Haiku

Felicity's cute
Waking up at 4 a.m.
Is not very cute

The Trials and Tribulations of a Verbal Toddler

I have to admit it, I love that Felicity has words. It's hilarious most of the time to hear this little voice explain things to me, even if it's just, "More water, please, Mommy." But lately I have gotten a taste of a little vocabulary being a dangerous thing.

So, there's no better way to say this than to just say it. Felicity, well, has developed an affinity for talking about her "nina." "Nina" is her word for her private parts. She tells me that "nina" goes "pee-pee" and she also tells me when "nina" wants things...like juice or gummy bears. It's a bit strange, I'll admit, but at least she's understanding her anatomy, even if she is prone to personification.

So, you can only imagine the actual fear that I had when she started exclaiming "nina ouch" and "nina pee-pee hurt tee-tee." At first I was optimistic: Maybe she hated being wet and was ready for the potty. I had visions of her using the potty, my not needing to lug the diaper bag around anymore, and I had a taste of freedom. For just a second. But the complaining escalated and she began to get upset more. She seemed legitimately in pain.

Fast forward: Three hours of breastfeeding, two doctors, one horrific cathetar urine specimen, numerous nurses, an x-ray, and a triatholon of sorts around the emergency room later, there is NOTHING WRONG with her. She is fine. Nina is fine. But she is still complaining. (Felicity is complaining, that is. Despite her longing for gummy bears, Nina has been remarkably silent on this issue.)

So, we're back to where we started. No resolution. No explanation. Just another mystery of toddlerdom... If only Nina really could talk...

She "sings"!!

On Saturday morning Felicity started singing full lines of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She really only knows "How I wonder what you are," but she seems quite fond of singing that line over and over again.

Sometimes it gets a bit conflated with A-B-C-D and comes out a bit strange, but she definitely likes to sing the line--perhaps because her Daddy gives her a big round of applause!

This weekend has been truly hilarious in terms of language. She is repeating more sentences and when they come out of her mouth they are quite funny. At school they are trying to work with her to stop crying or getting frustrated (or shoving another child) when someone takes a toy away from her. So, they frequently say, "Don't push him, Felicity. Use your words." And then they follow this by saying, "Tell him 'No!' 'Mine.'" So, when she was getting frustrated this weekend and yelling at her purpushoes, I told her, "Don't yell, Felicity. Use your words. Say, 'help me, Mommy.'" And, although she did say, "Help me" occasionally, most of the time when I told her to "Use her words," no matter what the context, she exclaimed, "No. Mine."

At least she's learning...

Hives...

Hi there everyone! We have had an eventful Easter weekend. It began with two trips to the emergency room on Saturday for what has been diagnosed as a case of hives. One epi shot, three doses of predinisone and a ton of benadryl later, we still have this-->

It's been frustrating because we can't figure out what is causing it. No changes in food. No changes in soap. No changes in anything... Dr. Sears says that toddlers can get hives that are caused by a virus. So, here's hoping that this is all that it is. A virus seems somehow more manageable than, say, a wheat allergy! So, time will tell. It has been interesting to note that I do have one of those toddlers who is energized by benadryl as opposed to sedated. Glad I never dosed her before a long plane flight!!

Despite the hives we managed to have a pretty o.k. weekend. We attended a birthday party after the hives disappeared on Saturday (only to come back full force.) And on Sunday after they were down again we went to the children's museum. Felicity LOVED the children's museum. This was the first time that I think she "got it."



She very much enjoyed pretending to shop atthe grocerystore. She stocked her cart. And she even checked out!

She also enjoyed the water area, which, despite her rubber smock, proved to be a VERY wet experience. She LOVES to get wet.

Besides playing in the water, Felicity did manage to take care of some animals in the animal hospital. She bandaged a doggies "boo-boo" and she looked carefully at some x-rays.


Perhaps her absolute favorite thing, though...and this is out of EVERYTHING...











Was the music. She played in this area for a long long time....


So, despite our hives disaster we had an o.k. week. She's still inflamed and looks horrible, but she doesn't seem all that bothered. Occasionally she'll look down and say, "Spots!" but for the most part she is content to run around, try on everyone's shoes, and chat up a storm.

Her favorite thing to say right now is "all done." But she has stopped using it just in a food context. When friends of hers at school are crowding around her favorite teacher, Melissa (she says, "Mee-ma,") she'll let them know that they are "all done." And when Daddy is giving Felicity a bath and Mommy comes in the bathroom, she exclaims, "Daddy all done." And, at the hospital, when the doctor came in to examine her, before he had even gotten out his stethescope, she told him, "All done."

So, throughout all of this weekend we have seen even more words and more sentences. She continues to be obsessed with colors and identifying everything in terms of color. This morning she let me know that the zit on my chin was "red" and then declared the rest of my skin to be "yellow." Perhaps I am looking a little jaundiced?

I'll leave you all with a big smile from our favorite little girl as she eats (messily) a very juicy apple.

Some recent photos

O.K. So I think she's starting to look like me :)