Friday, November 27, 2009

Thanksgiving

Last Thursday, Shelby had a dry run for Thanksgiving. Her school had a Thanksgiving dinner (well, lunch) where each family brought in a dish. And, the parents were invited to have lunch with their children. Shelby's regular lunch time is 10:30 AM. We, of course, brought cranberries. When I arrived, Shelby was sitting in her chair at the table stuffing her face with cornbread, turkey, and green beans. Her back was to me. So, I got to observe her for a few minutes. As soon as she saw me, she wanted to sit with me (i.e. get mashed potatoes on Mom's dress pants). Her table mates are the other young kids in her classroom. Shelby was very well-behaved. Her friends picked off each others' plates, and one girl dumped the contents of her plate on her head. It was insane. Shelby and all the other kids were very sad to see their parents leave them after lunch. But, the teachers assured us they all cried themselves to sleep and had a good nap.

For the real Thanksgiving, we had a small turkey, cranberries, stuffing, rolls, and pumpkin pie. We ate early. So, Shelby wasn't too into dinner. But, she loved the crescent rolls! We went on a walk afterward. And, when we got back, we tried Thanksgiving dinner again. Shelby devoured the white meat and a bit of stuffing. She didn't like the cranberries, but ate Craisins by the handful (still Thanksgiving-y!). We got a total rejection and return of the pumpkin pie.

Christmas should be a blast!!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Big Girl Bed

Shelby continues to do well napping on her mat at school. We received an LL Bean catalog the other day while talking about when we should transition her to a toddler bed (too soon now, but sometime in the next year, year and a half). Then, we flipped to the dog bed section in the catalog, and saw these. Is it criminal to have your child sleep on a dog bed? It looks really comfortable! Just look at the fleece top! And, the funniest part is that Shelby would only need the medium size! These suckers go up to 42" x 52" (insert Benjamin/Lawrence family short joke now)!!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

New Blog Reading

Mom and Dad can now be tracked on the blogosphere!

Busy, Busy


One of Shelby's new tricks is drinking her own bottle. We put one out on the table so she can visit it and take a swig while playing. The problem is that she wants to hang onto her bottle while playing. It proved to be a challenge to do both. Now, she's learned to multi-task.***
***Please note the bottle is bone dry! The girl doesn't give up!


Pumpkin Pancakes

I've really gotten into reading some blogs. One really cute one is This Week for Dinner. On Sunday she posts her menu for the coming week, and invites you to do the same. Then, during the week, she posts different recipes. My favorite is pumpkin pancakes. Oh. My. Gosh. They're so yummy!

I've heard through the Inter-web that there's a pumpkin shortage! Perish the thought! I'm going to have to buy a cartful to get through the holidays.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The Great Ones

Shelby has spent a week and a half in her new classroom. The Wobblers. The Great Ones.

There are 18 12-24 months old in this room! It's a veritable zoo! Shelby is, by far, the littlest one there! She's also the only one not walking.

But, after one week, we noticed how her development has picked up dramatically with the older kids around. She decided to feed herself her own bottle. She flung her whole torso back. It was pretty funny. On her first day, she laid right down on her mat to sleep. We were impressed.

Over the weekend, she stacked her blocks herself. And, in big news, she took 3 steps!!!

Now, this week, her bottle-drinking is much more controlled (i.e. she doesn't have to fling her body backward now). I came to pick her up today, and she was sitting at the table in a chair!!! And, she was playing with a puzzle (Nancy: I think she'll love the puzzles you're going to bring down!)!! Her teacher told me she was so tired 20min before nap time. They had to keep her moving. She crawled over to the cubby where they keep the stuffed animals and tried to go to sleep in there! At nap time they set up her mat quickly, she crawled over, and was asleep before they could get the blanket on her! The poor thing! They wear her out!!

Her teachers are trying like crazy to get her to walk. They say she's so close! They've seen her take a few steps, but they try at every opportunity.