Birthday present

I am so behind on posting - big surprise. Tons of cute video and pictures to put up once I make more time for myself :) Hopefully those will come this weekend.

But I had to take a quick minute and post the gorgeous birthday present my sweet Dave got me today! Today is my big 3-0 - and I think I'm doing pretty good with it :)

I've wanted an Emerald ring for years, but never found one that worked with my style and budget. Dave surprised me this morning with this beautiful ring! Thanks so much sweetheart!

"he went to Jared's" :)

Conni's 18 mo pics

I finally got Conni's pics up for her 18 months. I cannot say enough good things about the photographer at JCPenneys that day. Conni's pictures in December were a fiasco, as you may recall. But this gal was great. We started out with pics of the two of us to help Conni warm up. Then I slowly worked my way out of the frames. The photographer let Conni just wander around the sitting area and would snap cute candids of her as she could get her attention. She really captured some of our favorites of Conni's faces.

Doing Laundry

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am trying to get more activities throughout the day for Conni and I to do together. Well, we finally got around to working on the laundry this morning. I was very excited to try a sock sorting game I had found in my new book. I got everything ready and was very animatedly trying to get Conni to come play. No dice. She wanted nothing to do with the socks.

But she did hang out in the laundry baskets as usual while we watched Sesame Street and I folded clothes. And I did get her to take her dirty clothes hamper from her room to the stairs. Then I helped her throw her clothes over the railing - one piece at a time :) She loved it! She always throws the towels over the railing when I have them there drying after her baths. She also enjoys helping me rotate the laundry from the dryer to a basket or from the washer to the dryer.

Hopefully we can keep working on this and she can learn to help take care of the laundry. I think she'll figure out soon how to help get the dirty clothes over the railing pretty well. I love that Conni loves to follow me around the house and is learning how to help with our daily chores.

Fear of the Bath

About two weeks ago Conni got scared in the tub when my shampoo bottle fell down and bounced around. After that, she wouldn't fight getting in the bath, but she cried and shook thru the whole thing. You could tell she was terrified. But we stuck with it and I would try to calm her down, and we would just do super quick baths.

I talked to my mom about it and we tried giving Conni a bath at Grandma's last week to see if it would be the same reaction. I stayed out in the hall where Conni couldn't see me, and Grandma let Conni put all the toys in the tub and then climb in and play. (Side note - at our house to this point Conni has always said a very clear "no" when we ask if she wants toys in the tub.) Well, the bath at Grandma's was a splashing success. Conni had a ton of fun. She kept asking Grandma to pour more water over her head.

Since the bath at Grandma's Conni has been less and less upset about bath time at home. Last Sunday she finally chose some toys to take in and her favorite was a set of measuring cups I had demoted from kitchen duty. Her favorite thing to do with the cups again is to pour water over her head. She is back to splashing and playing in the water. I'm glad it was only a couple of weeks that we had to work thru! Such a cute little fish!

Daily Activities

I have been trying to come up with things for Conni and I to do during the day. I've gotten stuck in a rut, and I know she needs more activities to help her learn and grow. But I have the hardest time thinking of them on my own, or knowing what Conni is ready for. When Mom and I were out on Saturday we found a book called The Everything Toddler Activities Book. I have been trying to do something different each day.

Monday our activity was to make an Etch-A-Sketch. I poured a 1/2 inch or so of sugar in my 9x9 baking pan. (The book said to use salt, but I had more sugar on hand). I gave it to Conni and showed her how to draw in it. She had fun for a couple of minutes, but then started to get bored. So we got out some measuring spoons and other baking things to see the different patterns they would make in the sugar.

Her favorite tool turned out to be a heart shaped measuring spoon (thanks Cheryl!). Then of course she wanted to see what this white stuff was. Once she learned it was sugar, then she started eating it with the heart spoon. She would still draw, too though.

Yesterday was a very full day for our family, so we continued with the sugar Etch-A-Sketch. We also colored a simple wooden princess face mask I picked up for $1 a Joanns. We took turns coloring and then holding the mask to our faces. Conni thought it was hilarious when I would hold it up.

Today I desperately need to catch up on laundry, so I am going to try a sock sorting game suggested in the book. Conni enjoys helping me "fold" the towels when we do laundry, and then climbing in the basket to sit on all of them. So hopefully she will have fun with the socks too.

I will try to post about the different activities we do and the things we learn from them. I would love to hear your favorite toddler activities too!

Judicial System at work

Today I had the wonderful opportunity to answer a subpoena to be a witness downtown at the court. Due to some mailing issues, I didn't find out about it until last Friday (April 2nd). So needless to say I was a little shook up over the whole thing.

But everything went well. I was more worried about actually getting there than anything else, since today was our lovely "spring" snowstorm. I rode trax down and made it to the DA's office to be interviewed. Then I hiked over to the Mattheson Courthouse to sit in the courtroom. The attorney I talked to was a pretty nice guy, and the people at the Courthouse were very helpful.

I was very nervous about having to actually testify or whatever, but again I lucked out. Once both the lawyers had a chance to converse, the defendant (if I understood correctly) decided to take a plea deal. So I was then free to go.

I rode trax back to my car to head in to work, when I realized I forgot to turn in the subpoena at the courthouse, so now I won't get my whopping $18.50 check. I was in such a hurry to get out of there and catch the train that it completely slipped my mind. Oh well, civic duty I guess.

It was neat to see the judicial system at work though. The judge reviewed several people who were brought in from the jails in handcuffs and shackles. I couldn't hear the details of their cases. Most of everything else was moving stuff to later dates. I am grateful that we live in a country with a relatively decent judicial system. Hopefully though, I don't have to go back again!