Monday, February 25, 2008

21

Twenty-one months ago, this beautiful girl came into our lives.


5/25/2006 - Already giving me the "what for"
2/25/2008 - 21 months old




















She celebrated her 21-month Eve by waking up twice last night. Yawn.
We should have known from that first picture that she'd give us a run for our money. Here's what she did when I first pulled out the camera today and asked her to smile....
Can you say STINK-EYE???

I shouldn't be surprised--every day she does something that I'm SURE I did to my mom at that age.

Lately, her newest indignations revolve around me cutting or tearing her food--get this--WITHOUT HER PERMISSION! And you know you can't put it back together once it's cut. Oy, the screaming and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Little Miss "I Am Big, thank you very much" wants to use her own fork and knife for all meals, even cereal, by herself, sit at the table kneeling in a big chair, not her highchair, drink out of an open cup, DEMAND everything, and spend lots of time attached to Mommy's legs and hips.

But she also loves to play hide-and-seek (she is a frighteningly good, quiet hider), bursts into a huge smile when one of us comes home, gives huge hugs and gentle kisses, serves up elaborate tea parties, lovingly feeds her baby dolls, and....... drumroll please....... has gone on the potty several times!

When I was 21 months old, I got a baby sister. I cannot even imagine how my mom (or anyone, for that matter) handled that. Some things would be easier than the 3 1/2 year gap that we have between the kids, but she's still such a baby in so many ways.

A baby, that is, with a 12-year old stink-eye.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

No place like home

When I walk in the door from my once-weekly day at the office, I am usually greeted with big smiles (from the kids, anyway) and tackle-hugs. I get home late, right before the kids' bedtime. Some days Daddy looks a little wearier than others, depending on the amount of whining, number of times he had to remind about "head and neck safety," and how long it took to make dinner.

Today was a good one, thanks to Grandma and Papa providing tacos for dinner, a helpful big brother, and a good nap for Bitty Girl.

With a series of hugs, pointing, and monosyllabic grunting orders, Bitty Girl instructed me to take off my coat, come into the family room and lie down on the floor. She pulled up my shirt and proceeded to blow a huge zerbert into my stomach. Luckily Mommy has a FABULOUS tummy for zerberts, what with all the nooks and crannies and soft squishiness... Many zerberts and a few head butts later, she was ready for the "fly like an airplane on Mommy's legs" game.

When the Zerbert Boss finally retired to her crib for the evening, I had time for a quick dinner and stories with The Boy before his bedtime. He was examining a Valentine card he got at school, one of those hard cards with a textured surface, where the picture changes as you tip the card back and forth--it's a duck! Now it's a dog! Now a duck! Dog! And you can't help but rub your fingernail across it to make that scratchy zoop! sound.

As we're heading upstairs, The Boy says, "Wow, this card is scratchy.

But not as scratchy as Mommy's legs!"

This is the stuff that's not in the parenting books. It should be in there. But it wouldn't be the same reading about it before you have your own little monsters commenting on the length of your leg hair...

Friday, February 1, 2008

Look at this girl. She is 20 months old. Almost two and thinks she's almost 12...
Twenty. That seems like so many months, and some days I can hardly remember life before her. But then I think about how much simpler things were with zero or one kid, and it all comes rushing back.

Our days are such blurs sometimes I feel like I can't slow down enough to grab a hold of anything but fleeting moments. And I'm certainly not writing enough of it down...

Here are my most recent favorite fleeting moments.
  • The big "light up your face" smile I get when I walk in the door from my once-weekly work-in-the-office day
  • The sheer delight on her face when you say "I'm gonna get you" and start the chase
  • The look where she's mad at me but her brother makes her laugh, and then she remembers she's mad--sort of "mad, trying not to laugh" and very funny
  • The way she rests her head on my shoulder before going to bed, then lifts it up to kiss my cheek
  • The way she hugs her brother
  • The way she runs over to comfort and hug her brother if he hurts himself (unless she has inflicted the hurt)
  • The 20 minutes she spent doing "Hair Salon" with her baby doll in the highchair with a plastic knife from her tea set
  • Her very particular seating arrangement for tea parties, as well as the menu (usually her pretend cheese and bacon, with an occasional broccoli or peas or taco thrown in)
New words: Jeans, beans, peas, blueberry (blue blue), cheese, and Boo!
New teeth - finally! She's getting all 4 molars and finally the 4th tooth on the bottom front, so she won't look like she was in a hockey fight anymore.

I really owe her more than this... my goal is to write her a better letter before she's 2!

We had a snow day last Monday, about 4 inches, enough for a snowman! Bitty Girl spent most of her time eating the raisins and carrots that were supposed to decorate the snowman. The Boy was very serious about his decorating, and very irritated about his sister poking holes in its side to hide her raisins. Although he did bury a carrot "lung" and "heart" inside the snowman.


Thank goodness for a teacher Daddy, who is also home on snow days. I decided the only time I'll really enjoy snow days is when the kids are old enough to get themselves dressed and play outside in the snow by themselves. I'm just not a snow bunny.