The Goose These Days

...is pretty wonderful. Her large personality and petite stature make for one pretty awesome kid and I love seeing her become more and more of who she is each day. Which is a curious, precocious, silly, smart assertive little pipsqueak. Some fun facts about the person who thinks they are running our household these days:

1)She rolls deep.  All of her animals are her babies and she still spends quite a bit of time burying me in them everyday.  There is constantly one tucked tightly beneath her arm.

2) She knows her colors. Around 16 months I thought she had them down but every once in awhile she'd confidently try to tell me something black was pink making me think she was just a good guesser the rest of the time.

3) She can count to ten. The numbers are correct but the fingers can use some work. After ten usually comes twelve and fourteen. What can I say? She likes even numbers.

4) She is still a dancing machine. She's moved on the from the kiddie stuff (Raffi? Please, that's for babies) and now busts her move to Pharrell's 'Happy' every night. . .about 37 times. There is a LOT of dancing going on in this house especially in the late afternoons/evenings.  If your miss your zumba class feel free to stop by, we'll hook you up.

5) She likes to accessorize. Sunnys, crowns, beads, as long as its 'fancy' she's in. Again, not something she got from her Mama.

6) She has a good vocabulary. Words like 'whisking' and 'mustache' or 'motorcycle' come tumbling out every once in awhile and like a lot of kids she'll repeat anything. And I mean ANYTHING, as in, she'll repeat your whole sentence replicating the exact inflections and attitude to go with it. (That guy did WHAT?! Oh nooo he didn't!)

7) She'll tell you everything she knows. Waking up in the morning is like watching a car go from zero to 60 in no time at all. Her eyes open and she'll say 'foot,' 'other foot,' 'two feet,' socks, pink socks, small socks, two socks. . .you get the picture.

8) Her 'No' phase (if that's what you can call it) is pretty cute. If you ask her a question that doesn't involve wanting to dance or coloring with a pink crayon, there's a good chance you'll get a no in response. And let me tell you, its the most prim and proper, matter of fact, I'd rather not but thanks for asking petite little 'no' you've ever heard. The 'bye-bye' phase is totally in effect though, meaning she has to say 'bye-bye' to the slide, the swing, the sand, the sky, the clouds, the worm on the ground. . .before we EVEN think about leaving.

9) She has an elephant like memory. She can tell you every person she saw last weekend, which animals were at the tidepools and what the monkey at the zoo was eating. . .three months ago. I've got a pretty good memory (which happens to be the way I survived school) so I'm hoping this continues to serve her well.

10) We are buddies. I am so grateful for getting to spend so much time with this little human and being proud to call her mine. We spend hours talking, snuggling, dancing, playing and walking around the neighborhood. I am already so proud of who she is becoming.

The GREAT Pumpkin

Last year for Halloween I was a ghost. Not that I dressed as one, but that my kid spent the morning in the OR and I was as white as one due to the stress. This year I am happy to report that I was my normal color this year and all smiles getting to spend the day with our little fam. Mark took the day off since he was flying out to the east coast on a red-eye right after trick-or-treating wrapped up, so we spent the day at the park, carving pumpkins and just doing generally scary things.

The only criteria for the costume this year was that it be something she liked and knew what it was which would up our chances of her keeping it on all night. I usually start plotting and working on my homemade costumes unseasonally early each year so getting a store bought costume was a bit of a hit to me, but there are years to come for that unnecessary stress.

As for trick-or-treating, she loved it. She hopped in and out of the wagon, knocked on doors, received the candy, said 'thank you' (sometimes) and tried to pet every fat, furry Halloween spider decoration she saw. Ick. I can assure this is NOT a trait she picked up from me. And aside from the jelly bean she snuck into her mouth last Easter, she has, to date not had any candy so we were curious to see what she would think of it.  And all she thought was that they were little, colorful toys and she spent hours sorting and re-sorting them naming out their colors and laying them on the carpet. She was pretty stoked to add the word 'sucker' to her vocabulary and has successfully learned to take candy from strangers. All in all a very happy Halloween for everyone!