A Bicycle Built For Toot

It's been a rough week for some reason. One of those weeks where she is clearly working through some stuff, and hasn't been in the best mood as a consequence. So plenty of tantrums, but also some funny stuff I want to remember:

She knows lots of songs now, as well as the words to her books, so if you pause a moment for the last word of a phrase, she'll pipe up with it like a little Beastie Boy. One song we've been singing a lot lately is 'Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do...' Do you know it? Anyway, the last line is 'and you'll look sweet, upon the seat, of a bicycle built for two.' Now, the word we use for fart around here is toot (I don't know why - it's not like fart is a bad word. Just seemed too crass for her little angel face!), and she thinks it's a 'bicycle built for toot.' Very clearly, every time - toot.

 

I caught her 'breastfeeding' Minnie Mouse in the bath. Saying 'night, night'! I DIED laughing and she looked at me like, what? How else will she go to sleep?? Jeez, Mom.

 

She wants to walk everywhere now, and puts her little toy baby in the buggy. She stops every now and then, looks at the baby and goes, 'O-TAY? O-TAY?' I did not realise I did that to her, but I guess I do!

 

She's quite disturbed by 'mess', and it very happy to clean up spilled water or whatever if I give her a rag. So, we're going for a walk, and she's calling the puddles 'mess'! A bit too far, no? Someone told me that they are fastidious at this age, either that or she's going to be a neat freak.

 

A friend recently said that it must be great now that she's quite verbal, because she won't get as frustrated since she can communicate what she wants. Yeah, not at all. Tantrums have commenced this week for the following, totally rational, reasons:

 

I made the bed.

 

She wanted my spoon instead of hers.

 

She saw a picture of an orange and wanted it.

 

I couldn't read two books at once.

 

We wouldn't let her outside in her pajamas, barefoot.

 

Then, when she sneaked out while her Dad took the trash out, she was upset because she was barefoot. ('Feet!! Feet!! Shoes!)

 

I can't make hummus appear out of thin air.

 

And those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head!

 

In other news, we bought her a little potty. Not terribly serious about potty training yet, but I figure she can have a go during naked time this summer. So far she likes to sit on it and say 'peepee' or 'pssss' (I did not teach her the latter, interestingly), but we haven't hit paydirt yet. I do actually think she knows what it's for, but right now it's a pretend thing. I haven't really looked up different ways to potty train, and I know it's early, but it would be nice to make some progress during the warmer months.

 

 

Thanks again for voting guys, you're the best. Goodbye weekend, here we go again!

 

Current Obsessions

Just a little snapshot of what she's digging these days. Crazy kid.

 

 

She remains obsessed with her yellow boots, and insists on putting them on herself. As you can see, it doesn't always go well.

Beads. Mean muggin'.

 

 

Lining up her toys. Slightly creepy? God help us if she's making an audience.

 

Reading - still, always. Note the beads. And one sock.

Pretending to go 'night night'. She finds this hilarious. Yellow boots.

 

Walking everywhere. We *almost* walked home from here.

 

Climbing/giving me a heart attack.

 

Animals. Walking. This was at Mudchute Farm again.

 

 

Since we went last, she's learned animal noises. Lots of oinking and mooing this time. She especially likes the goats for some reason. I don't know what the goat says, either.

'Helping' me cook. Singing. I give her a little dough to play with (we were making pizza), and she sings 'do, do, do, do', from the Sound of Music.

Note the yellow boots.

Hummus. In a particularly vegan moment, she decided to hell with the bread and went at it with a spoon.

And a little reminder to vote for us! We're already number 3 in the Food and Drink category (is this a food blog? It seemed to fit more than other things), so please keep voting! Just one click on the link is a vote.

Courgetti and Other New Words

So, I've jumped on this particular bandwagon:

 

 

Just got an inexpensive manual spiralizer, and I have to say, courgetti is tasty! The little one wasn't impressed, but it's quite fun to use and makes a change, anyway. I'm pretty convinced that spiralizers are a fad, and in 20 years we'll all think it's 'very 2015', but I can enjoy a fad now and then. I've got ombré hair, haven't I? I'll spare you a recipe, because really, you can google it and find about a billion. This is just courgette (zucchini), cooked with a little garlic and olive oil, and some nutritional yeast to make it extra vegan.

 

Fun, right? Now, what else can I spiralize...?




In other news, F. likes to kiss pictures of dogs, and hang out with our real dog. Her vocabulary is blowing my mind, and she's so affectionate. This age is lush, and it's going so fast. Just for my own record, her vocabulary currently includes: eye, nose, teeth, toes, ear, dog, Rufus, Buddy (Hey Buddy! Hi Rufus!), cat, monkey, bird (ALL the birds), bee, shoe, hat, poopoo, momma, mommy, dada, daddy, bathtime (bath-ti), snack (nack!), tea, NO, bread, nana (banana), apple, pear, juice, porridge (sort-of), blueberry (boo-baby! boo-booboo!), baby, two (all counting is the number two, as in two, two, TWO!!), bear, book, Peck Peck Peck (her favourite book), choo choo, night night, booby, hot, OUT! (to Rufus, at dinner. Oops!), uh-oh, hello, hi, thank you, bye bye, done, all done. I'm sure there's more - it's just amazing watching them grow and learn. It's like a huge, complicated, unbelievably time-consuming science project.

Ok, me too - all done.

Remember This: Weaning In Progress

 

So, as I write this, my darling girl is sleeping in her stroller, because she is totally, completely day-weaned. It's easier to get her to sleep while on the move, in the stroller or Ergo, but I've gotten her to sleep 3 times in the last two days, at home, without the boob. I know that doesn't sound like a big deal, but when you've been feeding them to sleep virtually their entire lives, it really feels like an achievement. Added to this, her dad was able to cuddle her back to sleep on one of her night-wakings - again, sounds small, feels huge.

 

 

 

Proof!! It happened!! She's been a little under the weather since we got back - she still had that lingering cold, and now seems to be either teething or fighting off a bug that she picked up on the plane. Either way, she's not quite herself. I'm reminded that she needs ME, not just my boobs. Breastfeeding has been wonderful, but it's not the only tool in my mothering arsenal.

 

 

I complain about co-sleeping, but I woke up to this sweet face today. In the tough, tough, newborn days, when I was vowing NEVER AGAIN, I looked in the mirror and told myself, REMEMBER THIS. Now, I find these little moments almost unbearable in their transience. Saying to myself, remember this.