Star Wars Anniversary

We didn't really do much to celebrate. A-chan wore her star wars lego t-shirt with r2 and 3po. Here is a picture of her going, "this one is R2. why are you asking stupid questions, guys?"

After dinner we started watching Empire Strikes Back, A-chan's choice, the original one not the newfangled one. It has taken us 3 days to finish watching it since we're going at A-chan's speed which is 45 mins and then bedtime. I was kind of hoping for an excuse to get one of those nifty cake pans of R2 or Boba Fett...maybe I'll do one for my birthday and then the other for A-chan's. :D

Looking back on Star Wars in my childhood...

I don't remember the first time that I saw it. I was 2 years old when it was in the theater, so I'm pretty sure it was later.

I do remember desperately wanting some of the star wars toys that the boys down the street were playing with. At one friend's b-day party I spent the entire afternoon playing with his Hoth playset rather than going outside for games and fun, lol. At the time I was 5, I think, or maybe 6 and was already well acquainted with Star Wars.

My mother could not have been called a huge Star Wars fan, but she did foster a love of sci-fi and fantasy movies for me when she had the chance. The tv version of star wars was taped by her for me to watch endlessly over and over. I still know exactly where the commercial breaks were when we watch the dvds. That is one of the greatest things that I am grateful to my mother for - she let me fall in love with Star Wars. Since no one else in my life was remotely interested in it I feel sure that she introduced me to it, even though I was too young to remember the exact moment. How much different would I be now if she hadn't done so?

Will A-chan continue to love Star Wars when she gets older? I hope so. But even if she doesn't, at least we're enjoying it together right now as much as we possibly can. For the ability to share this with my daughter, I am immensely grateful.

Vanity & Excitement

Vanity has been discovered creeping into parts of our lives. Our 2.5 year old has begun exploring her own ideas of pretty and not so pretty with unblushing honesty and a sweet flash of a dimple. Where before brushing her hair was accomplished through either a long run and an ambush, it is now something important that needs to be done before we leave the house. Chapstick has taken centerstage and when A-chan knocked her punch cup off the table this evening her first thought was that the chapstick might have taken harm somehow. It is an interesting new dynamic since I am not all that interested in make-up and have very little to do with this behaviour.

How putting on chapstick became a daily ritual is beyond me. I own one tube of lipstick that actually gets used maybe twice a year so I know that she is not modeling behaviour from me. Watching her today was fun, it's neat to see her coming up with things completely her own (with perhaps some influence from a couple of fav anime like Strawberry Marshmallow) and not just interested in copying me :)

At the same time, it's a little painful as I ask her how she likes my new dress and she tells me, "it's ugly, take it off!" But that's okay, I'll save up that little comment to return to her when she's sixteen and trying on prom dresses... And along those lines I have a new and impassioned diet/exercise plan after this loverly and very truthful list of my facial features, "hair, eyebrows, nose, lips, teeth, chin, other chin..." At the moment the diet is going fairly well as I've lost about 12 pounds so far and I can hear that little voice in my head saying 'other chin' whenever I come face to face with temptation, lol.

We're going back to the Renaissance Festival this saturday and while we're all looking forward to it, A-chan is going nuts about it. She's been listing off everyone who is going and talking about what she will show to whom and how much fun we're going to have. Apparently the boat swing was a source of major fun, she's made us both promise to take her for rides in it. I haven't told her yet that other things have come up for about half the people that we were going to go with. It's so hard to disappoint her so we're pretty determined that even if it's just the three of us we'll go anyway and probably swing in the boat all day! :D

The Drum's the Thing!

Drums have become the new fav toy of the moment. Particularly the large empty can that used to hold mixed nuts which, when paired with a set of chopsticks, makes an excellent and multi-faceted drum. We have explored the top, bottom and sides and tested them many times to make certain that it is properly useful in making music. A-chan delights in playing the drum very fast. This drum was discovered while she sat on the kitchen counter to help me make breakfast recently. She just looked at the can for a moment and then said, "I need drumsticks." so I handed her a set of chopsticks and that was that. Isn't it amazing how happy such a simple thing can make a young child?

There are definately days when I am grateful for my daughter and her insights and intellect. We've been having issues with meals, etc for a bit which I ranted about recently. Upon dire reflection one evening after a full day of tantrums, Ketu and I realized what had been lacking in our lives and recognized the need to bring it back. Naps had been wiped off the schedule. It had happened sneakily where one day I needed to clean the house and thought, "she doesn't need a nap just this once and I can clean instead of being quiet all afternoon." And somehow after that one day it became easier to let the nap slide and then suddenly we were all like, "A-chan doesn't take naps anymore."

Oh, but A-chan needs naps. Oh, yes she does. Please Gods, let our darling take naps again!

I was expecting to have a great and terrible battle in order to get her to take a nap again, but I truly underestimated how much she understands. After lunch I told her that it was time for her to take a nap, that we really needed her to take a nap and why. When I'd gotten her into her bed she told me, "I need to take a nap so I not be sleepy at dinner time and I not get mad and I not yell and everyone is happy, okay?" It's been three days now and she hasn't protested the naps a bit. Our lives have much improved on an overall basis and dinners are almost heavenly!

Words of the week #13

Wow, that's cool!

Awesome.

I peed in my potty all by myself.

This soccer ball is called my soccer ball

I take a nap, I not be sleepy at dinner, I not get upset, we not get mad at dinnertime.

I need drumsticks, I want to play my drum.

We play zills all together is fun!

KK and I played in the dirt while dancers were dancing.

Hmm, let's see now. Let's watch more Star Wars!

I can help you cook dinner.

Art Giggles

Tonight we went to the opening of an art show here in town. We had no idea what to expect, not knowing anything at all about the artist or her work. But it was a blast! A-chan had lots of fun, even more than we did because she got to play with other children for a while. It was incredible how they made up their own game (basically run around the room in circles, lol) since there weren't any toys or anything. In fact, I think it went so much better because there were no toys to get possessive over, etc.

It was kind of strange to let A-chan run rings around the (fantastic) table of food with the other children. It's not something that I'm ever sure is okay with the rest of the adults in the room. This time I kind of just figured that if the other parents are letting their children run then why shouldn't A-chan join in the fun? And really no one seemed to mind at all.

But we are extra worried about A-chan's socialization right now. She doesn't see many other children, there are only 5 kids that she has ever known on a consistent basis. Three of those girls will be moving to another state soon and the other two she's at least semi-afraid of because they are more aggressive than she. A-chan longs to play with other children, though and we see that again and again with her in situations like the art show. No matter how much she wants to play she is reserved and always waits for us to say it's okay. So we've been wondering how to find other children for her to play with and get to know. It's a strange question because most people don't even have to think about it...their children are in daycare and make friends or they live in a neighborhood with other children, etc.

Here are 2 pictures of A-chan playing with her Yeni-bear and my glasses. *sigh* "look, A-chan dressed up like a tiger, go ROAR!" she pronounced upon seeing these pictures, lol.

The Cranky Continuum

This week has been a very difficult one. A-chan was sick in the early part, I have been sick yesterday and today. Since neither of us was feeling well there was a large crankiness continuum that descended on wednesday.

It started with one of my pet peeves: food issues. I am not quite sure why, but whenever a problem comes up between A-chan and myself it usually involves food. Food seems to be a major issue for me, one that I didn't have a clue about until A-chan became old enough to eat solids. Requiring the consumption of all the food on one's plate is not anything that I ask of my toddler. (When my stepmother would require this I never could understand it, specially since she was a proper southern lady who heaped and I do mean heaped PILES of food on our plates that some adults couldn't even get through. Thus I am disinclined from this particular stipulation for my child!) However, I do ask that she eat in a timely manner. Eating lunch for over an hour but still having taken only 5 bites is a huge irritation for me. Particularly when I have spent all that time asking her politely over and over to eat just a little bit and she ignores me...then when I finally ask if she is done and she says yes...so I take away her plate and then she goes bonkers into a crying screaming tantrum about the food going away.

I simply am incapable of understanding this behaviour and it's driving all of us nuts. Spending my time at the lunch or dinner table cajoling A-chan into eating something is frustrating, but the tantrums are the worst part. So on wednesday there was an altercation following this pattern and when she screamed at me for taking away her food, I yelled back. I absolutely hate the fact that I yelled at her. And when she had a bad dream last night about "got in trouble at lunch and mata yelled at me" I felt really horrible, low down, awful and like the worst mother ever.

But I hope that her bad dream might help remind me in future that while I might not be feeling good, I might be very frustrated with her, she might be completely irrational about how and when and why she eats her food - I shouldn't yell at her because I love her so much and there is nothing worth yelling at her. It's really difficult to get over this strange thing I have about her eating habits. I wish that I knew where it came from in the first place. I'm beginning to think that it's the hardest part of being a parent (at least for me), particularly because it's not something that I ever had problems with before becoming a parent so how do I deal with it and make it go away?

Rani, Rani, Rani!

In our travels we have picked up an unusual assortment of jewelry that doesn't see all that much use on a day to day basis. The silver is not kept very shiny and there are no sparkling jewels, but that doesn't seem to matter in toddler eyes. It's all perfect for dressing up in!

The extremely large number of bells upon the dancing anklets was pretty loud as one might imagine. She really enjoyed stamping her feet for the effect. We tried on some other jewelry sets before this one, but this seemed to be her favorite.

The Milk Gestapo

Milk, which until now has had little importance to our toddler, has suddenly become a large issue at dinner. Where before she had to be bribed to drink milk whether soy milk or cow's milk, A-chan has apparently developed a new love! Particularly Silk soy milk.

The problem exists because rather than eating any of her dinner, she will drink down her milk and ask for more - not just once but several times a meal. Forgotten on her plate is the food to such an extent that she would rather drink milk than eat her most favorite. (though we haven't tried any kind of dessert on her plate and I think the sweet would win over milk but we don't know for sure.)

So I have taken to stern rules regarding milk consumption. She can drink half a glass and then I take it away for a bit and require her to eat a few bites of her meal before she can drink anymore. It has been working, but I feel pretty darn horrible about it when every time she wants to take a drink she looks to me for permission first. With her hand upon the glass, she will wait until she catches my eye and I either nod permission or shake my head no at which point she will drink or let go the glass, depending on my response.

It makes me feel very bad, like I'm being a horrible controlling mother. But she needs to get some food into her, not just milk, right?

The secondary problem with the amount of milk consumption is that she used to be allergic to soy when she was a baby. She's done okay with tofu for a while now, but the last few days she's had a lot of tummy upset. We are worried that the allergy is showing up again and are going to switch to cow's milk for a few days to see what happens.

Translation

Now that A-chan has really begun to be interested in talking to everyone she meets, things are getting interesting with translation! Yesterday she had to tell several people that "duck poop got on my shoes" and today she did some "little doggie has floppy ears". People get such quizzical looks on their faces when they don't understand her, but they are usually very polite and answer something noncommittal.

The duck poop was obviously a big issue yesterday since when we (Ketu, A-chan, myself, my mother & her parents) were walking around the pond she kept pointing out areas of possible duck poopage and watching to make sure none of us stepped in any. But then her very last act leaving the park was to step in some, lol.

On the purple jawa front, we spent the afternoon searching for fabric for her costume. I"m planning to get it made as soon as I can so that she will stop telling us every 5 minutes what she's going to wear at Dragoncon! It was cute to begin with, but now we're out of our minds trying to find a way to reassure her about it so that she won't continue this for the next....hmmm....3.5 months.

The Obsession

Purple Jawa. Who could ever have dreamt that an idle comment made in jest would take on a life of it's own and dominate our waking moments?

We have heard, "I dress up as a purple jawa for dragoncon" at least twice every hour all day yesterday, all day today.

Everyone that we meet has to hear about it. Phone calls are necessary to talk about it. She even told our lawn-guy!

It's gotten out of control. We can't handle it. I spent lunch yesterday researching how to make a Jawa cloak. Ph33r. (I initially brought up some websites to show her, making sure that she really did know what a jawa is which she did and to be absolutely certain she wanted to dress up as a pastel version which she does.)

I had thought that she would forget about it pretty quickly. I was sooo wrong. It's actually a very cute idea and I'm looking forward to making her costume and seeing her wear it. But I think I'll be making it really soon so that I don't have to keep reassuring her that yes, I will remember to make her a purple jawa for dragoncon.