Too much to drink in imaginary land.

Animalia is playing with a stack of plastic cups. She unstacks them. Then she stacks them. This is, apparently, the most hilarious thing she's done all day. The cups go with her into the living room. She takes one off the stack and puts it under the end table, as if it's a dispenser of some kind of liquid (note: we can't recall a time when she's actually been into a restaurant where drinks are dispensed this way, but it obviously made a big impression). She hands it to her Daht. "Juice," she tells him, and then, "jugo," you know, just in case he needs her translation services. He takes a big imaginary slurp. She goes through the same motions for Mama, then for Cooper. The dog doesn't even feign interest in the empty plastic cup, but she loves him at this moment so this doesn't matter. She gives us a minute to finish our delicious imaginary juice. She takes this time to drink her own imaginary juice. Then she looks around, satisfied, and makes another round. She's gathering our cups, restacking them perfectly. "That's enough," she tells everyone individually. We've been cut off.

Morning Medley

Mi Animalia, she is a singer. Here's what she sang while I was in the shower:

The itsy bitsy spider went up lalalala Elmo's World aserrín aserrán cantaba la rana debajo del agua and now I know my ABC's next time won't you sing WITH ME.

And then she said YAY! and clapped for herself. And I had just gotten out of the shower so I said YAY! and clapped for herself. And then Cooper woke up and semi-charged the toddler and licked her. And then she said YAY! and clapped for Cooper "O-wake" and I said YAY and clapped for Cooper too. "Oh-gain?" she asked. "Again?" I asked. "But mama's already tired."

Bucket and shovel

So the last time we saw the Animalia's bucket and shovel was on the beach in Puerto Peñasco. We'd put it on the sand while she climbed all over the barcos. Then, for some reason, she wanted to go to the agua and we walked away from it. I think later we probably walked right by the poor little bucket and the tiny little shovel and didn't remember them on the way back into the condo. ANYHOW, the first thing she asked for at Nana's house was the bucket and shovel. And then she said, "Cupo stole Aya's bucket! Cupo lost Aya's shovel! No, no babao! No!"

That's it, baby. Blame the dog.

Hot Babao?

So the Daht was telling me about an 18 month old who "used to eat hot dogs every day but lately she's been so picky!" and the Animalia picked up on two words... hot and dog. Now, the Animalia is totally mimicking us left and right lately, picking up on a word or two to repeat but this was classic. She said "Hot babao?" and we laughed and laughed because it was hilarious. And she laughed and laughed because she knew it was hilarious. And then she went to check on Cooper, to make sure he wasn't too hot.

Castigando

The scene: The Animalia is playing outside. A large orange tabby approaches. She is excited. She starts to wave to him.

Animalia (in her best, most softest, nicest drag voice): Hi! Meow! Hi!
Cat: Meow?
Animalia: Hi! Meow! Nice. Nice. Hi! Meow!

The cat evaluates the situation. Animalia's tiny hands are like little squeezy weapons. He hesitates.

Animalia (doing the reaching out thing): Meow. Nice.

The cat decides the best course of action is to slowly move away from the desiring hands of the tiny, dangerous child.

Animalia: ¡NO! ¡NO! ¡NO MEOW!

Thus, the cat is put on notice but remains safely unsqueezed and unsmooshed for another day.

Did I tell you that she's a puppy?

Did I tell you that she's a puppy, or more specifically a babao?

Here are the signs:
1. When asked, "¿Como te llamas?" she answers, "¡Babao!"
2. She's into tipping her food out of her bowl and onto her high chair tray and just eating it straight from the tray, no hands! She'll also eat from my hand like that, not even bothering to take the Cheerios from me with her own hands, just mouth to hand.
3. She cannot be trusted around dog food. She hasn't eaten any yet, that we know of, but sure seems fascinated by it. She'll even say "Babao" when she approaches it.
4. She'll drag around Cooper's leash and collar as long as we let her, all day even.
5. She loves his tags, wants them even, gets mad at Cooper when she's playing with them, still attached to his collar, still around his neck, and he moves away from her. She gets MAD.

Poor Cooper

Poor Cooper. First he was replaced by this tiny screaming pooping thing named Animalia. Then, when he reconciled himself with that, we wouldn't even let him lick her. He didn't want to bite her, he just wanted to lick her and nudge her some. Sometimes he even wanted to protect her from other dogs and random noises. Sure, he knocked her over a couple of times. She wasn't steady on her feet then and he can't help weighing 100lbs and all he did was brush up against her. He was sorry those times, he even whined appropriately. But he thought they'd finally gotten to the point where they could be friends. The Animalia would pet him and sometimes pull on his ears and he'd sit patiently and desperately fight the urge to lick her tiny face. Sometimes he'd lay next to her and roll over and she'd pat his belly. She'd even share her Cheerios with him, giggling as he licked them out of her hand. He was happy those times, even if we told them both No. He'd even learned, somewhat grudgingly, that we weren't always referring to him if we said the word papa.

But now. She starts saying "NO!" when he's within two feet of her and will complain loudly when he's too close to her or her stuff. The answer to the question "¿Que dice Cooper?" The Animalia says "¡NO!"

Poor Cooper.

Words lately.

The Animalia is a chatterbox and understands lots of words.



She says: agua (for water to drink AND for a bath), papa, pa (pan), babao (dogs and other mobile creatures), vroom vroom (it's spittier than it sounds), mama, da, nana, tata, hi (both as a greeting and as a name for phones), bye, más (actually she still just signs this), nice (when she's petting someone or something, tato (retrato) and YUM! when she likes her comida. She also roars when she's asked what a lion say and moos when she's asked what a cow says. She says Do! for her Dora doll and Rehmo or something like that for her Elmo doll. She also oooohs appropriately at shiny or amazing things. On occasion she talks gibberish, especially into a phone but sometimes also when she's reading or playing by herself.



She also understands: potty, and she'll take you there herself if she has to. She knows that Cooper is the dogs name and that the leash and collar belong to him. She knows where he sleeps too and unfortunately will throw herself on his bed if we're not watching her closely enough. She knows the names of all her favorite dolls including, but not limited to, Dora, Elmo, Babao, Big Bird, Baby Croki and her various ositos. She'll happily point out pansas, hers and yours, and tell you where your ojos, nariz, and boca are located. She knows NO! and sometimes giggles when you say it and tries to sneakily disobey. She knows toes and knows that they are also dedos en español. She knows luz and knows that the lightswitch turns the luz off and on. She'll also get kind of mad after you only let her turn it off and on five times because she can really do it FOREVER. She knows that Tata spends a lot of time outside and in the kitchen because those are the first places she looks for him when she gets to his house. She knows the movement that accompanies Wheels on the Bus and also can do a little bit of Itsy Bitsy Spider. She also knows what to do in storytime. She knows that música is for bailando and sometimes dances when there's no música because she wants to hear some. She knows abrazos and how to give them. We're working on besitos, those are less consistent, but she'll occasionally give a big mmmmmmmwah open mouth kiss, mostly to her Da. She knows how to greet people, with manitas hi or manitas bye. She also knows to stay close, when strangers talk to her, and she'll point us out, saying Mama or Da as she indicates who we are. Best of all, she knows when something is funny and laughs accordingly. Sometimes it's a fake laugh, kind of like her fake cough, but that's hilarious too.

BA-BAO!

So we go to the zoo and everything is a ba-bao. Remember, guaguao is Spanish baby talk for dog and the Animalia's version is ba-bao. The pigeons are ba-baos, as are the peacocks. The polar bear is a BA-BAO! The giraffes are BA-BAOs! and she was a little concerned at first when her and her Daht fed them but ended up wanting to pet them. The elephant inspires awed silence. Some animals inspire barking, I think the Animalia thought that they were going to bark back at her. A pato duck inspires a "quack," something that the Animalia hasn't done before or since. She touched a hedgehog, curled up in a volunteer's hand, and jumped when it jumped. She wanted to pet the snake, slithering along another volunteer's hand, but I stopped her. She liked it too much and I thought she would squish it. She was carried by her Daht, he showed her zebras. Her tata let her walk in a grassy area when she wanted to walk around in her big girl high top Chuck Taylors. It was a nice morning. She saw ba-baos. She was tired. We went home.

Happy 4th!

This was Animalia's first 4th of July and probably the latest she's ever stayed up in a decent mood. Ever.

She met some other babies, some 5 month old twins that visited briefly on their way to another party. They were all put together in the Animalia's crib. I warned the supervising adults but they didn't listen and the Animalia went right for the eyes of one of the defenseless infants. She wasn't trying to hurt him, only pet him, but it didn't quite come off as planned. These twins were small and wobbly and I held one, remembering when Animalia was small and wobbly. Ahhh, the memories.

The Animalia also wanted to play with her cousins, boys who are 5 and 8 years old. They didn't want to play with her either as they were playing with a model plane with thousands of tiny parts. Later they would run in and out of the house and the Animalia would feel acutely left out as she is unable to run.

My cousin carried her around and occasionally disappeared with her, feeding her sweet potato puffs and keeping her happy and away from my uncle, just to be mean. When she finally gave her to him, the Animalia cried because she didn't want to leave her puffs. There was another cry, later, that said that she was tired, and I nursed her but the second I put her down she cried herself awake and just stayed awake despite Nana's best efforts to rock her to sleep. She can't sleep when people are hanging out and having a good time.

The fireworks didn't start til almost 10pm but she was awake, did a few oohs and ahhhs and clapped her approval a few times. The display was a little long though so she ended up distracted by one of the visiting dogs wandering around our yard. Was it worth throwing her off her sleep schedule? Hm. Maybe, maybe not. As of yesterday we weren't quite back to it. On the other hand, it was very cute for her to see the fireworks and entertain the guests with her extraordinary clapping skills, squealing, judgy looks and general cuteness and happiness to be held by many strangers.

Oh yeah, the zoo.

A couple of weeks ago we (me, Da, Nana) took Animalia to the zoo. We went on a Sunday morning right after opening in an attempt to avoid the heat. I figured there wouldn't be much more time to take her until the fall since it's just a million degrees as soon as the sun comes up. This wasn't our first trip to a zoo, our first was the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago but we didn't get to see much there because we got there right as some of the exhibits were closing.

It was nice. I think we adults were very impressed by how much the zoo has changed and improved since we'd been there. I think Animalia was impressed by the water fall in the tiger enclosure and occasionally by the tiger himself. Some of the animals weren't as impressive as they could have been. Even in the morning it's a little hot and the animals are a little tired and not moving very much. She didn't seem to see the giraffes until they started moving, or maybe was confused by them. Even when they started moving she had no idea what to think. So we paid $2 for some giraffe biscuits and fed them. Her Da carried her really close. Her reaction was to stare. And judge. She was also interested in the otter, or maybe just in the water in his pool. The anteaters were another source of concern. The elderly lion, well, she didn't seem to see him at all. There was a bear pacing back and forth that she seemed to like.

It was certainly a succesful trip with us imagining that we'll become zoo members someday when we're taking her more often. As we were leaving she fell asleep thrown like a tiny potato sack over her Da's shoulder.

Next, the desert museum. I think she'll like it.

Using her words

So, if you read my last post, you know that the Animalia is an incredible mimic. She just is, I think most babies are, but seriously, you do something at her a few times over the space of a day and the next day she'll just do it on her own. So it's no surprise that she's starting to talk a little here and there... she says "a-WA" for water and "bao bao" for dog. "Pío pío" elicits a "pah pah" and when she eats she goes mmmmmmmm. That one's a little insane. It's like this deep, menacing mmmm. Not the cheeful enjoyable mmm that we actually use when we feed her. El Perro Cupo is sometimes called Deh too and her Da is called Da and her Tata is called a-TA! She still only says Mama when she's crying or upset but I think she knows it's me because she'll reach out her arms when she does it. According to my parents she started doing the Mama thing when I was running late to pick her up the other day. It's her favorite complaint.

Animalia takes a trip.

So we took the Animalia to Chicago. It was more difficult than traveling alone or with the drunken adults that I'm used to traveling with but not so difficult that I wouldn't do it again. I was a little concerned for her tiny ears on the flights but she was fine, charming even. She chatted and smiled at flight attendants and other passengers, wiggled around, ate and napped. Nice. She was lovely.

There were more tears once we got there though. I think it was because she was in unfamiliar territory and not following her usual patterns of eating, sleeping and playing. That AND she's teething. That's right. No false alarms this time. There are two teeny tiny baby teeth peaking out of her bottom gums. They're cute to look at, interesting to touch and I'm sure they're incredibly painful for her. Pobresita.

She met her Aunt Barbara and cousin Cathy for the very first time. She bonded with Cathy. She also made friends with BL, smiling at her and trying to eat her watch every chance she got.


Other firsts on the trip:

Her first Cubs game. EVERYONE in the bleachers thought she was the most adorable baby ever in her Cubs cheerleader outfit and red legwarmers. There were even some drunk guys sitting behind us who were discussing the best way to smoke in the "no smoking" ballpark and they were trying to decide whether or not to light one up right there. They decided not to. Because of the Animalia.

Her first frijoles. She had her first taste of frijol at Frontera Grill, the Rick Bayless restaurant. What can I say? She's fancy. She liked the beans too.

Her first (brief) visit to a zoo. We took her to Lincoln Park Zoo. It was near closing time so she just got to see a tiger, monkeys, takin, and sea lions. She liked the monkeys and tiger, she chatted and smiled at them. Didn't even notice the takin. She liked the sea lions too, their big bodies swimming by surprised her I think. Now google "takin."

Her first museums. We took her to the Museum of Science and Industry. She was cranky. The Art Institute was better, though she split her time between cranky and chatting at the paintings. We got dirty looks from people either way, whether she laughed or cried, so we left earlier than we wanted to. At first I didn't care what everyone thought but after about 30 dirty looks it starts to get old so we left a little earlier than planned. She loved the Field Museum, I'm not sure why, maybe it was because there were things to touch, it wasn't as loud and insane as Science and Industry, and there were more animal type things. Or maybe it was because her teeth didn't hurt so much.

Her first aquarium. She LOVED this. She loved the turtles, brightly colored fish and dolphins.

Her first trains, both the CTA in Chicago and the small train on the Jelly Belly tour. Two completely different things, I know, but I thought I'd put them both under the same heading.

What else? She mostly just liked walking around, making her happy noises at passers by. She got some things, souvenirs for when she tells us we never take her anywhere and we tell her that she just can't remember when we did. She got to spend time with Tío Tío and crawl around on his floor. She also got to play with a stuffed puppy that he has and try to chew on his (dirty) carpeting.

I think we can do this again sometime too. I hope our future holds a trip to DC to visit the Nina, a potential jaunt to the Cayman Islands to visit begrid, and maybe a weekend in Puerto Peñasco. Now we just have to win the lottery.

See my next post for information on baby poop while on vacation.

BFF.

The Animalia has found a best friend in our dog. We'll call him CPS. For Cooper Pooper Scooper. We imagine that if he was a boy and in school, the other dog/kids would call him that when mocking him during recess. But anyway. Every time Animalia sees him she just breaks out in a huge grin and starts babbling. Every single time. She can be pitching a huge tantrum and she calms right down when she sees him. It's amazing.

Unfortunately the feeling isn't quite mutual. Not that he's aggressive or anything close to it. He just alternates between indifferent and aloof. She touches him and he turns his head or walks away. I think he's getting better though. The other night he was on his back in front of her and she touched his belly and he made this wiggle like he was getting more comfortable. Maybe he's finally realizing that there's something in it for him.