Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The chatty-est cathy

Roxanne is now officially a motor mouth. She basically NEVER stops talking. And she has started saying the most ridiculous things. I really didn't know that by 2, Roxanne would already be embarrassing me with some of the things she says. I'm sure I'll learn to let it roll off my back, or learn a polite way of handling it, but for now, I just sort of pretend she didn't say it. That's the problem with her fairly clear pronunciation though... Most of what she says is actually intelligible. Like a couple of weeks ago when we had a plumber out on a Saturday morning... Roxanne pointed at him (and he was rather heavyset) and said, "that's a BIG man." And when my boss's 22 year old nephew stopped by the house on Monday, Roxanne pointed to him and said "that's an OLD man." Sigh. I know that people probably don't get offended, but it could happen. Toddlers are too honest.

At dinner tonight (we had a lovely dinner in Oak Grove, at El Vecino Taqueria, which I highly recommend to parents with little ones, especially since a new cupcake shop opened next door...yum) Roxanne was playing with an empty salsa bowl and kept telling Justin that she took his bowl, then that she took his *insert random word here* until finally settling on "diarrhea." Lovely. I guess because it got the biggest reaction, she decided to say it about fifty times. Loudly. And then later at dinner she randomly pipes in with "we don't eat boogers" which is sadly something that I end up saying MULTIPLE times a day at work. When Justin said the usual "let's get off the subject fast" response of "no, we don't," she wouldn't let it go. Instead, she started saying, "you eat boogers, Daddy. You have boogers in your mouth." Honestly, I didn't know that she knew the word "diarrhea" or that it was something icky and worthy of making people uncomfortable, and I certainly didn't know that she was old enough to taunt Justin with these types of insults. Whew! What will she be like at 4? Or 14? Yowsa.

In nicer Roxanne news, she has really started getting better with tantrums and whining. They still happen, but they are definitely vastly improved. She has started asking me to call people so she can talk to them on the phone, and she has prolonged conversations about different parts of her day. So she might mention "Joshy pushed me today," even though it happened last week, or "we blew bubbles and went to the library," which might have happened on Sesame Street, but not actually to her. Sometimes she starts stories with "once upon a time," but more often, she makes it seem like these things happened. And that she really did do these things "today." Then I feel like I need to get on the phone after her and explain that she didn't really mean it, and that we didn't really go to the library and blow bubbles today. Because, I just want to keep the record straight.

Oh, and we had our first HGTV filming experience yesterday. Interviews, before shots, and the big design reveal! It was very exciting, and we LOVE the design plan, which is perfectly to our taste. I can't tell you much more than that because we literally only saw it for like two minutes. And regardless of what it seems like on the show, they really do show it to you for the first time on camera. So our surprise is genuine. It was really a great experience, and all of the production staff was really really nice. We felt so comfortable! And part of the shooting was done at a playground, since they decided last minute (as in Monday) that they wanted to include some footage of us playing with Roxanne at a local park. My mom was kind enough to watch Roxanne for us during shooting, so she met us at the park and we played with Roxanne for a while. She was pretty charming, although for one version of the design reveal, she was standing behind me trying to climb part of the playground that she is NOT big enough for and saying "help me mama! help me mama! help me mama!" about fifty times. I wasn't sure what to do, but she wasn't actually in any danger or anything, she just wanted me to give her a boost, so I ignored her. Hopefully no one at HGTV thinks I'm now a negligent mom. When exactly do kids learn patience? At least it's reality. Warts and all. :)

We hope everyone is well and enjoying this beautiful weather! Roxanne has her first sunburned cheeks of the season. And so it begins.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Photos all taken in Roxanne's room

Here's a photo of the ridiculous way Roxanne was napping the other day. She had her feet stretched out on top of the pillow when I first went in, but she started pulling them up as she woke. So I was a little late, but you get the idea...

Roxanne sleeping with her new "big girl" bed blankets. I bought toddler bedding at Target that matches the wall decals she has. It's super cute, and it helps her stay asleep at night because she's not constantly kicking off her blankets. It's so cute to see her with a top sheet and comforter... And the set, which was top and bottom sheets, pillowcase, and comforter was on sale for $22! I'll pay that much if it puts an end to the midnight demands of "put my blanket on!"

Here's a blurry "action shot" of Roxanne jumping in her new "big girl bed." I put the rail down to where it's low enough for her to climb in and out of, since she's been hiking a leg up like she's going to climb out. The way her crib is made, it's extremely stuck in this position, and we don't have to buy an $80 toddler bed railing attachment (lame). We spent half the weekend last weekend trying to figure out what to do about her bed. We even looked at some twin beds at IKEA, but the cost would be so big, we just decided to make this work for now.
Again, if you could have audio with this photo it would be something like "I will sleep in my big girl bed all night! I love my big girl bed. Look at the hedge hogs!" She definitely likes these blankets.

This was a moment I'm always trying to catch but usually don't. Roxanne likes to sit in her glider by herself and read books sometimes. When the lighting is right, she really looks like a little angel sitting there. It's so cute. And peaceful. She's such a lovely, wild, many-sided thing.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Today Today Today

Roxanne has developed a very silly speech pattern. She likes to make a statement about something that happened to her, and then tack on "today" at the end. Even if said happening happened three weeks ago. The most common one is her talking about a run-in she had at Leapin' Lizards a few weeks ago: "A boy pushed me at Leapin' Lizards today. And a boy make me feel better at Leapin' Lizards today." It's pretty hard to correct her on it, so we usually just say "I think that happened a while ago." She also points to a spot on her hand where BooBoo scratched her like a month ago, and there is NO mark left whatsoever, and says "BooBoo scratched me today." Sigh. In other areas of speech, she is sounding more like a kid than a toddler. This morning, when she got up, I brought her back to our bed to snuggle for a few minutes, and after about five minutes, she said "I'm bored. I'm going to play in my playroom." I honestly did not know she knew the word "bored." Little sponges.
Roxanne is also getting into playing dress up. She loves to put on her tutu and then asks Justin to put music on the iPod. She says she is either a ballerina or a princess. She has seen a couple of episodes of Angelina Ballerina, and I think she LOVES it. Not like Yo Gabba Gabba loves it, but she loves it. So sometimes when she is dancing, she says she is a ballerina like Angelina. I think it's good for her to get some girly things in. She spends most of her time during the week with race cars, soccer balls, baseball bats, rough and tumble "wrestling" and just general boy-stuff. We have to keep the princess side going, too.
We've been very busy on the weekends lately, which is nice, but we keep hoping to have some down time. Tomorrow we are helping my friend Sarah move, but today, I'm hoping we can spend some time around the house. Not necessarily doing work, but just hanging out. Although, there is LOTS of work to be done... Isn't there always? The basement needs to be tackled in a serious way, especially since it's turning into a giant doggy bathroom. We're still struggling with Katie, but things are slightly better only because I installed a kick plate on the door she chewed through so she can stay in that one room during the day again. Poor Katie. I wish she liked being in a crate. It would make life so much easier...
I still don't have any news about my graduate school application. But on the upside, it looks like things are settling down a little at Georgia State, so we're *knock on wood* fairly confident that Justin's job is fine. He'll probably have some extra furlough days, etc., but probably still a job. It's so depressing thinking about how much Georgia schools (at all levels) are suffering right now. Here's hoping the economy picks up soon...