Party Girl

Macy had a very cute phase recently, during which she loved wearing hawaiian leis.

She has become a very independent player (which rocks, I might add). In the mornings when Seth and I are still getting ready, if Norah is up she often brings books into our room until we are ready to go out and start breakfast.

But not Macy. If Macy is up she typically takes off and heads for the playroom. She loves the play kitchen and pushing babies and stuffed animals around in the baby stroller.

But for a few weeks, she had to have a lei on for all of her favorite activities. This was a very typical site for us to see whenever we walked into the playroom:

Over and over and over again. I can just picture her waddling into the playroom, digging through the bins to find a lei, managing to put it over her head, and climbing up into a chair. 

Then when she noticed us standing there she would grin from ear to ear, sitting there proud as a peacock.

Too cute.

Babysitting Co-op Works!

I am part of a start-up babysitting co-op in our neighborhood. There are about 11 families right now and it officially started May 1. I have seen requests opened and filled, but have not participated. I was a bit nervous to leave Norah with someone she didn't know, so I was making every attempt to socialize with the group (we have occasional play dates and mom meetings for that purpose).

Then Seth read about an event that Foodways Texas was holding at St. Arnolds Brewery and we thought, "What the heck?" This was supported by my friend Lisa F. pointing out that as long as we felt certain we were putting Norah in a safe environment, one approach might be to realize that even if she had a hard time with us leaving, she would survive and all would be well. She was right.

So I put out the request to the co-op and someone took it. I was surprised. After all, 6:30-10PM on a Thursday night isn't exactly ideal. We decided to go for it.

The day before the event I started prepping Norah. She got super excited that mommy's friend who was coming to stay with her had a little baby named Philip..."just like our Philip!" And she was thrilled that mommy's friend had a little girl named Tracey who was 3..."just like me!" Both would be coming with their mommy while we went to our event.

On the way home from school that day, in preparation for Tracey's visit, Norah prepared a list of things for them to do together. As one of us came up with an activity idea, I would tell her the letters one-by-one as she wrote the words. We frequently do this during our commute.

We started with "puzzles" but she got stuck on the "Z" so we moved on to:

- kitchen
- Candyland
- stories
- coloring
- tea party

Then she ran out of space, so she moved to her notebook to add:

- dollhouse

- costumes

- babydolls

Tracy was only going to be there for an hour before her daddy came to pick her up and take her home to bed, so there was no way they would do all of these activities, but I thought it would be a good way to get Norah engaged in the situation. When we got home we put everything out in "stations" so she and Tracey could choose what they wanted to do. 

I don't know if it was that, or if she is just growing out of a phase. She has always had a hard time with us leaving (though everyone who stays with her says she is fine within minutes), but she didn't this time. She waved goodbye at the window like usual and apparently didn't bat an eye. When we returned Megan said she was completely fine - played with Tracey for an hour, gave her a big hug when she left, walked Megan through the bedtime routine - which included books and singing in bed - and didn't make a noise after Megan left the room. 

Sa-weet! I feel a sense of freedom. The whole process worked perfectly, and when we got back we handed over a few coupons and were good to go. 

The babysitting co-op really seems to be taking off, and I see us getting a lot of use out of it in the future. 

On the Move

Walking is officially Macy's preferred mode of transportation. We really do not see her crawling around the house anymore.

The week of July 4th is when she really started, and that weekend she took off. Ever since then she has gotten more and more steady and sure of herself - SO fun to watch! At this point, a week later, she is officially a walker. She spends much of her time just walking around the house. She likes to carry things around as well. The other morning she repeatedly got a spoon from the drawer of kids dinnerware, walked around with it for a while, put it somewhere, then went back for another. At one point when I was cleaning up I found 5-6 spoons in random places around the house.

The video below is from last weekend, and looking at it now I think there is a big difference already, but it's still cute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=SvBv7g_aXnQ

And as a continuation from my last post on how the girls are playing together more, here are two videos that demonstrate the point. I have been working to capture everyday, typical moments in our house, and these do a pretty good job.

 http://youtu.be/LIcdg9A_xW0

http://youtu.be/kDHDFBaQeQE

Time for Tricks!

Macy is suddenly in trick mode, and has combined a few of her first tricks into one. See the video embedded below, or at this link: http://youtu.be/SwQhenZf-tE.

N-O-R-A-H

Proud parent moment:

And she is super proud of herself and excited, too:

Big Girl Stuff

The other morning as I sat in the chair in Norah's room watching her get dressed for school (because she wants to do everything herself), seeing the minutes tick by while thinking of everything that still needed to get done before we could get out the door, I realized it really wasn't necessary (duh!). That night I gave Norah the idea of getting ready like a big girl in the morning.

So all week that's what she did. She still calls for us when she wakes up, but after we say good morning she starts her routine. She insists on bringing her stool from the bathroom to turn her light on by herself. Then she gets underdressed, takes her pull-up off, goes to the bathroom and gets dressed.

This has, of course, made for some interesting outfits. The best one last week was bright yellow leggings with a turquoise Brooklyn t-shirt, santa socks, black boots and a pink Hello Kitty headband. But for the most part we have let it go besides providing some based guidance based on the weather.

Anyway, once she is done with everything she calls us back to brush her teeth. And in the meantime, I am usually able to pack at least two bags for the day. It's great!

A few other Norah notes...

She asks a LOT of questions, quite frequently "Why?" I have to admit, I get sort of weary of that one and sometimes the answer is, "Just because."

I also had to tell her the other day that when I am running I'm not going to talk. I do realize that is a sign of my cardiovascular fitness, but hey - I'm working on it (and in my defense I'm also pushing about 50 lbs of kid and stroller). It will probably be a while before I am very interested in having a convoluted "Why" kind of conversation with my 3-year old while I'm pushing myself to do something I don't really enjoy that much.

"Why," you might ask? Just because.

Norah has given us some good laughs recently with her pretend phone conversations, which are usually with Mimi. One time we heard this from the back seat:

"Wait, hold on just a second." She moved the phone away from her ear a bit and said to someone else pretend, "What? You have to go potty? Oh, okay. Go ahead." Then with the phone back up to her ear she said, "Okay, I'm back."

Another day I heard her say to Mimi, "Yeah, I was going to text you, but...."

Norah's favorite past time these days is her baby dolls: dressing, undressing, changing diapers, putting them to sleep, pushing them around in the baby stroller, and more dressing and undressing. She talks to her baby dolls the exact same way I talk to Macy - same words and tone of voice. "Ohhh, baby girl, I'm here, I'm here. Ohhhh, it's okay."

We had a a few play dates this weekend and it was awesome how well the girls played together. I realized they are suddenly so much more independent, which makes the play dates more fun for the mommies as well.

We are really conscious of Norah growing more and more into a kid, and away from anything that resembles toddler.

Since when...

Since when do I have a daughter old enough to go to the bathroom all by herself?

Since when do I have a daughter old enough to ask questions like, "Mommy, does the sun sleep?" "Mommy, why doesn't the stoplight talk?" "Mommy, how does the stoplight work?"

Since when do I have a daughter old enough to give her little sister options? ("Daddy, Macy has twooooo options. She can either wake up or stay at home by herself.")

Since when do I have a daughter old enough to get makeup applied at a princess birthday party? (Okay, maybe she's still a little young for that in my mind, but it happened.)

Since when do I have a daughter old enough to get dressed for school all by herself?

Since when do I have a daughter old enough to tell her crying baby sister, "Macy, we don't want to hear that the whole way home?"

Since when do I have a daughter old enough to say, "Oh.....my.....gosh. Shoot (under her breath)?"

Since when do I have a daughter old enough to ask whether we remembered to pack Macy's milk when, in fact, we had not remembered to pack Macy's milk?"

Since now, I guess.

Choooooooooe?

Norah is still into shoes. Nearly every morning we have what Seth and I call a "shoe check." It typically happens when we are all sitting down eating breakfast, and it goes something like this:

Norah: "Choooooooe?" (While pointing at my feet.)

Seth or me: "No, mommy is not wearing shoes."

Norah: "Choooooooe?" (While pointing at Seth's feet.)

Seth or me: "No, daddy doesn't have his shoes on yet."

Norah: "Choooooooe?" (While lifting her feet so they are peaking up at the end of her tray.)

Seth or me: "Nope, Norah isn't wearing shoes."

We look at each other and giggle every time. Whenever we mentioning "going" somewhere, Norah says, "Choooooooe?" For some reason it is always a question.

She spends a lot of time taking her shoes on and off and I am surprised how often she actually ends up with her shoes on her feet.

Lately, we have been caught somewhat off guard at how grown up she seems (it feels like just yesterday that she was a baby). The other day we came home from somewhere and when we came in the door we asked her if she wanted to take her shoes off and put them away. She said, "Oh" and walked into her bedroom, sat down by the shoe drawer, took off her shoes, opened the drawer, put her shoes in the drawer, and closed the drawer. Seth and I stood in the hallway and watched the whole thing happen. We looked at each other wide eyed. I have a video of her doing it again later, but I've tried on several occasions to get the darn thing uploaded, but have not been successful for some reason.

She surprisingly also seems to know in which drawers particular items of clothing belong. We had no idea she was picking up on little things like this, though her overall comprehension does continue to amaze us.

She's climbing, she's trying to run, she's doing art projects at school (see "horse collage below"), she's only taking one nap a day, she's sleeping on a cot and she's sitting in a small chair at a table to eat at daycare. Holy cow - SHE'S OLD!