Yes, I'm still Alive!

I've been remiss in adding posts up here! Unfortunately, I had a great post all done up about the yoga retreat and it has vanished and the videos I was trying 75 million times to upload for the Monkey See Monkey Do post failed every time ... I'm left wondering what little bugs are affecting blogspot?

Further excuses as to why I've dropped off the face of the blogging earth:

1 . Finley is running everywhere so I'm chasing her. It has not left time for a blog post!

2. I had a BIG school project to finish and submit. Still gunning for an "A."

3. I flew with Finley to Ottawa to visit family for FEASTER
(we eat a lot at Easter hence the appropriate name change).

4. I had someones first birthday party invites to make and send out.

5. We finally had good weather so Steve and I had to rake the yard and get rid of the leaves and plant the garden! Yay for good weather and getting to go OUTSIDE. Man, this winter sucked.

Will be back home in NC soon and will repost the Yoga blog and many more fun tidbits from our week in O-town.

Peace Out Y'all!

Monkey See Monkey Do

In case there was any doubt that your 11 month old child is a sponge... here are some cute video's taken this week.

Here Finley helps Daddy stock the fridge with beer.

Check out this video if Fin cleaning!!!

It's my habit to give the kitchen a good once over every morning while Finster eats breakfast. Clearly she is watching me closely from her high chair's perch! I didn't coach her - I turned around and there she was washing the cupboards. Luckily the camera was nearby to capture the rest...

Number TWO Setback

Help! E.C Moms out there I need some advice / support please! Finley has decided she WILL NOT sit on the potty. This is quite a shift because Finley has been pooping no problem on the potty since she was 4 moths old. She even signs "toilet" at me before she has a bowel movement and I have had time enough to get her onto the potty so she can go. In the past three weeks everything has changed. I'm having a very difficult time getting Finley to acknowledge that she has to poo, she has stopped signing potty and refuses to sit on the potty. She makes her body rigid in a standing position while screaming and yelling.

I have two scenarios to share that I think is the root cause of this behaviour.

The First NUMBER TWO Set Back:

On our last day in Costa Rica, we were driving on the number one highway (no pun intended) and had been for over four hours with one short break for lunch. It is insane driving the number one highway. Hours earlier we had come across the after math of a huge accident involving three transport trucks. All we saw were the firemen leaving the scene and the black carcases of the three trucks. Traffic was backed up bumper to bumper, there are no shoulders on the road to escape the traffic or to try to pull over or squeeze by, however, the driver's still attempt to pass! We were 20 minutes away from the car rental and were right on target to drop the car early and save ourselves another day's rental. This is of course the perfect timing for Fin to sign poo at me from her car seat.

"Steve pull over we have to let Fin out of her seat to poop!" I demand. "Sorry Michelle it's not safe to pull over here. She's a baby wearing a diaper she can poo in it." he says. "UUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH, Noooo Steve, she knows not to poo in it - I need to get her onto the potty!" I'm now very insistent. I am told it's not a big deal. Babies and old people poop in their diapers it's a fact of life. "Luckily, Steve says, "we are here to clean her so she doesn't get skin breakdown. She can poo this one time in her diaper. " He was right. Where were we going to go? There was nowhere to stop and I was not going to take Fin out of her seat in a moving vehicle on this insane freeway.

Fin is frantically signing her sign for poo at me - we have been using the sign and the potty for six months now and I have seen very very few poo's in her diaper. I tell her I am sorry we cannot take her out of her seat and tell her it's okay to poo because I don't want her to become the Freudian anally fixated kid who holds everything in! Finley begins to get mad because I am not responding to her in our usual way - which is to whisk her to the potty. Then she cries and poops in her diaper while strapped snuggly into her car seat. She then had to sit in it for another 15 minutes until we made our destination and it was safe for me to take her out of her seat to change her. Our E.C communication breakdown ... the trust was broken. I've seen only one poo in a potty since then.

The Second NUMBER TWO Setback:

The second number two set back may actually be due to the advancements Fin has made in the past few weeks. The child is now signing and communicating all kinds of words to us to indicate what she wants. She has not signed "potty" in two weeks however. She has also started walking. Not cruising from one thing to another, she actually stands up in the middle of the room without pulling up on anything and toddles all around the house. She is so fascinated with this new ability she won't take the time to stop to do much else. It's a struggle to get her to stop to eat and get dressed, she just wants to tear it up.

I am continuing to communicate with her. When she wakes up and after her meals I put her on the potty - the same drill we've been doing for months. She arches her back, yells and has even tried to bite me! A few minutes of this and I am not winning the battle. I put a chlorene free disposable diaper on her or a cloth diaper with a disposable flushable liner in it and send her on her way. She plays for a bit then makes the funny face. I say; "Are you pooping?" She looks at me smiles devilishly and then she drops to her knees busts into a speedy crawl to get away from me and will even hide until her business is done. SERIOUSLY! So she knows what she is doing and I clearly do not.

I am nothing if not stubborn and I will get her back on the potty.

ADVICE PLEASE?

Random Thoughts & Observations

I have had some interesting and random thoughts and observations since becoming a mother. Thought I'd share them. Be forewarned they are nothing if not profound!

• I used to do three colours of laundry, white, light colours, and black. Since having a daughter I now do a FULL PINK load.

• The grocery stores have a cookie club for kids!!! At the Harris Teeter (we call it the Hairy Peter - mature eh?) the KID'S Cookie Club is on an honour system. The sign reads: Please take only one cookie per child. The Plexiglas cookie case is in the produce department. On my before kid weekly shopping trip I had never noticed this display and had never been drawn to it until I spotted several ADULTS sans (that's French for 'without') kids, pushing carts, pause by the display - slide their hand in and take two or three cookies. These adults were not built like they were starving to death and couldn't get enough calories either. Just saying. I have now begun a game of locking eyes with the the childless adults while they steal cookies from kids. I look from their eyes to their hands while I pretend to patiently await my turn to get Finley a cookie. Pure entertainment. The thieves don't look ashamed or guilty to have their hand caught in the cookie jar. They really don't.

• This week I tailed a lady and her husband as they pulled three grocery carts like a set of train cars around the middle isles of the grocery store. I'm an outside isle shopper rarely venturing down the middle isles so this was an adventure. The woman had what looked like an old timey brief case that used to hold cassette tapes, it was open and balanced on the front of the first cart. It had a laminated itemized list or legend of the contents of the box. It was coupons! Seriously yo. This is a person who spends a lot of time organizing and itemizing her coupons. I tried to get a photo but was not sure how I could do it discretely. I was amazed. I am a gal who loves to find a deal and will use coupons but this was so strategic that even my anal retentive, highly organized, neat freak self was amazed. Unfortunately, her carts were full of garbage/ franken foods. The boxes they were packaged in probably held more nutrients - I digress. She was a master at getting a deal maybe even comparable to Yoda.

• I used to consider my dog my baby. Now he's strangely just a dog. I love him but I no longer assign him human character traits and feelings. Well, not as often.

• I do admittedly think my kid is the cutest kid ever created. How's that for a mom observation. Nothing if not profound!

• Snot is a fashion accessory.

• It's okay to have a beer at 4pm if the day warrants it.

• I talk about poo a lot more than ever.

A Few Words Wednesday

Finley don't feed the dog please.

These cookies?

I'll just let him look at the cookie.

Cecil you can lick the cookie.

See momma I still have the cookie.

Look how tall our sprout has become! She's taller than the kitchen stools!

Happy Birthday Cecil Bean. Today he is 11 years old!

Walk Hard... the Finley Mae Story - Part DEUX

Sniff, sniff. My baby is verticle.

I just want to keep her small and yet we are so excited at her developments.

Well here she is 10.5 months old - walking up the hallway in our home.

This video just taken this evening.