“I love you” I tell you. “Wa you” you say back. “Who else does Mommy love?” I ask you, expecting a reply such as “Daddy”. “Michael!” you announce with a sparkle in your eye. (Michael works with me and you hear me talking to him on the phone throughout the day.

In the bathtub, or reading night time stories, you will tell Daddy “Daddy go”. I explain that’s not very nice and you’ll hurt daddy’s feelins. “Wa you” you tell him, planting a kiss.

Songs you can sing: Happy Birthday (voice breaking at the ‘to you’ part, very sweet). Patty Cake, Bubble Gum, Bubble Bubble Pop, Rain Rain Go Away (not that we have rain, though you do have a new umbrella, just ready for it in fall).

First TV show you are interested in is Thomas the Train.

When you don’t know someone’s name, you point to the person and ask me “Name?”

Favorite color is still pink, hands-down. (It’s also Nolan’s favorite color, his parents think it’s your influence.)

Indispensable:
Blue train shirt from Billy Jones Railroad (chee chee shirt)
Abby (lovey doll who is dragged everywhere, and is light colored and hence, always needs a ‘bath’.  I can never find the right time to snatch her from your grasp).
Thomas the train

Bad habits:
Coming into bed in middle of night and thrashing around, waking mommy and/or daddy.
Skinny dippying — even at waterpark or with friends over at your pool. ( I think you’ll grow out of this…. it’s rather cute). “I nakee” you announce proudly. (Or if mommy or daddy are getting out of shower, “daddy nakee!”.)
Refusing afternoon naps (usually when Mommy’s trying to put you down on weekends or Fridays).

New this week:
Train table set, purchased for a steal on craigslist. This morning you actually woke up and went to play with your ‘train table’, letting mommy and daddy sleep a bit longer.
Purple bicycle from Nana with training wheels.
Pink electric smartcar with operating pedal that goes forward and backwards. Okay, so no big birthday presents for you! It was too good a deal to turn up, and you loved playing on one at Mia’s birthday. Tonight, you and Abigail rode in it together and had lots of fun. You let her drive it, and you chased her around on your tricycle, whamming into her like bumper cars at the fair.

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We spent five days after Oma and Opa’s with your cousins. Or, rather, “Jamie-Jackie” as you say. You had your first campfire experience, including roasted marshmallows and Smores (minus the chocolate). Half way through eating your first one, you pointed at the marshmallow being roasted by Aunt Jenn…”White-one” you chirped, wanting more. Ohh, that warm molten, sugary, sticky goo.

You adopted Aunt Jenn as your “Older mommy”. Cousin Jamie wasn’t entirely sorry to see you go as she was getting a little resentful of the amount of attention you demanded of her mommy. Jackie and Jamie were both really good to you, playing so nicely and sharing their things, and looking after you.

Jamie was sitting on the couch with you, when suddenly you piped, “Uh-oh, pee pee”, as you got up off the couch and headed my direction. Jamie leaps up, “Oh, that’s why I’m all wet…” she exclaimed. Accidents don’t happen very often.

Realizing Uncle Bob has the same name as your toothpaste, which you call “bop” (for some reason even I don’t know), he became a sudden object of fascination. Plus he’s a ton of fun. You made up a song called “Uncle Bob” and would swing around singing that with a monosyllabic rhythm “Uncle Bob, Uncle Bob, Uncle Bob”. Once you were going to call Daddy and you said Uncle Mark, as Jackie and Jamie did, and we laughed, so then it became a game for you to call Daddy “Uncle Mark”, and you’d do the Uncle Mark dance too.

We spent a lovely afternoon at Aunt Cathy and Uncle Ians, with all your second cousins. Since last Christmas you’ve kept a picture of Amy and Brock in your little music box by your bed. When Jackie invited you to go swimming, you declined, saying “No, Amy!”.

You had a bit more time with Papou and Milky, (Grandpa and Maggie) though limited this trip. You did the classic high-five that he first taught you. Apple, his dog, was also a favorite of yours.

It was time to pack and go home. I told you that we’d be leaving.  It was so much fun to see your cousins, Papou and Milky and Oma and Opa, but you were ready to be back in your own world. You nodded, “Big plane. My home. Pool. My bed.”

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We recently came back from a ten day trip to Ontario, Canada to visit with family — 5 days with Oma and Opa on Caledon Lake, and 5 days with “Jamie Jackie” on Lake Erie.

It’s a five hour flight, and we scheduled it to be during your nap time. You were too excited however, and only finally fell asleep on the descent into Toronto. Once inside the airport, you were anxious to get out to find Oma. We had told you in the plane that Opa might not be with her at the airport. As soon as you got out the gates, there was Oma waiting for you. You saw her, and threw your hands up in the air, I thought you were going to say “Oma!” but you said “Opa, no.”

The first two days was much excitement, going to the waterpark (wa-wa park), playing with new toys Oma bought you on your shopping expedition with her, exploring the garden house, and getting ready for Oma’s 70th birthday party. The second night, in bed, you were homesick. “My home. <sob> My bed. My pool.” you were really upset and I tried to explain that we’d be back in your home in 10 days. As much fun as you had, you missed your ’stuff’… especially when you got overtired.

You loved playing with “Jamie-Jackie”, and Nicole and Cameron, and you got lots of attention from your older cousins. “I can’t believe how much she’s grown,” exclaimed Jamie when she first saw you (which is exactly how I feel every time I see them.) The day after the party, Oma fell in the lake by accident while trying to get on the pedal boat. After she was back on board and safe, thoughbeit wet, you all laughed.

Big Bad Wolf. You remember that Oma taught you this game and want to play it with her as soon as you arrive, tired and all.

Before leaving for Canada, I had explained to you that there was no pool but that there was a big lake, and that there wouldn’t be a hottub. Youd’ say to me “pool, no. lake. hottub, no.” Well Oma had set up a small plastic pool for you on the deck, and you loved to splash in it. It became your Caledon Hottub.

Suddenly bathing suits are highly overrated, it seems, and skinny-dipping is the only way to go. Doesn’t matter who’s around. You’re our little nature girl!

You caught your  first fish, witnessing at the same time the food chain at its finest. Sitting on the dock, a little pink barbie fishing rod in hand, and some bacon as the bait, you caught your first fish. Mommy helped pull it up, but in flipping this way and that the fish got wrapped around the stairs down into the lake, and was trapped, as well as caught. We called Daddy to the rescue (Mommy doesn’t mind fishing but don’t ask me to take the fish off the hook!). As he was coming, bigger fish were trying to eat the smaller fish right off the line. It was all quite shocking to you, and you looked relieved when the fishy was let go back into the water.

There was also a giant snapping turtle that would come by the dock. You seemed amazed by it, and would lie on the dock on your tummy and look down and the fish and/or turtle. (Now back at home, daddy dives in the pool and swims up to you on the steps, and you laugh and point at him underwater and declare “turtle!”.)

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Happy Birthday to you....

We celebrated your two and a half birthday with a pool party , having it in summer instead of a big party on January 10th.  I think we’ll do this every year, have just a quiet birthday party on January 10th and a larger one on July 10th. I grew up with a pool and with an October birthday, always thought it would have been good to be born in the summer.

Nolan, Natalie, Mia, Fiona, Hazel played and swam and bounced with you. Dimitri, Abigail and Katie couldn’t make it. Nana made a very cute cake.

Singing Happy Birthday is now a daily occurrence, whatever dessert we’re having, even if it’s PeachPie. A candle goes in and you love to croon along.

You love having pretend phone conversations. “Ahhhohoh!!”, you reply to the person not on the other end of the phone, as you glance away with eyebrows raised.

A song I love… Raffi, “I Wonder If I’m Growing” — oh, too fast. We also love to sing

Five Little Frogs
5 green and speckled frogs
Sat on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs. Yum! Yum!
One jumped into the pool
Where it was nice and cool
Then there were 4 green speckled frogs…

Papou, Mommy and Me

We had Papou and his fiance Maggie (Milky) visit with us this month. We went on the Choo choo and had a picnic in the park. You made a quick friend of Milky, and would follow her right to the bathroom. You remembered high-fives with Papou, he was the first one to do that with you.

I love our new home... I get to sleep in the same room as mommy and daddy!

We drove to Ukiah last weekend and stayed at The Hampton Inn, which had an outdoor pool and koi fish pond. You loved this big new home of ours, especially that you got to sleep in the same rom with us. We went swimming in the flooded Lake Mendocino, you jumped off picnic tables buried under water.

You’re enrolled in swim lessons at Almaden Valley Athletic Club Swim School, and love on Tuesday and Thursday mornings to go to the ‘BIG POOL!’. You take one of your bath dolls with you, she’s now called the ‘Big Baby’… I think because she goes with you to the Big Pool. She is a good sport. You toss her in the water, as far as you can throw her, then you kick kick kick and do ‘big arms’ and go to rescue her. Turning her over, you instruct, “kick kick kick!”.

You’re staying up waaaay to late these days. I’m not happy about this. Tonight it was 10p.m.. But you are getting better at putting yourself to sleep, and getting less reliant on being patted to sleep or having daddy in the room until you fall asleep. You have a little diatribe, talking yourself to sleep at night, often reviewing what happened in your day, “big pool, baby, nana, nap, home” or repeating the monotonous rhythm “Night night Mamma, night night Mamma, night night Mamma” until you drift off.

It’s summer, finally. It was a slow start this year. But now that it’s here I’m convinced you are going to grow gils. It’s ‘puul’ all day long. Typically we go in 2-5 times a day. One–two–three–GO and then you jump with the wildest look of joy on your face!

One, two, three... GO!

Sometimes I look at you and you seem so grown up already. This was the second time doing your hair in pigtails, you will sit still now just long enough to get the elastics in.

Going swimming, you’re so excited you don’t want to stop to go inside to go potty, so I ask if you want to do a “nature pee”. You pull down your swimsuit and go over to the grass and squat. You get the concept that you can’t pee in the pool, you’ll scramble out to do a nature pee without prompting. Every day you swim, like a little fish. If you had a choice I think you’d stay in all day. “Puul!”

Phone conversations are getting longer, even the ones you make up. “No-no (Nolan) … Ohhhh…. park! Ummmm…baby Nattie? Nap? Ohhhh. Ollie nap? Snack. Ummmmm… Bye!” You hang up and then you will tell me what he said.

At last day of class at Mulberry, we had a park playdate at Jack Fischer park. When the water came on, you were just tickled. Didn’t mind a tad that it soused you. 

We’ve been to Roaring Camp Railroad (historic steam train in Santa Cruz mountains), on our first class fieldtrip with Mulberry to Palo Alto on CalTrain, and today to the recently opened Happy Hollow. Here are some anecdotes. Things that made me laugh or moments of warmth in my heart.

First, the feeling these days, the bursting in my chest, when I see you running down the hall towards me, arms outstretched, with a look of glee. You leap in my arms and hug me all tight. Ohhh, so nice.

You are doing well putting words together to tell stories. After the trip to Roaring Camp Railroad, you told Nana “chi chi. wuf wuf.” You were upset that you weren’t going to Nana’s after school one day. “Nana. Snack. Nap” you told me with a stern look.

Animals you know:

• Giraffe – tongue laps in and out, like the giraffe we saw at the zoo
• Elephant – your hand extends upwards from your nose
• Hyena – “heinie”
• Cow – “moo”
• Horse – “horsee”
• Dog – “woof woof” or “mup”
• Cat – “kitty” or “meow”
• Lion – roar (commonly done when you’re hiding in hide and seek)

“What’s a horse say?”
“Moo” you reply. Then “Nooooooooo!”

We were looking after Nolan for the day. I was changing his diaper, and you noticed that he had parts that were different than yours. You pointed. Looked at me. Then raised your hand to your nose and extended it upwards. “Elephant”.

You don’t like bugs and are quick to point them out. After a bath, I pulled the plug and you noticed a bug like object, and scurried from the tub. It was lint.

Pretending you’re a baby, like Nolan’s sister Natalie, you crawl, pretend to take a bottle, and pretend to breastfeed, when I have you in my arms. “I baby” you declare. Then “waaa waa waaa”.

When Nolan was over, I asked “Who wants to make some chocolate pudding?” Neither of you have ever had chocolate pudding but the word ‘chocolate’ had you both scrambling up the ‘elevator’. Nolan leaned towards you and planted a big kiss on your lips. You grinned. We made the pudding then covered the kitchen table with wax paper and you both got to finger paint with it and eat it. You had it all over your face. Nolan managed to eat most of his fairly promptly.

Favorite books:

• Big Bear, Little Bear — what daddy reads to you every night before bed.
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear – you call it the “Mia” book, after Mia at school. There’s a page with kids and you name them all. “Lulu (Santa Cruz Mountains), “Mia” “NoNo” “Natalie” “Nut” (Hazel-nut)

You don’t watch TV, but the one show you know is Big Bear Little Bear and once in a blue moon you’ll point to the TV and say “Big”.