Spa Day

Without divulging too much about the clients I plan events for, let's just say that they are typically more familiar with the design and look of a $100 bill than I am. Or maybe it's that their familiarity comes more from actually possessing said bills where mine is exclusively from a P Diddy song (is that still his name?).

And while there can be detriments to working with people who are maybe LESS familiar with the experience of clipping coupons than I am, there are also some great benefits. Like thank you gifts. And I may have just received the best one ever yesterday. A client just gave me a spa day at Gene Juarez! PUMPED. Clearly, while this client may be a few rungs above me on the social ladder, she still recalls what being a mother to a 2 year old feels like. Or maybe her assistant picked it out (being the parent of a 2 year old herself). I don't really care how it happened, I'm just thrilled that it did.

Jealous?

Cookies in the oven

I baked 2 loaves of banana bread while Edie napped today (one with chocolate chips, one without - in case you were wondering). After an epic nap (post-swimming naps are the BEST), I finally decided to wake her up. I went into her room and she snapped awake and tried to pretend she wasn't sleeping. Her sweaty, crazy hair and strawberry stained face (she fell asleep in the car while eating strawberries, on the way home from swimming) gave her away. Right away she says, "Mom is baking cookies in the oven." For a second I thought she was still half asleep and referencing a dream, but then I realized she recognized the smell of chocolate chips in the oven and assumed it was cookies.

Orcas circa 3 weeks ago

Edie's daycare closes during the first two weeks of August every year so Jen can have a vacation. We decided to take advantage of the forced family time and spent a week on Orcas Island. The first few days were spent with Jeff's cousin Chris and his wife Beth and son Obie. They live in Vancouver BC so we don't get to see nearly enough of them. After the weekend, the cousins went home but we moved over to our cabin and stayed another 4 days.

Eating cereal post shower on our first morning.

Nap.

It was sunny in the afternoons and Edie developed a MAJOR taste for swimming in the freezing ocean. She would beg for us to take off her clothes, one item at a time and then wade fearlessly in saying, "Oooh, it's chilly!" to Jeff.

Obie joined in the fun.

This was her "mermaid sash". We are VERY into mermaids right now. Like, very. When we rode in the boat that week, Edie would ask if we were going to see any mermaids. I told her that the mermaids liked to live in secret but that we could tell the seals to say hi to them for us. Which prompted a new obsession. About Secret Mermaids.

A man, a boy and a dog.

Family portrait time.

These balloons were an unexpected hit that weekend.Who's the most boring reader ever? DAD. Kidding. He literally read her to sleep for her nap one day. She's still holding her string cheese in one hand - it was actually still pressed to her mouth when she fell asleep, but her hand fell to her lap right when I went for the camera.Quesadillas with black beans and sour cream DIP. Mermaids and Dip are both pretty great in Edie's world.

This moment was so great. Jeff had taken Edie to the beach and came back with her naked and clutching a giant Eagles feather they found on the beach. Edie exclaimed (so proudly) "I found a huge feather Mom!"

Making lemon ice cream with Dad.

Eating it with blueberry pudding cake.

Yelling at Theodore, the local, half-albino deer.

This kid knows how to kill a breakfast. It's probably her favorite meal of the day. Our last bon voyage breakfast - Dad made french toast from Rose's bread.

Kids are funny

Edie was looking at the sky today and exclaimed, "MOM! I see a moon jumping on a cloud!"

A few days ago she came to me and said, "Mommy, I have TWO owies on my skin." I asked, "where?", thinking maybe she had another splinter or had scraped her knee and she looked at me like I was a moron and said, "on my SKIN."

23 Month Letter

I just posted it back-dated to the 30th of July.

The Potty

When I was 2 and getting potty trained, I had a particularly successful day, followed by a trip to the local grocery store. I spent the shopping trip loudly and proudly singing, "I go poo poo in my potty! Make my Mommy SOOOO proud of me!"

Gross.

I haven't been pushing the potty training issue in our house. I know a lot of people who seem very concerned about gradually introducing the potty training process - their kids are peeing once a day in the potty for months and months and that's great, but it's not my bag. I have no desire to drag the potty training process out any longer than necessary. My plan has been to wait until Edie is actively interested in getting out of diapers (not just curious about the potty) and then go hardcore with a week of intense training. I'm told this involves a lot of time in "big girl underwear", large bottles of Gatorade, long days at home, and lots of laundry. Fun!

But then something weird happened this afternoon. At around 5pm, I was using the bathroom when Edie said that she wanted to "sit on the potty like Mommy". Overshare? Sorry. She was rather insistent, so I jokingly took her shorts and diaper off and held her over the toilet. She almost fell in and freaked out about hovering on the edge of the large toilet seat. So we went upstairs to get a new diaper on and instead she went over to her little potty thing in the upstairs bathroom and sat on it. She then proceeded to chill on the mini-toilet for a long period of time. We read stories and shot the shit a bit. It was weird! Not only has she shown a lack of interest in the toilet lately, the few times I've asked her randomly if she wants to sit on the potty (like after a bath, when she's naked and says something about needing to pee and the mini-toilet is RIGHT next to her) she has hated the idea, running scared from the little blue potty. So for her randomly to show such intense interest in sitting on the toilet for what felt like a long time to me, was funny. I got bored pretty quickly. After the 4th book, I said I'd be right back and went downstairs to get a basket of clean laundry. When I walked upstairs approximately 10 seconds later, Edie was standing proudly next to the potty and said, "Edie did pee in the potty". We both peered into the tiny toilet and lo! There was pee! I gave her an extra gummy vitamin (her favorite thing ever) and praised the shit out of the whole thing. She LOVED flushing the toilet and insisted on doing it immediately all over again. At this point I had to run to my dance class so Jeff took over. I'm getting the impression much time was subsequently spent by Jeff on the floor of the upstairs bathroom because she proceeded to pee two more times in the toilet tonight and was one very proud toddler indeed.

I'll be very curious tomorrow to see if this was just a random adventure in peeing, or a new trend. I'll keep you posted. Or maybe not - is this gross? I hate parents who talk all the time about their kid's bathroom habits - GROSS. Perhaps I'll just put a short update in her 2 year letter later this month. Which reminds me that I'm behind on her 23 month letter - Gah!

23 Months

Um, you turn two years old in a month.

This last month has been one full of transition for us as a family. I'm not going to lie, it's been a tough one for me and I'm fairly certain you'd say the same. Starting daycare has been a big adventure that you are just now settling into. There were always parts of it that you loved - seeing your friend AJ, making new friends, swinging in the backyard, unlimited yogurt at snack time - but spending full days away from family was something that really took you most of the month to get happy about. I really felt for you, but it was also hard to spend all day working and then pick up a clingy toddler who really had no interest in letting me cook dinner before Dad got home.

Speaking of cooking dinner, it's worth mentioning that you are going through a very big "cooking" phase this month. You have set up a tiny kitchen on the living room coffee table and love to stir things in the pot and wear oven mitts. When I ask you what you're making, a few replies have been:
Block soup (you were stirring blocks)
Corn soup (we'd had corn the night before)
Cheese sauce (wishful thinking)
Bird - on this particular occasion you had put a tiny stuffed bird into the skillet and were tucking him in like it was his nest.
While mixing and stirring toys and felt food in your pot you will say things like, "Mmm, it's delicious Mom!"

And for whatever reason (and as long as we're still kind of talking about food) I'm very fond of this photo of you eating breakfast with bedhead:
You're so sweet in the morning, making specific requests (almost always for scrambled eggs and toast with cream cheese or peanut butter) and this photo perfectly captures your big head, messy morning hair, tiny shoulders and your passion for breakfast foods.

We went through a phase earlier in the month where I was really struggling with my patience and tolerance - your disobedience spiked for a few days, and I'm just now realizing that perhaps this was punishment for "abandoning" you on a weekly basis at daycare. Thankfully it was relatively short lived and while we, of course still have power struggles, I either have more patience for them or they are fewer and further between. In fact, being away from you for two and a half days per week really makes me look forward to our time together. I especially love the time from 4:45pm when I pick you up from Jen's house and 6pm when Dad gets home. I try to make that time special - either stopping by a new playground, picking out a new book at the library or (shhh, don't tell Dad) getting an ice cream to share at the lake.

There really are no limits to your language skills these days. You sing entire songs - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (which you end "Like a diamond in a ring!" instead of "the sky"), and can sing the entire alphabet with only one blip (I think Darrah and I are the only witnesses to this skill so far). When you finish the alphabet you sing, "Now I Z, next time won't you sing with me?" You sing the full "ring around the rosie" song when we swing ourselves in a circle and love to do it "again again again Mom!"

And as long as I'm bragging - our next door neighbor is a pediatrician and after listening to us play in the backyard from his deck every evening, says he's only met one or two other kids your age that speak as much and as clearly as you. Despite the fact that I probably have very little to do with this accomplishment, I about burst with pride. You've started concocting more and more complex sentences this month, I've not done a great job of keeping track, but I do remember being on Orcas for the 4th of July when you pointed at a bird on a cliff and said "That seagull climbed up a big hill Mom!" At the wading pool last week with friends you said, "Splashing around in the pool with Adyson."

At the very end of this month, you figured out how to hop by jumping off the ground with both feet catching air at the same time. As seen here while we sing Little Bunny Foo Foo and you jump all over the kitchen.

I'll be very interested to see your height and weight specs at your 2 year appt. It seems to me like maybe your growth has slowed and perhaps you won't tower over me at the age of 10 after all. Your friend AJ has at least 2 inches on you and I'm still able to squeeze you into 18month size clothes on occasion.

Wearing my shirt and playing "snail", which involves you lying on your belly and Dad putting the bean bag on your back while you slowly crawl around the kitchen. Don't ask.

More transitions lurk on the horizon - toddler beds and potty training. But I think we're still a ways away from tackling these. You slept on a twin mattress on the floor on Orcas this month and did a shockingly good job. I really had low hopes, but you went to bed awake and stayed in bed singing yourself to sleep, sleeping soundly until 5:50am when you tentatively knocked on the inside of your closed door. Your Dad went in and was able to fall back asleep with you on top of the queen bed in that same room, each resting your head on your own pillow. He did wake up at 7:30am to the feel and beep of you running your digital thermometer over his forehead (meaning you snuck out of bed, rummaged through your overnight bag to find the thermometer and then found your Dad to take his temperature - all while he slept), but still! The same routine was more or less repeated the second night. So who knows, maybe the transition will be easier than I think? As for potty training, you seem really hesitant about the whole potty situation, so we haven't lifted a finger yet. Maybe in a few more months. (note that this changed about 2 days after I wrote this letter)

Sleeping through the night is weird right now. There's a lot of manipulating in the middle of the night, with requests for more stories, sitting on my lap, rocking in the rocking chair and more blankets. My favorite was last night when you undressed Baby in the bed and begged me to "fix it" (meaning re-dress her in the dark) at 12am. Ugh. You can see why I was so shocked when you slept almost all night in a twin bed without coming to find us for some random request earlier this month. I'm actually really enjoying this age you're at; I still maintain that I'm happier parenting a toddler than I was an infant. But it must also be said that this age is teaching me a lot about patience, bargaining, picking my battles, and not feeling guilty about giving you a cookie in order to successfully complete my grocery shopping.

Lastly, I will leave you with one of your more hilarious habits from this month. May I present to you "The Silly Smile", which you will do on cue pretty much any time for as long as requested:

Until next month,

xoxo

Mom