Quotey Isoty

So the talking thing has taken off. I guess around 2 or 2 1/2 language is supposed to explode, and it sure has for Isota. Suddenly we have this little person around our house who speaks in sentences. Sure, she still switches Fs and Ss ("smart" becomes "fart" for example) and she has her own names for some things (Curious George = "Monkey George") but for the most part, she is a Full-On Human Talker. She gets stuff. She responds to stuff. And it's super cute when takes a second before she talks because you can see her trying to find the right words. I can't understand every single thing every time, but it's exhilarating when I finally figure it out. It's awesome when she can tell I am struggling to understand and she gives me other similar words to help me out.

And did I mention she is hilarious too? I can't believe some of the things that come out of her mouth. Some of my recent favorite moments:

*At a park, she was watching the girl next to us who was dressed in a black/white shirt. She tends to identify strangers by their shirt color, so she asks me, "What that white girl doing, Mommy?" (also, this girl was African-American. oops.)

*She started humming a tune and I started nodding my head in time. She says, "You a good dancer, Mommy!"

*Dinner at IKEA the other night (have I mentioned this is my favorite cheapo food place? Kid's meal for $2.50! Plus, she gets to play in the children's section while I dream of having a bigger house and all the cute things I would put in her room. Then we go pick up cheap ground coffee and jam. Yum.) and when I offered her a meatball, she said *exactly* this: "No thank you, Mommy, I have my own dinner." The politeness of this response just killed me.

*To understand this quote, you should know that Sody loves the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. She is taken with the one part where Willy Wonka first comes out of the factory and pretends that he cannot walk, but then suddenly does a somersault. We explained that that is Willy's trick. So...the other morning I woke up to "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" so I went to go see her and she wasn't in her bed. I turned around and saw her sitting on the couch with two little stuffed animals next to her, all tucked in under the blanket. I started laughing and telling her that she tricked me because I thought she would be in bed. And she said, "Willy Wonka play trick on ground. Sody play trick on couch!" So so proud of herself.

*Spilled her cup of water last night, grabbed a towel from the kitchen, started cleaning up and said over and over, "Don't worry Mommy, it's only water."

*Tonight, watching a man spinning dough at a pizza place, she told me "Sody want to be 'may-er' when I grow up." Aside from how cool it is that this was the first time she said something about what to be when she grows up, it took me a while to figure out this one ('may-er' was "maker" which she eventually explained further by saying "cooker" who "mays pizzas"). But she was basically saying she wants to be a PIZZA MAKER when she grows up! We are thrilled. Joe is set for life.

Sody vs. the Ice Cream Cone

For a while after the trip, the first thing Sody would say about it was, "I got ice cream on the boardwalk!" Here is the proof:

NJ Pictorial

Home Again

Oh my, it has been a while. Apologies for the loooong delay, we were in New Jersey for our two week summer vacation. It was especially busy this trip, with Joe's youngest brother graduating high school (WAY TO GO, CORRRRRRRY!) and a huge graduation party at the house and a side trip to the shore for a few days. As per usual, a great time. Made even better now that Sody is a little bit older and a busy little energetic chatterbox. She knows everyone so well now (and believe me, there are a *lot* of people and friends and relatives to know there) and gets to fully explore all the nooks and crannies of the house and huge backyard of the house Joe grew up in. Every morning it was, "Where's Pop Pop?" as soon as she woke up. And every day it was a struggle to get her to come back inside. The girl just wants to be running around in grass outside at all times. Or in a pool. Or at the beach. Or splashing in the ocean. We seem to have an outdoorsy little lass on our hands. The best thing was watching her discover her first lightning bugs at dusk...simple and magical and worth letting her stay up past bedtime to catch 'em.

She had some other Firsts on this trip: Devil Dog, Pop Tarts, Capri Suns, Kraft Mac and Cheese, a Happy Meal from McDonald's...I could go on. Believe me, she LOVED the food. I think it has been a rude awakening to come home to the whole wheat and dried fruit that I serve up. She keeps asking for snacks and it is a challenge to try and convince her "peas ARE a snack, Sody!!"

I don't have any of my trip pics uploaded yet...so here is an oldie but goodie to tide you over til I do:



Next up: New Jersey pictures! I promise!

Signs of Preschool Readiness, Exhibit A

I think Sody is going to be a pretty well-adjusted little kid. In general her adaptability in various situations, different places, or meeting new people is great...she pretty much goes with the flow, and seems to like doing just that. But my latest piece of evidence comes from last week when we visited a preschool. Now before you get excited, this was not a preschool visit for her. I do not have my sh** together nearly enough to have even started searching for preschools for the dear (which induces total panic in me, especially when you hear of insanity like mothers going on preschool tours WHEN THEY ARE STILL PREGNANT...not to mention the cost of preschool is basically going to be like having another rent to pay) but we were tagging along with her friend Kyler who is about to start at said preschool. Just a quick visit of an hour or so to play and hang out and check out the lay of the land. It was as eye-opening for me as it was Sody, as this was the very first preschool we have gone to together.

In a nutshell, I loved it. Loved the house it was located in, loved the location, loved the kids, loved the mix of employees, loved the outdoor space for the kids, loved the tiny little english muffin pizzas they got for snacktime, and *really* loved how well behaved the kids were: everyone goes as a group to line up and wash hands, then everyone sits nicely and waits their turns for snack, and everyone raises their hands quietly if they want more. It is ADORABLE. I wanted to hang out all day. I want to get a job there.

And guess what, Sody loved it even more than I did. My first indication was that as soon as we walked in to the place, I basically lost her. We were talking to the director a bit, hi-how-are-you-blah-blah-blah, and before I knew it Sody had blasted off to the backyard where all the action was. She jumped in to joining the other kids' play so fast that when I found her she was over around the side of the house, trying to get onto a bike with another girl. Absolutely no qualms about leaving my side, about who all these kids were, about what this magical place was. She just jumped in and tackled it all. She tried everything out, sat with Kyler for snacktime, answered the kids who asked her what her name was. (p.s. Do you get to hear a lot of not-prompted-by-adults conversation between preschoolers? It is pretty awesome. Non-sequiturs like you wouldn't believe.)

The visit reinforced for me that she is going to adore going to preschool. Sure, it will be different when I actually leave and when she actually goes to a school for many hours of the day...but this was a good start. A good sign. I am definitely going to be the one who is crying more when I drop her off on her first day, whenever that day is. The best part of our trip was when she saw us getting ready to leave, putting on jackets and backpacks and gathering things. She was across the yard playing with some block type things with other kids and she looks over and goes, "Not ready, Mommy." Ha! Not ready to go. Want to play more.

I know, Babe...I am not ready for you to go, either...

May Roundup

Well, OBVIOUSLY, I am having a hard time keeping up-to-date here. Is there anyone out there even checking this anymore? Apologies to my two readers for disappearing...but we are still here! We are alive! We are busy! The past few weeks have mostly been full of babysitting. Lots of work this month but soon will be down to just a trickle...which is fun for the stay-at-home mom part of my life but terrible for my pocketbook. But that is a whole other blog post for another time. For now, here is my shorthand for what has been happening during our May:

*Discovered, fell in love with, and repeatedly visited an all mac-and-cheese restaurant in Oakland

*Elvis Costello concert on Mother's Day. SO fun. Thank you to Doo, best present ever.

*Sody had her first non-family babysitters put her to bed when we were at the concert. Apparently she was a champ. Thanks Ian and Celina!

*Working on potty training. Some hits, some misses. Literally.

*Sody started climbing out of her crib so we switched it to a "big girl bed" (take one wall off the crib and voila!) It's going ok so far...only been a week but she has yet to spend the entire night in said bed.

*First trip to the dentist!! She did great, of course, and I could have cried seeing how big she looked sitting in the chair.

*For the first time, all three of us got sick at the same time. It sucked. Who goes out to buy the juice and soup when everyone is sick?!

*Tantrums. A few more than usual to make us we see how two-year-olds get their reputations. On the whole she is still the World's Best and Most Perfect Child (of course), but I will admit it is wild to watch her go from happy as a clam to completely destroyed in the span of an eyeblink. Usually over something like, oh, her sock getting twisted wrong on her foot. It's really hard not to laugh sometimes...but hey, it's hard to be 2.

*Yesterday I got my first "Go away, Mom." HEART BROKEN. Also, Daddy is apparently a "bad guy." WHA WHAAA? Where does this come from??

"Babymarch"

...is what Sody said all day last Saturday when we did the March of Dimes "March for Babies" walk in San Francisco. Gorgeous weather and a gorgeous route to walk along the water towards the Golden Gate Bridge that morning. Sody walked a good portion of it, but of course 2 year olds don't exactly stay focused on the task at hand. She wanted to run on every grassy area we passed, jump off every rock, and run on the beach and roll in the sand. So we took our time - about three hours start to finish. A great day, a great cause, and a reminder of how lucky we are to have our healthy girl.

Also - have you tried those Plum Organics fruit sauce-in-a-pouch thingys? They were one of the sponsors so they would give out samples along the route and Sody discovered a new favorite snack. She must have had five or six of those pouches that day. Loving free food - she gets that from her mother, definitely.

Easter Sunday

Easter was a low-key affair around here. We convinced Sody that the Easter Bunny dropped by while she was playing in her room and she just happened to miss him. Amen to gullibility at this age. So we had a small egg hunt and a basket hiding in our room for her. She definitely had fun but was most interested in throwing Easter grass all over the living room and getting all the jelly beans ("gee-wee beans") out of the eggs and into her mouth. The girl has a one track mind when it comes to jelly beans.

March for Babies

I am happy to announce that Joe, Sody and I are going to do the March of Dimes "March for Babies" event again this year! We did the march in Sacramento two years ago when Sody was a teeny tiny thing and had a great (inspiring, exhilarating, fun) time. Now we are going to tackle the S.F. walk at Fort Mason on April 30 and I am really looking forward to it. 6 miles! It'll be interesting to see how much of it Sody will want to actually walk.

If you want to find out more or donate to the cause - or even walk with us! I swear it's fun! - check out my fundraising site: www.marchforbabies.org/aliciapeterson

Thanks!!

Monterey Interlude

After our hospital visit of the last post - like, literally, 12 hours after - Sody and I headed to Monterey. Why, you ask? Well, I unexpectedly found myself with no babysitting work for the week (Random Event #1) and my parents just happened to be in Monterey for a little romantic getaway (Random Event #2). Since those two random events rarely happen at the same time, we decided to take advantage of it and crash my parents' party. We lived it up: getting soaked at the beach and eating fancy food and sleeping on the floor of the fancy digs and Sody making her first trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Thanks for letting us ruin your romantic weekend, Grandma and Grandpa! We loved it.

The Stuff That Really Makes You Feel Like a Parent

Sody got hurt last week. Not at all seriously, but it was out of the ordinary enough to warrant an emergency room trip at four a.m. FUN!! What she had was something called nursemaid's elbow, which I had never heard of before that night but is apparently pretty common in kids under five. Basically a little bone in the elbow gets dislocated and it hurts and the kid stops using his/her arm. (Side note: Don't yank on your kids' hands! Don't swing them around by the hands! Don't pull their little arms hard through sleeves! All of these can cause nursemaid's elbow. It's real!) Joe had been getting Sody ready for bed and held her hands to pull her up from the changing table. She usually pushes herself up onto her feet but this time resisted and Joe heard a little pop. And that was all it took: busted baby arm.

So she cried for a bit and while there was something obviously wrong with her arm (she just kept holding it at a ninety degree angle and close to her body), she wasn't in constant pain or anything. We gave her some baby Tylenol, tucked her in as usual, and spent a few hours wondering if we did the right thing. What we should have done. Stressing about how much an ER visit would cost. Looking up "nursemaid's elbow" on the internet. Feeling like crappy parents because we didn't take her straight to the doctor when everything on the internet about nursemaid's elbow says to take the kid straight to the doctor. Etc. It was an odd, confusing night. One where you realize this parenting stuff is so not clear cut at all.

She eventually woke up around 3:30, not able to sleep, still not able to use her arm. Seeing that little bent baby arm stuck in that position where she couldn't move it was just too sad - and that was when it finally got through to our thick heads to take her in and get her fixed up. Nothing else really mattered at that point. And it definitely ended up being the right move: the ER was dead at that time in the morning, our triage nurse was Swedish (!), and the fix for Sody's arm took about ten seconds - all the doctor did was a little rotating and flexing move and that elbow popped back in. It seemed to really hurt as the doctor was doing it, but literally seconds later Sody was fine and moving her arm and totally happy. It was an amazingly quick transformation. Plus she got a juice box, so her world totally rocked at that point. I was completely flooded with relief when I saw her high fiving with that arm again. And I am pretty sure Sody saw the whole thing as a total adventure - being up in the middle of the night, driving around in her pajamas, getting juice at the doctor's. We were so stinkin' happy it was a simple thing and that our kid was back to normal...so much so that we got donuts and hot chocolate on the way home and let her feast on sugar and cartoons at six in the morning for being such a good sport. I am pretty sure she is going to have a very positive attitude toward going to the doctor from here on out. Or expect treats every time. Oops.


before: ouchie arm


after: working arm (and juice)


way after: donuts at home