Christmas PJ's

I have a sometimes bad habit of taking pictures of things with the intent to blog... and then it doesn't happen. I happened upon this beauty:



It is a family tradition (like in many families I am realizing) to make (or purchase) new PJ's for Christmas. This year Cameron and I braved the early morning Black Friday at JoAnne's Fabric (where we spent two and a half hours, split between the cutting line and the register) to buy flannel at $1.50/yd.

Dallas has been into rockets and things "blasting off" ever since this summer. It may have had something to do with launching homemade model rockets on the Fourth of July... even though, at the time, the sound was very scary to him.

Cam and I count to three after we ask Dallas to stop doing something before we enforce (you know, the time you give the child to make the correct choice on their own... or maybe it is the time you give yourself, silently pleading that they WILL do the right thing on their own so you don't have to get up and clean up yet another mess...). At times Dallas will end our stern "three" with a "blast off" or a blast-off sound.

So when we were in JoAnne's and I found an amazing spaceship/rocket/outer-space themed flannel print, I was ecstatic.

At home when I pulled all the flannel out and started making Chelane's pair, Dallas moseyed over and saw his print. He didn't let go of it for well over an hour.

I was thinking "SCORE!" If only I can be this in tune with what he likes once he hits his teenage years...

Baby Songs

Anyone ever watch "Baby Songs" back in the day? It is a compilation of songs with catchy lyrics (scroll down on the linked page and read "Security" if nothing else... it is totally Dallas), upbeat music, with fun (usually related) skits all written by some dude named Hap Palmer and a lady named Martha Cheney. I remember there being three volumes and I loved them when I was little.

While looking through my parents' video cabinet I found one volume survived my sister's mass de-junking and put it on for Dallas.

I have very mixed feelings about the video:

1) Dallas requests to watch it at least once a day since I made him watch it the first time.

2) Dallas is trying to (and does a very good job many times) sing along. He tries to match the words and the notes, since he is still barely talking, this is AWESOME!

3) I knew all the songs when I was little and it only took one go-through to remember them and now they are always stuck in my head. This is not so awesome.

Luckily this lone surviving video is NOT the one with the freaky monkey-highchair skit, but does have the disturbing alien-bathtub scene.

You win some, you loose some.

The English Language

Dallas has been going through a contrary phase for, well, ever. With his increasing verbal skills his protests to "Dallas please help me" have gone from "no" to "no mommy" to "no help me, mommy" (the "no help me, mommy" is him negating what I ask him to do... he isn't asking for me to help him instead).

This morning, before breakfast, we were cleaning up last night's mess (Dallas had a bit of a melt down on the way to bed last night, so not much cleaning got done). I asked Dallas to help me, par always, and got the, "No help me, mommy. No help me. No help... you. No help you, mommy."

At least he is using proper pronouns when he protests now...

Chelane, on the other hand, is a helper. She love to put things "in," many people mistake this for loving to clean-up, which she doesn't always want to do.

However yesterday, with Dallas being contrary, I asked him to put his blanket, which was out in the family room, on his bed. Dallas refused and walked away. Exasperated, I turned to Chelane and said, "Chelane can you go put Dallas' blanket on his bed?" and she did. I will admit I was not expecting it. This morning Chelane also put her binkie and stuffed Nemo fish back in her crib on the first request.

I am amazed at her receptive comprehension and of her willingness to obey. Please tell me this isn't just a phase.

New Things in the Last Week or So...

I was talking to my sister in-law and part of the conversation went something like this:

Me: "Well I will still be working those three days before Christmas so it would be nice to be close to home."
Sister in-law: "Wait, you have a job?"
Me: "Yeah I got it pretty suddenly about a week ago..."

At that moment it dawned on me that no one (expect the people I live with and the recipient of that phone conversation) know my happy news about no longer being unemployed. The job is at Mathnasium (you can google it if you are curious) which is a math-only tutoring place. I went in for an interview that turned into a math competency test, an interview, and some tutoring practice (the half hour I was planning on turned into nearly two). I got a call a little over a week later asking if I could start that day. That was last Tuesday.

The job is fun but the pay isn't stellar. However, I get raises as I finish their training program and as they see progress in my abilities. Hopefully that will be a pretty big raise, but if not the people I work with are fun, the job is enjoyable, it will look good on my resume, the hours work well with Cam's class schedule, and it is five minutes from home. And it is some financial stability so I am not stressed which Cam appreciates.

Now the more exciting stuff:

In the last week Chelane passed the line of "preferring to crawl" over into "preferring to walk." She can be seem waddling everywhere she goes now, rarely resorting to crawling.

In the last week or so she has reminded us that she is on her way to being two; vehemently expressing her opinions and complaining when things aren't to her liking; I am already worrying about her as a teenager.

Since Monday she has insisted on drinking liquids from a cup without aid of a sippy-top, straw, or a mommy/daddy helping out. Yep, she takes the cup from you puts it to her own mouth, tilts it by herself, and drinks. She gets quite annoyed with you if you try to help her. Cam and I are a little floored by this since she seems to be on par with Dallas' mastery of this skill.

In the last week she has increased her signs from one (her hand moving to her mouth to mean "drink", "food", and/or "binki") to "food/eat", "drink", "please", and "more". She is putting a "buh" sound with waving bye-bye.

Dallas said, "Mom watch this" to me at lunch and proceeded to do some silly dance while shaking his head. He is talking more and more; attempting more and more words and repeating things he hears you say.

We tried playing a memory-type game with him a few weeks ago. He caught onto the order you turn things over in and how to wait and take turns. Playing games is now when of his favorite things to do.

Happy Birthday Chelane!

This did happen back on September 30th but with being in Canada, I am just now getting around to writing and sharing pictures about it. (sorry the pictures are pixely or something, they do look better if you click on them and view them full-sized)
Here is the ever-happy birthday girl with her birthday cupcake. I remember Dallas and my little brother's first birthdays both ended in tears and un-touched cake (unless someone making them touch it counts). Chelane was completely different.


As you can see she adored the attention.


And couldn't wait to dig into the cake. (Yeah I started to freak a little too with how close she came to touching fire and hot wax; but, hey, that is the hazard of having a birthday party... we live on the edge).


Big brother Dallas approaching an oblivious Chelane. Yes, he blew out the candle.


After the candle and paper was removed Chelane began to inspect the sprinkle laden cupcake.




Either she really inhaled it that fast or I stopped taking pictures... It reminds me of my first birthday picture (apparently I liked the cake so much I tried to eat the plate). Such a happy girl on her birthday!