The Evil Mudder

So Nana tells Animalia not to do something, I can't remember what, and Animalia says, "Leave me alone, evil mudder." And we laugh. And then Nana asks her who the Evil Mudder is and Animalia says, innocently, "I don't see the evil mudder. She's not here."

Mudder

Mudder, or mother, to those of us with the ability to use the "th" sound. Mudder. It's what she calls me, her mother, but also Nana. She understands the difference, knows that it's her grandmother she's calling, but she is constantly playing with words. The only problem with it is that when they're out and about, and Animalia is calling for nana's attention, saying "Mudder! Mudder!" that people give my mom looks like "what is that woman doing with a child that age?!" Actually once someone asked my mom if that was her granddaughter and she said yes, only to get an odd look when Animalia started calling out "Mudder!"

She's funny, my kid.

From gchat

Marisa (nina): Why is it hilarious that Amalia, age 2, has a long black skirt?
She is your child.
Everyone who I fwded the Halloween pic of Amalia in the witch hat thought that was her costume
Because she was in all black
I was like, "No, that's her style"
me: She dresses herself.
This morning it was a yellow longsleeve shirt with a colorful animal picture on the front
a matching pink skirt
(I know, doesn't sound like it matches but it totally does)
AND THEN she started with cute pink sandals that totally went with the outfit
but was distracted when she saw her knee high black boots
she ended up going with the boots "so my feet are warm and cozy"
Marisa (Nina): Why is it it hilarious that Amalia, age 2, has knee high black boots?
Do you not see the humor?
me: They were on sale and I had a coupon.
She also has black patent ankle boots.
She's her mama's girl in many ways.
This means that the next kid won't care about fashion at all.

I've been working.

I've been working. The regular ol' job plus some extra, on-the-side work teaching digital storytelling to some lovely ladies for some vacation money plus dentist and doctor's appointments. There have been repercussions to this. The blog is sorely in need of updating as there are many cute and hilarious things that Animalia is doing lately, so I'm catching up, finishing blog posts that I started but didn't finish and quickly writing new ones about things that I don't want to forget. Also, Animalia is clingy. She fights with people when I'm around, trying to steal precious moments for herself. This past Saturday, she even pushed her Tata away, saying "Get away from me! I'm with my mom!"

So yesterday was my first real day off all alone with Animalia in almost two weeks. We slept in and then spent most of the day cuddling and hugging and giving random kisses. She sat on my lap and we read lots of books and at one point she said, "It's mama and Aya. Me and you. Me and you together." I squeezed her and gave her a kiss and felt love and guilt and happiness and sadness. I've been neglecting my baby a little bit for the greater good (I guess) but I may not care about the greater good at her expense.

Parades.

On Sunday we took Animalia to the All Soul's Procession. She loved it. She loved the "scary monsters" and the drums and the people all dressed up. She loved the dresses and the hula hoop-ers and the big puppet heads. She loved that her dog was there, and her mama and daht and nana and tata. She loved all of it so much that when we left she screamed her little head off. She talked about it the next morning too, telling me about all the "skeleton people and girls" and that her dog was "a good boy with the monsters" and "I love lots of drums and people." Clearly she loves a spectacle as much as I do.

A couple of days later, I took her to the Veteran's Day Parade. I got her all excited by telling her that we were going to a parade, a term she'd heard to describe the All Soul's Procession. So she was thrilled. Then we got there and saw the military jeeps and old cars and flags and she says "Parade... where aaaare youuuuu? Are you right there? Noooooooooooo! Are you right there?! Nooooooooo!" She's cracking herself up at this point and I'm a little embarrassed because her words are crystal clear and people around us are giggling. So we go home. And next time I take her to a parade it has to have lights and fire and dancers and costumes and makeup and drums, lots of big big drums. Maybe the holiday parade?

More words of wisdom

"My mama is a very good eater. Yay!"

--Animalia, watching me eat a piece of toast for breakfast.

Halloween

There was trick-or-treating in the morning, Animalia not yet in her costume but wearing a mostly black outfit and a Hello Kitty Halloween t-shirt. We had gone to Joann to buy some ribbon to put a bow in her hair (yep, I was still forcing Dorothy on her) and she found herself a witch hat that she wouldn't let go. It was on clearance. I bought it for her. So it was the mostly black outfit and the hat. She went to Nana's house and we told her to say trick-or-treat and she did and Nana gave her an M&M. We went to Uncle's house and she said trick-or-treat and got candy there too. We saw one of the Tías Grandes and I covertly handed her an M&M and Amalia said trick-or-treat and Tía dropped it in her plastic pumpkin.

Later, we got dressed and went to a Halloween party in a fun neighborhood with lots of decorated houses and hundreds of trick-or-treaters. Animalia, in her Dorothy costume which she loved (I'm the Dorothy girl!) went trick-or-treating. And, right when we needed her to say it, the thing we'd spent all morning rehearsing, she clammed up. Whatever, she got plenty of candy anyway and saw some "Scary monsters!" and some skeletons. She loved the whole experience. All the dressed up kids. The scary noises. The whole thing.

Then home to bed for her and horror movies for us, the grownups. Next year we'll decorate the house for her.