Lucky duck

In the panic of Nanny's illness and with her requiring a lot of rest, Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to come and stay with you the week. And what a lucky kid you are, having two enthusiastic playmates from Monday through Thursday! You played, ate lots, danced and sang songs - and then I think Grandma and Grandpa needed to go home to get their rest!

After they left, we had the Backyardigans to go to on Friday evening which was AWESOME. Hundreds of kids under five freaking out for Pablo. Some for Uniqua, but mostly for Pablo - for two hours! You had a blast trying to get them to catch Boinga Boinga the alien. What a thoughtful xmas gift from Nigel and Jessica.


You came down with a cold on Saturday so we took the rest of the weekend pretty easy until Sunday rolled around. We were laying in bed after an early nap when we saw all these kids going down the hill on their crazy carpets. So we checked the temperature and it was +1˚! We quickly got outside and made a snow family - just like ours! And oh, the swings. Getting a taste of that made me yearn for spring. But the next day was -51˚ with the windchill. Uggh. It's been an awful week weather-wise.


On Wednesday, it was Uncle Nigel's 29th birthday so he and Jessica had us over for taco salad and cake. You were thrilled to bits to visit with Lucy, but she didn't quite think it was mutual. Poor kitty was pretty frightened of all us scary people in her house, but at least you didn't get swiped at this time!


And now I've got your cold so I stayed home all afternoon and slept - pretended to go to work, but snuck into the spare room and closed the door! I'm off tomorrow and we have a doctor's appointment of Nanny's to attend so that will be our outing - if the van starts because it's been dead all week.

Her photography skills

From the little photographer photo shoot movie I last posted, here are some of the shots. Pretty good stuff - and not just for a two-year-old.

A formal portrait of Gimli and Baby.

Mom and Dad looking hot, slaving over the stove on a lazy Saturday.

And payback time. Now Mommy has to pose for her inspired artiste!

Little photographer

Cute kid - and so professional-looking. Too bad I never got to take any photos of you during our photo shoot. I love how surprised you are every time the picture pops up on screen.

Confusion

Dad and I came home from work on Thursday to find that Nana had been baking frozen cauliflower and broccoli on a cookie sheet in the oven. That she thought she'd help with supper. Further odd behaviour followed to the point that she couldn't read the calendar or work the phone. I ended up taking her to the emergency room. Oh, the joys of sitting in a waiting room full of sick people. She ended up staying there over night and I ended up sleeping from 3 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. when you, my bright-eyed daughter woke up.

Long story short, she'd gotten a urinary tract infection which seemed to manifest itself in only one symptom - confusion. Really bad confusion. After about 24 hours at the hospital, we brought her home with us and that's where we are now. Nana needs lots and lots of rest and water to get back to normal. Not that Nana's normal is very healthy at all these days.

You've been very attentive to her needs. While we had fun running down the hall through the emergency department, exploring the hospital, browsing the gift shop, eating Nana's rejected meals and even getting a donut with sprinkles(!), it's easier to be home. When I ask you if we should make a cheerio cake, you say, "for Nanny." When we threw around the idea of getting you into daycare a couple days a week, you said, "Nanny, too!" You are fond of her to say the least. Which is nice because Nana needs a lot of love right now.

Proof that we never get dressed

Another lazy weekend. I had to go out for a few hours this afternoon. A while after I left, you were in the computer room when your dad heard you exclaim, "Oh no!" He called to you, asking what was the matter.

You came out carrying my pajama bottoms and said, "Mommy forgot her pants."

Motivation

You're a stubborn little girl but as much as I hate to admit it, you come by it honestly. Over the holidays, you stopped peeing on the potty. You would tell us you had to go but we couldn't get you to actually sit on the little pot or on the big toilet. And with eating, you usually don't have the attention span or interest to sit still long enough to take in a meal. Getting dressed? I suppose it didn't help that most days over xmas, none of us got out of our pajamas unless we absolutely had to leave the house.

So being the (supposedly) creative parents we are, we had to come up with some cons to get some things done.

To appeal to your fiercely competitive nature, we now have you race Daddy to the toilet to see who can pee first. We race to the tub, to the supper table, to see who can get dressed first. Of course, we're usually dressed when we get you ready so in those instances, we use your arch nemesis, Sonya Lee of Fisher Price's Little People. For some reason, you and her do not get along. If Sonya Lee wants to share your Smarties or be friends or help you, you angrily shoot her down with, "No, Sonya Lee. That's Yaya's" or "Yaya do it."

And then there are the monsters. Because if it's not scary, it's not fun! There are yogurt monsters. Strawberry monsters. Sandwich monsters. Meatball monsters. Soup monsters. It goes on and on. They are usually very tiny and hide under the table. If I won't play along with my crawling fingers that steal food, you crawl under the table and pretend to pick up this tiny little guy who sits nicely in the palm of your hand. Sometimes you'll eat a whole container of yogurt. Or 14 strawberries. Lately though, you've been trying to just give your food to the monster except we usually convince you to share. Lily take a bite, monster take a bite. Whether this is helping at all, I don't know. But it keeps you busy and sitting at the table with us.

To honour your love of monsters, I've created a new masthead for this site. And I've made you two monsters so we don't have to imagine them anymore. These guys will actually eat your food. Yesterday the big one ate Sonya Lee...

Word explosion

My little monkey. Look at that unusually (for you) round, full belly.

Over the couple weeks we were off over xmas, you slept well. Went to bed around 8:30, woke up between 7 and 8 and had two hour naps each day. Very ideal for the holiday situation we were in. I thought maybe you were growing and I was kinda right, but just not in a physical sense. It was your vocabulary that grew - and grew and grew. You've gone from three word sentences to huge mouthfuls with feelings and new ideas and funny observations. It was like you just woke up one morning to tell me that you wanted to be a monkey and eat bananas and live in trees. And ask where your monkey costume was.

The other night you woke up so Dad went in to check on you. From the basement I could hear you screaming for mama, saying, "Let go of me, Dad." When I finallly came up five minutes later, you saw me and said, "Help! Save Yaya." You don't call yourself Yaya as much anymore, saying "I" instead. You're working on it anyway.

I am shocked at the things you tell me. The witch's face is green and her hands are green and she'll get Yaya and her little dog, too. Yesterday you told Nana that you had a bad dream that Mommy and Daddy were fighting. The other morning Dad stayed home with you and you were adamant that you needed a violin, as thoughtfully suggested by Elmo's World. He told you to wait until you were bigger to which you replied, "I are bigger NOW."

But the best part about you being able to articulate your thoughts and feelings is that you always tell us, just like you did when you first awoke on Christmas morning, "I love you."

Munchkinland

For about a month now you have been wholly consumed by the Wizard of Oz. Some lazy days we just run it over and over while we play. The rest of the time, the witch has supper with us or the flying monkey (me) carries you around and Nana or Dad have to save you.


We've had to create all the characters. Dad made the Tin Man out of our little bendable, wooden drawing figure, complete with funnel hat made of paper. The Scarecrow is Ernie with elastics around his neck and wrists holding the bits of twine poking out. The Wizard is a tennis ball with a face drawn on it - from before they found out he was the man behind the curtain. Dorothy is a barbie doll we got at a garage sale. Toto is a beanie baby dog. (Actually you have a Toto, too as you didn't want to share with Dorothy.) The lion is a big, stuffed lion you got a couple years ago. I made you a witch out of felt and Glinda the good witch is usually a drawing on the chalkboard. When she's not there, you incessantly search for her everywhere while calling her name.


And those songs. Oh, how you love the songs. While they are very good, they have infiltrated my head. At work I find myself humming "If I Only Had a Brain."

I could while away the hours, conferrin' with the flowers
Consultin' with the rain.
And my head I'd be scratchin' while
my thoughts were busy hatchin'
If I only had a brain.

Sometimes when it's on, you ask, "Go there?" It's not quite as cute as watching you physically try and get into a story book. But it's close.