I’m just not even going to mention how late this entry is or the reasons why because they’re all the same boring reasons recycled month after month. At any rate, the girl is now 33 months old! 2.75 years old already!
[[image:2011-0422-22.jpg:Fashionably bored?:center:0]]
Honestly, I like the picture above because we rarely see this expression of calmness and peace about her. 😉
* As usual, mouse over the pictures for captions
It has been a quiet and rainy month. Poor Yaya only got to go to the playground maybe twice this entire time we’ve been home (and we didn’t go out to New Jersey this month). Why? Are we just lazy parents trying to raise a couch potato? Well, not quite. It’s just rained almost every day for weeks now. The backyard will be sprouting mangroves and alligators will be migrating there soon. We are all getting such cabin fever – poor Yaya goes out even less now than during the cold winter months. At least then she can be bundled up and go out. In the rain it’s less fun for everyone. So no playground for Yaya. She had to play indoors with us, poor thing. Snow in March, rain almost the entire month of April, what next?
Dinner time has been more music and more circle toast with raisins for Yaya (sadly). She did eat mangos a few times, and still consistently eats bananas. Most of her nutrition is still coming from the amazing quantities of milk that she tends to put away daily. Given that she’s refusing to eat everything, we haven’t tried to limit her milk intake. She also loves my Silk chocolate soy milk. But she won’t try any other chocolate things.
She’s speaking in full sentences and growing tall enough to just casually reach the light switch to turn lights off and on in the house. We have since become quite un-green due to the number of lights that are on at the oddest (and unnecessary) times. She knows a few nursery rhymes now (Hey diddle diddle, Humpty Dumpty, and Little Miss Muffett). She loves to wear her bee halloween costume from two years ago, and run around the house as a “buzzy bee”. We play let’s pretend a lot now. Sometimes she is a Princess Kitkat Ballerina Girl (wearing her pink tutu), sometimes she’s a frog hopping around. Sometimes she’s a doctor, and sometimes she’s Super Yaya with a cape tied around her neck. Mostly she likes to be a baby cat or a baby dog. When she’s a baby dog she crawls around barking and comes up to lick our faces, which is of course ridiculously cute. Also lots of playing ball in the house while it rains. She still loves all her little musical instruments and runs around making music quite often. She’s still very much into building things with her blocks. However, potty training is not going well. She absolutely refuses to go on the potty. We’re still trying though. Wish us luck.
A new show has become one of our favorites – Peppa Pig, on Nick Jr. It’s really quite funny. Vin and I enjoy it too. Wonder Pets is still a perennial favorite, but she does enjoy a variety of shows. Thank god for the DVR because we record a bunch of her favorite programs and can play them whenever she requests them. She’s good at telling you exactly which episode of which program she is in the mood for. 🙂
Her bedtime book is Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever with a dollop of Are You My Mother thrown in every so often. Bedtimes are usually fun and extra cuddly for everyone, something we all look forward to. Yaya is pretty good about going upstairs, brushing her teeth, taking a bath, and settling down to read before going to bed. She’s getting better at actually brushing her teeth although I think it’s still primarily to eat the (safe to swallow, fluoride-free) berry flavored toothpaste. Naptime is another matter though. She’s still not ready to go without her daytime nap (it’s not pretty when she skips it) but she often fights it during the day. Lately naptime has been in the realm of 4:30-6:30 PM, thereabouts, which really screws up Vin’s and my day. Luckily it hasn’t seemed to affect her bedtime – bedtime is still at its usual time.
Let’s move on to how she spent her birthday. It was a Friday so Mama had to work. Yaya sat on her potty chair and watched TV (no, she did not go potty in the potty chair).
[[image:2011-0422-01.jpg:Like my froggy potty?:center:0]]
[[image:2011-0422-02.jpg:Don’t think I’m actually going to go though!:center:0]]
Eventually we give up and she begs for a diaper and gets it. I guess her sitting on the potty at all is encouraging, but whatever.
[[image:2011-0422-03.jpg:What shall we do today, Papa?:center:0]]
[[image:2011-0422-04.jpg:Let’s be a buzzy bee!:center:0]]
[[image:2011-0422-05.jpg:But what do bees do?:center:0]]
[[image:2011-0422-06.jpg:They wrap themselves in a blanket and jump out yelling SURPRISE:center:0]]
[[image:2011-0422-07.jpg:They do push ups:center:0]]
[[image:2011-0422-08.jpg:Papa, blow the balloon?:center:0]]
[[image:2011-0422-09.jpg:Papa blows the balloon:center:0]]
[[image:2011-0422-10.jpg:Let’s build something:center:0]]
And then it is time to try for a nap. Yaya has been napping on the sofa downstairs lately.
[[image:2011-0422-11.jpg:Lying down with Purrsley, keeping an eye on the TV:center:0]]
[[image:2011-0422-12.jpg:She’s down for the count, people!:center:0]]
During Yaya’s naptime Vin tries to get things done – organizing, cleaning, as well as getting his workout in whenever he can. One nice thing about the late nap is that she tends to sleep fairly soundly. Of course, the late naptime means that Mama is stuck in the office and tends to be forced to work late. She wakes up if she sees me – I’m a distraction at naptime apparently. Oh well. It also makes it challenging for me to cook dinner and spend time with Yaya in the evenings, since she naps so late. Anyway, Yaya gets up and guess who naps with Purrsley?
[[image:2011-0422-13.jpg:Lily hugs Purrsley:center:0]]
[[image:2011-0422-14.jpg:Yaya gatecrashes the party:center:0]]
[[image:2011-0422-16.jpg:Following Lily to the laundry room:center:0]]
[[image:2011-0422-17.jpg:Kiss the Kitkat:center:0]]
[[image:2011-0422-15.jpg:Watching TV on Papa’s napping chair:center:0]]
We’re not sure where she got it, but if you ask her a question that she needs to think about, she puts her finger to her chin, cocks her head and says “Hmmmm” (see below).
[[image:2011-0422-19.jpg:Hmmmmmm:center:0]]
[[image:2011-0422-20.jpg:Sunglasses indoors – I’m a rock star:center:0]]
And then it was time for dinner.
[[image:2011-0422-21.jpg:In the high chair with her special blue crayon box:center:0]]
[[image:2011-0422-23.jpg:Mama, draw something!:center:0]]
I made a cake and put the frosting on it that day.
[[image:2011-0422-24.jpg:Lemon chocolate chunk cake:center:0]]
Yaya insisted on having dessert. As she said, “Chocolate cake!!!!”
[[image:2011-0422-25.jpg:Yaya uses her fork:center:0]]
Do you think she actually tasted any of it though? The cake, the frosting. Maybe she licked the fork? Nope! No way, man. She refused it completely and proceeded to messily feed me her piece of cake. Like so:
[[image:2011-0422-27.jpg:Mama eat it!!!!:center:0]]
[[image:2011-0422-26.jpg:Happy to play with the dirty fork:center:0]]
And soon after, it was bath- and bedtime for little girls. The end. 🙂 Thanks for another fun day and a fun month! Sorry we had to keep you indoors mostly but you did get to jump in muddy puddles every so often!
Happy birthday, baby! We love you! And now it’s time for me to go back to bed. Good night! Here’s Papa and Yaya bidding you adieu:
[[image:2011-0422-18.jpg:See y’alls next month!:center:0]]
