Is this Pretend?

The last two weeks or so R has been doing this thing where she "pretends" one of Mommy or Daddy or herself is someone else she knows. We spent most of this past weekend where I was JW (my brother, R's uncle), mommy was C (R's aunt), and she was Little Frog (her cousin). She repeatedly would point to me and say "That's (JW)!" Even when on the webcam with Grammy and Grampy, she would answer "What's your name?" with "(Little Frog)!" Of course there were plenty of times when she was R again and I was daddy. Especially when she did not want me doing something: "No Daddy! Don't touch that! Don't sit there!" She also likes to tell the cats "Don't eat my shoe!" One morning she even decided that I was Gi Gi and S was Pop pop.

I think these games of the imagination extend to her phony reactions to some foods or events. She likes to tell us that all kinds of food are "spicy." She also tells us that Daddy or the cats or some truck noise outside are "scary." While we sometimes play along with our alter-egos, we've been trying to nip the latter in the bud. No, that tomato is not spicy, and daddy is not scary, even if he is a little scruffy-looking.

Finally, she has shown a renewed interest in playing pretend with her toys. Just the other day she was giving her camel a drink - amidst a conversation with her new camel companion - another gift from our friend H in Dubai. Also, lately, at night and at naptime after we've laid her down it has been routine to hear her talking, singing, and having little conversations with her dolls.

I don't think it'll be long before R is telling her own bedtime stories to us. I can't wait to hear what she comes up with - beyond the one about Cinderella - a little girl who had a daddy - "AND A MOMMY!"

A sing-songy day

R is singing in her crib right now. It might be Frere Jacques or it could be wheels on the bus. Hard to tell. She sang ABC's to Grandma and Grandpa on the phone tonight. On the way up to her bath, she wanted to climb the stairs herself, saying, "I hold handle," and reaching for the rail. This inevitably led to her saying, "Here's my spout," and continuing on with "I'm a little teapot." In the bath we sang "Old McDonald had a farm" and I let her supply the animals and sounds. After making the cow say "Oink" and a good number of ducks quacking, she decided that on his farm, he had water. After which we were singing "Old McDonald had a bath," and in his bath he had milk. It kind of petered out from there, but we had fun while it lasted.

Here's a video of her singing the ABCs all the way up to P and then demanding that we sing with her.


On the topic of cute things R says:

I had to get a video of R saying "A little bit." I love it. When she's asking for something and not being a terrible two, she has a tendency to make her request more reasonable by adding "Just a little bit." She pulled it out when there were cookies out tonight and I had to get it on video.


And why were there cookies out, you ask? A few shots of R's afternoon activity with Mommy should answer that question:



Yeah, it was a good day.

A Breakfast Song

R: "Sing ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, Mommy!"
Mommy: "ew ew ew"
R: "Ew, ew, ew, R's boogies, R's boogies"
Mommy: "Ew!"
R: "All done, all done all done!"

ADDED: There were no actual boogies involved in the singing of this song.

Go Bento

I'm posting this late, but better late than never! R's good friend H has been spending her summer in Tokyo and sent her this utterly adorable bento box for her 2nd birthday.

When she got it, R was SO excited to take it all apart and put it back together. She's going to have so much fun once I start putting snacks in it for her--we haven't done it yet because of all the packing going on right now. But it's perfect for packing food in to take to the park or to have a picnic with. I also can't wait to really teach her how to use chopsticks. I'm thinking maybe we'll eat off chopsticks every day for a month and really train her. Or something.

Vintage Cookbooks

My grandma passed on to me a bunch of her old cookbooks when we were visiting this past weekend. My mom and I spent one evening looking through them, and had a ton of fun reading through-- and laughing hysterically until we cried about-- some of the crazy things they put in these cookbooks.

First up: Food Favorites, from the Kraft Television Theatre . . . "selected by popular request." (1951).

(But seriously, though, I have a hard time believing these recipes were ever popular.)
"Mayonnaise Appetizer Dip." This consists of basically-- you guessed it-- mayonnaise. Plus 1 teaspoon grated onion, 1 teaspoon horseradish, 1 teaspoon tarragon vinegar, and 1/4 teaspoon curry powder. How disgusting does that sound?

It totally makes me think of that scene in "Notting Hill" where Spike (Hugh Grant's character's roommate) says, "There's something wrong with this yogurt," at which point Hugh Grant informs him that he's been eating mayonnaise.

And how about these "Jellied Green Pepper Rings"?
It's kind of hard to see the picture, but essentially, to make this, you cut the stem off of some green peppers, make some lemon Jell-O, add chopped celery, chopped carrots, shredded cabbage, and chopped cucumbers, and spoon this gelatin mixture into the green peppers and chill. When the Jell-O is hard, you slice the peppers into rings and voila, Jellied Green Pepper Rings. Serve with mayonnaise.

Can we say "ew"?

Next: "Stuffed Prune and Date Dessert."
To make this, all you do is squeeze cream cheese through a pastry tube on top of prunes and dates. They look like decorated turds, seriously.

But this last one is my absolute FAVORITE from this Kraft cookbook: "Cheese Nutburgers"
The ingredient list for the burgers (in its entirety): mayonnaise, pecans, relish, and Worcestershire sauce. (The "cheese" part comes when you put American cheese slices on top of the "burgers" before baking them.) If you'd like to try these I'll be happy to send you the complete recipe.

The other cookbook is called Easy Ways to Good Meals: 99 Delicious Dishes Made with Campbell's Soups (1949).

This cookbook was slightly more appalling than the Kraft one mainly because they tried to put Campbell's soup into dishes that really, really, did not need soup as an ingredient whatsoever.

For example, the "Stuffed Meat Roll," which is essentially meat spread onto waxed paper and covered with a mixture of potatoes and pea soup and then rolled, like one would roll a jelly roll, kinda. But look at that picture! It looks like it's stuffed with lard!
MMMM, "Chicken Mousse." Made with Jell-O, cream of chicken soup, cream cheese, chopped chicken, and mayonnaise, of course. Topped with whipped cream. (I know, I know, I wouldn't believe it myself if I wasn't reading it in front of my own eyes).

Back in the 50s, I guess people just loved to put Jell-O in everything. For example: "Tomato Soup Salad." There was no picture of the actual salad, but check out the ingredient list (I photographed it just for proof): Jell-O, tomato soup, cream cheese, salad dressing OR mayonnaise, and lemon juice. Good gracious. Who would eat that? Or, better yet, who would even think to invent this? But, on the bright side, it's among the few recipes that doesn't ask for BOTH cream cheese and mayonnaise.

But I think the "Grilled Shrimp and Vegetable Salad" wins grossest Jell-O concoction in this cookbook. You make it pretty much how you would expect-- with some Campbell's consomme, Jell-O, and a whole slew of vegetables just mixed up in there. Dang, that is one beautiful salad.

And you know no cookbook would be complete without dessert. Dessert made with soup, of course. So we bring you "Apple Sauce Spice Shortcake with Foamy Sauce." (Yes, that is the actual name of the recipe). Made with tomato soup, along with the typical ingredients for an apple sauce spice cake. MMM, foamy sauce. Take a look.

Ohio Trip

We had a great visit to my parents' house last week. On the way there we taught R that Grandma and Grandpa live in O-hi-o. My mother didn't know this, and about fell over when she randomly at dinner the first night we were there asked R where Grandma and Grandpa lived.

All week R kept saying, "I go to O-hi-O!" and on the way home she was none too pleased to find out that we were not going to Ohio, but to Delaware instead. But we cheered her up by telling her she would get to play with her friends and stay at R's house.

I've been trying to put her in pigtails more often. This was the 2nd day we were there, but the elastic bands broke later that morning so she was only in pigtails for part of one morning. Here's the best picture we got of the pigtails, with Grandma.
Later that day we went to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, which has the cutest fairy-tale like children's garden. R loved it. There was a fountain, an area where you can fill watering cans using water pumps and water any of the flowers in the area, a sandbox, a little farm house with a table & chairs in it, a tree house, and all kinds of other pint-sized fun things to do. I absolutely love this butterfly outfit Grandma bought for R. I think she does, too!
We took a couple trips to Lake Erie. As with the ocean, R did not like being near the water. Even though she says she wants to "play in the sandbox" (aka the beach), she starts screaming "No way, Jose!!!" when you approach the water. One day we went it was really really windy so the water was very choppy, which I think is part of what scared her. The picture below is from the second time we went, and she was less frightened. We watched some geese navigate the water and talked about the waves with her. The day before we left, we visited with my aunt and uncle, who were having an open house in honor of my cousin, Girl Scrabbler, who is visiting the country for 2 weeks after spending 2 years and 2 months serving in the Peace Corps in Guyana. I am so impressed with all of her accomplishments-- and the things she did in Guyana were simply amazing. She, almost single-handedly, with other volunteers and community members, assembled a public children's library with 4,000+ books. This included, of course, building all the shelves and organizing the books and training librarians and others to maintain the library. Amazing. Now she's headed off to teach English in Chile for 4 months before going to graduate school this fall. We also got to see Great-Grandma (who R is named after), and had a wonderful visit with everyone.

Current Favorite Bedtime Stories

Along with My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch, which I talked about in R's 25-month letter, she's also been requesting, every night, for me to read The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash. She loves when the cow cries and sometimes talks about the haystack falling. She points out the pigs on the school bus and sometimes yells at them to get off the bus. When the kids have the egg fight, I "crack" an egg on her head which usually gets a laugh out of her.

25 months

Dear R,

You have been happily settling into the life of a two-year-old, claiming ownership of as much of your little world as you can and growing ever-more independent. But all of this is happening in fits and starts, with plenty of "fits" and "starts" along the way.

Today you were the sweetest little girl just about all day. When we asked if you wanted yogurt for a snack, your face lit up, you yelled, "YOGURT!" and ran to your high chair and started buckling all the buckles. Yes, your newest thing is buckling every buckle in sight, and insisting that if there is a buckle to be done, "I do it!" During your snack, you were so happy to be eating yogurt and blueberries, and you proclaimed several times, "MY yogurt! I eat it!" Then we offered you some frozen watermelon, an offer that you met with more shrieks and giggles. "I eat water MELON!" You were so excited!

And all through dinner you were so happy to be sitting there eating corn on the cob, peas, and gardenburger riblets with us. It was kind of amazing. Everything was funny. You giggled like a crazy lady at everything we did or said. And when I suggested it was bath time, you leaped down and said, "I walk upstairs!", didn't protest one bit when we got you in the water, and you even let Daddy wash your hair and rinse it like it was your favorite thing to do in the whole world.

When it was time to read stories and get ready for bed, we read some Mother Goose and you requested your favorite book (I have read this book to you at least 15 times in the past week): My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch, we got your giraffe pillow, and you snuggled up to listen. And when I said it was time to lie down, you went right to sleep.

It was nothing short of awesomeness.

This month you've become Mommy's little clone. Everything I do, including "having a baby in my belly" or "eating ANYTHING" or "taking a shower" or "going to work" instantly becomes, "I have baby in MY belly!"; "I eat _________!"; "I take a shower!" and so on and so forth. You want me to hold your hand every time we go somewhere, and whenever Daddy suggests doing something, you shout, "NO, MOMMY DO IT!" or "MOMMY TURN!".

When Daddy and I took you to pick up some dinner the other night you wouldn't sit in the stroller unless I was pushing it. And I couldn't just be pushing it with one hand and walking alongside you. I HAD to have both hands on the stroller.

We're never 100% sure what will set off your latest "fit." Not that you have tantrums all the time, just that they feel awfully random when they do crop up. A lot of times we just have to laugh. Seriously, you're going to be upset because I'm standing with one foot on the rug and the other foot on the hardwood floor? There are bigger things to care about in this world, and I know you'll recover from this one. And you usually do--in 60 seconds or less.

Baby girl, I love you so much my heart breaks every time I look at you. Thank you for being my little girl and opening my eyes to a whole new perspective on the world.

Love,
Mama

Pool Time

Is it bad for me to confess that this is the first time R has been to the pool this summer?

More Belly Pictures--A Comparison

26 weeks (almost 6 months) with baby #2

as compared to 27.5w (6 months) with baby #1

It's amazing how much bigger you look the 2nd time around. I wonder if this will hold true through the entire pregnancy or if things will shift around and eventually end up looking different.

More Stuff R Does

--Call everything "mine!" As in, "this is MY house." "This R's pillow." "That's MY cereal." "That book is MINE!" Occasionally something will be Mommy's or Daddy's (like when she's assigning seats at the dinner table--yes, she really does this, and gets upset if you sit in a seat she hasn't specifically designated as yours) but usually everything is hers.

As of now, this trend is mostly cute, rather than annoying. Most of the stuff she identifies as hers really is hers-- as in, the bowl she's eating from, or the particular toy she's playing with at the time-- and if you tell her something isn't actually hers, she will usually but not always modify her phrasing so that said item is attached to the correct person.

--Insist on wearing flip flops. Grammie and Grampie sent R some adorable Dora the Explorer flip flops in her size and oh my goodness, she loves these shoes. She likes to wear my flip flops around the house, but now that she has Dora's flip flops, she wears those and brings me mine so I can put them on, because didn't you know, life is so much better if you're wearing flip flops. (Thank goodness she didn't inherit J's webbed toe!)

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"