On Your Bum

This is my heirloom toddler table. Side question - how old does something have to be to be considered an heirloom? If you ask my mother, the table isn't that old. It was, after all, hers as a child. Either way, Lily is now the third generation to use this table. And she uses it every day; snacks, coloring, legos, a changing table for Bee-Bee and Dolly, you get the picture. However, she is too short to simply back in to a chair and sit down. She first climbs up and positions herself to squat in the chair, usually holding on to the table. Although, I fear she is becoming more and more confident in her abilities to climb. She then crouches in the chair pulling one foot out at a time. Unfortunately, this has turned into a sort of game; which I loathe. She climbs up and stands in her chair and asks, "On bum?" To which I reply, "Sit down on your bottom" or "On your bum." If I don't answer right away she asks again . . . and again . . . and again. She will not sit down until I acknowledge her. Today the charade was followed by raspberries and Winne The Pooh.

How To Care for You Baby - By Lily Atkinson

Get your child dressed for the day even if you yourself aren't fully dressed. It's ok to pull a dirty shirt out if the hamper by the laundry room.

When you carry your baby, she likes to be up on your shoulder. Be sure to use a blanket.

You must change diapers often. Be sure to ask "poo-poo?"
Put your baby down for naps. Tell her "it's nigh' nigh' time."

Walk away; she can cry it out.

After "nigh' night' time," pick her up and say "ahhh" and "shhh."

Put her in the stroller and say "a walk, a walk."

It's okay if just push her around in a circle.

She will probably need another nap. Don't forget to say "it's nigh' nigh' time."

Whatever you do, always give your baby lots of hugs

and kisses!

First Taste of Gardening

With exception to the crazy afternoon winds, we have had a rather pleasant late winter. With the sun shining this morning, and knowing Bug needed a bath, we headed out to play in the dirt. With hopes of expanding our garden this year, from seeds no less, I started prepping the soil. I am already craving the sweet tomatoes and peppers and their beautiful colors. We hope to add green beans and some summer squash this year.

I tried to teach Lily how to pull weeds, but she wasn't very good at it. Don't worry, we'll keep working at it. She was, however, really good at picking up rocks and throwing them in the bag. When we added the block wall, the workers asked us what to do with all the dirt. Gleefully, I asked them to throw it against the back fence, excited we wouldn't need to buy dirt to fill the retaining wall that would be added a few weeks later. What I didn't anticipate was everything that went with the dirt; nails and screws, cement clumps, rocks, PVC pipe, broken fence pieces, and shoelaces. Thus, we may be cleaning out the dirt for quite some time.

Toward the end of our time, it looked as if Lily had rolled in the dirt. She was covered in it but was having a blast. I moved along the wall pulling weeds when I heard her start repeating, "A bite. A bite. A bite." As my typical response to her non-stop chatter, I simply said, "Mmm-hmm." I then realized what she was saying to turn around and see her use the shovel as a spoon to taste the dirt she had just dug up.

Believe it or not, the photo above is not her first bite but probably the fifth time I had wiped the dirt from her face and tongue. She repeatedly took bites of the gritty stuff and then tried to chew the sand.