Adjusting

We're working on adjusting around here. I think my toddler does it perhaps better than I do! She's been most jealous of Grammy's time with Baby Mouse rather than my time with Baby Mouse. Grammy's been yelled at a lot by Miss Mouse. It's getting better, but we go a few steps backwards every once in a while, too. For the massive change in her life, I don't think that's too bad for our Miss Mouse! Yet, anyway.

Miss Mouse has come up with the most interesting comments about her sister. For example, Baby Mouse apparently eats "peppers". She has an assortment of colors, varying by the day. Sometimes Miss Mouse will say she is eating pink ones, sometimes green, sometimes orange. Not sure where she got the pink ones, but she herself loves green and orange peppers. So perhaps she figures Baby Mouse should have one of her own favorite foods to eat.

Miss Mouse and I went to Ash Wednesday service last night. Daddy was filling in to preach at the last minute, and Ash Wednesday is one of my favorite services of the year (I know I'm probably odd that most of my favorite services come in the season of Lent). I was glad that Baby Mouse ate in time for us to run to church and get home before she needed to eat again. Our doctor advised against taking Baby Mouse out until sometime in March when people "spread out" a little and aren't so crunched together, passing the flu around. Germ freak that I am, I was fine with that advice but glad for the opportunity to take Miss Mouse out (germ freak - really, truly, she had her hands washed with santizer three times throughout the service). Anyway, when we got home, Miss Mouse was very proud to show off the ashes that Daddy had put on her forehead. She talked about them the rest of the evening. She also rushed in the house yelling "eat peppers" because I had told her that Baby Mouse would probably be hungry when we got home.

Grammy has taken to calling Baby Mouse her Little Dumpling. Miss Mouse is Grammy's Sweetheart. Miss Mouse loves to announce that she is the "Itto Eetheart" and to tell people about the "Itto Dumping". Several times in church last night she turned to me to say "Grammy, home, Itto Dumping". Not sure how that sounds to the random listener, but I think it's adorable!

Life is good around here. Sleep is in short supply, and patience runs in about the same supply as sleep for me. There seems to be a strong, positive relationship between sleep and patience. But life is good, and patience with a two-year-old, I'm learning, is increased by sheer willpower and prayer. Thankfully, I lack nothing in willpower, and the season of Lent should help with the prayer part - so patience should be, if not abundant, at least present at our house! Life is great!

Welcome Home, Baby Mouse!

We are happy and blessed to introduce the newest member of our family: Baby Mouse! She arrived at 3:52 on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 weighing in at 6 pounds, 15 ounces, measuring 19 inches long (our shortest one yet!). She has been an absolute doll so far - very patient, sweet, with a teeny, tiny, sad, little cry that breaks her Daddy's heart.

I had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday morning at 9:30 and found out that my blood pressure was getting pretty high for me (135/68 - not worrisome for most people, but mine runs usually around 100/55). Considering we were full-term and not making any progress in the past week, our doctor recommended we go to the hospital to use a gel that could just kick things into gear a little quicker so that my blood pressure didn't get any higher. After stopping home to check on Miss Mouse and get her settled in with Grammy for the day, we headed up to the hospital. We got the gel around 12:40 and met our new little one at 3:52 - indeed the gel did kick things into gear. Our doctor had left to go back to her clinic with instructions that she needed plenty of time to get back; the nurses thought they called her in plenty of time, but she didn't make it. They grabbed the doctor on call out of the hallway to come in and help at the last minute. Our doctor, who was driving as fast as she could, arrived 10 minutes later! It was a crazy day, but we are so happy to be able to get to know Baby Mouse on her own now!

Miss Mouse seems to be adjusting really well so far. She spent Tuesday evening with Grammy, Grandma Kathy, and Grandpa Dick. Grammy stayed at the hospital with me so that Daddy could be around for Miss Mouse's bedtime rituals. Wednesday, she played with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Dick most of the day; she enjoyed many, many elevator rides at the hospital. Thursday, she hung out at home with Grammy and Grandpa Bob for the morning since we were just being discharged that day. I will admit she was pretty happy to see me (the feeling was mutual) when she got up from her nap yesterday. We cuddled for a good, solid five minutes straight. She's going to be pretty tired, but aren't we all. Just like the rest of us, her favorite activities with the baby are to kiss and hug her. So sweet.

Three pink carnations, three orange roses, three beautiful little dolls.....

The Art of Scaring Elderly Women

Miss Mouse has started being a real "squeaker" when we put her jacket on to leave places like restaurants, the mall, or church. I've been puzzled at how to handle it. Usually I just wait her out and make her stand someplace boring until she gets too totally bored and gives in. Once at a restaurant I wrestled her into her coat screaming while Daddy ran to get the car. That wasn't so fun, but at least we got out of there. Today Grammy and I were at the mall and tried the method of preparing her for leaving as soon as we got there (i.e., we got in the door and before we even got her coat off we talked about how she would get her coat on nicely when we needed to leave - she agreed that she would). It didn't seem to help a whole lot yet, though I still think it is something I'll incorporate because eventually, it will help. Anyway, last week when Daddy and I were leaving the doctor's waiting area, she started to get "squeaky". I noticed a small baby a few chairs over and told her that we could go see him if she didn't scare him by screaming. To my mild surprise, it worked really well! The rest of the day she talked about how she didn't "scare baby" and got to "watch baby". So, since the "preparation method" didn't work today at the mall, Grammy noticed a very elderly lady sitting near the door where we were struggling with Miss Mouse's coat. Grammy pointed out that Miss Mouse shouldn't scare the older lady - that isn't nice, and we don't want to scare older women. The Mouse thought about it and agreed, getting her coat on with no further fussing! I was amazed! Apparently she really doesn't want to scare people - especially babies and older women! Hey, it works for now.

Updates

First, Next Baby Update: We had a doctor's appointment this morning again. We're progressing, but not at "lightning speed" or anything. This is okay for now because Daddy has to be four hours away tomorrow for some meetings. He's leaving this afternoon, and he'll be heading back after noon. Anytime after then, we're good to go (as if it is up to us!). Our doctor guessed that we'd go in the next week, but these things are just that, I suppose, "guesses".

Miss Mouse Updates: Her vocabulary has just been exploding these days. Our neighbor, Carroll, watched her this morning during our doctor's appointment (my Mom is here, but we thought it would be good for Miss Mouse to have a change of pace....so Mom rode down to the appointment with me), and apparently she told Carroll she should "go get them" when they started talking about Carroll's grandkids (of whom Miss Mouse is very fond). She has also started saying "cooperate" and "choices", two words which have been introduced full-force since she turned two on Saturday. She gets lots of "choices" so that she can feel that she's in control, and yet Mommy is still ultimately controlling situations. She was yelling "no, no!" at Grammy for some reason (unknown to us), and Grammy explained that she had to do such-and-such, although she had some choices, but that she couldn't be "big bossy" to make all the decisions, just "little bossy" to make some choices. So, now Miss Mouse has been going around saying "ittle bossy, ittle bossy". She seems to know the difference between the two, as well! She just gets funnier and funnier! Of course, the newfound desire for independence can be trying, but it is so neat to see her experimenting with her choices (she'll actually ask for "choices").

A favorite evening activity has been lotioning the baby. She'll pull my shirt up, sit on my legs while I'm stretched out, and use hand lotion to lotion the baby. She also "loves baby" (her words)by putting her head down on my stomach and patting it. Hence, she has required her hair washed the past two nights because it gets hand lotion all over it, but it is so darn sweet!

Happy Birthday, Miss Mouse!

This past weekend was spent celebrating Miss Mouse's second birthday. It's hard to believe it was time to celebrate a second already, but we had an absolute blast - all of us! Great Grandma N. and Grammy arrived on the train on Friday morning (3 a.m.), and Auntie Laura and Auntie Steph arrived late Friday evening. Miss Mouse repeatedly told me that Grandpa Bob couldn't come to her birthday party because he was on the farm, feeding the cows.....this is only odd because Miss Mouse has never seen cows at my parents' place, only sheep! Saturday morning, Grandma and Grandpa Dick visited in the pre-nap hours. After her nap, Miss Mouse got dressed in her special, velvety-red dress, had her bangs curled, and prepared to party. Guests began arriving around 3:50, and from then on, it there was complete festivity at the Toomey Household. I haven't counted yet how many party guests there were, but I think around 30 is a safe number to estimate. It was great fun for her Daddy and I to visit with friends we don't have a chance to see often as well as those who we do! Miss Mouse hammed it up for everyone, opening gifts, blowing out her own birthday candles (okay, she blew out the first one herself and then got the second one with a little help from Grammy), and grinning from ear-to-ear when everyone sang Happy Birthday. She's been talking nonstop the past couple days about "blow candles", so apparently that was one of the highlights of the day. It was an all-around wonderful day and could hardly have been more perfect!Miss Mouse in her birthday ribbon from Grammy and Grandpa Bob.

A new favorite pair of sunglasses....yes, they're upside down - on purpose.

No birthday cake this year - we went with cupcakes.

Miss Mouse with a good friend.

Miss Mouse with flowers from another good friend.

Silly-ness

Almost exactly one year ago.

Where did that year go?

Just before birthday #1.

Just before birthday #2.

Miss Mouse has been increasingly silly lately. It's funny because the more irritating she gets (running away from the bathroom naked, yelling "no" quite often, etc.), the more silly and endearing she gets, as well (lots of kisses, hugs, hand-holding, etc.). Her latest request was for me to sing her a song about birds. Well, I couldn't think of any song I had ever sung her about birds. I'm not sure where she got that. Pretty soon, she decided she wanted a song about birds and baboons. As soon as she said "baboons", I knew she was thinking of the cards that Auntie Laura got her for Christmas. They are for a matching game or something and have lots of very different animals on them (i.e., baboons, gnu, owl, parrots, lions....). Sooooo....we made up a song about birds, baboons, gnu (not sure what the plural of gnu is; I should look that up), and Miss Mouse. The words are:

*Birds are so nice. Baboons are so nice. They live in the jungle (I hope they do?) where they have fun.

*God made the birds. God made baboons. God made the gnu. God made Miss Mouse, too.

*God loves the birds. God loves baboons. God loves the gnu. God loves Miss Mouse, too.

Nope, I have no claim to being talented in musical composition, but this is the song she has been requesting at nap and bedtime lately. I asked Daddy how many children he thought are fond of songs about baboons and gnu. He thought perhaps quite a few in Africa, but we agreed that she could possibly be the only child in our region to have such a fondness.

We spent the morning today reading, doing laundry, diapering and un-diapering the Cabbage Patch doll, and having a flute concert. Yes, a flute concert. She has a second-hand book about orchestra instruments. She loves reading it and can now identify (when she wants to) a trombone (and knows that Daddy plays one), a trumpet (and knows that Ken plays one), a french horn (Ken, again), a flute (Mommy), a violin (Auntie Laura - deal with it; she calls it a violin), a cello (Auntie Steph), and a guitar (Grandpa Bob and Mommy). Of course, she also knows all about accordions from Grandpa Dick. Anyway, she asked for a flute concert this morning, and she wanted it upstairs. Why? I don't know. She's two. So, she sat on the couch, and I sat in the chair and played requests ranging from Mary Had a Little Lamb, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Jesus Loves Me, Away in a Manger, Mommy's Song (aka I Love to Tell the Story), to songs such as Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing out of a flute book that I used in Enderlin for playing in church. She had me playing for about 20 minutes!

New Accomplishments

New accomplishments of our "little girl" (as opposed to 'baby'):
*Counting to four. She won't always do this, but she is capable of doing so. Often it happens when she's helping me cook in the kitchen and counting cups of flour or something.
*Shapes - She can name triangle, circle, square, heart, and star. Again, it's not something she'll often do, but she's capable. Not that 'triangle, circle, and square' sound anything like that, but that's what she's saying, no doubt about it!
*Words and phrases - pretty much anything she wants to say right now, she can say. There are a lot of two word phrases being used (so many that Daddy and I have to really watch our mouths - we don't use bad language around her, but even "darn it" doesn't sound very nice coming out of a 2-year-old's mouth! I try to use "oh dear" instead....try being the optimal word....).