random Bobbin happenings
Bobbin's been getting really good at letter recognition. Any book we read, or any sign we pass while driving or walking, she will immediately point out the letters she knows. "Mommy, look! That's an 'M' for you!". She also knows the "D", "R", and "T". I'm starting to work on vowels with her so that we can actually start forming words :-)
We recently got her a "Learning Tower" so she can get up to the counter and feel safe. We've tried getting her to stand on chairs or step stools to help but she doesn't feel secure. She took to this thing like a duck to water when we got home today and she saw it all set up. We call it her "Helping Tower". This evening she prepared the caprese salad (meaning she spooned it from the container into the bowl) while Tim cooked the pasta and meatballs. When she was done "making" her contribution to dinner, she insisted on carrying it to the table and then proceeded to set the rest of the table without any prodding. In fact, the TV stayed off until well after dinner!
She's also all about serving herself at dinner now. Tim and I are not allowed to serve her. Doesn't matter what we're having - she needs to be the one to take it from the serving bowl or platter and put it on her plate. It makes for some rather interesting food incidents on occasion but for the most part she's pretty neat. Every once in a while we have to remind her that the serving utensil is only for serving; not for actually consuming the food once on her own plate. Have you ever seen a two-year old try to eat a piece of chicken using a serving implement as a fork? Yeah.
Little Miss Independent also must be the one to squeeze the toothpaste onto her toothbrush, pump the soap onto her own hands, to pour her drink into her cup, change her CD in her CD player and press "play", put her own arms in her sleeves (although i'm still permitted to help with putting the shirt over her head), push her own shopping cart, and unload it at the cash register all by herself (if there's no one behind us I'll let her do the whole thing. If a line is forming, on the other hand, I will insist on "helping") and empty her own potty.
This independence also has an up side; she insists (for the most part) on cleaning up her own spills and messes. Even the icky potty ones. Thank goodness. Of course, it usually comes with a slightly hard-to-swallow pill on the side. "Mommy, walk away. Don't touch. Bobbin do it all by herself. Hands to yourself, Mommy. Hands to yourself. Ok? Are you listening? There. ALL Done. Put this in the garbage now Mommy. Mommy? Please. In the garbage now. You're not listening. You're not aspecting Bobbin. Good Girl! I'm so proud of you".
Uh... yeah.
She hasn't yet figured out though that being in the big girl bed has given her some new independence too. She's been in the bed for a month and a half now and not once has she ventured out of her bed, much less her room, after she's been tucked in. I think I'm ok with that. I occasionally wish for a gentle nudge on the arm instead of the loud and sudden "MOMMYYYYYYYY BOBBIN'S AWAKE! MOMMY COME HERE! COME HERE MOMMY!" that is often my wake up call. But I'm careful what I wish for because I know it isn't likely to be as gentle as I'd want when it does finally happen :-) Or maybe she has figured it out but would much prefer I come to her as opposed to her coming to me. That would be in character :-)
Bobbin's also started rhyming and "reciting" her own made up poems. She'll sit in the car seat on the way to school, and pound out
Bob-bin cat and
it's a hat
For sky no pie
Oh guy dah bye
One two twee
bee and bee
in a one-two rhythm. We'll also play the rhyme game where I say a word and she has to rhyme it. She hasn't quite mastered the on-the-spot rhyme so sometimes for lack of an actual word at the ready in the fore front of her head, she'll make one up that rhymes with the word I said. Or she'll pick the word and I have to rhyme it. And when I shout out a word that doesn't rhyme she'll call me "silly mommy" and tell me to do it again.
She's really taken to soccer too, now that we have been able to go a couple of weeks in a row. She loves her coach and mimics her at home. Her coach will start out each practice by having them sit around her in a semi circle on their soccer balls, and then she'll roll a ball to each kid and shout out "What's your name?" and usually the kid will sit there smiling and the parent will shout out the kid's name. And then the coach will shout out "And what'd ya have for breakfast?" and the kid will whisper something to the parent and the parent will shout back "Pancakes!" or whatever it was the kid ate. And then the kid (or more often the parent) will roll the ball back to her and she'll move on to the next kid. The coach is all of about 16 years old, but Bobbin calls her "Coach" as if it's her actual name, and she looks up to her as the authority for all things soccer. As she should. And during this little intro exercise when the ball comes to her she will loudly respond "Bobbin" and "Pancakes" after a only a short hesitation and shy smile, and roll the ball back. At home though, when Bobbin is pretending to be coach, she belts out the questions at the top of her voice:
"MOMMY! WHAT'S YOUR NAME?!"
Mommy!
"AND WHAT'DYA HAVE FOR BREAKFAST?!"
a bagel
"YUM! GOOD GIRL MOMMY! DADDY! WHAT'S YOUR NAME?!"
Her own latest favourite breakfast food, to say at least but not to eat, is Spangled Eggs. Aka scrambled eggs. I'm not entirely sure where Spangled comes from. In my mind it makes sense as a combination of scrambled and mangled but I'm pretty sure we haven't used the word "mangled" in front of her so the word is entirely of her own creation. But she's completely consistent with it. Spangled eggs. I'm not sure but I seem to recall that being what my sister called scrambled eggs as a kid. Sarah? Dad?
I leave for Barcelona in a couple of weeks. I'll be gone 6 days total; leave on a Saturday morning and back late on the following Thursday night. I'm dreading it. I'm going to MISS her terribly. All of these little things that we do every day. Our rhyme game. Our pretend play. Even her "reading" to me while I'm sitting on the toilet because Bobbin thinks it will "help your poopy come, Mommy. Yah! Bobbin read to you a story, ok? Then your poopy will come really fast". Ok maybe I might enjoy peeing and pooping in private without an audience or running commentary or play-by-play back to Tim. but I will miss the rest of it.
And what new thing is she going to start doing in the 6 days that I'm gone?! Nothing big I hope. I don't want to miss it. On the other hand, I do want her to be confident enough to try or start something new while I'm not here because that'll be a big developmental milestone for her. And me.
Comments
I can't remember what I called scrambled eggs, but I do remember Queen Anne's Lice and
Posted by Sarah on February 1, 2008 5:15 AM."minstrel" cramps (I saw my first PMS commercial while learning about the middle ages in school...long before I learned about ovaries).