I also wanted to post about CootieGirl’s toddler bed adventure. In six short weeks we’ll be moving CootieBoy to the crib, so I need to get CootieGirl into her toddler bed in that time.

Last night I put her down in her crib then returned several hours later and moved her to the toddler bed. She didn’t wake up during the transition, so she went right back to sleep. So that she wouldn’t freak out if she woke up on the toddler bed, I grabbed a pillow and a blanket and took up my post just next to the bed. For a solid two and a half hours she slept on the toddler bed without incident. She only woke up when I had to get up to attend to CootieBoy and even then she settled back down for a few minutes. But once she heard all the commotion coming from our room (where CootieDad was giving CootieBoy his bottle while watching tv) she was up.

I went back in and laid down, and urged her to follow suit. She did, but at that point it was play time – she kept peeking over the edge of the bed to check on me, she’d dangle her hand over the side and giggle while waiting for me to grab it, and she would hit the siderails of the bed in various drum patterns. After about ten minutes of this I scooped her up, plopped her into the crib, closed the door and went to bed in my own room.

Tonight I plan on doing the same – I’ll be making the switch in a few minutes and will sleep in there until CootieBoy wakes up for his middle of the night bottle. If I can get CootieGirl to sleep in that bed faithfully for at least six hours a night, then I’m confident I can get her to sleep there all night without incident (and without my attendance) by the time CootieBoy takes over the crib.

So a while back I discussed my desire to get CootieGirl to stop using a bottle and use a sippy cup instead. Whenever we tried to give her milk in a sippy cup she’d take a sip and promptly hand the cup back and start crying.

But this week I had a new trick up my sleeve – a new see-thru cup. Earlier this week I let her watch me pour the milk into the cup, and she drank from it happily. The next time she was due some milk, I used the same cup, but this time she refused it and began to cry and point to the bottles I had lined up on the counter to make formula for CootieBoy. Instead, I picked her up and let her watch me put a small amount of Quik into her cup. A couple quick shakes and voila – she was happy as a clam having her first cup of chocolate milk.

She hasn’t refused a sippy cup since – not even the one I handed her this morning when she woke up. She only gets one cup of chocolate milk a day – the rest is regular milk. She only gets one sippy cup of juice a day, and she also gets a couple cups of water a day.

At some point today I brought one of CootieBoy’s bottles out and CootieGirl began to fuss a bit, but I quickly told her it was the BABY’S bottle and she’s a big girl who uses a sippy cup. When she heard the words “sippy cup” she ran over to her cup and took a big swig before turning and smiling at me.

What a girl! She’s a gem, I tell ya!

When I bring out the Swiffer mop to run over our hardwood floors, CootieGirl screams. Not because she is scared of the Swiffer, but because only SHE is allowed to Swiffer. This morning I brought it out to run over the living room and kitchen floors, and I told her she could HELP me do it, which she wasn’t having. I got one of those silent screams for that suggestion. So I quickly moved on and finished the living room. When I reached the kitchen I now had full meltdown, complete with crocodile tears and a tomato red face. She followed me into the kitchen, where I attempted to have her assist me, and at that point she flounced on the floor. I Swiffered around her puddling body.

When I was all done I switched out the dirty cloth for a brand new clean one and handed the mop to CootieGirl. She quickly stood up and began jamming to mop into corners all over the kitchen (not because she felt those needed cleaning the most but more because the mop is so large she couldn’t manipulate it well and ended up getting caught in the corners). But I tell you what, she had a HUGE grin on her face.

Let’s see if she smiles that much at 16-yrs-old when I tell her to mop the kitchen.

So today was CootieGirl’s first “play day” with her new daycare provider and her kids. According to reports, it went quite well. CootieGirl didn’t fuss, she enjoyed all the toys at her disposal (LOTS of toys), she took a two hour nap and didn’t cry about it at all (not that she ever does, but since it was a new environment, you never know), and generally behaved well. She’ll go back next week on Wednesday and Friday. We’ll basically break Madison (Deby’s 2-yr-old daughter) in slowly to the fact that she’s going to have a constant playmate starting in mid-October.

CootieGirl had such an exciting day that she passed out in her crib about thirty minutes ago and will sleep HARD tonight, I think.

Sometimes I forget that CootieGirl is only a year and a half. She’s so smart that I just don’t remember that while she’s SMART she hasn’t learned common sense yet.

Yesterday before we left for church I decided to find a better pair of shoes for CootieGirl to wear. Her sandals that she’s been wearing all summer are beat up and are on the verge of not fitting. I put her on the bed in her room and walked over to the closet. By the time I got the closet door open she was shrieking from the bed. I turn around and CootieGirl is sitting there, face beet red, with a hangar sticking out of her mouth.

Fortunately, it’s a children’s plastic hanger, not an adult’s wire hanger (no wire hangers ever, people). But either way, it’s still not something that should be in her mouth. And the main problem is not that she put it in her mouth, it’s that it’s STUCK in her mouth. Like this:

And not only that, but it was UNDER her tongue, which probably made it even more painful for her. I had no choice but to grab it, twist it sideways and then take it out of her mouth. It obviously scraped the bottom of her mouth, but it drew no blood.

She continued to shriek and cry uncontrollably, and as I stood there cuddling her and telling her she was okay, I couldn’t help but chuckle a tiny bit. I mean, seriously, it was a funny sight to turn and see a red hanger sticking out of that girl’s mouth.

So I figured she learned a valuable lesson, we put her sandals back on and went to church. But do you know that later in the afternoon, after church and after her nap, she tried to put it in her mouth AGAIN? But this time I was a witness and I very loudly said, “CootieGirl no!” at which point she practically threw the hanger across the room to prove that she really wasn’t going to put it in her mouth again. Really, Mama, I wasn’t.

But hey – how do you like my artwork up there? Pretty snazzy, right?

Okay, so I added another spot on the menu bar on the right – there is now a featured thumbnail picture from the photoblog so that you can see when it’s been updated with new pics. As you can see, we have new pics!

So last night I gave CootieGirl a bath and then brought her downstairs to stay up a bit longer because someone from church was stopping by. She wasn’t interested in playing with any toys, and frankly, I didn’t want her making a mess just minutes before going to bed. So I quickly tried to find some children’s programming on tv. It was 7 p.m.,so I figured I’d have no luck and would only find teen programming.

Instead, I found Boohbah. Boohbah is the new Teletubbies – it’s even made by the same Brits that created Teletubbies. I hated the Teletubbies. But I left the Boohbah show on because CootieGirl looked interested because the opening theme features children’s voices.

Can I just tell you she was completely enthralled. The show features a lot of that same gibberish talk that Teletubbies had, but you know what’s weird? At some point during Boohbah the characters were all gibbering to each other and CootieGirl suddenly laughed out loud. Not her typical laugh, as though Cooper did something funny, or as if I tickled her. No, this wasn’t in response to anything *I* did, but in response to what they were SAYING – it was the kind of laugh that you laugh in response to something you think is interesting. It was really weird and I was really taken aback. It’s hard to describe and make any sense.

Also, CootieGirl is rarely content to just sit and watch a program – she normally has to be doing something – playing with something, walking around, etc. But with Boohbah she only wanted to sit on my lap and WATCH, uninterrupted. A few minutes after she laughed out loud, I decided to put her into bed even though Sheri from church hadn’t come over yet. I asked, “Are you ready to go to bed?” and she immediately shook her head. I mean IMMEDIATELY. Usually when I ask her this question she’ll pause at least a moment or two to decide. But she had no intention of leaving Boohbah unwatched in it’s entirety.

Curses on Boohbah though. I don’t know if I can stand having that infernal show playing on my tv every night at 7 p.m. Seriously, just go to the website and even the website is annoying.

I think CootieGirl may have a new molar coming in. This morning she was VERY fussy and kept chewing on her finger on one particular side of her mouth. It’s coincidentally on the same side of her face that she’s been grabbing at a lot over the past few days. She’ll just kind of grab her jawline and squeeze a bit. It’s that same side that she’s chewing on.

Her mouth is full of teeth though – I’m surprised she has more coming in. I figured they were all in already.

Lots of new pictures in the Cootiepie Photoblog today – check ‘em out.

CootieGirl’s vocabulary continues to improve. She’s almost 17 months and I can actually understand what she’s saying. Oh, it’s not clear English. It’s CootieGirln English, but I can basically get what she means.

But what’s the best to listen to is the pure gibberish she speaks while she’s playing. Only she knows that stuff, but it keeps her entertained for long stretches.

In May she said kittycat and Tutter (from “Bear in Big Blue House”).
In July she started with Bubba (which could mean balloons, bubbles, or any other word that starts with “B”)

New words in *her* vocabulary as of September (meaning she says it but only I can tell what she’s saying) :