New Stuff

Grace, her dad and I enjoyed the zoo on Mother's Day. Big faves were the monkey house, where unmentionable habits were the source of much education and amusement for Grace, and the giraffe, who ate leaves that Grace tossed at her. If prompted, she will talk non-stop for several minutes about the antics of the monkey family. Fortunately, there is no reenactment.

This weekend, we had a chance to jump in a pool together. She thoroughly enjoyed it, although she didn't seem to remember swimming the previous summer. Kicking came naturally and she blew a few bubbles but in order to get her arms going, I instructed her to pretend she was pushing away her big dogs ("Move, Reese, move!").

She has been singing a lot lately, mostly Old MacDonald (whose farm apparently features, in addition to what are mostly ducks, a "big mama" -- e i e i o) and Frere Jacques/Are you Sleeping/Two Tigers (Liang shi lao hu) -- which she sings in all three languages. She also has been role playing with her baby dolls ("You need to listen to my words, baby.") and has frequently stopped me to say "I have a question." But since that is usually followed by a song title ("No Work" for example -- which is really "Never Go to Work" by They Might Be Giants), I think she means to say she has a "request."

We are working on grammar -- using "These and Those" instead of "Them" to begin a sentence, and making the correct verb agreement. Next we will work on finishing the phrase "go with [us/me/you/them]" or "take it with ___."

One day I told her not to let Reese take the opportunity to steal her food off the booster seat tray. A week later, she was still yelling at Reese to not take her "tunity." I think she thinks opportunity is a food group.

She greatly enjoyed watching our neighbor's daughter perform in a ballet ("Twirl, Caroline!"). She also likes the pinwheel she got at the fundraiser/fair where she loved the moonbounce but seemed a bit taken aback when she realized that Elmo was not a freestanding being but was attached to someone's arm.

She loves worms and bugs ("Don't bite your tail, wormey.") and fishing and running and hugging and kissing. She doesn't like going to bed, staying in bed, reading new books (just the usuals, please), or eating spicy food.

When she coughs, she gets a funny, concerned look and says "That doesn't sound very good." She recently had her fourth ear infection since December. It came with a cold (allergies?), fever and unrelated hives. She may have redeveloped her strawberry allergy. But she's a pro at taking her medicine and is hale and hearty now. She has grown maybe two inches since Christmas and can open the doors in the house without rising on tiptoes.

Stay tuned as we approach the second anniversary (in August) of the day we met Grace.