Putting stuff in stuff

Alice has been practicing her spacial skills lately as she has realized that containers can fit "stuff" inside them and then those containers can fit into other containers and so on. I am forever finding all kinds of random assorted items throughout the house. Some of my favorites have been:

• A piece of bread inside a fossil watch tin in the toybox
• An old wallet I let her keep in her purse that was packed full of puzzle pieces
• Coins rattling around in the steering wheel (she had jammed them in through the cracks between the horn and the rest of the wheel)
• playing in the basket aisle at DI, putting a little stuffed animal into a lunch box, and that into a basket, then that basket into a bucket... and so on

She will constantly just rearrange things and try to fit more and more into different boxes. She was trying to put a Mario toy into a tin that also had a large fridge magnet that makes music and some stencils in it, and was very frustrated that not all 3 would fit. I would show her that 2 of the three would fit, but then she'd want to add the last item. Finally, we did find a way to tetris it all in and she was happy.

Today she came up to me in the kitchen and saw that I have a zippered pocket on my pants, and said, "A zipper. Can I put toys in it?" She came back with a beanie baby sized mickey mouse, realized it wouldn't fit, then ran out of the kitchen saying "gotta get a smaller toy" to herself. Right now, I actually have no idea what is in my pocket...

The only thing that is frustrating is that along the bottom of our entertainment center, there is a gap that is about an inch tall, and she loves to stick stuff under there. Since it is such a small opening, and the TV and entertainment center are so heavy, I can't really get much out from under there once she has put something there. Once in a while, I will run a ruler or something under to retrieve what I can, which is usually book and puzzle pieces mixed in with other random small toys. One time she stuck her beloved "mickey mouse ice cream" toy (a piece for mr. potato head that we got in disney world) under there, then realized it was stuck and ran off into the kitchen saying "I need a knife!" When I asked her why, she told me that her mickey mouse ice cream was stuck "on the tv." Yeah... we're still working on our prepositions. ;)

In other news, I had my 3 hour glucose tolerance test today and it was horrible... I felt sick the whole time. My fasting was good (91) but my 1 hour was around 220 somewhere, my 2 hour was 200, and my 3 hour was 140. Basically... confirmation that I have gestational diabetes again. It's kind of a bummer, but I expected it. I looked up how much glucose is in the drink they give you, and it's somewhere between 75 and 100 grams. Considering that the little bottle is only 8 oz, that is a LOT. imagine dissolving 1/2 cup of sugar in 1 cup of water (a little less i guess...) and then drinking it. Yuck. 

Anyway, they faxed an order over to the diabetes specialty people for me to be educated. I'll see what they have to say, but pretty much have been eating as if I'm diabetic already, checking my blood sugar and have had no problems yet, so I think I'll be fine. 

I just got an email from babycenter...

I love the emails baby center will send b/c they have information about what kinds of things Alice should be doing and other developmental landmarks both for her and for Jack. I just got this one though, and it cracked me up:

"By 30 months, your child can name a few body parts, some colors, and even a friend or two. Her memory and speaking ability work in tandem. Help out by expanding on what she says. If she says, "Dog sleep," you might say, "Yes, Spot is curled up and fast asleep in his doggie bed." She can't imitate your complex language patterns yet, but her brain is absorbing them. Every time you repeat her words or expand on them, you're giving her memory practice. "


I know that Alice's language skills are advanced, but most of the kids she hangs out with speak at a similar level to her, so I forget sometimes. She has been putting together some complex sentences lately, like "Katie took the ball and I really want it" or "Watch out for the scary ghosts, Daddy!" (while he's playing mario game). The other day, Sarah was rocking Pepper and Alice came into the room with her. Alice saw the breast pump and asked "what's that?" Sarah told her, "It's a pump". Alice then put the pieces up to her little boobies and asked "Can I try?"  When Sarah asked her how she knew that's what the pump was for, Alice replied "People just learn these things". 


I love listening to her talk and seeing her grow. She's so much fun and such a sweet little girl. She is starting to get an argumentative streak though. For example, I will tell her "I'm making soup for dinner" and she'll say, "It's not soup for dinner. It's soup for lunch". I have no idea why she would argue something like that, but she will... 


I know it's a ways away, but we're looking at a preschool for her to start up in the fall of 2011. It's a Spanish immersion preschool that I think looks really cool: http://www.mckeeschool.com/ It is a lot of time each day, but it's mostly narrated playing, so I'm not worried about it overloading her. I think that with her language skills, it'd be really nice for her to learn another language at a young age. We'll see when the time gets closer if we do decide to put her in, but for now I'm pretty sure that I want to :)