Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Posing

Sorry to sound like a braggart. But this is the cutest face you've ever seen right? Look at that posing-for-the-camera-cheeseball smile!

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Even more Froggyisms

Froggy and I went for a walk. She picked an old dandelion that was perfect for making a wish upon. She started to blow, when I asked, "Wait, what's your wish. What do you want?" She thought for a minute and said, "To grow."

While reading one of her favorite books, we came to the page where a woodchuck is burrowing into the earth, making his home. I asked Froggy, "What's that?" To which she replied, "A chuckwood."


Froggy knows all her shapes, including an 'arch' and 'semicircle'. But when we get to the 'star' she always says, "it's a starfish." No matter what, the shape of a star is always a starfish.

We have a morning dove who has built a nest in our carport. The other day, FD wanted to show Froggy the nest. They accidentally scared the mama, who cooed and flew away for a bit. FD showed Froggy the little egg in the nest and explained that the Mama protects her egg by sitting on it, and we should leave her alone so she'll stay with her baby. Today, after returning home from a playdate, I started to take Froggy out of her carseat, when she looked very seriously at me and said, "I'm scared." I've never heard her say this before. So I asked, "What are you scared of honey?" She replied, "Mama bird!"

Yesterday when we returned home, we could hear Buddy the dog inside the house jumping up and down, so excited that we were home. Froggy heard him and said, "Buddy's psycho!"

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

What's For Dinner?

Froggymama (FM): Do you want eggs?

Froggy: Nooooooo!

FM: Do you want rice and lentils?

Froggy: Noooooo!

FM: Do you want roast beef?

Froggy: Noooooo!

FM: Do you want avocado?

Froggy: Noooooo!

FM: Do you want Mommy to spank you?

Froggy: Yes!

(no children were harmed in the making of this play. We don't actually spank for punishment, only for fun.)

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Boring little update

Froggy is feeling much better!!! Woo hoo!

FD and I on the other hand are miserable. This is the worst cold we've ever had. Everyday we wake up feeling more horrible. When will it end?

Saturday, February 16, 2008

I Help Kitty Food?

Froggy (and Buddy) love to help feed the cats.

While desperately trying to get some work done, I left the kitchen and let Froggy "help with the kitty food." This was what I encountered when I returned.

It bought me a good three minutes of work completed, and cost me five minutes of cleaning up. And yet, still worth it.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Valentine's Day for the Froggies




My lovely husband made us coconut, walnut brownies and gave us these beautiful roses. The red one is mine, the pink one is Froggy's.

We're all sick with a cold. But I wanted to show off my sweet presents. I wish I could say we had a nice romantic day, but there was just too much snot involved. We've gone through two boxes of the jumbo tissues in two days. Yuck.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

A couple more Froggyisms

Today at the park Froggy climbed up a ladder for the first time. She was so incredibly impressed with herself and said, "I'm a BIG KID now." A little boy maneuvered his way in front of her at the ladder and she said to him, "It's okay, I take turns." That's my girl.

Froggy bolts out the door the second we leave the apartment. She runs down the sidewalk towards the park, and I inevitably fumble for keys and my purse and shoes, while she's running away. Today, after catching up with her half way down the block, I grabbed her arm and said, "You wait for Mommy. Do not run away!" Froggy said, "I funny." So I said, "No you are not funny. It's dangerous to run away from Mommy." She laughed and sighed and said, "No... I funny."

Froggy is the most affectionate kid. I'm a little worried that she'll be seen as the weird "smothering kid" at the park. She'll say "hi" until you do. And she doesn't give up. Eight year old boys will not respond to a two-year-old who is waving at them or saying hello. They're just too cool. But Froggy doesn't get it. She'll say, "hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi," assuming the boy is deaf rather than too cool. And she's the big hugger at the park. Little kids love it, big kids don't understand why a toddler they've never met is suddenly attached to them. Older girls totally get it. When Froggy comes up to them, they take her under their wing like a little sister and respond to her with affection, including her in their games. Being a parent really does mean wearing your heart on your sleeve. When I see a kid reject her, or cut in front of her, or not include her in a game my heart breaks. I know I can't interfer. She has to fight her own battles, even at two. Her life has always been about love, being surrounded by love and it's tough when the rest of the world doesn't comply.

Froggy has a cold!

We've avoided all the nasty bugs this season, but our luck ran out. Froggy officially has a rotten, stinky, awful cold.

Fortunately, she's pretty happy during the day, but nighttime has been rough. I put her to bed around 6:45pm (she was so tired) and I've had to go comfort her about 10 times. The poor babe is coughing big time. And there's nothing I can give her to ease her discomfort.

My poor girl. We'll call the doc in the morning.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

"I picked it out myself"

Froggy in a floral print pajamas, pink butterfly high heels, a butterfly and leopard purse and santa hat. Oh yeah, she's stylin'.

Friday, February 08, 2008

Froggy Milestones

As Froggy and I were leaving the house I realized she didn't have any shoes on. We step back inside and I say, "You need shoes to go to the park." Froggy replies, "Of course I do."

While looking at a picture on the wall of us right after she was born, I gush over how miraculous it was. I tell her that she grew in my belly and this was the first time I saw her beautiful face and as I'm tearing up thinking about that amazing day, she says, "whatever." "

At the park the other day, she comes up to me (in front of a few other mamas) and says, "I have a gas problem." Lovely.

Froggy can count to 12.

She knows her alphabet. In the tub a few weeks ago, she took her foam letter "W," and said, "W" then turned it upside-down and said, "M". Genius I tell ya, genius!

Froggy can count to five in Spanish and knows most of her colors in Spanish. Thank you Dora and Diego!

Now that Froggy can express herself, it helps with the decision-making process at home. I ask her what she wants for dinner and she says, "candy." I say, "Don't you want some speghetti?" She replies, "nope, just candy."

Or the other night, when I asked, "Froggy, what do you want for dinner?" And she said, "dog food." To which I replied, "You can't have dog food for dinner." To which she replied, "Okay, just kitty food."

I'm amazed by Froggy's sense of direction. A block away from one of her many pharmacies she says, "See stuffed animals?" Rite-Aid has a large stuffed animal display that she adores. While driving down her boyfriend's street on our way to the book store, she said, "Go see 'the Bub'?" And on our drive to Children's Hospital a month ago, we drove under a freeway pass. Froggy said, "Go see animals at the zoo?" Over a year ago, we drove under a freeway just like this one on our way to the zoo. The shadows, and overhanging vines were similar and she thought we were headed to the zoo. Sadly, I had to say, "No sweetie, we're not going to the zoo, we're going to the doctor."

Froggy comes out of her bedroom (without a diaper) but sporting high heels, a pink leopard purse and a Santa hat and says, "Let's go shopping!!!"

As most of you know, Froggy never walks, she runs! She's so fast now, I can barely catch her. When I hold her hand on a walk, she pulls it back and says, "I wanna RUN mama!!!"

Froggy has a lovely singing voice. She did not get this talent from me, perhaps from my mom, or FD. In fact one day I was singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Froggy said, "No sing mama." FD looked at me and said, "Maybe she's such a good singer, she can't stand it when other people aren't." Hmm, thanks dear.

Froggy is potty training herself. This is one aspect of her life that I didn't want to control. She has so many things in her little toddler life that we make her do, meds, treatments, etc. I figured she would do it when she was ready. And now she's running to the baby potty, going pee and screaming "I did it!!!" She then picks up the potty, dumps it in the toilet, flushes, washes her hands and is VERY VERY proud of herself.

She loves her big girl pull-ups. She calls them her underwear pants. "Mama, I don't want diaper, I want underwear pants."

Froggy is such a sweet girl. She's tender and loving and truly compassionate. Yesterday at the park a baby started crying. She hopped off the slide, walked over to the baby and patted her back. We stood there until the baby stopped crying and then Froggy gave her a hug.

She LOVES Buddy the dog. Buddy loves her too, but not as much. It could be a one-sided relationship. Froggy will pet him and say, "Don't worry Buddy, don't worry." I'm not sure why she says this. I don't ever recall telling our dog not to worry. But for some reason this is her way of showing love. And it totally cracks me up.

There are a million other cute things Froggy has done recently that I neglected to write down. Yes, I'm a bad mama. But these are the highlights. Everyday she makes me laugh. She's a riot, a stinker, a naughty, sweet, fast, silly, smart, and fascinating little person. I love, love, love her!

What a mug!

Hummingbird's dad took this photo. So cute.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

There's really no escaping life.


On Friday we visited Olvera Street in downtown. It's known as the birthplace of LA and has Mexican shops, pueblos, and restaurants. We met FD's Mom and Dad there for dinner and shopping.

Grandma "S" teaching Froggy how to dance to the tune of mariachi
music.


Froggymama trying to keep Froggy still for just one minute. As you can see, I wasn't successful.

Papa and Grandma Gus tasting Mexican wafers at a candy stand.



Olvera Street Shopping.

We had dinner with FD's parents and Froggy was somewhat cooperative. Somewhat.
Saturday, we celebrated Froggy's best friend "Hummingbird's" second birthday!
They had ponies and a bouncy house and it was a dream for a
two-year-old. Froggy and Hummingbird had a blast!

Dootle doo deee doooo, dee dooo dooo. (tumbleweed drifts by).



Don't you love her sparkly shoes? I think they go splendidly with the horse.




Grandma and Froggy waiting for the ponies! No Grandma, you don't get to ride. Sorry.


Froggy on the pony. She and Hummingbird had no fear. Being a cowgirl just comes
naturally.



A true cowgirl sticks out her tongue.

Froggymama and Froggy getting ready for the big ride!



Sunday we drove to Santa Barbara and visited the zoo!


The penguins were very funny.



We had lunch on the pier in Santa Barbara and had clam chowder in bread bowls.
Yum. Yum. Yum.





There's really no escaping life, even when you're on vacation. This is especially true when you're visiting us.

I really wanted my parents' trip to be relaxing, calm, an escape from the Iowa blizzards and busy work life. I must have been delusional. We are anything but relaxing, and as hard as I tried, I couldn't take the "life" out of their vacation.

We did have fun, but between FD and I bickering (he's been home for over a month, and we're spending way tooooo much time together) and our trip to wine country being cut short, I'm not sure visiting Froggy Land compares to a cruise or European vacation. We had planned a trip to Solvang to visit the wineries (ya know where they filmed the movie "Sideways") and had to return before we actually visited a winery. It was a family emergency that turned out okay, but it was frightening and emotionally draining. We did share a bottle of wine when we finally made it home, and "pretended" that we were sitting in a vineyard rather than on our couch watching American Idol.

The last time my parents visited we had planned the same trip and that was the week my bosses' dad passed away. So we spent their last vacation planning a funeral.

I know the only thing they care about is seeing us, and playing with Froggy. But one of these trips it would be nice if their vacation didn't involve a stay in the hospital, a funeral, or a family emergency. Ahhh, someday. I'll drink to that.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Noah's Ark








We've been having a fabulous time with Grandma and Papa Gus.

They arrived Wednesday and after an afternoon at the park, we relaxed at home with Indian take-out. Yum.

Thursday, we went to the Skirball Center's "Noah's Ark exhibit." Froggy had a blast climbing the ark and I got a good workout running while bent over through the tunnels, climbing ropes and chasing the world's fastest kid for two hours. She slept in the car on the way home. Whew. Then last night we had barbecue and watched the movie "Premonition" with Sandra Bullock. Eight thumbs down on that one.

I'll post more pics soon.