This was a hot item for a while. Jeremy’s Gram gave it to her for Easter. We told her it was a ‘kitty purse.’ She calls it the ‘Titty puss.’
Personally, I think it’s kind of weird to stow your stuff in the back of an animal. Also, I think its expression is rather grumpy.
The Daily Bean: 6-12-2009
The Daily Bean: 06-11-2009
This morning when V woke up, she brushed her tangled hair out of her face, and announced “V’s hair all crooked.”
The Daily Bean: 6-03-2009
Last night while J was putting V to bed, she was telling him about our day. And then she sat in his lap, and said, “Happy. Sitting. Daddy. Talking.”
…And Daddy cried a little.
It’s a Tea Mystery
I’ve mentioned before that I like to drink tea. I’ve been finishing up some teas that aren’t my favorites to make room for my new tea, but as I was ’spring cleaning’ in my tea cabinet, I came across a loose tea in a Republic of Tea canister that wasn’t the tea that the label said it was. There wasn’t much left in it, and when I tasted it, I knew why. It was good. Really good. So good in fact, that now it’s gone! And I don’t know what it was. It was definitely not straight-up black tea, but I’m not sure if it was yerba maté, or rooibos, or what. It was a bit chocolate-y, and spicy, and nutty and earthy.
Here are two different pictures of it, close-up. Can anyone help me with it?
Dear V: 22 Months
I can hardly believe that you are almost 2 years old. You have made crazy strides these last months in your verbal skills and are finally getting it together in the ‘grace and poise’ department. Meaning, you are no longer willing to launch yourself head-first off the couch or down the stairs, but instead reach with your toes until you are close to the floor before hopping off whatever piece of furniture you are on.
You have gone from saying one word at a time, to, well, saying one word at a time, but putting a whole bunch of words together…slowly. Your longest sentence so far is “Roxie. Roo. Fat. Dog. Sleeping. Green. Beddie.”
We had your first Easter egg hunt at the house this year, and even a month later, you are still interested in your ‘Eater Eggs’, hiding things in them, and opening them up and yelling “a ‘prize!” (surprise).
Other obsessions include dinosaurs, first you said ’saurus’ and then ‘dinos.’ Your favorite puzzle is the giant dinosaur puzzle we picked up at a yard sale. You announce, “Dump it?” (and let’s be clear, though phrased as a question, it’s not really a request, but a demand.) at least six times a day. As long as I put the edges and corners in, you are ridiculously good at doing it yourself, and it’s a 48 piece puzzle, no small feat for being under 2 years old. You are also interested in naming all of them. Fortunately, it has a key on the back that tells us what each one is. Hearing you say ‘See-La-Fie-Sys’ and ‘tops’ (for Triceratops) is so cute.
This month we also had baby rabbits under the front steps, and you thought they were fascinating. Although you insisted on calling them ‘rabbits’ and not bunnies. They were definitely not bunnies; you were quite adamant about that. Your favorite comment about them was, ‘Awww…dey toot!’ (toot = cute).
You are completely finished with naps unless we have a really busy day, and then you usually wait until 5pm or so. Most of the time, you are sleeping through the night, finally.
We started putting your hair into a tiny ponytail on the top of your head, at first to be funny, but you liked your ‘tail’ so much that you started requesting one. You grab onto it, shake it, and say “Waggy waggy waggy!”
You are so much fun right now; 22 months is a great age to be!
Love,
Mommy
The Daily Bean: 5-23-2009
Lately V has been around when I’m getting dressed in the morning. We had to discuss what a bra was because she doesn’t wear one. Explaining and talking about panties is a big deal too right now. But today’s comment was about bras and what they are for. V explained to me that “mommy needs bra. pockets for boobies.”!
The Daily Bean: 5-22-2009
We call it ‘being nudie’ when the bean has no clothes on. So, V took the cushion off of the kitchen chair, and then told us that it was ‘nudie’, which was funny enough. Then she put the cushion back on the chair and said, “needs it. warm.”
The Daily Bean: 5-21-2009
Today the bean was at Grandy’s house and she got to play with water in bowls and cups outside. When she was done, she spontaneously announced that that was a “Great game.”
V’s Quote of the Day 05-21-2009
V is at that age where she says some funny funny things, and I want to capture them. So, I’m going to have a daily quote from her.
Today, we were talking about things that we could hear outside.
“Birdies?” “Yes, birdies. What do the birdies say?” “Tweet tweet!!”
“Doggies?” “Yes, doggies. What do they say?” “Woof woof!”
…
“Shh..listen. Outside.” “Hear bunny rabbits.” “Oh, really? What do the rabbits sound like?” “Hop Hop Hop!”
The Book of New Family Traditions
I recently finished reading The Book of New Family Traditions by Meg Cox. While not all of the ideas are new ones, or ones that will work for every family, it’s a very nice collection of ideas ranging from small daily rituals like your end-of-day routine to larger annual holidays or once-in-a-lifetime rites of passage. I was reading it mostly for ideas for holidays and some ideas for celebrating the seasons. I came up some nice holiday activities. Here are some that I liked and might implement, especially as V gets older. A lot of them are easy and fun and as long as I remember to do them, they should add some fun to our holidays.
This list is for holidays. I’ll write about daily and other rituals in later posts.
- Valentine’s Day: Have a dinner where all the food is red, like dying the mashed potatoes with a bit of food dye.
- First Day of Spring:
- Make Birds’ Nest Supply Basket for the birds to make their nests with strings and dried grasses. We also have a bird house that we need to put on a pole and set up outside.
- Celebrate the coming growing season by planting seeds (although depending on your growing zone, there’s not much you can plant on the first day of spring, at least not outside). She recommends nasturium seeds because they are large, but they don’t transplant well. If planting inside, I think I’d go with cantaloupe seeds.
- I’m planning to get this book as well for us to read next year: The Spring Equinox by Ellen Jackson. It’s a good time to talk about how the earth gets warmer and now the days will start being longer than the nights.
- Arbor Day: Easy and obvious: Plant a tree.
- May Day (May 1st): Make a May Pole (maybe table-top size) and flower garlands to wear.
- Halloween/October. This one is unusual, but an interesting reflection on the year. Make Gloom Dolls, which are a variation on the tissue-marker-and-string ‘ghosts’ for Halloween. For the head, use a crumpled up piece of paper where you have written down your ‘glooms’ (anything that makes you sad) for the year. The book suggests burning it, so in conjuction with a fall bonfire, that would be a nice way to think about letting go of the ‘Glooms’.
- Thanksgiving : In addition to the usual family feast, I think we’ll think about this as a time to make a contribution to a charitable organization and think about doing something for others.
- Winter Solstice: There is a book for that one too, by the same author. A good time to talk about how this is the darkest day and from here on out, it will start being lighter every day. I always like to have the sunrise/sunset time tracker on my weather extention at this time of year.
- St. Nick’s Day (Dec 6): This is like a pre-Christmas day. The books suggests putting a ‘giving’ twist on it by having children receive crafting supplies that they can use to make gifts for other family members.
This one is one of my favorites, and one that I’m pretty sure that I’ll be doing.
- Literary Advent Calendar for Christmas. Wrap or box Christmas books, movies, or magazines (holiday crafting for example) and label them like an advent calendar, 1 through 24. Open one each day and read/watch/do it.
In general for holidays, the other thing I’d like to do is have a ‘holiday’ tree so that we can hang hearts at Valentine’s day, eggs in springtime, etc.
