June 2015

This month we noticed another huge leap in your communication skills and general understanding of things.

You now tell me which directions things are in when we go places in the car.  It started in Olney with you asking me to turn the car around to go back to Grandma & Grandpa's house and pointing behind us in case I wasn't sure which way it was.  Now you tell me "that way is school" or, one of my favorites, "look, we're here" when we get to our street.  The last time we went to the Zimmer Children's Museum I didn't tell you where we were going, only that we were going to do something fun.  When I parked the car I asked if you knew where we were and you squealed, "museum!" with glee.

On the airplane coming home from Illinois you declared there was a bug in your ear during landing to describe the change in pressure.

You rarely wear jeans lately, but the last time you did you learned how to zip them yourself and wanted to do it every time we went potty.

You've been getting better and better at putting your own shoes on and taking them off.

You love rocks.  Anytime we go anywhere if there are rocks you always stop to pick them up.  Pebbles, stones, even large rocks, you like them all.  A couple of months ago I let you start a little rock collection at home and when we are out and about sometimes if we find a good rock I let you pick one out and we bring it home to clean and add to your collection.

One week my yoga class was canceled so I came home and did a yoga video here instead.  You and Daddy came home from the park while I was still doing it and you were very interested.  Since then I found some kids yoga videos on You Tube and we often do them together.  I think you like to watch more than participate, but you do try some of the poses.

You are very inquisitive.  You are always asking "what's that?"  Which may be referring to something you are pointing at or may be referring to a noise.  You like to know what every noise you hear is.  You also frequently ask "who's that?"  I think you expect that Daddy and I know everything and everyone.  Unfortunately, when we're out and about, more often than not, I don't know any of the people you are asking about.

You love trucks.  When you pretend to talk on the phone I always ask who you are talking to.  It's usually Kelly, sometimes Josh (you say this is Uncle Josh, which Daddy and I find interesting since you haven't seen him in over a year), or maybe Grandpa.  But if I ask what you are talking about, it's always "trucks."  When we are in the car you turn on your truck radar and point out every truck we see, and always make sure to tell me when it's behind us if we drive past.  You even name them when you can:  trash trucks, dump trucks, and your favorite:  backhoes.  Because Grandpa drives large machinery, I have made it my personal goal to teach you the proper names of all large trucks whenever possible.

One day you and I were on the balcony with the door open and you were going in and out at your leisure.  It occurred to me that you know how to operate the locks on the doors and if I wasn't careful you could lock me out.  Sure enough, only a few days later you were on the balcony with Dad.  You came inside, shut the door, and locked it.  You decided to let him in pretty quickly, but you were quite pleased with yourself for a moment when you realized you had power over him.

You know your left from your right.

You told Miss Hara that your favorite animal was a zebra.  I was surprised and interested in this development.

You have started addressing me directly after everything you say.  "There's a helicopter, Mommy."  "I need some more crackers, Mom."  "Pick me up, Mama."  It's kind of adorable and makes me feel loved.

Finally, and possibly most importantly, you started going to school on your own!  Huge steps for you and me both.  It's only been two weeks so far but you are doing great.  We had a last minute class change (which I think was a great thing).  And since we hadn't really met with your teacher yet, she invited all the students and parents to come in for an hour the day before class started to meet her and get the students (and parents) comfortable.  Then the next day she offered to let us stay as long as we needed but encouraged us to try to leave if possible.  We went in a little early to get settled, then I stayed for about the first 30 minutes and left.  You had a great time, there were no tears (for either of us), and all the teachers and several Moms who stayed told me you did really great.  Your teacher is Miss Hara, with Miss Sunshine and Miss Renee also in the room and they are all great.  I'm so excited for you, and also excited for me too.  I think this is going to be really great for us all.  Right now you go two days a week for 3 hours, and in the fall it will be 3 days for around 4 hours.

First day of school, before school.

First day of school, after school.  Notice that your socks are now gray.  We had to take off your shoes and socks before we could get in the car.  I consider this an indication of how much fun you had, and I don't mind if you come home filthy every single day if it means you're having a good time.

Sleepy girl.  You haven't been feeling well for the second half of the month.  Right now you are starting to feel a little better, but we are still waiting to get the results back from some tests being done.  I'm not going into detail on this right now because we don't really know the cause, but if it's worthy of writing about, I'll add more when we know.

Sidewalk chalk!

We had our second water main break right outside the apartment, which meant another day of construction workers (or in your words, "mans") busy outside all day.  You spent most of the day right here standing on your stool at the window, and we had lunch outside on the landing so you could watch then too.  "It's a backhoe, Mom!"

We went to the California Science Center to see the Endeavour space shuttle.  We'll probably go back another time to see more of the museum when you are a little older, but Daddy had been sick and still wasn't feeling 100% the day we went.  It was still cool to see this exhibit though.

The shuttle was flown to LA from Florida on the back of an airplane and flew all over the city before landing at the airport then beginning it's journey through the city streets to get to the Science Center.  This was a pretty big deal here a few years ago.  On the day it was flying over the city, I was home sick from morning sickness and could have possibly been able to see it fly by if I'd remembered to drag myself out of bed to the window.  I blame you.  ;)

We also visited a kids play room, had lunch, and ended our visit with a stroll through the rose gardens and fountain while we were at the museum.

And you and Daddy picked up a Toyota truck.

Father's Day.  What better way to celebrate than a nap on Daddy?

Helping in the kitchen.

Being silly.

Playing dress up in Daddy's shirt.

I thought you looked a bit like Princess Leia.

This is how we eat cherries.

I thought I had a really great idea of getting you a little bin of sand to play with your trucks on the balcony.

But it lasted only one day before you decided the bin wasn't necessary and dumped the whole thing out.  Now we just have a little sand pit on the balcony. 

I try to keep it swept up and semi-neat, but you like playing with the broom, so you can imagine how that goes.

I think you like this statue so much because he's just your size.

You thought he needed some rocks in his bucket.

A recent visit to the Zimmer Children's Museum.

That's all folks!