FORTY-THREE

She's getting so big. She was really proud that she could swing on the bar by herself. And then she bumped her head.

2015 week forty-three

Our beautiful new baby ushered in proper autumn weather -and now after months of begging to wear sweaters and tights, V complains all day if I make her put them on...

I truly hate pushing the swing. Luckily I have the temporary excuse of not being able to lift her for a couple weeks. This is her compromise. 

She claimed to have brought me "lemonade." That is a garlic bulb. This is probably my fault because I know she sees me put garlic in everything. 

Stroking her cheek with her nerf gun before she pistol whipped my block tower.

We got two baby watermelons in our garden. Today i ripped up everything but the tomatoes, peppers and chard. It feels like tucking my garden in for winter. 

One of her favorite items at the cousins house: the bouncy horse. As much as she loves it though, her real favorite things are the doll strollers and the cousins sweaters -just not her own sweaters.

Beautiful boy is starting to have short periods of being awake and we get to see his sweet dark eyes.

Everyone here loves him so much. 

Vera reenacting the ending of City of Angels. :)

Having no fun at all while the young men watch Avengers at our house. In the morning V asked, "Mom, where did the boys go?"

Not quite sure how she feels about this costume. But later was really excited to tell me all about having a tail.

Cousins looking at the animal book. 

Quotes:

"Giraffe, do you want to party later? ... OK!!"

"When I get bigger, I go on a trip with Jackson and Sammy." She said this frequently while our friends were at Disneyland.

V was having a hard day and Matt so kindly took her on a long walk after he rode his bike home from work. When they got back V told me, "Mom the skeleton mans are scary, scary, scary. We saw the scary door."

Me -"What is Papa's name?"
V- "29?"
Me- "No, what is his name?"
V- "Sweetie."

Me -"What do you want for snack today?"
V- "Spiders, Cheetos, chips, iPad, raisins..." this went on for a while.

"Jack and Jill in the ditch. I spy the wicked... MAMA!"

Dancing around singing, "The wise man built his house upon a Theo!"

Walking around JCrew, "Wow, Mama I love this sooooooo much! I love it! It is soooo beautiful!"

Me -"Are you a girl?"
V -"No. I'm a video-sa." Your guess is as good as mine...

V- "I dont like candy corns. I like blue M&Ms."
Me -"I'm sorry we dont have any M&Ms. All we have is candy corn."
V -"Mama! I like candy corns now!"

"Silly Theo! Your hand is not a nipple!"

Me -"Vera can you hand me that water, please?"
V- "I cant. I have busy hands."

At the cousins house she was sitting at the table sneaking oreos when no one was watching.
Matt -"What?! Where did you find those?!"
V -"Mama, there are a lot of treats here!"

"It's just crazy at the cousins house! Just CRAZY!"

"Mama look at the moon! I'm going to get out and fly high, high, high. And I will hold the moon and I'm going to show you how to hold the moon. And it will crumple and I will show you."

Stories:

To help encourage V to listen better we have started to give her an "X" on the board when she listens the first time. When she gets 10 she gets some candy. I was making my bed and I hear V say from the other side of the bed. "Mama, is this an x? Mama. An x?" Out of context I had no idea what she was saying. So I asked her to show me. Part of the pattern on the quilt looks like an "x". She found an "x" and was so proud. So Matt thought that if, unprompted, she noticed an "x" in a quilt, she might enjoy finding new letters. So I showed her what a capital "A" looked like and we went through a book looking for others. She caught on so quickly and was really excited. She brought me more books and squealed each time she found another "A." A couple days later she was playing in the front room by our huge world map. I hear her yell, "Mama! Show me show me! AN A! An A! Another A!" So I went to see. She found the word "Antarctica" and counted, "One - Two -Three A's!" I was so proud of her and how excited she was. For the rest of the week she found A's everywhere. So I guess it's time to start doing more formal teaching. She clearly loves it. She seems so little though. I'm not really sure where/how to begin to actually teach her school-type things instead of basic social skills and interacting properly with us and others.

A sad story. Apparently I have some serious issues with my milk coming in. Lets just say there were cabbage leaves, ibuprofen, heating pads, fevers, and a bit of crying for a few days. Overnight I can go from normal-looking human to outrageously disproportioned anime person. On the last day of the swelling I was lying on the couch resting and V came over to snuggle with me. What should have been a sweet moment swiftly turned south as she lost balance or something and landed on my breasts with both of her elbows. I literally screamed and started sobbing. I tried to talk to V about it, but was crying so hard. She gave me a dirty look and said, "I want to watch a show!" Gah. It was dreadful. When I could calm down, I tried to make her see how she hurt me and she said she was sorry. But she quickly reminded me that she, "want[ed] to watch a show."


Once the flooding rains had passed, V and I took Theo for a little walk in the cool, grey, windy morning. V would stop periodically to pick up little acorns and take off their caps. The top of the acorn is red around here. V collected a few and would rub the red part on her face saying, "I need my makeup! Wait, Mama. I need to put on my makeup." Then she would hand me acorns and tell me I needed to put on my makeup too. I was pretty surprised because I know she didn't get that from me. Silly little thing. Then she tripped on a sediment pile and the acorns scattered. She came up screaming, "My MAKEUP! My makeup!!"