Body Art

This evening, Peeper suddenly remembered that she owns paints, so I stripped her down and she went to town.

She remembered where she prefers to put them, too.

Long-time readers may remember that, a little over three years ago, this happened:

That summer, we just made do with a card table that we moved in and out of the house when we grilled. The next two summers, we had a baby and then a toddler, so we continued to just make do, but didn't really do much al fresco dining anyway.

But we were optimistic about getting our act together, and spending more time outside, so at the end of summer last year, we made a couple of clearance purchases at Lowe's.

Now, we have a toddler who would really rather stay outside all day, so this morning, we did a little assembly work.

Weather Wise

Evidently Spring was just jerking us around earlier in the week.

"At least her outfit is weather-appropriate today," I said to our next-door neighbor.

And then this happened.

Take Your Toddler to Work

Peeper and I visited Shrike at work this evening, in honor of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.

First we had dinner,

then visited some of her friends and then Peeper got to "Yook uh Mommy's aputer!"

31 Cent Night

This evening was "31 Cent Night" at Baskin Robbins, so Peeper and I stopped by and got a scoop for each of us, plus one for Mommy to eat with her birthday "cake" (Reese's No-Bake Dessert).

Panda Pics - 30 Months

I Dressed Myself Today!

Can you tell?

I guess the hat and boots were making her hot.

Oh, and if you were wondering.

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

Here's a big birthday hug from Peeper :-)

Thirty Months

Dear Peeper:

You are thirty months old today. Two-and-a-half. I've been calling you "almost two-and-a-half" for about six weeks now, so I'll be glad to be able to drop that modifier.

That half is pretty damn important, too. I can't believe how totally different you are than six months ago, when you turned two.

The most obvious difference, of course, is your language skills. Four months ago, you literally couldn't put two words together (but a week later, you could!) and now, here you are using complete, complex sentences - and even paragraphs - like:

Peeper pick a yellow flower herself.
Mommy feed some cheese to PerfectPup.
Look at poop. Poop! Mama's poop come out. Of booty. (In a public restroom, of course.)

Of course, most of the time no one can actually understand what you're saying but me and Mommy, but for those of us who speak your language, you are pretty much fluent.

You still aren't asking "why" questions yet, but we do get a lot of "What kind of . . . ?" and "How works?" and "____ means?" questions.

You also ask "Is it a ____?" quite a bit. Sometimes, this is a serious question, if you're trying to figure something out, like the other day, when you found a big screw hook and asked "Is it a cane?" Well, no, but it sure does look like one!

Other times, you're just being silly. For example, you might pick up a toy doggy and ask, "Is it a kitty?" Noooo. Is it a duckie?" Noooo. Is it a bear?" Noooo. Is it a doggy? It's a doggy!"

When you do this, the things you intentionally misidentify it as are always in the same category as the right answer. For example, you'd never say about the dog "Is it a car? Is it a leaf? Is is a table?"

Maybe every two-and-a-half year old does that, but personally, I'm kind of impressed.

I haven't paid a lot of attention lately to how your age-mates are talking these days (since you started actually talking, and I quit thinking "Oh my God! Did you hear what s/he said? Peeper can't even put two words together!") but I suspect that you still have some catching up to do, in terms of grammar and syntax and pronounciation, but I have no doubt that you will be right up with them before long.

And in terms of what you're saying, the actual ideas that you're expressing, I don't think you're behind there at all.

According to this milestone chart, for example, "a few kids" can name one friend and name one color by twenty-nine or thirty months, start to recognize the ABCs by twenty-seven or twenty-eight months, and use two adjectives by thirty-one or thirty-two months.

Holy crap, you've been doing all those things for ages!

On the other hand, it also says that you should be able to jump with both feet (are they supposed to actually leave the ground?) and open doors (well, maybe if you could reach the knobs) and balance on one foot (okay, I have no idea about that one, actually).

Oh, how important are those thing anyway. Hell, I have trouble with the jumping and balancing!

We've not done much in the way of "formal" learning this month, what with our trip to Texas, followed by lot of trips (especially for Mommy) to the doctor, but you're continuing to solidify your letter skills, and you're starting to say things like "___ starts with ___" spontaneously. You're not always right, but you often are. I think sometimes you just get lucky, because you like to say that things start with C (Based on the song "C is for Cookie").

You also love to count things, and just about any time there's more than one of something, you'll ask "How many?" When I tell you to count them, you always start out well, but usually end up counting "One, two, three, five-six!" no matter how many are actually there.

On your last month birthday, we took you to see the Wizard of Oz performed by the local community theatre, and you absolutely loved it. You've probably spent hours watching YouTube clips, one minute at a time, and we finally bought you the DVD, to help with keeping you entertained when Mommy had to be on the couch last week. We've watched it probably four times since then, and you absolutely love it, too.

Your favorite character is the Wicked Witch, and you've decided that you, Mommy and I are all witches, although you alternate between who's wicked and who's good.

You're not asking for the movie very often, so for now, I guess it will continue to be available. If it gets out of control (like "The Year With a Santa Claus" we might have to tell it bye-bye and put it away for a while.

Speaking of Mommy's doctors appointments - You've handled that pretty well, but it was obvious that you were missing her when she was leaving every morning, and you kind of "punished her" a bit for it. It became such a routine for a while that even now, if you can't find Mommy, you'll ask "Is she at work? Is she at doctor?"

Luckily, you're not yet familiar enough with the idea that "you go to the doctor when you're sick" nor do you know enough about the various disease options out there to be worried about all of these appointments.

We've not directly told you what we're doing (or trying to do) because we don't want you to get excited about the idea of a sibling until we're pretty sure that there's actually going to be one, but you are pretty smart and we've talked about it around you quite a bit, so I suspect you might have some suspicions that something is going on.

I have reassured you that "Mommy's okay, she just needs to go to the doctor a lot right now," and I've told you that "I wish I could explain it better, but it's grown-up stuff. But hopefully, some really good things will come of all these appointments."

No news on that yet. Mommy's started testing, but that's really just silliness at this point. Tomorrow is the same point at which we first saw a clue about you, but it was so faint that if I'd tested even a few hours earlier, I don't know that I would have seen anything. Hopefully, we'll get some good news within a few days, but it will be several days before we assume that we've gotten bad news.

But whatever happens, you will always be our baby!

Happy half birthday, big girl!


I love you!
Mama

Costume Changes

Have I mentioned that the Easter Bunny brought Peeper some "big girl panties?"

Have I mentioned that when she saw them, she said, "Up high. Don't like it," and put them back on the table?

Well, this scene was repeated three times today!

Here's how it happened: A while back, the routine (intentional or not) was for Peeper to have nakey time for a while after her bath each night. Unfortunately, more nights than not, that ended with me cleaning up pee from the carpet, so a couple of months ago, I started taking her diaper and jammies into the bathroom with us at bathtime, and declared that she couldn't leave the room until she had them on.

Recently, I've realized that most nights, while she's having her nakey time in the bathroom, she'll stop at some point, declare "Pee-pee on the potty!" go sit and pee. It took me a while to catch on that this wasn't a fluke, and that she really was noticing that she had to pee, stopping what she was doing, and going. Albeit, while playing in the same very tiny room with the potty.

So, I thought that she might be ready to go back to nakey time outside of the potty. After having a discussion about how "If you have to pee-pee, you need to tell me, and we'll go pee-pee in the potty. And, Mama will set the timer, and when it goes off, you can either sit on the potty long enough to read one book, or put your diaper back on," we gave it a try today.

I suggested that she have "panty time" rather than "nakey time," but she didn't like that idea.

However, when she wanted something to eat, I just couldn't bring myself to let her sit in her booster seat naked. I'm not sure if I'm protecting the seat from her or vice versa, but Shrike totally agreed, so that's the new rule. "No nakey in the booster."

I presented it in terms of "poopy germs" and suggested the panties again. When she went to check them out, we discovered that one pair has elephants! Bwoo elephants! Pink elephants! And on they went.

"Oh, that was sooooo easy! Did you see how easy that was to put them on? Much easier than a diaper!"

We had three nakey times today, and each time she ended up in her booster seat wearing the elephant panties. Each time, just as the timer was about to go off, she decided she wanted to take them off, and each time, she ended up back in a diaper, rather than going to the potty.

But, she did pee-pee in the potty before the first nakey time (I strongly suggested it before the other two, but it didn't happen. Those were both after baths - she showered with me in the afternoon, then had her regular bath later - so she'd probably peed in the tub.) and she didn't pee-pee in the floor or in her big girl panties, so I declare the experiment a rousing success!

After she got her diaper on, following the first nakey-time, she decided she'd like to go outside to play. The temperature was about perfect today, so I was happy to let her out in just a diaper, but old habits are hard to break, and she insisted on . . . .

She did eventually come to her senses. Sort of.

She kept taking the hat off, and then a few minutes later, she'd ask "Where's Peeper's hat? Head cold!" I asked her "Is your head really cold, or are you pretending?" "Tending!"

Then she aske for some chips . . . and some ham . . . and some cheese, and the next thing you know, we're having another picnic!

After her nap, we got all dressed (weather appropriately) for a trip to Target, but ended up spending another hour or so playing outside before we made it to the door.

Oh, and we picked up a little something while we were there, to help with the mud puddle situation.

A Family Day

This was the first day in a while that no one has had to work / go to the doctor / host a family event, and it was rather lovely.

First, I woke to the call from the clinic about the Hopsicles, which was a nice, upbeat way to start the day. Once we were up and moving a bit, Shrike finally had the chance to mow the yard. I don't know if this photo doed it justice, but it was beyond time for a mow. I was start to worry about Peeper getting lost out there. Hell, I was starting to worry about BigGaloot getting lost!

While she mowed, Peeper and I sat on the patio (her in my lap, safely contained and far away from the mower) and watched.

Afterward, I was hungry, but Peeper wasn't done being outside, so my wife - being a genius - suggested that we have a picnic lunch!

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Peeper's little face lit up and she was all excited. It was great!

I brought out some leftover ham (which Peeper loved!) and cheese (also love!) from yesterday, and then Shrike got the leftover potato chips (love! duh.) and we at on a blankie on the patio (it's still a bit wet from all the rain we've been having) and ate them straight from the ziplock baggies!

Our maple and crabapple trees are blooming, so we even had some nice scenery to look at. I noticed a couple of blooms on the lilac trees, so it should be even prettier out there in a few days.

Then we got cleaned up and dressed - and Shrike and Peeper actually wore summer clothes!

Including these adorable sandals, which were a hand-me-up from DaNiece. They were gifted to her recently, but HerLovelyMommy figured they'll fit in winter, so she gave them to Peeper, who can wear them now.

Then we ran a few errands, and Peeper had a too-short nap in the car. (When will we learn. Just keep driving.)

Then Eena and Papas came and picked her up, and Shrike and  I went out to dinner for her birthday, at a local Hibachi grill. Her actual birthday isn't until Wednesday, but this was our only chance for a date night dinner for two (and six complete strangers, at the same hibachi table).

On Wednesday, the three of us will go to Red Robin with her birthday coupon. She's already agreed to allow them to sing to her "for Peeper's sake."


I suppose I'll have to do the same, a couple of weeks later, huh?

After dinner, we still had about an hour and a half before we were expected to get Peeper, so at the birthday girl's request, we came home and took the dogs for a walk.

(That's not a euphamism. We're not allowed to euphamism right now.)

Then we checked our respective Facebooks, picked up the kid, fed her some leftovers, got her a bath (thanks, Mommy), had a few minutes of "goody in the bed" and she was out, probably around 9:45.

Which means that I need to get my ass to bed, because she's going to be up before her usual 11 am!

Hopsicle report

I just got a call from the fertility clinic. They froze three embyros over the weekend!

Of course, we hope it won't come to that, but it's good to know that if the Hoppers that are in there right now don't stick we can try a frozen transfer for "only" about $3000.

Family Easter Party