My, how things have changed…

Here’s a few quick shots of me being a terrible parent, I mean, Lily being a wonderful reindeer. It’s amazing how much things have changed in year. Auld Lang Syne!

Camping

“But the place which you have selected for your camp, though never so rough and grim, begins at once to have its attractions, and becomes a very centre of civilization to you: "Home is home, be it never so homely." 

~Henry David Thoreau

Little Bear and her papa in her new tent. One of my favorite (Photoshopped) images from Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from all of us at “The Life of a Little Bear!” Thanks for reading, whoever you are!

Just some updates…

Little Bear has been growing and changing so much every day that sometimes it’s hard to keep up. It’s also hard to document everything, so I’m going to post a few updates here in hopes that I can catch everyone up.

- She has tons of words now: mama, papa, night-night, hi, bye, yeah (most of the time it comes out “da.” though), no-no, wow (“wawh”), more, book, cook, banana, bath, shoes, button (belly button), baby, Boppa (her name for my dad), sometimes Apa (other grandpa), Yo Gabba Gabba (“Badabadabajai”), bubbles, woof, quack, bus, moo, oink (except she snorts), burger, mine, her name, bear, blanket (“black”), brush teeth, bread, fish, milk, that, water, poop, toot… I think that’s all. Oh, and tonight she came up with “oops,” “house,” and “choo choo.” while we were playing trains. That’s about 40, I think.

- Little Bear is great at pointing things out in books now. She only has to hear things once or twice to pick them up, and while she can’t always repeat the word back to us, she remembers the things.  One of her favorite books, “yuck,” has a salamander in it that she can find every time!

- Lately, it seems that she’s been hitting her terrible twos early. She gets so mad when she can’t do something herself but heaven help you if you try to assist her. She’s been especially grumpy when I get home from work but warms up again within a half an hour so it doesn’t totally rip my heart to shreds.

I had more to write, but as usual, I’m too tired to think straight. So I’ll leave you with this, and with a picture from a year ago, and one from this week. Look how much she’s grown!

Little Bear ate her chicken!

Little Bear is not, and has never been, a picky eater. The only thing she consistently shies away from is meat (go figure) but she likes veggies, kim chi, rice, eggs, tofu, curry, salsa, fruit, everything else. Anyway, she’s had a cold for a few days and was being especially picky at dinner tonight. Finally, on a whim, I got her to put a bite of chicken in her mouth. Immediately Papa and I started singing,

“Little Bear ate her chicken,

Little Bear ate her chicken,

Little Bear ate her chicken,

Woo! Woo! Woo!”

Well she just loves being the center of attention so she swallowed and took another bite. And another, and another. I took this series of pictures and am posting them all because it captures so many of her cute expressions that she uses now days.

I’m going to try and be better about posting, too, but it seems like life (and computer problems) always get in the way. Anyway, without further ado:

Next, driving.

Little Bear’s grandpa retired this week from a long life of police service. Little Bear celebrated by hanging out at the bar.

With special thanks to Jewel…

Tonight, for the first time EVER (at least that I can remember), Little Bear fell asleep on her own. As you know, it’s been a long road and I am sure, had we let her “cry it out,” we would have gotten here faster. Since my last sleep post, we put the side back on the crib. We started following a fairly strict bedtime routine beginning at 6:30 pm and ending with one of us sitting in her dark room as she fell asleep in the crib. To be sure, there was a little crying here, but it was angry crying, we were never out of her sight, and it didn’t ever last long. Sometimes, we would only have to sit for ten minutes, other times, an hour.

And then tonight, I went and stood by the door for awhile (channeling Supernanny again). She didn’t seem to mind, so I opened the door and stepped into the hallway. Still no fussing. I walked out and closed the door and… fifteen minutes later, she was out. Granted, she did take her pants off somewhere in there but you can’t have everything.

 

So there she is. Our sweet sleeper. It’s bittersweet, but it makes me proud for all of us. Proud that she is able to fall asleep on her own, and proud that we didn’t ever have to resort to letting her CIO. It only took 16 months.