Last night

Scarlett said the following things to me:

"I want to touch your big head."
"I want to stand on your painted toes."

Dear Scarlett

Dear Scarlett,

I haven't written you a letter in a while, and there are a million things I want to say.  You are growing into a smart, stubborn, very chatty little girl and I couldn't be more proud to be your mom.  You sing and chatter to me at the grocery store, making observations about everything you see.  We get a lot of smiles, because you look so cute and happy I guess, and I think I look like a pretty happy mom. Grandma-aged women in particular seem to smile at you.

Lately, you have been extra loving your mama, so we cuddle under blankets to read books and occasionally you ask me to snuggle up next to you when you're falling asleep.  Last night you wrapped your arms around my neck and said 'I love hugging you' and then 'I love kissing you'.  I love those things too!

You've regained interested in Q&A, 'what could I not do when I first came out of your tummy?' and 'tell me things little girls cannot do'. I say, you could not eat popsicles, you could not play outside, you could not say Arnie.  Sometimes you call me mom, sometimes mama. 

At night, you still ask me to talk about your day.  But it's turned into more of a conversation, where you tell me about games you played and things you saw, sometimes these events are from past days. 

You have grown so tall, you like to say "I'm as tall as you mama!"

Your favorite things are Arnie, reading books, playing with cars, and coloring.  A new activity is that you listen to books on tape on the laptop, and you sit up by the computer so you can watch the screen saver as you listen to the story.

You still seem afraid of loud noises, but now you're able to tell me that you're scared.  And sometimes, when there are lots of people in one room, you go into another room and sit in the corner with a book. When I can't find you at your cousin's house, you are usually sitting on the floor by the fairy house, quietly, playing alone. 

I just love every minute with you. 
Love, Mama

Gratitude

This morning we drove home from the turkey trot, which has become a Thanksgiving staple for our family despite Charlie insisting that he hates it. And during this drive, I told Scarlett that today we will talk about what we're thankful for.  My list is long, but here's the short of it.

1. I'm most thankful of all for these two faces.  In the car, Scarlett told me "I'm thankful that I love you" then "and, for my steamer".  I guess I'm thankful for coffee so she can be thankful for a steamer if she wants.  Her world is so much smaller, she doesn't yet know to be thankful for health or having a job or an intact family.  I'm glad that right now, her life is easy and happy and she doesn't have to worry.  I'm thankful I get to see her face every morning when she's first waking up, when she's sitting on her bed, squeezing Arnie, and her hair is all messy. 

2. I'm thankful that our friends on the opposite coast have finally gotten to take their baby home from the hospital for good, after eight months of fits & starts.  Scarlett likes to see pictures of Max and say 'And his belly is fixed!'.  The months of reading about it and worrying have led me to hug my baby even more as a byproduct of the whole situation. 

3. This morning I ran 4 miles with my superawesome sister-in-law.  I'm so so grateful to the sport of running for keeping me sane and healthy, and for Sally who really nurtured my interest when I first got started, when every run was hard and I was always heaving for breath.  She told me that it was okay to walk.  She talked me through the hardest miles of my marathon.  And now our kids are doing the kid running events, so we must be setting a good example for them.  Here they are, in this morning's running gear, enjoying animal crackers and oranges post-race.  Scarlett thinks she ran a marathon, so if anyone asks, let's just say she did. 

4. When I started this blog post, two pot pies were in my oven (I'm very thankful for crust, it would make the list if this list were my top 20) and I had a fridge full of chocolate mousse.  I feel blessed to have family here in Portland, and people who are family of my family but who have become my family, if that makes any sense.  Scarlett has real cousins and pseudo cousins to play and eat chocolate mousse with, which she did tonight, very happily, and I'm grateful for all of them.

Falling asleep

She is holding her arm, looking very concerned, and says "Mama, I want to turn my arm around and nom nom nom on my elbow."

Aquarium

Scarlett is really into frogs, and whales, and dolphins, and for months I've been talking about taking her to the aquarium.  We finally got our chance, thanks to Heather and her generosity and her family beach house.  We went to Newport in early November and not only did Heather and I run like vikings against the full-force gale winds on the beach, not only did Charlie and Dan gather MORE CRAB THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE, not only did we drink wine and play on damp, cold sand, but we also hit up the aquarium.

And we had snacks, of course.

We saw the otter feeding, and the aquarium announcer told us that the largest otter eats $17,000 worth of restaurant-quality seafood every year.  I am seriously considering becoming an otter.

We spent a lot of time in one corner, looking at all the orange fish, which Scarlett named homebah.  She still talks about homebah fish.  She would stare and point and ask, which one is homebah?  Silly, we said, they are all homebah.  We finally peeled her away from the homebah fish but then we had to walk back by them a second time, and they captured her attention again.

When she wasn't staring at homebah, she was in this position, looking through the glass on the floor.  I think she could do this for hours.

Post-crabbing, we spent several hours shelling (or, is it deshelling?) crab, which is really gross and smelly even though I love crab.  It was worth it though, because of these fine fellas:

Car games

Charlie bought a bunch of his toy cars home from Chicago and Scarlett has been playing with them nonstop.  For example:

Car wash:

 Road:

There have also been bridges, mechanics, car beds (she reads them books as they're falling asleep), and the newest one, ramp.  Ramp is a whole lot of fun because she's encouraged to let the cars go really fast and end up all over the floor.  Be careful if you come to our house, you will probably trip on a car and break a knee.

Fall blogging

This fall has felt like a whirlwind and I have skipped blogging on a bunch of things that I really wanted to talk about. I'm hoping to make up for some of that this week.  In the meantime....

Jon and Adelina got married!  It was lovely.  There are lots of pictures on their blog but here are a few you won't find there.  The theme is, kids and balloons.

Many moons ago, at our wedding, Sally and Lauren had to buy alternate bridesmaid dresses because they were both pregnant and didn't fit into the dresses the others were wearing.  Fast-forward to Jon's wedding- Sally finally had a chance to wear that bridesmaid dress.  It's so cute, I must have excellent taste.

 

By the end of the night, Arnie had drank too much and danced too much, and he passed out on the floor.  I think that means it was a success.

Vintage

Scarlett, being photo-bombed by a duck.

And her BFF, of course.

My happy little girl...  Look at how long her legs are!  She's gotten really tall lately and so many of her shirts are suddenly too short.  So she walks around the house showing her belly, which is super cute.

Welcome Back, Barack

It's nice to have you. 

Birthday Eve

Today, on my birthday eve, Scarlett has promised me the following birthday presents.

A hug
A kiss
to paint a picture of a frog
to paint a picture of a rainbow
to paint a picture of a whale
Sing happy birthday to you
Sing the frog song


The frog song is new, it's to the tune of 'I'm a little teapot' and the opening line varies.

"I'm a little froggy cute and green"
"I'm a little froggy cute and cute"
"I'm a little froggy froggy froggy"

Sometimes she will sing more, about living in a house that's clean (clearly, this isn't a real-life song), or about kissing, or about being green green green.

What I really want for my birthday, is to be happy about the election results.  Last night we talked to Scarlett about election day, which I always have fond memories of because it reminds me of my birthday.  And we told her excitedly "One of the candidates is Barack Obama!  He has two little girls!!" And then, in a much more monotone voice "The other man is Mitt Romney."  The brainwashing seems to have worked, because this morning she was excited about Obama's picture in the paper, and she wore my Obama shirt around the house for a little bit. 

If the election goes south, at least there will be sushi and a frog song. 

Apples and moons

Scar and I were reading one of our household favorites, Ten Apples Up On Top.   She asked why the bears were trying to steal the apples.

Me: "Because everyone likes apples.  People and animals." 
Scar "But not moons."
Me: "Well, no, I guess not moons."
Scar: "Because moons don't have mouths, mom."