Mommie’s Little Cupcake

We went to see the Giant Sequoias over the weekend. We stopped in the gift shop at the lodge after breakfast to see if there were any souvenirs LaLa might like.

She picked up a giant plush spider and hugged it and said that she wanted “this one,mama”.
I said “Oh, you want a spider?”
She dropped it to the floor without even looking at it. She froze in fear and her eyes got huge. After 30 seconds, she said “I don’t like spiders, mama.”

I put it back in the basket and we picked out a big horn sheep and a marmot. (I liked the sheep, of course.). She picked the marmot and she’s been her constant companion ever since.

Today, La La had oatmeal for breakfast.

Eggs, bacon, a half a bagel with cream cheese, and hash browns for lunch.

Two bowls of cheerios and a bowl of corn chex for supper.

It was a breakfast kind of day. Must be a growth spurt coming, because after weeks of having trouble getting her to eat anything, she’s been chowing down all week. Just yesterday she had a huge bowl of spaghetti for lunch and a lot of chicken and two tomatoes for dinner. (We are having Thanksgiving on Sunday. I hope she eats then!)

That and the fact that she was off and running starting at 6AM, even riding her trike in the house until we were dressed before going outside, I don’t know where she gets her energy. We blew bubbles, she climbed her wall and rode her swing, sat on the trapeeze bar with Daddy’s help, climbed some more and rode her trike outside.

And then she wanted to go for a walk.

La La is now about 27 months old, and she’s doing great.  At her 2 year checkup, the doctor started asking us the usual questions, but soon just asked her the questions, because he could see that she was capable of answering them.  He said she’s doing fine, her ears are fine (we were worried after a few ear infections) but we are still trying to figure out if she has allergies like her parents, of if her faucet of a runny nose is just caused by all the hugs and kisses at day care (they are a VERY affectionate bunch).  Seems like whenever the weather changes, all three of us end up with some kind of cold.  Anyway, the doctor said her vocabulary was off the charts for a 2 year old, and that we had nothing to worry about developmentally.  (Yay!)

And it is off the charts.  The. girl. never. stops. talking.  From the  moment she wakes at about 5:20 AM each day (even weekends! )  until she finally passes out telling stories to her dolls in bed at night, this girl is talking.  And most of the time, other people can understand her, except for a few things that she says so fast that even I have trouble with. 

Her new "thing" is "Mama say Once upon a time? and a red car? and a dragon? and a tunnel?"  where she wants me to tell her a story, but she gives me all the prompts I need to tell the right story.  Over and over again until I can’t come up with anything more creative to say.  And it’s not just her in these stories, it’s Princess La La and the Mighty Mighty Thor (one of her classmates is named Thor) and sometimes Muno or Foofa show up too. 

I remember when my sister went through this phase of constant chatter and I remember how much it annoyed me (and didn’t seem to affect my mother) and now, tada! I can tune it right out while still being able to detect when I need to pay attention. 

Last year, I made a little pillow and pillowcase for La La for her dolls.  She hated the pillowcase and would always pull it off and just play with the pillow for hours, putting her doll down and talking to it and tucking it in and picking her up and readjusting, but the pillowcase just made her mad and she didn’t want it.  Fast forward to a few weeks ago and now she loves the pillowcase and keeps pulling it off and asking me to put it back on.  A few days ago, she was playing with her "babies" and the pillow and she pulled off the pillowcase again.  I was tuned out but suddenly there was the "wake up mommy" sounds so I asked her what was wrong. 

"I need help" she said.  We’ve been working on the importance of saying what you need instead of just whining. 

"What do you need, honey?"

"I can’t do it.  It’s stuck. I can’t… I can’t…I didn’t learned it yet." she said, and handed me the pillow and the case.  She actually got the pillow halfway in, and was doing pretty good. 

"Do you want me to show you?  You almost did it all the way!"

"Yes", she replied.

"Here you go" I said as a pulled out the pillow and put it back together.  Then I pulled it out again so she could try.  She took it from me and tried again, and this time got it most of the way on.  She got frustrated again. 

"Would you like me to put it on, and you can try again later?"

"Yes, please".  I put the pillowcase on and she thanked me and went back to playing.  I was so proud of her for knowing that she "didn’t learned it yet" but that she still tried and then asked for help when she was really stuck. 

This kid amazes me every day with her words, her love and hugs and kisses, and just how much fun she is.  I really feel like with her attitude, she’s never going to stop learning and I’m so grateful that I have a curious kid.

As much as it freaks me out that she is constantly exploring, which means danger is always lurking, I think it’s so much better than the alternatives. 

La La flies her kite

It was so hot on Saturday.   I did not want to cook, so we went out for Sushi.  La La had tuna roll, tons of edamame, and the rice from a tuna sushi.  She took a bite of Caterpillar roll, but did not like it. (I don’t blame her, it was Daddy’s roll, not mine. )  She also liked the ginger, which surprised me.

On the way home, we decided to go out for ice cream (froyo, really) and head up to Signal Hill where it should at least be breezy and cooler than our house that was so still and muggy.

La La was so excited for ice cream, and got it all over herself, but it was fun anyway. We have wipes!

Then, when I finished my froyo, I broke out the kite and it took right off.  There was plenty of wind, like we hoped,  and it even got a bit chilly a few times.  We let Brobee fly for a while and a little girl came over to ask if she could have the kite.  I told her to ask her mom or dad to get her a kite and then we could both have kites.  (No, kid, you can’t have La La’s kite.)

After a while, we packed up the kite and headed back home for books and bed.  We put the fan on and tried to stay cool for the night, and snuggled without moving too much so we wouldn’t get sweaty again.

Dear La La,

As we lay down for sleep, you wanted a “mommy minute” before I put you in your crib, like you do most nights.

And like you do most nights, you did your lala-robics where you climb all over the bed and all over me if I let you. Then you snuggle under my arm and move around some more singing little songs like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or it’s variations: Baa Baa Black Sheep, ABC’s, Rainbow Rain(you made that one up yourself!).

Tonight though, I didn’t recognize the melody of the song you were singing… right away. After a few minutes, I started hearing words poke through the toddler-speak. “…no deer… i love you… take away… mr. sun…” What in the world?

So I kept listening and realized that you were singing “You are my sunshine” in your own little way and it made me squeeze you extra tight and sing along.

You must have learned the song at day care, because I hardly ever sing it, since I only know the chorus and get bored when the song doesn’t change up a bit.

That was about the sweetest end for a day that had some pretty big ups and downs.

Ended up, my baby.

Love, Mummy.

Sleepy La La

This morning, we were rushed as usual.  I was rushing to get my lunchbox packed, so I put La La’s shoes on the coffee table and asked her to put them on, fully expecting to have her spend a few minutes futzing around and then when I was done with my lunchbox I would go into the living room and put her shoes on for her.
Well, I got a great surprise when she came into the kitchen wearing one shoe (the right one on the right foot even!) all velcroed closed and everything.  She brought me the left for help opening it so she could put it on.  I opened the velcro and gave it back to her and watched her put it on too.

Such a big girl!

Here’s some photos from the end of the day with La La showing off how strong she is on the trapeeze in the backyard.

eta: server issues, no photo upload right now.

edited again:  lost that photo, so here’s a different one.

La La climbs her wall

La La had her last swimming lesson a few weeks ago, so I had Daddy take the camera and take some photos of her in the pool, in case I need to convince her in the future that she likes it and not to be afraid.  (We are in the afraid of things phase, I guess). 

As we were heading out to the car, he snapped this photo, and I thought it looked so cute, like a surfer pose. 

So, I had to do it:

I know, wicked silly, and I don’t have the mad Photoshop skills, but I’m working on learning!

We are so excited that it’s coming up on Summer around here!

I think, between the three of us (mama, La La & papa) we read every book La La owns, even the French ones (daddy books). Our living room looks like the children’s section at the library. Her vocab is growing every day, and she wants more, more, more.

Today, we went up to the mountains to see some snow.   She was so excited to wear her mittens, since she’s only worn them in the house so far. She picked up some snow and showed us “snow? Snow? Snow?”. So cute. But it was cold and windy, and mama didn’t think to bring her own hat, so we didn’t stay out long.

When we got back to the car, it was book, book, book. She actually takes our hands and puts the book in so we’ll read to her. So sweet, especially when coupled with a “peeease read”. Who can say no?

La La is home sick today with conjunctivitis.  She is bored, bored, bored and we have watched all of the episodes of Yo!  Gabba Gabba that we have saved on the DVR.  I’m about to see if there any on-demand episodes we haven’t seen lately. 

Earlier, we were watching the episode called "Weather" and in it, Paul Williams sings "Rainbow Connection" in a really trippy sequence.  When it started, La La started saying "No more. No more. No more. …" until I finally skipped ahead to the end of the song. 

My girl has good taste!

It was a beautiful Saturday.  Mummy had gone to L.A. for the day, leaving La La home with Daddy, who thought it was a good day for the beach.  The previous week had been rainy and cold and La La had been cooped up for a few days at school, so this would give her a chance to run around. 

La La had just rediscovered her ball, a blue super bouncy clear ball, and Daddy thought she would love to bring the ball to the beach too. 

At the beach, La La ran around a lot, tossed the ball back and forth (sort of) with Daddy, and went down close to the edge of the water.  The waves were noisy and a little scary, so La La stayed close to Daddy until she knew it was safe if she stayed on the dry part of the beach. 

La La found something interesting on the beach.  She picked it up and showed it to Daddy.  She told Daddy what it was, over and over again, but Daddy didn’t quite understand what La La was saying because she was holding a seashell and Daddy knew she had never found shells at the beach before, so La La didn’t know the word "shell", but slowly he realized that was exactly what she was saying.  "Shell?  Shell?  Shell?" La La asked.

"That’s right!" Daddy replied, "That’s a shell!"  La La was pleased and carried the shell in her hand, until she wanted to pick up her ball again.  Then Daddy remembered where La La learned the word shell, it was six months ago at Yia Yia’s wedding, where she poured sand from a seashell into a heart-shaped bowl with all the guests at the wedding, to symbolize the merging of our lives going forward.  Daddy was amazed that La La remembered something from so long ago that she only saw that day.

"Ball?  Ball?"  La La asked Daddy, while pointing out towards the ocean.  Daddy looked on the ground in the direction La La was pointing, but he didn’t see La La’s blue ball over there.  He soon found it behind them and showed it to La La.  Again she pointed to the ocean and said "Ball?  Ball?" 

This time Daddy looked all the way out to where La La was pointing, and then he saw what La La saw.  It was the building that housed the Spruce Goose!  It’s a round topped building that looks just like a ball.  Daddy picked La La up and showed her the building and told her it was a house for an airplane.  La La looked puzzled, but said, "House?"

"Yes, that’s right, house!" Daddy replied.  La La was happy and ran around some more and found another shell and brought it to Daddy. 

"Shell? Shell?" La La asked. 

"That’s right!" Daddy replied, "That’s a shell!"

La La looked at the ocean for a minute, then pointed to the water with the shell in her hand.  "House?" she asked. 

Daddy was puzzled this time, until he realized that La La was telling Daddy that the shell lived in the ocean, it was the shell’s house. 

"That’s right!" Daddy replied, "The ocean is the shell’s house!"

La La was happy and ran around some more with her ball and her shell and her Daddy, and they played and ran away from the scary waves and then La La had a snack and took a nap.