Russian

Yesterday was my last day with Jolanda (for now). She is going to Europe to study for several months and then she will have a practicum in Toronto and another in Portland before she finally comes back to me. I will not see her for a lot of months and I am heartbroken.

To try to convince her to stay, I was extra cute yesterday. I dressed in my orange sunsuit (which is her favorite outfit of mine and she calls it my "pumpkin dress").

I learned something new about Jolanda yesterday. When she was studying Russian (who even knew that she also knew Russian???), she would write her grocery lists in that language to help her learn. wow is she ever smart. We have decided that, if anyone else is to ever work with me, she is the standard by which all others will be judged. Not that we would EVER ever EVER in a hundred million years hire someone from Craigslist, we checked out what kind of "nannies" are available . . . or I should say Advailllable. They all want to be paid "in Advancced." Of course, those nannies all promise to be affordable, but you get what you pay for. Childcare is not where you want to try to save money! In the end, though, it feels like we way underpaid Jolanda; she did such a good job with me that you might think she was making the same salary as the CEO of BP.

Did anyone ever remember that my sister had Jolanda for a teacher in the high school at Waldorf?

sigh. I guess my efforts to convince her to stay failed. Now I am counting the days until her return. We have no real plans about what to do between now and then. My sister will play with me sometimes next week.

I have a photo of me and Jolanda playing on Thursday. I will post it as soon as my dad gets some photos off the camera.

scrape

In this photo, you might notice that my chin looks a bit red. (You should see it tonight.) That is because I suffered my first scrape ever this morning.

Though my career as a farmer is over (for now), I have settled into the routine of waking up way too early and going to bed early. I have also decided that I am too big for two naps so I only sleep in the morning.

When I wake up early, we go outside before it gets too hot. This morning, I was cruising around the front porch and I stepped right off the side and tumbled onto the grass. I don't know what I hit my chin on since I fell flat on my back. My dog was outside too so he rushed over to save my life by licking the top of my head. thanks, Remus.

I had a few more tumbles throughout the day. And don't try to call my mom because I bit her cell phone and it is pretty much broken.

We had a storm today so it was cool enough (85 degrees) to go walking this evening. It was nice to get out and see all of the dogs. I like the dogs at the beginning of the loop. They have red hair just like I do. They are the barkiest dogs too.

In sad news, I will only see Jolanda two more times before she leaves for Europe. I have been spending a lot of time with her lately trying to make the most of our days together. She is the greatest. I loved her from the beginning. When we first met, I was in a stage where pretty much only my mom could hold me or I would cry but I went and cuddled with Jolanda right away - no fussing. We have no plans for life after Jolanda.

expanded list

I thought of more words.

When I flip through the book Ellen gave me for my birthday, I look for the bear. When I find it, I point and say "bear."

I can also say "stuck" and "yuck." I find myself in many situations where those words apply.

Did I put light on my list? I like to point at the light even though they are almost always turned off during the summer all through my waking hours. We do not like to waste electricity.

Also, in the morning when it is time to listen to music and my mom asks me what I want to hear, I say "na na na na" meaning the Putumayo Sesame Street CD. I can sing along to Elmo's Song. I love my Sesame Street CD. It has songs from around the world . . . in French, Hebrew, Arabic, Dutch, and several other languages. There is one song that includes all 11 of South Africa's languages.

I think you get the idea. I am way smarter than an average baby.

holophrasis

At my age, I should only be able to speak between 10 and 15 words. My vocabulary is much more advanced than that. In addition to meowing like a cat, barking like several kinds of dogs, growling like a bear, and roaring like a scary dinosaur, here are the words I can say and understand the meaning of:

bath

bear

belly

bird

book

bug

bye

cat

clock

cute

D (I recognize the D from my shape-sorting barn)

deer

dog

down

duck

hippo (this is my word for water because there is a hippo on my cup)

light

mom (or mam, as I call her)

night night

no

oh no

puff

rainbow

that

uh oh

up

wow

yum

Some words, like taco, have dropped out of my vocabulary. But I had no reason to say taco anyhow. Since I spend so much time on my words, I cannot count yet but it looks to me like I might have more than 10 or 15 words in my vocabulary.

I am also starting to learn about some other languages. First off, my dad started speaking to me in Spanish and now Hector and Trinity do too. Jolanda sings to me in German and Swiss; she has taught me lots of neat songs and games from Switzerland. sigh, she leaves in less than a week.

my life as a farmer

Today was day three in my life as a farmer. It seems to be going well. The one thing that I have noticed is you sure go to bed early (7:30pm) when you are a farmer in the morning. Tomorrow, we are going to harvest a tomato.

This is a photo of me this afternoon. Don't I look attractive in green? Disregard my messy bedroom in the background, though. I tear through the house like a hurricane every minute of every day. We clean up my toys at the end of the day.

Some of the fun I have been up to this week:

Yesterday as my mom was zesting a lemon to make greek wraps for dinner, I pulled a stack of 50 (!!!!) of my dad's CDs out of the cabinet and scattered them all about the floor. I quickly discovered that putting one CD under each limb and sliding across the tile floor is as fun as ice skating. Now, before you think this sounds like I was being a trouble maker, let me tell you that I HAD to do this. You see, I have a prism that sits in the living room window and makes rainbows (bow, as I call it) on the floor and walls starting at about 5:30pm and this might just be the best part of my day. It was defective yesterday so I had to make my own rainbows. This is how my dad's CDs did not get ruined . . . because I put the writing side down so the shiny side faced up and made rainbows. Smart me!

My dog and I are both confused about who is the dog and who is the boy. For the past few days, I have been crawling into my dog's crate. I chased after him yesterday and growled like a bear (not a good way to catch a dog, I learned). When I crawl on the floor now, my dog frolics beside me and puts a paw on my back. He thinks I am a puppy in his pack!

I have also learned to climb down off furniture now so good luck catching me.

Good night. early bird catches the worm. We haven't seen any worms or scary bugs on our farm. They don't have scorpions in that area of town. lucky them.

do I look like a farmer?

This week, my mom and I are taking care of a garden. Today was our first day so we woke up very early (before the sun did) so we could get our job out of the way before the sun caught everything on fire.

The owner of the garden is a chef. He has been hired to go cook for someone who owns a private island in Maine. (hmmmm maybe I should have tagged along on that job.) So we are entrusted to keep alive fig and pomegranate trees, eggplant, grapes, a million herbs, and I cannot even remember what else. It is all stuff you know could die at the drop of a hat . . . or when it reaches 100 degrees or more like it will every day this week. I am hoping against hope for rain.

This is a photo of me after my garden job. I should have come home from "work" and slept all day but my dog has not stopped barking. A truck drove by several times this morning and ruined his life.

happy birthday +1

As promised, my mom got a snapshot of me in honor of my 13 month birthday. As you will see, she had to cage me up with a scary furry animal . . . I think it is a sasquatch. I am really not one for sitting still. ever. Happy birthday to me.

Next stop: 14.

another birthday (13)

Happy birthday to me. I am now 13 months old. wow. Today was just a typical Sunday. Got up early, went to the supermarket etc. It was unbearably hot again . . . well, everyone thought so but, really, I don't care about the heat. Since I am a ginger baby, I do have to be very careful about the sun though.

In the afternoon, we went to visit my sister at her new apartment. It is so fancy and I played with her cat. meow. My sister will probably invite me to go swimming later this week.

No photos from my birthday today. Maybe I can sit still enough to pose tomorrow. doubt it, but my mom can try.

trouble with a capital t

Since I have been a bit unwell all week, I have been saving up my energy.

This is how my day unfolded.

I woke up at 7:20am and everything seemed fine. We did our usual morning stuff. When we came upstairs to play, I put my fuzzy animal book on my yellow table to read, as I do every day. Today, my red Fisher Price clock happened to be right there so I thought I should see what might happen if I stood on it. I flipped forward onto my table. When my mom picked me up, I was drooling out blood. We still don't know where my cut is but maybe my mom can peek in my mouth when I go to bed tonight.

Then we went back downstairs. The rest is my dog's fault. He is deathly afraid of the rain so I had to follow him around everywhere to make sure he was ok. My mom put him outside FIVE times this morning to go pee. He decided to pee in the corner of the kitchen instead. And I crawled right through it. Into the bath I went. While my mom was cleaning up the pee, I tore the spine of a cookbook. Do not tell my great-grandmother but I chose to deface the cookbook that belonged to her mother. sorry. It looked so pretty though. I only just discovered the cookbooks today. I guess my parents need to relocate the cookbook collection. soon. Everything needs to be relocated.

By 10:00am today, my mom was already on her third change of clothes thanks to my various spills and troubles.

we should have moved

News alert: we have just spotted the first tarantula of the season. yikes. My dad called my mom outside to see it. It had camped out underneath my swing and was visible from the front porch where my mom stayed to holler at us. Boy, did my dad get in trouble for being outside with the tarantula. My mom needs to build some kind of barricade to keep the spider out of the house tonight. This was not my tarantula in the photo. Mine was much bigger and scarier. It was as big as me (if not bigger) and I am 23 pounds and 6 ounces now. big!

23lb, 6 oz

I had to visit the doctor today because my mom misdiagnosed me with a staph infection even though there really is no way I could catch one. So off to the doctor we went. I weigh 23 pounds, 6 ounces. I have definitely slowed down with my weight gain. Some of my friends have lost a bit of weight in recent months. Not me! I am healthy and thriving. And cute. This is a photo of me this afternoon looking suave.

Don't even bother to ask what my staph infection turned out to be. I will never tell anyone. top secret, private matter.

outdoorsy

We (my mom) had decided a while back that we were going to move soon. After meeting with several real estate agents, it seemed more logical to rent out our house than sell it. Everyone is clamoring to live in this school district because their football team has won three state championships in a row (big deal). Little known fact: the daughter of the Green Bay Packer's coach goes to high school in this district (another big deal).

And then we were going to rent something downtown so we could walk more and my mom would be closer to the yummy snacks.

The day before our house ad would have been activated, my mom realized that there is some value in me being able to play in the front yard for hours in the morning. I watch the deer frolic while I sit in my chair in the dining room and I also know all of the birds. I see the same dogs pass by every day (and I know each of their barks . . . Sybil has the deepest bark). So we are staying put for now. This may change when my mom comes face to face with a tarantula again this summer; that will be enough nature for her!

Fête du Canada (July 1, 2010)

Yesterday was Canada's birthday. This reminds me that I recently celebrated my first birthday. Canada is much older than me. Here is a photo of me on my birthday. My mom tried to take several photos of me in my Canada shirt yesterday but I don't like to sit still much anymore so she ended up with nothing but a red blur in her pictures. Maybe next year!

I am way behind on my photos and my stories. After my birthday, I had guests for several more days. Then we got busy with work and getting the house ready to rent. See following story about that.

My birthday was fun - but quite busy. I woke up pretty early (as usual) and then had a bath. You'd think it couldn't get much better from there but then I went to storytime at my library (weekly theme: frogs). Miss Laurie and Bee were SO pleased that I made the library part of my birthday! I got a special sticker for my shirt and the kids sang happy birthday to me. Next, we walked over to the bakery where my mom had a cherry smoothie and a treat. My dad had coffee and broccoli cheddar soup. I tried a bite of bread. We also bought cookies to take to the nurses at the hospital where I was born.

It was exciting to go back to my hospital. Several of the nurses who were on shift when I was born and during the first hours of my life were there when we stopped in - even the nurse who did my first blood test but I have mostly forgiven her. If you have to deliver a baby in a hospital in Austin, I recommend that one. It is tiny, more like a birthing center. They have six delivery suites (which are mostly always empty) and LOTS of nurses on staff so you get lots of attention.

After taking cookies to the hospital, we went downtown to fetch my grandmothers from their hotel. We went to Whole Foods for lunch so I could play on the rooftop playground. It was hot but I never care about the temperature. I would sit outside all day if someone would let me.

My sister and Hector came to see me back at my grandmothers' hotel. My sister had a santa-sack full of gifts for me. fun! My best gift from her was the owl lunch bag. I take it everywhere with me now.

Then we went swimming. This is me lounging by the pool. I was quite outgoing at the pool and stopped to chat with anyone who would visit with me.

And I was asleep by about 6:30pm. slept all the way home in the car and my dad got me to stay asleep while he carried me inside. zzzzzzz it is exhausting to be 1.