Self Portrait: Fi and Mama

Fi and I being silly in her play room the other day.

Last day of school

Fiona had her last day of Mom's Day Out for the Summer session on Thursday. I am very sad about this. I have been sewing like mad while she is there and now I will have no uninterrupted crafting for five weeks. So, when I went to pick her up, Miss Rachael said "she is a biter." Apparently, my sweet little angel decided to bite (out of anger) two different children that day. This isn't that big of a surprise to me seeing as how she has been testing her limits with Kristopher and I for months now. I suppose it was only a matter of time. I asked the teacher if she had any suggestions on how to handle that. her reply was "You probably don't want to ask me. I don't read books. In my house if someone bites me, I bite them back. If my oldest pushes down one of the younger two, my husband goes over and pushes him down." Hmmm, I thought. It seems a little Hanibalistic to me, but I am also a "compassionate" so therein may l lie my problem. I can't honestly grasp the concept of punishing a child by hurting them to show them that hurting someone else is wrong. It is like that bumper sticker...Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong ( I am not sure if that is the actual verbage, but i used to have that when I was younger). Regardless, it seems silly to me. Discipline is a tricky thing. Trying to be 100% coinsistent, on the same page as your partner, and not screw up your child is a fine line that is very hard to walk. Hopefully it gets easier, but I doubt it. Anyway, if anyone reads this and has a suggestion, PLEASE leave it!

Peas please

Fiona is still eating very well, lots of fruit and veggies. She still isn't too big into meat, though, she did have a Mexican pizza at El Chico yesterday and ate quite a bit. Fruit of any kind is favorite right now. Oranges, bananas, nectarines, apricots, plums and grapes are always in the fridge. Cheese, spinach bites, black beans, Horizon yogurt tubes and anything with Elmo on it are big as well. She only wants to eat Earth's Best snack crackers, cookies and o's b/c of the Sesame Street Characters on the box...good marketing! We haven't experienced the usual pickiness that most parents of toddlers tell me about. Her appetite is big and her palette is wide. I keep waiting for that to change and have my Super Baby Food book close at hand for when it does. There are so many clever toddler recipes in the pages of that book.

Three little monkeys.............

............jumping on the bed. One fell off and landed smack on her right cheek. Yes, Fi's new favorite thing to do is to get right in the center of the bed and jump or dance. Monday, she fell off, hit her hip on the side rail and landed on her cheek. She has a bruise, though it is pretty faint. The very next day, also in the guest room, she somehow ran in to the partially ajar door with the same cheek. So above the bruise is a red line. It must be this age. She is going 90 mph and completely fearless. I caught her jumping from the ottoman to the chair today. She runs now, flat-footed, as fast as she can, bumping in to everything along the way. Practice makes perfect.