Friday, February 27, 2009

This is just really cool

Daisy has been making up her own stories on blank pieces of paper lately. To explain what that means: she takes a blank pad of paper and flips the pages, and as she flips them, she narrates a little story. For example, today she found a notepad in the shape of a snowman, and so she told a story about a snowman as she flipped the pages. It was soooooooooooooooooooooo cuuuuuuuuuuuute. I know I'm her mother, I know I know I know, but believe me, it was the cutest. The story tends to begin "once upon a time" and features lots of words and concepts that have been in the top of her mind recently. For some reason, this story had to do with the snowman meeting Goldilocks and the three bears, and she kept calling him "the carrot-nosed snowman."

Earlier today I heard her narrating a story as she played with a box of birthday cake candles my mom gave her. She was saying (and I quote): "Her sister said she could have a box of candles. 'That's great!' she said. 'I'm delighted'! And she took a blue candle." There have been a lot of "sisters" in her stories lately--I think because two of her friends that she saw recently, Elise and Lulu, are now big sisters.

I really don't want Daisy to be an English major--I truly hope she does something different with her life from what Mom and Pop did--but I must admit that she is already acting like one. EVERYTHING is a story and a narration lately, and it is the funniest thing to hear her narrating her own actions in the third person ("she did this, she did that, 'blah blah blah,' she said"...). She is the funniest and sweetest little person in the whole world. And that's final! :-)

Afraid of the dark

I guess it was inevitable this day would come. My little girl is expressing a bigger-kid fear! It started last night, when Mark put her to bed without me (I was at a parenting class); he told me when I got home that she'd said, "Don't make it darker and darker." But she was okay when he turned out the lights. Tonight, she put up more a fuss, saying, "I don't like the dark, Mama," and her eyes welling with tears. Luckily I had a nightlight and we plugged it in by the bed. I told her she could pick one out with me later, though, that was special, and she said she wanted one with a sheep.

She's in there now, not crying, so hopefully it will be okay, but I think this is the start of some more advanced types of fears. Somehow I didn't expect this so soon (two and a half). This is probably way off base, but it's interesting to me that this is coming up just four days after Shannon's death. Daisy was definitely clued in to something being wrong with Shannon-- although she of course has no concept of death yet. The last time she saw Shannon, in fact--maybe a month ago or so--she asked us, "Who is going to carry Shannon?" She had noticed Shannon's frailty. Then she started crying and saying she wanted to go home. We were at my parents' place. She repeated "I want to go home" over and over again until Shannon left (as it happened, Dad was on his way out the door to take Shannon home). Then, she was fine. We knew from that event that she couldn't see Shannon anymore, for Shannon's sake as much as Daisy's, actually. Fortunately, I don't think Shannon picked up on the fit being about her--that is a comfort to me. In fact, I didn't figure it out either, not until Shannon was gone and Daisy was suddenly better.

After that she didn't see Shannon anymore, but she continued to ask questions about her. She observed, "Shannon is a very old lady" (not true, but she was looking a lot older since she got very sick). She also asked us, repeatedly, "Is Shannon sad?" and "Is Shannon crying?" I am trying to figure out what I'll say if she asks me where Shannon is, now.

I doubt there is a direct link between the fear of the dark (which is so common) and Shannon's death. But I do think that seeing Shannon get so sick had an effect on Daisy. She had seen her healthy and well, and then she saw her completely transformed. That may not have given her an adult's knowledge of death, but it clued her in to something, and something that frightened her.

Ahh. Watching her growing up is going to be hard in lots of ways.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Cute Daisy reasoning of the day

"I do love breakfast, but you know what? I'm too busy."

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Mark's post about Daisy

I was going to write an entry about this myself, but Mark beat me to it--and I guess it's only fair, since he was the one who actually had these conversations with her!

http://mundanemark.blogspot.com/

The post is called "talking-to-my-daughter-about-80s-metal"

Mark's post about Daisy

I was going to write an entry about this myself, but Mark beat me to it--and I guess it's only fair, since he was the one who actually had these conversations with her!

http://mundanemark.blogspot.com/2009/02/talking-to-my-daughter-about-80s-metal.html

This is cuteness

...we can hear Daisy on her baby monitor singing a lullabye to herself to try to help herself get to sleep: "Go to sleep now and rest, may your slumbers be blessed." She can actually sort of carry a tune now. ...Now she's humming the tune of the lullabye to herself with no words.

Other cute lines of the day: "I'm so embarrassed!" (after crying a little bit). Actually, this was a sweet story in itself-- Mark was joking around and pretended something she did hurt him (knocking a book against him), and he did a playful fake cry. Poor Daisy said, "Don't cry, Dada," and then she burst into tears. She is sensitive!

The last one needs a little explanation... and maybe it won't seem cute, although I think it is. We have a song from music class that goes, "Who's that (doing some action)? Daisy's (doing the action)." So, for example, our teacher, Seth, will ask Daisy what she likes to do at home, and she says, "Read a book," so he'll make it into, "Who's that reading a book? Daisy's reading a book" (put to a little tune). Anyway, he suggested we incorporate this song at home, so sometimes I use it, especially when I am trying to distract Daisy--like when I have to comb tangles out of her hair.

So today, she decided she wanted some personal space--which she does more frequently now--and so after a little while of playing and singing together, she suggested, "How about 'Who's that having no Mama?'" In other words, I had to sing, "Who's that having no Mama? Daisy is having no Mama." She was trying to tell me to get out of her face!!!

I thought it was funny.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Mamas cry? Well yes. Yes, they do.

Things had been going so well with Daisy, and I hadn't even jinxed myself by writing about it on this blog! She had not had anything like a meltdown in awhile, and was being charming and lovable and happy every day. And then... today. She had a complete fit at the playground, screaming very loudly, crying, not letting other kids play with her sand toys (for some reason--usually she is pretty good about sharing). It turned out she's getting a cold, so I'm hoping that explains the behavior at least partly. When she gets like this, her knees turn to Jello and she refuses to walk, so I had to carry her back to the car, screaming, also holding my backpack, a plastic bag with her potty seat, and a wagon full of sand toys (on the way TO the playground, she had pulled the wagon and walked, so it wasn't nearly so hard). Every few feet one of the sand toys went clattering to the ground, and I'd have to stop, lower her down, and pick the thing up-- so I've probably done permanent damage to my back, on top of all the fun. It was a very painful morning, especially since I was dying to join my friends and their kids on their way to go get pizza. I was the only one having to leave, dragging my tantrummer off in disgrace. It was the worst feeling.

I was holding the feelings in so much that after I finally got back to the car--the longest short walk ever, with stopping every few feet to pick up something I'd dropped--I burst into tears in front of Daisy. She stopped her meltdown and got very serious, asking me, "Mamas cry?"

She seemed fine for the rest of the day and I tried to cheer up by going, with Mark and Daisy, to USF's coffee house/hangout to hear some students read poetry. One of my students was going to be reading, and I thought it would be neat to support the students doing this, since we've heard that USF's campus doesn't have as much of a campus life as could be desired. Anyway, that was really fun, and I enjoyed hearing my student read. I think I am a little better. But Daisy said, loudly, at least 400 times, "Mama, did you cry today? Mama, did you cry today? Mama, did you cry today?" So I guess now, possibly, some of my students know that I cried today.

So it was a hard day today. And to think that just last night, this little darling was lying in her crib, batting her long eyelashes at us, and saying with a big smile on her face, "Everybody loves me!"

Monday, February 16, 2009

Best Daisy quote of day thus far

Addressed to stuffed koala in exuberant tones: "Shirley, I just gave some garbage to my mother!"

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Daisy loves "The Nutcracker"...

...and can correctly identify most of the music. But unfortunately, when I hummed the song of the Cossack dancers to her today, she said, "That's the Cocksack dancers, Mama! The Cocksack dancers!"

Monday, February 09, 2009

My phone and email connection are down

...and they may not be back for awhile. So if anyone who reads this blog needs to contact me, my cell phone's the only way right now (and I'm not being rude if I don't reply to email!). I am stealing a moment at the USF library computer lab to write this post. And it's probably the kind of post that just annoys people. But ha, I don't care; I'm going to post it anyway because it's so delightful:

Daisy was *perfect* at her doctor's appointment today. And by perfect, I mean PERFECT. She acted like an entirely reasonable human being. She politely cooperated while the doctor listened to her heart and lungs, put lights down both her ears, peered into her mouth, scratched her urticarias, inspected her privates, tapped and prodded several body parts,and lay her on the table and squished her stomach and various internal organs. She even said, "Thank you" to the doctor after the organ squishing. She was also flawlessly obedient at the weighing and measuring. For the record, she is 27 pounds, which is the 25th percentile for weight of kids her age, and she is almost 36 inches, which is the 50th percentile. Our doctor said she was right on her growth curve, coming along just as she should.

And THEN: she got a flu shot and she DID NOT CRY. Not even a little.

After that I had to go to work, so I'll have to check with Mark about how the rest of the day went. I am awfully proud of my two-year-old.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Daisy and Henry in the Big Lake


















How cute are they? Don't even bother telling me I can't arrange the marriage. I can, and I will.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Briefly checking in

The other night when I wrote that last post, Daisy actually babbled in her crib for a whole hour and a half before she went to sleep. The funny thing is that she never at any point became fussy or cranky. So, really, it was okay. I just couldn't believe she could talk to herself that long and still be in a good mood. Some brief notes, since I am feeling too tired for a proper post...

-Daisy is still doing well with potty training, and is now using toilets better when we're out, since I bought a portable potty seat to go over the big seat

-She is continuing to be a pretty fussy eater, overall

-She HATES clothing and gives me terrible struggles sometimes when I try to put her clothes on. She's okay with a shirt, but absolutely detests pants and sweaters/jackets. Shoes and socks are hit and miss. When she gets to wear tights (which she vastly prefers to pants), she runs around saying, "My legs are free! My legs are free!"

-She is very talkative, constantly full of outrageous commentary, sings and makes up songs and rhymes all the time, runs and dances and jumps and does all the physical things I was afraid she'd never do! She adores her music class beyond all things and still loves merry-go-rounds intensely.

-She is really into imaginative play, making stuffed animals and other dolls talk and do things, and pretending to be other characters herself, some of which is pretty weird--except that I've seen other two-year-olds doing it (she was calling herself "the lady monkey" all weekend, for example, but she is also "the waiter," "the sheep lady," "the girl I knew somewhere [a Monkees song]," and some other weird things.

--I think she has a very good memory and is going to be a great mimic, like her father. She's constantly correcting me now about things, and most of the time, she is right. She also sings along with me now to a large variety of songs and gets all the words, and she's really good at imitating different tones of voice; when she's acting out a scene with her dolls or animals, or reading a book out loud, it's hilarious to hear the way she changes her voice for the different characters.

My big confession is that she still drinks a bottle before she goes to sleep. There. I said it publicly. Oh yes, and she's still in a crib. I just haven't seen the need to transfer her. She likes her crib, she's happy in there, and she has never tried to climb out of it! I know the time is coming soon for a big girl bed, but I guess I'm letting this last as long as possible.