Random observations and milestones

Oh, hi. Expect me to fall off the face of the blogosphere a lot for a while. I have plenty I want to blog about, but I'm not comfortable putting some of it on the blog, and time to blog is scarce these days anyway. I imagine it will become even more scarce when I return to work soon - I'm having a hard time keeping up with two kids+life in general already, so I'm really not sure how I'm going to handle everything plus work 40+ hours a week. Guess we'll see how that all goes ...

But now for some random and slightly delayed observations and news of note:

* After 2.5 years, we put the high chair away. I pretty much love everything about the high chair we've had - the Fisher Price Space Saver - and the tray was a convenient way to keep Elle's mess fairly contained. (She's seen at left at a much younger age, probably when she was making much bigger messes than she does today, but she's still not the neatest eater ...) With all of the other transitioning going on, I figured, on the eve of her birthday, that it might as well go away for the next six months or so.

So I dusted off the booster seat we bought last year for our trip to Ohio, and boom! We have more room because the chair isn't sticking out so far anymore, which makes me wish we had made the switch sooner. She loves eating with a placemat and her limbs not being trapped by the high chair tray (read: she keeps swinging her legs over the side and putting her feet on the table, both things that drive me insane).

* After three years plus four days, Elle got her first haircut! Tim has been begging me to cut it short for months, and I've refused - it's so much easier to style with a little bit of length, and with the heat and Elle's hereditary predisposition to sweating (sorry, Elle Belle!), it's good to have a ponytail as an option in Florida. But I had to admit that she woke up with an out of control rat's nest after every night and nap, and the ends were getting crazy dry and tangled.

A nasty nest of tangled hair.

I called my hair person and asked if she would mind giving Elle a trim - she's not big on cutting kids' hair, but she said it was no problem for us and said she'd love to do it. I would have trimmed it myself except I was worried that I would somehow kill the awesome natural waves/curls. Wendy trimmed just a little bit of Elle's hair, and it looks and feels a million times better. The length and curls are still there, and it definitely still tangles, but it feels so healthy and is definitely easier to tame now.

Post-haircut: Healthy and evened out.

* Although we could have hit her three year birthday with the claim that she was totally and completely potty trained, we wanted to wait before pulling the trigger on night-time underwear. For about a week or two before Wesley was born, Elle woke up dry. (She'd always spent the night in Pull Ups.) I worried that she'd regress once he arrived, so we didn't push her to sleep in underwear. But after he arrived and she continued to stay dry - and go 12-14 hours without needing to pee, AND increased her liquid intake before bed (she started asking for water every night before bed about two months ago) - we asked her a few days after her birthday if she thought sleeping in underwear might be a good idea.

She seemed to be disinterested in the whole idea but agreed and said she'd have no accidents at night and would call for us if she had to go to the bathroom. (The other awesome thing right now is that she has never gotten out of bed without permission - like, no reading books in the middle of the night or wandering around in the mornings ... she seems to think the bed is an island that she can't get off of unless we're there with her, and THAT'S AWESOME. I'll take it for as long as it lasts.) She's been in underwear at night for the last few weeks. She's only had two accidents, and one was when she was sick, so I don't think she really knew what was going on.

* Elle's been pretty funny about getting used to having Wesley around. She usually tunes out his crying unless a) really bad and/or b) interfering with what she's trying to do (watch TV, read, etc.) The other day she told me "I think he wants milk!" and asked me to stop him from being upset. She's also still very intrigued by his diapers (she always wants to see them and if they're poopy she goes "Oh, YUCK"). She's helped Tim give Wesley bottles, and she also has told me that Wesley needed to switch sides while breastfeeding. My favorite, though, is her fascination with the breast pump. I usually pump in the morning, and she tells me it sounds like "Fart. Fart. Fart. Fart." So she asks me if I'm farting yet. I've tried to explain what it is, but she's not quite interested in the "what" and understands enough of the "how" (milk comes out, goes in to a bottle, goes to Wesley). She had gotten in to trouble while eating, so she was trying to suck up to me as I got her down from the table. She said, "I yuv your milk, Mommy. It's so white, just like my shirt." Seriously, the kid looks for compliments everywhere if she thinks she's in the doghouse.