Friday, June 29, 2012

This kid loves animals!

Everyone knows I'm a big animal lover. I don't eat meat because I don't approve of how animals are killed and treated.

I am happy to announce... my kid has SOMETHING from me!!

She loooooves animals.

And I don't mean she just likes looking at them for 20 seconds then on to something else, like she is with everything else. No, this kid LOVES ANIMALS.

Case in point:

Sierra's 3rd Birthday.
Petting zoo.
All the kids were playing and running around in the grass.
Aryn?
Petting all the animals. One by one. She wanted to hold them all.
Then, she heard the dog, Domino, and she was on him like white on rice. She stuck her hand through the cage (he kept wanting to chase the petting zoo animals haha) and we stayed there for almost an hour. I finally made her leave to go eat.

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The Zoo.
Birds.
Wolves.
Kangaroos.
Meerkats.
Peacocks.
Gorillas.
Bears.
She was in awe, and so happy to see each and every one of them. Waving, smiling, and taking a short break to jump into every single puddle... she had so much fun!

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Bauer.
Oh, poor Bauer. I truly do feel sorry for him. She loves him soo much. Every morning, she gets a huge grin, waves and says "BAAAA!" when she sees him. Then she wants out of her crib to chase him and give him pets. He, of course, runs away and snarls at her. It's always too early for Aryn with Bauer!! Hahaha!!!

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Other Dogs.
When we go on walks, if a dog is walking anywhere in eye shot, she is reaching out her hands, screaming at it. If the dog walks by and we don't acknowledge it, it's a full on screaming fit. She loves dogs.

Unfortunately, she is also allergic to some of them and breaks out into hives, which then leads to Benadryl and a grumpy kid. But she doesn't seem to care. She.Loves.Dogs.

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And Most of All....
While this isn't an animal-love, this kid is in love with her cousins. She idolizes Veronica and follows her wherever she goes when we're all together. It's absolutely adorable. She's always trying to give her hugs and kisses, and it makes me so happy. One day she'll be a great big sister, but she'll always be an awesome little cousin. 

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Thursday, June 21, 2012

Little Liar!

This morning, Aryn was giving me a "new" look from across the living room.

Me: "Aryn, do you have to poop? Do you want to sit on the potty?"
Aryn: "NO!" and shakes her head.
She then runs away and sits in the corner.
Me: "Aryn, let's go sit on the potty."
Aryn: (shaking her head) "NO!"
I wait a couple seconds, watching her push.
Me: "Aryn! Let's go sit on the potty!"
Aryn: (again, shaking her head) "No! No! NO!"

So I leave her alone.

She comes up to me, smacks her crotch and says "poop."

Yeah... I can smell you from here. Thanks, kid.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Self Discipline

Ryan and I aren't big disciplinarians in our home. Aryn's too young to really know right from wrong, even though I swear she knows when she's being bad, and when you love someone as much as we love the Nugget, it's hard to consider hitting her to prove a point.

Ryan and I were both spanked as children. I don't remember any of mine, and Ryan remembers only the last time he got "the spoon" because he grabbed it out of his moms hand and chased her around. I laugh just thinking about it. He wasn't even that old!

I support the concept of spanking. I haven't had to do it yet, and I'm not sure how I will react in the situation it would call for, but at this point in the game, we don't spank. I've tried the time out on the stairs, but Aryn seems to think it's a game and starts playing. I've smacked her little hand with my finger a couple of times but Aryn laughs. In the bathtub when she stands up, I hit her little bum lightly to make her sit down. That's the extent of our "discipline."

I use the term lightly!

However, lately, it seems that our sweet baby girl has taken on disciplining herself. It's like corporate punishment!!

For example...

This morning she sat next to Bauer's dog bowl to eat his food. She LOVES dog food and it's the grossest thing in the world for a baby to eat dog food. Ugh, it makes me want to gag. So, I said "no, get out of there!" and bent over to pull her out from under the island.

She stood up, looked at me, and hit her arm so hard she cried.

So I responded with, "Don't hit yourself!"

To which she responded with hitting herself harder.

Let me state here and now: I would RATHER discipline her myself than watch her hit herself and cry after!! It breaks my heart, and makes my eyes tear up!

Yesterday, she reached down while I was changing a poopy bum and I moved her hand away and exclaimed, "No!"

She pinched herself.

I don't know where she is learning to hit herself, or why, or why she does it so hard. I am hugging her more than anything now because I hate seeing her hurt herself!

Although... my job is going to be easy!

"Aryn, you just chased your little brother with a machete! Punish yourself!"

Right?

Friday, June 15, 2012

21 Months

The last 2 months, Aryn has become a crazy child. Hilarious, and sweet, and amazing, but absolutely nuts. I have never seen so much energy in one tiny person. She is her father's daughter, without a doubt!

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See? Climbing!! On EVERYTHING!

Once upon a time, Aryn was the easiest kid to put to bed. You lay her down, put the blankets on her, leave the room, and we wouldn't hear anything from her for 12 hours. It was glorious!

Well, she has put a STOP to that.

Now, our evening schedule is this:
7:15 - Bath
7:30 - Teeth brushed, lotioned up, pj's on
7:45 - Books read or Elmo watched and laying in bed. Door closed.
8:30 - Still talking, or yelling, or running laps in her crib, or playing with the dolls, or ... whatever else she could possibly be doing.
I can usually get her asleep at around 8:30

Now, you are asking yourself, "Why don't you just put her to bed at 8:30?"

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WELL!!!

Because she wakes up at 6:30am, when Ryan gets up to get ready for work! We can't figure out what it is that wakes her up, but whenever Ryan gets up, she is up. And then starts our day of a tired, grumpy nugget - who doesn't listen, who whines, who throws fits, who is grumpy.

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I've tried putting her back to sleep at 6:30, but she wants none of that - she wants to run and see Bauer and say hi to all her toys and go eat breakfast.

Yet on weekends, she's up at 8am! I fully blame Ryan and his dinosaur walking.

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See how her lips make an "S"? This is her new look and I looooove it!

And the fits have started. Take her to the potty? Fit! Take away a dangerous knife? Fit! Shut off the 9th episode of Elmo? Ohh man, the fit!

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She is running away from me - and towards the water - here!

It doesn't help that I laugh at all of these fits. But they're so funny! And cute! You just want to pick her up and squeeze her! But when you do, she gets mad and throws another fit haha!!

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Aryn & Hunter

But while the last little bit has been trying, I can't express enough how much I am LOVING it. This kid is the sweetest, and funniest kid ever. She just comes up to you to give you hugs and kisses for no reason. And they're GOOD hugs. She even pats your back and rests her head on your shoulders. She runs to you when you open your arms, and her laughter... my goodness... her laughter. It will melt your heart. And the things she laughs at are amazing - just random things, she finds so funny.

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Haha!

This little girl wants to be a "big kid" so bad - she copies everything everyone is doing and if she messes up, she'll try, try, try again until she gets it perfect. She actually BRUSHES her teeth - not just sucks off the toothpaste. She moves the brush and brushes those teeth - just like mom and dad. She feeds herself with a fork and spoon - and she's GOOD at it! She does everything she can to be just like us, and I don't blame her for getting angry when we don't allow her to perfect something (i.e., climbing onto the table. While mom and dad don't climb onto the table, she wants whatever we've hidden out of reach of her little hands on the table and she just wants that to be a big girl!).

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I am learning everyday this little personality this kid has. And everyday I get more and more scared of her being a teenager (hahaha) and I fall more and more in love with her.

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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Potty Surfing

Aryn has recently started wanting to use the potty. When we were sick for 2 months, she basically lived in disposable diapers. I HATE BUYING DISPOSABLE DIAPERS! I love my clothies, and I just love her big fat cloth diaper butt. But with all the poosplosions and grossness that was coming out of that little body, I went with disposables for the entire sickness. She was happier, I was happier not having to clean up the grossest stuff I've ever seen, and it saved me doing a LOT of laundry.

I also held off going to the bathroom on the potty for those 2 months. She was miserable, tired, sick, and she would just whine when I brought her into the bathroom. Besides - the poor kid was peeing from her bum for 2 months that I think it was just easier for her to go in her diaper. So we held off, and it's taken us an extra month to get back on track.

I'm not a big "early potty trainer." I don't want to force Aryn to do something she's not ready for. There's no reason to potty train her earlier than necessary - I'm not in a race with anyone and I already know she'll do it when SHE is ready. Yeah, that's right. ;)

But the last week or so, Aryn has been telling me she has to go to the bathroom. This is a first for us! She has two signs:

1. Smacks her crotch.

2. Hides.

If she hides, I know she's pooping. Plus, I can hear her grunting. It's friggen hilarious.

When she smacks her crotch, she has to pee. I usually miss it, but she's doing so awesome! I'm so proud of her - she is peeing on the potty more often than she ever has before. Yay nugget!

And the potty is a fun zone again. We still get the occasional whine and freak out for having to sit on the potty (to which I take her off immediately - I don't want to correlate potty with freaking out), but for the most part she's doing awesome. I'm having more dry diapers than ever before and I am loving having her in her clothies again! I'm so proud of her!

Here's to hoping the next few weeks or month or few months we continue on this track. I'm not going to force her - if she's potty trained before 2 years old, that's fantastic!! If not, then no worries. She'll do it when she's ready!!