Cave Girl

Mariana knows how to use a spoon. That doesn't mean that she always will. We were eating breakfast the other day and she put her fingers into her oatmeal to grab a blueberry. I said "Hey, use your spoon cave girl". She cracked up and started calling herself Cave Girl from then on. Even when she doesn't do something cave-like she'll say it. Cave Girl's funny.
We found out yesterday Cave Girl has tonsillitis. So she gets to sit in front of the tv and eat sorbet. She's very sad though. She has a fever and stuffy nose and is sleepy and lethargic. Poor thing, she even fell asleep during an Elmo video. I bought her a new video to give Hilary a break from watching Disney's "Bolt" for the 400th time. Apparently 5 minutes into it she asked for Bolt again. She's been doing A LOT of that kind of a thing. She'll ask for juice and then cry when you try to hand it to her. She asks for the Elmo video and then as soon as it's on asks for Bolt and then as soon as that's on she'll ask for Elmo again, each time crying unless immediate action is taken to satisfy her demands. Even when you hop right to it she'll cry. Basically I think she feels so crappy that nothing will make her happy.

Sometimes this parenting thing is hard. Really hard. The past few days with Mariana being so difficult tests us and challenges our beliefs about child rearing. Do we indulge her every request normally? No way, but when she's sick it's hard to know where to let things slide and where to stick to the rules. The more upset she gets the more you want to calm her down by giving in. After a while though you realize that giving in isn't working either. In fact her whole routine has been disrupted and she's not eating, not sleeping enough, and generally can't go 2 minutes without freaking out. So what's the answer? Stick to your rules and keep your routines - just let her cry through it all? or let her do whatever she wants and cry through it all anyway? I don't friggin' know. I just know that her waking up at 530 am instead of her usual 730 is making all of us cranky.

This video features MJV with her cousin Niko.

C'mon people!

I think we're getting into the "Guess what Mariana said" years now. I imagine there will be many of these. But ok, guess what she said while we were waiting in traffic at the Holland Tunnel? We were on the way to Poppy's house in NJ and I must have been muttering at drivers being stupid in traffic. She says from the back seat, "C'mon people". Ha! Ok, guess what else she said? We were playing hide and seek in the car and she was laughing a lot. She then says to me "You're funny Daddy!". Of course the dopey uncle/son/husband/brother in me beamed at this supreme compliment.

Hilary has been taking some classes on the weekends so I've had M all to myself. It's been great. I wish I could share all the little things she does that make me smile. This video is taken at our local playground. She was all fired up after our bike ride and when I put her down she just wanted to run in circles. That little hip wiggle shake is too damn funny.

This morning I gave Maña some dried blueberries after breakfast. I often count them out to her as a way to teach her numbers. Today she counted all the way to eleven on her own without any prompting. She's also starting to say thank you and please on her own too. And she's not even 2 until August. I'm relieved more each day because there isn't a doubt in my mind that she'll be in all the gifted and talented programs. Whew, I thought finding the right school was going to be tough but not when you know that she'll be at whichever is the best.

Maña has recently graduated from the high chair to a regular chair. Ok perhaps graduating is the wrong word. It would imply some skill set had been mastered or that a certain requirement of coordination was reached. Well in Mariana's case it was just a lot of whining/ screaming/ not eating crankiness that made us give up on putting her in there. Her mother fashioned this "booster seat" from a couple of clear bins and some packing tape. Some may call it ghetto style but I prefer to call it "Mommy-rigged".

ABC's

Mariana has a toy piano that her Auntie Christine bought for her. Usually she just bangs away with an open palm. She can hit more keys and create more racket that way. The other night as she was getting loopy before bedtime she started playing individual notes for the first time. She was also singing about bubbles, her favorite new discovery. It's the kind of noise that usually just fades into the background but this time I heard her start to sing "Tiny Bubbles" by Don Ho. I've sung this to her before but only a few times. I sung the next line to her- "in the wine..." which she followed up with the next line "makes me happy...." Are you kidding me?! She already knows it?! A father/daughter duet of Tiny Bubbles?! Sweet! Tiny Bubbles is a special song to me. We play it at work at the end of a very long day or at the end of a big project- often at 2 or 3am as we're wrapping up. So when I hear it it means I get to go home. To hear Mariana singing it was pretty cool. I went over and sat down with her and she started playing notes. I sang them back to her and she would laugh when I got it right. She would whine when I got it wrong. Does this kid have perfect pitch? Whoa, I don't know but she's amazing.
She can also sing the entire ABC's song by herself. We practice on the way to swim lessons on Saturday mornings. Swimming is going ok. M has a tendency to get distracted easily by all the other flailing children but does seem to really enjoy herself. She's even learning the Hokey Pokey -especially the "turn yourself around" part.

Slap Happy

Mariana gets a little slap happy as it gets close to bedtime. It's a toss up between getting her to wind down and egging on the silliness. Either way she's a good sleeper so it's not a big deal. That's when these videos are taken. Note how much bigger she is in relation to that purple ball from past videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npHat9q9qhM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjVg3HBg26Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp_Og76Iv0Q (on the ball)