Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Daisy's Diary

Daisy is getting bigger and smarter and cuter every day!  We can't believe how smart she is.  Here is what she has been up to lately:

She looooves to wear hats!

She also loves to wear any one's shoes or slippers.  (This is the face she makes when you tell her to smile!)

I may have mentioned that Daisy hasn't slept well since we got home.  I started her on Magnesium supplements about a month ago and although it helped a little, it wasn't enough.  I had an appointment with her pediatrician soon after I started that and I took a list of labs I wanted drawn.  He consented to do them, although I am sure he didn't think it was necessary.  There was a whole slew of tests and only two turned out to be a problem.  She has low iron (which can contribute to bad sleeping) and she was positive for H. Pylori bacteria in her gut.  I had noticed that she seemed to be refluxing the past 2 weeks at night and having stomach aches, so that was probably why.  The doctor ordered two antibiotics and prevacid.  She is almost done with the 2 week coarse and she has slept through the night the past 5 nights!  I hope we have found the cure to our sleeping woes!  Hopefully it lasts!

She loves to eat pencil erasers and crayons.  No writing utensil is safe from her!  She has recently gotten really picky about eating.  In fact she rarely wants to eat a meal and just prefers to snack.  It makes me crazy because I'm so worried about her growing and being healthy.  She mostly wants cereal, cheese, milk, juice, crackers and any junk food she can find.  She recently discovered pop corn and lovingly calls it "pop pop".

She is developing quite an attitude lately.  She loves to sternly say "no!" to any question we ask her.  Especially if I ask her if she has a poopy diaper, it's always "no!"

One thing she doesn't say no to is when we ask if she loves us. Soon after my last post where I said she shakes her head no to that question, she started shaking her head yes! Ever since then she has always said yes. If you tell her you love her she says: "Love you" in her cute little voice. When she gives kisses she says "mah".

Daisy now has about 50 words or phrases that she says.  The pediatrician couldn't believe her language skills considering she has only heard English for about 5 1/2 months.  She loves to talk on the phone and the other day she had a complete conversation with Steve.  She said, "Hello?  Hi dada.  Bye bye",  at all the appropriate times.  She can turn anything into a phone (just like Zack used to turn everything into a gun when he was little) and walks around the house "talking".

She knows her name and refers to herself as "Dizzy" while poking herself in the chest.

The other day I set her on her newly laundered changing table pad.  She pointed at it and said "poople".  Then she pointed at her crib bedding and said "poople".  These items are all lavender in color.  Little smartie!  Now we just need to get her to identify the other colors and she'll be ready for kindergarten! 

Zack continues to be an awesome big brother and can make her laugh like nobody else can.  I'll have to remember to get it on video!  She loves to go into his room and "steal" things.  I usually find them in her mouth.  She also loves to tear up his Poke Mon cards and his books which makes him really mad. 

Last month was Halloween and Daisy was a fairy.  The Saturday before Halloween our church had a trunk or treat so we got the kids dressed up and went.  She seemed fine during the party, although she was a little scared of some of the decorations.  That night she didn't sleep much, and I slept even less!  After that, I decided we needed to keep Halloween really low key so we sent Zack trick or treating with some of his friends and we went to Auntie Lori's Halloween party and ate soup and treats.  Luckily there were not too many strangers at her party and Daisy didn't get to overstimulated.  She slept better that night.  I am surprised that a baby her age would know what "scary" is, but she does. 

Daisy with Grandpa A at Auntie Lori's Halloween party

Daisy and Zack at the church Trunk or Treat.  Daisy was petrified of Zack when he first came down with his makeup on.

Speaking of scared, lately she has been really sensitive to sounds around the house.  If someone knocks on the door she cowers in fear.  At my mom's house if she hears the sounds that houses sometimes make, she jumps into my moms arms and cries.  I'm not sure where this all the sudden came from, hopefully it's just a phase.

Daisy is always busy.  Busy destroying something, eating something, climbing something, or doing a "job".  She is constantly getting into cupboards and drawers and "organizing" them.  The other day she felt like a good place for my silicone oven mitt would be the toilet.  I found it floating in there at the end of the day.  One day she passed out water bottles to everyone.  She is also very good at throwing things in the garbage.

My poor oven mitt.  I almost sent it to the garbage.  (Don't judge me by my disgusting toilet, we had some gastro problems right before this!)

Daisy has recently gotten very good at blowing her nose.  I only mention it because I remember being frustrated that Zack couldn't blow his nose until he was quite a bit older (I swear he was at least 3 or 4) and I hated him having a snotty nose and no way to get it out.  She blows like a champ!  I think she's quite advanced. 

Daisy continues to love her baths and love drinking the bath water.  She has discovered that she can recline against the back of the tub and she loves to just chill in this position.  She also begs to play with shaving cream!

As of about a month ago, Daisy didn't really care if we left her somewhere.  We stayed with her in the nursery at church because we felt like we shouldn't leave her for attachment purposes.  Well, as soon as we decided she was doing well enough to be left, we tried it and she was not having it!  So each week at church Steve and I take turns staying in the nursery with her.  We are happy to do it and happy that she wants us to stay!  We have been able to leave her with a baby sitter at our house a couple of times and she has done really well.  I think she feels secure in her own home. 

On November 5th, Steve was able to give Daisy a name and a blessing at church.  She was really good and didn't make a peep.  It was a really nice blessing, which I tried to write down but Steve was talking so fast I don't think I got it all.  He will try to remember and write it all out based on my notes.  I hope he can so we can have it for her baby book. 

Blessing Day

On November 19th, we were able to go as a family to the Draper temple and be sealed together.  We kept it really small with just our immediate family there.  Daisy was good up until the ceremony and then she wanted Steve to hold her (at a point when he couldn't) and so she screamed like crazy.  The sealer talked really loud and fast and I tried not to laugh.  She was so mad!  Luckily it's a fast ceremony and so it was a short tantrum and then Steve picked her up and she was happy.  It was a really nice day and we are grateful for our families and their support and love and for the gospel of Jesus Christ. 



Zack and Daisy had to get out some of their energy after having to be so reverent for so long!

(L-R) Grandpa A, Auntie Lori, Grandma A, The A family, Grandma R, Grandpa R, Uncle Mike, Great-Grandma Mary, Auntie Ally, Uncle Sean, Auntie Sheri

On both days Daisy wore a beautiful white outfit that we bought in China.  I was able to take her to get her portrait done with the dress on and the pictures turned out really nice.  I don't know if I can post them because of copy write issues though.

Things are really settling down, especially since we are getting a little more sleep and are able to get out on a date once in a while.  We are enjoying Daisy and her spunk and are so happy to have her be ours.  We love her to pieces!

Sometimes Daisy needs a little "time-out".  I stay right by her so it's more like a time-in and lasts about 45 seconds.  When she is done she says "sorry"!  (She really only gets a time out when she starts destroying something, we ask her to stop and she looks at us and does it anyway!)

Zack says...

On Monday night:

Dad to Zack:   Why do we have Family Home Evening? (Which is a really funny question because we DON'T have FHE, except on rare occasions when I get my crap together.)

Z: To...celebrate...literature...with Jesus?

D:  Uh, yeah.  So, what song do you want to sing?

Z:  (Without pause) She'll be coming round the mountain!?

FHE is awesome.

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The other night I put Zack to bed and before I could get downstairs to watch my shows I heard him start to cry.  I went back in to ask him what was wrong and he basically told me he felt bad for dad.  I asked why and the gist of it was that Zack felt like he had been neglecting his dad and not spending enough time with him because he was busy with other stuff like playing with friends.  I assured him that his dad was OK and knows that Zack loves him.  I encouraged him to make sure and thank Steve for all the nice things he does for Zack. He is so cute and tender hearted!

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This summer we decided it would be fun to put Zack in tackle football.  We had no idea what we were in for (at least I didn't), and the commitment that this would be for our whole family.  Practice started at the beginning of August and was 5 days a week, every night from 6-8.  Missing a practice was out of the question, it's just not done.  Steve took Zack to every practice and stayed for moral support.  I thought he was being a little overbearing until I went to a practice and witnessed the spectacle myself.  If a kid is late, he runs.  If he makes a mistake, he runs and sometimes the whole team has to run with him.  The coaches yelled (I mean the kind of yelling where you loose your voice) at and berated the kids constantly.  On the first practice of the season, 2 kids puked.  These are 8 and 9 year old kids.  When school started, practice changed to 3 nights a week with games on Saturdays.  Steve and I didn't really see each other much because he would come home and go straight to practice.  Also, we didn't end up eating dinner until about 8:30 every night.  The stress level in our house was already really high due to having a new baby who was always sick and not sleeping and this just tipped the scales even farther.  I was not happy. 

But... Steve and Zack had some really great bonding over this experience.  I think it was really good for Zack to learn discipline and really be immersed in something he couldn't just quit when the going got tuff.  And it was really tuff!  There were about 24 players on the team.  There were about 8 kids who didn't get much play time at all and Zack was once of those, although he was on a special team (kick off return) so he got a little more time than the others.  Zack worked really hard and in the last game of the season they let him have a starting position (on the corner, playing defense).  At the end of season awards banquet the coaches said something nice about each team member.  They said that Zack was the most improved player of the year by far.  He started off a little slow but worked hard and earned that starting position.  We are very proud of him for his hard work and perseverance.  When we ask him if he wants to play next year he is unsure.  We will see how he feels next summer.  If mom has her way he won't play but if dad has his way we will be a football family forever!

Our handsome boy!

I should also mention that their team won every game but one and went to the championship playoffs in 1st place.  They won the first championship game and then lost the second and last game to the West team.

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Zack was a football zombie for Halloween.

Zack with his Pinewood Derby car.  He didn't win any speed awards but he had an awful lot of fun making his car with his dad.