With Meilene's 2nd birthday just weeks away, I figured I'd better get her a haircut. I'm a real slacker, but at least it's done.
Here's the before picture:


She was just not amused during the haircut:


The after picture:

We were at gymnastics class last week and there is one thing that all the kids are weary of.  It's this long tunnel, kind of like the ones you use for the cats to go running through and around.  This tunnel is super long and has vents on the side - you know - so that the Parent can encourage the kids while they're going through it.  Well, since Meilene was so weary of it and didn't want to enter, I decided I'd show her how to crawl through and possibly get her to follow me.  So, halfway through the tunnel (I'm army crawling at this point because I'm not as small as I had remembered), Meilene looks through the vents and says "hi mama"!  Here I'm thinking, isn't she supposed to be behind me and following me?  I look forward and she runs to the other end of the tunnel yelling "com'on Mama, com'on" and snapping her fingers and encouraging me to get to the end of the tunnel.  I felt so duped by this less than 2 year old! (yes, I did make it through with much struggling and pulling).

Ever since Meilene was able to hold things, she's always had this obsession with things that are like sticks or beads.  Crayons, toothbrushes, forks, spoons, pens, pencils, straws.  Once she's got a hold of those things, she will never let it go, and she will cry and fuss if anyone takes it from her.  it makes it hard to do any kind of activity with her.  I can't do any coloring activities because she will be done with the coloring part 5 minutes into it, but will never give up the crayons.  I'll ask her if she's done with it and she always replies "nope".  I even give her warnings, ie. in 5 minutes, we're going to put the crayons away and do something else.  When she hears that, she just throws a fit and then it's the end of the world.  We've even let her throw her tantrums and she's gone on screaming and crying for over 30 minutes.  Funny thing is does she even remember what she's upset about after that long because I certainly don't.  Anyway, I've no clue how to get her over her obsessions.  If anyone has any ideas, I'd really love to hear it.

Is it possible to get any shopping done with a 21 month old who's active and wants to run and swing all day?  Today we drove 45 minutes to the next biggest town to look at living room furniture. We spent 2 hours in the store and walked out with nothing! We did narrow down a a recliner that we liked but had trouble matching a love seat to it.  It was weird trying to make such an important decision with a young one who didn't want to let you talk to a salesperson, or sit and test the chairs.  We've never been stroller people and the idea of strapping Meilene down worries me. I just feel like she'd get more energy out if she walked around. Looks like I've created my own monster!

So, I was supposed to get Meilene her 18 month check up, but I put it off until now.  We were moving at 18 months, and then when things did get settled down, she was sick with a fever for 3 days and crankiness for 2 weeks.  I think it just took her a while to adjust to this new house/environment.

Meilene's stats: she's 33% in height and 50% in weight.  She's seriously slowed down a lot!  At 13 months, she was 90% in height and  65% in weight.  Oh well.  Poor kid, that's what she gets for having a mom who's only 4 foot 12! (I know, it's 5ft to be correct).  However, my dad is over 6 ft but my mom is 5ft like me.  Sam is 5ft 9in.. and his sister is about 5'5 or 5'7.  I was wondering when she was going to slow down in her growth, I guess it's now.  I'll try to post some pictures of her.  I didn't really like the doctor we had today.  I'm hoping to change to another PCM, but since it's a Navy clinic, I don't think that I have too much of a choice.  Meilene didn't like him either, she cried and screamed anytime anyone examined her.  When we were at Wright Patt, she loved everyone there.  She didn't mind when they would listen to her heart.  It was a very good hospital, too bad it took me to leave it in order to appreciate it.  Let's see, they asked me if she could say 15-20 words (she knows more than 50 words), can she put together 2 or more words (she's already communicating really well putting 4 or more thoughts together), can she self feed (don't all moms try to get their kids to feed themselves when they're first able to?), drink out of a sippy cup (again, don't most kids grasp the sippy cup before 18 months?), eat vegetables and meat (loves it all).  My proudest moment lately, and I've been working really hard at this: she's counting 1-5 without a problem, can stumble 6-10, sings to the ABCs melody, but really only knows ABTWXZ (I think our Leap Frog song goes too fast for her to keep up). Oh, and the biggest thing is she's starting to tell us when she needs to go potty.  It's cute when she asks "poop please", which means she has to go. And then I see her trying to hold it so that she can pee in the potty and get her stickers.  What magic - rewards!  I can't believe that i went this long without giving her a reward, but once I started instituting it, she's been 100% on the potty.  We still have a few accidents here and there, and I totally attribute that to my lazy butt!

Ok, that was just my brag session on Meilene.  I do know that there will be a lot more frustrating blogs as well, so I have to add the brag moments to keep me from being too hard on myself.

Anyway, it's a Friday night and my husband is passed out on the couch.  What a way to spend it!

Well, this is my first blog entry on Minti.  I have been using Myspace but am not too crazy about it.  I think it's because all my friends work and are too busy to create accounts.  Sam's in the Navy and the military wives all seem too busy to be blogging.  Hence, I joined this site to hopefully meet more moms, and perhaps get some friends? :-) I'm really not that desperate, but I will keep this site to mainly Meilene and I.  I kinda trust this site for some reason.  Probably because it's not too easy to stumble upon.  Or is it?

Anyway to begin, I am a Stay at home mom.  Do I like being an SAHM?  I'm not sure.  Meilene is 21 months, almost 22 on the 7th. Life is so different with her.  I love her to death but life is completely changed with her.  I'm not quite sure that I'm adjusting well.  I think I had some sort of PPD when she was born and am not quite sure that it's gone.  For one, Sam and I were never home pre-Meilene days.  When we lived in San Diego, we were on 5 different sports team; home was just a place for us to rest.  I hardly cooked, and we partied A LOT! Then we moved and I got pregnant.  Everyone says a child will change your life forever.  I thought I was ready to dedicate my time to a child.  But I just think that it's a change in lifestyle that I have to get used to.  And it's forever changing with a toddler.  I just feel like a failure of a mom lotsof times, though I know she's doing really well. I just can't help it.

OK... I think I'm done stating the obvious about how life changes with a kid.  I just had to get that off my chest and I may have to do it again sometime.  I think it's best for my sanity.  I think I'm going to post another blog about Meilene now.