Big Sister as Entertainment

Today we were inspired by a brown bag.

Fiona picks up a brown bag lying on the floor (yes, all sorts of treasure awaits discovery in our house--you just have to look down) and puts it on her head and starts walking around. So, with her permission, I cut out eyes, ears, nose, and add antennae with shiny pipe cleaners (one purple, one silver).

When she wears this, she refers to herself as a "yellow submarine" or "brownie". (In that case, I am Mommy Brownie).

She went up to Sophia, who then promptly started laughing---big belly laughs mind you. Every time Fiona comes up to Sophia with this headpiece on, Sophia just laughs and laughs.

It is nice.

Born Diva

At the playground yesterday, my friend and I were talking and Fiona and my friend's son were playing. Fiona was in her element. My friend said she could see Fiona ruling the playground and that she thought Fiona was officially a Diva. That may be so, but this Diva still likes to read quietly and find slugs under rocks.

She just came up to me in her underwear and black stole with orange sunglasses and demanded that I find her crown.

So, perhaps, a well-rounded Diva.

Ominous

Fiona starts out the day with a bowl of oatmeal and blueberries. She then says--like she has acquired weapons of mass destruction or something (Can I say that? If there is no more activity on the blog after this or it just disappears you can assume they've come to get me.)---, "Now I have more energy". I think you really had to be there to hear the intonation in her voice.

I don't think I would be surprised to see her burst into light or fly. Startled, maybe, but then I'd think, well, it was just a matter of time.

Envision Whirled Peas

Sophia is now officially entering the World of Food (at least beyond breastmilk--and I know, I know, she gets a taste of what I eat via the milk--but we're introducing food without the middleman).

Yesterday she ate several spoons of smushed peas. I wasn't rushing her, believe me. I decided it was time when she lunged for my giant bowl of veggies and pasta and pulled it towards her while panting. She's gotten a lot more aggresive at the table, so I thought it was time! She has also tried some smushed banana, but she likes peas better.

Next week, we'll try avocado or sweet potato.

Encouragement

I told Fiona yesterday (after a day of practicing inside on her bike) that with all the practice she does on her bike, she's going to be a really great bike rider.

She came over to me and said, "Aw, mama, let me give you a hug".

Touch My Kiwi! Love Him!

One of Fiona's latest quirks (one of many, it's hard to keep track of them all!) is to hold and soothe her food before she eats it.

So, this morning, she held her kiwi fruit, and stroked and murmured to it before she handed it over for butchering. (Yeah, Mama's tough and crusty. She'll hack into a kiwi without even a moment's hesitation).

And while reading "The Little Engine That Could", she spied a picture of a man fishing. This man had a caught fish next to him. She asked, "Mommy, how can that fish swim and play if it's there next to the man?" I said, "Well, that man is going to eat the fish" (a sense of deja vu here). She said "No, that fish needs to swim and play." So I said that maybe the fish would escape into the water while the man wasn't looking.

Maybe we'll all be vegans in a few years.

First Bike

Last Friday, we trucked down to Onion River Sports. Now Fiona is the proud owner of a red tricycle and bike helmet (pink with bunnies---she picked it out---might as well get used to them early!). And, naturally, it's been raining since Saturday morning. She did get to take it out Friday afternoon.

It has a basket in the front, which, as I suspected, is a big hit. She puts her "mail" in it or her wooden food. Yes, since it is raining and the bike is still pretty clean, we broke down and let her ride it in the house.

If she's not in a really happy mood, though, she gets frustrated because she doesn't have peddling quite down yet--especially combined with turning the handlebars.

Thursday musings

Doug and I have this green journal from the Time Before Kids where we'd go out to eat and try a wine and evaluate it in the journal with the food we ordered to go with it. Fiona loves this journal (part of it may be the labels we've torn off and glued in it) but I don't want it to become a play thing (it's amazing the stuff that becomes a "play thing" and is often lost, sometimes destroyed, and frequently...altered). So Doug bought her her own journal and she keeps it with her in her bag with a pen and will hunker down at various times during the day and "write" in it. He also bought her her very own calculator (mine had become one of those "play things"...my solar scientific calulator that has not gotten so much use since about 1994). It is purple and round and is about the size of a normal chocolate chip cookie. The calculator seems to go with the journal.

We tried to go outside this morning, but it was a short visit because it is actually rather nippy again. But the daffodils and tulips are definitely coming out and the lilacs have plump buds.

Doug has taken the girls out for a couple of hours every night this week. Monday he bought chocolate ice cream cones for himself and Fiona. At one point he had to hold his cone in the hand that was right in front of Sophia. Apparently, she recognized food she could actually lick and get some excitement out of because she lunged for it. However, I am happy to report that chocolate ice cream is not her first food.

I'm in the Twilight Zone

Fiona has been asleep from 11 AM to the present, which is 2:45 PM. I keep peeking at her, and yes, she's breathing. I didn't even encourage nap time. I usually feed her lunch and read her three books and tell her one story before I have to give her strokies so she can fall asleep. She just bundled herself up in the down comforter and curled up on the floor and zonked out. I am guessing 11 AM...I was nursing Sophia and it was quiet. Too quiet. That either means big trouble (or depending on how you look at it, important work or incredible discoveries) or, I guess, sleep.

Two things could happen when she wakes. She will be up wailing and super-pissed (probably will be hungry) or incredibly sweet and super friendly and wanting to be with me. It is possible that she will be extra sweet because she will want to watch show and she knows I am not a big fan of "show". Usually, however, she is sweet just because she is. She is also usually very excited to see Sophia and wants to play with her. Sophia is always excited to see Fiona.

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's...

Super Mouse!!!

My sister Alexandra gave Fiona this picture book about what cats do at night when we are sleeping.

So Doug is reading this book to her before bed. One scene shows the cats working at a factory boxing up the mice. Fiona asks Doug, "Why are the cats boxing up the mice?" Doug says, "Well, I think they mean to eat them."

Fiona is not at all happy with this answer.

Now she wears her blue apron around her neck like a cape (she actually has a cape, but it's a hooded cape) and says she is Super Mouse, saving the mice from the bad cats.