Mind of her own

We had a very long day on Wednesday. In fact, I ended up having to put Keeley in the sling and carry her around on my hip for about an hour in the afternoon. I didn't even know you could wear the sling if you were 8 months pregnant - you can. It was the only way I could get anything done. If I put her down, she looked up at me and cried until I said "use your words" and then she said "up". By 3 o'clock, I no longer wanted to listen to crying nor did I want to have to actually carry her. The sling solved the problem as I vacuumed, cleaned up in the kitchen, and took a short walk with her.

Keeley is pretty strong-willed. Here is a run down of our day.

* She wanted to go out. I was aware of this by the fact that she kept walking to the front and back doors, tried to open them, and kept saying "out". We had to put shoes on as soon as she woke up because she thought that would make her get to go out. If I let the dogs in or out, she would hurry to the door saying "oooo, oooo, oooo" and stomping her little feet in excitement. The excited foot stomping quickly turned to temper tantrum and tears when I closed the door and made her stay inside with me. I finally relented when she walked in her room, found a different pair of shoes, brought them to me, and said "out" as though this new pair of shoes (she was already wearing one pair) would make it okay to go out. It was not, however, enough for me to sit inside with the door open and watch, I had to go outside as well.

* She then remembered that her red car was in what will be Kayden's room and kept standing at the door, stomping her feet, saying "car" while signing more. She was NOT pleased when we did not get the car out.

* She would hand me one of her "busy books" and sign "more" for me to help with the buckle. She would promptly swat my hand away and grab the book back. This was repeated several times.

* Then I had to wear her or listen to the crying. After that no longer worked, she played in her water station making a huge mess while I made dinner - but at least she was happy.

* She insisted on eating her cereal by herself and got it all over. That's okay...totally age appropriate.

After all that, I had to change her clothes because she was soaked from the water station and filthy from the self-feeding of the cereal. I managed to change her diaper, but she refused to let me put more clothes on her. Not a battle worth fighting at 5pm so she remained in her diaper until bedtime.

Here are some pictures from our day.

Playing in her water station. Wearing the hat she insisted on wearing.

Diaper and shoes. Why she insists on wearing shoes all the time I don't know.

Asking to go out. Can you see the necklace? Interesting ensemble.
Like I said, a mind of her own!

She said it!!

She was outside playing with Kelly and she kept looking inside saying "mama"!! Hooray!! She does know it is my name!

Miss Independence

We went out today with Kelly's dad for an early birthday lunch. Keeley insisted on walking from the car to the restaurant. I tried to hold her but she kicked and squirmed until I let her down. I guess she wanted to show off for her Grandad. Then, we had 7 big steps to walk up. By big, I mean big. I was a bit intimidated to climb them being as pregnant as I am but Keeley, again, insisted. She could hardly get her leg high enough to clear the step but she did it. And, as soon as we got to the top, she turned around to walk back down them. We did this several times throughout our lunch. I think the day is not too far away when she is simply too busy for us. Fortunately, I have a few more months at least of receiving her "gifts" of grass, rocks, sticks, leaves, etc. before she moves on and decides that she doesn't have time for me!

First Adolescence

Just last night I was reading about what to expect during Keeley's second year of life. The book referred to this as her "first adolescence" as she will go back and forth between asserting her independence and wanting to be our baby. Some of that was witnessed today. When Kelly got home from work and we finished dinner, Keeley wanted to go outside. It wasn't really time to go outside - it was time to get ready for bed.

We tried to tell her this and get her settled in my lap for her bedtime milk (part of our routine). This was met with INSTANT tears and crying and pushing away of the milk. She squirmed out of what was left of my lap and said "out" and proceeded to leave her room. After being dragged to the front and back doors a couple of times, we finally relented. After all, it wasn't really late yet and Kelly hadn't even been home for an hour yet. Plus, it is just hard to look at that little face asking for "more" and saying "out" and not give in.

We went out to play for a few minutes with the dogs. When we came back in, we told Keeley we were going to start getting ready for bed. She came in and even sat in my lap, but the minute we turned the light on, it all started again. This time, there was severe flailing as I tried to get her undressed for her bath. She made a quick breakaway but we managed to coral her in the bathroom. She played in the bath for awhile and then stood up and gave me a very sweet, very wet hug where she laid her head on my shoulder and looked right at Kelly. We asked if it was time for bath time to be over.

Clearly, that was not what she wanted to hear. Again, instant crying and flailing as Kelly picked her up to dry her off. She also managed to make her 20 pounds seem like 40. As soon as we put her down to get her dressed, the kicking started. Once dressed and in my arms for our books and songs she calmed down (thankfully).

Man oh man what are we in for? I thought tantrums started in the twos, the "terrible twos". We aren't there yet!!

Ready for life

Today Keeley made a soccer ball omelet with the pan from her play kitchen. I'm really quite impressed that she was able to get the soccer ball in the pan and walk around with it. Yes, that is technically a dog toy. Somehow, her Oma managed to send it home with us. Keeley carried it around ALL day today.


Later in the day, she got my keys and my wallet. She first fished out my credit card and then climbed in her car. She was ready to go!

Communication Issues

I am thrilled that Keeley can communicate as much as she can. She can now sign, gesture, or say the following: dog, out, dada, milk, more (which also means "eat" frequently), feet/shoes/socks/toes (giving you her foot), up, tummy, and head/hat/hair/hers (patting her head). This has significantly cut down on the amount of random crying we had before. I am happy for that. And, for those of you that are wondering, she can say "mama" now but doesn't really do so unless she is repeating what someone else has said. Her way of communicating that she wants me is to stand at my feet with her hands held high and cry with her head WAY back (otherwise she can't see me because my tummy gets in the way).

I'm discovering, however, that it can still be frustrating for both of us since the communication is fairly limited so far. Sometimes, those "wants" are not able to be met. But she has no way to understand that really. Today her "schedule" (and I use that term incredibly loosely) was messed up because she was awake from 4am - 5am and then I had to wake her up for a meeting at 6. She didn't eat much because she was distracted trying to eat at the meeting and was too interested in playing when she got home. This meant the entire time we were at Little Gym, she followed me around and signed for "milk". I finally gave up, cut class short, and came home.

I pull up to my house to discover a man spreading fertilizer next door and completely blocking my driveway with his truck + trailer. I rolled my window down and said "excuse me" and "hey" to the man that was less than 15 feet away. He either couldn't hear me or was ignoring me because I finally had to honk. He turned around and this is our conversation:

Me: pointing to my house "That's my house"
Him: looking at his truck blocking my entrance "I'm sorry. I was just going to spread this really quickly"
Me: "I'm not going to sit in the street while you fertilize their lawn"
Him: turning around with sigh and shrug "What I meant I guess was that it was unfortunate timing"
Me: staring at him in disbelief
Him: "I'll move my truck now"

Really!??! Was all that conversation necessary? Shouldn't he have just apologized and IMMEDIATELY moved his truck so that there was not a pregnant lady with a one year old stuck in her car in the street. Okay, okay. I realize he didn't know I was pregnant and probably couldn't see Keeley - but STILL!!

and the diaper is off!

We are trying to encourage Keeley to walk as much as possible because
1. it is hard for me to carry her now that I am so big.
2. Kayden is going to be here soon and we can't carry them both very easily.

This means that she is getting to walk places we would normally carry her. For example, once we are clear of the street, she walks into the grocery store. When we get home from the grocery store, she walks with me as I unload the groceries. She has also started walking from the chair in her room where she drinks her milk into the bathroom for her bath. I give her the milk and then take her clothes off and she walks to Kelly in the bathroom in just her diaper - until last night. Last night she made a break for it and started taking her diaper off in the process!

Here she is making her get away. Notice part of the diaper is undone.

She heard Dad and tried to turn around but got twisted up in the diaper.

Naked baby butt!

Whoops! Lost her footing on the tile. Diaper barely hanging on...

Figuring she should hold on to it so that doesn't happen again.

SO happy that she found her bath ready for her.

Side note: If you are wondering why we have an exercise ball in the bathroom it is because Keeley is sick. We've been spending time sitting in a steamy bathroom and the only way I can sit comfortably in there is on the exercise ball.