A stick at Target

I LOVE the way this child processes information. Perhaps I should stop analyzing her thoughts, but they are so interesting. One day we went to Target and I let her get a treat at the register. I picked kit kat bar for her. I told her it was a chocolate stick. She loved it. It was all over her face and hands. That is LOVE!

So a few days later at dance class I tell her if she does a good job she can have a special treat. Special treat = chocolate. So instead of throwing fits and whining she does EXTREMLY well. She commends herself as we are getting our shoes on. Then she tells me she wants her special now. So I ask her what she wants. Usually its a chocolate munchkin. She said "a stick". I have to prod her b/c I have no idea why she is requesting a stick. So I ask her what she means and she tells me "a stick out (not at, out) Target." Im still confused. She gives me her sweet little look and says "a chocolate stick out Target, Mama" Duh Mommy, get with it!

Lunch and The Longest Trip to Target EVER!!!!

Today Ava and I ran some errands and she called out that she was hungry. We had to make our weekly Target run and there was a Bruegger's nearby, so I thought we could go there instead of fried Old McDonalds (thats what Ava calls it). There was a semi long line and she was being pretty good. A woman was standing in front of us and had a long black skirt on. Ever so lightly, Ava taps the woman on her leg and says, "You are wearing a beautiful dress". The woman put her hand to her heart and said, "Well thank you sweetheart, you have a beautiful coat" Ava beamed from ear to ear. It was really adorable.

So on to the Target trip. When we were done with lunch Pip says she has to go potty. So we go while we are still at Bruegger's and nothing. So we leave and zip over to Target. We are past the bathrooms, near the shoes, in the back of the store. She announces again that she has to go. We fly back to the front and still NOTHING. I was sort of getting frustrated at this point but I didn't want to not take her and then she has an accident. So now we are over in the seasonal, on the complete opposite end of the store. She announces that she pooped in her pants. Now I am feeling bad for her. She's having a tough time with the poop thing. She's holding it. She eventually goes, but waits like three days. Now its an emergency. I have wipes in the cart b/c we ran out at home. These wipes havent been paid for, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I grab a few from the container and rush her into the potty. She is kind of whining in the bathroom, disappointed in herself. I give her a hug and tell her its just an accident and it's ok. We will take care of it. She calms down some, but gets upset when I toss her panties out. Sorry kid, there is no way we are taking them home. So 1.5 hours later we FINALLY make it out of Target alive, tired but alive.

She is napping and I am going to read!

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!!

Today we went to the NYS museum to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday! We made glasses out of pipe cleaners, paper Seuss hats, buttons and bookmarks. It was so much fun! Then we had birthday cake and joined in a parade. Ava amazed (and frustrated) me today. When she made the button, she said how about a snowman button, so I told her she needed to make circles. Obviously she already knew this b/c she got started before I finished my sentence. She drew one very large one and another on top. Then she said, "here mama, you do a circle". So I did and then I drew him an orange hat. She wanted to make snow on the ground but the paper was white so she grabbed a black crayon and made dirty snow. You can totally tell that its a snowman, not one of those 'wow, how cool....and you privately think 'what the hell is it'. I was puffy heart proud.

THEN.....during the parade they were asking the kids to do the Seuss bird call. It was pretty cute. She started doing it and one of the parade organizers gave her a high 5. The parade then lead us to the Park Playhouse kids music fest. The organizer then asked some kids to come up and do the bird dance/call again. She's really timid and shy in those circumstances so I didn't even attempt to get her to go up. Maya went and she followed. She was doing it along with all of the big girls. IT WAS SOOOOOOO CUTE. I was really shocked that she did it.

Up until this point, I really didn't think that she was going to perform at her dance recital in June b/c of how she sometimes behaves in class. Now, I feel differently. I'm SUPER excited. She's becoming a little girl so quickly and its sort of breaking my heart and making me feel happy at the same time. She's no longer a baby, doesn't need a lot of diapers, yay! (only nap and bedtime) and is fiercely independent. We had loads of fun! Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Shiny grapes

The thoughts that come from this child's mouth crack me up. At 8 am we are being silly, tickling each other, throwing blankets over each others heads and having a ball, yes at 8 am. She pulls the blanket off of my face and has her hands on my cheeks. She says to me "Momma, your eyes are shiny and green grapes". They must have been as shiny as green grapes! Haha! I LOVE this kid. Another comment that I think is "creative". She's like a little 37 inch romantic.

My Big Blanket

Before I share our woe from last night it is important to know the little back story. Mike's grandmother (Ava's Gigi) makes beautiful quilts. Everyone in the family has one from her. They are handmade with lots of love. So Ava has a baby one with butterflies on it. I LOVE it, its beautiful. Then we put in a request for a big girl quilt, since I have been thinking about moving her to a big girl bed. She made her this really awesome one. As soon as she gave it to Ava, she was obsessed. We brought it home in a big white bag. My plan was to not give it to her until she had the bed. The minute we got home she started asking about it, so I relented and gave it to her. Now imagine this thing, its full sized in her crib with the 3 other blankets she MUST have each night, including the baby sized butterfly blanket. It's actually quite rediculous, there is almost no room in her crib for her. Ok, so now on to our little fiasco.

Since we have been potty training Pip really hasn't been pooping. When she takes a nap or goes down for the night she gets a diaper. So during the nap she had a minor blow-out, but her entire crib needed to be washed. So I threw everything into the washer that would fit. "My big blanket" would not fit. Absentminded me never did another load with "my big blanket". So bedtime rolls around and Mike pulls all of her bedding out of the dryer. She LOVES this. She loves warm, cozy blankets. Her words, not mine. So we are making her bed and she notices that "my big blanket" is not there. Oh no! Tragedy. We try to give her other blankets but it doesn't matter. Its too late, there is no time to wash it. So we have to close her door and let her work it out.

This morning I get up early and she is up. She pops her head up and says "Hi, momma" So i go in to get her and she gives me this pouty face and says "I need my big blanket. You wash it?" I told her last night that I would wash it and I didn't. So this morning she helped me put it in the washer with teeny tears in her eyes. She really wanted it.

Two lessons learned:
1. Make sure "my big blanket" gets the same treatment as the others
2. If you give your word to a toddler, stand by it. She will remember.

Maybe I should learn to edit?

I thought a blog post a day would be good. Apparently not. I have to brag and say that I am really impressed with Ava's creativity. Her view of the world is pretty neat. Mike was organizing all of the dvd's so he's sitting right in front of the entertainment system while Little Einsteins is on. There are DVD's scattered all around him. Ava keeps stacking the dvd's and saying something. I listen closer. She is stacking them and then gently pushing them over and as she is doing so she says "I am making stairs" as she moves a toy as if they are walking up a set of stairs. I have no idea if all kids do these random things, but I think its pretty cool, especially since I don't have a creative bone in my whole body!

Scissors Monday!

Yes, I said scissors. I heard Ava stirring in her crib this morning so I go in to get her. She's still lying down. She says "Hi, Momma" So I said "good Morning baby" She stands up and says "I want paper", then there is a short pause and then she says "I want scissors" Um....ok. She has only used scissors once at Story Time at the library. So she wants to see Mike and he is still in bed. We go in and hang out and he randomly tells me that he wants small cuticle scissors to trim his goatee. He didn't hear Ava's request either. They are a weird bunch. So I guess on Daddy's day off we are going scissor shopping. Ah, the life!