18 months!

DH had to take Little Miss for her 18 month checkup yesterday since I was sick. Unfortunately we seem to have caught a case of the rotavirus around here. Blech. Thankfully DD seems to not have had as bad a reaction since she had the vaccine.

I can't believe she's 18 months old already! Seems like just yesterday we were finding out that we would be having a little girl, and now she seems to be half-grown! At this checkup she finally made it onto the growth charts. She's been hanging out in the -1 to 3% since she was born. This time her weight of 20.5lbs put her at the 5% for weight! And her height of 32'' landed her in the 63%. WOW! I knew she had recently hit a growth-spurt since she skipped over 12-m clothes and went straight into 18-m.

She is into everything and loves exploring the house. She recently figured out how to pull out the dining room chairs, climb up onto them, and then onto the table! Seems like nothing is safely out of reach these days. We are finally starting to work on potty training as well. She just wasn't ready over Christmas, but in the last week she has gotten more interested and has told us several times that she needs to go. Soon I will take a few days off work and we will work on it - and hopefully we can say No More Diapers!!

She's talking up a storm and repeating everything we say (or at least she's trying to). She loves to sing and dance along with her shows. And she really likes it when Daddy pulls out the guitar to play and sing with her. She grabs her drum and bangs along, usually right in-beat to the music :)

She LOVES Minnie Mouse :) Here's a pic of her hanging out with Minnie while mom got ready for church. Sweet girl let her friend sit in her favorite spot and brought over her car seat to sit next to Minnie and hold her hand while they watched Minnie's Bowtique. She just saw this picture on the computer and said "Hi, Aly!! Hi Minnie Mouse!!" So cute!

Mommy Guilt :(

My child loves the babysitter more than she loves me or so it seems sometimes.

I came home from work the other day. After LONG 11 hours away from Aly. I missed her SO MUCH! All I wanted was to see her and get a big hug (its her new thing). Maybe a kiss and a smile.

Instead what I got was a dirty look while she ran to the arms of her babysitter. Outwardly I tried to laugh it off.

(inside, mommy heart broken)

She gave Miss K hugs and kisses. And screamed at me when I tried to pick her up. She ran after Miss K as she tried to leave, clinging to her leg and crying, then banging on the door screaming her name after she left. All the while I was trying to console her while wishing and hoping that she would want me as much as she wanted the baby sitter.

It was not to be.

The rest of the night she remained upset with me. DH had to feed her dinner and get her ready for bed. Because she could not even LOOK at me without screaming. She wanted NOTHING to do with me. And I was so sad :(


We all went to sleep and I had the most horrible night of sleep ever. No more than 1 hour at a time.


But in the morning the most wonderful thing happened. DD woke up and started calling for me from her crib. "Mommy! Momm....Mommm.....Mommy!! I went to get her and she had a HUGE smile on her face!! She reached out her arms to me and said "HI, mommy!! I la you!"


*mommy heart melted*

I love my baby :) It sucks that I have to be away from her for so long each day. But I do it so that I can provide financially for our family. And I know my daughter loves me :) And I am glad she loves her baby sitter so much. I couldn't have asked for a more sweet and perfect person to take care of my little one while I have to be away. I am glad they have such a great relationship. DD can only benefit from having more people in her life that love her so much.

Scrub That Tub!

Cleaning the bathroom is not one of my favorite chores. I am willing to bet that it's not yours either. As a mom that works outside the home, I either have to find time in my evenings to clean it or clean during the weekend. But I would rather be playing with DD, and since her room shares a wall with the bathroom I can't really clean it after she goes to bed.

So I've started cleaning the bathroom while she takes a bath. She loves the extra play time in the tub, and I can be productive while I am in the room with her for awhile anyway.

I have been buying these "Quick Erasers" from Dollar Tree. Two sponges for only $1! They are half melamine (magic) sponge, half blue scrubbie sponge. I prefer these as I can really use ALL of the magic sponge since they have the blue sponge to hold on to. The all-white quick erasers tend to disintegrate and get holes in them. These sponges will last for 2-4 good cleanings and remain in once piece.

But what I really love about these sponges is they let me scrub the tub while DD is in it taking a bath! That's right - no bad chemicals getting in the bath water. I add a bit of soap to the sponge and start scrubbing away while she plays. My grandpa gave me a wonderful tip - the same soap that causes the soap scum will also remove that soap scum. And its true! Shampoo, bar soap, body wash, or even baby wash. Just a bit on the sponge and get to cleaning. Older kids may want to join in the fun as well :)

Once I am done with the tub I use the same sponge to get the sink - the magic sponge really gets all the caked on toothpaste, hair spray, and dried saline solution residue. By the time I am done DD has been splashing enough that the floor is pretty wet. Perfect, since I need to wash that anyway! Using the same sponge I wipe down the floors. The quick erasers are great for getting up the hair spray residue that seems to get all over the floors (actually, everywhere!). Lastly I clean up the toilet using some Clorox wipes. Call me crazy, but I don't really want to reuse a sponge that I used on the potty.

This takes me about 15 minutes total. Perfect amount of time for DD to play and get all prune-y in the water. Clean baby + clean bathroom = happy mama!!

If you don't have kids, or if they are old enough that they can bathe on their own, you can keep a magic sponge in the shower to give it a good scrub while you are already in there. I used to do this while my conditioner was soaking in 1-2 times per week. It is amazing how much easier it is to scrub the shower when you are already in it and not worried about splashing water on yourself. Or am I the only klutz that can't clean the tub without getting soaking wet? ;)