Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Morning Routine

My mom got Brett a Keurig coffee maker a couple of years ago for Christmas and he loves it, he makes himself a cup of coffee almost every morning and Corinne has always been mesmerized by the process. When you turn it on the water reservoir is illuminated by a blue light which immediately gets her attention. Sometimes the coffee maker is left on long after we're done with it and then I affectionately refer to it as the "fish tank." I should probably mention that it is sooo much more than a coffee maker - I don't like coffee, but it comes with K-cups for hot chocolate and tea too! And, this Christmas I got my very own K-cups. Hooray!

It makes noise, has lights that blink, moving parts and eventually an aromatic liquid comes out so I can understand why she's taken such an interest. Apparently, she's watched Brett & I make beverages often enough that she has absorbed the entire process. Here is photographic evidence:


We still have to turn the machine on for her, but once it has warmed up she knows just where to look for the K-cups. Brett currently has 3 different types of coffee so I usually ask him which blend he wants, choose the K-cup and hand it to Corinne. She takes it from there and correctly places it in the coffee maker.







Then she pulls down the lid











Once the lid is down, you have to select the size cup you want - it defaults to the size Brett usually drinks, so we skip this step most of the time - and then you push the blinking button to start brewing. In this shot the blue button is lit up.








She pushes the blinking button and viola! she has made her daddy's morning coffee. He is always grateful. I should make it clear that she needs absolutely no prompting for the process, she knows exactly what to do and the order in which to do it. I'm impressed, especially since it took me a good week to figure it all out. She's a smart kid! I should also point out that even after you push the blinking button it takes a few seconds for the liquid to start pouring and by that time I have moved her to a safe distance so that she can watch the cup fill up with out the danger of getting burned.




Saturday, January 23, 2010

Kicking the Habit

For most of my life I have been a habitual television watcher. I cannot even start to tell you how many evenings and weekends I lost to movie marathons, nature shows, documentaries, reality shows and other regular programming. I love tv. And I had a lot of fun while I was pregnant sitting in front of the tube taking it all in. Now, a lot of people are going to be surprised by this, but; we are a one television household and we don't have cable. And still, I. love. my. tv.

But, after Corinne was born I realized for the first time that I really have a problem. During her first few weeks of life Brett & I often had the tv on for background noise, just to remind us that the world outside of our little family was still turning. Also, it was football season and Corinne seemed to enjoy watching the guys in the colorful uniforms run around on the screen (I am thrilled that it looks like we're going to add another football fan to the family). However, as Corinne got older and needed more stimulation or wanted some human interaction the tv became an issue. I would be engrossed in whatever lame show was on and my daughter would request (demand with the screaming) my attention and I would get irritated with her. I was irritated with my baby. Now that is messed up, my priorities were definitely out of whack.

I tentatively suggested to Brett that maybe we should move the tv out of the living room. I didn't want to get rid of it entirely, but I wanted it removed from the area where Corinne & I spent a large portion of our time. I was floored when he was completely supportive of the idea. I shouldn't have been so surprised, I mean back when we were planning to have a baby we talked about the fact that neither one of us wanted our children to grow up in front of the television. We want our kids to use their imagination, have physical play time and interact with their environment! It's not that we're banning tv, but we really want tv time to be special, not ordinary...a privilege, not a right.

And so about six months ago we moved our one and only television to our bedroom. And I really don't miss it. There are several evenings during the week when, after Corinne has gone to bed, you can find me snuggled up in my bed watching some of my favorite shows. But, even when I miss a show I don't get too bent out of shape since I can watch most of "my shows" on the internet the day after they're shown on the network. I also love the internet.

Friday, January 22, 2010

She likes it loud

Over the weekend Corinne & I went to have an adventure with Grandma Chris & Uncle Scott, when we got home Brett was all set up in the living room with his guitar hooked up to his amp having a little personal time to relax. Corinne has always been interested in the guitar and Brett usually plays with her on the acoustic, but he was happy to play with her on the electric. It didn't take her long to figure out that the music was coming out of the amp and she quickly started to explore all of the different knobs. She had lots of fun with all kinds of distortion and it was so cute because every time it would make a different sound she would look up at us with such a surprised and proud look on her face. She reacted the same way the first time she discovered what headphones were all about.
Once she found the knob for the volume, all bets were off. This girl likes to listen to her music loud! I'm seeing baby ear plugs in our future. Whenever she hears music her head will start to sway on the beat and just recently she's started stomping her feet. I'm so thrilled that I get to look forward to a house full of music.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Jumping in feet first

I sent out a holiday card for the first time ever this year. And it felt good! I'm using that as a springboard to launch a blog in order to keep friends and family updated about the happenings of our life. Especially for the friends and family we don't get to visit with very often. If you're local, be warned: your mug may be featured here.

I missed out on blogging C's first year of life, but you can look forward to hearing all about the adventures and trials of raising a child from the perspective of first-time parents. And, who knows, maybe I'll do some kind of re-cap to introduce you to our daughter.