Tag Archives: 18 months

The Supremes to my Diana

Posted on November 14, 2007 | Comments Off on The Supremes to my Diana

Things that are not fun: going to the MOA this evening to buy Mr. Squab some much-needed shoes with an extremely crank-ass toddler in tow. She didn’t want to be carried, no she DID want to be carried WHY AREN’T YOU CARRYING HER? Just let her run in the shoe aisles, that’s all she ever wanted to do, except the shoe aisles SUCK, Jesus Christ just let her out into the MALL, ok fine, then, she will just sit on the floor and cry. Now are you happy?

This behavior lasted right up until we’d gotten the check for our hastily consumed supper, at which point the Hatchling decided all she needed in this world was a ballpoint pen and the receipt to draw on, and happily spent about 10 minutes intensely scribbling on the tiny piece of paper. Because by that point, of course, we were too exhausted to make her stop before she was ready. (“Boo boo, are you ready to go?” “NO.” Scribble, scribble, scribble. “Do you want to go home and see the kitties?” “Nononono.”)

When we were finally back in the car, nothing would do but that Mama had to sing songs all the way home. Mama, of course, is still getting over her stinky cold and has a dry hacking cough that makes repeated renditions of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” (a perennial favorite) somewhat trying. So Mr. Squab decided to “help” by providing some back up singing/commentary that did indeed add a little je ne sais quoi to the ditty. See for yourself:

I’ve been working on the railroad (toot! toot! toot!)
All the livelong day (clank! clank!)
I’ve been working on the railroad
Just to pass the time away (pass the time!)
Can’t you hear the whistle blowing? (toot! toot! toot!)
Rise up so early in the morn! (Man, it’s early!)
Can’t you hear the captain calling: (whoo! woo!)
Dinah, blow your horn! (Blow it, Dinah!)

Dinah won’t you blow, (blow!)
Dinah won’t you blow, (blow!)
Dinah won’t you blow your horn? (toot!)
Dinah won’t you blow, (come on!)
Dinah won’t you blow, (pretty please?)
Dinah won’t you blow your horn? (blow it goooood.)

Someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah (who is it?)
Someone’s in the kitchen I know-oh-oh-oh (who can it be?)
Someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah (but who?)
Strumming on the old banjo, and singing
Fee, fie, fiddly-eye-oh (that’s a weird song)
Fee fie fiddly-eye oh-oh-oh-oh (seriously, that’s weird)
Fee, fie, fiddly-eye-oh (why not use words?)
Strumming on the old banjo. (WHO ARE YOU?!?!)

It’s kind of hard to sing when you’re having a fit of the giggles, I tell you what.

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Posted in Funny Stuff, How to Charm Me

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You are not even PREPARED for the cuteness

Posted on October 30, 2007 | Comments Off on You are not even PREPARED for the cuteness

The Hatchling, Mr. Squab and I went to Como Park’s ZooBoo on Sunday with some friends, thanks to some free tix from Questionable. (Thanks, Q!) There were hordes of becostumed children, dressed as everything you can imagine: fairies and princesses, animals of all descriptions, superheroes, Star Wars folk, dinosaur-kids and shark-babies galore. You will be pleased, but of course not surprised, to know that the Hatchling and her BFF Fi were hands down the cutest ones there. We trick-or-treated all through the zoo and got to meet lots of characters stationed at different points. Some of the characters were a little scary for the littler kids … and of course these were the ones the Hatchling gravitated to. The huge orangutan in the crazy jack-o-lantern shirt? She wanted to talk to him forever. The incredibly freaky (and well done) Darth Maul? She just loooooved him, giving him lots of grins and a high five. (Which he was tentative about even offering, since I think most of the kids that had passed him had freaked right out.) So … I guess she’s a theatre kid? Anyway, here are some of the pix. (**Warning: Managment cannot be held responsible for possible comas or cute overloads resulting from the viewing of these photos. Scroll down at your own risk.**)

The costume shot (while waiting for the shuttle to the zoo):
Waiting for the shuttle

Meeting the “Orangutan”:
Meeting the Orangutan

The other cutest baby there:
Pretty Fiona

Taking a little break from the crowds:
Taking a little break

Playing extremely cute peekaboo:
Baby bug

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Posted in holidays

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Too good not to share

Posted on October 29, 2007 | Comments Off on Too good not to share

We think the Hatchling may, finally, be hitting her verbal stage. For the longest time she’s had the same few words (kitty, hi, no, dada, ok, yeah) and relied on her (surprisingly effective) baby babble for everthing else. But then on Sunday she spontaneously came out with two very clear new words, each with an attendant gesture. The first one is “Bye” which she says while waving. Only she says it more like “BY-eeee,” all long and drawn out and hilarious. All Sunday morning she was telling us “bye” and walking out of the room, only to come back in with a grin and do it all over again.

The second word she added to her vocab was “tickle,” which she does, not surprisingly, while tickling you. She started this out of the blue while we were out with her best friend Fi, and at first we thought it was just an anomaly, but no – first she tickled Fi and then she tickled the rest of us. She goes “ticka-ticka-ticka” while she scrunches her fingers on you and looks mischievous. It’s pretty awesome, I tell you what.

So anyway, on Sunday night, Mr. Squab is putting the Hatchling to bed, as per usual, and over the monitor I hear the usual sounds, followed by a second of baby-wailing, followed by a good two minutes of mega-giggles. The giggles subsided and Mr. Squab came downstairs. “Man,” he said, “I just had a total Daddy meltdown up there.”

“What happened?” I asked.

Turns out, after Mr. Squab had finished rocking the Hatchling and was going to put her in her crib, she started pitching a fit, and locked her arms around his neck like her crib was a bed of red hot coals or something. This is unusual, so Mr. Squab pulled her back out and asked her if she wanted to rock some more. She said yeah and he sat back down with her, her arms still around his neck and her head nestled in in his shoulder. For a few moments they just rocked in silence, enjoying the snuggle time. Then Mr. Squab felt the Hatchling’s hand move up towards his neck. “Ticka-ticka-ticka,” she whispered, and then giggled. Mr. Squab happens to actually be ticklish on his neck, so he started giggling, too, which of course made her “ticka” him some more. After a minute or two, Mr. Squab asked the Hatchling if she was ready to go to bed now. “OK,” she said, so he laid her in her crib and she went down without a peep.

“Wow. That’s the good stuff,” I told him.

“Yeah,” he said. “It doesn’t get any better than that.”

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Posted in Best Thing Ever, milestones

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Things that just kill me

Posted on October 25, 2007 | Comments Off on Things that just kill me

In a bad way: taking the Hatchling to the Dr.’s office for her 18 month checkup and watching her struggle, so hard, to keep it together during the appointment. And then when she got too scared and broke down, watching her try so hard to get her brave face back. It just KILLS me.

In a good way: Mr. Squab bringing home a beautiful bouquet of roses and lilies for me after I was a total bitch to him on the phone about how much I hate having to take the Hatchling to her checkups. The flowers smell really good. JUST LIKE MY LOVE FOR MR. SQUAB.

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Posted in updates

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Here’s how it is

Posted on October 22, 2007 | Comments Off on Here’s how it is

Every parent has stuff they bitch about when it comes to their particular child-raising situation. Maybe your kid only eats white foods, or refuses to take baths, or only likes death-metal lullabies. The kids, they’re quirky, and they’re all pre-loaded with sucky habits for parents to fixate on. At the same time, though, most of us are lucky enough to have at least a few things that our kids are really good about. Things we can’t bitch about, or other parents will kill us. Like, maybe your kid knew how to nurse like a champ right from the womb. Or maybe you were in labor for only three hours. Or your kid learned how to read at the tender age of three. For us, at least since the Hatchling has been about 6 months old, the good thing has been sleep. From birth to 6 months, don’t even get me started, because OY. But since around the 6 month mark, she’s pretty much been a champion sleeper. 11-12 hours every night, 2-3 good solid naps during the day, everybody relatively well-rested as a result. Sure, she might have a rough night here and there when she’s sick or sleeping in a strange place, but she’s good about 95% of the time. I realize how lucky we are in this regard. I know several parents who would give critical body parts to science if their kids would sleep as well as the Hatchling does on a regular basis. And I’m not smug about it – we just got lucky in the parenting lottery on this one, and the most we can take credit for is facilitating the sleep by, you know, changing the crib sheets occasionally and making sure the heat is on in the winter.

So I get that I don’t really have any leeway to bitch about this, but I gotta say: it’s been a little rough the past couple of weeks. Last week it was clearly illness-related: a double ear infection on top of croup would make it tough for anyone to sleep well. But the ear-infection is supposed to be gone now, and the croup is definitely over, and yet the Hatchling still woke up 3-4 times last night, two of which were bad enough that we had to get up with her and calm her down and put her back to bed. Like, at 2:30 in the morning. And then again at 5:00. And again, I know there are lots of parents for whom this is a fairly normal occurence, and to these parents I say: you are better people than I am. Because a few nights like this after close to a YEAR of good sleeping and I am getting pretty strung out. Is it her molars? The legendary 18-month sleep regression? Pure cussedness? I don’t know, but I sure am glad we’re going to the doctor this week because, let’s be honest here, I am a total pussy when it comes to sleep. And I NEED SOME.

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Posted in sleep, trials and tribulations

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