Daisy won't go to sleep

Daisy had a LOT of fun at Lulu's third birthday party today (thank you, Lulu!). She got very wired and has had a hard time falling asleep. She's in there now, yelling from her bed, "I want to go back to Lulu's party! I want to sleep at Lulu's party!"

Another little incident from today: Mark told her she couldn't be "louder and louder" while in the house, but had to wait till she got outside. She actually started to cry, which is the saddest thing in the world to behold; her puffy lower lip juts out, and her eyes well with tears, and then (in this case) she throws herself on the floor. She has also not been napping well lately, so mainly she was over-tired, but she honestly acted like it was a tragedy to be told she couldn't be loud. Later when she felt better and we asked her to talk about her feelings, she said, "I cried because I wanted to be louder and louder--like a man!"

Recent Daisy pictures

I am so lucky I have friends who take pictures! I always forget my camera.

--At Zeke's first birthday:



--Outside the Discovery Museum, with Henry

--Sitting on a lilypad in the tots' room of the Discovery Museum

--Brand new toe socks that match with Henry's--Daisy's new obsession!

-Sitting with Henry in the "bathtub" (Daisy is a skunk and Henry is a butterfly)

--Building the GG Bridge (cool activity at the Discovery Museum)

Quote of the day

Daisy was drinking a cup of cranberry juice this evening and at one point, about halfway through it, she informed me very deliberately, "When this is all gone, I am going to yell for more." It's so nice to be warned of things like this in advance, in such a civilized way!
PS
For the record, when she finished her juice all she actually did was look pleadingly into my eyes and say, "Please?" No actual yelling.

Affection

We think Daisy has been more demonstrative lately with her hugs and kisses (especially hugs). To be completely honest, she has never been the most huggy, kissy kid in the world. For a long time, her version of a kiss was to offer you her cheek to kiss; she didn't give much of a kiss back (now she will give a little peck). She would hug sometimes, but it was pretty brief. For the last few days, though, she has kind of been like a different kid! Hugging for a long time, throwing her arms around our neck, being very cuddly and loving, saying I love you. I gotta say... it's nice. Keep it up, kid.

Compassion

Tonight as I was putting Daisy to bed, I mentioned to her that I thought I was getting her cold and I might have to take some medicine. She started insisting, "Mama, go get your medicine! Mama, go get it for you!" She was so insistent that she would barely tolerate me going through my goodnight ritual with her. I said goodnight and left the room, but soon she was calling on the monitor, "Mama, did you take your medicine? Mama, did you take your medicine?" I had to go back into her room and assure her I had taken it. She seemed satisfied and said, "Goodnight, Mama." She hasn't peeped since. It is awfully good to see such lovely concern for others blossoming in my little girl.

Daisy discovers one of our old South Park DVDs

Daisy (pointing to a picture of Mr. Hankey): Who's that bug, Mom?

Me: Uh... well... it's Mr. Hankey, actually.

Daisy: Oh! Do you think so?

Me: Yes, I do.

Daisy: Mr. Hankey... Mr. Hankey. That's great! Do you think I could be a friend of his?

Odd

I am noting for the record, in case it seems hard to believe later, that Daisy asked for second helpings of SPINACH tonight at dinner, and went to sleep immediately (without babbling in her bed for 45 minutes) even though we put her to bed earlier than usual. Of course, she has a cold, so that might be part of the reason. And it might not hurt that tonight we had a Family Dance Party... I am starting to think that isn't such a bad tradition. Make a fool of yourself and wear my toddler out: it's win win.

Daisy's fairy circus center

Today Daisy and I made a circus center out of bendy straws and we wanted to show it off on the blog. It is in honor of our recent trip to the circus center where we viewed works in progress of all kinds, including Aunt Arwen's totally mind-blowing doubles trapeze act. Daisy has been really interested in acrobats and trapeze performances ever since. So we made our fairies (Bluebell, Buttercup, Poppy, and Rose) do a variety of doubles trapeze acts... oh yes, and our tutu-wearing hippo and pig, too.

Just overheard

(Daisy reading her book, making up lines): "...and they came back home, broken-hearted. That means they are happy! They're not sad, they're happy."

Daisy's cake

My girl was making a colorful cake this morning (out of circular Colorforms, and using her tea set). She added "flour, sugar, eggs, cinnamon," and at other times she added--ahem--"sour," "darkness," "layer," and best of all, "salesman." I don't know about you, but my very favorite cakes are the ones that are flavored with "salesman." Yummmmm.

Some pictures from Golden Gate Park today

Daisy and her friend Lulu on the merry-go-round and riding the turtle

Dinner conversation

Mark (trying to get Daisy to try some garden burger): Try this, Daisy. Have a bite.

Daisy: No! No no no! I don't want a burger!

Mark (waving the fork in her direction): Come on, Daisy, at least try one bite.

Daisy: No! It's a choking hazard!

[She did try it, eventually.]

Polka

My sweet girl

Just now I was rummaging around looking for stamps to mail a bill, muttering to myself, "I can't find the stamps!" Daisy came running into the room with her Melissa and Doug hand stamp set and said, "Here, Mom! See, I found the stamps for you!" I love it that she wanted to help me, even though I hadn't asked for her help. What a darling. (Oh, and PS: she slept till 9:30 this morning!! It will never, ever happen again, but how sweet it was.)

Reading

Today it struck me undeniably that Daisy is reading a little--just a few basic words, but I think she keeps getting more and more. As she was "reading" The Mole Sisters to me today, she pointed to a word and said, "See, Mama, that says 'Oh.'" And it did. She then pointed out "Whee," "Boo," "Stop," and "Plonk." I might have thought the first word was just a fluke, but that was quite a few, and I noticed that she was able to recognize them in other contexts when they appeared (not just on the page she initially pointed them out). I think there might be others as well (related to "Oh," for example, she pointed out "Oooooo"). I have not been trying to teach her at all, so how did she learn? I think it must be the fact that she has memorized some books and is now able to see where a particular word must be. For example, she knows every single word of The Mole Sisters (a book of 160 pages, but with only a little bit of text per page, and in big letters). This is not an exaggeration: she knows every single word. Thus, I think she may be able to see what word must correspond with "Oh" when she says "Oh."

I have a feeling that if I pushed this-- if I started trying to teach her words-- this budding reading ability would explode. However, I don't want to create any pressure or make it into some yucky task. Right now, reading is so much fun and the source of a lot of pleasure for her. So I think I'll just sit back and observe what she does!

(Another fun tidbit: she has named the Mole Sisters "Tom and Hannah." Their actual names don't appear anywhere in the book. She is VERY insistent that they are Tom and Hannah and gets upset when I ask her where she got that idea.)

Just overheard from other room

Daisy: I want to learn how to walk. I want to learn how to walk to the bathroom.

Mark: You know how to walk.

Daisy: No! No! I want to learn!

[They pass by in the hallway, Mark holding Daisy up by the hands, Daisy all limp in the knees and pretending to take shaky steps]

Mark: That's it! You're never watching "Baby's First Moves" again!

"I'm correcting it!"

Lately Daisy has a special expression for when she's reading one of her favorite books but changing the plotline: "I'm correcting this book!" She says this fairly frequently now when she creatively changes what happens in a book. I have been very interested in watching the whole process evolve. First she'll decide she loves a book and ask to have it read to her over and over and over again; my mom is the one who pointed out that the reason she does this is that she's committing the book to memory. Then, once she has the book memorized, she reads it to herself over and over again (in particular, lately, she has wanted to do this while sitting on the potty-- she will sit there for AGES, just like a grownup, reading her book. But, luckily for me, she also often reads in her crib by herself in the morning). Then, once she's read the book many times, she starts "correcting" the plotline. Sometimes it's just wacky changes, whatever pops into her mind, but often she's weaving the characters or events from a different book into the one she's looking at. So, for example, the other day she said to me, "I'm correcting The Mole Sisters to Bake a Cake!" (That meant she was importing parts of Mr. Putter and Tabby Bake a Cake to The Mole Sisters.) Anyway, the whole evolution of these things has been very interesting for me to observe. I had no idea two-year-olds were so complex!

Finally, our team scores a point!

This may not seem like a big deal, but I'm here to say IT IS. Ahem.

Daisy has been giving us a MIGHTY struggle these last months over wearing sweaters and coats. We have tried letting her go outside without them, thinking that when she got cold she'd cave, but it seemed like she would just endure the cold--and then she figured out a clever strategy, which was to whine, "Hold me!" when she got cold. Anyway-- it seemed like she was scoring all the points in this ongoing struggle, until today. We let her go on a coatless walk with us in the chilly fog, and on our way back, she said "I'm cold" and that she wanted her coat!!! This seems like a major victory to me, and hopefully it will be repeated. I put her warm winter parka on her, which happens to be white, and she said, "I'm in a ghost costume," seeming very excited about that. So hopefully I can make something fun and Halloweenish out of the wearing of the coat. (Daisy is a huge fan of Halloween and a huge fan of ghosts.) At other times, I've been able to convince her to wear a fleece vest by having it be her "sheep costume."