"paje"

Kiddo loves books. She loves them to be read to her, and she loves to read them herself. She is now sufficiently verbal that it is clear from her reading that she knows all the story lines, and many of the words. (Not surprising given the number of times we've read the 30 of so books not in storage, which were kept out specifically because they were already her favorites.)

What this really means though, is that it's impossible to shorten the books when she wants to read more than I do. If I should (covertly) skip a page she exclaims with concern, "paje!" and helps turn back to the missing page. At least I can still skip some lines within the page.

song, YAY!

Yes, my daughter woke up at 5 am this morning, with no intention of going back to sleep. But that led to an interesting discovery on my part.

About 10, I decided that she was very tired, and thought I'd try to get her to take a nap, albeit three hours early. (A particularly good option, as we would be in church during her usual nap time.) We read a few books, then I told her we were going to sing songs, as we do when it's sleep time. I started singing "There is sunshine in my soul today" and found my sweet daughter singing along with me. As I moved from song to song (of my usual repertoire) I found that she could sing all of them. (She also liked the praise I gave her, and repeated "good job" after each song too.)

She sings like she talks, leaving out a lot of the less important words. But, she knows them, loves to sing them, and it was so exciting to hear her participate like this. It's beautiful, and I am anxious to sing with her again.

Given her love of singing, we stayed for a baptism after church today. Every time the prelude started (just like in church), she yelled with great enthusiasm "song, YAY!" She also yells this at the end of the song too.

our compromise

As winter approaches, and we are definitely into late fall, I feel like Kiddo should wear long sleeves and long pants. I knew this would be a hard battle, because in the summer, I could barely get her dressed. She has determined that I am not giving in on this, so wears the clothes, but she has not gone down without a fight.

She pushes ALL her sleeves up. For shirts, pajamas, even jackets, for everything. When we want to have some fun with her, we pull her pajama sleeves down, and watch how quickly they go back up. She does not like her coat, the only reason I can think of is that those sleeves will not push up. Today she pushed her pants legs up too. On this issue, she is just as determined as I am.

an uncomfortable moment at Panera

We were innocently standing in line at a restaurant that is not particularly convenient to get to in a car with a 22-month old. She looks up at me, and says with no pronounciation issues: "Pick nose." And you better believe she has the actions to go with the words.

In a somewhat resigned tone (as she makes this announcement frequently) I reply, "No. We don't pick our noses. It's yucky."

Completely ignoring my comment, she then asks, finger aloft, "whazzat?"

just like aunt M

As does every child, Kiddo likes to wear others shoes (and can finally keep her balance, sort of, in them). Here she is with Aunt M's shoes, in her last morning of fun from the visit from Grandma and A-nissa (as Kiddo has taken to calling her).

They came for the weekend, to see my daughter, and help me while my husband is working so hard on his dissertation (two weeks left!). It was non-stop fun for everyone (except hubby, who heard more than once: good-bye, go back to work).

They made the sleeping bag into a boat, where Kiddo sings "row row boat gent stream" before someone else helps her with the rest of the song.

Kiddo took multiple "ride tamel" on Grandma's back (for her sake, I am not posting the picture).

They read books, and sang songs, and fed her, and provided good advice for her illness. (She got sick and threw up their first real night here.) A-nissa stayed home from church with her so Kiddo wouldn't make all the other kids sick.

They cooked me many meals for the weekend and the future, and for that I am super appreciative. I was able to not do much, and thus pretend that I feel all better. Not quite.

Come again soon?

mad gab anyone?

Mad Gab is a great game where you read out loud what looks like gibberish to you, but to those who are listening sounds like an actual word or phrase, just pronounced really weird. It is a fun game with much laughter.

My life with my almost 2 year old is a constant game of mad gab, which means some of the fun has worn off. Although Kiddo's vocabulary is large, and covers a wide range of topics, very few of the words sound like they are supposed to yet (e.g., ma-mine for mama). This was not a big deal when she only talked about things we were actually doing at the time, but now she can talk about things she remembers, or wants, or is thinking about, so my context clues are gone.

Today in the car she said "no-the one takka." I got 'another one' and knew she wanted something, but what? I started guessing, and she kept repeating herself, insistent I understand. Then it hit me, she wanted a cracker. Of course. Once you know what the mad gabs is supposed to say, it's always obvious.

tandy, peas

We dressed Kiddo up as a chicken for Halloween, and although she was sick, took her out for trick-or-treating. She was okay with the outfit as long as she didn't have to wear the "chi-ken hat" (the hood). She wasn't sure about going outside, until we told her that she would get some candy.

Although my husband carried her the whole way (it was almost bedtime and she was sick after all), she looked right at each person who opened the door, and upon prompting, would ask "Tandy, peas" (candy, please) and say "sank yoo" (thank you) when it was put in her pa-pack. What an amazing night, where people pass out candy. Kiddo, who has a sweet tooth (just like her parents) really enjoyed herself.

(Note 'damma' (grandma) in the background. She and Aunt M enjoyed themselves too!)