Stuff R Does

--Say her alphabet and sing the alphabet song over and over. Sometimes she likes to go straight from "A, B, C, D, E, F, G" to "Next time won't you sing with me" but other times she sings most of the letters, usually leaving out everything between S and Y.

--Count from one to 13, often starting at three and omitting one and two. Sometimes she goes up to 15, but she never says 14.

--Talk about walruses. At the doctor's office this afternoon (yes, she has a double ear infection & a chest infection) she pointed to an alphabet chart and identified the W and the walrus immediately. This started when we read Barbara Joosse's Mama, Do You Love Me? the other day and she talked about how scary the walrus was. Then the next day she brought up the "scaarry walrus" and J wanted to show her more walruses to maybe alleviate some of her scared-ness, so he went to this Fisher-Price alphabet game that my friend CraftyQueen recommended and showed her the cute little walrus in that game. Now she brings them up at random moments, often to tell us that walruses are scary.

Water (and Sand, later) Table

R got a belated birthday gift from Uncle A, Aunt M, and cousins G and Trucker the other week. I discovered it when I opened my front door to find a giant box blocking my way onto the porch. It turned out to be one of these sand and water tables.

What an awesome gift!

R literally squealed with delight when she saw me pulling it out of the box and putting it together for the first time.

(Aside: It is so much fun to see how excited she gets about things! When Grandma and Grandpa were visiting, we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and ordered her a quesadilla, which arrived on a plate heaping with french fries. You should have seen her eyes get as big as silver dollars when she saw all that food being put in front of her. She kept saying, "WOW! Wow! WOW!" while we all lived vicariously through her enthusiasm for the food.)

Anyway, we haven't bought sand for it yet because--and this is another bit of exciting news that I haven't publicized yet for fear of jinxing something--we are likely to be moving at the end of this month into a new, perfect-for-us, house. But we've set it up with just water, and oh my goodness, she has a ball.

It works out wonderfully with the water toys she got from Great-Aunt L and Great-Grammy (note the green fish on the left in the picture below) as well as Grandma and Grandpa (note the blue and yellow clams).

Lullaby

"Happy Birthday" is R's latest lullaby, as I talked about in this post recently.

Tonight before bed she sang the following:

"Happy Birthday to Mommy
Happy Birthday to Daddy
Happy Birthday to R
Happy Birthday to GammieGampie
Happy Birthday to GammaGampa
Happy Birthday to GigiPopPop"

Then she insisted that I sing it, too, and she chimed in on Happy Birthday and then waited to see what name I was going to sing and then sang those names too.

I'll have to work on getting other family members in on the list to make the song a little bit longer.

Second Beach Trip

Our second beach trip with R was a lot of fun, even if it was a teensy bit less successful than our last one. The day was beautiful, the company was great-- it was the three of us plus Grandma and Grandpa-- but R was having none of going near the water in the ocean. Boo!

She still looked adorable in her bathing suit, and she had a great time playing in the sand and watching all the other little kids run around and play. She especially enjoyed burying her feet in the sand and breaking them out, as well as burying my feet and J's feet.

Then we went on the boardwalk and bought salt water taffy and Thrasher's french fries. Mmmmm!

On the way home, R learned how to make glasses with her fingers and she clapped enthusiastically at every song that I, Grandma, or Grandpa could come up with to sing.

24 months

Dear R,

Happy Birthday! You spent this entire month excited about your birthday. We sang happy birthday just about every day, and you even started requesting it as your good night lullaby. "Sing happy birthday, Gammie!" you'd say. And I'd start the song, but once I got the first line out, "Happy Birthday To You," you'd interject, "Sing Happy Birthday, GAMMIE!" so I couldn't even sing the full song. Just that one line. Then you'd tell me, "Sing Happy Birthday, Gampie!" and then "Sing Happy Birthday, Gammie Gampie," "Sing Happy Birthday, Mommy!"

You'd announce everywhere that it was someone's birthday. Usually Gammie and Gampie's but sometimes it was my birthday or Daddy's birthday.

On your birthday you were so excited to have cake. You could not wait to blow out candles-- your day care teachers reported that you spent all day talking about blowing out candles and practicing your technique repeatedly.

Grandma and Grandpa sent you some play cupcakes for your birthday.
These cupcakes have become one of your favorite toys. You love to feed us cupcake. You ask for cupcakes all the time, and you especially enjoy blowing out candles on the cupcakes. We have tea parties with the tea set you got from Grammie and Grampie and cupcakes to go on the side.

Happy 2nd Birthday, R. I love you so much, and am so glad you are enjoying this whole ride as much as we are.

Love,
Mama

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today is our fourth wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe how much has happened in four years of being married.We moved to Texas.

We bought a house.

We had a baby.

We moved to Delaware.

And, before we're married even 4 1/2 years, we'll have another house and another baby.

Wow.

Fire Truck

Last week R's day care had a 5-year anniversary celebration. They were providing free dinner, live entertainment, and other excellent goodies so R and I headed over to see what it was all about. She had so much fun she did not want to leave.

One of the highlights of the party was getting to see the fire truck and even sit inside of it. R was particularly struck by the harness-style seat belt, which I pointed out to her for something to point out while I was holding her up to the truck. I told her it was just like her own seat belt in her car seat. Now, every time we hear or see a fire truck, or read a book with a fire truck in it, she tells me that fire trucks have seat belts.

Camel Shirt

Remember the camel shirt I talked about in this post?

This is the shirt. My friend H sent it from Dubai, and it is one of R's favorites. It's just taken me awhile to remember to get a picture of it when she's wearing it.

Good Fortune

For dinner J wanted to get takeout from our favorite Asian restaurant in town. After dinner, we opened our fortune cookies. The fortunes in them could not have been more appropriate for us. What do you think?

R: "Smile, it'll make the world a little bit brighter"

J: "It is better to deal with problems before they arise"

S: "Dessert CAN make you happy"

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to J, Dad/Grandpa, Dad/Grampy, PopPop, A, and JW!

and a special happy FIRST Father's Day to Surf!

Hope you all have wonderful, relaxing, well-earned celebrations today.

*****

R and I got up together this morning, and after we both had our oatmeal, R made a card for J. When J woke up, he made some pancakes for everyone. R and I, hobbit-style, had second breakfast.

R wore a special J shirt this morning, and I even gave her mini-pigtails.
(note the special J shirt-- it's actually a shirt he had when he was little. That's J at about 4 or 5 years old).

We went for a hike

and then R ran all over the playground at the end of our hike.
(I love how in this picture you can see J right next to the baby-J picture on R's shirt).

Now R is napping, I'm packing (er, writing a blog post), and J is doing work.

Pigtails

Opening Presents

R had a few gifts to open on Friday when we celebrated her birthday. Here are some photos of her enjoying her new purse from Surf & Cali as well as an alphabet puzzle from Grandma and Grandpa. The alphabet puzzle picture was taken right as she said "R for R---!" She also got a new crib for her baby dolls from J and I. Be sure to note, too, the absolutely adorable new outfit from JW and C!

Happy Birthday, R!

So as some of you know, R turned two on Friday. We've come a long way from our tiny little baby
to the two-year-old we see in front of us eating chocolate cake for her birthday

Here's a new game to play. . .

Try and guess when the bang is going to come!

The Ride Home

So S, R and I are at home from our New England adventure. We had a terrific time seeing lots of family and letting R play with "Gammy" and "Gumpy". On the ride back, R was understandably fussy as she hadn't napped all day until a little before we left and then the nap was not very long. After many attempts at mollifying her we all came to an understanding that R could fuss occasionally and mommy and daddy would just have to listen. Her fussing eventually evolved into singing - which was much more enjoyable. Then she told me "I need a toy!" Upon receiving her miniature doll, she started up a dialogue with it, as if she were putting baby to bed. It went something like this:

Seepy time.
I need a potty.
Yay! (clapping)
I need a potty 'gain.
Go to bed baby girl.
I need a potty.
seeepy time.
I need a potty. INNA CRIB.

That last part was quite emphatic, like she was either saying her baby was going to use the potty in her crib, or she was fed up with the requests and telling her baby to get in the crib. Either way, it showed me just how much she seems to be aware of her routine and her own attempts at unravelling it.

Trouble Getting Back To Sleep

J told me this story when I got back from Massachusetts. Apparently one night, R woke up in the middle of the night because she wanted some water... then she wanted to use the potty... then she wanted something else that I forget. After the third wake-up she had a really hard time getting back to sleep, and proceeded to drive J crazy because she kept narrating--very loudly-- all of her efforts to get back to sleep.

"I sing bye-o."

"I close my eyes."

When J asked if she wanted him to sing to her, she said, "No, R turn sing bye-o!"

J's reaction: Okay, then, sing bye-o and GO TO SLEEP!

Summer Fun part 2

After getting good and dirty, Grammie and I decided R should wash her feet in a bucket of warm water before heading inside to get cleaned up. R decided the bucket would be a good place to relax and do some more playing before getting inside.





The dialogue goes something like this:
R: splash daddy?
Grammy: go ahead
R: splashes a little bit
Grammy: you didn't get daddy. You only got R.
R: looks down into her bucket of water
R: I need cups!

This refers of course to the cups she always plays with in the bath. Once armed with the cups she proceeded to bail herself out a few tablespoons at a time.

Summer Fun part 1

Here we are outside on Grammie and Grampy's driveway using finger paints. There was much more emphasis placed on squeezing, flinging, stepping on, and wearing the paint than actual painting. Good dirty fun.







She's saying "I need more lellow" I'm not sure why she wanted the yellow more than any other color.

B b b b bad!

to the b b bone!

Meanwhile, in New England. . .

Yesterday we dropped S off in Massachusetts for a week long writing workshop. It was a very nice day and we were all glad to take a break from driving and spend some time with JW, C, and Little Frog along the way. After a delicious meal we found a little green spot to frolic and take pictures. The girls got along great!





R and I returned to Grammie and Grampy's to stay the week. Today was another nice day and Grammie and I brought R to the park where she climbed up to some slides, cooked wood chip cupcakes with some new friends, and got a little wet with the sprinkler. After that, she was ready for a long nap. We'll see what other adventures await for the rest of our stay.