More Words From The Boogie

The Boogie: "Honey, what's a 'rayer mekest?"
Me: "A prayer request?"
B: "Yeah, what is that?"
Me: "A prayer request is when you ask for prayer about something."
B: "Oh. Well, what's that other word, when you're thankful for something?"
Me: "That's a praise."
B: "Oh, a praise?"
Me: "Yes."
B: "Well Honey, what's a praise?"
Me: This is why I don't have any brain cells left.

B, looking at a belt that Peabody was wearing: "Honey, how do you wear that?"
Me: "Wear what?"
B: "That belt."
Me: "Um ... like that?" pointing at Peabody. Seriously, this is why I don't have any brain cells left.

The Boogie wants to know how to spell everything. "Honey, how do you spell soldier? Lollipop? Wawa? Stop? Go? Stoplight? Toothbrush? Hoagie? School bus? Driveway? Playground? Sushi? Target? George? Barney?" She reminds me of Betsy Ray in the Betsy-Tacy books, who asked her mother how to spell "going down the street." Maybe she's going to be a writer.

She heard me and Eric talking about the new Volkswagen Beetle in the car after he pointed one out to me on the road. Now every time we're in the car we have this conversation at least once:
B: "Honey, is that car a Beetle?"
Me: "Which one?"
B: "That one, right there."
Me: "No, that's not a Beetle. That's a _______ (fill in the blank.)"
B: "Oh. Well, what about that car, over there? Is that car a Beetle?"
And repeat.

There's a local bar that we walk and drive past often. One day she asked, "Why don't we eat at that restaurant?"
Me: "That's a bar. They serve alcohol there. We don't drink alcohol, so we don't go to bars."
B: "Why don't we drink alcohol?"
Me: long explanation "can make people do things that God says not to do" blah blah blah "can make people very sick" blah blah blah "so we choose not to drink it."
B: "Well, maybe I will want to choose to drink it."
Me: "When you grow up and have your own home you can make your own decision about it, but when you live in our house we make that decision."
B: "Okay. When I live in your house I won't drink alcohol, but while I'm growing I'll think about what I choose to do."
And so now, from time to time when we drive by the bar, she tells me that she's still thinking about what she'll choose to do.

The Boogie likes to pretend to be married. She announced to me the other day that she was married to Peabody.
Me: "But Peabody is a girl!"
B, laughing: "I know, I'm just pretending she's a boy, and we're married. I wanted to marry ..." long pause while she thought "... Fred, but he didn't want to get married. He didn't want a wife." (Sidenote: we don't know anyone named Fred.)
Me: "I see. He was a bachelor?"
B: "No! He was a mayor! And he already had a wife so he told me, 'I'm sorry, I can't marry you.' And I said, 'That's a shame.' And then I said, 'Good-bye, Fred.'"

One day she told me, "Honey, I want a farm when I grow up. I want a wife and some children and a farm."
Me: "Well, you're a girl and you'll grow up to be a woman, and a woman has a husband, not a wife."
B: "Oh, yeah, a husband. Well, maybe I could marry Mr. Steven and then he could have a wife." Mr. Steven is a young man in our church. I told him that I hope he doesn't mind waiting another fifteen years to get married.

One morning she said that she had a dream. Peabody began asking for a dream, too. When we didn't give her anything she started getting mad. The Boogie explained to her, "A dream is just a story in your head, and when you lie down you can see it." Smart girl!

During a pause of her monologue the other day Eric started telling me something. "Hey guys," she interjected, "I still have more to say."
Ain't that the truth. Today and every day.

The Amazing Puzzle-Solver

I am so impressed that she could do this all by herself. She worked diligently to put it together over and over and over, and rarely got frustrated.

Hiya

When I quit working to stay at home, I thought for sure I would have more time for blogging.

You can see for yourself how that has gone.

Oh well.

Peabody had her 2 year well check the other day. She was very excited to go to the doctor, since she and the Boogie play doctor all.the.time. At 25 months old she:
-is 34.5 inches tall (fiftieth percentile)
-weighs 26 lbs. 9.5 oz. (fiftieth percentile)
-has a head circumference of 49.5 cm (ninetieth percentile. ha!)

She is right on track with development (stacks things, puts words together, jumps, etc.) which is good because in other areas I felt like Mom of the Year ... or not.
Nurse practitioner: "Do you need another prescription for more floride drops for her?"
Me: "Oh uhhh, yes that would be great." I'm pretty sure I still have the one from the last visit since I never had it filled.
NP: "And what about the blood testing for lead? Do you remember if you've had that done?"
Me: "Um, hmm, no, we haven't done that yet."
NP: "Do you need another script for that? Or do you still have one?"
Me: "A new script would be great." Because while I probably still have the old one I doubt the lab will honor it since it's dated for, like, a year ago.
(And because I try to be fair like that, the Boogie has not been tested for lead either, nor does she get floride drops.)
NP: "Is she still breaking out in hives?"
Me: "No, the hives outbreaks are becoming few and far between."
NP: "So did you ever take her to see an allergist?"
Me: Shoot, I forgot I was supposed to do that. "No, no, I never did take her."
NP: "Oh, well, that's okay, since she's not breaking out as much I guess it doesn't really matter. And what about the other specialist? When was the last visit ... looks like February 2011. He was concerned about that one issue?"
Me: When is this grilling going to end??? "No, we haven't gone back. I should probably call ..."

Yep, stellar mom, right here.

Hey, at least she can use a camera.

Hmm ... or maybe not.


We are venturing into the world of cloth diapering. It is a little late to be getting into it, I guess, since Peabody will most likely be potty-trained in the not-too-distant future. I've long considered using cloth diapers with the next baby (when and if! No announcements at this time!) and one day I thought, why not try it now? That way if there's a learning curve (and there often is with me) I can figure it out before the days of newborn haze. So far so good -- I like it, and it's easier than I thought it would be. Plus they're awfully cute.

 

Ideally they would save us money over disposable diapers in the long run ... but there are such cute ones available that it's hard to resist buying them!

Meanwhile for many months she has been showing some interest in using the potty. I have her sit on it a few times per day and she usually manages to produce something; every now and then she'll tell me she needs to go. The Boogie is very helpful because she will sit on the edge of the tub and "read" books to her sister until Peabody does what she needs to do. I'm just sort of following her lead -- I'm not in any hurry. I'd rather change (and wash) diapers than clean up puddles.

She loves i meem (ice cream) and kee kaks (tic tacs.)
The other day she asked for "bloot." Bloot? The Boogie and I puzzled over that one for several minutes until we figured out that she was asking for fruit.
She likes ga' gogs (hot dogs) but her FAVORITE thing is a meebuhguh (cheeseburger) from McDonald's.
She doesn't like milk; she does like apple juice but will just as often ask for wah-wer.
She asks for sips of wocky (coffee) from our cups -- hot or iced, she doesn't care. That's my girl.
She calls the dog Memmy Gil (Penny Girl.)
When it's time to get dressed she asks if she needs "keem pampies? Keem pampies, Honey?" (clean panties)
If I open the hall closet, she immediately says "Ow. Ow. Ah wa' mam-aid, Honey!" (I want a band-aid)
When she yawns she says that she's pleepy (sleepy) and goes in search of her lally (blanky.) Any other blanket, however, is a lanky. 
She loves to sit on my blap and wock in my chair.
If we're going outside she needs plee-plops (flip-flops. Or shoes. It's interchangeable.)
She sings "If you're happy and you know it, plap your hands!"

She likes to pretend that her hand is a phone; not only will she hold it up to her ear and pretend to talk on it, but she will pretend to take a picture, turn the palm toward herself and use the pointer finger of her other hand to swipe across it, "click" on something (complete with a tongue click), say "awwwww," then turn her hand toward us and say, "Look!"

She still likes to snuggle with me and I'm so glad about that. When she sits on my lap sucking her thumb and clutching her blanky, she's still my baby.

Uncle Furry's News

My baby brother is getting married.

How can this possibly be? Isn't he still only 14 years old? *sigh* I am starting to feel really old, man.

Uncle Furry was born about a month before I turned nine. I adored him. He was like a real live doll. When he was a baby I loved to rock and snuggle him. I remember grinding up bananas for him in that baby food grinder thingy. I remember feeding him baby food out of jars (and sneaking bites of the fruit.) We shared a room for a couple of years. As a toddler he drove me crazy humming and singing himself to sleep; on the other hand, at bedtime I'd get him out of his crib and play with him instead of going to sleep. When he started kindergarten I was beginning high school -- I remember singing the letter sound songs with him as he learned them.

And now he's all grown up, holding down a job, renting his own place ... and about to get married.

I haven't met my SIL-to-be yet, but I hear only great things about her! She's a brave woman to marry into our crazy family.

photo courtesy of Uncle Furry

So, the good news is that a wedding in Washington means a trip to Washington for us! I'm so excited to see my family. For the first time I don't have to come home and return to work, so the girls and I will stay a bit longer than Eric.

The bad news is that our Great Bathroom Renovation is now postponed yet again. I figure that since it's Uncle Furry's fault that I have to live with the nasty bathroom for another year, he can just come out here in 2013 and help with the renovation!

Sixth Anniversary

Eric and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary on the Boogie's fifth birthday. That date was just ours only one time: our wedding day. The Boogie was due on our first anniversary and we thought, "Nah, it'll never happen. Babies just aren't born on their due dates." Well, that one was! So our first anniversary was spent in the hospital and every anniversary since has been about a birthday instead. But that's okay -- some day our kids will be grown and gone and we can have our day back. In the meantime, we usually try to do something together on another day close to it.

For the first year or two after we were married we didn't have any television. I mean, we owned a tv and a DVD player, so we watched movies and stuff, but we didn't get any channels. So, we listened to the radio. On our Saturdays off we liked to listen to NPR: Car Talk, Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!, Whad'Ya Know?, and A Prairie Home Companion. Since our first anniversary was spent in the hospital acquiring the Boogie, we wanted to do something special for our second anniversary. When we found out that A Prairie Home Companion would do a few live broadcasts from The Town Hall theatre in NYC in April of that year, we knew that would be the perfect way to celebrate. And it was! We had a wonderful time. Country singer Brad Paisley and his wife actress Kimberly Williams guest-starred along with two or three others. We had such a great time that we've wanted to go again ever since.

A few months ago we started talking about this anniversary coming up. Last year we went to Baltimore for a couple of nights. We knew we just wanted to do a day trip this year, and while talking about it we realized that I hadn't been to NYC since my parents came to visit in 2009! We looked up A Prairie Home Companion and sure enough, they were going to be broadcasting from The Town Hall in April again, so we bought our tickets and eagerly anticipated going. This time we didn't know who would be guest-starring and didn't even care -- we just chose the date that would work the best for us.

We made arrangements for grandparents to keep the girls (Mama Dog too) overnight. That morning as we were getting everything together I asked Eric, "Did we ever find out who is going to be performing in the show?" He looked it up: "Some bluegrass group and some other singers, Heather something and Renee somebody." Renee somebody? When I had a moment to spare I checked it out myself ... "Guest star Renee Fleming."

Renee Fleming!?!

I flipped out! I have listened to Renee Fleming on recordings and the radio since I was a teenager and developed a love for classical music. The opportunity to hear her in person was the icing on the cake of a perfect day!

The weather was gorgeous but instead of driving up to Staten Island and taking the foot ferry across, this time we caught the NJ Transit into Penn Station. We didn't give ourselves as much time as we should have, and for once we didn't really have a set plan of what we wanted to see; we ended up kind of wandering around and popping into stores here and there. But we still had a nice time people-watching, and we mentally book-marked a couple of places to visit next time (like that street with several bead shops.)

The show was fantastic. We enjoyed every minute of it! There was some bluegrass music performed by the Punch Brothers; some gorgeous harmonies by Aoiffe O'Donovan and Heather Masse; and of course Renee Fleming. Hearing her sing live literally gave me goosebumps. Eric said my face lit up! She also acted in the "Guy Noir" and "The Lives of the Cowboys" sketches. And of course ... Garrison Keillor. I don't know anything about him personally but it surely is fun to watch him in action during a broadcast.

After the show we made our way to Times Square, and over to Junior's restaurant for some dinner. We each ordered a sandwich, and a side of onion rings to share, but neither of us could finish our sandwich and we ended up bringing the onion rings home. We should have shared a sandwich so we could also split a piece of the famous cheesecake. Oh well ... next time.

After we ate we walked back to Penn Station and caught the train home. It was my first time to visit NYC without ever descending to the subway. We were able to walk everywhere. It was also our first trip without paper maps or taking a camera along! I got a few blurry shots with my cell phone, and Eric took a few with his iPhone, and he had a map app for getting us to where we wanted to go. I still felt like a tourist, though. I always do!

It was a fun day and I certainly hope I don't wait 3 more years before going back.