THIRTY-SIX

She is in love with her new sparkly hand me down dress up clothes. Though nothing will ever replace the ripped grey tshirt, sadly.

2015 week thirty-six

 Happy September! We kicked off the first week with a trip to the zoo!

We harvested and replanted. In our harvest we found this cat-shaped carrot. Vera loved it and kept it at her place at the table until it was really squishy and discolored. She would always say, "A CAT Mama! Awww! Look at his little tail!"

Matthew often reads to me while I cook dinner. Vera gets her copy of Beetle the Bard and "reads" aloud along with him. :) 

On Friday we went to the Dallas Zoo. Our first stop was the carousel. This is her excited anticipation before it started. 

Losing confidence but trying to stay strong.

No longer fun.

Pure Terror. 

Riding a stationary elephant statue was much more reasonable. 

The best day of her life. "A GIRAFFE! A GIRAFFE! Have our own giraffe at home!!"

"Mama look at the giraffe! Show me! Show me!" 

After waiting 10 minutes waving our $5 head of lettuce around we eventually lured Katie the Giraffe over.

I don't have to tell you how magical this was. Look at her little purple tongue.

"Mama! A CHEETO!!! Aw he's sleeping!" Yeah, I feel you Cheeto. It was freaking hot.

No fear at the lion enclosure. She was pretending to pet them through the glass. 

Feeding the birds (tuppence a bag). 

No matter how many times the birds kept biting her fingers Vera wouldn't stop trying to pet them.

Making egg and bacon biscuit sandwiches for National Bacon Day and Papa decides Vera needs more cat-like qualities. I don't think she liked it one bit. ;) 

Swimming at the cousins' community pool.

Uncle Scott throwing her as high as he could. Pure Joy. A few days later Matt was at the pool and spent 30 minutes throwing her into the pool over and over. He said she went completely under fairly deep and came up with the biggest smile paddling to the edge as fast as her long chubby legs could propel her. 

Quotes:

Passing a school bus, V: "I can ride on the school bus! I can ride on the bus to school with Cora!." (The Cora obsession will never die. Whenever we drive past Cora's school my stalker daughter says, "Cora's school! I want to go to school with Cora!")

Me, "Do you want peanuts and raisins, or applesauce and toast for snack?"
V, "Uhmmmmm No. I want chocolate."

I pulled a very hairy carrot out of the garden and said, "Weird, look at this hairy carrot!"
Then, unprovoked V said, "Want to watch the Harry movie. Want to watch the Potter...Harry Potter movie?" Yes my child. Yes. Or should I say, "Always."

Matthew dropped a bite of zucchini on the table during dinner one night. As it smacked down Vera exclaimed, "Oh, Papa!!" We thought it was hilarious. Then she started laughing from our social cues then kept repeating it for the rest of the evening. "Remember, Mama, Oh Papa! Remember?"

"Mama, there's a bug bite on my... my wri-..my wrinkle?" Her wrist. Cute thing combined it with ankle.

Story:

We have had a taxing week with regressive pants and bed-wetting accidents -almost to a comical level. We went to the bathroom in the library and she peed on the toilet. Great. Perfect. We walk away from the bathroom and suddenly her pants are soaked as she's yelling, "My pants are dry! I didn't pee! They're dry." I will say my frustration at that point was not reflective of my finest behavior. It had been all week of sudden random soaking of her pants, and waking up every morning soaked. It has been literally months since she's had accidents like this. Then I went grocery shopping and came home to find her hiding in her bedroom with an enormous poop in her panties. For some reason she didn't tell Matthew and we have no idea why. We were, ahem, unhappy. Today I realized, however, that that was the first poop she had had in several days. And it was so big and hard it completely clogged the toilet. I was unable to plunge it effectively. *shakes head* toddlers... And then I remembered that sometimes constipation can push on their little bladders and cause freak accidents well after successful toilet-training. We have no other reason (unless her little body is a sensitive divining rod of anxious anticipation of baby brother's arrival compelling her to lose control of her faculties) so we'll just say, this was probably it. You get prunes with breakfast tomorrow V. Good thing you think they are better than candy.

After some really rough days and feeling hopeless, helpless, frustration, each night we would calm down together by doing this:











It really really helped. Reminds me how much I love her and how much I love being a mama and teaching her things.


Happy Labor Day!