Thirty-One Months

Dear Peeper:
You are thirty-one months old today.

Once again, I feel like I've been falling down on the job of recording and reporting all the funny, cute and amazing things that you say and do, but they just happen all the time these days.

Here are a  couple that I did managed to get on Faceook as they've happened:

From a couple of weeks ago:
Ernie doll + Bert thermometer + 2.5 year old = "Bert in Ernie's booty!"
You know, I've always had my suspicions about those two.

A few nights ago, during your bath, you picked up three foam letters and stuck them on the side of the tub in this order: g, a, y.

Hmm, I think I'm sensing a theme here.

I probably shouldn't mention how you were nursing this afternoon, and the dogs were barking outside and I said something about it, and you unlatched and looked at me and said "What the hell?"
 
We had a little talk about "grown-up words" and "little girl words."
 
We also have that talk during multiple diaper changes each day, because you think that "butt crack!" is the funniest thing ever, and I keep suggesting that perhaps "booty crack" would be more appropriate.
 
No, those two aren't really comparable, but - potty mouth that I am - I really don't like hearing little kids say "butt" for some reason.
 
So, yeah, you're definitely talking like crazy now! And, of course, sometimes talking like a crazy person, often in your sleep. I can't tell you how many times you've rolled over in the night or, more often, as you're waking up in the morning, and blurted out some line from Sesame Street, or called out for a character.
 
This morning, you were asking for Slimey (Oscar's pet worm) as you were looking for a goody.
 
As might be obvious from that, you are still very into Sesame Street, and now also The Wizard of Oz. We've had the DVD for about a month, and one of the features is a sing along that allows you to watch just the songs, which only takes about fifteen or twenty minutes. 
 
(For singing along purposes, they have subtitles, but you don't care much about those - although in a couple of years I can see how they'd be very helpful with learning to read.)
 
Usually when you ask to watch it, I suggest "just the songs" and you go for it, but you have seen the whole thing enough times to be able to not only sing all the songs, but also tell us all about the story, and quote each main character's famous lines. I need to try to get a video of that.
 
Last week, you even commissioned busts of each of them, rendered in Playdoh.

Of course, a lot can change in five months (Just look how much you've changed since Christmas!) but I strongly suspect that we will be buying or somehow creating a Wicked Witch costume for Halloween and possibly doing an Oz themed birthday party.
 
I can't believe we're even starting to consider plans for your third birthday party!
 
You've seen a lot way too much of both Sesame Street and Wizard of Oz lately, because Mama's been pretty busy doing things in front of her own screen - some (paid!) web development work, organizing Mr. J's Spaghetti Dinner with the MOMS Club (our firefighter friend - we raised over $5000!) and this week, more web development work, so it's been way to convenient to just let you watch instead of being up playing with you.

If you take that, plus the fact that over the course of a couple of weeks, I was out and about and were home alone with Mommy probably more than in any previous month since you were born (MOMS night out, MOMS Club meeting / tour of fire hall for spaghetti dinner, grocery store, Drinking Liberally, the dinner itself - although you were there for a couple of hours during the event) plus the fact that you weren't feeling so great during those couple of weeks, it all adds up to you really missing Mama for a while there, and really needing to have me close - like in Mommy's chair with you, while watching Sesame Street on her computer - right when I most needed to be on my computer working.

It was kind of stressful for a while there. I felt bad for you, but I had things I had to get done, and Mommy wanted to help, but you were being mean to her and tell her to "go way!" (Although I hear you two had a great time when I wasn't home.)

So, yeah, I'm glad that's more or less over. I will continue to have website work to do, but it won't be as intense as it was for a while there.

(This is an on-going gig, doing the web stuff for a friend who's a lawyer who helps other lawyers to run their practices, advertise, etc. Work at home, in whatever hours I can fit it in, highest hourly rate I've ever earned. Yay!)

Also, Mommy was off work that week, and she's back now, so you and I have, out of necessity, are having lots of one-on-one time again, and it's nice to be back to normal.

At the beginning of the month, we sort of got back on track with our Letter of the Week, and did J and then K, which I carried over for a second week, after being so distracted with the spaghetti dinner the first week. Next week, we'll move on to L.

You're also loving the warm weather and have been hanging out in the backyard as often as possible. Lately, you've been "swimming" in your plastic pool pretty much every day, whether that was our plan when you went outside or not.

This month, you also helped us to plant our veggie garden, and you love to water the plants while our outside. You haul load after load of water from your pool in the watering can, or a bucket, or a cup, or a froggy boot, and pour it on the plants that I ask you to water. (Usually.)

I'm really looking forward to your helping to harvest the veggies (if they survive me and you and, oh, hailstorms like we had last night) and maybe een wat some. I know you'll enjoy thehearrots, if I cook them in soup - every time I eat soup, you steal all my carrots!

Which is fine by me, actually, because I'm really not a fan, and I'm definitely glad you like them.At least they aren't Goldfish crackers, which seem to be your favorite food these days, other than goody.

And speaking of goody, still no signs of slowing down there, although I'd say that most nights (escept when you were sick, and waking often) you go from bedtime (whenever that might be) until morningish without nursing. On mornings that we're going some where, you might not wake to nurse before I get up, but if we sleep in, we usually spend the last hour or two nursing off and on, mostly on, before you start talking and telling us to get up.

Your sleep schedule is a total crapshoot these days. We're at a very awkward stage, in that you usually don't need a nap until it's too late to have one without being up super-late (even for us). I have this theory that if I could just get you to power through to eight-thirty or nine a few nights in a row, you'd get used to getting a solid twelve hours at night (as opposed to the seven to ten you get now) and wouldn't need the two-hour nap.

As much as I love nap time, I could live without it if you were going down for the night that early. Maybe I could even get my Mama time and still go to bed when Mommy gets home, instead of hours later. But, alas, that hasn't happened yet.

And now, speaking of sleep, I think I should probably go get some, since it's actually taken me two days to type this up (I'm predating it for the timestamp.) and I've just moved you to bed, after sleeping in my lap for about an hour, and it's four in the morning.

I love you my little nightowl.


Love,
Mama