What Santa brought

A shiny new tricycle!

Sorry, E, but I can't resist...

See the wild girl with the fuzz in her nose:

Christmas boogie

Here's our 2 year old cutting the rug on Christmas morn! Life is fun with video.

Merry Christmas!

December photo selection

More hairdo trials - she liked this for a minute

E has a funny little curl that grows from the crown of her head, looks like a pull string for a toy. It shows up when her hair hasn't been washed for a couple days, I think. Sorry this isn't in focus.

watching TMBG music video ("Here come the ABC's")
This was the day she stayed in pajamas all day.

I turned around when E said "washing... face..." and saw she had discovered a new beauty cream: pureed carrots and yogurt

gamaw's house

E's been wanting to go to Gamaw's house, "not Emma's house". No bookstore, no car, no home, "no go dis way" (she's criticizing my driving now!). She likes to finish my sentence when I say, "Next we're going to..." and she chimes in hopefully with grandma's house or Victor's house. The above picture was taken last Monday when Grandma came to visit for a day.

Our vacation at home has been really nice. It's going too fast though (surprise!). David and I have seen a movie every day, and will have one more tomorrow. The movies are...

I Am Legend (exciting, suspenseful)
No Country for Old Men (excellent subtle acting, realist, NOT an uplifting story)
Bee Movie (with E) (cute, funny moments)
Lars and the Real Girl (funny and poignant, heartwarming and NOT realist, great acting)
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (very depressing, good for an ethics class maybe)
Sweeney Todd (fantastic music and sad dramatic story, but way too much blood)
Charlie Wilson's War (will see tomorrow)

E is getting tired of the babysitters, I think. She was extra clingy to me the last 2 days. Tomorrow we'll have more quality time, like we had this morning. Then we'll go to Grandma's and Grandpa's house. She can almost say "Christmas" now. It no longer starts with a "b". Today's version is kind of like "krissuss". She's been sleeping late and that's the best part of this vacation - lying in and dozing while listening to her talk to herself then fall back asleep for a while.

hairdo drama

E's bangs are getting long and her hair is a cute curly mop, so instead of cutting it off I'd love for her to wear barrettes and things. I've been experimenting to see what she will tolerate. The little butterfly clips on top seem to last the longest - i.e., a few minutes. Below, she is crying because whenever I say I want to take a picture she wants to "see" before I even take it.


In this picture I told her to try not to cry. She raised her eyebrows real high, like she was trying hard.

This one just makes me laugh. It should be on one of those greeting cards with a funny caption.

The flash is too bright on this one but she wouldn't go far enough away - she wanted to see the pictures. I reversed the little screen and held her against my leg so she could see what I was seeing.

bishass tee

We put up our tree this morning. I learned a new trick in photoshop, to blur the background, which is very necessary in our house.

holiday plans

We decided not to go to Florida this December, marking only the 2nd year out of 6 that David and I have not done that. With a two year old, our perspective is different. Of all the things we could do with her in Florida, either they're financially out of reach (e.g. Disneyworld) or they're the same things we can do here (e.g. park, toy stores, climbing steps). Canoeing on clear waters has always been our main attraction, and sure we could take her in the canoe and she would probably like it -- for a few minutes. It doesn't seem worth all the effort and expense.

So we're having a vacation at home. I'm taking off work next week and lining up a few babysitters so that we can see a movie every day next week. I'm going to do some writing, and try new games and activities with E that I usually don't have time or energy for. Baking cookies, maybe. More playing outdoors. And all the Christmas prep will have to happen next week as well. I'm really looking forward to this! The other thing I'm looking forward to is Santa Claus visiting our house on Christmas Eve -- this will be the first year we're home for him.

sick baby

On Wednesday night last week, E had a fever. It lasted until Friday morning. David took this picture on Thursday. The next symptoms were digestive in nature. Now we're in the respiratory round. She seems her usual self now, except for the coughing, but when she had the high temperature she was quite a different (lethargic) child! We watched a lot of nature videos and cuddled on the couch.

2 year old update

There are some new pictures below this post. We keep forgetting to measure E on the door frame of her bedroom, but at her check-up on Nov. 16th she was 34 inches tall. She weighs 25 pounds, which feels heavy to me.

On Sunday or Monday she said, "I love you" to her daddy; and when he was out with her last night he said she said something like, "I love Mommy". We have no idea what love means to her but it's nice to hear it. It could just be something she's picked up as an addendum to "bye-bye" and "night-night".

Yesterday David picked her up from the sitter's and took her to an art studio where his former high school teacher works. He said when they drove up and he stopped the car, E was surprised and said, "Not Mommy's house...!"

The "mine" obsession is easing up and she likes to pretend to argue over an object: "MY blanket! No, MY blanket!" etc. She's really starting to get pretend play and has "cooked" some, but unlike Victor, she doesn't see that modeled very much. She has been feeding and talking to her baby dolls a little, making them ride the toy horse and things like that. She tries to include the cats sometimes when we're doing something - would they like to get under the blanket? would they like to see the book we're reading? would they like to wear the birthday hat?

LIKES: oatmeal, mini bagels, scrambled eggs, sliced cheese, bananas, playing on the waterbed, seeing and hearing trains, running to see the garbage truck when she hears it, being chased or tickled, galloping, turning in circles, playing with crayons (not so much coloring as manipulating, lining up, dumping out, holding and banging the crayons and pencils, peeling paper off the crayons), going outside (and seeing the neighbor's dog), eating muffins at the coffee shop, sorting and dumping small objects from one container to another, zipping and unzipping zippers, buckling buckles, watching tv at the sitter's house in the morning, Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go (which she calls "the BIG book"), baths, going to Victor's or grandma's house. And of course, fuzz and her purple blanket.

Fuzz stories:
The other day out for a walk she looked up at the clouds in the sky and said, "Fuzz!"

When I took her to see the Santa display at the mall she was most interested in the fake snow carpeting the floor -- miles and miles of fuzz! She was mad that she couldn't play in it.

When she stayed with Victor one afternoon she dropped her fuzz without realizing it, and he picked it up and followed after her, holding it out and saying, "Nose! Nose!" (if you're new to this blog, fuzz is lint or cotton stuffing from a toy, and E puts it in her nose)

DISLIKES: milk, vegetables, most kinds of meat, brushing her teeth, getting dressed, wearing socks, having the door to her room closed, having to sit in the high chair for messy food, getting tangles out of her hair, Mommy going to the bathroom without her, stopping playing, having her diaper changed.

November photo selection

playing in the park with my friends' kids

Thanksgiving at Grandpa Bud and Grandma Mickey's house. E learned to say "Mickey" and then called them both that. It's also the name of one of their cats.

Second Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa's house

playing at home with her new backpack and battered birthday hat

gift giving

What purposes does gift giving serve? (in the order that I thought of them)

1. marking a significant relationship with something tangible that reminds someone of you
2. helping someone
3. acknowledging someone's unique identity by giving something "just right" for them
4. showing that you care about someone or that you understand their needs
5. simply reaching out, indicating to someone that they are important to you ("the thought that counts")
6. getting the satisfaction of surprising or pleasing someone (often coincides with #3)
7. being inclusive, making someone feel part of a group, not wanting to disappoint someone
8. fulfilling general social expectations

Can you think of anything else? Can we all try to focus on the first six and not default to #8? I suppose #8 still has value though, because if you feel better about yourself when you fit in to society and your community's norms, then this still helps others in that you're a better person to be around when you feel good about yourself.

I also try to be mindful of the consequences of gift-giving. Some possible ones are...

1. goodwill and happiness all around
2. costs and hassle of use and maintenance (for wanted gifts, this is not a burden)
3. debts for the giver, and/or the money not being spent on something else (for good or bad)
4. social debts for the other if you give more than they are comfortable with
5. more stuff in the landfill (packaging, plus whatever the gift is replacing, and the gift itself, eventually)
6. more market demand for the things you bought, leading to increased production
7. environmental impact of all of the above (for good or bad)

Me, this year I want services: cooking, babysitting, cleaning, home improvement projects, massage certificates, yard work, car maintenance, trips, yoga classes, etc. I need to be extremely judicious about new STUFF being brought into my world. For E I'm planning to give away the same number of toys she receives (or maybe even more, as she doesn't play with all the ones she has). Consumable stuff, such as FOOD, is also good! I interpret the value of a gift by the personal meaning it has for me, or the time & effort put into it, or the need I have for it -- not by the price tag.

Post a comment if you have thoughts on this.

grocery list recitation