One Little Ladybug Sitting in the Sun

The Lastest in Cute

Ladybug's Mama — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 15:49:17 +0000

There was a little red fire truck in her Easter basket, and she promptly named it Man. This is the first time she’s named anything, and I didn’t even get it at first because it seemed so random.
She has been putting her baby dolls together as a family. The small one is the baby, the bigger one is the mama, and the stuffed monkey is the papa.
She fell asleep on the way to the zoo and only woke up as she was being carried in. As her sleepy eyes opened Papa asked, “Do you want to go to the zoo?” Her head popped up. “Yeah!” Papa put it best: Zero to zoo in half a second.
When Ladybug bumps a head or other body part lightly, she triumphantly exclaims, “I hurt myself, but I’m okay!”
As I type, she is playing in the sandbox. She just said to herself, “I’m tired. I gotta slow down.”

Cute things Ladybug has said or done recently

Ladybug's Mama — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:20:16 +0000

Every time she walks by the fridge, she sees the letter magnets and exclaims “Look at all these letters!” Every time.
When she was being very careful with something this morning, she said “I’m carefulling.”
She called the antennae on a stuffed caterpillar “pony tails.”
She introduced me to all of her preschool classmates by name. She finished by announcing “And this is Mama!”
At a funeral this week, we were standing for a prayer. When my husband and I clasped hands, Ladybug stuck her little hand between ours.

Preschool Girl

Ladybug's Mama — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:24:53 +0000

Ladybug started preschool today!

I can’t describe how excited she was well enough to do it justice. Suffice it to say, she was eager to go and not at all upset when we left. She seemed to be happy to see us when we picked her up, and her teacher had nothing but positive things to say. Best of all, Ladybug fell asleep almost immediately at bedtime. That so rarely happens……

Ladybug Games

Ladybug's Mama — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:37:46 +0000

Ladybug has discovered some new activities recently. She had mostly been ignoring her dolls until the last month or so when she realized all the different things she can pretend with them. Now her dolls dance, clap, nap, and even need their diapers changed. I am excited about getting her some doll acessories to enhance her imaginative play. A stroller, furniture, and whatnot. I think she would love it.

Her latest love, though, is scribbling. Crayons, pens, pencils. Loves them all. We went to IKEA the other day, and I saw this easel that I would love to get her:

Here is a picture of her engaged in her favorite activities (scribbling and standing on a chair at the table) while wearing her tutu:

Talking Away

Ladybug's Mama — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:25:22 +0000

This morning I got my regular “Your toddler this week” email, and it mentioned sentences. Funny how those emails always seem to be exactly on track with what Ladybug is up to.

The last few months have been word explosion around here, which I may have mentioned before. She has a ridiculous number of clearly understandable words and even more that seem to mean something that we haven’t figured out yet. But in the past couple of weeks, she has started putting words together to make little sentences.

“Go get”

“Your turn”

“Where’s/There’s Papa/Mama”

et cetera.

We are so proud!

On the move

Ladybug's Mama — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:15:44 +0000

Ladybug took her time getting around to walking. She seemed on the cusp for months, but she didn’t take her first independent steps until she was 13 months old. And those steps didn’t quite take. Crawling was so much faster that walking hardly seemed a better option. Now at 15 months, she’s finally walking more than crawling. And quite frankly, it still seems so surreal to see such a little person just get up and take off on her own two feet.

Too long…

Ladybug's Mama — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 21:44:04 +0000

Clearly I have neglected this blog. Here are a few highlights in our lives:

Walking!
Talking!
Signing!

Ladybug just got back from a week-long (and I mean long!) trip to Gram and Grandpa’s house in Chicago. We missed her like crazy!

We went out and about today to a puppet show at the library. Check out the pics:

Click here for more about the puppet show

Almost 10 months

Ladybug's Mama — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:24:46 +0000

At nearly ten months old, Ladybug has:

Had her first cold
Started school
Been to Chicago again
Eaten “circle oat cereal”
Had pinkeye and a double ear infection.

That last one is today. Poor little one is having a rough day. She’s a real trooper though!

9 months, less 2 days…

Ladybug's Mama — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:57:02 +0000

Pops here.

On Saturday Miss Bug will be 9 months. I maintain that this is going even faster for me than it does for parents who start younger. Ever since age 25 I feel like that scene in Star Wars when they go into hyper drive. Remember that? Still and placid stars in an instant blur into infinite lines and you are hopelessly catapulted into the future, each moment exponentially shorter than the last. I know most of you know of what I speak, but I have a way of stumbling upon “epiphanies” that are basically common sense and common to everyone. I tend to be a little slow…

Enough about me! Booger is crawling around like crazy. She’s so very fast, and even more stealthy; a moments diverted attention and she’s in the kitchen or her room or trying to get out the front door. She pulls herself up onto everything, whether it’s stable enough to support her or not. (papa prays that this trend does not figuratively follow her into adolescence…) She used to pull herself up and then panic when she realized that she didn’t have a clear plan on how to get down. Then she discovered the convenience of a diapered butt. Her Grandmother gets such a kick when baby stands up, looks around for a second, then leans back, and with a little *thud* is on her butt, rolls back to her knees and is off to explore more.

Speaking of Grandmother (yes, she actually prefers that moniker. ha), Boog and I dropped in for a surprise visit to Grandmother’s work yesterday. While she didn’t have long to visit, she was ecstatic. She snatched baby from my arms and proudly presented her to all her employees. Needless to say she was a hit. Grandmother put her on the bed of a tow truck and took a few staged shoots with baby’s hand on a ratcheting tie-down strap. Then papa and baby did some tricks for our captive audience, demonstrating lil’ miss’ strength and complete lack of fear. haha…

Yesterday the family also visited our first daycare. This was a real wake-up for me. My daughter’s going to have to be out in the world, away from our protective hands, with other kids who will demonstrate useful as well as not-so-useful habits, and will be watched over by adults I’m going to have to learn how to trust. But they haven’t seen her every milestone and they don’t know all her little quirks and preferences!!! No no… It’ll be fine, pops. These people are trained and caring; some of these kids are pretty advanced as well. Our daughter is flummoxingly observant, imitating much of our speech and mannerisms. I think being around kids similar in age to her will be better than just staying home will me. Not to mention these facilities often have more educational toys and more room for her to wander around and explore without someone rushing to take something from her or stopping her from eating something. That, and the time… I try very hard to do things with her at home. We read stories, I get down on the floor and play with her… But I’m often tired from working the night previous. And she’s extremely social, which translates to clingy when it’s just me around. If there are others in the room with whom she can freely engage and disengage, she’s a rather independent player/learner. No, this will be good. Thanks for your help talking me through that. :~P

Booger just woke up, so I’ll have to try and post more another time. Take care!

Baby in the summertime

Ladybug's Mama — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:00:56 +0000

Miss Ladybug is sitting on my lap content to babble away about who-knows-what. She sounds so matter of fact about her nonsense that I could easily be convinced that she knows exactly what she means to be saying. My heart melts every time she says “mama” even though it’s pretty clear that she isn’t associating the word with me. It’s just another fun sound to make.

Her favorite thing these days is catching herself in the mirror. There is a small mirror that attaches to her playpad, and it is hilarious to see her smile so big at a glimpse of the baby in the mirror. She’ll smile and talk to the baby for several minutes–an eternity in baby time.

It has been a busy summer with new jobs/new schedules, papa-daughter road trips, and more. And this weekend is our convention! Yikes!