The Toddler`s Vocabulary 2013

Before this gets out of hand.  I want to keep track of words that the Toddler says.  This is the list so far. Some he can say more clearly then others.  I will update this when he adds more!

All done - complete with hand motion
Baby
Ball
Book
Box
Bubba - for bottle
Bye-Bye (Feb 16, 2013)
Car
Cat
Cheese
Dat - means what's that?
Go? - with hand gestures (Feb 2013)
Hello kitty (about our cats, not the character)
Hot
Kitty Cat (Feb 2013)
Mama (Jan 28, 2013 - finally!)
Pablo (more like Paba, but he means Pablo - Feb 18, 2013)
Up (Feb 2013)


Maybe we need to work on some other letters of the alphabet??

Signing

January 29, 2013 - Last night he clearly did the sign for "more".  He used it in context (while he was having ice cream).  Also it was so adorable when he had to concentrate really hard and look at his fingers to make sure they were together!

February 13, 2013 - He now also does the sign for drink/milk as the daycare teaches him.  He can also indicate that he has a dirty diaper too.  It's awesome:)

January 17, 2013 - 10 Years today

Today would have been your birthday.  I can't believe I might have had a 10 year old daughter had things been different.  I found some journal entries that I wrote after we lost you and they brought tears to my eyes even now. 

January 14, 2003 was the worst day ever.  I didn't really understand pain and heartbreak until that day.  For a long time after I hated ultrasounds. The day started out with so much hope, we went shopping.  I remember, we bought a diaper bag and some socks.  I think we also picked up things for a baby shower the next month.  Then we headed over to the hospital for our first ultrasound.  It was at 24 weeks.  We were so excited.  All that excitement ended when we begged the technician to tell us what was wrong and why did we need to see our doctor.

Turned out that our daughter died sometime since our last appointment.  After speaking with the doctor, he told us that the baby had some horrible malformations that could not be predicted.  I was numb with pain.

It took nearly 30 hours to induce and deliver her.  I asked not to feel anything, and I felt everything.  She was small.  I never held her.  I have a foot print and a hand print along with some clothing that they would have put on her.

After that day I didn't think I wanted to try again.  I was so scared and it was easier to try and convince myself that I didn't want kids.  I am glad though that I changed my mind and we now have three beautiful kids that are my reason for being. 


GONE TOO SOON.
--------------

This was a life that hardly begun
no time to find your place in the sun
no time to do all you could have done
but we loved you enough for a lifetime

No time to enjoy the world and its wealth
No time to take life down off the shelf
no time to sing the song of yourself
though you had enough love for a lifetime

Those who live long endure sadness and tears
but you'll never suffer the sorrowing years
no betrayel, no anger
no hatred, no fears
Just love, only love in your lifetime..

Odd thing to consider when choosing baby products

When purchasing stuff for your baby think about how it will look in photos.  For example the high chair:  as soon as your baby gets more mobile, he won't want to sit still to have his photo taken.  If the high chair has nice and simple decorative padding on the back of the seat your photos won't appear cluttered.

I never really thought about this until my Dad mentioned that the photos I take of Toddler in the high chair look nice.  I take a lot of photos with him in the chair.  Last year during my photo a day blog I was having time constraints when I went back to work and the only place I could quickly get a shot was in the chair.  I am glad I got a nice high chair:)

By the way I have the Peg Perego Prima Pappa in Savana Cocao.

Inner Geek - Work Stuff I Might Need Later

I love this blog post - I'm a geek!  I know...but it shows clearly how to format your letter in word so that the address shows in the window of the envelope.  NO MORE GUESS WORK!  I am definately going to use this next time I type a letter.

I hate it when I use labels and they get all blackened when they run through the printer more than once, what if I just need to do one envelope?

Make address guesswork a thing of the past

October 23, 2012

Writing and printing letters in Microsoft Word is a fairly simple task that all virtual assistants must know how to do. Yet recently, I was asked a question that I actually didn’t know the answer to. I was asked “what are the measurements for placing the address block in a letter in the correct place so that they show in a window envelope?” Well, I thought, surely it’s just one of those things that you know. I just KNOW where to put it so that it lines up with the window as equally I just KNOW where exactly to fold the letter so that it folds tidily. Perhaps it’s an inbuilt secretarial sixth sense? No, I doubt it, it’s more likely to be the numerous years of trial and error, frustration and wasted paper back when I was an employed secretary!

Now that’s fine for those of us who have these great letter typing/folding skills, but what about those who don’t, your clients for instance? As a result of this conversation, I was then asked if I could create a template letterhead for my client, so that they can make sure they always get their address block in the correct place so I thought I’d share it with you.

It’s important to remember that it’s possible that the window positioning could vary slightly depending upon the manufacturer, but on the whole, these measurements should work for most envelopes. The standard window (a left-hand window) size and position is the same for all commercial window envelopes, regardless of the size of the envelope. It measures 9cm wide and 3.45cm deep. It is positioned 2cm from the left side of the envelope and 1.2cm from the bottom of the envelope.

Create your address container

To begin, open a new Microsoft Word document. Then using either paragraph formatting or a text box or frame we want to position our address. With my template, I chose to use a text box, as I feel that this will eliminate user error with accidentally moving the text box and upsetting the alignment. You could just as easily the address directly onto the document, using paragraph formatting to set the address block alignment.

To insert a new text box click insert > text box > draw text box

then click anywhere in your document and draw a small text box. At this point, the size doesn’t actually matter as we are going to set the dimensions from within the text box properties.

Size & Positioning

Next, right click in your text box and select ‘more layout options’, you’ll then be presented with a further box with options. Firstly, choose the ‘Position’ tab and set the settings as in the image below. As margins may vary in different documents it is important that you set the absolute position relative to the page and not the margin:

• Horizontal alighment – set the absolute position to 2cm to the right of page
• Vertical alignment – set the absolute position to 5.5cm below page
• Make sure that the options to move object with text are unchecked to avoid the text box moving when the letter is edited.

Next, select the tab named ‘size’ and set the size as in the image below:

• In the first section, set the height to 3.45cm
• In the next section set the width to 9cm

When you are done, click ‘ok’.

You should now see you text box positioned something like this. You can add in a dummy address at this point so that you can see how to position your text. Your text box should be almost exactly the same measurement and positioning as the window in your envelope. The next step is to position your text inside the text box, allowing perhaps for slight errors in folding the letter or slight variations in window position.

As we did before, right click on your text box, and this time select ‘format shape’

In the resulting window, select ‘text box’ from the menu on the left (near the bottom) and then you will see the options for formatting the internal margins of your text box. You can play with these and set them to your preference, but I found that an internal margin of 0.5 – 1cm was sufficient. I made sure to leave at least 1cm in the left hand margin to make sure that the address won’t be cut off by being too close to the edge of the window on the envelope.

Also, make sure that the check box ‘resize shape to fit text’ stays unchecked to avoid your text box changing shape when you alter the address.

When you are done, click ‘close’ and that’s all there is to it.

One last thing…

One final little touch that I added to my template was two very small marks in the margins of my document positioned at 10.4cm below the top of the page. I simply did this using the line tool to make a tiny line, then right click and position as we did for the text box. I put these into the header of the document so that they couldn’t be accidentally deleted, but they serve as a useful guide for folding your letter and making sure that you get it right first time!

January's First Snowman

The Girl played outside on the Sunday before we all went back to school and work.  She worked hard on rolling the parts of the snowman, and I helped her by lifting them into place.  The Boy played outside for a little while, but he was much more interested in playing Skylanders Giants (the most amazing Christmas present ever!  Santa is so smart!).

She was so excited to finally use the snowman kit that they got for Christmas 2011, last winter there was no snow, so they weren't able to build even one snowman.  She made up for it with this Girl-sized snowman which looks awesome!

The Baby was feeling under the weather (I think he had a reaction to the Chicken Pox vaccine) because he was running a fever and still had that horrible runny nose.  You can see in the photo....not all my photos are nice....it is important to remember that the kids had snotty noses, it's all part of being a kid!

January 8, 2013 - Off to a Sick start

I was hoping to enjoy the week off between New Year's and going back to work, but I spent the week caring for three sick kids.  The Girl was still fighting off her ear and throat infection.  She was getting better, but still had sporadic fevers.  I spent the morning of New Year's Day in the walk in clinic with the Boy for the same issue.  Turned out he had tonsillitis.


On the 3rd I took the Girl to the dentist to have her first tooth pulled.  Unfortunately my kids tend to have new teeth come in just behind their baby teeth, this doesn't allow for the new teeth to push out the baby ones properly.  I thought she was going to cry, but she just made an "eek" when he pulled it out.  What a brave girl!


On the 4th, I took the Baby Toddler to the Doctor for his 15 month check-up and vaccinations.  He got a fever on the 5th, I assume it was from the chicken pox vaccine, although none of my other kids ever got sick from it.  I have learned that child #3 doesn't follow any of the familiar patterns of my other kids.  I suppose if we were crazy and decided to have a 4th kid (which is impossible now and not going to happen) that child would have his or her own way of being too.  I love the uniqueness that each kid has.  Their different personalities and their own way of seeing the world.

The Girl is beautiful, positive, happy, giving, loving and creative.  She would give you her last piece of chocolate if you asked, and would cuddle with you all night if she felt you needed it.  She loves both of her brothers and looks up to her big brother so much.  She loves getting her photo taken, dressing up and getting dirty.

The Boy is silly, smart, eager to learn, interested in science, nature and the world.  He can be selfish and mean at times, and has a hard time understanding how he speaks with people. But he can also be cuddly and gentle.  He loves his little brother and he is great at watching him and holding him.  He loves his sister, but he can't or doesn't know how to show it.  I wonder if he is just getting to the age where all girls are gross, and his sister just happens to fall into that group?


The Toddler is hilarious, he is funnier then the Boy (and we didn't think that was possible).  He is smart and learns quickly.  He loves playing with cars and dolls and he gets along with everyone.  He is also stubborn and hates having his nose cleaned (it sounds like I am torturing him just so he doesn't have a boogy filled nose!).  He is also cuddly and is most content when his entire family is home with him in the family room.

Going back to work on Monday was bittersweet, again, because I enjoyed being at home, and I got so much done over the break, I know that if I had a few more days, I could get the house into a better place (organized wise).  Being home with the kids was nice, even though they were sick.  Things would have been worse if they were sick while I was supposed to be at work, because it would probably have resulted in me missing work to take care of them.

I am not sure how my posts are going to happen this year, but I will definately keep them up.  I might post two days in a row, or not for a week.  I am still taking pictures at home of the kids, but I'm not sure how many of them I will be posting.  Life is busy, and I think I am going to try and spend more time living it then writing about it.  If I have something interesting to Blog about, you will find it here.