Nearly two....

Lots to update but in a nutshell when we decided to go Vancouver or bust, bust was what occurred~waaay to much nonsense to write about and I am trying to look forward and be positive and not dwell on the negative. So once again the family packed up and relocated to stay with Chris's family while we once again make a new start, My grandmother has told me we remind her of Gypsy's the way we have uprooted so many times across the country. But you have to do what you have to do to survive and while it has been frustrating at times, we have had the unique opportunity of experiencing the day to day life in a few provinces in this great country. You definitely see much more of a place as a resident than a visitor, but back to my update!

Lots of fun and exciting changes have been occurring since my last update, while we were still in Vancouver Little Miss began to sing along with Elmo's song on the computer. Only she couldn't say Elmo's song so she called it "La la la son", anytime she saw Elmo anywhere she would point and say Lalala Son. She has only just learned how to say Elmo. Her vocabulary has grown almost over night she can hear you say something just once or twice and copy the word now. She asks "what did you dooo?" and "whewre you goin, you goin?" when you leave the room. She doesn't like getting her hands dirty and will say "gwosss, dirty, gwoss" and run to you to wipe her hands off, she also knows when she drops something on the floor it is "a mess". I would say confidently she has at least 100 words under her belt at this point and its truly amazing to me how fast she picks them up. I'm glad I have begun baby-proofing my swears as I have heard her say " Oh Sugar!!!" a few times when she is frustrated...just like mama.  Unfortunately she has a tough time pronouncing frog and it comes out as f*ck half the time, so hopefully she will master that one soon before we get too many dirty looks from people.

Its pretty cute to see her when she hears a kid or baby crying someplace she will look in their direction and says "no worries" and if they keep crying she gets a bit pushy and just starts impatiently shhhhhushing them.  We took Little Miss to get her Easter bunny photo at the mall not to long ago and that was pretty fun, she saw the Easter bunny while we were in line and really wanted to go up to him, she was trying to push in front of the line and daddy had to bounce her around to keep her happy until it was our turn. When we got closer she started to wave to the Easter bunny and he waved back, she enjoyed that bit...then came time so sit on his lap, she tried to squirm away and began to wail after a minute (thank goodness the photographer snapped a good one of her fast before the melt down). When we scooped her up and took her away she kept waving and saying bye bye Easter bunny, we waited for our pictures for a few moments and then we started to leave. Well once we were leaving it was waterworks again because she had decided in that time frame she did indeed like the Easter bunny after all. I gave her one of the photos to hold in the backseat of the car and she held and waved to it saying "bye bye Munches" (munch is what she calls bunnies as we have a baby animal book that says munch and munch is the sound effect a rabbit makes) all the way home.

We had Easter morning planned out with 8 big eggs stuffed with McDonald's Ponies and a big My Little Pony train track at the end, we opted to avoid candy as she still wasn't too big into sweets at the time. When she grabbed the basket and dragged it down the hall she wanted to stop and carefully examine each and every egg right there it took a ridiculously long time to coax her down the hall into the living room. Later that day her Cousin 'G' came over and Chris's mom gave them each an Easter bag with sweets and some little toys. That evening we made it down to Chris's Grandparents house for Easter supper, the kids played and had a good time until due to adult coaxing roughhousing began and 'G' dove onto Lil Miss's stomach resulting in tears. Daddy was not a happy camper and had some words with people about not encouraging violent play with the kids. But it was an accident and soon the kids were having a good time again.

I started watching 'G' with Little miss during the week to make a little extra $ and the two kids got along really well together, it was nice watching my little girl giggle and get excited to have a friend around!.

April 30th Little miss got her first flu bug, she was throwing up for about 24 hours, we took her to the E.R in the evening where we were told just to keep her hydrated and rested.....waste of three hours of waiting time. On the plus side the doctor that did see us gave us a list of local doctors accepting patients so that was pretty good. Later that week the rest of the household all had a turn throwing up and being sick. It was pretty gross.  I have more to update for May and June but that will be a bigger post and I am running out of time today :).

kids can be little bastards...

Little Miss (L.M) has taken a real liking to other children lately, which should be a fun and exciting phase for her and me both. However I am finding rather than it being pleasant it is much more stressful than I had imagined. Little Miss is not a perfect angel I will admit that here and now before I gripe about other peoples kids, we have tantrums and meltdowns and stubborn refusal to listen it all comes with toddler territory. But despite her limited interaction with kids before our move she is very good around other children.

At times she gets all up on the toys the other kids are playing with not to be greedy but in an attempt to join them. If another child is using the item we steer her to something similar, sometimes the exact same thing to join in and play together. But she doesn't grab things to steal them, or do the "MINE!" thing to other kids, she doesn't hit or push or bully. She is gentle around smaller kids she at times says "nice" and tries to pet them. She gets in front of other kids with smiles and a big laugh to try to engage them in play and interacts always in a friendly and gentle manner.

I am so proud of her when I see how nicely she tries to reach out to other children and I am also so scared for her at the same time. I have seen other children react to her sweetness with nothing but anger and violence. She has been pushed a few times now when trying to introduce herself to other kids. This week we had an older girl take her balloon and torment her with it, she is still to little to understand that she was being picked on. She chased the girl trying to get it back she thought the two of them were playing, but had the girls mother and I not intervened she would have outright stolen it on her.

I have seen a gang of little girls at the playground get rude to her and tell her to "move out of their way" while she was playing on the equipment. One cocky little brat even looked at me and tried to tell me that the slide was just for her and her friend I had to explain to her that was not the case and they had to take turns. I make a point of staying close to her to help her figure out situations like sharing and turns which at 20 months is not something she understands yet but she is learning.

I at first kept my mouth shut, no one wants to tell off another parents child. But when its your child its hard to stay neutral especially when these kids are not being properly supervised. I'm not going to stand around and let my baby get victimized because little Tommy happy fists mom is more interested in talking on her cell phone, than making sure her kid is not climbing up the slide the wrong way and getting mad/ violent towards children attempting to use it properly.

Its frustrating because she is not really interested in the kids her own age, who seem to play nicer from our experience. She really likes the older kids who of course dont want a baby to play with them, or dont understand that she is still a baby. Little miss is very tall for her age she is not yet 2 years old and she is so near the same size of some 3-4 year olds that they dont understand that she doesn't know what they are saying to her. Some little girls ran up behind her and tagged her into a game of tag and she had no idea what had happened, they also didn't know why she ignored them. I have seen her watch older girls run by laughing and she trails after them laughing away and they look at her funny, they dont understand that she is a baby and thinks they are playing with her.

It makes me sad to think that she will lose her sweetness and become more guarded the more time she spends with other kids. How many times do you get pushed or yelled at before you think that's how children play and you stop greeting them with smiles and giggles and decide to push first?. How long before you realize your being excluded and wonder why?. I think of all the times I excluded my little sister when we were kids, it makes me feel so guilty and it breaks my heart to think of my baby going through the same thing. I try not to be "that" parent the hover mom, but how can I not be when so many parents are on the opposite end of the spectrum and let their kids run wild.

Its not all bad we have had good interactions, Little Miss loves my friends little girl, she gave her about a dozen big kisses on the cheek and let out big giggles after each one. Some of the older children have been taught to be gentle and treat her kindly and want to try to show her how to do things, understanding that she is just a baby still learning. Little ones closer to her age, if not her size usually approach gently and have the same pleasant smiley greetings she gives. It gives me a grain of hope that she will learn the proper way to play and not learn bad habits that need to be broken.

A whole new world....

So it has been good long while since I have written on here and allot of changes have taken place to keep me busy. From the last week of September our entire world has been completely upside down, we packed up the last of the house and moved from Nova Scotia to B.C. "Little miss" (L.M from here on out) has become the babies new nickname "Buggitto" no longer seems to fit. L.M handled the long flight rather well, Daddy put Tangled on the ipod for her and between naps and her movie she flew across Canada like a trooper. When we landed she took well to my Mom right away and seemed to be just fine with a new change of scenery. Thank-goodness!

(all packed and ready to go, little miss crashed while we were getting things ready for the trip!)

The month of October we stayed with my family and lived out of suitcases while we looked for our own apartment which was a bit of a tight squeeze. L.M got really sick that month, she was feverish off and on for the month and full of mucous. It was her worst cold to date. We also had a stroke of bad luck as little miss pulled my hot hair straightener off the bathroom counter and burned the top of her hand. We rushed her up to the children's emergency and they wrapped it in a silver bandage. After a few days when we went back for her to have it looked at they felt confident it was healed enough to come off. Her little hand did end up healing quite quickly and there is now barely a faint scar on the top which I am sure will fully fade with time. I also finally cut Little Miss some bangs as her hair was starting to take on a life of its own.

At some point in October L.M met some of our friends with twin babies and was very interested in them. It was pretty cute as she has more experience with animals than babies/ small children her first response was to go up the babies with her palm up towards their face to let them sniff her. It made me giggle, she knows at least to be gentle when the babies are so small. I have taken L.M to an indoor play center at the mall a few times and she seemed to really enjoy herself there which was good. She got pushed once by some horrible little brat dressed like a firefighter when she tried to play with him. Luckily the kids mom gave him shit immediately and saved me from losing my cool. She has played a few times with little ones at the bookstore and seems to be more interested in interacting than she used to be.

October heralded the start of tantrum mode for Little Miss it started with high pitched screams when she didn't get her own way but thankfully they came down in pitch over time. Some of it may have been due to teething, it appears almost all of her teeth came in full force over the last few months. This October Auntie helped sew us a sweet blue furry flying monkey costume so L.M and I could go as the wicked witch and her flying monkey for Halloween. Trick or treating was a blast, once L.M discovered that people would open their doors and give her something when she knocked she was happy to walk on her own and go about her business. She was having a ton of fun shaking smarties boxes like rattles and even tried letting herself into a few houses once the door was opened. By the end of the night we knew it was time to go home when she stood knocking at a door and her little body was swaying with fatigue. Daddy scooped her up and she literally yawned once and her little head dropped to his shoulder in a dead sleep. It was the first and probably the last time we will the see the likes of that happening again, she didn't even flinch when we stripped her out of her costume, changed her diaper and put her to bed.

The start of November had us moving into our own apartment where I was able to turn the dining area into a play space for Little Miss. We had a few issues of tantrums and climbing things she was not supposed to so I set up her playpen and she received time-outs in it until she calmed down. It only took a few days but the Tantrums eventually tapered off and while naturally we still get them, they are not nearly as bad as before....most days. Little Miss and I spent a good deal of time exploring the neighborhood, she loves going to Chapters to play with other little ones, we have a good park nearby and she enjoyed many lovely stroller rides in the beautiful fall/winter weather we were so lucky to have this year. For a few weeks while we were walking down the sidewalk Little Miss would stop in her tracks and cover her eyes if she saw ANYONE walking towards us, She would also hide her eyes if strangers tried talking to her. Now that crowds are not so foreign to her she has become a bit more confident. She even went so far as to start a big fake laugh at the lady behind the deli counter today when she peeked over and said "Hi" to her.

Towards the end of November we set up our Christmas tree, knowing how grabby L.M can be I only put up Styrofoam fruit ornaments, a monkey art doll, ribbon and the topper this year. Little miss had a blast gathering the fruit ornaments off the tree and hiding them all over the house, I was finding and rearranging ornaments on an hourly basis. At one point during a spaghetti dinner she walked right up to the tree grabbed my glitter ribbon gave it a tug and used it to wipe spaghetti sauce from around her mouth. Despite her interest in the tree decorations she never once went for any of the wrapped presents that sat under it for weeks. Although most of my special ornaments remained in storage this year, I did put up my Christmas carousel. Little Miss LOVED it! As you turn it it plays music and L.M loved dancing to the song it plays. I tried moving it and putting it out of reach as she tried to steal the carousel animals a few times (which gave me the idea to get her some rubber animals for Christmas this year) . One morning I awoke with a start to hear the carousel music playing loudly and L.M dancing at the foot of my bed. She had woken up at 6:00am and reached up to my vanity to spin the carousel and have an early morning boogie.

Because of her love of the carousel we decided to take her to Burnaby heritage village before Christmas to see and ride the real carousel. When we got to the carousel she was excited to watch it go by and was pointing and saying "WOW", we were sure she was going to love it. I made sure to get her the prettiest pink and white horse, we were not allowed to ride it together so I rode the horse beside her and Daddy held onto her and stood beside her for the ride. At first she liked it then as it went along her opinion of the ride began to change from pleasure to fear. I think maybe it went on for too long or maybe Daddy was holding her to tight (he was pretty nervous about the whole thing). She wouldn't let me put her on another carousel horse when my sister and I went to the German Christmas village downtown, but when we sat down on the sleigh bench she had fun going around. I tried putting her on her rocking horse right away after Christmas and she was still to afraid to try to sit on it. A few weeks later that opinion changed drastically!! so minor trauma overcome!! yaaaaaaaaaay family fun!

(Daddy and Little miss at Burnaby Heritage village!)

(sometimes their facial expressions look so similar to me)

Christmas eve was fun we Skyped with Chris's family in Saskatchewan and were able to do presents and visit them through the computer for awhile. Little miss was laughing so hard most of the time, she loved having people in the screen talking to her and saying her name, it was pretty funny how excited she was. Christmas was very good to Little Miss, she got spoiled by Auntie and her Grandma's as well as by Santa, Mommy and Daddy. She got a rocking horse, a wheelie bug, two little tables one white and one Disney princess, blocks, a drum, a doll stroller, some stuffed cats, a small circus tent, rubber animals, a tea set, lots of books and much more. She had fun, I think she was a bit overwhelmed by all the people and presents but she did enjoy herself.

New years was a quiet night grandma came over and we all said happy new year then Little miss went to bed. The next day we took her to Maple-Wood petting farm and she had fun seeing all the animals. She really liked feeding the ducks and rabbits the best, I think she was not too sure about the goats as she kept making faces at them. It was a nice afternoon and We had fun with Grandma that day!!!

So there is a super long over due update of the last few months!!!

where have I been?

Wow! what a long time between posts where to begin???. As of June little Miss Buggito has been a lean mean walking running machine, keeping up to her has been a challenge at times.Not long after she discovered the art of walking she decided she was ready to begin climbing. She began making us nervous when she started to climb up the back of the sofa and start banging at the living room window. You cant turn your back on little miss for a moment, Yesterday I went to check my email and she had opened the bleed valve on the radiator.

The start of August Buggito began to get two new teeth she got her first bicuspid on both sides of her lower jaw by months end. She is a drool factory these days and she cant keep her hands out of her mouth so I know a few more teeth are on their way but I haven't seen them poke through as of yet. Buggito's hair is growing fast and she has just enough cute little curl at the bottom, I could start to give her some nice piggies but she seems to hate having things on her head these days.

Buggito can say a good handful of words the list so far is "mama, daddy, up, pretty, purple, no, wassists (whats this), hot, what, baby, ba (book,....were still working on that one). She has reached the point where she has her own ideas about what she likes and dislikes and she is not afraid to let you know with a good scream or cry when it is the latter. Toddler tantrums have officially begun. I cant blame the poor kid, how frustrating must it be to be told no,no,no, have things taken away, get redirected and then contained all day long.

We have had allot of big changes going on around the house, some reno, we have gotten rid of a bunch of furniture and have been generally busy getting ready to move all the way across country (hence the lack of posting). I'm not sure if this has contributed to Buggittos moods or not but she has become VERY shy around people lately. If Chris is carrying her around a store and a stranger stops to say hello to her she starts screaming and crying. She is generally not as extreme with me, she just hides her face on my shoulder and peeks at people. She was never one of those babies who would run up to anyone to begin with but I find she is getting a bit more nervous around strangers.

Buggito had a few firsts this summer (despite the crap weather) she experienced fireworks for the first time~ which pretty much traumatized her. She saw ponies for the first time, she went to the beach, she has been enjoying the gravel at a playground. She decided mommy's underwear in the clean laundry basket is a shirt for her to wear and puts them on over herself. She is a funny, sweet little creature and during the stress of the past few months she has been my little ray of light keeping me going strong.

nostalgia

Yesterday I sat on my computer watching old videos of baby and I cried, those moments are gone now for good, I have new exciting moments now, and more to come. But I mourn the loss of my little pod person, I also mourn the loss of being a new parent, those first exciting months where everything is new and a good type of scary. Here is Buggito a year in review!!!