Summer's Almost Here!

Dani likes wearing summer clothes!

Showing off her shiner!


Getting ready to go in the pool!

Hanging out!

Finally, we've had some summer-like days. But they've been followed by winter-like ones. Today was gorgeous and we took advantage. Tomorrow there will probably be snow.

Miss Richter

My mom and I share a lot of things in common. One of them is the fact that we have very high highs and very low lows. It's not like being bi-polar. It's more like we get really excited about things like happy little puppies and then one little thing happens and we briefly flip out. And we have this remarkable ability to go from one end of the extreme to the other in about 12 seconds. It has earned my mom the nickname Mrs. Richter.

t's probably real annoying for the men in our lives. Well, I KNOW it's really annoying for the men in our lives who try to problem solve when we just want to vent. And annoying as our freak-outs are, they are pretty fleeting, as neither of us like to stay down for too long. And we're worth hanging around for the high parts!

Apparently, in addition to dark hair and butt-white skin, this is a very strong genetic trait. Dani, who looks like a mini version of me and my mom, has now been showing us that she might want to live up to the nickname, Miss Richter.

Dani's generally the happiest little girl in the world. She is so easy to make laugh and smile and, as I have said numerous times before, loves to be with people. But sometimes, out of nowhere, she freaks out. Just today, she wanted to grab the tablecloth and pull it down. When I took it out of her hands, she started to protest and scream. I put her on the ground, she looked up at me and, completely forgetting how I ruined her life, gave me a gaping grin. This has happened so many other times. Miss Richter.

Also, she tends to get easily frustrated when something doesn't work the way she wants it too. Not that Jack didn't, but he would tend to assess and observe the situation and figure it out. Not Dani. She thinks that by screaming at it, she can get what she wants. She is very determined to get things and I predict that she will either crawl earlier than Jack or just get really pissed off about it and scream when she can't. When you remove her from the situation, she quickly gets happy again.

She also gets overwhelmed when she is overstimulated. She will grab a toy and, as usual start to try to eat it. She makes all sorts of happy noises as she plays until, in an instant, the gurgles and shrieks of delight morph into anger and screams of frustration. We pull the toy from her death grip and she complains that we are taking it away. When we remove it from her line of sight, she slowly she takes a little while before she calms down and is happy as a clam.

Our little Miss Richter is (mostly) a whole lot of fun. The highs are beyond great and the lows are brief. She lights up our lives. And she's going to drive some poor guy totally crazy!

Potty Mouth

Jack likes saying "Dammit". Mostly, he likes getting a rise out of us by saying it. He likes to strategically use it in waiting rooms and at grocery stores, which is super fun. I'm pretty sure I know where he picked it up. The silver lining is that he uses it correctly. If we raise our voices and say his name, he fills in the rest. The not so silver lining is that he's 2. He also likes telling us not to say it, thus saying the word: "No say 'Dammit'!" Great.

Yesterday, I committed the unforgivable sin of paying attention to Dani when he wanted the attention. So he came up to me and pretended like he was going to bite me (maybe he really was going to bite me but I yelled out before he could.) He then followed up with the "Dammit". I had had enough. We have been ignoring it to try to get him to tire of it, we've yelled at him, we went old school and tried a little soap in the mouth which he found funny rather than annoying. So I declared a Time Out. He used to run to Time Out when you told him to but not anymore. I picked him up and plopped him down there. He stayed and was good. After the Time Out ended, I went to release him and told him that he couldn't say the bad word.

We returned to playing and he looked at me and said, "No say. . . " I could see the wheels turning in his head processing the fact that he was about to say the word he was told not to say. "No say. . . D....AT! No say DAT!" Atta boy, Jack!

Same Parents, Different Kids

It's amazing how different two children from the same parents can be. First off, Jack and Dani look virtually nothing alike, other than the fact that they have dark hair. But even that is different. Jack's hair is dark brown but it is much more brown than Dani's. Dani has little hints of red like I do and the color is a softer brown. Jack got at least a little of Paul's coloring, making him look perpetually tan. Poor Dani got my butt-white skin. Jack has brown eyes. Dani's are still blue. We're hoping they stay that way, against all odds but at the very least, I don't think they'll wind up as dark as Jacks.

From a personality standpoint, there are also some significant differences. Jack has always been very observant. He observes everything before diving in. And his actions are usually pretty deliberate. He thinks about almost everything before he does it. As a baby, he was always very happy but often, in new situations, he would get quiet and shy as he assessed the situation. He loved to read almost from the start and could, even at a very early age, have the patience and desire to sit through numerous books in one sitting. He rarely cried--only when he was hungry. He has always been very schedule oriented; eating, sleeping and napping like clockwork. He ALWAYS fell asleep without any fuss.

Dani jumps into situations with both feet. She loves being in the middle of all the action. Her eyes light up and she loves to babble. Though a baby of her age can't really think about and reflect on new situations, she is happiest when she is around people. She does love to watch everything around her and observe but she just seems a bit more ready to jump right in from the get-go. She doesn't have the patience for reading yet. If we're lucky, we can get through a book or two. But most of the time, she is trying to eat the book or she wants to watch you talk as you are reading, rather than focus on the pages. After a book or two she would rather be put on her back on the floor and just watch. She flies by the seat of her pants. Though she is a great sleeper at night, we never know if she is going to wake up at 6:00 or 8:00. She might go all day napping for a couple of 30 minute naps or she might take two naps of 2-3 hours in length. You just never know. And she doesn't seem any crankier when she doesn't get the sleep. She mostly eats well, wolfing down 7 oz every 4-5 hours. But sometimes she decides to take a little diet and drink 3 or 4 ounces. She loves her rice cereal (which Jack got over really fast) and has happily eaten entire containers of green beans and peas (Jack hated peas!). She is mostly very happy but can go from super happy to super cranky in seconds, which happens primarily when she is tired. But it also happens if she is frustrated (she keeps trying to put one toy on her Exersaucer in her mouth but it's attached and she can't move it) or overstimulated (which usually happens when she has a toy in her hands--she starts screaming with joy and then it gets to much and the screams change to those of anger).

But they do have a lot in common too. They are both extremely happy. They are/were very easy going babies. They are good. And they are both ridiculously adorable and fun!

Sharing

Jack is not that great at sharing. He hasn't had to do it before. Even in the last five months that Dani has been around, he hasn't had to do it much. But now, Dani is becoming increasingly interested in the things around her. And she really wants to grab anything. So when we are in the play area, I give her a toy. Jack usually does not find this amusing at all. I have tried to explain things and he just says, "Okay," and then tries to snatch whatever it was I gave Dani out of her hands. After a few scoldings, he figured out just how to manipulate the situation. I gave Dani a little plastic ball from one of his toys. He got up, took it out of her hand and with a tone of gratefulness and surprise said, "Ohhh! Thank you, Dani!" What a stinker!

Puppy Love

Jack has always been a stuffed animal kid and fell in love with JoJo pretty quickly. JoJo was the perfect stuffed animal: sewn on eyes (not plastic pieces that could fall of and be a choking hazard), perfect size, cuddly and cute. Bunky came along when Jack started to suck on JoJo's face too much while teething, thus causing him to get a face rash. Now he carts them everywhere with him.

I have been looking for the perfect stuffed animal for Dani since before she was born. It seems like everywhere I go, they have nothing that fits the bill. The eyes are plastic, there are beads in the bottom, it's too big for little hands to hold, its not machine washable which will cause problems when she drools and snots all over it, it's not soft, it's got a music box inside, or it's an annoying pink color for girls, or it's a monkey. I have never realized just how many stuffed monkeys are out there. And the only off limits stuffed animal for Dani is the monkey, since both of Jack's are monkeys.

Today we hit the jackpot. We were at Buy Buy Baby and I was testing various animals out with her. None of them were perfect since they usually had one or more of the characteristics I mentioned above. But I was desperate to get her her own little buddy. She smiled at some but then I found him. A little stuffed puppy. Sewn on eyes, no beads, a normal brown color, good size. machine washable, and NOT a monkey! I showed it to her and she broke out into a huge grin, squealed and laughed. I knew they had found each other. So I bought two so we could have a back up in case anything happens to him!I have to admit, he is a little odd looking--he has a realtively small head in proportion to his own body. But maybe that's why she likes him, he reminds her of her brother.

By the time we put her in the car with her puppy, he was already all wet from being slobbered on. She squealed and squawked in delight in the car as she hugged him and cried when she accidently dropped him. We named him Sammy--a unisex name like Dani. We figured she could decide later if he was a boy or a girl. Now the only trouble is that Jack, lover of all stuffed animals, really wants him. He grabs the puppy and kisses it and says, "Dats Dani's puppy," but then he won't let it go. We'll see what happens. I'm just glad we finally found a match. I can't believe it took this much shopping just to find a stuffed animal!

Buddies!

Jack and Dani are interacting more and more each day. Dani has been in love with Jack almost since the very beginning. Jack has taken a little longer to warm up. No matter where Jack is, Dani's eyes try to find him. When she does, her eyes light up and she starts to grin. And since all toddlers are fairly narcisistic people, Jack has started to realize that this is kind of cool. He used to only kiss her when we were watching so we could all marvel in what a good big brother he was. While I don't think his motives are entirely pure, he actually likes engaging with her. He gets down by her face and kisses her or presses his cheek against hers. She reaches out and tries to grab him excitedly and slobber all over him, which he finds amusing.

She is also able to melt his heart like she's melted ours. Just today Jack started to whine because he wanted the attention that we were giving Dani at that moment. Dani was standing on my lap and Jack ran to the corner of the room, upset. She whipped her head around and tried to find him. When she did, he was pouting. She locked eyes with him, lit up and grinned huge at him. Slowly, his mouth broke into a grin that he didn't want to give her. But he couldn't help it. She was Kryptonite to his whining, even though she was initially the cause of it.

I took the above pictures earlier in the week. Jack was being particularly cute with Dani. I put her on the floor and asked him to lay down with her. Dani started excitedly screaming and kicking her legs all around. She was so happy to be playing with him. It was adorable. I hope that they continue to love each other. I so wish for them to be friends and not just brother and sister. So far, they're on the right track!

Easter 2011

Coloring Easter eggs

Easter 2011 was a fun one. More so for Jack than Dani, since she couldn't find eggs! Jack and I colored eggs for the first time and he loved making eggs different colors. I thought there was nothing he could like better as he screamed, "BLUE!!!" or "ORANGE!!!" each time an egg was extracted from the coloring cup. However, he loved finding eggs. On Easter Sunday I hid eggs around the house. But I hid plastic ones that I had filled with various goodies like chocolate peanut butter eggs, gummy cars, Teddy Grahams and M&Ms. He was pretty good at finding the eggs too. Granted they weren't hidden too much but he still did a good job. I realized that we will probably have to move after a few years so that I have more places to hide eggs. I feel that I will exhaust all areas in a few years!

But the fun didn't stop there. It took him awhile longer to figure out that there were fun things in the eggs. Each egg he opened was a surprise and he would yell out, "OHHHHHHHHH!" He equally enjoyed his Easter basket which was hidden in the dryer. His favorite candy proved to be the Reese's peanut butter eggs.

Later in the day we went to Paul's sister's house and he got to hunt for more eggs. He thinks Easter is great! And we are still working on polishing off all that candy!

An Eventful Mother's Day

Okay, so not that much happened. But when you have two under three, little things add up to a lot, in terms of stories and milestones. In Dani news, she is now able to roll over from front to back. She did this for the first time the day before Mother's Day and surprised even herself, getting wide eyed before breaking into a smile as she realized she was on her back again. She has become quite the wiggler. She is moving all around her crib and starting to move in circles. Once she makes it to her tummy, she pushes up high and kicks her legs furiously. Maybe crawling is just around the corner? Considering she happily jumps into everything, we could be in real trouble. If she has half the energy as Jack (which it appears that she does) we could be in for some craziness!

In Jack news, he made my Mother's Day. We were wrestling the day before and as things were dying down, I had him in a mini hug. He calmed down and looked at me and said, "I love you so much." What a kid!

Later on, he showed glimpses of being quite creative. While at Grandma's house for the actual Mother's Day, his cousin, Sierra found it entertaining to antagonize him a bit. She doesn't really understand that he's only two. And this time, she found it fun to try and steal his ball away by sitting on it so he couldn't grab it or kick it. Since she isn't my kid, I couldn't really reprimand her. But I also wanted to see how Jack would solve his own problems. Turns out we had nothing to worry about. Perched upon the ball, Sierra removed her bracelet and threw it. Then she turned to Jack.

Sierra: Can you go get that? (Oh yeah, and Sierra is also a little bossy at present.)

Jack: Yes.

Sierra: Well, go get it.

Jack went over to the bracelet and sat down next to it.

Sierra: Bring it to me!

Jack: No!

So Sierra got up to go retrieve her bracelet and as soon as she did, Jack got up and snatched the ball back. That's my boy!

Easily Pleased

Today we gave Jack a few M&Ms for dessert. After he picked out his colors and counted them, he happily at them and then said, "Bye-bye M&Ms!!" Then he looked over at us and said, "What a great day!"