…Lie Lay Sit Kneel.
Dear Carolyn,
Today you are two and three-quarters. You’re starting to ask if you’re three yet. I think you just want a birthday party, since a couple of your friends have just turned three and had their birthday parties!
You have nearly figured out the whole potty training thing at this point. We are all so excited! We’ve successfully run errands with big-kid underpants several times already, and every time we both get a bit more confident in this new diaper-free life. The only downside? You have nothing to hold your pants up anymore – we’re going to have to find an easy-to-open belt! (You did not get the tall-and-skinny genes from me!)
Your latest obsession is audio books. We probably eat at Wendy’s a little more often than we should (although that’s the only fast food we ever eat) and they’re currently giving out audio books on CD instead of toys in their kids’ meal. You will now fall asleep to “Junie B. Jones Has a Monster Under Her Bed” nearly every night. You love it! You’re just generally so interested in letters and books right now, it doesn’t surprise me that you love the concept of falling asleep listening to a story instead of music.
In just a few short weeks you’ll be starting preschool. I had a hard time deciding whether to send you this fall or not. I’m concerned that you will most likely be the youngest in your class – by far – since the trend has been to hold children back a whole year. You will be four in kindergarten when many of your classmates are already six. But you are so smart, so social, and so eager to learn, I think I would be doing you a disservice to keep you back just because you happened to be born in the fall instead of the spring. Hopefully you won’t hate me for it in a few years!
The other day you fell asleep sitting next to me in a chair and I snuggled you on my lap while you slept. It’s been more than two whole years since you napped while I held you, and I couldn’t believe how much bigger you’ve grown. And yet, when you woke up, you still did your little baby sleepy stretch. See? You’re still my baby. Even if you are two and three-quarters.
Love, Mommy
It turns out I was too sick to go to the release party for Harry Potter 7. But Denis, Carrie, Nana and Poppy picked it up for me yesterday on their way to the grocery store. I meant to read it slowly, to savor it since it was the last book…but I couldn’t. I’m sure there are people who haven’t finished reading yet, so all I’ll say is that it was riveting. I plan to re-read the entire series at some point…but I have some sorely neglected knitting I need to do first!
In other news, Carrie isn’t completely potty trained yet, but she is -><- this close. She went and ran those errands yesterday in panties, and went to a public restroom when she needed to go. I haven't changed a single diaper (except at night/first thing in the morning) since Thursday, and there have only been two little accidents. I am so proud of her - and I really can't take much credit for it, it's like a switch flipped and she just figured it out. (Hopefully I didn't just jinx everything...)
Last night I painted Carrie’s toenails. She didn’t ask for it, and it’s been so long since I wore nail polish I’m not even sure why I thought of doing it. She looks so grown up with her pretty pink toenails!
In potty training news, Carrie finally filled up her sticker chart – we had a one-month break during which she refused to even look at a potty, so it’s been a while – and her reward was to go to the Strong Museum and ride the train. She was thrilled, and picked out her “party dress with the flowers” and a pair of Elmo panties. Which both needed to be changed when I made the mistake of taking a three minute shower, during which I was interrupted by “Mommy, I had an accident, but I wiped it up with clean panties.” Um…good job? Not really. The museum visit was pretty uneventful, until we were dashing to the car in the worst downpour ever (think extra-powerful shower type water) and Carrie tripped and wound up with her first skinned knee. Oh, and during her non-nap (quiet time? can I call it that if she’s not quiet?) I heard “Mommy, I need you, I went poopy in my diaper.” and I ran upstairs to find said diaper no longer on the bottom in question. Sigh. It’s been a long day.
I really think she’s nearly trained. (I think I’ve said that before.) She is accident-free as long as she’s bottomless. So this weekend the goal is to teach her to keep underwear dry. Wish me luck!
There were probably things we should have spent today doing, but it was such a beautiful morning we decided to jump in the pool instead.
Dear Carolyn,
I tried to tell you that you’re two and two-thirds now, but you insist that you are two-and-a-half! I guess you’re not quite ready for fractions.
Quite by accident, I discovered the other day that you can repeat rhythms. I can clap pretty much anything and you can repeat it. I have no idea if this is normal or if you’re going to be the youngest lead snare in the marching band. Along those lines, you’re completely obsessed with The Little Einsteins right now, which is all about music and using different musical ideas to complete a task – like listening for a certain melody to find something or singing loudly (fortissimo!) to make something happen.
In other news, you tried your first s’more this month. Ah, the joys of toasted marshmallows! The best part? You preferred the graham crackers alone. Well, with a side of chocolate, of course. And after all that work toasting you a perfect marshmallow!
When you were sick a couple of weeks ago, I let you watch Cinderella. It’s now your favorite movie – “Cinder-gerella!” I’ll probably regret this when you’re begging for every cheap plastic thing with princesses plastered all over it, but for now I think it’s adorable that you love my favorite childhood movie.
Oh! I almost forgot! You can put together a 24-piece puzzle! We have a Winnie the Pooh puzzle that your Aunt Jeannie gave you, and I had planned to put it away until you were at least three, since puzzles haven’t really been your strong suit. But you saw the box and begged to play with it, and you can put it together all on your own (with a little verbal coaching when you start trying to force a piece where it doesn’t quite belong).
Every month I’m even more amazed by all the things you’ve learned. You’re one pretty amazing kid!
Love, Mommy
It was a lovely, breezy 72 degrees this afternoon, so I took Carrie and the dogs out on the deck. Carrie and I sat for a bit on the swing while I knit and she ate animal crackers. She guessed I was knitting a glove (a reasonable guess, since it’s just the cuff of a sock so far) and then decided that it was a sock. Then Carrie played with her sand table, the dogs ran around and I knit for the better part of an hour. Oh, and Carrie and Murphy got in some serious cuddle time:
We went out to dinner with Lisa & family tonight, and at one point the conversation turned to silly names. Denis said his name was “Slartibartfast“, and the three kids started laughing as though that was the funniest thing ever. I’m sure the rest of the restaurant didn’t really appreciate the giggling, but I certainly did.
What was even funnier was on the way home, Carrie decided that we had to sing the “Slartibartfast” song, where she just repeated the word over and over to a made up melody. Or, well, tried to. It’s a hard word to pronounce, after all…
OK, so Carrie has actually come to the real Sit & Knit several times in her life already. But that was as a passive (well, sometimes active!) observer.
Today we went to my grandparents house to celebrate both my brother and my cousin graduation from various levels of college. Their house has a great big wrap-around porch and is situated in the woods. It’s a very lovely place to sit and chat and knit. My mom and I were both working away on socks when Carrie announced that she wanted to knit too.
So my mom pulled out an extra skein of sock yarn (I’d laugh except I actually had two extra projects with me just in case – for a total of 4 hours riding in the car and a 6 hour afternoon at the house) and showed Carrie how to finger crochet.
OK, so not roseola. Coxsackie virus, which sounds like something hideously awful, doesn’t it? But Carrie’s fever is lower today, and aside from her throat hurting (apparently apple juice fixes that right up) is in better spirits today…
…and is currently napping!
Considering I’ve gotten maybe 8 hours of sleep over the past two nights, I’m thrilled with this development. Unfortunately, I’ve never been a good napper, so I’m just going to go veg and knit instead. Almost as good as sleep, right??