Let the biting begin

Filed under:Kids — posted by mystique on 6/29/2006 @ 10:01 am

Well it is officially biting season at the Haslup house. Lela is a master biter and it is because she has cause. Up till now Piper has gleefully stolen everything that is Lela’s following to the letter the aforementioned Toddler Property Laws. Lela has casually let her take things and happily moved on to other toys, well that was B.T. (the time before teeth). Now that Lela is working on a full front set of 8, yes that is right, 8 teeth she is more than happy to defend her turf with the weapon of choice, biting.

So today Piper is sporting a nice bite mark on her right cheek with upper and lower indentations, very nicely done Lela. This occurred while we were sitting in the living room and Piper was playing with Noah’s Ark and Lela was riding the radio flyer car. Piper glimpsed an opportunity and went in for the car jacking. Lela defended her auto and won to drive away leaving Piper shrieking behind and me feeling totally helpless since I was sitting right there:) It puts a new perspective on bumps and bruises your little one might get playing at school or at a friends, sometimes whoever is watching them is sitting right there and it still happens (lucky for me since I stay at home I only have myself to blame).

The biting must not have been too much of a deterrent or Piper has a very short memory because later in the playroom Lela was riding Elvis and Piper tried to boot her off from behind. Lela went in for the bite and this time I was quick enough to sense the danger and prevent it (I was a bit like Smokey the Bear preventing a fire in the forest). The day was saved, Piper was left shrieking again but for different reasons and Mommy decided it was nap time. Without much protest the girls settled in for their morning nap. Sigh…..is it Friday yet?

A sign of the times

Filed under:Kids — posted by mystique on 6/28/2006 @ 7:48 pm

Well Jason rearranged the office (and we love the new layout) this weekend and I misplaced the camera in the hubaloo so we have not had many new photos but I will make up for it with this holiday weekend.

Tomorrow I am off to the local Kid to Kid store where I will be selling all of the girls baby clothes and toys.  That means that I am not saving any clothes/toys because there won’t be another little haslup any time soon.  A collective sigh of relief from Jason (and me) and sadness from others:)  Mostly I just want to trade the old stuff for new stuff, it should be fun and cheap!

Toddler Property Laws

Filed under:Kids — posted by mystique on @ 9:28 am

A dear friend suggested I get acquainted with the toddler property laws.  So for those of you who are new to them or need a refresher course here they are:

1. If I like it, it’s mine.

2. If it’s in my hand, Its mine.

3. If I can take it from you, it’s mine.

4. If I had it a little while ago, It’s mine.

5. If it’s mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.

6. If I am doing or building something,all the pieces are mine.

7. If it looks like mine, it is mine.

8. If I saw it first, it’s mine.

9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.

10. If it’s broken, it’s yours.

I do a little more than make toast:)

Filed under:Kids — posted by mystique on 6/27/2006 @ 3:23 pm

HA! LOL.  Thanks for the great post honey, love ya!

In addition to making toast this morning I am now sitting in the office typing away while the girls whimper in their cribs.  The smashing nap day yesterday with one long nap in the middle of the day was only a mirage on the horizon.  Today we are back in the 1hour nap in the morning and the whimpering of how could we have such a horrible mother in the afternoon.  They are sleepy, cranky and mad at me.  So I came in here to document it so that they can look back on it when they are having to listen to their little babies crying and feeling blue.  See it happens to all of us and it is just something that we have to push through.

Thank goodness for chocolate:)  Okay now I am going to make toast.

Good Times

Filed under:Kids — posted by jason on 6/26/2006 @ 5:31 pm

Just had some random thoughts about what the girls have been doing
lately that I wanted to share…

Hard to believe our little girls are 18 months already… a year and a
half old! Amazing. They’re literally getting more and more fun each
week, sometimes each day. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but
we’ve got a pretty cute morning routine now. Some of the times I’ll
get up and get the girls started in the morning. Once we’ve had
diaper changes (the girls, not me), we’ll usually wander out to the
kitchen where the three of us will put the dishes away.

This is a lot of fun, and pretty darn cute. Depending on their moods,
either one or both will “help” me. I’ll open up the door and the
girls will start handing me items from the bottom rack one-by-one.
(This is, of course, after I’ve taken out anything pointy from the
silverware tray!)

About a week or so ago Piper’s added a nice little twist. She’ll pick
something up, hold it high above her head and squeel “DA!” I can only
assume she means “Here you go daddy!” and isn’t actually speaking
Russian saying “Yes!”

Lela’s trick every now and then is when she wants to reach across the
dishwasher… instead of walking around the door, she’ll somehow
maneuver herself so she’s standing on the door,
grabbing for a plate. I’ve tried to discourage this, but you gotta
give her some credit for trying so hard.

The girls are still a little too short to be helping with the top
shelf of the dishwasher, though. Unless I’m quick about it, they’ll
have started to close the door up before I’ve got everything out of
it. The door’s a little heavy so it’s cute seeing them help each
other or ask me for help with their signs. Such helpful little
babies.

After that Mom might be out in the kitchen already getting some toast
ready, so I’ll wander off and get my shower and start getting
dressed. Sometimes Piper will come into our bedroom, though, and help
me with my shoes. She knows I put them on everyday, so she’ll go into
our closet and pick them up to bring them out for me.

This past Saturday, I had actually gotten dressed and had sandals on,
not my normal work-shoes (tennis shoes, nothing fancy). I was in the
kitchen making coffee and out came Piper holding my shoes. She looked
so proud of herself, I couldn’t not put them on.

Last week Lela actually got a hold of one of my shoes before Piper
could pick them up. Wow. That really got Piper stirred up. This is
where Lela’s evil-grin comes into play… she knew
why Piper was upset. What did she do? Put on her little grin and
tucked the shoe under her arm and started Lela-running out the
bathroom. Woohee, that really got Piper mad. Once my shoes were on,
though, they were back to being best friends.

Other fun stuff… Lela’s “car” sign is one of the best to
see… right up there with “frog” for both Piper and Lela. They’re
both getting really good at scooting around on either of their
“cars”. They love to brush their teeth, too… we brush every night
and once you say “let’s brush our teeth” they’re up and walking to the
bathroom. They’ll sit down nicely and do some brush-chewing. Every
now and then we’ll see a good back-and-forth motion, but I think it
tickles a bit so we’ll also see some funny expressions.

Speaking of funny expressions… Piper loves lemons. She’ll bit into
a lemon slice and get an expression on her face that’s classic. Then
she’ll bite into it again. Face-scrunch. Bite. Face-scrunch.
Bite. You get the idea.

Ok, that’s all I can think of right now… just some fun stuff that I
want to remember, and that’s partly why we have this blog. Come to
think of it… next month will be two years for this blog. Like I
said before… Amazing.

It’s a new week

Filed under:Kids — posted by mystique on @ 11:42 am

I decided (after a very cranky afternoon yesterday) that we would be going back to two naps a day……again.  We went out to the park for our normal run/playtime but ended up spending most of that time chatting with our new friend Jean and her grandaugther Raley.  So after our jog we just headed home and got back to the house around 9AM.  Then we ate our oats and raisins (soaked in soymilk overnight to make them soft) and headed to the playroom.  The girls and I played and 930AM (the usual witching hour) came and went so I figured we would just go with the flow…..again.  They did have a great night sleep last night, going down at 6PM and sleeping until almost 630AM.  I mean I actually got up and worked out and Jason took a shower before they even made a peep!

They went down for their nap this AM at 1030 after a banana and a green machine smoothie (this morning it was oranges, spinach, flaxmeal and frozen green beans).  It has been over an hour so far and they are sleeping away.  Maybe this is the turning point and they will just sleep for two hours and we will move up bedtime until they get into the swing of the new routine.  Maybe……..

New Playroom

Filed under:Kids — posted by mystique on 6/24/2006 @ 7:09 pm

Well after being in the house a few months I have finally decided what personality I want all the rooms to have.  In itself it sounds like a good thing but we all know that once I get a house “finished” I am ready to move.  The good news is that the backyard is such a nightmare that I might not be done with that for ages:)  So the first room on the books was the playroom, of course.  We went to IKEA and bought a bunch of stuff for the playroom and got most of it put in.  We still need to hang a few things tomorrow, clean the floors, move the carpets and whatnots but it is almost done.  I am so excited and I think the girls already love it.  We will post pics as soon as it is done.  Don’t be expecting anything fantastic, just more organized and functional for all our playtime.

Dun dun da dun

Filed under:Kids — posted by mystique on @ 12:16 pm

Drumroll please……..the nap schedule is officially CRAZY! LOL! They napped twice a day on Thursday with two naps almost two hours in length and then went to bed at 645! Crazy. I thought that would put us squarely back into the getting up at 615, going to bed at 630 and two one hour naps a day but alas I was wrong.

Friday we had one two hour nap at 930 in the morning, after rising at a respectable 630AM and then we skipped any afternoon naps. They did play in their cribs for about 35 min while creating mondo poo poo in their diapies! I was wondering what all the laughing and jumping was about and then I noticed that the house had an odd aroma to it……

Anyhoo, after skipping the afternoon nap they went to bed a little cranky (since they had been cranky for two hours already) at 630PM. They got up at 630AM and we took them out for the morning and just got back, it is was around 1145 when they were put safely in their cribs without a peep. I figure if they are going to skip the afternoon nap maybe I should push the morning one as much as I can but that is difficult seeing as every activity we do puts them to sleep! Riding in the car, going in the stroller, sitting in our highchairs, riding Buster the dog in the backyard…..


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image: detail of installation by Bronwyn Lace