so much to do, so little time

ok, it's saturday during nap time. i should be doing laundry, mowing the lawn, cleaning the bathrooms and doing dishes. all at the same time, getting it all done in the scant 2 hours i'll likely have (not including the little bit o' time i just took to watch a tv show i slept through last night). but am i doing any of those things? um, no. because it's been 2.5 weeks since i've written anything here and it feels like even longer and nissa's been up to way to much to let it go much further.

so, today we went to the zoo with uncle rick, auntie lisa and sarah. nissa is getting really good with names, she would call sarah by name (and offered rick some strawberries and gold fish) and repeated lisa's name before we left in the morning. the zoo visit felt like it went quickly because nissa was walking a lot of the time and sarah had to be back in an hour and a half for her morning nap. oh, the days of 2 naps! sometimes i miss them, sometimes, when i want to do do things, i don't. nissa's been "napping" the better part of an hour and a half and she's barely slowed down. she plays with her friends, drinks her water, rearranges the pillow and blanket several times, sings songs for the camera. you name it, she's doing it (everything short of climbing out, though, thank goodness!).

so at the zoo, we saw a rhino from a distance, but spent the most time in the bear area. we saw some bison, then some wolves (nissa loved the buttons on the wolf cam), then saw the grizzly and polar bears swimming. nissa walked right up to the window where the polar bear was swimming and took it all in, there were 30 people by the window easy, by the way. when the bear swam by, she went to the kid next to her "see, animals!" it was hilarious.

after the bears we got the obligatory mold-a-rama parting gift of a brown bear (love it!) and walked over to the penguins. nissa was walking with uncle rick holding hands- until i tried to grab my camera, that is. we walked around the water sprayers a little for a refreshing shower. nissa enjoyed the penguin area, but was insistent on seeing a turtle we never saw. not sure why she thought there would be one (there were pictures of some, i guess) but we never did see a real one. oh well.

back at the house, we enjoyed some lunch and nissa enjoyed sarah's toys while she napped. while nissa was relaying a story about work, she concluded with "scary." nissa then growled and held up her hands and said "scary." where does she come up with this stuff? she especially enjoyed the bus (her favorite car), the birthday cake, violet and the talking perry the platypus. how many 21 month olds do you know that can say "platypus"? this one can.

last night nissa helped me make dinner again. she is a whiz with slicing mushrooms and this time i planned ahead by washing more than what we needed, to account for all the sampling she inevitably does. the other day nissa helped me make rice by helping me measure and pour out the rice and water. love my little helper. she ate most of the casserole i served her, in her usual narrative style. near the end, some of the green beans got chewed and discarded, but most was eaten, so i was happy.

we enjoyed the rest of our evening putting together the rubber puzzles from my childhood. my parents wisely held onto the impressively high quality lauri puzzles i put together as a child (30 years ago now) and i'm glad they did. they are just as vibrant and flexible as i remember, and just as much fun to assemble. in just a week, nissa is recognizing the methods for assembling the puzzles, even keeping the "bumpy" sides up when putting the pieces in.

before bead we put on her "tea car" (guitar) jammies, brushed her teeth, read "danny and the dinosaur" and called it a night. i was impressed by how much she enjoys the d&d book, so i went online earlier that day to get some more "level 1" books. for a while, she just enjoyed the mostly-pictures books and the mild story lines like "good night moon." i know she'll start reading other books, but if she's preferring more wordy, story-lined books, why not?

lately nissa has been preferring non-lidded cups for her drinks at home. often she'll protest if i grab for the tilty and not relent until i've picked up something open. my preference for dinner time ghatik is her handled frog cup (though it's got a lid and a straw, we skip these). nissa's still getting the hang of tipping the cup to drink and has trouble in the beginning and end. coming home to a dining room that smells of feet after a night of too-much-spilled-whole-milk required some preventative measures moving forward. live and learn. always learning. always.

we've approached the 2 hour mark on nap time and nissa has resorted to growling and fake crying. i think she might actually sleep soon.

nissa's been requesting to sit on the potty quite often lately, which makes me very happy. and she loves her two potty books (i am especially fond of "time to pee") which we've taken to reading while she sits, to pass the time. i know it's just a matter of time before we catch a pee time while sitting, i just have to be patient. we've tried the "going naked' think in small increments, but haven't had much luck yet. i've discovered she pees often in small amounts and though i've tried to watch, doesn't seem to have any tells to precede the peeing. it's cute when she does pee, though. i talk up peeing, but we carry on with whatever we're doing, then i hear a tinkling sound and a soft "mom". i say "ok, you peed!" and whisk her off to the bathroom to sit on the potty, wipe and wash her hands. i try my hardest not to make it a disappointing thing and just talk up the idea of doing it on the potty next time. again, it's bound to work eventually, i know it. nissa's got all the other signs down- words, excitement/comfort with the potty, close to managing clothes; just not the bladder mastery just yet.

silence. the sleep has come. finally. it's about time. i'm tempted to nap too, but i'll do my best to resist. it amazes me that for as long as i tune out her yammering, i don't always notice when she stops, or what happened to lead up to the quiet. kinda eerie sometimes.

i find myself grabbing my cell phone often to snap pictures; something that i only hope i still do when #2 comes along. i think i will, but that's something i think all parents say and fall short on when the time comes. at least having a camera constantly at the ready should help.

nissa is really big into taking turns recently. she says so by shouting "turn" when she thinks it should be her turn to do something. kinda hard not to laugh some times, but i appreciate the awareness of the concept. it comes up the most while i'm doing dishes, where she and i need to take turns with the water. i'm rinsing dishes, but she is filling and dumping out a cup of water. it's a good system.

last weekend nissa and i were able to strike a good balance of fun and errands and i was very proud. we even spent some time in the pool! nissa was really enjoying the pool this time. i filled it up a little lower this time, so it came up to her hips. this way, if she tripped, she could catch herself and not necessarily get a face full of water; but also have enough water to have some fun in (and me too). we blew a lot of bubbles and spent a lot of time kicking. she's also getting really good at filling then pouring out the buckets. i didn't realize that was something to get excited about until i saw her difficulty filling a bucket early on.

last friday was the last day of gymnastics class for the summer session and i have to say i was bummed. every thursday night for the last few weeks ended with an inquiry, "jump?" that i could gladly answer, yes dear, tomorrow. this week i couldn't, but will be able to in a few weeks when we go back for another class. nissa was in another crabby mood that day, but she did do some cool stuff when she wasn't trying to have a fit. she did kinda well hanging from the rings and walking up a wall to ultimately flip. the first time she let go too soon, but the second time she held on a little longer. another obstacle was to walk along atop a tubular mat, supporting yourself on the parallel bars. i spotted and rolled the mat along and nissa rocked that task. i thought for sure she'd not get the hang of it, but she totally did. the majority of the end of class we spent hanging around the short beam (which is 2 beams together right then). she was so crabby she didnt' want to hold my hand, so she ended up walking it end to end a few times all on her own. she was really slow at first, but started picking up the pace after a while. the class concluded with the usual stamp and picture and nissa sat right down with the others. again, i was impressed. i was so busy trying to snap a photo, however, that i didn't notice miss jessica stamped both forearms and both feet with froggy stamps. loved it, but man!

nissa will get randomly affectionate, which usually involves hugs, kisses or blown kisses. but lately it's expanded to also include high fives and fist bumps. but the bump must explode afterward, or nissa will be displeased. she also gave a successful thumbs up about 2 weeks ago. i've been working on it with her for a while, so i'm glad to see some progress. rock horns are next! she already will occasionally bust out a "rock" and fumble with her fingers if she hears a song she likes. she gets it!