Is it wrong to laugh?

I was an aunt for 9 years before having Nina.  Being an aunt means you get to laugh at all the things the parents cannot laugh at. For example - blowing bubbles in your milk, taking more candy when your parents say no and jumping on the bed like a bunch of monkeys until someone falls and gets hurt. Before having Bean it was okay for me to egg on the kids and laugh at them, but now I am the parent.  Bean is really starting to test the waters and a lot of the time I just want to laugh at her.  When we are in public I try to teach her what she can and cannot do, but I find it much harder to do that in private.  When we are sitting at dinner and I constantly tell her to put her feet down at the table she mocks me. She'll pull her knees up then say "down".  All I want to do is laugh, but I cannot b/c then I'm just teaching her it is a game. Or that I think it is hilarious that she uses her bed as a trampoline. I have to remind myself that the things I laugh at could cause her to get in trouble at school!  The one thing I never laughed at was biting and that was the one thing that she did at school. This parenting thing is a lot harder than I thought, but it sure is a lot of fun.  No one ever tells you how much fun it is to teach someone so many things. They are just a sponge and soak up everything.

I guess we have to find the balance b/n fun and parenthood! 

I was going to post a video but nothing wants to work for me today. So, instead here are a few cute pics of the Bean:

I couldn't resist the backpack. Especially when she said "Pease" and signed for please!  I'm such a sucker!

Taking her bear Bobo to school. When I was 5 years old I was in the hospital for a month and my dad got me a bear that I named Bobo.  That bear is now in Bean's room. For some reason Bean thinks all bears are named Bobo.

After looking at these pictures, it makes me not like the nuk even more. Hopefully, we can get rid of "Nu Nu" soon. I'm sure that will be a future post!

Summer Fun

We have been up to a lot since my last post.  We have gone to the zoo numerous times, started swimming lessons and have just had a lot of fun hanging out with family and friends.

Bean has also grown a lot since then. She is starting to lose her baby face and look more like a toddler.  It is crazy when I look at her pictures from this time last year and compare them to pictures taken this summer.  She is talking so much and every day she is starting to speak more English and less baby talk.  Some of her words are "Pease" (Please), "Tutle" (turtle), "Nigh Nigh" (good night), "Boo" (blue - every time you ask her a color it is blue), "Boci" (broccoli - loves her broccoli), "Petty" (Pretty), "Hat", "Moe" (More), "Ice Ceam" (Ice cream) and the list goes on. She is still signing for please but says the word please when she signs, and she always does the sign for milk. That little girl sure loves her milk and ice cream.

For someone who used to eat everything she has started to get pickier with food.  We are lucky that she loves her fruits and veggies and she eats anything that daycare gives her. I think she sees what the kids at school are eating so she figures she should eat it to so she can be like them.

It is so much fun to watch Bean explore. She loves going for walks on the path by our house and she really liked going to the beach and playing in the sand. The lake itself was not a hit, but she does great in the pool.  In June we started swim lessons at the YMCA (thanks to Grandma Gassner who paid for Bean to take the classes). Bean has learned a lot at swim class and really likes to blow bubbles in the pool and now the bath tub. 

I was really looking forward to having 4 day work weeks this summer so I could spend and extra day with Bean, but due to Mike's lack of work since February I have not been able to do that. One nice thing is Mike has had a lot of days with just him and Bean.  Mike is a wonderful father and is so good at giving her his undivided attention. I can tell she really loves her daddy.  They don't do anything exciting, but going to the park and playing at home is enough to make the Bean happy!

Over the last week we have had to deal with having a biter.  Bean used to just bite me but that habit has moved to daycare. She has bitten someone at daycare 4 out of the last 8 days at daycare, so we have been trying to nip that in the bud. We went to the library and checked out "Teeth are Not for Biting".  Bean's daycare cannot tell us who she is biting, but whenever we get to the page in the book with a little girl crying b/c she got bit Bean yells out "Abby" so I'm guessing that is who she is biting. If so, I feel bad for Abby.  Bean has been getting better at not biting at home and she only bit someone once this week so I'm hope full things will get better. Plus we have started giving Bean "Time Outs." I got some great advice from my friend Mandy that seems to be working. Hopefully, we are coming to the end of this phase. It is hard to discipline Bean b/c after working all day I just want our time together to be happy, but I've come to the realization that she is a toddler and that just isn't going to happen.

It has also been fun watching Bean play. Last month we made a trip to Toys R Us to get birthday presents for her two cousins and I picked up a doll for Bean.  She loves her doll and watching her act like a little mommy is just priceless. She brings her baby to me so I can swaddle it and she tries to give her "Nu Nu" (nuk) to her baby.  She puts her baby in her little stroller grabs her purse and says "bye bye" and walks around the house.  It truly is one of the cutest things I have ever seen.

Overall it has been a great summer and I look forward to all the fun things we will do before it gets cold outside.

This picture was taken last year at State Fair. It is one of my favorite pictures. It made me laugh so hard I

had to make it our 2009 Christmas card.

This was taken last Saturday at State Fair. You can see just how much Bean has changed in the last year.

Trip to the zoo!

Two weeks ago we took Bean to the zoo. We were really excited to take her since it has been six months since our last trip. We really hoped she would be totally into it since she was so much more active this time around BUT...she sat in her stroller. Anytime we took her out of her stroller to look around she walked right back and whined to be put back in. The weather was nice and Bean did get excited about some animals. I think she liked the train the best. It must be all the episodes of Chuggington she watches. We will be making plenty more trips to the zoo over the summer so hopefully she'll want to get out of the stroller and explore some more!

Here is one of my favorite pictures! My big girl eating her PB&J.

It has been a long time

I didn't realize it has been six months since I've posted anything. I'm not to good at blogging!!

Bean has grown and changed a lot in the last six months. She has learned to crawl, walk, and climb! She has gone from a baby carrier to a big girl car seat . She has learned to say "Da Da", "Uh Oh", "O's (when she wants Cheerios)"Ma Ma" (says it very rarely but I've heard it!!). She is so much fun! Everyday she is surprising us with something new.

For the last two weeks Bean has been enrolled in daddy daycare and we have seen her learn so much. Mike is a wonderful teacher and he is so good at giving her his undivided attention. This past week she has tried to say "blue" and "turtle", which comes out sounding like "tutle". We are working on animal noises and Cow and monkey seem to be here favorite. Thanks to daycare she has learned to sign "more" when she wants more food and for the past two weeks we have been working on getting her to sign for "milk", "juice" and "please". I can tell she gets frustrated b/c she cannot tell us what she wants so we are hoping that learning to sign will help.

Taking Bean outside now is so different from the fall because she can walk and explore everything. We even got a bubble maker which was a huge hit. Mike took her to the park a lot when he was home with her and she loved it. She climbed right up the four stairs to the slide and had no fear! I cannot wait for summer and we can try lots of new things, especially the zoo! We were there a lot last year, but now she is at an age where I think she will really enjoy it.

I should probably go spend some quality time with my Mike. Here are some pictures of Bean the climber and playing outside.

We turn our head for a second and look who climbed the step ladder.

Our neighbor B.J. has a little dog and Bean loves to go to her front door and look for the dog!

To Many Changes for Mommy!!

So this week has been the week of changes. First Bean was able to move from her belly or back to the sitting position, and then this evening she started crawling!

Then there are the little things I've noticed this week. I've seen her get really good at picking up the Puffs or Yogurt Melts and actually get them in her mouth! I've seen her get better at picking up and drinking out of a sippy cup and she is working hard at mastering the ability to pull herself up to a table. Every night I picked her up from daycare this week she gave me a new face or looked at a toy differently (like she was learning something new). Tonight when she was taking a bath she looked at the bubbles in her hand and looked at me like "Mommy, what are these?" She has had bubbles in her bath since she was born, but it was like tonight was the first time she realized they were there.

While I am so overjoyed at how much she is growing and changing it is also sad because the time has gone so fast. I remember just wishing she would be able to fall asleep without being rocked and now she won't even let me rock her after her bottle. She is just like me, she wants to be left alone when she is ready to go to sleep. The first tweleve weeks seemed to go on forever and then the last five months have just flown by.

Everyone is right when they say you think the stage you are in is the best stage. Bean is a lot of fun right now, but I know it is going to get even better! I can and cannot wait!

Labor Day

Bean and I had a busy Labor day weekend. We met Stef and Lil' Max for some shopping at Johnson's Creek then we made our first long drive alone to the Dells. Daddy was away at Preppy's house (Shawn for those that don't know him) and Bean and I were going to spend the night at Grandma & Grandpa V's condo in the Dells -According to my neice Ella it is her condo :).

Bean did great on the car ride. She slept the whole way! We had a great time at the Condo and she loved the change of scenery. She went to bed great and had a lot of fun playing. As you can see from the pictures she loved the large foot stool b/c she could play on it and it didn't hurt if she bumped her head. We also found a cool play table in the toy room that grandma let us take home!

Unfortunately I didn't take her swimming. For an indoor pool it is really cold and I didn't want to subject her to that :) and by the time I thought about it I didn't want to change her clothes and mine. We did dip her feet in and she loved splashing. There will be plenty more visits to the condo where she can go swimming. I think next summer she'll have a lot more fun in the pool.

On Sunday we left the dells and headed to Grandma G's house. Bean was great and slept the whole way there. When we got to Grandma's she was all smiles and she had so much fun playing. Bean gave Grandma lots of love and can't wait to see her again.

I had the rest of the week off so Bean and I visited some friends and played a lot at home. On Thursday we met Julie, Jameson, Mandy and James up in Oshkosh for some shopping and lunch. I was so lucky that Bean slept the entire car ride there and back.

We are very lucky we have a baby that likes the car. We haven't taken any vacations, but being able to have a baby who will sit in the car for a trip to Appleton or a trip to the store is a great. Hopefully, it means we will have no problem going to visit family and friends. Hopefully in the near future we can test out her ability to be in the car for longer periods of time.

Tuesdays with Bean

When I was pregnant with Nina I was so delusional about all the things I would be able to do on my maternity leave. I was very lucky to have 12 weeks off, but I still managed to work 120 hours during that time. I was back in the office for a few hours 6 days after she was born. I just couldn't bring myself to not be involved in what was going on at work. I remember crying because I was so afraid things were going to get screwed up if I was not there. So on top of being stressed about work, I was dealing with having a new baby and not a lot of sleep. Luckily I had Jamie who did a wonderful job and who showed me that I could get away and trust other people to take care of things. Not until I was back at work full time did I finally realize that the most important thing was Nina and I needed to step back and enjoy this time with her. My first day back at work (her first day at daycare) I was so upset and I even cried in front of my dad. He always says the right thing and makes me feel better.

I worked full-time for April and May and we all adjusted well then in the middle of June I began working 4 day work weeks. Mostly to spend time with Nina, but also to help my employer during the lagging economy and the slow summer months. I knew I wanted to have some sort of reduced work schedule over the summer, but with Mike not working 40 hours a week hardly at all this year I did not think that would be possible. I was a little worried about money, but one thing I have realized after having Nina is you always manage to find the money when you have a baby.

Nina and I haven't done anything to exciting, but having that extra day a week with her has been so wonderful. We have been able to visit Grandma V, Great-Grandma Audrey, hang out with friends, go on walks and just hang out at home. Working full-time in the spring and then trying to keep up with spending time with Bean after work, making dinner, cleaning the house, paying bills, laundry etc. I just felt like I never got enough time with her. I'm so thankful that I got to have this extra day to just have her to myself and not have to worry about getting anything done. I love not having to get her dressed at 6:30 in the morning. I like that she is able to play in the morning and take a nap when ever she wants to (Daycare is trying to put her on a 10 and 2 nap schedule....GOOD LUCK!!)

She is 7 1/2 months old and changing so much everyday and I'm so thankful I got to spend a little more time with her. I wish I could be home more, but unfortunately that is not possible right now. I am very lucky and very thankful for everything in my life. We have a beautiful healthy baby, a great family, jobs, a roof over our head and many more countless blessings. It is amazing how much having a baby changes you. They really are the only thing you worry about!

I think when Nina wakes up we will go to the library and then out to get Grandpa a present for his 20th anniversary of starting his own business. Time to go warm up my coffee and surf the web while she naps.