The Great Pacifier Hunt

They look innocent enough don't they? Harmless little bits of plastic and silicone to keep a baby soothed and happy. HAH! They are the bane of a parent's existence. I'm told that eventually I'll trade this bane for sippy cups, but as that is a battle not won yet I'm going to burn that bridge when I get to it.

I spend the evenings and mornings looking for one of these little guys so that Autumn can sleep or will be able to nap at daycare. I've found them in the bottom of the dishwasher (apparently she was helping to unload it), under the couch (her new favorite hiding place for small things), under the mattress in her bed, behind the dresser, in the sink, in the bathroom wastebasket, the floor of the car, in my pockets, in the bottom, of course, of the diaper bag, under the pew at church, in my purse and school bags, in shoes, in the cat's water or food dish, etc.

I have learned to never give a pacifier without attaching it to the baby with a pacifier clip. This way when the pacifier is spit out it doesn't end up on a nasty floor and is not usable again for the near future.

The very interesting thing about pacifiers is that they are magical. They have the ability to just vanish. We know that there is a portal under our refigerator or stove to the lost cat toy dimension; the portal for the lost pacifier dimension is somewhere in the vicinity of Autumn, where ever she happens to be. They also have the ability to appear out of thin air. I have put Autumn in her car seat with no pacifier anywhere close to her, when we have reached our destination and get her out of the car she has one in her mouth. So either the pacifiers are magical or Autumn is.

Autumn only likes the slant nipple ones otherwise known as the orthodontic nipples. She knows when they are right side up and upside down. Pacifiers are tradable. Autumn and a friend of hers trade their pacifiers with each other willy-nilly. They just go up to each other and "ssplip" they pull each other's out and then "ploop" suck on it themselves. They share little germies this way too, how nice that they are learning to share.

Did you also know that pacifiers can multiply and comfort babies without being sucked on? I'll put Autumn to bed with one pacifier and in the morning she'll have one in her mouth and one in each hand. HUH?!?! Where did they come from? Now seriously, don't you think that someone in the The Misuse of Magic Department or The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department would have noticed this phenomenon?

Growing Up

Well she is starting to become a big girl now. Trying to feed herself with a spoon and using a sippy cup (only for water and juice and only when playing). Of course the bottle is still her friend and she won't use the cup at meals. But at least she's starting to see it as an ok thing rather than her worst enemy. We were having WWIII for a while over the bottle/sippy cup. So we are trying a different approach. It's all well and good to say "if she's hungry/thirsty enough she'll use it" but 'they' haven't met a very strongwilled little girl named Autumn. She went 4 days without taking in any liquids, we decided to wave the white flag and open negotiations.

Balloons

Autumn greets her friends every time she gets out of bed, whether it's after a nap or in the morning. Her favorite friends to greet are the balloons from her birthday party. They recently went the way of every balloon but until then she had fun playing with them. What's really funny is that for about 2 weeks after her party they balloons scared her but all of a sudden they became fun.

Random Pictures

Here are a few random pictures of our little Princess Cute As A Bug In A Rug (to give her her rightful title).



She has a walking toy (that converts into a little dune buggy) and hasn't figured out how to turn it. But she does like to walk with it as long as someone is there to help her out of a corner.

Our little monkey likes to climb into things, out of things, up on things and down off of things.


Here she is playing on the floor with her toys.

Visitors

Autumn's Grandma Linda came for a short visit. She brought a late christmas gift and Autumn had a grand time tearing the paper off the box one tiny piece at a time.

Bubble Fun

We've started to put bubbles in Autumn's bath water. Here are the results. First she put some on her head, then she wanted to try out her "cup" and see what they tasted like

Next she decided to just put her face right down in the water and drink it like the "kee" does (kitty). She came up looking like her daddy.

Toy Tester and Cookie Maker

We went over to Tom and Jen's on the 29th for our second Christmas. Jen and Jane and Autumn and Thomas and I made cookies. Kurt watched Autumn and entertained us with music. Tom and Jen had Autumn test out some of Isaac's toys, mainly a walker and a johnny jump-up. The results were great. Autumn took about 2 minutes to figure out the walker and then she was off! They have a great open floor plan and fast hard wood floors. (neither of which we have at our place, thus we never got a walker). She was in the kitchen giving tips on frosting making, in the dining room giving tips on cookie making, and in the living room giving tips on block building. She also inspected the tree many times to make sure it was in good condition. The johnny jump-up has been renamed the Suzie Spinner as Autumn spent most of her time going in circles saying "wheee" "wheee" over and over and over. She bounced a little but mostly spun in circles. The video shows it well, you may have to turn up the sound to hear the little high voiced "whees".

Happy Birthday to Me

Here are a couple pictures of my birthday present. His name is Isaac James. He was born on the 31st at 4:55 pm and weighed in at a whopping 9lb 13.5oz! Jen was very tired but very happy too. They were both over the moon. Jen's dad also has a birthday on the 31st so now there are 3 of us to party on that day. We are building in numbers slowly but surely. If you want to see more click on the link to their blog over on the left, it is titled Tom & Jen Petersen. They have a couple pictures up. It was all very exciting, we are glad that we got to meet him before we had to come home.

Look Grandma, Isaac is this big! Autumn really liked seeing him, she pet Isaac while Grandpa was holding him and kept saying "Ooooh, Ooooh, Ooooh" over and over and over. However when Mommy held Isaac she got a very concerned look on her face and wasn't really sure it was ok.