Puppy Love

Daddy is thrilled that Nadia loves dogs. I grew up with cats, and he grew up with dogs. He's very allergic to cats, and to be honest I am also allergic to them, although to a lesser degree. I've always known that some day we'd get a dog. Thankfully, Paul agrees that now isn't the right time. Maybe that will be my graduation gift to Paul when he earns his PhD and gets his first teaching job. Nadia will be just as excited as her Daddy! Her favorite stuffed animal is her doggie that Sarah gave her for Christmas (2009). A few months ago I instituted the rule that doggie stays in her crib. Lately she has found a replacement. She calls her little Fisher Price dog pull toy that she got from Grandma and PopPop for Christmas (2008) "puppy," and now puppy goes with her all the time. As you can see from this picture, puppy was coloring with her. She has conversations with puppy and gives him crayons to color, reads books to him, etc. It's so sweet! She also read a book to "big Larry" this morning. When she read him the last page of the book (How do dinosaurs eat their food?) she correctly said 4 of the 5 words that are on that page (omitted the word "little"). When she asks me to read a particular book, she usually says at least three words from the title such as "moose a muffin," "pig a pancake," "dinosaurs eat their food," and "mouse a cookie."

Nadia's sentences are usually 3-5 words long. That's nothing new for her. What is new is that now she often says more than one sentence in a row. I actually feel like we are having two way conversations now! About a week ago (when the weather was oh so much cooler) I was weeding the flower bed while Ian was napping. Nadia came up to me and asked, "whatcha doin' momma" (admittedly not the best grammar but hey she's only 24 months old - we have time to work on it). I replied "pulling weeds" to which she said, "make a mess." LOL! Sometimes I think she thinks she's Italian as she adds the "a" sound to the end of a lot of verbs. For example, "washa hands; I am sticky" or "watcha Bob" (meaning watch VeggieTales).

She still has a fever today, but without Tylenol it was only 100.7 this morning. She's to be more herself today so I am thinking we'll take a trip to the grocery store this afternoon as we were inside all day yesterday so I am getting a bit of cabin fever, but it's too hot to be outside. The high is "only" supposed to be 80 on Saturday. That sounds delightful compared to what we've had the past few days. I only like those temps if I am at the beach or a swimming pool!

Unfortunately I think Ian (who as of yesterday weighs 17 lbs) now is coming down sick. It took FOREVER for Paul and I to get him down for bed last night (at about 9:38pm I succeeded). Then he only slept 5 hours and after being fed for an hour he slept 2 more hours. I had a hard time falling asleep after the 2:40-3:40 feeding so I got at the most 6 hours of sleep last night. When will this sleep deprivation end???? He doesn't seem to have a fever, but he's got a little cough and a runny nose. Plus it's like pulling teeth to get him to sleep. It took me 50 minutes to get him down for his first nap this morning. Thankfully he did sleep for an hour so it made my efforts seem worthwhile. It also took me a long time to get him down for his second nap. I even tried letting him sleep on me. Nadia woke up after 90 minutes, but I had her pee and put her back to bed and thankfully she went back to sleep. She slept 11.5 hours last night.

Nadia hasn't had an accident oustide of the crib in a long time, and she's been averaging 1 accident every 3 days in her crib. I am grateful there haven't been any #2 accidents this week. I don't like cleaning those up! I am always excited when she goes #2 on the potty!