New Year's Eve

Today at lunch I said "Don't forget to drink your milk."  Scarlett replied "Don't forget to drink your coffee Mama."

These days at mealtimes she's mostly sitting in a regular chair instead of the high chair, and practicing drinking from a regular cup, instead of the sippy cup.  We're working on the potty training, and it feels like two steps forward and one back, but progress nonetheless.  On Christmas day, she was in big girl underpants for all her awake hours.  The next day, she had accidents in three pairs before I gave up and put her back in a diaper.  Maybe she is the one training me to have patience, rather than me training her to use the potty.

She likes to talk about when she was a tiny baby, all the things we did differently.  I carry her around cradled in my arms like an infant.  I tell her- when you were a tiny baby, you didn't demand fruit roll-ups all the time.  The other day we were walking into another room and I asked, want me to carry you like a tiny baby?  She said 'just like a normal baby' and she walked by herself.

Sitting on a bench with the big kids

Out with the 2011...

Games

Scarlett's favorite game is 'talk for her'.  Talk for this baby, she says.  Or, talk for panda.  Sometimes we even talk for cups or pieces of plastic food.  She wants the babies to ask for a diaper change.  She wants the bath toys to talk to her about drinking water.  She is very specific, 'talk for daddy duck about drinking this water from broken cup'.  And if we ARE talking for them, and she doesn't like what we're saying or doesn't think we're emphatic enough, she tells us over and over 'talk for her, talk for her' and we say 'talk for her about what?' and she tells us, as in 'diaper'.  So then the baby asks, Scarlett, will you change my diaper?  And she is happy.

Just before Christmas we switched her room with the guest room.  So now she's in a bigger room with book shelves and a big comfy chair to read books in.  Our hope was to make this a play room in addition to a bedroom, and she's spent time in there reading to her dolls and we've spent time in the big chair reading books together.  A few times, we've peaked in her room and she's sitting there reading a book from memory.  22 months is the best age so far.  

I'm in the middle of a 12-day vacation from work.  So far we've gone to the pool twice, made some donuts, and read Scar's new Christmas present books a billion times.

Opening one Christmas Eve present

Playing in a box (with panda)

Hooray for vacations.

a beautiful sight, we're happy tonight

Fro Yo

Scarlett and I got frozen yogurt the other night after dinner.  After her first few bites she said "That is good Mama."

Shots from bath time

Charlie put food coloring into Scarlett's bath, and she loved it- "blue water, blue water" 

Zoo Lights

We went to Zoo Lights and Scarlett got to kiss a dragon.  A DRAGON!  Can you believe it?  What a lucky little lady.  Or, more appropriately, what a lucky dragon.  She high-fived a penguin and rode the zoo train and ate animal crackers.  We saw a lot of lights and very few animals.  We took Scarlett to Peacock Lane a few days later, so now she's really into pointing at Christmas lights.

Coloring

You know you travel too much when...

We picked Lauren up at the airport recently, and Scarlett talked about that on and off for the next week.

Then the other night while walking to visit Anders (our neighbor), Scarlett and I were looking for the moon.  We couldn't find it, but we did see an airplane.  So we had this conversation:

S: Airplane is going to Anders' house
E: No, I think it's going to the airport
S: Airport is where Auntie Lauren lives

Scar reading books with Auntie Lauren

22 months

Favorite things:

• Going outside to find the moon.  Pointing at the moon.  Talking about the moon.  When the moon wasn't out last weekend, you said 'The moon must be nappin' somewhere.  She is lying down'
• Stickers
• Building houses, walls, skyscrapers, pools and ponds out of blocks, for your gnome and panda.  Then knocking them over and starting again.

Favorite books:

• At bedtime, it's The Going to Bed Book.  'Dancing hippo' you say.
• Otherwise, A Bargain for Frances, and Ten Little Ladybugs. I had A Bargain for Frances when I was a little girl too, so I extra love that you want to read this book.

Favorite bathtime activity:

• Setting your rubber duckies and whales on the side of the tub, then making them jump in.  "They're waiting" you say.  Grandma Diane taught you this when she was in town in November, and you've done it every night since.

Favorite foods:

• You say bananas, but really it's animal crackers.

Happy 22 month birthday my sweet girl.
Love your Mama

Funny Face

Winter running is AWESOME.

Holiday Half-Marathon

It was cold on Sunday, like 31 degrees.  I woke up early and put on my tattoo arm warmers.  Heather braided my hair Viking-style, because it makes me faster.  Then we stood in a big mass of people outside Adidas and Annie said 'this is crazy.  every time I do this, I think how crazy it is.'  And it is.  Who willingly wakes up early on a Sunday, in the winter, and stands in the cold for 15 minutes before running 13 miles?  Oh, you know, just THESE people...

Emily, Greg, Jody, Heather, little Samara

This picture was taken of us at the finish.  Not a drop of puke on any of our faces.

This was my seventh half marathon, and my fastest by 10 minutes.  Heather and I finished in 2 hours and 7 minutes- beating my goal time by 3 minutes.  I also felt better than I've felt after a half before, probably because Sally gave me a proper training plan and I STUCK TO IT.  Now, I find myself eyeing the 2 hour mark- it seems far away, but reachable.  On the right day, in the right weather and the right course, with the right running partner, maybe...

Reading with dad

"This is a word book." (meaning, not a lot of pictures)
"This is a wordy page."
"I don't know this page."
"This is title page."
"These are okay pages."
"We'll read this one after."

Pie!

The holidays are causing me to do some overkill in the food documentation category.  But I can't help it, we have eaten some REALLY YUMMY things. And I don't want to forget!  Scarlett ate her first pieces of turkey at Thanksgiving.  She pointed at it and said 'more chicken'.  She is also fond of the phrase 'want some' and she often says it even though she doesn't know what we're eating.  She just wants to eat it with us.

The Parker family hosts this pie party every year, that's where we did a whole lot of our eating.

I ate:
Coconut cream
Banana Cream
Pecan
Cherry
Savory pie with squash, broccoli and hazelnuts.

Scarlett ate:
Cherry
Blueberry
Pecan
Savory pie

Charlie can't remember what he ate, but I know I saw chocolate cream and pumpkin on his plate.  We took home some banana cream pie and ate it the next day.  With coffee, the way pie should be.

Baby Doll

Scarlett loves playing with her baby dolls- putting them to bed, feeding them, changing their diapers.  I asked her to bring some friends into the bathroom, to play with while I took a shower.  She left, then returned holding an armfull of baby dolls.  Four of them, whose diapers she proceeded to change, chatting with them the whole time.

She stood one up and said 'She stands by her own.'
She puts a diaper on another and frowns 'Does it fit her?'
Also "She napped with panda yesterday."

Roar!

Happy Birthday Aunt Kelly!

We spent Thanksgiving up in Tacoma, with Kelly, the baby boy that houses himself in her belly, and some lovely family.  Scarlett and Ella wore almost matching Thanksgiving dresses, not on purpose.  We ran and walked a 5K and 10K, but we weren't wearing turkey hats or pajamas or any of the other clever outfits.  My Granny and Uncle Jim came from Eastern Washington to celebrate with us.  Mostly though, we ate.

Next time I see these two, above, they hopefully will have figured out a way to fit baby brother into this shirt with them.

Star-Bellied Sneetch

A Happy Thanksgiving project plan

Factors that contribute to a winning five-day weekend:

• A morning drive to Tacoma, in my parents' huge vehicle - complete
• Turkey trot- 10K in 55:30- complete
• Watch parade on tv, point excitedly to giant panda balloon- complete
• Roasted Brussel sprouts- 50% complete
• Pie party- not yet completed

Scarlett is sleeping happily in Ella's crib, Charlie and my dad are watching football.  I have a lot to be thankful for.

Longest sentence ever

"That bike's too big for you to ride" she says.

Silver Falls

Scarlett's Grandma Diane came to visit, so we went on a little hike around Silver Falls. Scarlett grudgingly agreed to ride in her dad's backpack, mostly because I bribed her with honey nut rice cakes.  She's tried to jump into a waterfall before, so we weren't taking any chances.

 

 

 

We decided to have dinner in Silverton after, but ominously, the only open restaurant was a completely empty Mexican joint.  So we ate, and then the lights went out.  Not just in the restaurant, but in the entire district.  The drive home involved long winding roads with no power polls.  The next morning I asked Scarlett what
happened at dinner with grandma, and she remembered "lights".

This morning, I heard her rustling around in her room.  I went to peek at her crib, and she was just sitting there.  She looked at me and said 'Bob Dylan'.

Sorting Shapes

21 months

Dear Scarlett,

This is the month you started speaking in full sentences.  And since the portal has opened, you haven't stopped chattering.  I love this about you.

You like to put her gnome on the diaper pail at night and say, "Gnome is watchin' you sleep." And "Gnome stand on dirty diapers."  Yesterday at a restaurant, you said the crayons were watching you eat. 

You like to blame gnome, and panda, for your misdeeds.  "Panda turned the water on."  The thing is that panda isn't big enough to climb up the sink, and doesn't have the physical dexterity to turn the sink handles.  I know this, but you don't know that I know this. 

Then there's the story about Lucy and the butter.  We've been hearing this story for probably two months.  When you first started telling it, it was one word at a time.  'Lucy.... hands.... butter....Shaggy....no'.  You've been telling the story so long now that you've got the full sentences, "Lucy put hands in butter.  Shaggy say not to."  You also tell us about Esther going over by the fireplace, and Sally telling her not to.  The theme is: tattle-taling on your friends.

Our night time routine still starts with the bath- now you have rubber whales and a dolphin, from Grandma.  Then I lotion you up, and put you in jammies, and your dad holds you while you give a good night kiss to everything on your shelf, which is:
piggy bank
Scarlett O'Hara doll
two glass whales
bottle of Dr. Bronner's
bottle of tea tree oil
picture of Mama and Daddy ("wedding, married")
and. the family photo

Then, you and daddy turn off the light and I hold you, we gnome kiss and regular kiss.  I set you in your crib, and I sit next to you and read books.  Right before I leave the room, we gnome kiss through the bars and you tell me something about your day.  "Scarlett toss Cooper a cookie."  Or "Gnome is watching you sleep." 

I'm so proud of you and what a big girl you are becoming.
Mama