Mommy's home!

When mommy came back Saturday am March 5th, little did we know all of the weekend activities in store for Scarlett. First we went to the soft playroom. She played for about half an hour with a few other kids in there and she had a great time except for a little boy landing on top of her in the ball pit. After that she was afraid of (a) the ball pit and (b) that boy. Next it was off to Shonna's (and now Scarlett's) favorite book store in Alexandria. On Saturday's at 10:30, they do a story time for toddlers. Its pretty amazing to watch. All of the kids sit at attention, listen, and participate the entire half hour. Scarlett continues to be a little shy when introduced to a new group, but she warms up and is her usual flirty self within 5-10 minutes. Scarlett loves the stories, but also loves post story time- running around the store, grabbing books, and playing with the toys. We picked up a few more Susan Boynton books on our way out which made the bookstore (and Scarlett) happy.

After we left the store, we noticed quite a few people wearing green... Doh!!! Shonna then realized it was the Alexandria St. Patty's Day parade... on March 5th? A month prior, we discussed going to the parade early so that Scarlett could be apart of the kids walk. Maybe next year! We were still there in plenty of time, but we certainly weren't dressed for a green parade. I was in a brown sweat shirt, Shonna was wearing gray, and Scarlett was wearing purple. What to do, what to do... well, we decided to go for it! We were off to search for green and watch (not participate in) the parade. As you can see by the pictures, we did ok and even went over-the-top with a crazy hat and hair piece. What the heck, right? We were able to find most of our gear at Old Town's Irish Walk. Go figure, right? Alexandria added to the fun beginning with a bunch of historic cars leading the charge. Is a Delorean "historic"? Who knew? And who knew that a car would become historic based on the movie "Back to the Future"!?!

We cut the parade short because of hunger so we headed to a pizza shop on King St. Its was pretty good and there were plenty of kids and moms to keep Scarlett busy! She was in heaven. Food, flirting, and funny. She makes us laugh, and laugh often. She also found a slightly younger little girl to entertain by playing peek-a-boo with her from under our huge new St. Patty's day hat. As usual, she go quite a few comments because of her antics.

Speaking of hunger...

We returned from our Alexandria trip and enjoyed a family nap. Mine lasted about an hour, Scarlett's 90 minutes, and Shonna's 2.5. After all, she did just fly cross country overnight. When everyone was up and ready, we went to Tyson's Corner Center to meet Penny and Jerry. They are amazing artists and they consistently turn regular everyday photos into comic book art. Talk about awesome gifts! Check out http://bigheadslittlebodies.com/. If any of you have been to our house, you may have noticed this artwork hanging on our wall. But I digress... we were hungry and decided to go across the street to Cafe Deluxe. I love that place because its a little out of the ordinary. Great food, and not that pricey. Shonna ordered salmon, Scarlett ordered the kids veggie meal, and I had the lamb. Scarlett liked the asparagus, but didn't care for the spinach. We were having a difficult time feeding her so we let her try everything on the table. Then suddenly EUREKA! she discovered lamb, and soon after, fatty gristled bone. If you have viewed my facebook page, you've witnessed Scarlett's new fascination with leg of lamb bones. Scarlett gnawed through the remaining meat, fat, and gristle and would not let up. She was like a crazy person! Her focus and determination were quite impressive. She was in heaven. After she finally put the bone down, we took her out of her highchair and let her roam around the table (we had a corner table next to a booth, so all sides were blocked). That lasted for about 10 minutes and then larger pastures were required. We walked to the bathroom for a quick change, and on the way back to the table, we discovered a party of 5 sitting at a booth (2 kids). The 3 year old boy was so excited to see Scarlett that he started playing games with her. She jumped up on the vacant booth next to them (right behind the boy), and they started playing peekaboo. I was lucky enough to get a video and I'll try to post it here. If it's too large, I'll put it on facebook. Needless to say, the video was a microcosm of the entire day. Scarlett had a blast.

Sunday = swimming day! A couple of weeks earlier, Shonna and I bought Scarlett a new swim suit from a local specialty store http://www.sportfairusa.com/. At the same time, we bought ourselves a pair of goggles so we could swim laps. Sunday was the first day we attempted laps, although that wasn't necessarily our intention. To this point we would spend 30 minutes in the pool as a family. Scarlett is generally limited to 30 minutes max in the pool because she gets cold, tired, that's what the general rules at Arlington County specify for someone her age. For us to incorporate laps, the idea is for one of us to arrive 15-30 minutes early, swim laps, then head to the kiddie pool when Scarlett arrives, while the other eventually switches to the lap pool. This particular Sunday we arrived as a family but I decided to test the lap lanes anyway. 10-12 laps later in the 25 meter pool, I was done... talk about being out of swimming shape. I used to swim a mile every time I entered a lap pool. Not no mo! I went back to the kiddie pool and Shonna gave it a try. Same deal! If I were to assign a percentile, we were in the bottom 1% of folks who use the lap lanes...

So this blog is about Scarlett... Scarlett had her best day swimming yet. She started using her legs a little more and really began splashing with her hands. She is slowly starting to move her body like a dolphin. It's pretty impressive. She loves moving through the water. She also loves to be tossed as high as we can physically throw her. The higher she goes, the bigger her smile. On this particular swim day, she found a new favorite game. It was pretty funny actually. The pool has a bunch of foam dumbbells and Scarlett was fascinated by them. They are located in a couple of bins near the wall, but a few were scattered around the pool decks so she noticed them and pointed with an "I want that!". I didn't give in and we continued playing in the pool. I made the mistake of playing "humpty dumpty" by sitting her on the side of the pool. Normally she waits for one of us to say "humpty dumpty sat on a wall, humpty dumpty had a great..... FALL" and she dives on us. This time I sat her on the side and in a flash she sprung up and ran towards a dumbbell. This was bad on many levels. First, a 16 month old child is running down a pool deck by herself. Second, a 16 month old is running towards the adult pool. Third, she is running! Anyway I jumped out of the pool and went after Scarlett. She refused to go anywhere until she had a dumbbell in her hands. We took one with us to the kiddie pool and she went on playing. Apparently one wasn't enough. Now instead of humpty dumpty, she pulled herself out of the pool with no help. ARE YOU SERIOUS? Most adults can't do that. They usually use the stairs or ladder. Well, all Shonna and I could do was watch. Unfortunately this was all part of a master plan to sprint and get more dumbbells. Here I go again... Being a former life guard, I used to put kids in "timeout" for being multiple running offenders, although none of them were 16 months of age (funny story- one kid was such a brat, I gave him a choice: sit on the bench for 15 minutes or leave the pool for the day. He chose the former, but little did he know that I purposefully timed it just before the ice cream truck arrived:). Scarlett wasn't really on any lifeguard's radar, but it did go through my mind. She discovered another game at the pool that day -- BASKETBALL. She always gets excited about the balls and likes to watch the kids play basketball, bu his time we happened to lift her over our heads and let her "dunk". Boy did we not realize what we were getting ourselves into! For the next two minutes we just had to do that over and over again until the pool closed. We had to keep trading off because she's over 20 pounds and when lifted directly over your head and held there while she aims, she gets heavy! When all was said and done, she had spent over an hour in the pool. So much for the 30 minute rule...

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I might have mentioned before that I'm keeping a running list of the words/phrases that Scarlett says. In January she was right around 35 words, give or take. By the end of February she was around 70 words. By early March she was around 85 words (and those are just the ones we remember!)! Her speech is also getting much more clear/easier to understand, which is a nice change. I can't believe how fast she is picking things up. She understands almost everything we say (or at least she seems to) and she only has to see something once to figure it out. She has started doing the hokie pokie (although for every verse she sticks her left foot in) and ring around the rosie. She loves being read to right now, but she likes the same books over and over again. She likes when I read First 100 Words (Bright Baby Board Book), various Susan Boynton books (Snuggle Puppy, Pajama Time, One Two Three, Barnyard Dance), and Pajama Mamas. She wants me to put them in rotation and then go through the rotation at least 3 times. She anticipates what comes next (for example, with Pajama Mamas, before I even get to the page, she starts laughing and hugs herself for "Happy hug Mama") and seems to still be learning, so I don't want to discourage it, no matter how old it gets! The only downside is that she pretty much rejects any other book right now. She recently even started "reading" on her own. She'll pick out a book and turn the pages and say words she remembers from that book (like "Ow!" in Doodle Bites when Doodle bites his friend, the elephant on her back side). It amazes me that her memory is that good in that she remember which words are in which books and is recognizing the pictures and associating them with the right words.

Other fun things... She blows on her food ("hot!"), tells us when the water is too hot in the bath, and has clear preferences now for what she wants to wear and eat. For example, it used to be that we'd open her closet in the morning and I picked something out for her to wear while she was in my arms. Now I either have to distract her with books/toys or be prepared for her to make the decisions. She will grab something from the closet and keep putting it in my hand until I agree or listen to her cry. As much as I hate to admit it, it is usually something pink. She also has preferences for which shoes she wants to wear and which coat. I was expecting it, but not his early. I guess I just need to make sure that I like EVERYTHING we buy! :)

She is saying more phrases now and singing along to most rhymes and songs. She sings along to the Humpty Dumpty rhyme Paul talked about before as well as at least a dozen of he stupid songs I tend to sing to her throughout he course of the day. She is even requesting books by name now (e.g., "Mama baby" for Pajama Mamas, "Pajama" for Pajama Time). One of her favorite things to do right now is to "scare" people. She says "Baaaah" and holds her arms out toward you (sort of like she is casting a spell). It' supposed to be like a "Boo" but it isn't very scary since its in a quiet, high pitched baby voice. Oh well. She has the right idea. She also plays games with Paul like saying his name over and over until he says hers, then they alternate. Funny girl. Here's a list of some of her words:

1. Mama
2. Dada
3. Dog
4. Baby
5. Hi / Hello
6. Bye bye
7. Balloon
8. Up
9. Uh oh
10. I love you
11. Awww
12. No
13. Yeah
14. Please
15. Open
16. Bacchus
17. Ball
18. Yay
19. Yuck
20. Yummy/yum yum
21. Bee (like bumble bee)
22. Red
23. bear
24. that
25. duck
26. I want that
27. hot
28. down
29. off
30. on
31. cat/kitty
32. Scarlett
33. Bottle
34. happy
35. dance
36. bang
37. boo
38. I want down
39. boom
40. plop
41. touch down
42. puppies
43. pig
44. cow
45. moo
46. kisses
47. peas
48. hat
49. strawberries
50. bath
51. sheep
52. baa
53. book
54. I did it
55. eye
56. nose
57. happy/be happy
58. bumble bee
59. Paul
60. two
61. block
62. Pooh (Winnie the Pooh)
63. Push
64. Shoes
65. Nonni
66. nine (she helps me count, but only two and nine typically come in the right order!)
67. brrr (like when its cold)
68. all done and all gone
69. burp (she says “burp” every time she burps J)
70. butt
71. belly
72. more
73. book
74. bounce
75. poop
76. pool
77. ow
78. bumble
79. bubbles
80. purple
81. Axel
82. Blake
83. Pink
84. Stuck
85. Chicken
86. hug
87. heavy
88. three
89. humpty dumpty
90. go