Yellow Unicorns

Lina is currently obsessed with Unicorns.  Yellow Unicorns to be specific.  Today, I received the following text from my mom.

Mom: Lina wants a unicorn lunch.  She says she is a unicorn girl. :-)

Me: That sounds about right.  I keep telling her that unicorns eat lettuce and other veggies.  She disagrees of course.

Mom: Today she thinks they eat oatmeal.  Funny girl.

Me:  Ahh, her newest addiction.  At least it’s healthy!

Mom: :) I agree.

Little Miss Chatterbox

Dinner this past weekend was full of wonderful conversation with a sprinkling of pre-dinner embarrassment. We went to dinner to take advantage of Red Lobster’s endless shrimp and to celebrate a birthday. Lina and I arrived early (hard to believe, I know) and put our names on the list. Lina has been learning a lot of things lately, including big vs. small. While we were waiting near the lobster tank, a rather large woman stood near us and Lina started staring at her. As I steered her back towards the lobsters, I hoped she was just admiring the woman’s brightly colored clothing. A few seconds later she was looking at that woman again and the following conversation took place:
Lina: Big. She’s big.
Me: Lina, let’s look at the lobsters!

Thankfully I don’t think the woman heard her, but oh my goodness, how embarrassing for both me and that poor woman!

Lina’s brutal honesty continued over dinner:
Jessie: I love you Lina.
Lina: I love milk.
Jessie: I love you Lina.
Lina: I love milk.
Jessie: I love you Lina.
Lina: I love milk.

A few minutes later:
Jessie: I love you Lina.
Lina: I need a drink.

Two, Already?

On Saturday, my little peanut is going to be two years old. In just one day, my baby will be two. How can that be? I’m pretty sure that it was only a year ago that we were on our way to the hospital because my water broke. Two years later and she is still waking me up at 2 am. Two years later and she still makes me smile. And laugh, a lot.

I love it when she thinks she is having a serious conversation with me and I have no idea what she is talking about. And then she ends it with, “okay?” She won’t let me ignore the question either, but I have no idea what the answer is. I mean, what if she just told me that she was going to climb up onto the roof and see if she could fly off of it? I can’t just say okay to that. But what if she just said, I would like to start putting my toys away all by myself. I will never say no to that.

She has learned a new phrase that she loves to use whenever we tell her she can’t do something.
For instance:
“Lina, don’t climb on the curtains.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s dangerous.”

“Lina, don’t climb on me when you have your boots on.”
“Why not?”
“Because it hurts.”

“Lina, no jumping on the furniture.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s dangerous.”

You get the idea.

I can’t even tell you how excited I am about tomorrow. Or how many times this week that I was tempted to let her have her birthday early. There are a few things that I can’t wait for her to be able to play with. I already gave her one of her gifts early. It was a garage sale find, so it was really just a bonus gift anyway. And like all things I pick up from garage sales, I needed to clean the slide before I felt comfortable with her playing on it. Finding a time to clean it while Lina wasn’t around had proved to be quite difficult. And the size of it made it difficult to hide. Every time she saw it, she would say “Look, a slide!” And I had to tell her “Don’t touch, it’s not ours.” Every time, she accepted that without question. Finally I gave up and took her outside to help me clean it up. As soon as it was dry, she ran right up the steps and slid right down. As she was preparing to go down the slide for the second time, she paused at the top and said “I love this!” Best six bucks I ever spent. If all or even some of her gifts go over that well tomorrow, I will be one happy Mama.

Of course there is still tons of stuff I want to get her for her birthday, but there has to be a limit. My bank told me so. Instead I have added them to her Christmas list and I have a couple months to watch for these items to go on sale. I also know that at this age, too many gifts to open could be a little overwhelming for her. At least that’s what I’m telling myself, as it has been the case in the past. We always seem to be about 2 gifts over the limit. It doesn’t matter if there are 10 or 20, there are always about 2 left to power through. Her friends and family party is next weekend and I’m excited for all the kids to play together in our home made water park. I wasn’t worried about the weather when I stared planning the party. It has been an unbearably hot and dry summer. Until this week. While the storms and the break from the heat were much needed, I’m starting to question the chances of perfect weather for next weekend. My fingers are crossed tightly that the weather will be perfect and all the kids will have a blast!

Melt My Heart

I’m always fascinated by the things that Lina picks up and chooses to repeat. Like when she holds one of her babies close, pats them on the back and says “Come ‘ere. It’s okay, it’s okay.” Sometimes I have to figure out where she learns these things, like where she learned what a clock was. We hadn’t talked about that yet, and she pointed to a clock on one of her toys and said, “Look Mommy, a clock!” Except all the L’s were missing… yep, that’s how she pronounces clock. Which is funny when she isn’t saying it loudly throughout the aisles of Target.

Most of the time though, I know where it’s coming from. Yesterday she stood up next to where I was sitting, cupped my face, looked into my eyes and said “You’re beautiful.” Melted me into a pool of butter. Mostly I was proud that I taught her that. And that she was able to grasp that I meant it every time I said it. But more than anything, I was just glad that she repeated “you’re beautiful” instead of the bad word I may have uttered a little too loudly as I was getting pulled over a few weeks ago.

It’s Delicious!

We are at that point where we have to pay very close attention to the word that come out of our mouths. Lina is constantly learning new words and I thoroughly enjoy teaching her the really big ones. I love to hear her attempt to say words like hippopotamus and rhinoceros. Yesterday my sister was teaching her to say dramatic and drama queen. But perhaps my favorite word of Lina’s is one that she picked up on her own, delicious. She first said it when I asked how her dinner was, she made it much more comical on Tuesday though.

Our shipment from Gymboree arrived and delivered some adorable clothes. Including this awesome swimsuit for next summer.

As I was laying out her new clothes and removing the tags from them she grabbed the swimsuit and pretended to eat the ice cream. She would take an imaginary bite, fill her cheeks with a little air and pretended to chew it. Several bites later I asked her if it tasted good and she simply replied “It’s delicious!” before taking another imaginary bite.

The Fourth

As you know, I’m a big fan of the 4th of July celebrations, specifically the fireworks portion of the event. Last year Lina was so terrified of the big booms that she bawled her little eyes out. This year I had my fingers crossed for a less terrified child for our neighbors annual party. And then I discovered that we wouldn’t be able to attend the party after all.

So we decided to have our newest nephew and his parents over to eat some hot dogs, throw some Pop’s, light some sparklers and a few small fireworks. The incredible lack of rain we had leading up to the 4th made anything larger dangerous and I was pretty sure Lina still wouldn’t care for the loud noises.

Lina loved throwing Pop's with her Uncle Ben.

"I did it!"

For a moment, she thought I was going to let her light her own punk.

She enjoyed the colors of the smoke bombs.

The sparklers were a big hit.  She especially liked putting them in the bucket of water once they were done.



"Lina, say cheese!"



"Lina, look at me and say cheese."



"Look!"



Finally!  I got a smile and open eyes!



Perhaps her most favorite thing was helping Daddy drive the RC car.  It was definitely not the semi-loud, tiny finale box.



 I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!



Potty Talk

If Lina could go everywhere naked, she would pretty much be potty trained. Of course I haven’t tested this theory since I won’t let her go outside without her bottoms. I did let her go outside in a dress and underwear which ended with my porch being hosed off. If she wears her diaper, she uses it. She knows what it’s there for, and she takes advantage of the simplicity of it. If she tells us that she has to go potty while wearing a diaper, it’s usually to inform us that her diaper is already wet.

Lately she has gotten so good at holding it, that she goes as soon as I convince her to sit on the potty. It’s the convincing that is the hard part. It goes something like this:

Do you want to go sit on the potty?
(Ignores the question)
Lina, let’s go sit on the potty so you can fill it up and win a prize.
(More ignoring)
Lina, do you want a prize?
Yes!
Okay, you have to go potty in the potty. (Think about changing the name of one of the potty’s to avoid confusion)
(Silence)
Hey Lina. Why don’t you go sit on the potty and I’ll paint your toenails while you sit there.
Okay! (Climbs off my lap and runs to the potty).
Okay Lina, you stay there while I go get the nail polish.
Okay!
(I walk halfway down the hall) Potty music starts playing.
Did you go potty?
Yeah!
Yea Lina!
Yea Lina!
Okay, let’s get cleaned up and go pick out a prize! (toenails are forgotten)