“eff!”
Today was a really good day. We rode the train at Zilker Park, and played for a while at the truly awesome playground next to it. All was well except for the one time that Elizabeth just took off running, out of the playground and across the train tracks. That’ll get your heart rate up.
We also had lunch at Whole Foods, a nice nap and some Sesame Street (because I wasn’t quite ready to get up from my nap when she got up), a swim, and a bath. She can actually move herself in the water now, to go from one parent to the other. I hesitate to call it “swimming,” quite, but it’s definite progress.
Letter recognition.
Tonight Elizabeth and I were sitting on the floor next to her Graco pack-n-play crib, when she suddenly pointed right at the “A” and said “A.” As I was telling her how smart she was, she pointed right at the “O” and said “O.”
Probably too early to add War and Peace to the Amazon list, but it’s a start.
Day care switcharoo
So we’ve decided to switch Elizabeth to the day care downtown. It’s one of the two branches of her day care system furthest south. The other one is further south but it’s on the other side of town east-west so this one makes the most sense for now. When we move to a new apartment at the end of September it will hopefully be an even better fit but there’s no telling for sure just yet.
I’m conflicted about the move; we all hate change and toddlers hate it the most. I’m apprehensive on her behalf. The new place is smaller (it seemed like the kids in what will be her class were practically crawling on top of each other) but it feels more urban (a little more energy) and it’s attached to a hospital, which is good. Still, it’s the first major change in her life and my stomach’s in knots thinking about it, especially knowing that we’ll be moving to be closer to Christina’s school another month after she starts the new day care.
I’m supposed to take her for some visits next week and then she’ll be there full time on the 25th. I have a feeling it’s going to be a rough ride.
First fully articulated sentence
“I want that bucket!”
Stressed out.
There’s a lot of change and stress going on around here, and it seems almost two-year-olds are perfect little stress receptors. She can perhaps be forgiven for the maddening changes of mind and sudden screamy fits, under the circumstances. I, on the other hand, should probably know better.
Elizabeth is really turning into a big girl, though. She can count to two - did I mention that before? She knows most of her colors now. And she’s got prepositions down, that’s new:
The other day she had milk in her sippy cup, and we stopped at a restaurant for dinner. They brought out a cup for her, so I poured a small amount of milk into it and set the sippy cup (with the rest of the milk) aside. So I was a little mystified when she started crying for her milk. “It’s right there. Your milk is in that cup.” She took a drink, set the cup down, then said “Milk!”, looked at me, pointed to the sippy cup, then pointed into the restaurant cup, and said “In here!” Well, okay then. We obliged and poured the rest of the milk into the adult cup for her. Apparently, there’s no getting anything past her. She’s a bossy little thing, though. I’m pretty sure she thinks we’re her personal slaves (but not very good ones).
Mommy’s back.
And the reaction looked pretty much like this. Of course Christina had to jet out again for the day (teacher training never ends, it seems), but overall happiness has increased.
Today
Today was a decent day. Not much to report. Christina gets home tomorrow night.
So tonight I got smart and let E run around on her own for a while when she tired of the stroller. At the pet store we bumped into an obedience class for dogs, which thrilled the bitty — I think the sheer variety of dogs big and little just overwhelmed her brain. We didn’t get home until 7:30 (I was on the phone with Baltimore pal Niki) and bedtime hit right around 8. I think she’s enjoying the extra time out of the house in the evenings.
Hangin’ in there.
Day three without Mommy at 6 a.m. with a minor freakout; Elizabeth couldn’t get comfortable in the crib (she kept bumping against the sides) so I transferred her temporarily to the big girl bed and did my best to comfort her. After a few minutes of that she wanted back in the crib and we both got another hour or so of sleep, which was good.
At 7:15 or so we had a few minutes of resistance to the idea of actually getting out of bed, but the promise of milk and Elmo (a growing girl’s two best friends) soon fixed that.
We were both pretty irritable tonight; our evening walk to the pet store soon became a test of wills when E decided that she’d had enough of the stroller. It turns out that you can still steer a stroller pretty well even as the toddler it holds stands up in the straps and screams bloody murder. Ten minutes later we were all smiles again but it looks like we’re already feeling the strain a little bit. This is about the midpoint of things; Christina gets back on Friday night but has class on Saturday morning so we won’t be back up to 100% until Sunday. I have some dishes to clean so I’m going to get started on that.
Summer swing
Christina’s out of town for the week, so it’s me and the bitty alone for a while. A trip to the park today resulted in a pretty good pic. We’re in subsistence mode and I’m taking the week off from work to get some writing done, so you probably won’t hear volumes from me here on the blog but I’ll try to post a picture every day to tide you over.