tawbubby

Amelia spotted me playing a computer game, when she came to get me to say goodnight.

AVJ: Where’s his friend? [My character has a pet that was missing].
E: He’s asleep.
AVJ: Is it nighttime where he is?
E: Yes.
AVJ: Oh. Owls sleep in the day and are awake at night.
E: That’s right, they’re nocturnal.
AVJ: I sleep when it’s night.
Allison: Is Elmo nocturnal?
AVJ: No, he’s turnal. He sleeps in the dark.

Update @ 8:59pm. Amelia’s a little nocturnal. She was calling for me in the dark, to tell me that someone had drawn on the book she took to bed. How did she know this? Because she’s reading in bed, using the light from her Tinkerbell alarm clock. I told her she needed to stop reading and go to bed. When she asked why, I didn’t have a good answer….

We had a little icy snow last weekend. Amelia is on the left, Daphne on the right.

We were finding this a few times a week. Now all the toilet paper rolls are off the spindle, and where Daphne can’t reach them.

Life is getting interesting for Daphne. She is starting to hear the word “No!”, and she doesn’t like it. She has a brief (fairly intense!, for Daphne) tantrum and then goes about her way playing. Her cry also sounds like a cat recently. Hey, it looks like we might get through January without a trip to the ER!! As Daphne would say, “Chiz!” (cheers).
She is enjoying walking all over the place with her cart, but she’s not ready to let go yet. We walk laps around the house and play “Can you find…?” games with her. I have seen her stoop down with both legs bent a few times. She can climb onto furniture with a couple inches step stool. She especially enjoys climbing into her rocking chair, sitting up, and making it rock a little bit. Very proudly. If I don’t sing “Rock-a-bye-baby” she pretty much demands it, though when I’m not in the moment I can’t tell you exactly how. It is facial expression and some demanding sound.

Last, but certainly not least, we are just about through with her bottom canine teeth. Just four molars left, and I don’t remember them bothering Amelia much.
Amelia is healing from a deep bruise or mild strain of her knee. We don’t know what she did, but she seems to be getting better. A bruise showed up tonight on the opposite side of where it was a little puffy yesterday. She wanted to run around tonight and we made her watch tv and play Candy Dominoes. Funny role reversal! At least she’s learning the names of all the artists and composers on Little Einsteins.
I had the thought that it was in some way payback because the day before she kicked a friend in the head (did you hear that? yes, kicked-a-friend-in-the-head!) at daycare because she wanted to read the book to the friend that the friend was holding. Alright, motive was decent, but the crime was terrible. Her friend wasn’t hurt (I hope it was the most gentle kick to the head ever?) but it is shocking to hear about your kid.  She said(unprompted) that she would never do that again.
So, the moral of the story is: Don’t kick your friend, or your knee will hurt for a few days.
She is working hard at writing her name. You can check it out on Flikr.
Ethan’s update: Amelia can spontaneously and on key sing the Superman theme.

On Sunday, Daphne was in her high chair eating a snack, and I was sitting in front of her but looking away.

She grunted and I turned towards her. Was looking me in the eye and pointing to me. When I turned towards her, she maintained eye contact and said and signed, “All done!”.

So she had waited to get my attention and then told me she was done with her snack. She’s getting really good at this “communication” thing.

She enjoyed the last piece of candy from her Halloween bucket this week.

Actually, that was even with us throwing some away. She never finished last year’s, so this is progress!

And we found this in the refrigerator one morning.

Warning…immature potty humor!
Amelia woke up from her nap telling herself some crazy story, at full volume, about Barney, poop, and something else that i forget. After I read her “Rumpelstiltskin” tonight, I just laid in Amelia’s bed while she told me a bedtime story. It was about the Velveteen Poop (she was thumbing through the Velveteen Rabbit, retelling her own story) and most of the story she couldn’t get past “Then the Velveteen Poop…” without cracking herself up. Parts of it were about Puss in Boots and Poop going places together, and one time the words came out Poop in Boots, which cracked her and I up even more. She was so silly. Her story included a string of fake words that rhymed and several versions (real and made up) of Jingle Bells. My favorite line was “I yelled, squinting, ‘But I don’t know where it is!’”

The littler girl in the house said “nose”, “Touchdown!”, “toast (sign and word) and finished the song I sing using her name.
Mama: “Daph-ne….Pi-per…”
Daphne: “tha-thon”
I didn’t mean to not finish it, I think Amelia distracted me. And then we realized that Daphne finished the song! Coincidentally, Amelia did the same thing around this age. I only remember because we happen to have it on video.

Daphne said “mama” at breakfast today!  We all cheered enthusiastically for her.  It was very cool, too, because she did it without a verbal cue.  Ethan asked, “Daphne, where’s Amelia?” and she looked at Amelia, smiled and pointed.  He asked, “Daphne, where’s” and did the sign for mama.  She looked at me, pointed, and said it! 

She’s been saying “Dada” for many, many months.  She has probably 10 other words that we can tell (hi, fish, tree, monkey, uh-oh, outside, Grizzy, light, a couple ‘wawa’s for water, a couple ’yaya’s for Amelia), and at least 6 signs now (bath, toast, milk, doggie, more, cracker).  She does the sign and words for “All done” at the same time.  And raises her cup to us and says “cheers!”.

First, a picture Ethan took, with great scale. Santa gave Amelia a dollhouse for Christmas.  Here she is setting up the living room.

We ventured to PA (looooong drive, longer on the way back!) to visit Grannie, Grampy, Aunt Melissa, Uncle Michael, and Grandma. There was some crusty stuff (can’t call it snow, really) on the ground, that was plenty for some fun with the girls.  Every day, Amelia ate a bowl of snow sprinkled with cranberry jello powder.

Daphne loved going for rides in this awesome sled. We tied her to the sled with a scarf!  Here is Uncle Michael providing the one-horse to the open sleigh.

Smiling in the snow.

A little snuggle with Grandma to read one of their new books.  A keen eye will notice the label on the box holding records behind Grandma’s chair.

Amelia LOVED Grannie’s Nemo. Uncle Michael and Amelia played several games of tag (Amelia chasing Michael/Nemo) and Catch Nemo.

The girls had many great experiences.  Daphne figured out how to climb out of the high chair (no straps) after a day.  She also took to climbing up the stairs a few times a day.  Amelia had a really neat tall chair to sit on at the table.  She loves her new BINGO game and both girls love their Cambell’s soup girl cups that Grannie dug out of some treasures she saved from when we were kids.  Amelia saw a bunch of wild turkeys and 5 white-tailed (rein)deer on the hill above the garden.  She saw the empty pig pen, sheep barn, and chicken coop, and told Grampy that next time she came, it would be o.k. if he had a horse house and she would bring them (the horses) some food.