Baby's first bloody lip

Actually, it was a bloody gum. Daisy had a harmless-looking trip today, cried very hard, and started gushing blood out of her mouth. When I was finally able to look and see what was going on, it was actually a pretty nasty gash in her upper gum. I know the mouth bleeds a lot, so I tried not to panic, but it was hard seeing my baby with blood flowing out of her mouth like that. It made me realize this was her first scary-looking injury, though it was not at all serious.

Daisy's gommy left today for Seattle and (coincidence?) Daisy woke up in the morning say, "I want to read gommy books! I want to read gommy books!" (meaning books about grandmothers, of which she has an abundance--mostly given to her by guess who). She asked several times for Gommy today, and also several times for dada, who is playing music at a bbq.

But she had LOTS of fun at her friend Lulu's red balloon birthday party, an absolutely lovely event (and the kids all got to take red balloons home with them! Daisy has been clutching hers all day, nonstop). Daisy's favorite thing in the world right now is the film _The Red Balloon_, and Lulu's party featured hundreds of red balloons, plus the movie projected onto a wall in the house and playing continuously, plus baby-sized red velvet cupcakes. Daisy was in HEAVEN. I can't imagine a more perfect two-year-old's birthday party. There was also a slide, a sandbox, and buckets full of colorful balls in the yard for the kids to play with. It was a really special day, and fun to see Lulu blow out the two candles on her cupcake.

After Lulu's party, Daisy very much enjoyed herself at Auntie Sam's house, ate lots of grapes and cheese, had Nana read _Ten Apples Up on Top_ to her, and liked running in circles through the kitchen. She also remembered Auntie Barbara and Eleanor by name.

Okay, that is weird--Daisy's zebra just started playing of its own accord. I think this house is haunted.

Memorial Day

At Crissy Field, with Ann, Dave, and Elise, and Charlie, Kimberly, and Chilali! It was a very fun day... I should work on my photographic technique, though, since I noticed when I got home that I had almost no pictures of the adults. But, hey, here are some cute kids! (And Mark :-)

Fort Bragg

Daisy, Gommy Susan and I recently took a trip to Fort Bragg to visit our dear Auntie Baua(Barbara), Cousin Rache, and Cousin Hannie-Jo (who was turning three). We had a great time. Some highlights: Daisy falling so in love with Hannah's balloon bouquet that Gommy insisted we buy her her very own (IDENTICAL, complete with "happy birthday" balloon, even though it was not Daisy's birthday...indulgent Gommy Susan!); the party at a pizza parlor; and a trip to the beach, although at the end of this event, unfortunately, Auntie Baua (Bubbe to Hannah) tripped and fell as we were rushing across Highway One to get to the beach and got a black eye. We all felt very much for Bubbe, and Daisy is still asking about Bubbe... saying, "Bubbe fell! Don't cry, Bubbe."

The cousins were very loving with each other, and here are a few pictures to show you (one is to demonstrate the way Daisy's hair was sticking up off her head as she ran around everywhere with her balloons--pretty funny). The pizza place had a mechanical pizza slice that the kids could ride in, but Daisy (the one who's afraid of merry go rounds, let's not forget) was too scared to go in it once it started moving. She wanted to sit in it, not moving, but as you can imagine, the other kids were not so into that... so she spent most of the party walking around the room with her balloons!

While listening to "On Top of Old Smokey"

...I lost my true lover for courtin' too slow...

Daisy: I can't find my lover! I can't find my lover! I can't find my lover!

blah blah blah but a falsehearted lover will send you to your grave...

Daisy: Daisy's going to the grave!

blah blah blah the grave will decay you and turn you to dust....

Daisy: Daisy makes dust!

blah blah he'll hug you and kiss you and tell you more lies...

Daisy: Daisy kissed you!

Not one boy in a hundred a poor girl can trust...

Daisy: Daisy has trust!

The whole song was like that, with her chiming in after every line. It was so funny... even if she did mention lovers and going to the grave, which was a tad disturbing.

I am proud of my student

I found out today that she got an honorable mention in USF's student writing competition! This is a great feat, especially as her paper was for my freshman writing class and she was competing with upperclassmen, juniors and seniors writing in the disciplines. Her name will be printed in USF's journal of the best student writing, Writing for a Real World, and she'll be honored at a ceremony. I am very pleased for her!

Did this work?

After seven trips to the Best Buy Geek Squad, my digital camera is now sort of working-- I mean, sort of uploading to my computer. It plays in slow motion, but at least there's audio now. I am completely frustrated. But I guess it's better than nothing! ...so I hope this worked. If it did, it's Daisy (21 months) singing part of "When the Saints Go Marching In." Note her liberal inclusion of "Oh Lord" before every line... it's infectious!

Funny kid

1. A few days ago Daisy pointed at me and said, "This is my mama. This is my Sarah." She has been referring to me as "my Sarah" from time to time and giving more vigorous hugs-- putting her arms around my neck, squeezing, and patting my shoulder.

2. Does anyone else's toddler sometimes talk about herself in third person, as in, "Daisy wants this," or "Daisy is running"? She doesn't do it all the time, but quite often. I wonder if it's kind of odd, or just normal, since she hears us talking about her as "Daisy."

3. Daisy has committed quite a few of her favorite songs to memory and is now experimenting with making up new, fanciful verses. Basically, she takes a verse from the song which she knows well and changes some of the words. But I call that imaginative! A couple examples: she added a verse to "When the Saints Go Marching In," which goes, "When the flowers start to sniff, oh when the flowers start to sniff...." And today she added a verse to "Charlie Brown": "Why is everybody always picking on the flame-os?" (The flame-os are her favorite animals of all time, her two pink plush flamingo magnets.) She also sang "Why is everybody always picking on Daisy?" and "Why is everybody always picking on Dada?" Thus far, Mama is not in the song.

4. Daisy has been rejecting her bottle lately. I know, I know--I should have weaned her from the bottle by now anyway. But I hadn't. However, a few days ago, she started pushing it away. Tonight when Mark tried to give her her bottle, she said, "No" and "I want to lie down." We put her in the crib and sang her a song, and she went to sleep. How about that? Hope it lasts-- it's only been one night since we've been home from our trip and she's been a bit out of whack. It's funny how she gives things up abruptly--overnight, it seems. That's how it went with the pacifier, too. She loved the pacifier desperately, for the first four months of life; and then one day, at four and a half months or so, she simply stopped accepting it, and never took one again. It's a bit disconcerting!

See you when I get back

Daisy and I are leaving tomorrow (Monday) for Fort Bragg to help celebrate the third birthday of Daisy's cousin Hannah! We will probably be back by Wednesday. See you soon!

Oh dear Lord

My daughter just said, "The devil is so cute" and "The flame-o kisses the devil."

It should be explained that there is a Mexican devil mask on our wall that Daisy loves (along with a lot of other masks).

Footnote: "Flame-os" are flamingos, Daisy's favorite comfort animal, for some reason. (She can also say "flamingo" now but the nickname "flame-o" persists.)

Oh, and I just have to add this

Daisy is very into Shirley Temple songs, especially "Good Ship Lollipop," "Animal Crackers in my Soup," and "Oh My Goodness." The other day my mom was with her and they were listening to "Temple," as Daisy calls her, and Mom says to me, "We're listening to 'The Codpiece Ball'!"

She meant "The Codfish Ball," a truly ridiculous yet addictive song. Mom was not trying to be funny-- she just has a filthy, filthy mind. No daughter of mine is going to listen to any Codpiece Ball.

Daisy and the Bad Night

Daisy was up at 12:30 last night, crying and screaming. Mark went in and got her back to sleep; then he returned to bed, and fifteen minutes later, she was screaming again. I went in and got her back to sleep... I remember that it was 2:45 when I returned to bed, and about 3 or 3:15 when she started screaming again. Mark went in again. The rest is kind of blurry, but he said she was up for good at 5:30. After that, we took turns spending time with her and taking short naps. We are both horribly tired now, and we don't understand how Daisy keeps going on so little sleep. I truly hope that this was just a weird night and that she'll be back on track tonight. The world just does not look the same after a Bad Night.

And now I had better balance this negative post with something cheerful about The Girl... let's see. Well, she is very funny. I have a video of her singing "When the Saints Go Marching In" that reduces us to tears of laughter every time. She sings the whole song pretty accurately, but inserts extra "Oh Lords"... so it's like, "Oh Lord, I want to be in that number, Oh Lord, when the saints go marching in, oh Lord." She can do three verses! And she could probably do more, but we don't know any more.

I have been to Best Buy four times, and to Wolf's Camera once, to try to figure out why I can't upload video from my camera. If it ever gets solved, I will try to post some videos of Daisy. She's almost two and I still haven't figured this out.

Mark's annual college dinner is tonight and I am just so tired. I hope I will make it. Wish me luck.

Picture from today

Smile! You happy!

This is what Daisy said to me a few minutes ago.

I think her new Shirley Temple album is starting to have an effect on her.

Learning curve

aka, "Singing with Daisy"

Old Mc Donald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O, and on this farm he had a...

Daisy: Chicken!

E-I-E-I-O. With a bawkbawk here and a bawkbawk there, here a bawk, there a bawk, everywhere a bawkbawk, Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O. And on this farm he had a...

Daisy: Chicken!

E-I-E-I-O. With a bawkbawk here and a bawkbawk there, here a bawk, there a bawk, everywhere a bawkbawk, Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O. And on this farm he had a...

Daisy: Chicken!

E-I-E-I-O. With a bawkbawk here and a bawkbawk there, here a bawk, there a bawk, everywhere a bawkbawk, Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O. And on this farm he had a...

Daisy: Ch-- .... He had a... cow!

This made me sad

The other day we went to Golden Gate Park with our friends Marina and Lulu, and Daisy went crazy with excitement when she saw the carousel, saying, "I want to see the horsies!" She insisted that we go down to it, and was the first one pressing at the gates with anticipation to be let in for the next ride. I was happy, thinking we'd found something she'd love to do. When we got in, I put her up on a horse, and she asked to come down. Fine, I thought; I got up on the horse with her. No. She pointed at the boring bench that doesn't move and said she wanted to sit there. Well, okay. We moved there. The carousel started and she began to weep inconsolably. She cried, and screamed, through the entire ride, even though we were on the least scary part of the whole ride... a bench that wasn't moving. The whole thing just made me sad. It's fine if she doesn't like carousels, but she had been so excited.

One thing that was very cute, though: after the ride, Lulu took her by the hand and led her over to the playground! They held hands for a long time, with Lulu helping her along. That girl is going to make a great big sister.

On another subject, Daisy has started carrying on conversations all by herself. She'll say, "I want to nurse on the couch. Hokay; let's nurse on the couch." Or, even more oddly, she'll say, "I want to nurse, Daisy said"--like she is reading her thoughts in a book. Apropos of that: I have not yet successfully weaned her and I am getting nervous. It was down to once a day but lately she's been asking for it more than once, and very insistently. In a related problem, she is definitely still hooked on the bottle and I'm supposed to get her off that, too. I don't know how I'm supposed to wean her from both at the same time. Anxious....