Fun with Nanu

Claire and I are having a great time with Nanu this week. The other day we went to Exposition park and walked through the rose garden and enjoyed the butterfly pavillon
where there are hundreds of butterflies flying and landing on dozens of varieties of flowers.

I've been sewing -a blouse and a pair of pants, both of which still need to be hemmed.

feeling better

Claire is feeling better but still has a little nose running and cough. It hasn't slowed her down much.

I gave her an old cell phone to play with. A few minutes later I asked her who she was talking to. She says, "Daddy." I asked what he said and she replied, "No biting crayons. I love Claire." A moment later she said, "Love you, love you."

She almost always says, "See baby!" when she sits on my lap in front of the computer so I go to flickr and show her our photos. This time she looked at the keyboard and said "Q,R,S,T." Next I showed her the letter C on the keyboard and said that was how her name starts and she said "R,E". Then I showed her the rest of the letters. She never ceases to surprise and amaze her folks.

under the weather

Claire has a runny nose, a little cough, drooling, and low fever. The fever just kicked in this evening. During the day she seemed like she felt okay except for the nose running. We were wondering if it was more teething. Although I think she has all the teeth she's supposed to have at this stage. Last night she woke up crying and it took a lot to soothe her and she wouldn't stay asleep. Finally after 2 hours she conked out for about 4 hours. In retrospect, I think it must've been a sore throat.

little conversations

Yesterday, we fed Claire some fried egg yolk for the first time. She liked it and kept asking for more. Generally while eating, she interjects single words like, "more, again, big-bite, eat, taste," etc. Then I asked her about the eggs, if "it tastes good?" To which she replied, "it tastes different."

Today we stopped by the front yard up the block where 4 "older girls" (ranging from 4-8 years old) were hovering over a tray of some brown objects sorted by size. I figured Claire might be interested, so we approached. They saw Claire coming and called out welcoming "the baby." But then one of the younger ones warned, "these snails are kind of dirty, and some of them are big!" Another asked Claire's name, to which she replied in full, adding, "shoes on!"

I took Claire on her first bus ride today. She was pretty quiet and wide-eyed during it, but soon after we got off a few blocks later, she said, "again!" But I pressed on to our destination, swinging at the park. The whole way she kept talking about the bus "zooming" and asking me to sing the "Wheels on the bus" over and over. At the park, in the middle of swinging, she mentioned the bus again! So we rode the bus home also, and Claire told Mommy about it when we got home.

Health updates: We've been dressing Claire in short sleeves recently since the weather is warming up. Thankfully she is doing quite well. Though we have put on topical steroids a couple of times this week to help control the night-time itching. Her reflux is no longer a problem. The solid food seems to have cured it.

The ABC book mentioned below is still a favorite with Claire. On the C page, the book asks, "What begins with C?" to which Claire volunteered her own name. On the D page, she suggested "drowzy" (which is not in the book.) Sometimes I hear her muttering fragments of the ABC's under her breath, and when we prompt singing several letters in order, she most often responds by saying the next several letters in the sequence. I have a vague sense that one is not supposed to "push" their kids to read early. But if you never turn on the TV, then books are inevitably a big part of their play time, so I don't know how we can avoid her reading "early" assuming she continues at this pace.

New favorites

Claire's current favorite books include:
My First Cat by Veronica Ross--this is a library book with lots of great photos and simple explanations of how to choose and care for a pet cat or kitten. For some reason she likes this one better than the Pet Frog book.

No David by David Shannon--Mr. Shannon originally wrote this book as a 5 year old. It shows him doing all the things he's not supposed to and his mom telling him no. It has a sweet ending though. I was a bit worried to introduce this to her lest she start writing on the walls... she's been reading it for months and so far so good.

Owen by Kevin Henkes--Sweet story of a mouse boy who is attached to his fuzzy yellow blanket. Will he take it to kindergarten? Read it and find out.

Piglet and Mama by Margaret Wild--Piglet gets lost in the farmyard and looks for her mama. The other animal mamas try to distract her from her woes but she only has eyes for mama. Claire likes to read this one over and over. It has maybe the greatest ending ever for a toddler: lots of hugs, cuddles, playing, and a nap.

Some other books she's recently become interested in are Dr. Seuss's ABC, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and the classic Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans.

It's interesting to see her interest develop. The first two times I introduce a new book we usually don't get all the way through it but by the 4th time she usually says, "Again" when we finish.

Verbal

I liked what my friend Jen, who also has a very verbal toddler had to say on her blog:

"Now, this is not a "my kid's smarter than your kid" post. The idea of "multiple intelligences" has been widely publicized, and I think we all more or less understand that individuals can have natural proclivities in one area and not in others. Intelligence is not easily defined, nor can it be identified with narrow skills sets.

I share Kate's unique Kate-ness with you, dear reader, so that you can rejoice in knowing her along with me. I am truly grateful to have been gifted with knowing and caring for her. She is a heck a lot of fun."

It is a joy spending time with Claire and having conversations with her. She never ceases to surprise me and entertain me with what she says. Yesterday it was, "Mommy said no ripping books." Today for the first time she told me "I love you" and hugged me. (It doesn't get much better than this, folks.) She asks for many of her books and even some library books by their full title. She knows her full name and is in fact chanting it right now as I type.

It especially reassuring and gratifying that she is so verbal because we were told that she might have serious problems due to her brain bleed. Also she had been slow at getting started with sitting, crawling, walking, eating, etc. I remember being shocked and dismayed months back when her Physical therapist told me she was about 6 months behind on some skills but was making good progress. Thanks be to God, she is catching up on these skills and is ahead of the game with talking. I am delighted to be able to be home with her and witness her growth day by day and share in her love for words.

Meme

I just got around to perusing some friend's blogs after not having done so for several months and discovered I had been "tagged" for this "meme"... is all new to me, but it sounds simple enough. My friend Jen at bourgeois-baby.blogspot.com tagged me on March 2.

For the 1-2-3 meme, the directions are:

1) Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2) Open the book to page 123.
3) Find the fifth sentence.
4) Post the next three sentences.
5) Tag five people.

First Fruits of Prayer:
A Forty-Day Journey Through the Cannon of St. Andrew by Frederica Matthews Greene

Solomon the wonderful, who was full of the grace of wisdom once did evil in the sight of heaven and turned away from God. Thou hast become like him, my soul, through thine accursed life.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.

If I tag you and you don't have a blog, you can comment on mine with your quote or email me.

I tag: nanu, nana, grandma, nikki, nina

praying

Claire got my prayer rope off my nightstand and says, "Pray, Pray. Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy" and walks around the house with it in her hand for a few minutes. Last week when she picked it up and showed it to me I had explained what it was and how to use it.

She amazes me.

She is looking though the bags we brought home from the grocery store and says, "New sippy cup. Drink. Open. open."