Checking in, every once in a while

At her 18 month checkup, Mads was 27.4 lbs and 35.5 inches tall.  She's huge.  She's smart.  She's full of personality.  She talks like crazy-- last night she said "Noooooooo.  I don't want that."  Clear as a bell.  I know she's my very own but I'm still totally impressed.  She loves books and music and babies and animals.  Her favorite foods are pasta, cheese, and a mash of beans and rice together.  She asks for "mas" cheese sometimes and it cracks me up every single time.  Also, she's very much in a monkey see, monkey do phase which means I constantly have to tell Animalia not to do certain things because the baby is right behind her, immitating her.  Like "please don't do a handstand because the baby is going to hurt herself copying you."  Animalia is mostly patient with this.

Animalia is amazing and hilarious and lovely too.  She's an excellent big sister most of the time.  We still work on the sharing things occasionally but she loves her "Teeny."  She's creative and smart and interesting.  Last night, she wanted me to tell her a bedtime story.  The story was about four princesses who slept when an evil princess came and said "You will sleep for a thoooouuuuusand years."  She even titled it, "The story of the four princesses who slept and came before the Sleeping Beauty legend, writed by Maya Manow and illustrated by Amalia Castillo Manow and Herminia."  By the time she was done describing the story, she was almost asleep.  A couple of words from me and she was snoring.

I can't believe how quickly time passes.  I'm just getting to that dangerous point where I hardly remember holding a tiny baby and where smaller babies make me pine a little.  But just a little.  I can't imagine having three to get ready in the mornings and still be able to get to work on time.

Tiny zapatos

I walked into Nana's for lunch. The first thing I noticed was Animalia, sitting in her high chair, happy as a clam. The second thing I noticed was her zapatos. Her toes were hanging over the front of these tiny white sandals. "I think those shoes are too small for her," I told Nana.
"I KNOW those shoes are too small," replied Nana, "but she found them and insisted on wearing them. She calls them her Tiny Zapatos. It was really funny when we took her to the May Day thing at the park and she danced around in them."
"You took her outside looking like that?!" I asked, appalled.
"She insisted," said Nana.
"Mama, look Aya's tiny zapatos," Animalia said happily.

A few days later she would find a tank top that no longer fits and insist on wearing her "tiny shirt."

¡Noches!

"Na-night, Nana.
Na-night, Tata.
Na-night, Daht.
Na-night, Cupo.
Na-night, Unko.
Na-night, Yito Yi.
Na-night, Yina.
Na-night, Nina.
Na-night, Mahnda.
Na-night, Deg.



Noches, Mama."





Goodnight, baby. Buenas noches.

No, kids!

This morning, the Animalia was reading a JCPenny ad. She focused on the children's pages, offering the kids in the picture her rubber ducky. "Here, kids. Pato!" she said happily. "Here you go, kids!" Apparently they were way too interested in her pato because after awhile she snatched it back, saying, "No, kids! Es Aya's Pato!"

Methinks we need to take expose her to more kids. Fighting with imaginary kids seems a little sadly hilarious, no?

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.

Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico

Animalia's second beach vacation. April 23-27, 2009. In attendance: The Animalia (of course!), Mama, Daht, Mahnda, and Deg. Animalia got to see the ocean for the second time in her short life. She loved the "big agua" and the "big sandbox" and the swimming pool and the water slide and chile mango. She loved the barcos, her own and the rental canoes parked outside. She loved her swimsuit that she kept calling a suitcase. She loved her new vestido and bailando in her new vestido, along with her new zapatos and her bracelets and necklace. She also loved the happy cake (strawberries and whipped cream) that we had for dessert the first night and the frijoles at the restaurant on the cliff. She was a happy girl most of the time, until she saw another kid on her slide ("No, no, baby! Aya's slide!") or until I held her too long in the pool ("Aya DO IT!! No, no, mama!"). And she seemed pretty sad when she was really tired, which wasn't hard between the beach and the pool. But otherwise, she was very very happy.

Aya Ho-sey!

Animalia likes to crawl around on her hands and knees and pretend she's a horse. She says "Aya ho-sey!" as she crawls around and around and around the kitchen and through the dining room and into the kitchen and crawls around and around and around the living room. She wants her Daht to play with her but he won't when he's wearing shorts because he doesn't like his bare knees to touch the ground or some kind of nonsense like that. She's fine though, playing like this by herself. After playing horsey for awhile she'll get up and find her blocks or a book. She sits in the mini chair in the corner and reads to herself. Or she'll ask for her crayons and sit for awhile, coloring on her paper. She's very busy and independent and will occasionally put on her shoes, toss her backpack on her back, grab my keys and say, "Bye mom. Bye Daht." Then she walks away.

18 months?! Already?!

At her OFFICIAL 18 month checkup, the Animalia:

weighed 27 lbs, 8oz
was 32 1/2 inches tall
has a big round head
and screamed her head off at every opportunity.

When the nurse put her on the scale, she screamed. When she measured her, the Animalia wailed. When she took her temperature, someone walking by the room would have thought the Animalia was being beat with hot pokers. It is for this reason that both weight and height is probably off by a bit.

Then she calmed down. She introduced me to the doctor, mama. She introduced herself, Aya. She showed her doctor a stuffed bunny, bailando, bailando. And then the doctor touched her with a stethoscope and the screaming began anew.

I'm buying a play doctor kit. Clearly, we need to practice before the next appointment.