Tuesday, December 30, 2008

I am regressing

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my mom bought me--I mean Daisy--a fairy dollhouse for Christmas and I really, really like it. A lot. I still remember my childhood dollhouse with huge levels of nostalgia and fondness. For some reason that still drives me crazy, my parents gave it away. So now that I have a fairy house, I couldn't help myself. I had to get furniture for it--pictured below. As you will see, the fairies have mushroom lamps (and mushroom tables and chairs), a fireplace, a wood-burning stove, leaf couches and chairs, and a little coffee table made out of a tree stump. Their house is very, VERY cozy. During the day I let Daisy do whatever she likes with it--she's been shoving huge plastic carrots in through the doors and "fixing" the windows with a knife--but after she goes to bed, that house is mine, all mine. I am arranging it the way I see fit every night, so at least I have it my way a good portion of the time. Ha.

Fairy house

Bedroom

Kitchen

Living room

Hammock

Fairy river and bridge

Maypole/merry-go-round

Where does this child come from?

Daisy (holding a Uriah Heep CD booklet, courtesty of Mark): Where does this come from?
Me (truthfully): I don't know.
Daisy: But where does it come from?
Me: I really don't know, Daisy.
Daisy: Maybe it's from the seventies.

*****************
Oh God, too funny--she just said, "What happened to the seventies, Dada?"

Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas

We had a very good Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house in Healdsburg, and unbelievably, I forgot my camera--so there will be no digital photos on the blog, although I photographed some of Gommy and Gompy's amazingly generous gifts when I got home and posted them on the blog (in the previous entry). My parents ran out and got a disposable camera, so I guess there will be some old-fashioned pictures (hahaha) soon enough. There was lots of present-opening, eating, and dancing, at Daisy's command. Everyone had to dance around the kitchen to REM, Daisy's latest favorite band.

Then on Christmas day we drove back from Healdsburg and went to Mark's mom's house, where we had Christmas with Nana and Auntie Samantha. There were a lot of wonderful presents there, too, and more delicious eating, and more dancing. Daisy wants to have dancing every day now. This round of dancing was to Christmas music and a CD that came with a book from Mark's brother Tim, Marsupial Sue.

Daisy definitely understood Christmas more than last year... but she didn't entirely get it, I would say. She is not obsessed with presents yet, although she loved all the new things she got and has been playing with them constantly. In fact tonight we couldn't get her to come to dinner because she was playing at her fairy house (she was "fixing the bottom of the window" with the toy knife from Gommy Susan, because "it was breaky"). She got sleep-deprived because the traveling had greatly reduced her naps; she slept for half an hour one day, on the drive to Healdsburg, and one hour the next day, on the drive back (and she has been napping for 2-3 hours normally, so that was quite a bit less sleep). She also woke up at 5 AM on Christmas day and didn't go back to sleep, so by the time the evening of Christmas day rolled around, she was very, very tired. I think maybe eating all the rich food and more sugar than usual contributed (her dear, loving Gommy gave her a candy cane, an entire gingerbread family, a chocolate Santa lollipop, and a piece of chocolate roll). But despite being tired, she was cheerful almost the whole time. And now she seems to be getting more sleep, and relaxing and enjoying her new books and toys and having both her parents around all the time (since we're both on Christmas break).

It was a great holiday and I feel very grateful to both of our families for all their generosity and for making this whole experience so much fun.










This is the first Christmas I have wanted to play with Daisy's toys

Okay, that was a little misleading: I have been playing with Daisy's toys. A lot. I photographed a few of them--gifts from Gommy Susan, mainly (she also got fabulous gifts from many others). I did not buy these things... but I can play with them. And I will. (When Daisy is sleeping--don't worry, she's monopolizing them during the daylight hours.)

Daisy loves fairies and merry-go-rounds--so Daisy's grandmother gave her a fairy dollhouse with a FAIRY MERRY-GO-ROUND (did you know they made such a thing?). And yes, that is a fairy river and bridge, and a little mushroom table and chairs, and a fairy hammock for the fairies to sleep in.


Daisy's new Mole Sisters book and the Mole Sisters themselves, holding hands

Daisy got a tea set and utensils, pretend food, and an adorable Calico bunny family

Make believe

Okay, I am not delusional, I realize almost no one will find this interesting--probably just Mark and I. But it shows Daisy's new fairy house (courtesy of Gommy Susan) and is a great example of all the make-believe she's been doing lately, which I will want to remember one day. It's been so great--she really does entertain herself for long periods of time with these rambling narratives. She does the different characters' voices, and they say funny things (not that I understand all of it, which is part of why I find it so charming). I enjoyed the way one of the characters said, "I'm pleased that you're here!" in this one. I also think it's funny that she has the characters talk to each other and then she'll say, "...said the witch," or "said" whoever, like the whole thing is a book.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Daisy the music critic

Tonight in the car Daisy and I were listening to our Bruce Springsteen We Shall Overcome CD, and "The American Land" had just come on. I report the exchange below.

D: Something's missing in this song.

Me (at first suspecting that her father had taught her that any song lacking a heavy metal guitar solo has "something missing," but then deciding to take her seriously): What do you think is missing?

D (after a long pause in which she thinks it over): Giants.

It soon became clear that Daisy felt giants were missing from all the songs on the CD--a fatal flaw if ever there was one. She informed me that every other song we listened to on the CD also needed giants.

Interestingly, she insisted that Bruce was "crying" in several songs that had really upbeat feelings to them. Then she'd say, "Now he's better. The other singers cheered him up."

Then she told me our apartment needs giants as well. I'm not so sure; it's a big apartment by San Francisco standards, but maybe not big enough to house a giant.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Daisy quotables

1) Today after the Discovery Museum Daisy was saying she wanted friends to come over to her house. I started explaining why we would probably need to wait for a little while, and all the reasons: some friends are leaving town for the holidays, others have their own families coming into town to visit, others are expecting new baby brothers or sisters and getting ready to celebrate the holiday, etc. She listened carefully and then said, "That's a lot to think about." It was, too! I promised her we'd have friends over very soon, however.

2) Daisy has discovered the expression "making [someone] miserable." She has been trying it out, although I really don't think she knows what it means. The other day I went to find her beloved Monkees CD in the car and she got very excited at my success in locating it. She said, "YAYYY!" Then, "Mama, maybe the Monkees are making themselves miserable."

3) I may have reported on this already--I lose track--but Daisy has been telling us she needs some space, or to "get some space." She'll say, "Mama, you want to get some space?" This means, MOVE IT, Mama. Or she'll say, "Mama, you want to go sit on the little couch?" That means get off the big couch so that Daisy can have it all to herself. So, she is working on carving out some of her own personal space, which I think must be a good thing, and she's also developing some self-consciousness. If she's playing one of her imaginative games (where she makes the characters do things, and narrates their adventures to herself), she'll tell us to look the other way, or she'll tell us to get up and move a little bit away from the site of the game. It's like she needs to get into her own world, and us being there disrupts it... or maybe it's a new self-consciousness, like she doesn't want us staring at her, listening in, or (God forbid) laughing as though it's cute.

4) Daisy likes to play "chess." What does this mean? Well, unfortunately, it means standing on the "podium"--a box of blocks she uses as a stepping stool--at a low bookshelf and hitting one of her puzzles with a chopstick like it's a drum. That is "chess." Now, why does this child use chopsticks as toys? Blame her grandmother, not me. They invented a game in which the chopsticks are paddles, and Daisy is rowing out at sea. Now Daisy has a thing about the "skinny paddle." She comes after me saying, "Mama, where is Daisy's skinny paddle?" This means not just any chopstick will do; she MUST have the "skinny" one. Daisy also has "tools." Her associations are very unusual; one of her toy reindeer is a "tool" and she uses it to "fix a fish." She also has a hair chopstick which she calls "Mama Bear."

Daisy has been doing a lot of this imaginative, independent play lately. A lot of times, I can watch from the sidelines while she entertains herself, talking the whole time and moving things around--telling stories about her animals and dolls, or building block stacks, etc. I love to see her like this.

She's also been sleeping better, but I am really going to jinx myself if I say anything more about it!!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

A few notes

I am too tired for details, due to having a very bad night with Daisy last night--see next post, entitled "A rough night"! But I wanted to note for my blog that:

1) Mita came for a visit and it was really lovely; Daisy adored her and has been asking about her every day and saying she wants to go visit her in Seattle;

2) Our friend Marlene is visiting and we're having lots of fun;

3) Daisy had a follow-up dentist appointment yesterday about her broken tooth and did pretty darn well, overall. She did cry during the teeth-cleaning, but she got over it quickly and recovered well enough to allow the dentist to do a thorough inspection of her teeth afterward. The dentist told us that her broken tooth is looking very solidly rooted and unlikely to fall out, although she warned us that that could always change. It never turned gray, which is nice, and by the time she's 3 or 3 and a half, we could consider having it bonded (to make it whole again). We were told her teeth look good overall, not too much plaque, but there was a LITTLE plaque on a couple teeth, so we need to do even better with tooth-brushing. She is getting her two-year molars on the left side, and the dentist told us it was unusual to get them like that-- usually the bottoms come in first, and then the top ones, but with Daisy, the top AND bottom left are coming in simultaneously. Next the righthand molars need to come in, and then she'll be all finished with her baby teeth coming in! We were told that her teeth look good in terms of her bite and the spacing between them, etc. I hope she inherited my teeth because I never needed any form of orthodunture, not even a retainer, and I've never had a cavity. Keeping my fingers crossed that my genes got to Daisy in just this one category :-)
If anyone needs a pediatric dentist in SF, let me know because I would highly recommend this one (who was recommended to me by Dena). They are very good with kids. The waiting room is filled with toys and is quite inviting for children, and the hygienists who work there as well as the dentists are very good at putting children at ease and even making the process somewhat fun. We left with stickers, toys, a snowflake tree ornament, a timer for toothbrushing, and informational packets on tooth care that were actually entertaining to look at together. It is expensive, of course, but I am thrilled that our dental insurance is covering 70% of it, so really it has not been a lot. Definitely worth it, too.

A rough night

Daisy had a very, very bad night last night. She has been sleeping well for many months now, and so I was tempted to think we had the whole sleep issue solved... although my better brain knows that things can always change with young children. Anyway: she woke up around midnight, and at first was just mumbling and whining, but eventually it became full-blown screaming and yelling. I went in, hoping to just say a few words of comfort and leave, but she began crying hysterically. I rocked her in the glider and got her back to sleep, but when I put her back in the crib, she started crying again. This really reminds me of the old days!

The rest of the night is a blur, as I am ashamed to admit Mark and Gommy Susan handled most of the rest of it. She cried and screamed on and off for hours; people went in and out trying to make it better; she begged for a bottle, and we finally gave it to her despite our better judgment because everything was just so awful and we figured we'd form a plan to deal with it the next day, but not in the middle of the night. Eventually, my mom rocked her for an hour and half and was able to put her down without her waking up and screaming. Obviously, this is not a solution in the long run, if indeed this is the start of a new sleeping problem.

It's strange, but she also had sleeping problems come up last year at Christmas... just in time for the holiday break. Maybe the change in schedules is part of it? She seems very sensitive to little changes in her routine, even though you'd think this change would be in her favor (having us both around more). When her sleep gets messed up like this, it makes me realize how much I have been taking for granted, in how GOOD sleep makes your life so much better. When a child is not sleeping, your whole life becomes about how to help her sleep better, how to get more sleep yourself, and how to deal with the exhaustion, and it casts a pall over all the better parts of life, making it harder to enjoy the good times during the day--because you are dreading the problems at night. Bad sleeping has so many negative rippling-down effects. I think it even made me somewhat depressed, when we were in the thick of it.

I am hoping that this was a one-night anomaly, but better judgment tells me not to count on it. Boy, I sure don't feel like cracking my toddler sleep books again--especially since I've just started a potty-training one. She is taking a nap right now... she still lets us put her down for a nap and she is usually pretty good about going to sleep at night, although she has been waking up in the middle of the night. Oh, and she's been deliberately procrastinating bedtime, which is new.

On a different subject, one brief note on potty-training (which I have put off a shamefully long time): she has started asking us to look away or even leave the room when she poops. I think this is a good sign that she's ready for the potty. She does sit on the potty, but so far nothing's ever come out into it. So, I'm working on it... slowly.

Monday, December 15, 2008

At Golden Gate Children's Playground

From a few weeks ago (thanks to Dena for the picture)!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Quotes of the day

1) We went to the aquarium today (along with the rest of San Francisco, because the rain was pouring down and it was cold), and when the elevator doors opened, Daisy exclaimed, "Uncle Dave lives here!" This is because we once saw her "Uncle Dave" give a dive show in one of the big tanks. Daisy had never seen scuba diving before and was intrigued by it, though she focused on some mundane details (she kept telling me afterward, "Uncle Dave got his beard wet!" and "He had to take a shower" when he was done). I had no idea she thought he *lived* in the aquarium, but it makes sense.

2) On the ride home we were listening to her beloved Harry Belafonte CD and there was some lyric about "saving" someone. Daisy said solemnly from the back seat, "Harry Belafonte doesn't save me. Harry Belafonte doesn't like Daisy." I wonder where she could get such an idea??

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Daisy sings her ABCs

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Daisy sings "Twinkle, Twinkle"

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Saturday, December 06, 2008

Daisy and her pigtails on the Channel 2 News!

...only for about five seconds, but still. It's from our day at the Conservatory of Flowers, checking out the train exhibit. You have to wait till 1 minute and 25 seconds into the clip to see the pigtails close up. Oh yeah, and that unkempt woman holding her is me. I am so out of it these days that I didn't even notice there were any cameras in the room, and I would never have seen this except that a nice woman from my old Kaiser parents' group apparently recognized me, remembered me, and emailed me this footage:

http://www.ktvu.com/video/18193412/index.html

Friday, December 05, 2008

It's a wild scene and other random updates

One of Daisy's favorite expressions is, "It's a wild scene!" She says it pretty much every time we leave the house, regardless of whether the scene is (in my opinion) wild. Take it from me--the Outer Richmond is not very wild--but she uses it to refer to the weather. I used this expression ONCE in front of her, at Halloween (which was a crazily windy evening) and the very next day she had incorporated it into her vocabulary. Sometimes she does slight variations, like, "It's a PRETTY wild scene."

Daisy is a two-year-old, so she has no social boundaries. She goes up to strangers in restaurants or in the street and says loudly, "What is that man doing?" Once when we were walking back from the Eureka Valley Rec Center she went right up to a man who was sitting in a car and said, "What's that man eating? I want some!"

Daisy has been taking some longer naps lately, strangely enough. She used to nap for an hour and 45 minutes if I was lucky; but for the last few weeks, two hours has been the minimum and she's had a few naps that were more like 3 hours and one that was 3 and a half hours. I don't bank on these, though, because I know how easily things can change. Lately, if she falls asleep in the car I can easily carry her upstairs and put her in her crib and she'll go on napping. The success of this maneuver used to be more erratic, so I am very grateful that it's been working lately. At night, she still usually sleeps from 8:30 pm till anywhere between 6:30 and 7:30 AM. One thing, though, that's been harder is that she has started consciously trying to procrastinate bedtime-- deliberately doing things to make it later and asking for outrageous things (like lollipops and popsicles) when she knows it's bedtime. She has also sometimes not gone to sleep when we leave her in the crib, and we've had to go in more to try to get her settled. So far, keeping my fingers crossed, it hasn't become a full-blown sleep crisis, and I'm hoping it just passes.

I felt like we crossed into a new phase in terms of sleeping during trips, on our Thanksgiving trip last week. To summarize, it was much, much easier. I was able to talk with her, explain that she'd be sleeping in her travel crib and that I'd be in to sleep in the bed next to her. The first night, to my surprise, she was fine and she went to sleep on her own in the travel crib. She did wake up in the middle of the night, but I was able to put her in bed with me and have her go back to sleep, and she slept till 8:15. (!!!!!) The next night she called out a few times, but eventually went to sleep on her own in the travel crib and spent the whole night there, till 6:30 or 7. So I would call these big improvements in her sleeping habits on a trip, and I think it's all because I can now talk with her and explain things to her.

Brushing her teeth is still pretty hard. Combing her hair--not much fun (and she's got A LOT of it, so it's hard even though I've been conditioning it). Eating has been BETTER; she doesn't seem to be quite as fussy and picky as she used to be and I seldom worry that she hasn't had enough to eat in a day. She still loves her bath.

Daisy is doing a lot of imaginative-type of play now. She sits for long stretches, I would say hours, building things with her blocks, and making her animals talk to each other and go in and out of houses, and she talks and talks the whole time, obviously telling stories about what's happening. She definitely has things going on imaginatively that I can't follow now... so I'll find her toys arranged in a very deliberate way, like all sitting in a circle, but I can't piece together what exactly they were doing. Other games I am more aware of... like, she likes to sit at her play table and pretend it's a boat and that she's rowing out at sea, and certain stuffed animals have to sit on the boat with her. Sometimes she wants me to participate in the games, but she is also able to entertain herself for long periods of time without me. She still reads in bed in the morning, too--for anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour. I love that little bit of time when I'm lying in bed, listening to her babbling away on the baby monitor and turning pages.

She was so addicted to books for most of her life, but I have to say at this point other things are starting to seem at least as important. It's not that she doesn't like books anymore, but her toys interest her MUCH more than they used to, and physical activity has a bigger draw. I sometimes realize it's bedtime (I read to her every night) and this is the first time I've read to her. Now, there is so much more playing, dancing, running, drawing, and games with Play Doh than there used to be.

Today was actually the first day that I felt like she was in danger of running away from me in the street. I made a mental note of it, because up to this point, she has never been able to get very far from me. She is just not fast. She still can't get away from me, BUT... I think she's getting close. She is much more insistent now on doing things "by myself," and pushing my hand away. So let's make a note that this happened around 2 years, 4 months. I think a lot of kids got to this point many moons ago, but Daisy has always been a little slower to develop physically. I never had to babyproof my house--let's put it that way.

Daisy has some new alter egos to add to her existing list (the waiter, the fairy, the girl I knew somewhere, the monkey): Miss Monica (the library storytime lady), Tinkerbell, and Mary (from "Mary, Mary" by the Monkees). She often pretends to be these people, but she always makes sure to inform me, "There is only one Daisy."

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Tilden Park merry-go-round

Tilden Park in Berkeley has a big, decadent, amazing Christmas display at their merry-go-round every year, and Daisy LOOOOOVES merry-go-rounds. She's been talking about the Tilden Park Scary-go-round every single day since Halloween, so naturally, I promised her she could go to this one. Here are some pictures. You will note Daisy is NOT SMILING in these pictures. On the contrary, she is VERY SERIOUS. The experience of riding a merry-go-round is very intense for her; it is not mere idle fun. She rode five times, and three of them were on a zebra.






Riding the zebra




Daisy was not pleased about missing a ride while we got more tickets, and she waited at the gate to get back on instead of wandering the Christmas wonderland outside.


Riding with Dada


Meeting Santa and his elf; Daisy said she wanted a candy cane for Christmas, and Santa promptly gave her one.

This is funny--Santa's elf was trying to blow on Daisy's cold little hand to warm it up, but it looks like she's trying to eat Daisy

"I'm having a tantrum now!"

Daisy is so verbally expressive that she announced her own tantrum yesterday. She started to melt down and suddenly she stopped and said with a very conscious look, "I'm having a tantrum now." You would think a person who could discuss her own tantrum so rationally could also STOP HERSELF from having the tantrum!

Today Daisy has been pretending to go to school with a purse and a lunchbox, and pretending to write on a chalkboard. All day long she has been saying that she is Miss Monica, the library storytime lady. Good signs for getting ready for preschool, I think. Other sayings Daisy has been into today: "Don't mention it" and "I could hardly believe it!"

Oh, one last thing. Daisy has been talking a lot about drawing a "self-portrait." Today she pointed out a painting in one of her books and said to me, "There's going to be a mama self-portrait to take care of all the little baby self-portraits." She has some pretty funny, odd usages.

Monday, December 01, 2008

Light of my life

Picture time

At Mark's family's Thanksgiving--two Daisys

A rare shot of Daisy and me

Even rarer, pictures of the whole family together


A second Thanksgiving with my family in Fort Bragg--Daisy on Hannie's lap while Hannie reads to her!

The ever-popular "Gommy Sushi" with two girls

I love this picture because it includes both our menorah and a picture of my grandmother and namesake, Judith (I am Sarah Judith)

Getting ready for a day out in Fort Bragg, with matching bear hats

Cousins in fancy costumes


Dancing in the kitchen to the Monkees

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