Busy days and children's media

Steve and I both have been very busy at work lately-especially this last week.

We try to keep Eliza's schedule pretty balanced and routine if at all possible, but I know she's felt the change too.

Steve, for example, was given some edits by the VP at his work at 1pm today and is expected to complete about 30 spot illustrations by tomorrow at 1pm when she (the VP) wants to leave for her weekend vacation and wants to take her edit with her.

Steve had already put in 8.5 hours of work by 3pm today and had to come home so I could get to work. But he was still able to get about 20 of them done by the time Eliza woke up from her nap at like 4:45 (she took a REALLY long nap- too much puddle splashing?).

I haven't gotten off work before 1am for the last ~2 weeks. My shift is scheduled for 3:30p-12am. But I still LOVE my job, as hectic as it can be.

Steve's work is just going to get busier next week.

So Eliza and I are going to head down south for some extra TLC from the grandparents, Aunt Abby, and the poodles. We're REALLY excited. I worked an extra shift last week, so that I could take off next Thursday and have a whole week down there.

Eliza has even been practicing saying Oma and grandpa, and I think she's got it down. We've been using the pictures from her "Who Loves Baby" book. It'll be fun to go try them out for real!

I'm ready for my SC fix.... and to have my mommy take care of me (and for Dad to take care of Eliza- hehe. They have quite the bond.). Mom, Dad, and Abby have just as busy a schedule, but I'm looking forward to taggin along for evenings of soccer practice with Dad and Abby, cross-country races on Wednesday nights, and errands, long talks, and yummy healthy meals with my momma!

Anywayz, amid the business, we worry about Eliza having too much TV/movie time. We had a check-up last week with the pediatrician, and they recommend no more than an hour a day, which makes sense to me. I found this little quiz on NY Times Wellness Blog called The Well Child Activity Blog

It's a quick, 10 question quiz that tests your knowledge on what amounts are appropriate for kids' media exposure, etc and also tests your knowledge on national averages. I only scored a 4/10, but it asks you things about like 9 yr olds and teens, which I'm definitely not ready for yet.
Two questions that I found interesting were...

-If you add up all the time kids spend watching TV, playing video games, chatting on the internet, and using other forms of media, it would equal a full time job.

and

-Kids who spend a lot of time on computer and engaged in media activities do not end up spending less time with family, friends, or other leisure pursuits. In fact, those kids who are most engaged with the media are the ones whose lives tend to be the most full.

Also while we were at the pediatrician's for Eliza's well-check, we found out that Eliza is 50th % for weight and height and 75th % for head circumference. She's not quite as enormous as she was when she was a baby, but at least she's proportional!

And we keep being told that Eliza's verbal ability, both spoken and with her signing, is extremely advanced for her age. I think this is really fun because I love being able to communicate with her. She really has very few tantrums (knock on wood), although, sometimes I have to remind her that she knows how to communicate and ask for crackers instead of just screaming for them. She'll get quiet for a second and then sign cracker, please, and thank you. Beautiful.

On another note, Eliza is in love with her Daddy of late. During the day, when it's just her and me, she'll spot a picture of Steve somewhere or hear the mention of Daddy, etc., and she runs to the door grasping for the door knob and say, "Dada?" and makes the sign for Daddy to me and says, "Go?"

When we pick up Steve from work or on a lunch break, Eliza just beams and SQUIRMS with pleasure and excitement to see her Dada. I love it! She went through a rough month and a half where she demanded only I hold her, carry her, comfort her, etc., and I'm really glad that's over.

Eliza outside

I'm worried about the impending cold season.
Because Eliza would live outside if we let her.

I can count on one hand the number of times she's actually come inside voluntarily.
I love this girl.

Breakfast with 'Liza

Here's an anti-climatic video of Eliza at the breakfast table. She's really funny in the morning. Steve probably gets Eliza up in the morning like 75% of the time, so I thought I'd capture on video a morning where we were all up together.

I felt like Mom this morning because I sat up all a sudden in bed a 6am (after not getting off work until 1am and not going to sleep until 2) and couldn't fall back to sleep. So I actually used my time and cleaned the living room and put away the dishes and all that cleaning stuff I just love to do, but I felt efficient... and like my mother.

Here's another video of Eliza's new trick. One of my favorite tricks so far:

Because we still are watching Elmo...

See the Signs

Chris Brown and Elmo- LOVE both their dance moves, and Elmo's harmonizing. Hilarious.

Time to Say Goodnight


Andrea Bocelli singing Elmo to sleep. A very moving performance! Somehow puppets playing in slow-motion suddenly get me choked up.

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Memories

Abby sent me this picture a little while ago scanned from the family photo album, and it brought back a lot of memories.

This is my brother, Robby, and me in the back of the car. Pretty classic picture of us. Robby chill and smiley. Me in pigtails, reaching for Robby while still sucking my fingers.

I think that I'm probably about 2 1/2 and Robby maybe a little less than 1?

Bless You!

Today while I was feeding Eliza a post-nap snack, I happened to sneeze. Much to my surprise, Eliza quickly responded with a "Blesth you!"

I began to swell with pride at my daughter's clearly advanced intelligence, but before I could finish congratulating her on her new phrase, she got her graham cracker with peanut butter stuck in her nose.

Bless you too, my child.

In between the silver lining

The other evening, I was talking to our program manager at work about how her experience had been transitioning from doing outpatient therapy to being in the managerial position at our program (while still doing therapy in the program and on the side).

Her response was pretty funny and surprising. She told me,

"Ya know, I never thought that my position would come down to basically being the Underwear Police! That's not somewhere I ever saw my career path going really."

She talked about how a lot more time than she would like is spent dealing with petty things like making sure our staff was appropriately dressed and didn't have their underwear bursting out here and there or weren't sharing cigarettes with clients or doing other things that just seem like common sense to most of us, but not to everyone, apparently.

I also have experienced times at my job where I do a sort of double-take and wonder why my job involves doing the dishes or helping people get dressed into their pajamas or washing bed sheets. What? I got my college degree and endured through the bachelor's experience of academia in order to get a job ... taking out the trash?

And at my work a lot of these unexpected duties come in the form of Housekeeping stuff. Ironic because I barely manage to get that done at my own house!

I have had jobs before that required me to do this kind of thing. When I was an intern or a tech, I felt like I was the one expected to do the jobs no one else wanted to do. It's one step up from slave labor-- getting paid next to nothing because you're young and inexperienced. However, they were the jobs that helped motivate me to get through and finish college. So I would never have to do that stuff again!! (Outside of my home, of course.)

My job in a lot of ways is more than I ever hoped to be able to do with my Bachelors in Social Work. I get so much client interaction time that has given me such incredible experiences. I get to facilitate and conduct group and individual counseling sessions and have had some of the most profound conversations in my life and heard some of the most incredible and sad life stories. I really really love my work, especially when it feels like I've helped someone in need.

It's just sometimes when we're short staffed, or when a patient hasn't pooped for 4 days so she was told to show staff if she was able to have a bowel movement and I'm the only one not in group (gag), so I get to go in her bathroom and check out the stuff in the toilet. awesome.

So have any of you had the experience where you end up being responsible for something that you never thought you'd have to be? Whether it was a job you're over-qualified for or some other adult responsibility you didn't expect, etc?

A lot of being a mom feels like this to me. I think that's one reason it's still a slow, hard transition. The job description screams things like "Must be qualified to hop like a bunny, roar like an elephant, make raspberries with your tongue, and wipe poop up before kids step in it!"

But I guess the message is that we do it because we're motivated out of love. I love my job. As a social worker and a mother. And love doesn't have clean-cut boundaries or tightly maintain job requirements. That's why it's unconditional. Which is the kind of life experience I want Eliza to have and the kind of service I want my clients to be able to rely on. And most of all, it's the kind of sacrifice and performance I want to offer my Heavenly Father.

"Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward." D&C 6:33

"... For all this there is a reward in heaven." D&C 127:4

And I write all of these words hypocritically because my husband is downstairs doing the laundry and cleaning up the kitchen. Hehe.

Eliza style

It's no secret that I've enjoyed dressing my baby GIRL (now toddler)!

I am relatively interested in fashion. Not in any serious way, more just as a fun form of creative expression and an I-like-watching-Project-Runway kind of way.

My favorite recent discovery has been one that includes spending $0 while still allowing me to feel that Eliza's outfit is "trendy."

Eliza has grown SO MUCH over the summer. Her feet have grown 3 sizes, and so she now wears a size 6!? Future soccer player, anyone?

So she's started to outgrow a lot of the warm weather clothes that we got her, especially the dresses that seem to be made too short to begin with. However, I think it would be a waste at this point to buy more summer clothing, so instead I've paired her short dresses with her maybe a little too tight pants and the results are the cute tunic and legging combo:


I bought this reversible dress at Sam's Club for like $6 and the leggings from Wal-Mart for like $3, Bow and socks $0 from Boutique a la My Mom!, and her size 6 shoes for $25 at Stride Rite sponsored by Boutique a la My Mom! I had been stuffing her little/big feet in size 4's previously. Poor Eliza toes-ies.

And the best part is Eliza does not care AT ALL what I put her in! Anything that keeps the mosquitoes away, keeps her feet covered from broiling pavement, and protects her constantly skinned knees is great to her!

But she has been known on several occasions to streak out the back door Red Neck style across the ramp, down the driveway and into the front yard and street before we can catch her naked self and tackle her back into the house!

She's my feisty girl!

Lost sheep amid the 99

As I mentioned previously, Eliza is running EVERYWHERE!!!

Unfortunately, this often can lead to trouble, as was the case this last Sunday.

She was especially elated to be freed from the chapel after sacrament meeting was over. So she took off running down the busy halls which were full of people scurrying to their respective classes.

I thought I was right behind her, but all a sudden, she was gone.

I thought that maybe she had snuck into one of the open nursery doors because she likes to follow kids that are about her age and there are toys in there, but she wasn't in either classroom.

I started asking people, have you seen my kid? I lost my kid!

My friend, Sarah, started helping me look, and I looped around the primary room and got Steve from our classroom and quickly confessed that I had lost our only daughter and had no clue where she had gone. I looped back around towards where I lost her.

I faintly heard a child crying from one of the bathrooms, and I said, "Thankfully, I don't think that's Eliza's cry, err... "

It was Eliza's cry.

She was in the handicap bathroom. She had coupled her two dangerous obsessions of running and playing with doors into a cataclysmic combination. She had run into the private bathroom and closed the door on herself...

...and then been stuck in a completely dark room with no way out.

I carefully opened the door and said, "'Liza?"

She had tears streaking down her face and she grabbed me as I picked her up and clung to my neck and whimpered and hiccuped trying to recover from her traumatic bathroom "incident."

Poor girl. It's hard to be a toddler! Who knew the church was such a danger zone, right?

Stay tuned for when I finally feel ready to tell the story of Eliza getting repeatedly punched in the face by a 2 yr old boy during church play group (the real reason I'm taking a boxing class). It's still too traumatic for me to discuss!