The Long Goodbye

Little bug and I were playing and she looked at me, waved bye-bye, gave me a kiss and then left the room. She came back in a few minutes carrying a box of diapers. Then did the same bye-bye routine and left. She kept repeating this bringing me books, a hairbow and finally a bag. We loaded her books, diaper and hair bow into the bag and I asked her if she was going to run away from home. She said, "mmm-hmmm", nodded her head yes, gave me a kiss and toddled down the hallway.

She's also started using coasters. If she is going to put her cup of milk on a side table, she grabs a coaster and puts her cup on it.

Where's the Car?

Little bug and I were walking out of the grocery store to find our car in the parking deck while daddy paid for the groceries.  She was holding onto the keys and I said to her, "where's our car?  do you see it?" (in my best Dora impersonation).  Little bug looked at me with her blank stare, and hit the car alarm button on the key chain so that the car started honking and flashing.  There's the car mom...

One, Two, T-eeeeee

Little bug can count, sort of.  If I say one, two....she says t-eeee!  And then she applauds herself. Last night was girl's night since daddy is back in classes at night for his master's.  When was walking out to go to class, little bug ran to the gate, put her face up and said 'mwah' since she wanted a kiss from daddy, then she waved to him and said 'bye' and ran back to me to play.

She had lots of new games for the two of us to play.  She wanted us to sit down together in all of her hiding places so she could chatter to me and brush my hair.  We squeezed in next to the couch, on the shower floor, next to her daybed.

She's also obsessed with turning the lights off.  She flicks the switch and says, "off" and then swings around quickly to she can see that the light is off.  When it was time for bed, I tucked her in and she said "bye", waved to me and passed out.

Then I was Running

Tonight we went for a run around the neighborhood with little bug in the jogging stroller.  When we were on our cool down lap, we let little bug walk and she started running down the street as fast as her little legs would take her.  She made it halfway down the block and then stopped and turned around to see how far she had gone.  She said, "whoah" and then got her second wind and started running down the street again.  Her jogging style is a little mix of Forrest Gump and a windmill.

Since the weather has been so nice we've met more neighbors than we have in the four years that we've lived here.  Everyone has had kids and the former dog park is now the area where all the kids run around.  Little bug has started walking and holding hands with the little boy who is three years old that lives a few houses down from us.  He owns the coveted Diego bike, so I think little bug is just trying to cozy up to him to get his wheels.  The two of them walk around holding hands which is very cute, until little bug trips and the little boy tries to pick her up by her neck.  She protested a little bit, but he stood her up just the same and probably straightened out her spine.  

Everyone in our neighborhood seems to have had boys.  They were all running around throwing rocks and playing Transformers (which means they named themselves Transformer names and then kept throwing rocks).  Little bug who is a good year younger than the smallest boy wanted to run with them and throw rocks, until I was informed by one of the little boys that she can't play Transformers since there isn't a girl Transformer.  She didn't seem too devastated since she gave him her blank stare and went running off to find more rocks.  Take that Optimus Prime.

Long Distance Calls

When I walked in the door today, little bug ran over, gave me a kiss and grabbed my cell phone. She has learned how to open the flip phone, and when she does she squeals with happiness. She walks around pushing buttons and holding the phone to her ear saying something that sounds like a combination of hola and hello.

Then as little bug was sitting in the corner, and I hear another voice...my sister. Little bug pushed enough buttons and called her Aunt, and had the phone to her ear with a big smile. But when she calls people she suddenly turns mute and doesn't say anything back to them. When I hung up from the call and handed her back the phone, she went back to her corner and sat down. I checked in on her and she had a text messaging screen up. If she learns how to send text messages, I'm putting her on the talk show circuit (or at least posting the video to youtube).

Speaking of youtube, I think tonight we raised the 1.5M+ views of the Bob the Builder theme song by a few hundred hits. Little bug kept reaching for the laptop singing, "Bawb" which is her way of singing the song, and then she headbangs and dances in place in front of the screen.

Nasal Spray & Gin

It is flu time and the flu fairy hit our house on Sunday night giving little bug a 103 degree fever. When she woke up on Monday morning still with her fever, she wanted to be held all day...and hold onto everything she could. So I spent the day carrying her around the house, while she held two stuffed animals, a book and a bottle of nasal spray. I finally weaned her off of carrying everything but the bottle of nasal spray. She only let go of it right before she went to bed.

On Tuesday morning, she woke up with no fever but daddy stayed home with her so she could have one more day to recover. She ditched her bottle of nasal spray for a mini-bottle of gin. She carried it around with her all day, and pretended to drink out of it saying, "glug, glug, ahhh". Good thing she is back to the nanny tomorrow to hopefully kick her nasal spray and gin addiction.

No TV Time

We haven't let little bug watch TV for the first 12 months, which is now back firing a little on us because she doesn't have an interest in TV at all. Which means on flights, long car rides, etc. she won't sit still and watch any shows. During the day at the nanny's house, her little friend was watching TV and little bug wanted to play. Little bug got up, and stood in front of the TV with her back to it, and raised up her arms to block the picture for the other little girl. She started yelling at her until she stopped watching TV and played with little bug.

The two girls apparently have 'show time' where they stand on the fireplace mantel, turn on music and sing and dance around. Little bug has started lip syncing too, moving her lips and bopping her head while she jumps around. We just need to get the girls Rastafarian wigs and teach them, "Blame it on the Rain".

Taking it Easy on the Sitter

Next week we are heading to a wedding at night and won't be able to put little bug to bed. That means next weekend will be the first night that someone other than daddy or I are tucking her in. So, we did a trial run to show the babysitter the routine last night. Little bug is usually asleep when the sitter has gotten there in the past, but for some reason she acted like she recognized her when she saw her. It probably helps that the sitter looks a lot like me. She let the sitter hold her, and even kept giving her so many kisses that I had to tell little bug to stop making out with her.

It was like little bug was trying to show off for her. She toddled her bike around the living room more than I've ever seen her do, and she kept pulling out toys and handing them to her as if she wanted to share everything. She ran around her room as if she was giving a tour of the house. When she was done with her bath, she even tossed her leg over the tub to climb out. Last night she went right to sleep without a peep and slept through the night!

Cleaning, Licking, Whatever

Tonight was copy cat night, which was helpful since it was also cleaning night. I dusted, little bug dusted right behind me. I cleared countertops, little bug wiped them down and licked them. Then she decided to wipe her hands in the cleaning fluid left on the countertop from the Clorox wipes and wiped it in her hair....repeatedly. Sigh. Since her hair always sticks up, I thought that maybe the Clorox would help flatten down her wispy strands, no such luck. So I ran errands tonight with a wispy haired little girl who spelled strangely like bleach.

Earlier today when daddy picked her up from the nanny's he picked up the other little girl in the house and swung her over his head. When he put her down, little bug ran over to her and tried to pick her up, saying "grrrr" like she was digging deep to get more strength.