New title and new kid!

Well, it has been quite a while since I have written. Quick update: we sold the house, moved to an apartment, moved from the apartment, are now renting a new house and have added a beautiful little girl to our mix. Cookie is about to be 10 months and Bee will be 5 this Wednesday. Boy, have things moved fast in just a few years.

In light of adding Cookie to our family I figured it was time for a new title and "The Harrold House" seemed fitting. It can no longer just be about my life with Bee since we now have another little girl. Plus, opening it up seems good and timely so that I can start involving all aspects of our lives in to the blog. I will be making more of an effort to make this a regular thing and will be reaching out to my friends and family for their support to make this blog more popular. I am hoping to incorporate tips on cooking, cleaning, saving money, having fun and just general goodness all around. Changes are coming, for sure, to our family and so, to here as well! I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!

the cough

Well, it's been a while since I have had something to write about and now I do! Allergies! Generally speaking we have been dealing with allergies since Bee was born. She goes through periods where she has terrible coughing fits at night all of which are blamed on post nasal drip caused by allergies. We have tried everything from humidifiers, slanting her mattress, steamy showers, cough medicines, allergy medicines and, yes, even putting Vicks on the bottom of her feet. The Vicks does work by the way for a while but then it starts to not be as effective. This year has been especially bad. The coughing is so hard at night that she gags or seems like she might throw up from it. Forget about a good night sleep. I haven't slept through the night in a month. There is usually a 2 hour period sometime after 2:00 am that we are awake. I haven't been this tired since she was a baby. It's startng to wear on me and my nerves. I'm dangerously close to tears on a regular basis and I don't think she, my husband or I can take anymore! So, we have decided to take her to an asthma and allergy specialist. I have no experience in this area what so ever. Her pediatrician, while we really like her, just keeps giving us cough medicine and bronchodilator syrup which to me just treats the cough. I understand that the cough needs to be treated but to me it is just the symptom. So, off we go on Monday to see the allergy doctor to tell us what is causing this or if it is possible that she has asthma. I have been speaking with a co-worker who went through the same thing with her little boy, who's a few years older than Bee, and I have been getting a lot of wondersful information from her. But, I do want to know if anyone else out there has any other suggestions, advice, experience in working with an allergy specialist, etc. I will post more as I learn more. Thanks everyone!

Terrible 3's?

We are getting very close to Bee's 3rd Birthday and I am scared! Everyone told us the two's would be bad but that the three's would be worse. Luckily, while we had some meltdowns and stand-offs, I don't think she was anywhere near the evil child I was told would emerge during the terrible two's. So, I held hope that the three's would not be as bad either. Until, two weeks ago that is. And, I have realized that is has been steadily getting worse the closer we get to her 3rd birthday which is just a couple weeks off. I am not exaggerating either. I am surprised her head hasn't spun in a circle like in The Exorcist. She fights us on everything. Bed, getting dressed, going potty (which we are fully potty trained now, sorry no posts happened on that but we had enough to deal with), going to daycare, eating, putting her socks on, putting her shoes on, playing - am I making my point here? And don't even get me started on the energy level! That child goes and goes and goes all the time! She does not have a calm level right now at all. Everything is 110% and she runs everywhere! Doesn't she get tired, ever? I'm exhausted all the time from chasing after her.

Though the best, and the funniest, is bedtime or when she is dealing with her feelings in general. She yells and I don't mean a high pitch girly scream but a guttural Exorcist inspired yell and she tacks on at the end "I'm soooooooo maaaaadddd." Then with her tiny little fist, she hits something. Not me, we have pretty much done away with that, but something near her. Now, I realize that we are headed in to anger management territory here but there is something very comical about little 30 pound child yelling out her feelings by using the exact words. For instance besides "I'mmm soooooo maaadddd," there's "sniff sniff I'm sooooo saadd" or "laughing - I'm sooo happpyy momma." It's actually really cute and I am glad she can identify her feelings.

Here's my hope. My hope is that it doesn't get any worse than this. I mean she has to level out sometime right? You should see how sweet she is first thing in the morning when she crawls in to bed with me and says "momma, want to touch your hair" and she plays with my hair and rubs my arm. Then she snuggles up to me and we snooze until it is time to get up. I mean come on! She is the sweetest thing ever then so why doesn't it last? Oh well, I guess I have take those moments and hold on to them tight.....like when she is screaming at me. Maybe I can start using that philosophy of picturing people naked while public speaking, but instead apply it differently to us, and picture her peaceful and sleeping when I am dealing with her screaming, head spinning moments. Worth a try I guess...wish me luck. (insert Exorcist theme music here)

I give a lot of credit to the book Big Feelings: A book filled with emotions. (https://www.marketplace.parentingcounts.org/ProductDetail/Big_Feelings.aspx)
Figuring out how to deal with her emotions is still a work in progress but this book is helpful in identifying them and explaining them to her in a way that she can understand.

We are still here!

Wow, I am not very good at keeping up with this! I suppose that is why all of my baby journals are only quarter complete. I really need to get better or we won't have anything for her when she is older. My cousin completed a whole first year journal for her daughter. I mean this thing is mac daddy! It even has a calendar page for each month that she filled out extensively, everyday, when Bee's cousin did something or they went somewhere. I mean to tell ya it can make me feel like a slacker! Guess maybe I should stop blogging and start scrap booking? Nah, I can barely keep up with the blogging as it is so maybe I should just stick to it. I am making note to blog more though so stay tuned!

Heading into Summer!

Well, it has been eventful the last month I must say. The potty training continues. It has been difficult but we are hanging in there. Little Bee is in regular underwear for most of the day and does fine, as long as we keep reminding her to go! If she gets to playing, and doesn't think about it, we have a problem. Luckily daycare reminds her as well so we are fending off most accidents. What has worked seems to be giving her a little control and power over the situation. When we told her she was a big girl, and needed to go potty herself, she got in to it. Now we aren't aloud to be any part of it! We do stand there to make sure she goes and washes her hands (and we clean the potty) but other than she is in full control. Now if she could only be in control of WHEN to go we would have a home run!

She has also started to become a little parrot or magpie as Nana calls it. She repeats everything! Which means we really have to start watching what we say around her. Here are some favorites of ours:

1. When I ask her to do something she holds the sides of my face and says, "listen mommy, listen."
2. Looking at me speaking about her daddy she says, "what is his problem?"
3. From Bear and the Big Blue House she will get in your face, sniff and say, "what's that smell?" It's very, very funny, especially the sniffing part, but not meant in a mean way because, well, Bear is not mean!
4. "Focus" which is a word I use a lot with her because her attention is so easily set adrift. But, let's just say her "focus" sounds shockingly similar to a four letter word I won't write here. So, we have starting to not say that and we make sure to correct her pronunciation!
5. Lastly, our favorite, is when we ask her to do something and she turns and says to us, "few minutes" while holding up three fingers; meaning give me a few more minutes. Very cute that she tries to negotiate!

We are having so much fun with her right now. She is testing us daily to see what she can get away with but we are holding pretty firm, for the most part. I loved her as a baby and will always want her to be that but now she is lovey, she is affectionate, she is talkative, she sings, she screams and has all of the little characteristics that we saw before but she could never thoroughly get across. Now she can and it's a blast!

Hope your summer is a blast! I will update when I can because we have a lot going on in the two months. Including a road trip, Bee's first, to Omaha! That should make for some excellent posts! Ha!!

Craziness ensues!!!

Things have been pret-ty crazy around here lately. It constantly looks like a toy explosion in our living room and things have become completely unorganized. I am starting to feel like spring cleaning is in our very near future! Bee is doing wonderfully! She is talking so much and saying such funny things. I have found, though, that she does not like change and I mean does not like it. If there is a schedule, or something that we do regularly, she does not want to stray from it! Our morning routine is one of these things and just one example of what I am talking about.

Every morning she comes in at about 6:30 am, wakes me up and we get some cereal and turn a show on, I won't name it but to give you a hint it is a small explorer and sometimes her cousin or a curious little monkey! In any case, she has her breakfast and some milk and I get ready for work. We get in the car and I take her in to school. Once we get in to her class, she picks out the seat where she will eat her breakfast, yes breakfast again. Don't worry, she only gets a little bit of cereal to tie her over until breakfast at school. I don't need Jamie Oliver showing up at my door with a Food Revolution! Which, by the way, I caught the first episode and it was great. Anyway, I sit her down in the chair of her choosing and they give her breakfast. I give her a kiss and most of the time she then pushes me away and says, "go mommy or vamanos mommy." Thank you little explorer girl. The other morning, however, was a different story. We get to the school and there is a firetruck taking up most of the parking lot and parents with their kids out on the sidewalk. There are also teachers with the kids that had already been dropped off out on the playground. In their designated areas, of course, because every age group has their own fenced off section of playground. After waiting for about 25 minutes they decide to allow the parents that are waiting to drop the kids off to their respective teachers in the playground area assigned to their age group. So, I go in with Bee and give her to the teacher with her class, give her a kiss and start to leave. She freaked out! This is not the first time, that something has not gone normal or what she is used, that she has had a complete meltdown! So, I wonder, am I creating a schedule/planning/routine loving little girl? Have I been to strict on the schedule keeping since she was a baby? I myself am a planner and do not always handle spontaneity well. In fact it makes me itch, but, I do have to say that I am usually well organized when it comes to things happening during the week or bills needing to be paid. I keep a planner and an email calendar that alerts me when tasks are about to be due and it even emails me a schedule every morning at 5:00 am, like I am up that early but when I log in it is there and I know what is happening that day. I also have a backup online calendar in case my first one fails. Hmmm....looking back at what I just wrote am I a schedule monster? And worse yet, am I creating a smaller version schedule monster and is that bad of a thing??? I say, no way!! I say, schedule away mommas!! Teach your kids to schedule away!!!! Schedule power!!! Okay, maybe I am going a little over board but seriously, I would rather her meltdown every once in a while if things don't go perfectly than be completely lost.

P.S. There was no actual fire damage to the building and none of the kids were hurt. Whomever was making breakfast, the breakfast that Bee so expects to be ready when she sits at her seat, caught something on fire and burned it. Every thing was fine though and they were bringing in fans when I was leaving to get the smoke out. So, no worries there and yes I still completely trust them with my little Bee!

Checking in!

Boy, it's been a while since I have written! Needless to say potty training wasn't going that well so we put it on hold for a bit. Not sure if I have mentioned that at all. We have slowly started working with her on it again. The power of getting a sticker to place on a chart is truly amazing! Sunday was a pretty good potty training day! When she got up from her nap, and for the rest of the day, she stayed dry and only went to the bathroom on her potty and not in her disposable. This was a victory, small but a victory none the less. We are looking at this as a positive sign that she might be getting ready to really tackle this thing head on. We just need to get her to tell us she has to go instead of us always bringing it up to her. We will keep taking her in there and it will click soon enough. She's a pretty smart little girl. She counts to 20 and sings her ABC's and this, to me, means she is the smartest little girl ever!! Whether other kids are already doing it or not! Over the weekend she came up with a couple new little things:

The first is to give me a hug, rub or pat my shoulder and say, "It's otay Momma, I got you." And no I did not spell "okay" wrong, she really does say "otay." It brought tears to my eyes the first time she did it because I was exhausted and a little stressed out. It made me feel good to know that maybe she will have some of my compassion and empathy in her. Those little sparks of what kind of person she is going to be, or might be, are so awesome.

The second, and the funniest, is now her Curious George makes trips to time out. Why does he go to time out you ask? For none other than hitting! The one thing we have been combatting with her since she turned 18 months! It is funny though to see her. She puts him in time out, comes over, tells us he is in time out and that it's because he hit her. So, we tell her that is good and that he needs to say sorry. She goes over to the chair, picks him and says, "you say sorry," and he apparently does so she gives him a hug. It's really cute but also shows us that she is starting to understand more. That and the fact that the hitting has really dropped off since she turned two. Either way, another small victory!

There has been a lot going! I am hoping to be able to write more soon! Added an updated picture so you can see how big our Bee is getting!