Every Letter Makes a Sound

Genevieve has been interested in her ABC books for a long time, and loves to play with the magnetic letters on the fridge sine she got them for her first birthday. About two weeks ago the switch flipped and now she is WILD for identifying letters and their sounds. At the pediatrician's office the other week she pointed out the letters S-T-O-P on a sign, and she now requests her "Letter Factory" video at least once a day...usually more. Although I've watched it with her a couple of times, she's never been one to sit and watch the tube for more than 5 minutes. But now she wakes up, eats about two bites of breakfast and immediately demands, "LETTERS!" Usually I'm scooting her off to daycare or the grocery store or something which sends her into a fit, but when we do have time to watch it she gets a big goofy grin and runs to the living room. I figure as long as she's not watching South Park or a Lady GaGa video, she can be plugged in for a half hour. Anyway I interrupted her "LETTERS!" today to catch this little vid.

18 Months

Our tiny tot turned 18 months on Sunday. This also happened to be Grandma Kathy's birthday, so we headed to their house to celebrate the day with Chinese take out for dinner and a lemon tart which I made for dessert. Genevieve sat on Grandma's lap while we sang 'happy birthday' and of course was certain that we were singing to her. This kid is going to grow up thinking that she gets a birthday every 6 months.

Which is the birthday girl?

We had our 18 month check up today. Despite the caloric intake, she hasn't done that much growing over the last three months. She weighed in at a little over 25 pounds and measured a bit over 32"...both in the 65th percentile or so. Our pediatrician must have noticed my surprise that she's gone from the 90th height percentile to the 65th, because she casually mentioned that it's hard to accurately measure the kids before they're four years old and big enough to stand on the scale. Either way it proves that, like everything else, we'll just have to wait and see how she turns out. Someone mentioned the other day how heavy she's getting, and it occurred to me that she now weighs as much as I gained when I was pregnant, which was a really weird perspective. No wonder I was freaking exhausted! Anyway overall she is in tip-top shape. We've only had one ear infection since the tubes in October (due to a really nasty bug right before Christmas) and, save her 2-year molars, all of her teeth are in. You'd think that would mean luxurious, sleep-filled nights at our place, but alas that is not the case. We're now going through a super fun "sleep is for the weak" phase where she is really fighting going down. Furthermore, and more exhausting, there is an unidentified something waking her up at random points throughout the night. Matt and I have never been afraid to let our kid cry it out, but this isn't a sassy, ha ha I got you out of bed cry. This is like the boogeyman in your closet kind of cry. The one thing to be grateful for during these midnight adventures is that as soon as she sees us at her door, she collapses back down and falls almost immediately back to sleep. We're chalking it up to a crazy toddler phase and praying that it moves right along. People told me that I would find religion once I had kids. I thought they meant because I would want my children to be raised in a church. Now I realize it's to have someone to beg for help during sleepless nights.

Annnnnyway, besides the sleeping misadventures, life is good with little Genevieve ruling the roost. She has mastered so much in the last three months: she can identify most of the alphabet and give you the corresponding sound, she knows all of her colors (although her first answer to, "what color is this?" is almost always "lello"), and she can rattle off 1-10. Sometimes in order, sometimes not. She can tell you all of her body parts, name all kinds of foods, loves her shoes and can identify diamonds (it's true). We regularly hear 'please', 'thank you', and 'bless you', which is totally adorable. She can ask for what she wants, which I had no idea would be such a luxury instead of racking my brain trying to find the one thing to calm her down. She's more reserved in groups and definitely not interested in joining any kind of rough and tumble play with other kids. She will happily swing or slide at the park forever, and loves to build tall, tall towers out of her Legos. Matt and I suspect an engineer in the making.

One of her favorite things to do is play in my closet. She loves the make up brushes, the shoes, the necklaces, everything. She's noticed that mommy wears her sunglasses non-stop (my calling card since high school, right ladies?) and has taken to wearing hers again this year. She is also now demanding to go on walks with Ralphie. Ralphie, of course, thinks that this is the bomb. Together it takes us a good half-hour to get around the block, as we have to stop and identify every stick, leaf, house, tree, bush, flower, plant, car, runner, doggy, and blade of grass. Oh, but when she sees a piece of garbage, it's, "Garbage! Icky." What a girl. Today we headed out with our sunglasses to tour the neighborhood:

Head-to-toe pink. "I've got the leash, let's get this show on the road!"


Right now he's thinking, I love this kid


Shades-R-Us


Hollering, "Bike!". It has two wheels, it must be a bike, right?


Wat'ch you lookin' at?

Here are a few other random shots of the last couple of weeks:

Downward Dog with Daddy


Watching 'Letter Factory' with Mommy


Looking all gangsta in Daddy's vest and hat (wait, pink froggy pajamas aren't gangsta? Hmm)


"Hiding" from us by pulling the beak down as far as it goes. She finds this game hysterical


Sharing her milk and gingersnap (known here as 'naps!') with Mickey and Tee-Tah

Girl's Day Out

We had a brief but fabulous glimpse into spring earlier this week. Since it was a Wednesday, and I'm home on Wednesdays, we decided to take a trip to the Zoo. But first we had a few errands to run, including a 6-month cleaning for me at the dentist. GG came with me on my last trip as well, but she was just 11 months then and totally content to sit in her stroller and hang out. Errrrrrrr, not the case these days. I strapped her in to her stroller, grabbed a few toys and the magic black box, and said a little prayer. At first she did great! Watching her video (now known as "watch wo-wo") was like putting a brick wall between her and her surroundings. Until the hygienist tilted me back and started the initial teeth-check, at which point I heard a super sad little kitten whine, and turned to find Genevieve staring at me with huge saucer eyes filled with giant tears, and the full on bottom lip quiver to boot. Obviously she was terrified at what was happening to mama, but it never occurred to me until that moment how it must look to see someone get their teeth cleaned. Fortunately the hygienist was also a young mom and together we talked about how much the cleaning tickled and mama is so lucky to have clean teeth, and isn't this just fun?? The dentist came in to do the final check and asked me what G and I planned to do that afternoon. I mentioned that I was hoping to take her to the Zoo, which caused the dentist to ask, "You're the second person who's said that. What's the big deal at the Zoo today?". The hygienist and I replied in unison, "Gotta get out of the house!". She and I are now BFF.

I received my clean bill of dental health and we loaded back up and headed home. After a couple midday hours of tempestuous toddler behavior she finally went down for a snooze. Indeed, after she woke up, we headed to the Zoo. But first I had to grab a few shots of this little munchkin whose nap turned her from cranky tot to happy camper:

fluffing her post-nap curls


and yes, that's a new 'do she's sporting. only took two or three separate attempts to get it even.


can't get this pic to rotate correctly...but still had to post


snuggling with teddy

So finally we made it to the Zoo, which is funny since it's only about 10 minutes away. This was the first time G has gone since she's really been able to identify animals and surroundings. She was pretty taken with the wildlife...but even more impressed with the other kid's rides.

super impressed with the elephants, until she spotted a kid being pushed in a fancy bike thing. she was immediately impressed. guess i know what's on the 'garage sale hunt' list for this summer.


showing me the giraffes


ummmmm, how thick is that glass again?


a "rowr!"

Incidentally, there was a boy lion and a girl lion in the enclosure at the time we were there. He was licking her which I pointed out to Genevieve. This oddball dude standing next to me felt compelled to interject, "Yeah, he's got something else on his mind." Insert fake laugh, move on down the line. Dude appeared again and announced that we had just missed a mating session. So I said something about teaching the kids young, and tried to move away again. He popped up AGAIN to show me a picture he had taken of the act on his phone. Hey, congratulations on being 12. By now I was convinced that this dude was the decoy for someone to reach into my diaper bag and steal my wallet or something, but soon realized that no, he was not that clever. Just some mid-20's guy hanging out at the zoo on a Wednesday afternoon. Totally normal.

That was the end of the Big Cat exhibit.

We strolled around a bit more until it was time for daddy to come home, then headed home. All in all it was a fun day and I am excited to spend plenty of time with the animals this summer (sans nutball guys with nothing better to do, that is).