Daily Daisy (and Caleb, too!)

June 4

I got the date right today, but only because Emily reminded me that it is, in fact, now June. Seriously? It shouldn't be June yet.

But it is. And the kids and I celebrated a beautiful June day with a picnic in the front yard. They're still sick,but definitely almost done with it. (Good thing, because I am absolutely done with it.) Daisy is still killing us with the three-hour screaming jags in the middle of the night, but other than that we're close to normal-cold level. And what makes colds better than fresh air and sunshine?

I finished reading Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood last week, and I'm totally into giving Caleb choices now. Today he chose whether we ate lunch inside or out, front yard or back, sunshine or shade. He also chose what we ate for lunch (crackers, peanut butter, oranges, string cheese, and cold water with no ice).

Daisy approved of his decisions.

The kids sat side-by-side on our blanket and waved at every passing car.

Caleb wrapped his arms and legs around Daisy and gave her a big hug, but she pushed him backwards and began tickling his toes. How funny is that?

See? This girl is clearly almost better. She is so cheerful because she has my phone in her hands - it's her new objet d'amour.

By the way, how are babies so bendy? When do we lose that trait? This was totally comfortable for her. (In case you're curious, she's pointing at a bird across the street and saying, "Buhr-dh".)

Daisy also spent quite a bit of lunchtime poking Caleb. She and I talk about body parts while I nurse her, and she's getting pretty good at them. She says, "Eeeh!" for ear, and looks for one on each side of the head.

Caleb was a remarkably good sport about all of the poking and prodding and tugging.

"Nuh! Nuh!" Yes, Daisy. It's Caleb's nose.

And then my heart exploded.

I may need a reminder around 1 am, but right now I really, really love these kids.

June 3

What's this, you ask?

Oh, nothing much. Just the moment right after MY BABY GIRL FINALLY PULLED UP TO STANDING FOR THE FIRST TIME!

I know, I know. She is thirteen months old tomorrow. Most children her age are already walking independently. But my darling daughter is not "most children", and I am so excited for her!

Here's how it went down:

Chris was getting the kids ready for bathtime while I cleaned up dinner. I was bringing some dishes in from the patio when Chris started shouting, "Carrie! Carrie! Come now! NOW!"

I could hear the bath water running, and I was terrified that Daisy had slipped under the water or something terrible. (That's the only reason I didn't first grab my camera, I swear. Normally my philosophy is "Take a picture, THEN stop the nonsense." But when I think my baby is in danger, I will leave the camera behind. Really.)

I came barreling down the long hallway, expecting disaster, only to see DAISY STANDING UP AT THE EDGE OF THE TUB and Chris' triumphant grin. Yay, Daisy! She did it again, before our enthusiasm started to frighten her. I grabbed the camera, took a few shots, then realized it had no memory card. Crap! I ran back to grab a memory card, but the moment was over.

She did pull up on my leg a few times, too, but no pictures of that.

Caleb even got in on the excitement. Here he's trying to coax her into standing. It didn't work.

But she did it. My girl can finally pull up to standing! I had a dream the other night that she was walking. It looks like we're on the right track!

June 2

The baby I hear screaming on my monitor pretty much assures me that yes, the children are still sick. (Don't worry; Chris is in there with her right now, but Daddy doesn't have Mommy's secret weapon(s), hence the screaming.)

It's been a rough ~~few nights~~ week. Really, we're going on nearly two weeks of a low-grade fever and fussiness for Daisy. Frankly, I'm nearing the end of my maternal patience. I'm sorry she's sick, I wish I could make her better, I feel terrible for her, but mostly? I just want her to stop being such a drama queen and be her normal self again. (A good night's sleep might also help both of us.) And then there's Caleb, who has been feverish and cough-y since Wednesday.

Luckily, it's not all fussing, all the time in our household. Nighttime just seems to be the worst. (Note to God: that's a mean trick. You know mamas of sick babies need a good night's sleep. Why would you make it so that sick babies are always the fussiest at night? Not fair.)

Knowing I was at my limit, Chris sent me out for a child-free afternoon of grocery shopping and bargain hunting. While I was gone, he happened upon this scene:

That would be Caleb, with an upside-down guitar and a microphone crafted out of a stick and a shampoo bottle cap, singing, "Tonight, Tonight" by Hot Chelle Rae. (What can I say? He likes the hits.) Please note that Caleb has so much snot smeared on his face that it has begun collecting dirt.

I wish I was making this up.

As soon as Chris set the camera down, Caleb handed him the microphone so that they could duet together.

Later, Chris and the kids washed the cars while I made dinner.

I took this photo, but when I opened it up on the computer, I almost died laughing. Caleb has clearly turned into me: his sunglasses up in his hair, his finger over the hose nozzle to create a big spray. He didn't know how to do that last week. Funny boy.

The thing I love about nearly-three is his desire to help. He's so eager to assist in anything we ask of him. Tonight, Caleb carried all of our plates and silverware out to the table on the deck, brought out most of the food, and even delivered Chris' full water glass and my full water glass safely to the table. He was so pleased to help, and it made my mommy-heart feel all tingly inside.

While those darn bi-peds washed the car, Daisy sat contentedly in the grass, emptying the box o' toys that lives in the garage.

Ooh! She's clearly found something of interest in there!

I love that she has her other little hand on the box, steadying it so that she can pull out whatever treasure it is she sees.

Oh! It was a ball!

I love this girl.

(She's finally quiet. Maybe she'll sleep for us, after all?)

May 31

These kids are sick. Really, really sick. Coughing and fevers and runny noses and whining - oh, the whining - and constantly wanting to be held and snuggled. It's exhausting and demoralizing and did I mention exhausting?

I am so sick of them being sick.

Yesterday, the sun shined and Caleb wasn't quite so sick.

He lounged on the deck and pretended my clothes line was a microphone. Funny boy.

Also yesterday, I went in to get Daisy up from her nap and found her sitting up in her crib. That's not a big deal for most babies - it's a natural part of development that usually occurs around 7 or 8 months. But this was the first time I'd found Daisy this way. I was so excited! Once she saw how excited I was, she got pretty excited, too.

See the crusty nose? Poor girl.

She has been rocking and rolling with the gross motor skills the past few days. She finally knows that she can get herself up to seated, and it's a fun game for her now. When we play, she'll scoot over to me, pull up onto one knee and one foot, throw herself down, then get up on her hands and knees, sit up, and do it all over again.

It seems little, but it's huge for us.

Yesterday First Steps emailed me their evaluation of Daisy. She didn't qualify for their physical therapy services. I was disappointed, but not surprised. Her motor development (not just gross motor, but overall motor) would have to have been at the level of a six-month old for her to qualify. But their test didn't differentiate fine motor from gross, and Daisy's fine motor skills are pretty fantastic. She tested at the level of an average 10-month old, so her delay isn't as major as we feared.

But the good news (aside from her late-breaking gross motor development spurt)? They tested four other areas of development, and she was advanced in all of them. Way to go, Daisy! It's funny - Caleb is our benchmark for most things, and I think we can all agree that he's not a normal child. His language has always been off the charts, so it's hard for me to have a normal frame of reference for Daisy's progress. But the First Steps test put her communication skills at the 20-month level. Guess I don't need to be concerned, after all. So even though we didn't qualify for First Steps' services, it's nice to have quantifiable evidence of Daisy's progress. It's also always nice to hear that, though my baby doesn't crawl, she's a rock star in every other area.

Except the immune system area. Today was gray and gloomy and cold and sick.

She only wanted to be held, all day long.

Later, she just wanted to chew.

If my baby wants to chew, I'll give her something to chew on! These teeth have been the longest, most drawn-out drama session ever. I will absolutely appreciate them when they're in. They also make me almost willing to try the new-agey hoo-doo magic of amber teething necklaces. I'm skeptical of them, and I'm generally annoyed by babies wearing jewelry of any sort, but I'm nearing the point of being willing to try ANYTHING to make this nonsense stop! Almost.

May 29

Daisy is broken. She must be; it's the only reason I can think of that she's decided to spend several hours a night screaming for the past few nights. Actually I've come up with a few other possibilities: she could be teething, she's definitely sick with a runny nose and a cough, and I'm starting to wonder if she's been possessed by the devil. (Kidding on the last one, really.)

She's fussing now, so here are a few pictures from the past few days:

Sunday night I put Daisy to bed early. Caleb wasn't ready for bed, though, so I sent him with Daddy on an adventure. They ended up at the track at the local high school, where Caleb ran bleachers, watched soccer, and sprinted 1/2 mile on the track.

Monday, Daisy watched from the deck while the boys put dirt in the garden.

Caleb did a pretty good job shoveling, despite the fact that he insisted on using a rake instead of his Caleb-sized shovel.

My men. You know it's love when someone is willing to rake organic dirt and cow manure for you.

He's a good little helper!

Today, Daisy played with Caleb's cars on the front porch while Caleb napped. See how she's sitting? Bottom up in the air? We're making real progress on the gross motor skills!

Her fine motor skills are at the 24-month level. Boo-yah.

Zoom!

May 27

Today we continued our Memorial Day/Beginning of Summer celebration. After church and naps (for the kids, not for us, unfortunately. Daisy has been having a hard time sleeping the past few nights.), we visited our neighborhood pool for the first time.

Since our neighborhood is between forty and forty-five years old, we were nervous that the pool wouldn't live up to our expectations. After all, we did come from a pretty new subdivision with not one, but two neighborhood pools. Luckily, the new pool exceeded our hopes. It has a kiddie pool, a big pool, lap lanes, a diving board, and fountain and a fun sprinkler/wading area. Plus, the pool area also contains 3 Weber grills for cookouts and a swingset. Fun, fun, FUN!

Caleb practiced his kicking on the edge of the kiddie pool.

Daisy was entranced by all of the sights and sounds of the pool.

Doesn't she look sweet? She didn't even wear a suit - just a swim shirt and her swim diaper. Have I mentioned that we even do cloth swim diapers? We do. The sad thing is that today Daisy wore the same diaper that she wore here, when she was four months old. It's size small, for 6-15 pound children. Not only does it still fit perfectly, but it's a little big.

*sigh*

Even worse? The pool chemicals bleached the thing! It was adorable, with brightly colored polka dots in pink, orange, yellow, green, blue... Now you can only see faded pink and orange dots. Not only am I annoyed that a darling diaper is now not-so-cute, but I'm also concerned about what those chemicals could be doing to my children...

But they had so much fun that I can't allow myself to stew too much. Pool chemicals won't kill them, right?

See? Fun, fun, fun, even while your diaper is being bleached.

SPLASH!

May 26

Maybe you should go get yourself a nice cup of coffee or a sweet snack before you sit down to read this post; I have lots of pictures today.

We kicked off Memorial Day weekend in style, with a lot of outdoor time, despite the ridiculously high temperatures.

Caleb asked to play with the hose. I told him to ask his Daddy. He said, "Daddy might say yeeeesss!"

And Daddy (who was busy building my little vegetable garden) did say yes.

(Can you tell that Caleb picks out most of his outfits now? It's sad for me, because his fashion sense could use some fine-tuning. But it's wonderful to see him gaining independence!)

We have a random drain in the middle of our yard. It didn't take Caleb long to find the drain and begin pouring/spitting water into it.

When Daisy woke up from her morning nap, we went strawberry picking at a nearby farm. It was nearly noon and over 90 degrees by the time we arrived, but it's the very end of the season and we just couldn't wait any longer.

I'm not sure why, but I adore this photo. I was thrilled that the farm had wagons for us to use, and even more thrilled that Daisy was willing to stay put in it.

How sweet are they? How darling is Daisy's little hat? Sigh.

This is about as long as Caleb's interest in strawberry picking lasted. He was very frustrated that he couldn't eat every berry he picked. We thought that Daisy would enjoy berry picking since she loves strawberries so much. Wrong. It was a special kind of torture for her to see all of those berries and not be able to get her hands on any of them. Add in the heat and the hat, and... well, poor girl.

She didn't complain, but I could see the anguish in her eyes. Luckily, Chris took on the task of entertaining the kids while I picked berries. We were able to collect just over four pounds before the kids had had enough.

Caleb found a berry! Can you see it?

How about now? Can you see it now?

No? Then he'll just throw it at the camera. That should take care of things.

Chris made a game of running up and down the rows of strawberries with the kids. He's a good man.

Then they found a tractor! The driver waved, and both kids were delighted.

They love running!

I know Daisy is out of focus, but you can still clearly tell how much she loves her Daddy.

Finally, after we paid for our berries, we found some shade under a piece of playground equipment and had a picnic. Daisy was in heaven with those ripe, juicy, delicious strawberries.