Hush Little Baby: A Message from the Cry It Out Front

Finally asleep!

I'm pretty sure Katie hasn't slept a whole night in about 3 1/2 weeks now.  Consequently, neither have Doug & I.  We're exhausted.  So much that we even took Katie to the pediatrician this morning just to make sure there was nothing going on like an ear infection or whatever.  There isn't.  According to Dr. E, it's the "terrible twos."  Here's what we think has happened.  We finally noticed over the weekend that her 2 year molars are coming in and maybe they started coming in a couple weeks ago when her sleep started really getting messed up.  Every night her sleep got a little more off.  It took her just a few minutes longer to get settled.  Many many verses of "Hush Little Baby" were sang and lots of cuddles and rocking.  Before we knew it, she wasn't going to bed period and we were horrified!  What happened to our sweet little girl who went to bed "drowsy but awake" and where did this monster child come from?  For the last 2 nights, I've been trying a modified version of "cry it out."  Basically, I lay her down for bed (after our normal snuggles & stories routine) and leave the room.  She cries, I come back in in 5 minutes.  Settle her again and leave.  She cries, I come back in in 10 minutes.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  Each night it has taken over an hour for her to fall asleep and then to make matters worse, she's waking up multiple times during the night.  Well, last night it was just once around 1:30, but again it took over an hour to get her back to sleep.  By the time she did finally fall asleep, I had some major insomnia.  Thank goodness today is my day off.  So tonight, we're going to try Dr. E's approach.  We're going to let her stay up later and then after our routine lay her down.  If she's still not tired enough to just fall asleep and cries, we're going to  wait at least 15 minutes before going in, then we will only spend 10 seconds or so in her room.  I'm just as leary of this as I have been of all of our other attempts, but I'm willing to try anything at this point.  Dr. E said it's not going to work immediately, but hopefully it'll get her from crying over an hour to crying maybe half an hour.  We'll keep you posted.

Recipe for Cooking with a Toddler

Ingredients:
1 box of brownie mix
eggs
oil
water
love
patience
lots of towels

Preheat oven according to box instructions. Add all ingredients in a bowl. Let your toddler stir. Be patient when toddler knocks half the mix out of the bowl. Share lots of brownie batter flavored kisses. Pour into greased 9x13 pan & bake.

Hints & Tips:

Pose for obligatory picture with Momma!

Make sure to taste test the batter often!  Fingers work best.

Stir, stir, stir!

Lessons Learned

Everyday is a new lesson in our house. Katie's learning about the world around her and Doug & I are learning how to parent a toddler (19 months today!) This morning Katie learned all about what happens if you don't stay out of the kitty's face.

Poor girl.  Tess, not Katie.  She so did not want to be bothered, laying in the sunshine, but Katie just kept getting right down there.  Tess gave her several warning hisses.  I overheard and told Katie that the kitty didn't want to play, but she wasn't having it.  And so Tess did what any annoyed kitty would do and nipped, I did what any Mommy would do and yelled and Katie did what any baby would do and cried.  It all lasted about 30 seconds and then I cleaned up the mark on Katie's arm and she got a bandaid.  I don't think any of us were too traumatized.

Still a Favorite!

7 months old

18 months old

After 11 months, cheese puffs are still at the top of Katie's list of favorite snacks or "nacks" as she likes to call them today! 

Butterfly Valentine Craft

Tomorrow being Valentine's Day inspired me to put together a quick little treat for Katie to share at her babysitter's tomorrow. These were really simple to make-Katie may even be able to help by next year.  Here's how I made them.

Supplies:  1 "fun size" or similar package of candy (or anything about this size/shape) and 1 pipe cleaner (chenille stem, if you're feeling fancy!)

First take your package and pinch it in the middle to resemble a bow.

Next fold your pipe cleaner in half.

Place folded pipe cleaner around the pinched section of your package.

Twist/wrap pipe cleaner around the middle several times.  3 times around ended up producing the best results for me.

Twist the two pieces of pipe cleaner together at the top to secure around the middle.

Curl the ends of pipe cleaner around your fingertip to make the antennae.

Finished product!

Bowl full of butterflies!

And who wouldn't want a Valentine from this cutie?

Snow Fun

Today is a holiday for me (MLK Jr. Day) and Doug's last day of winter break.  So this morning since the temperatures got above freezing we decided to take Katie out to play in the week old snow.  I guess it's a good thing it's been so cold this past week so that there was still snow on the ground.  She wasn't sure what to think of it at first.  Plus, her snow boots are a little big, so she was having a hard time walking, but I think she had a good time after all.  Here was my picture of the day.

And a couple of more...

Day 3

Well, my Project 365 is going well.  I'm definitely taking a bunch of pictures, but more importantly, I'm deleting a bunch of not good pictures.  :)  I'm so impressed with myself.  I can easily take 20-30 pictures trying to get just the right shot and then after I pick the "one" I delete everything else in the folder guilt free.  Here's my picture for today. 

Project 365 Day 1

 
I meant to start January 1, but that didn't happen.  We didn't do anything exciting last week anyway!  :)  

Katie Facts

Tomorrow Katie will be 17 months old.  Where has the time gone?  So tonight, I want to make a little note of all the things my sweet girl is doing these days.

What she says:  Katie can say tons of words and repeats all kinds of things, but her favorite word right now is "Up!"  Also, she no longer cries in her crib when she wakes up from her nap.  She just calls out "Mama up!"

What she does:  She loves to dance & jump (yes, jump!), play with her baby dolls, read books & play with her Little People.

What she eats:  If she could eat nothing but mac & cheese, yogurt and pancakes, she'd be a very happy girl!

What she reads:  Her current favorite is Five Little Pumpkins.  We've read that one over and over for the last few weeks. 

What she watches:  When Katie was born, I never intended to let her watch TV before she was 2.  Um, yeah.  Sometimes I need to get ready and I need something to occupy her so I can do that without having her under my feet the whole time.  Thank goodness for Elmo!  Although, we've recently graduated to Dora & Yo Gabba Gabba.  Blue's Clues is a hit too. 

Everything else:  She's going through a very Mama-centric phase at the moment, but it's getting better.  She's warmed back up to Daddy lately.  It probably helps that we finally stopped taking her to umpteen million strange places!  Otherwise, everything else is going well and I kind of hope these next 17 months slow down just a little bit.

New Camera

I got a new camera for Christmas, and I just can't decide how well I like it.  It's only been a couple of days, so obviously I need some time to get used to it.  And photographing a toddler that is perpetually in motion is pretty hard to do, regardless of what camera I use.  At least for me.  I also have been trying to use my flash less, which is kind of difficult indoors.  Here's a picture that I took yesterday with it.

Hopefully we'll get a decent day soon and Katie and I can go outside and try it out.

Christmas Highlights

2009 was the Christmas it snowed and snowed and snowed!  2010 was the Christmas we went everywhere!  We started our Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve with a visit to Doug's brother's house.  We had some snacks, the kids opened a few gifts and we visited and checked out my brother-in-law's new home.  Very nice time, except that we had to be there right about naptime.  This was no big deal last Christmas.  Katie napped anywhere.  Not so much these days.  She fell asleep in the car on the way there, but of course was wide awake when we got her out of the car.  Just a little 5 minute power nap.  Then she proceeded to not get more than 6 inches away from me for the first 30 minutes or so.  After that she was fine.  She happily explored this new place and found all the cool toys!  Thankfully, we were able to extract Breanne's stuffed leopard from her without too many tears.

After our visit, we decided a nice little drive around would be good before heading to Christmas Eve services at church.  Our plan worked, Katie fell asleep right away and got in a good 30 minute nap.  We felt pretty good about that and headed into church with a happy girl.  She made it through the first song or two and then the wiggling began!  This wasn't so bad, but she's getting pretty strong these days and I was having a hard time trying to keep her still.  Passing her off to Daddy wasn't an option, because that just made her mad and then she got loud.  Fortunately, there were some very nice ladies sitting behind us making faces and engaging her.  Still though, when she started the head butting, we decided it was time to leave (it hurt!)

We probably should have went home with our cranky and tired girl at that point, but we still had to go out to my Grandpa's for more Christmas celebrations.  Katie had a good time playing with her cousin Kirsten, as always and was generally in a pretty good mood.  Still, we knew she wasn't going to make it much longer, so we kept our visit short.  We still had to get Katie in bed and get ready for Santa!

Christmas morning was of course the morning that Katie slept in, not that we're complaining.  Doug & I were up around 7 or so, but Katie didn't stir until 7:30.  We were pretty excited to get her up so she could see what Santa brought her...

She was pretty excited when she saw it, she even said "ooh..."

Santa also filled Katie's stocking with some fun toys, books & bubble bath.  From Mommy & Daddy she got some new clothes, jammies and a book.  She loved that as well.

About halfway through opening up her gifts, she threw her hands up in the air and proclaimed "all done!" and walked away.  It took quite a bit convincing to get her to come back in and Mommy ended up opening the rest of her presents for her.  Doug and I had a nice Christmas as well.  Doug & Katie gave me some perfume that I'd been wanting and Katie & I gave Doug a magnetic drill bit thing-y for his drill that he'd needed. 

After we finished up our gifts we got ready to go and went to my parents' house.  There were many more presents to open there and once again, just not enough time.  But, it was still nice and Katie left there with quite the stash of toys and a new toy box (thank goodness!)  This was one of her favorites!

Doug & I weren't left out there either!  Doug got a new winter coat that and I got some new cartridges for my Cricut, among other things.  Santa just forgot to send the gift certificates for extra time to use them!  :) 

Our visit at Mom & Dad's was just the start of the day.  We had a really yummy Christmas dinner at my Grandma's...smoked turkey...yum!  Katie played with more of her cousins.  They had a blast playing "Ring Around the Rosie," Katie loved "all fall down!"  She was definitely wearing out though.  She had a bit of a meltdown while we were there (who can blame her, poor girl had been going nonstop for 2 days!) so we decided it was time to make a quick visit to Doug's grandma before getting our cranky girl home for the evening.

We had a nice visit there, and were pleasantly surprised to see Aunt Patty & Uncle Steve and Doug's mom met us there.  Katie played and was generally adorable and we were sent home with a plate of cookies and some Christmas money.  :)

Needless to say, Katie slept great last night.  We spent the entire day at home and she has had a great time playing with her new toys.   I think I've finally gotten everything put away!  We still have one more Christmas celebration on Tuesday night at our house with Doug's family.  Wednesday the tree will be taken down and Christmas will be over for another year.  We hope everyone's Christmas was as lovely as ours.  Goodnight!

Finally a Moment to Post

Well, I went from posting daily in November back to barely posting at all.  Oh well.  We've just been way too busy these last couple of weeks, getting ready for the holidays and Doug preparing for finals.  There has barely been a moment to clean the house much less post to our blog.  But, finals are over now and so is most of the holiday prep.  Just in time too, I'm looking forward to spending some time with my family over these next couple weeks. 

Today Katie & I went to make our traditional Christmas candy with my mom & sister.  It was so much fun!  Yummy, too!  Then we took Katie to see Santa at the mall (seriously $12 for 2 wallets is pretty ridiculous, but this picture was so cute I kind of wish I'd bought more!)

Maybe tonight we'll watch a Christmas movie.  I checked out Christmas Vacation from the library this week and we've got pizza for dinner.  Sounds like a relaxing night for the Snider's.  Hope yours is too!

Busy Weekend

I'm almost glad this weekend is over...almost.  It has been nonstop!  Lots of Christmas fun happenings.  Elf, holiday party, tree trimming and Krug Park lights.  I'm worn out!  Doug has his last week of classes before finals this week, so it's going to be nuts until the 17th around here.  Better start going to bed earlier tonight!  Here's a quick picture before I go.

Katie enjoying the lights and the honking at the park!

Running Out of Steam

Only 4 more days to post and I'm just about out of things to talk about.  So I'll leave you with this completely adorable picture of Katie & my godson from yesterday afternoon.  Happy Saturday!

2 Years

A lot has changed in our lives in just 2 short years.  It was exactly 2 years ago yesterday that I took that fateful test and we found out Katie was on her way.  Now that she's here, I can't imagine how we ever got along for so long without her.  She's a joy, a blessing and truly the best thing in our world.  She can make any bad day 100 times better with just a hint of a smile.  Doug & I are truly thankful to have such a wonderful daughter.

Holiday Traditions

One of the things I love best about the holidays are the movies!  Give me a cutesy Christmas special or something sappy and I love it!  I can't wait to share these with Katie.  In fact, I shared the first one of the season with her last night.  I checked out Frosty the Snowman and we watched it last night after dinner.  She really liked it.  I must admit, I didn't remember watching the Frosty Returns special ever, and was very disappointed.  I was confusing it with Frosty's Winter Wonderland.  I was kind of sad about that.  I'll have to hunt that one down for us soon.  It's the one I really remember watching from when I was a kid and I loved it!

Katie enjoying Frosty the Snowman

This is just the start of my holiday movie list, up next will be Elf!  We'll watch that one the night after Thanksgiving after putting up our tree.

Dream Job

Inspired by a post on my brother's blog (I'll link to it if he says it's okay...), I thought I'd write a little about my dream job. 

Let's face it, work is work these days.  I work because my family needs the income.  There are parts of my job I enjoy.  Helping people find books and answers to off the wall questions can be interesting, but my favorite part is storytime!  Some days I am very glad that I have storytime on Monday mornings.  Because more often than not after I drop off Katie at the sitter's I get a major case of the Mondays.  I love reading stories to the kids, hearing their answers when I ask what they think will happen next or listening to them tell me about what's going on in their lives.  Preschoolers are pretty cool!  Even when they won't sit still or are interrupting your story, it is hard to keep up the Monday blues after 45 minutes of that!  Then Tuesday comes and the blues start all over and I start thinking about what I really want to do...

If our finances allowed, I'd love to stay home and take care of Katie and our house.  Most days, I feel like I am only doing things halfway.  Work only gets half my attention because I'm thinking about Katie, Katie only gets half my attention because I'm thinking about housework, housework doesn't even get half my attention because working and Katie wear me out so much that I just don't care anymore.  I don't even know that I give Doug half the attention he needs.  We are so busy  and when we're not, we're just plain tired.  Not exactly the basis of a good relationship, right?  But, life won't always be this way, or at least that's what I tell myself on those days that I start worrying that I just can't keep up.

Well Check

Katie had her 15 month well check today.  Everything was great!  Very healthy, despite the slight cold she is starting to get.  Here's her stats:

Weight:  25 pounds 8 oz. (80%)
Height:  31 inches (78%)
Head Circumference 19 inches (97%!)

Momma's Little Helper

These days, Katie loves to help.  Or "hellllp," as she likes to say it.  So lately we've been trying to include her in little chores as suggested by our parent educator.  She especially loves taking the little bags of trash to the back door.  I wish I had taken the picture from the other direction so you could see the big proud smile on her face.  Other favorite activities include vacuuming, sweeping and opening up all the dresser drawers.  She's really good at that one!  Now if only we could convince her that putting away her toys is a good idea...

Naptime

It's naptime and Katie likes to play a little game called, "Stash the Binky" or "Throw the Binky," whichever she's in the mood for that day.  This morning it's "Stash."  This is how the game works, she either stuffs her binky in the side of the crib or throws it out of her crib and whines until someone comes in and gives it back to her.  It's quite effective and if she does this enough, she can avoid naptime all together.  Or so she thinks!