Month 18 - Recap

My little charmer,
You've taken it upon yourself to blow kisses whenever I ask you say 'bye bye'.  Your dimples coupled with your blowing kisses makes you quite the flirty little charmer.  It makes me smile to see how much you make other people smile.  You're a fun dude to hang out with.

I can't tell for sure if you're saying new words or not, but I think you have.  Last week, Natalie came out of her room wearing a shirt that had red and blue stars on it.  You pointed to her and said "DAR!"  You totally could be saying STAR.  Or, just as likely, you're saying the nonsense word DAR.  Yesterday, you had on a shirt that had a turtle on it.  I asked you what animal it was and you said "toeTOE!"  Again, you could totally be saying TURTLE.  Or again, you could be just shouting random syllables that happen to sound slightly like TURTLE.  And being the overly-enthusiastic mom that I am, I'd like to think that you are, in fact, learning new words.

You took your first non-hysterical bath this month!  Coincidentally, this was also the age that your sister finally stopped freaking out in baths too.  I put you in the tub and it was like a lightbulb went off.  Hey!  Splashing water is FUN!  And hey!  Pouring water out of this cup is FUN!  And hey!  Mom ISN'T bathing me in acid!  This warm soapy water feels NICE!  Better late than never, huh?

Natalie has a little plastic Strawberry Shortcake doll with a removable hat.  You love that thing.  You put her hat on, take it off, put it back on, take it back off, then guffaw at your brilliance.  Because there is that one toy with a removable hat, you've taken this to mean that EVERY doll's hat (or even head in some cases) is removable.  Which means you get frustrated a LOT (because that particular Strawberry Shortcake doll is on the short list of Dolls with Removable Hats).  Which means you whine at me a LOT to help you remove a hat that is permanently affixed to another doll's head.  All because one single Strawberry Shortcake doll had the nerve to have a hat accessory.  I've got the Superglue on standby should your efforts of hat/head removing ever become successful.

You are in full-fledged toddler mode.  You say 'no' a lot.  Like, a LOT.  To everything.  Like, EVERYthing (well, everything except a banana).  It's nothing out-of-character for someone your age, but it's certainly causes my eye to twitch after hearing it for the 314th time that day.  You also snatch things from Natalie.  What makes it worse is that when I tell you to give the snatched item back to your sister, you hold it out as if you're going to give it back, but as soon as Natalie makes a motion to take the item back, you quickly yank your hand back and yell NO.  Your incredibly sensitive sister does not handle that so well, as you might imagine.

So you say 'no' and nod your head 'yes'.  I thought you had learned to shake your head 'no'.  But then I realized that you were just looking for an Eskimo Kiss.  LOVE.

Like I said, you won't ever say 'no' to a banana.  You do, however, say 'no' to almost every other food on the planet.  Wait - I take that back.  You say 'no' to practically every HEALTHY thing I try to feed you.  If it's green or orange or yellow, you won't eat it.  If it's a banana or apple sauce, some type of dessert, or some highly processed carbohydrate, you're all about it.  Anything else gets the ol' heave ho.  White bread? The more processed, the better!  Animal crackers?  Sure thing!  Chocolate cupcake?  May I have another?!  Sweet potato?  Don't be a moron.  Broccoli?  Negative, Ghost Rider.  Eggs?  You've got to be kidding me.  You're the poster child for Typical Kid Food Eater.  I'm sure you wish you were born into a family where all we ate was chicken nuggets (not homemade, of course), French fries (again, not homemade), macaroni and cheese (Blue Box please - none of that whole wheat noodle nonsense), and some type of cracker (made with no fewer than 20 chemically-laden ingredients, please).  Alas, my boy, you were born into our family.  And your momma is too stubborn to let you win.  I keep telling myself that one day you'll eat something green.  Maybe it'll be 30 years down the road, but it's gotta happen eventually.  You've got an incredibly sweet and charming personality and you sleep 11 hours a night.  So what if you don't eat vegetables?  Maybe I'll just leave that feat for your future wife to overcome.

Hugs and smooches,
Mommy & Daddy

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Headlines for June 9, 2013:

• 'He's the best': Rafael Nadal wins record eighth French Open
• Want more time off? Some jobs let you buy it
• 'I will be made to suffer for my actions': Self-identified source for NSA leaks comes forward
• Daredevil to tightrope walk over Grand Canyon live on 'Skywire'
• 'Madiba is a fighter': South Africa prays as ailing Nelson Mandela spends 2nd day in hospital
• Coke or soda? Coo-pon or cyu-pon? Maps reveal how America speaks

May 2013 - Recap

My silly little goober,
You and some of your friends from preschool like to play outside after the mommas pick you up.  Lately, your favorite game to play is 'Puppies'.  I don't quite understand 'Puppies' and I don't think you girls actually ever sat down and decided on anything about the game further than "Let's run around and play 'Puppies'!"  It's fascinating to watch.  One of you is usually the Mommy Puppy and the others are designated as the Baby Puppies.  The Baby Puppies seem to hide in the bushes a lot.  And the Mommy Puppy yells a lot.  "Go to bed, Baby Puppies!"  "You're in Time-Out, Baby Puppies!"  "Come HERE, Baby Puppies!"  It's apparently a burdensome job, being a Mommy Puppy and all.  You silly girls have also decided that you have to go to the bathroom as a group.  I mean really.  You're FOUR.  I had NO idea this notion of girls always going to the bathroom together started this young.  Now I know.  You silly Puppies.

I adore how clever you are.  You were rifling through your dress-up clothes the other day and found a visor.  You held it up and asked "What's this called again?"  When I told you that it was a visor, you looked at it and giggled.  You said "It looks funny.  Like a convertible hat!"  I couldn't have come up with a better description myself.  Another example - Daddy just traded in his (gas-guzzling but manly) truck for a (gas-friendly but not-at-all-manly-but-at-least-it's-blue) Civic.  It's got a sunroof, which you love.  After riding in the car for a bit, you proudly declared that Daddy's car was a half-convertible. Seriously, kid.  You slay me.

Your current obsession is automatic doors.  You want to be the one who the door 'sees' to tell it to open.  And you get MAD if someone else causes the door to open.  You always ask if we can just wait for the door to close so that you can be the one to open it.  Sometimes I oblige; sometimes I don't.  I'll give you zero guesses how the 'not obliging' part goes over with you.  We were at Lowe's recently and our checkout lane was right by the exit door.  There were several people in front of us in line.  While we were waiting for it to be our turn, you took it upon yourself to be the Official Door Opener.  You stood by the exit and jumped in front of the door to open it if someone was about to leave.  Thankfully nobody seemed too annoyed that a little squirt jumped in front of them as they were trying to leave the building.

You've stopped waking us up in the middle of the night (thankyouJesus), but you've started this thing where you'll come into the living room 12 seconds after I tuck you in.  You try to put on a sad face, but since you're such a bad faker you just look silly.  You muster up the most pitiful voice you can and say "I had a bad dream."  Oh, really?  A bad dream?  In 12 seconds?  11 of which were spent singing to your stuffed animals about going to sleep and the other second spent walking into the living room?  Really?  But I put on my Sympathetic Mom Voice and say "Oh no, honey, I'm so sorry.  What was your *ahem* bad *ahem* dream about?  Your response: STEALING.  "Because stealing is so, so bad, Momma.  It was a so bad dream."  *facepalm*

You love writing notes.  You spend much of your Quiet Time writing notes to people.  You write me notes when I don't feel well (which, unfortunately, has been a lot this month), you write Welcome Home notes for Daddy, you write sweet notes to Charlie about how you hope he sleeps well at night.  It's precious.  And just the other day, you came out of your room dressed up like a 'ghost' (ie: you had your big pink blanket over your head) holding a note that said "BOO!  HAH HAH HAH!"  It was so awesome.

You also love writing notes to 'your girls' (all the girls in your preschool class).  Each girl gets her own note with a personalized message.  Case in point:

DEAR OPHELIA (names have been changed to protect the, well, the four-year-olds)
SO NICE
LOVE, NATALIE

DEAR BETTY-LOU
YOU'RE FUN
LOVE, NATALIE

DEAR WINNIFRED
HAPPY FUN DAY
LOVE, NATALIE

Speaking of preschool, I was on the fence about putting you into it last year.  I was all "What if she hates it?  What if nobody plays with her?  What if someone's mean to her?  What if she gets beat up on the playground because she won't stop singing 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing'?"  I knew very soon after the school year started that preschool was the right choice for you.  But if there were still lingering doubts, they were erased when I watched you play with your friends after the last day of school.  You ran from one friend to another, chattering about everything and nothing.  You ran to the teachers to give them a hug.  The biggest thing was that you were in a bounce house WITH A TON OF OTHER CHILDREN.  If this had happened last year?  You would have taken one look at the full bounce house and headed for the hills.  Some of it has to do with you being a year older, but a lot of it has to do with you and your learning to handle social situations.  You still get nervous when places are really loud and/or crowded with people you don't know, but to say your socialization has improved this year would be the understatement of the century.  You fascinate me, my little peach.  It's an honor of the highest order watching you grow up.

Hugs and smooches,
Mommy & Daddy

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Headlines for June 1, 2013:

• Storm-battered Oklahoma a 'war zone' after deadly twisters strike
• 'I'm free': Mexico drops drug charges against US mom
• Obama urges Congress to follow his lead to extend student loan rates
• Woman beats incredible odds to win $1 million prize on 'Wheel of Fortune'
• Brawl erupts at Ohio kindergarten graduation, 8 arrested
• Memorial set for Newtown gunman's mother