" through it.  Uh oh!  I explained how doctors help us.  They're good.  We see them when we're sick to help us get better, and when we're healthy to make sure we're doing well and growing.  She's still not buying it.