Little Girl

We had our first Balancing Babies class Thursday last. When the coach asked Fiona her name, she said, "uh, mm, I Little Girl". Does she know her name, most likely, yes. She answers to it, she also answers to Fee-Boo, Fiona-boodle, and Gary's nickname for her, Little Girl. Gary laughed and laughed when I related this little story with him. Fiona had a blast at gymnastics class, she caught on pretty quickly, at the end of class she did not want to leave and made a point to do everything just one last time. She also placed herself in the 4-5 yr old class, just trotted over and sat down with them as if she'd been there all along--they were practicing somersaults with a "stick & finish". There was a bit of flailing when we left, after refusing to don her shoes, I had to resort to carrying her like a sack-o-potatoes so she wouldn't catch me in the face with a random arm or foot. Ah, the joys of TWO.

Today on the way back from the "turtle playground" she chose to trot alongside the jogger disintegrating dandelions, hanging from low branches on young landscape trees...the toes of her new sneakers yellow with pollen, bees barreling away from her toddleated feet. Proof that I must be doing a good job mommin', how else to explain the apparently well-adjusted, confident, gregarious Little Girl?

We got our first little taste of fall weather the last couple of days. That comforting feeling of summer slowed and fall edging in, The Turning. It's a taste in the air, something I can feel more than describe. At once exciting and cozy, reminder that time moves forward regardless of every thing. The maples out back of the new house have already begun to change. This time last year it was warmer, we think, Gary's betting on a bruiser of a winter coming. I am trying not to jump the gun with holiday treatments, clothing shopping, decorations, baking. It is just now early September, it's difficult to remember as I look forward to Halloween and the holidays so much.

We've settled in here as much as we can, until there are bookshelves and storage spaces to place things. I realized that everywhere we have lived so far had built in bookshelves or drawers, or both. So, many unessentials are still in buckets, waiting.

MOVING as an Olympic Event?

Our move is done. I think in the future, entertainment value will be assigned to everyday endurance events, like moving with a Toddleator in tow. There might be an entirely separate olympics for moms, classified by number and ages of children, challenge level based on amount of time for planning. Each mom given a task of certain level to complete, judged by the timely-ness and smoothness of transition, and condition of children upon completion. Howzat for challenging?
I have also fantasized about TriathMOM races, for moms with preschoolers, racing with the kids, moving them through transition. Must arrange for childcare for the swim, then plopped in a trailer for bike, and transferred to jogger for the run, all while trying to ensure that child is safe and happy...wouldn't THAT be fun and interesting???

The entire move was real smooth, actually. Fiona handled it very well I think, in part due to my talking about it waaay ahead of time, and not letting things pile up in the last days. I succeeded in taking it all a bit at a time, having somewhat of a schedule of packing. We were on paper plates and frozen foods in the last days, cooking out of only one pan. NO complaints about the movers either, if you're thinking of moving to/from CO, or northern Denver area, MOVING CONNECTION is super. Cost-effective, the guys were respectful, professional, and careful. Gary & I were both impressed. It was such a different experience from the last movers from CA to CO.
More to come sooner or later, I simply must get some exercise this morning before it's too hot!

Seems only yesterday...

Yes, I cliched, 'cause it does seem like she was just in diapers non-stop. The Toddleator is almost potty learned---almost. It seems that she's experimenting with control today, and while playing with the water in the sink as I cleaned up the dinner dishes, she lost some "control". Accidents will happen, though. It doesn't pay to be squeamish in this profession. Usually when she's so into what she's doing, completely distracted, that she forgets to go to the potty. So long as I am calm about the whole process, she will be, too. I have to remember that though she shows a lot of potential for learning the potty very quickly---on the easy days---she is only 2. Which means her attention span lasts only minutes if I'm lucky, she's ultra-tenacious, and might appear stone deaf the way she's capable of ignoring me. Lately she's started yelling, "NO! GO!" (as in, GO away from where you are) "STOP!", and today she screamed at me in frustration. Most of the time my response is to ask, "Are you mad at mommy for...(disallowing somesuch)? Show me how mad you are! Stomp your feet, flail around...my goodness, you ARE mad. Well, mommy can't let you do that because..." If she's screaming, usually she acts like she might let me pick her up, but then flails and hits/kicks at me when I do try. Today it seemed she just wanted me to watch her antics..."ok, if you need some time to calm down, or scream or cry, please do it in your room, Little One." When she's calm again, I talk about how she must have been feeling, or theorize why she was so upset, and then reaffirm my unconditional love for her. I am not perfect, I have been known to lose my sh*t. Then when I'm calm, I lovingly reassure her, explain why I got so upset and that it was bad behavior for mommy, and apologize. (But I retain the tenet; "Don't be sorry, just be different." I'm better everyday.) It is utterly amazing, usually Fiona will give me a kiss, or a hug by way of making up. I really think that we don't give these new tiny humans enough credit in their understanding of the world.
In the last couple of weeks she's been prone to wake up real early (4-5am) some mornings and trot, yes, TROT, around the apartment. I blame Porter-kitty for going into her room immediately upon hearing her stir, she sees him and figures, "HEY, catty is awake, I can be too!" I stumble to her room, mumble something about her going back to her bed. She might start screeching and crying...and I'll tell you what, that is absolutely the worst noise to hear first thing in the morning before pee, before coffee, before even that first deep breath. I had to explain to her that if the sun isn't up, it's not time to get up, it's still sleeping time. That may back fire on me later---I've really got to get her a clock, we'll continue working on her numbers. We'll work on not venturing out until the little hand hits the 7 at the earliest.

In other news, we are moving 2 weeks from now, to a suburb of Denver. A house, quiet, in situ laundry, mature neighborhood. I'm tempted to explore making a business of packing & moving for other people...I've had enough practice, I bet there are people out there that may appreciate someone else's expertise to move their personal goods from house to house...I wonder if that's lucrative?

2 year old---in FULL effect

Have you ever seen anyone eat meatloaf from a cup? It's not graceful. As I write, Toddleator is "drinking" her meatloaf and peas from one of her favorite purple cups. Given the time and leeway she'll eat a considerable amount, the appetite waxes and wanes though. Some days are nonstop eating, while others it's difficult to see how she still has energy to do anything with what she hasn't eaten.
Today I heard "NO" a LOT. Feels a lot like I'm caught in a thick haze, and little angry stubborn gnomes are popping out at me at random, shrieking, flailing, shouting pejorative "NO"s. Ah the absolute adventure that is The Toddleator. TWO in full effect I assure you. Last Friday was a classic tantrum, in wide open public, she and I were on display. At a water park, after paying what seemed an unfair amount for a toddler and a mom (who we know will get no fun from this), my little mermaid 'swam' for almost an hour. When she started the fall-down-every-time-mama-asks-a-question routine I decided it was time TO GO. This is really the first time that she's been completely out of hand in public, it was embarassing, it was humbling, it was enormously frustrating...I can't believe I made it out alive, with her.
So it goes.
It's hot here at the moment, and I'm no longer worth a damn when it's hot outside. I've had to switch my running/biking to the earlier mornings as much as possible, 'cause it seems that I overheat pretty easily now. If it's going to the 9's, I won't exert myself out-of-doors after 10 am, I learned that today. Now with a brutally vague migraine-esque headache, puffy head, and Toddleator who has decided to "shush" me she she doesn't like what I've suggested as the next thing (i.e. done with dinner? get down from chair), folks I am toast. IF and only IF it cools off sufficiently, I might make brownies...but it's almost 7 and looks like ye olde mercury is still waaaay up there. Thank goodness there is little humidity here!

p.s. now she's progressed to bloating her face around the aforementioned cup until pressure released...silly :)
p.p.s HOORAY for Papa! He once again rescued the beloved blankie from the wasteland of lost toys in Wash Park.

Underpants Dance

It's a happy dance, the underpants dance, it truly is. With the idea that the Toddleator wasn't really making a solid connection with keeping a diaper dry, she picked out some 'big girl' underpants at Target yesterday. Curious George won the day, or as we are referring to them "monkey underpants". Today she successfully kept her new grown-up cotton undies dry all day---with exception of a poopie accident while sleeping. How one could poop during sleep without being disturbed, well, I don't understand it. So, in addition to a home-made chart of flowers, one for each day, to "house" all of her triumphant sparkly bug stickers (rewards for successful pee-pee or poo-poo, wiping, disposal, & hand washing), I have a system in place for the toilet learning. As a bonus for going a whole day keeping underpants dry, she got some "pony" cotton undies, too (as in My Little Pony). It interests me that almost all things "firsts" for kids seems to have a logo, some selling cartoon. Fiona really doesn't recognize much of these 'cause she doesn't watch that much TV. She enjoys her Dora back-pack, not because it's Dora but simply because it is her back-pack. Curious George is one of the rare movies that I wholly accept, without reservation, for her to watch. Others include Cars, Surf's Up, and Nemo although I would have preferred to wait another year for the latter...in addition to Shrek. She still likes Baby Einstein stuff, haven't tried Little Einsteins yet, Blues Clues and Teletubbies are favorites though. AND VeggieTales are great, I hope to simply purchase them all as a package one day.

Speaking of things she enjoys, WHO gifted the XYLOPHONE for her birthday??? There was NO NOTE! I like to send thank you notes to people, but was at a loss when considering the xylophone. Toddleator loves when we play music class, that xylophone is fantastic.
Anyway, here we are, pluggin' along, waiting for the next big thing!