Guitar Practice

Fiona has been helping me with my guitar practice as you can see. Hopefully she'll choose her own instrument one day but for the time being she shares with me.
Love
Louise

MILO

Here is fiona enjoying a spoonful of her mum's morning Milo. She finishes off by saying her name too still just "FF"

Since the last post...

No more progress on toilet training,we'll just keep up with out "fruitless" efforts and hopefully by the time she is going off to university she won't poo in her pants.

We had thanksgiving and fiona got to wear a festive dress, she helped make dinner rolls see the photo and guess which one is hers.

She has picked up a lot more words in her vocabulary her is a sampling:
Dinosaur, Milch (milk), Luna, sweep, chalk, bowl, bottle, poon (spoon), "no" is still a big one, phone, MILO, She has photos of the cousins and makes good attempts at "Charlotte, annie and Ollie" annie sounds the best. "Come" and "here" are used to get mummy to follow her into the bushes int he garden. "OUT" os often directed at Luna (I suppose we say tat a lot), she says Kiss, "Where-di-di-go" is still her hide and seek game followed bu "di-di-is" (which is "there she is").
It's fun all this language stuff.

Fiona at the moment loves to go for bike rides, play int he garden, go for walks around the block and look for cats which she tries to call by saying 'Kitty-kitty" we are rarely successful at this.
Taking her to the shops these days can be a bit challenging because there are so many things that she wants to grab. We still have yet to have a throw down tantrum in public...only a matter of time.

So, I hope you are all having a wonderful December,
Love
Louise

New hope

Yesterday I had said to Devon, I'm losing hope with this whole toilet training thing. Today, fiona at lunch time says "Poo"--no questions asked, I put her on the toilet and Viola...another poo in the potty. She's got a case of the runs at the moment so maybe the more frequent need will give us more chances. Now, that's making the best of a bad situation.

Love
Louise

Hitting the Hard Stuff

Hi All, Just a quick update about our current adventures in parenting. Fiona is talking more and more every moment. She has figured out that saying "please" gets her what she is asking for most of the time. She is putting two words together in command form like the other day at the park when she wanted me to come down from a bench I was on, she said "Mummy down" while pointing at the ground...clever girl.

She has also started hitting us during times of frustration and excitement. Any suggestions about what might work here would be helpful? We're mostly just shunning her after she hits us, game over, little time out, will this work? How long will it take?

Also please notice the picture of Fiona who has discovered the television. She managed to get the DVD going herself the other day. We had no idea she could figure that one out. She has one DVD that came in a magazine that has some Winnie the pooh and other cartoons on it. I wonder how long until she notices that it's the same 20 minute loop.

Here is her latest artwork too...

WEANED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been waiting for a while to post this because it has been a bit off and on: Fiona has still been breastfeeding once each morning for the past few months, but this week I think she has finally given up and realized that the milk and weetbix that await her for breakfast are far more filling than my dwindling milk supply. So, I'll finally pack away the battle worn nursing bras for good and accept that my little baby is growing up. We'll look forward to the day that she can bring us breakfast in bed. or at least look forward to her sleeping in and not needing breakfast until after 8AM. It's been wonderful to get to feed her for such a nice long time, part of me wished that it would keep going longer and part of me is jumping for joy that I'm off duty in that department.

Fiona Folding

Here is fiona folding her washing, a favourite activity.

Big Shoes, Bigger Hat

Fiona is into putting on hats and shoes. Here she is in a particularly silly hat and in her daddy's shoes.

Tiger Girl

Fiona was a tiger for Halloween. Quite a good roar out of that girl.

She's working on her talking, her new words of note: House, push, Dummy (finally), shoe, sock, two, bowl, and fish. Da is still the word she uses for yes and again. She has copied the way that we saw "where did it go" (sounds like "weah-di-di-go") and says it as one long word when she has lost something, but I don't think that it is a sentence because she isn't really putting words together on her own. We'll keep you posted.
Love
Louise

Weekend at Grammy and Grampy's house

Hi All, We had our first overnight away from fiona this weekend. Devon's parents agreed to look after her over a saturday night while we enjoyed Fiona-free camping in Big Sur (much more relaxing than our recent camping with her). This time we stayed at an amazing private property with spectacular views, even from the loo! The trip was a retreat with Devon's work, and the property belongs to our congressman, Sam Farr, who was also there. Interesting group to have grown-up conversations with. Also went surfing with friends and generally enjoyed a temporary lack of responsibility. Very nice, and very nice to get back to Fiona and all her craziness on Sunday. Below is what Fiona did while we were away, courtesy of Vicki.

SATURDAY:

After you left: distraction strategy worked, no fuss. She liked and clearly identified the glass fish in the patio.

Lunch at noon: string cheese; cottage cheese with guava sauce; small piece of bread with butter & jam; grapes, strawberries, apple; pieces of date bar; milk.

Afternoon nap: Went down nicely, slept 2:00 to 3:20.

I almost blew it by saying, when John came back from his afternoon lecture at the museum, Come to the window, look who is here! Fiona lit up, calling Mommy! But Grampy was welcomed warmly anyway.

During the day, she mentioned Mommy a few times, but not with significant distress or in any particular context. Told her that Mommy and Daddy would come tomorrow, which seemed OK.

Afternoon outing at Carmel Point was stretching it, but she enjoyed it and did fine. Didn't like Grampy disappearing with his group of students. Altogether 4:00 to 6:30 by the time we got home, but she had snacks (raisins and crackers) & water. Luna also got crackers.

Played on the beach for about half an hour, digging with the red spoon in the shelly sand and filling a plastic jar; looking a shells; climbing on the rocks.

Tired of that, we returned to the car, where Luna was waiting. Played with the steering wheel and all the buttons, great fun. [Display screens are now off; we will have to figure out how to reset them. Don't know how she did that!]

Walked a little, while waiting for John's group to return; very keen group, tho only middle-schoolers. Fiona said hi to various walkers. She really liked a spiffy-looking black convertible sports-car of some kind, wanted it! I had to explain that it wasn't ours. You need to discourage this expensive taste in cars....

Back in the carseat, Fiona indicated her left shoe, whimpering a little. Does it hurt? Yes. I took it off, and found several rocks in it! No complaints about the right one (and no rocks). So that was pretty clear. She's a good communicator.

Hungry for dinner: two big helpings of curly whole-wheat noodles with cottage cheese, cream cheese, sourcream, plus green peas. Grapes, strawberries, apple; pieces of date bar; milk.

Afterwards Fiona was clearly tired, but sweet, not cranky; puttered around happily while we made and ate a fast chicken-salad-dinner. Story, quick bath, in bed at close to 8 pm (Would Tiger like to go to bed? Yes.), went right to sleep. We have hopes of her sleeping late....

Two poo's, before and after dinner.

SUNDAY:

Moderately good night, despite some coughing, and one full-on standing wake up at 4 am. I mumbled that it was still sleepytime, laid her down, and apparently was convincing. She woke again at a few minutes before 6, rested with us for a few minutes in our bed, and then John was persuaded to be the hero (while I fell asleep until 8!).

Breakfast was Cheerios with raisins and yoghurt. Milk. Fluoride.

Stinky big poo after breakfast. A little irritated; put vaseline.

We all went for a walk on the rec trail with our hats and Luna, and were told we were "a picture." Lots of fun watching the boats, people and dogs, but especially climbing on the benches and drawing in the sandpath.

More milk, a story, nap from almost 10 am to 11:10.

Woke up happy. Many big smudgy kisses on Daddy's photo. Puttered. Helped Grammy with the flowers, dusting. Crayons.

Lunch at 1 pm, because earlier she insisted that she wasn't hungry. More noodles, etc., fruits, date bar, milk.

Another poo. A little irritated; put vaseline.

Outside with Grampy, building the chicken-house. Visiting with the Tom's and with Ranger, good time.

Milk, story, nap 2:45.

3:30, Devon & Louise home!

Shoes On

Here is Fiona putting her new shoes on. Quite grown up!

This news just in....

A miracle has occurred at 79 Alta Vista Drive:

Just a few minutes ago Fiona was standing at her toy basket fishing things out from the depths. She got a stern expression on her face and looked up at me (practicing guitar nearby). She patted the front of her nappy with her hand, and I asked the obvious: "Do you need to do a poo?" She nodded looking more concerned by the second. I raced her off to the toilet pulling her clothes off as we ran. We made it in time, and Fiona sat, had her poo, and reaped the reward of getting to flush it herself.
Maybe there is some hope in this potty training...
Love
Louise

PS: there was no time for a photo of this incident.

Small victory

Lately Fiona has mostly given up on her potty as seen in previous posts but instead has decided that the regular toilet is more her style. She asks to use it by tapping on it's lid or walking up to me and grunting then running to the toilet. Pretty clear. Anyway, until this morning this resulted in me holding her bare bum over the bowl while she grunted or just tried to get her hand into the water. Jump to Today, I figured it would be more of the same, pulled her PJ's off put her over the bowl and then VICTORY!!! A real poo in the potty. We celebrated and then watched it circle the bowl on the way out to sea. Her best reward is getting to do the flush part.

Wheels on the Bus with Capo

Here's Fiona's favourite You Tube video. Now that Louise is taking guitar lessons, she will soon be able to play this for Fiona all day long! Until then, maybe Uncle Nick and Auntie Nikki can help Uncle Jonathon make a video of him playing this???"

"F F" Fiona

Make two "F" sounds in rapid succession...that's how Fiona says her name. Here she is hoping to spend some quality computer time watching You Tube videos.

A walk in the woods

We took fiona on a long walk with friends Chris and Kate, at a local park this weekend. She did very well but preferred to walk on her own than be carried. She rode in the back pack with Devon for a good portion, and then we made the mistake of letting her out. Getting her back in was challenging and as you can see she protested. She loved the forest though, It was cool after our first rain of the season, lots of rocks and sticks and acorns to collect along the way.

PS fiona has learned finally over the last couple of weeks to say MAMA(actually pronounces it "mumum") and uses it well. This will get her far in life.

Lovely Girl

Here's our favourite baby being her sweet wonderful self. Currently however, she is teething. Sleeping through the night seems to be a bit rare at the moment. Some nights we have thought it was because she was hungry, hot, cold, wet, full, lonely, tonight we believe it is teeth and are trying some western medicine on her (tylenol/oragel). Most bad nights recently we have just gotten up, made her warm, cooled her down, stuck her onto her mum, given her a sip of water (which to her is like having candy, she loves it) , but generally cuddling in with us has worked though we get less sleep then. We'll keep you posted on how the sleeping saga goes, we hope to be back on track soon. Very soon.
Love
Louise

Inevitable

We knew this day would come: Brown Trout swimming with the turtles in Lake Bathtub.

Show Me Your Teeth

This is one of fiona's latest tricks...Say "Show me your teeth" and this is what you get. Beautiful, isn't she.

Wonderful Grapes

We are just back from a weekend camping in Sonoma, near the Russian River. It was a beautiful weekend, but we are still not convinced of Fiona's suitability as a camping partner. This weekend it seems she has become afraid of the tent. So, not as much sleep as we would have liked but we made up for that with lots of fun. We picked grapes for homemade wine with friends and enjoyed canoeing at the lake and a swim there with Fiona. She got to touch some little fish caught by our friend Morgan. She threw frisbee for a very motivated border collie who didn't mind that the longest throw was only a couple of feet. As you can see by the photos, Fiona had a good time eating Cabernet Grapes... Merlot ones too, but we didn't take pictures there.

The drive home found us scrambling to find her a dummy (pacifier) we had two with us on the trip up and none with us on the trip home, We found that the Safeway in Novato is well stocked with her prefered type. She slept for a while after the dummy diversion, we drove home across the Golden Gate bridge and through San Francisco and down the coast, Fiona woke up in Half Moon Bay where Devon used his Daddy navigational Skills to find a wonderful park where we could take a break from the car.

Home again last night Fiona became the wonderful sleeper we know and love.

Our car loaded up and ready to go.

Fiona and Louise in the vines.

Riding ont he "tractor" picking up the bins of grapes.

Sneaking another grape...