To the Zoo

We decided to go the zoo this weekend.  The weather was perfect and we thought Audrey would appreciate it since she's been really into animal books lately.  We were also excited to see the new Rocky Shores exhibit there and see the new polar bear!

We started out with the monkeys.  Audrey thought they were cats, haha.  She LOVED being able to walk around this time.  She was squealing the entire time, running around.

Playing in the hollow log...

 Right by the seal/sea Lion exhibit was this friendly little seal statue.  Audrey was pretty fascinated by it.

Okay, this next picture is kind of a funny story.  Near the new Rocky Shores exhibit there was a little gift shop.  I wandered over to look at it because I spotted some small stuffed otters.  We call Audrey "Otter" as a nickname so I thought it would be cute to get her one.  Audrey followed me over to the shop and ran straight for this bald eagle toy.  We showed her bears, seals, and the otter and she wanted nothing to do with them.  She snuggled this eagle and just like that, the otter was out.  You can see her clinging to it in the rest of the pictures.  It's funny how kids just make up their minds about stuff.  We keep wondering what it was about that little eagle that made her love it so much.  I totally would have chosen the bear or the otter.  They were WAY cuter, haha.

The polar bear walking around.  I was sad that we didn't get to see her swim. :(

Checking out some porcupines...

I thought this was a cool picture I snagged of the snow leopard.

After our zoo trip we ate dinner at a place called the Blue Plate Diner.  I had heard lots of good things about it and it was pretty cheap.  It was a typical greasy-spoon diner type place but we all liked it.  Audrey ate nearly half a hamburger, I had a Reuben, and Tony got a meatloaf sandwich.  Like I said, greasy, but YUMMY!  I would go back again.  It's a total dive but I liked it a lot.

Hooray for fun weekends!  Now Tony says we can't complain when he goes to work tomorrow. :)

Troubles in Toddler Discipline

I've been struggling lately with the whole concept of "disciplining" Audrey.  I realize that she is only 15 months old, and discipline isn't entirely necessary, except that it is.  Audrey understands the word "no" and she understands "I don't think so!" She knows when she is doing something naughty.  I know this because she will look at me say "no no no!" grin, and do it anyway.  If I give a firm "no" she giggles.  If I move her hands, she giggles.  I try to explain to her why things are dangerous and can hurt her.  She knows the word "ouch" and uses it quite a bit during the day because she's constantly falling.  I hate using "no" so much, and plane to tone the usage of that word WAY down in the future, but for now it is a simple way to communicate to her and something she understands.

Some things I don't want Audrey to do, she just simply doesn't understand.  Let me give you an example:

Saturday Audrey had an ice cream scoop, one of her many favorite kitchen items.  It has a metal scoop and a soft, rubbery handle.  I realize this isn't an optimal toy for a toddler, but she sneaks it out of the babyproofed drawers on a daily basis.  I try to pick my battles wisely and so I sometimes allow her to play with said scoop.  Anyway, she was taking this scoop and banging our coffee table with it, making dings in the furniture.  I said to Audrey, "no no!  That hurts the table, ouch!" All she did was repeat what I said, and continue the behavior.  Tony suggested I remove the scoop from the situation and THEN explain.  Well that went over well...as soon as I took her scoop she was in full hysterics on the floor.  A beautiful example of your stereotypical toddler tantrum.  Yes, explaining that the scoop would hurt the table would be wonderfully effective at this point.  Once she stopped crying and said, "please?" to get her scoop back, I handed it to her.  She again started banging the table, and the whole ugly cycle repeats itself.

My concern here is that Audrey didn't understand that I didn't want her to bang the table.  For all she knows, I just didn't want her to have the scoop.  I don't know how to teach Audrey in these situations exactly which behavior I do not condone.  Audrey understands so much, and is so good at talking and using her words, but it is hard to communicate (and understand for that matter) this kind of stuff at her age. 

Audrey isn't a bad kid.  She's just a curious toddler who gets into things and explores.

So, here's where you all come in.  Tell me your methods.  Recommend your books.  Send me your YouTube videos.  I need some guidance here.  I have been very well trained in Love and Logic, and used it daily for my job as a preschool teacher.  I think it is wonderfully effective and helpful.  However, Love and Logic, in my opinion, is geared toward older children.  Once she turns 2 and 3, we will be all over Love and Logic.  I've read a bit of Dr. Harvy Karp's The Happiest Toddler on the Block and while I see some good things in methodologies, I'm not totally convinced.  I know that communication is key in scaling back tantrums and that miscommunication is the main reason tantrums erupt, but I just need to understand the most effective way to communicate with Audrey at this stage in life.

What are your favorite methods/techniques/books/etc. for effective toddler "discipline"?  (For the record, I am very much against corporal punishment, so spanking is simply not an option.)

Thanks for your input!

You Know What Grinds My Gears?

High-altitude baking.

I have struggled with this concept since the day I moved here.  Having come from nearly sea level Indiana, I never had to do anything but follow directions on recipes for baked goods.  Here, you have to search the box/recipe for the tiny fine print that tells you that if you don't add extra flour and omit some oil, you might as well throw your batter out the window.

I can't count the number of times I've had sad-looking, flat-as-pancake chocolate chip cookies.  Of course, I ate them anyway.  I'm no respecter of cookies.  They are still delicious, they just don't make you go "ooohhhhh" when you bite into them.  You kind of have to roll them up in a ball to even get anything to chew on.  I always forget to read the high-altitude instructions on things.  When we first got married, if I bought cake mix I would always highlight the high-altitude instructions, circle them, draw stars by them so that I wouldn't forget and have a floppy cake.  I got out of that habit somehow, and I always realize that I forgot to follow them after I put my pan in the oven.  It's really hard. (First-world problems, here.)

If you want to bake some fabulous cookies here, you can't just Google your way to chocolate chip perfection.  Martha Stewart's best-ever fabulous chocolate chunk walnut delights?  NOPE.  Recipe with over 1 million pins on Pinterest?  NOPE.  Unless you have memorized the amounts of flour you need to make cookies in the mountains, you can't rely on even the best internet recipes.  (Why do all of the good bakers live at sea level, anyway?)

Today I told Tony I would bake him some cookies for his big hike tomorrow.  He's doing his annual Lone Peak adventure with his sister and high-calorie treats are a necessity when you're hiking for 12 hours.  I looked on Pinterest before I realized it was pointless.  Finally I searched for high altitude chocolate chip cookies, experimented a little, and I made it happen.

Let me introduce you to the fluffiest, chewiest, sexiest chocolate chip cookies on this side of the Mississippi:

Poor photo quality brought to you by my iPad

They look like bakery cookies, don't they?!  I figured it out!  They are thick and chewy with the slightest bit of crunch on the edges.  Ahhh....

You wanna know the recipe, dontcha?  I'll post it for my fellow high-altitude bakers.

• 1 cup butter or margarine
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup semisweet chunks (I just chopped up a Ghiradelli bar)
• 1/2 cup walnuts, toasted, chopped

Directions  

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  
2.  In a skillet on the stove top roast whole walnuts over medium heat.  You know they're done when you start to smell them.  Remove from heat onto cutting board and let them cool.  Once cooled, chop. I like my walnut pieces kind of small, but chop them to whatever size you like.
3. In a large bowl, stir together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Mix in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the batter just until blended, then mix in the chocolate chips and walnuts so they are evenly distributed. 
4. Drop cookies by spoonfuls onto un-greased cookie sheets. Bake in the preheated oven until the edges begin to turn golden, 12 to 15 minutes (in my oven it's more like 10-13, so just go with whatever time your oven takes). Allow cookies to cool for a minute or two on the baking sheets before removing to wire racks to cool completely.  This allows them to firm up so you don't have any "cookie casualties."

There you have it.  We don't have to suffer any longer!  Now excuse me, I have to go eat my fourth cookie...

Old Bones

Two nights ago Audrey was really struggling with sleep.  She was crying and only wanted to be held.  She seemed really scared and was acting really strange.  It was 1am, and we all needed some sleep, so I decided to lie down on her floor.  She was really pleased with this scenario, and took about 5 minutes to fall back to sleep (during those five minutes, checking to make sure I was still there several times).  I was tired, too, so I ended up falling asleep and spending the night in Audrey's room...on the floor.  I haven't slept on the floor with just a blanket since having sleepovers with my cousin when I was 10.  I should have known better.

8:30 am rolled around (yay for sleeping in!) and my alarm clock was a cute little, "mama, mama!" softly spoken by Audrey.  I smiled as I woke up hearing that, but quickly realized, "oh my gosh...I can't move.  I CAN'T MOVE!"  My back was aching, my neck was stiff, and I couldn't feel one of my arms.  Audrey started getting impatient with me as I tried to regain mobility.  It took me a good 15 minutes to get up from the floor after spending the night there, and I am still recovering from it today.  I'm just getting to old for that kind of stuff, haha!

Oh well, at least it made Audrey happy and we all got SOME kind of sleep that night.

GRE, St. George, and the County Fair

Things have settled down a little bit around here and I am really behind with blogging about our recent activities!  Downloading pictures from my camera made me realize that it is time to blog.

In July, Tony took his GRE exam.  He was pretty stressed about studying and finding time to do so.  He did the best he could with the time he had (at least I think so!) and let's face it, Tony's pretty smart, so I was confident he would do well.  The Friday before his test Audrey and I decided to make Tony a "Good Luck" present.  We hit up the Target Dollar Spot and got creative in the kitchen.  This is what we came up with:

Cookies say "Good Luck We <3 You"

Never mind that the writing on those cookies could qualify them for an entry on Cake Wrecks.  They were chocolate chocolate chip cookies, something Tony really loves.  We also got him some pens, pencils, and snacks for his test.  Unfortunately, he couldn't take ANY of those things in to the testing room.  They gave him pencils, and no food was allowed.  Rats.  Oh well, he enjoyed them anyway!

Audrey REALLY loved helping me bake cookies. I let her dump all of the dry ingredients in and she thought it was the best.  She's just the cutest little baker!

Tony did really well on the Verbal portion of his GRE (surprise, surprise) and above average on his Math portion.  He got 96th percentile for verbal!  He did well enough to get into the program he is interested in, so that's all that matters!  Speaking of that, I should mention that Tony is no longer going to get his Master's from Utah State.  Out of curiosity one night I started looking at schools that were ranked high for M.S. degrees for computer science.  We found out that Colorado State University is ranked pretty high up there.  I looked at their website and found that they offer a distance education program for the C.S. master's program.  It is the same exact curriculum and diploma that on-campus students receive.  It's a little more expensive, but it's also a little more flexible and a better program.

The week after Tony's test I decided it would be fun and relaxing to take a mini family vacation to St. George.  Tony's parents have a wonderful little house there that they so graciously let us use.  We were both pretty excited to have a weekend away.  Little did we realize that Audrey was not going to be okay with a new place to sleep.  We got there and put her in the pack n' play and she got super scared.  She was shaking she was so scared!  She was really nervous about this new place, probably because it was nearly midnight and she didn't know where she was.  So, she and I slept on the couch until about 4am, when I finally got brave enough to put her in her room.  She stayed asleep until 7am.  We were all tired, to say the least.  BUT we were determined to have fun.

We went swimming, hiking, ate at Chuck-A-Rama (gross) and went to a Wild Life Museum.  Audrey loved all of it but the sleeping part.  It was a fun trip, just a very tired one.  Certainly not as relaxing as we had envisioned.  Here are some pictures from that trip:

Those are Otters behind her :)

FINALLY....

This past Thursday (we always seem to do family night on Thursday for some reason) we headed to the Utah County Fair.  It was really fun, but that county fair couldn't hold a candle to the Johnson County Fair where I grew up.  It was more "carnival" sized with only 6 or 7 rides, two games, and one barn of animals.  Granted, I grew up in a very agricultural state so that could account for the difference in enthusiasm for the county fair.

Audrey didn't know the difference and she had a blast seeing the animals.  She got to hear what a real cow, sheep, and goat sound like.  I think she was shocked at how big and loud all of the animals were and she ended up "baa"-ing for the rest of the night.  We bought some carnival ride tickets thinking Audrey could go on a few of the rides with us but that ended up being a total waste.  The carousel was broken, so that left one ride Audrey could go on.  The "Berry Go Round".  You know those big strawberries with the wheel inside that you can spin?  Yeah, that one.  We all got in and it was all great until Tony started spinning us.  I got really sick and scared really quickly and it made me feel so old that I couldn't handle the Berry Go Round.  Audrey started yelling "ohhhh no!" and her head starting going around in circles, and Tony finally admitted that he was pretty dizzy from it all as well.  After that, we were stuck with several tickets and we could not figure out how to use them.  Tony had a turn on the Gravitron, and I tried to go solo on the Ferris Wheel but they wouldn't let just one person go on in a seat.  So, we've got several extra tickets.  Lesson learned.

This was a big moment for Audrey.  She got to pet a real life Lovey Bunny.

 

Wow, this ended up being a monster post!  Sorry about that.  Cookies for you if you made it to the end.  I'll be sure to keep more up-to-date on our activities so I don't have to do these super long posts!

Finding the Positives

This morning Audrey woke up at 4am, screaming like she was being attacked by a badger.  I'm not sure what the deal was but as soon as she saw me, everything was okay.  Having gone to bed WAY too late, this 4am wake-up call was anything but welcome from me. I decided this morning that I was going to remain positive.  I've tried to look for all of the good in today because it was looking pretty grim this morning.

THE GOOD IN TODAY:

• We've been really trying to enforce the "use your words" rule around here.  Audrey will just scream at us to try to get what she wants.  We simply say something like, "I'm sorry, I didn't understand.  Can you please use your words?" or "Can you ask me nicely by saying please?"  We would throw a huge party whenever anyone said please, especially Audrey.  It was hard at first, but now we've got the beginnings of a polite little girl on our hands.  When asking for something, Audrey will look at you and say "pees?" (please)  It's really amazing to me that she learned so quickly.  We're working on "thank you" and using words in other situations, but it gives me confidence that we will be able to teach her to use nice words to get things she wants.  Today we had pizza for lunch (ee-patz, if you're Audrey) and for every bite Audrey would point to the pizza and say, "pees?"  Awesome!
• I got a nap.  Although it was a short one, I got to take a quick snooze this morning.  I'm confident its what has kept me alive today.
• Audrey is happy.  She's been in a much better mood since going back to two naps post-St. George trip.  I really think she needed to catch up on her Zzz's. 
• Audrey and I had to drive to Murray this morning.  I was worried about her getting bored on our 45 minute drive and so I was constantly looking in her mirror to make sure she was okay.  When I checked on her each time, she was quietly and contently reading a book in the backseat.  How cute!
• Isn't it obvious?  IT'S FRIDAY.  The weekend is here.  Time to spend time together as a family!

It's hard for me to not get down on the seemingly bad things that are going on, like only sleeping four hours, so doing this is very helpful for me.  So, even though I feel like the walking dead, there's so much good in the day today!  It's just a bit harder to see through sleepy eyes. :)

My Little Fishie

At the beginning of summer Tony bought season passes to Seven Peaks water park on a Groupon-like site.  They were only 10 dollars each and we thought it would be a fun thing to be able to do.  We haven't gone much but after going for a run in the heat yesterday, I suggested we go after Tony got home from work.  It was the first time we've gone since Audrey started walking and we were excited to see how different her experience would be this time around.

There are two kids' pools at Seven Peaks.  One is really shallow and has a fun jungle gym that sprays water, and the other is about 3ft deep and has mini water slides.  We started in the shallow water so Audrey could walk around and she took NO time getting down to the fun.  She nearly ran towards the jungle gym and climbed all over it, not caring a bit about the older kids that were being crazy around her.  She kept trying to stick her face in the water and fell down a couple times and went under.  (We were always RIGHT by her side.  The total amount of time she was under was probably less than a second.)  I was sure that after the first fall that we would be done.  Audrey would be scared and we'd have to hold her.  Boy, was I wrong.  She loved going under the water and kept dunking her head in!

Tony decided to take her on the slides in the deeper little kid pool and she LOVED them.  Sometimes I don't know who this girl is!  I was terrified of all things pool/water well into middle school and still have anxiety over having to dive off of the diving board in high school.  Tony said he was pretty chicken, too, and didn't like going down water slides.  Audrey kept asking to go over and over and just loved being in the water.  It was really fun to see her enjoy herself so much.

AND ... it made her sleep really well last night. :)