without fail, yesterday brought some wacky insights into all the new things nissa is learning. when she came home with grandma, they walked up to the front door and apparently she said "ding dong" either before or immediately after grandma suggested they ring the bell. she said it again when i came to the door, pointing at the doorbell. since when does she know that? (sadly, i find myself saying that very often lately, i guess the feeling never gets old.)
i procured a nissa-sized cutting board and crinkle cutter online recently and wanted to give it a try last night. we made some pretty tasty vegetable stew that required lots of veggies to be diced up. i helped nissa work on some zuccini (after slicing a side flat) and with a few joint slices, she was ready to try on her own. it didn't go well at first, so we went back to mushrooms for a while, but she eventually got the hang of it. i was relieved when she had the best luck using two hands (one on the handle, one pushing on the "blade") to keep her using that safer technique. the tricky thing about having nissa "help" with dinner is that she's constantly sampling the food! i'm pretty sure she ate at least half of the mushrooms i washed off (at least she sliced them first?) and sampled the zuccini pretty regularly. it really does make me happy that she enjoys vegetables (raw even) and not just the sweet ones either (like carrots) she tries just about anything.
while dinner cooked, we ended up spending some time in the work out room. nissa discovered the weight lifting bar over the bench and after i leveled the bench, she climbed up and swung on it. she did it so many times, it was great. she'd get up to standing then lift her feet and swing through. i guess the gymnastics classes are making an impression with her :D. we also had a rousing game of hide and seek with her hiding behind the sheers. i think she finds it funnier because she knows i can see her but i'm pretending not to.
during dinner, we enjoyed our vegetable stew and some grilled cheese and leafed through a catalog, looking at the pictures. nissa found something she liked (ooh!) or knew the name of on each page. she points things out and can name things i point to and point to things i name, so we're doing really well in that vein. a woman at work tried to convince me that i should by the "your kid can read" videos, but i'm not falling for it. from what i understand, the "reading" kids don't end up ahead in the long run, so why bother? so you can impress your friends with a parlor trick that takes advantage of a toddler's ability to mimick a skill? no thanks. we're doing just fine the old fashioned way. even now she can pull out one of her little board books and find her favorite page/picture- like the apple. or the picture of tigger stuck in the tree, where she knows tree and stuck. or the cookies at the end of the puppy book or the mandatory finger wave in moo baa lalala. she knows what she's doing and loves her books, end of story. anyways, at some point i said something that had a familiar ring to it and nissa busts out with "fossils!" we laugh about it for a while and she says "funny" and i agree. she got it from phinneas and ferb and knows to say it for a laugh. here's the clip:
then later, while we were brushing teeth before bed, nissa asked about the potty. i asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty and she said yes (rare!) so i put the seat on and moved the stool. she got up there and sat down and stayed there a few seconds. in the recent past, she'd try to sit the way she sits on chairs by facing it, getting a leg up then spinning around- a method that doesn't work well on the toilet. nissa was not a big fan of backing up and squatting, but last night she did! and then stayed! not too shabby.
now i'm going to try to go backwards and remember the highlights of the last few weeks. . . . hmmmm.
i went to physical therapy yesterday in the middle of the day for my back/foot injury from 2 months ago. i figured it was high time to start feeling normal again, so i'm glad i have the option to go to pt. having a bad back is no fun with a 20 month old and i couldn't take it any more. i'm too young to complain of a bad back. so hopefully after 5 weeks my back will be in better shape and i can ride my bike again. i need all the exercise i can get and this back pain business is really cramping my style. there is hope, and i am relieved.
sunday nissa got to use the new small rake i procured for her. i mowed the lawn and she helped rake afterward, kind of. she's always reaching for the rake while i'm using it, so if nothing else this kept her focused on something else. she still helped by carrying clippings to other locations (preferably the garden, but i'll take whatever she does, as long as she's involved). i definitely thing it's something she can grow into and work with as time goes on.
saturday we had a baby shower for our friends. i was supposed to help plan it, but got sidelined by a take-charge relative, so i embraced the sidelines and made the best of it. i do have a kid, after all, with limited free time. with help from mom, we made some awesome gender-neutral, occasion-specific favors for the guests that i'm so proud of! they were crocheted baby booties to look like little converse all-stars, with a tulle bag of personalized mms. [funny side story re: tulle. i was in joann's recently and heard a girl on the phone talking about using tulle for something, and she says "tulle, tulle, "t-o-o-l" tulle". i could tell from other context and her location in the store that she was totally talking about tulle. is it ever appropriate to correct someone in that situation? i doubt it.] they were all different color combinations and in my humble opinion, looked absolutely adorable all lined up.
nissa was a little hard to corral at the party, but she had a good time and i think she amused the other guests too. she loved helping herself to the bowls of snacks (baked doritos especially, which made her and my white shirt very orange). she really loved watching the puppies on the computer- the host's dog was at doggie daycare where they feature a live webcam. who wouldn't love watching the puppy show?
friday after work i got to go out for drinks like a real adult and it was fun! of course, i couldn't stay too long, but it was good none the less. though the reason was not as good, since a good friend at work was leaving (good for her, bad for us). oh the days of drinks after work. . . why was i looking for friends to do that with for so long and find them only when i'm no longer available to do so? i can hardly believe it's been seven years that i've been at the park district. holy cammolies. (wait, what does that even mean?) afterward, grandpa offered me dinner and i couldn't refuse. and neither could nissa. she is always helping daddy with his dinner when he gets home after we eat (and is very demanding about it too).
gymnastics class was fun. they had a new obstacle course for us, followed by some time on the tumbling trampoline. nissa is slowly getting better about watching what the others are doing and following suit, but there's lots of room for improvement. she did an excellent job walking across the single bar (situated between low parallel bars for support) and is taking an interest in somersaults. she was very leery of the trampoline, but is getting the hang of frog jumps (though the jump part is still a way off). she really liked the "pool" by the rings, but i think mostly because it's called a pool. i really hope adam has time to take her again soon to a pool.
wednesday we visited our friends' new baby girl and man am i ready to have another. she was so tiny and adorable and so calm. i have a feeling she's going to be a fun baby just like nissa. nissa took an interest in the baby "baby!" but it was always brief; she often quickly found something else to catch her interest. she impressed everyone by asking for the "light" the laser pointer-usb combo she found and played with last time. man, is she sharp. once, while the baby was being nursed, nissa walked up and pointed to the cover and said "baby?" and i said yes. she then reached around to the corner of the cover and lifted it up, looking for the baby. it was cute, but i had to ask her to leave the baby to finish- she had to focus on the task at hand and we didn't want nissa distracting her. i tried to hold the baby while sitting on the floor, so nissa could have a closer look. this was near the end of our visit, though, and very close to nissa's bed time. nissa insisted on hugs while i held the baby and made to push her out of the way. i kept my attention on the baby and showed nissa how i could both hold the baby and give nissa hugs. it worked well, until one time when the baby caught an arm from nissa, but the baby hardly fussed at all, so it was all good. i hope to spend more time with our friends so nissa gets used to the idea of people smaller than her being around. she'll have company in a little over a year, if everything goes according to plan.
we got to go out to my uncle's last sunday and nissa had a great time. rick and his family came too! nissa spent time in the floatie and out of it just floating around. she's getting really good at bubbles, kicking, floating on her belly to "swim" and allowing herself to go a little further back to float on her back. we even managed to get her water akis on for a little while. i tried to take her under water for a second, which she didn't like, but didn't totally dislike either. i'll take it as a win. nissa enjoyed spending time with meg a lot, sitting next to her on the deck and splashing, then following her around. nissa is so good ad making friends. the cutest part was watching her interact with sarah in the pool. she'd mimic her a lot (sarah's not saying as much, but nissa loves to repeat it all back). while in the floatie, my aunt would say "bye" and spin her around to face away from her. while nissa was out of the of her floating, but sarah was in, she'd say "bye" and try to do the same thing to her. everyone else thought she was suggesting sarah leave the pool, but i knew what was going on! she was just trying to play the same game that was played with her.
the day before was our friends' kids' birthday party at little gym and nissa had an absolute blast. there was lots of gymnastics equipment like at class, so nissa knew just what to do and jumped right in. the lower of the uneven bars was set so nissa could reach on her own, and she held on and swung to her heart's content. she climbed, walked across the beam, the whole 9 yards. when the music came on, she danced. when the balls came out, she threw them around and tried to get them in the basket. when the hula hoops were available, she carried one around diligently, once trying to put a ball through it. then came the bubbles. she loved the bubbles (as did everyone else) and the employee looked like the pied piper with her bubbles and throng of kids following closely behind, trying to pop every last one. after a while nissa was reaching up, but not to pop bubbles, but to have a turn at blowing them. she'd reach up, ask "please?", but she was not allowed a turn. the employee appreciated her asking so nicely, and i did too, but i had to explain that despite that, she would not get a turn. [we've been taking turns with things more and more and i think she's starting to get the hang of it. while i do dishes, she uses a "cup" to fill with water and dump out. we take turns with the running water.] nissa tried the giant roll and liked it. when everyone had to line up to play "push the cheese" (it wasn't push, but something like that, with a wedge mat that they knocked over), she actually walked up to the wall where everyone was sitting and sat right down between 2 kids. i was so astounded i took a picture. of course, she didn't sit for long once she saw what was to be done, but we worked with that. nissa sat nicely and drank her juice box (didn't spill too much) and ate her pizza, even some cake. she sang along with the happy birthday song and clapped at the end. good timing too, because she was just singing the happy birthday song earlier that day. one of her color books has a birthday cake under pink and when she sees it, she points and says "happy." she'll say "happy, happy" in a sing song fashion and i'll take her cue to sing it with her.
by the way, much to my chagrin, nissa is taking a significant interest in the color pink. she points it out pretty regularly and gravitates toward it in her colored pencil selection. why, oh why, does she favor the color i despise? we haven't talked about one color or another nor have i shied away from pink (though she is exposed to a lot of green), she's created this preference all on her own. oh well.
saturday night we had the honor of attending a good friend's wedding, well the reception at least. it was on the formal side and featured a live band and ethnic dancers doing a couple of numbers during dinner. it was quite the show. we were seated with a really cool group of people, with which we had a lot in common. we may even work on some future play dates!
friday after work i met adam at the beach to join in on a kayak fishing trip. it was cool in concept, but ended up involving more kayaking than fishing, and i wasn't really in the mood for that. the novelty of the kayaking (though very soothing) wore off too quickly, so i headed back early, but ended up arriving at the same time as the others with my slow pace. maybe another time. it was cool to have a bird visit us while fishing by the morley. here's a shot of it hanging out with sarah:
wednesday after work we went swimming as a family at a nearby park's indoor pool. we got there late, thanks to so much traffic on irving. during the walk to the building, i tripped and fell on some uneven pavement while carrying nissa and it sucked. though i tried to keep her up, her momentum caused her to bump her head on the cement and it completely tore up both my knees. ugh. nissa seemed to be ok and recovered quite quickly. we were hesitant to swim (because of nissa's head injury and my open wound) but we did anyways and it was a good time. the pool was tiny, but serviceable for our purposes. it took a while for nissa to warm up to the idea of the pool (and warm up to the less than warm water), but got there eventually so daddy could see her in action. we tried to get her to wear goggles (or water akis, as we're calling them) but didn't have much luck. she enjoyed holding onto them though!
well, i think that covers most of it. :D
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