eeeeeaaaaat!

eat gibs, eat! that is what nissa keeps repeating as she comes up to him with spoon in hand, filled with kibble (all 4 pieces). just a few minutes before, she was sitting in his bed, 3 spoons in gibson's bowl, apparently spoon feeding gibson. he wasn't digging it and soon got sick and had to go outside for a few minutes. when i asked her to leave gibson to eat on his own, she states "no! sleep!" and curls up on his bed. ok, whatever.

now he's under my feet, essentially hiding from her. she can be a little too intense for him some times.

just plain nuts

my child is nuts, and i love it. last night we played in her new tunnel (thanks, santa!) and we rolled around, head-butted, giggled a lot. then the toys started getting tossed in, so i exited. too much "fun" for my tastes. and thank goodness it's the sheer type of tunnel, because i would have been seriously claustrophobic in there.

we got together with rick and his family on monday and "tunnel" was the word of the day for sarah. awesome! nissa's word of the day on christmas? "robot guy!" santa left her 4 cars in her stocking, one of which was a navy blue jeep that converts into a robot (um, guy). like a generic go-bot. santa totally raided the attic for those cars; he's a smart one like that.

also on monday we spent some time at "little monkey bizness" and it was a bit overwhelming. too many parents with the same idea and not enough of them monitoring their kids' behavior. nissa picked up more bad habits in that one hour than i care to count. we'll be working hard to make sure they don't stick (like keeping kids out of toy houses, ugh or shoving her cousin later while i'm trying to take their picture). we did get our money's worth, though, since nissa was trying to sneak a nap in the bounce house and another padded area (but both with way too much traffic to allow napping). our little monkey got around most stuff on her own and she seemed to have fun. maybe it's better to go when it's less crowded.

christmas morning was a good time. we enjoyed cheoreg and cheese and egg nog, with nissa especially enjoying the cheoreg loaf she made herself. it was so fun having her "help" me roll out the dough, and help crack the eggs earlier. she's a fantastic egg cracker and i enjoy finding new ways for her to help me in the kitchen. nissa didn't have too many gifts, so she didn't get bored easily. . . but interesting enough that she came back to them after opening the others. the clear winner is the tunnel, which she asks to be opened on a daily basis (that we fold up nightly). from grandma and grandpa g, she loved her boat that follows the changeable track. in fact, adam and i both enjoyed that toy. we could play with it all day long! "all day long" is a phrase that's been repeated by nissa at random times and i wonder where she got that from.

christmas eve nissa was a bit hit, as always. the funniest part was at the end of the evening when she climbed into wrigley's travel cage and zipped herself in it. yep, zipped it up from the inside. then proceeded to roll around and pretend to sleep in there. . . and smash her face on the front door. again, just plain nuts. earlier in the day was a bit trying. she tripped and fell, leaving a red mark on her forehead. she later pulled a mug of hot hot chocolate onto her face, requiring a douse and holding her down to ice it. the hot chocolate turned into a bit of a fiasco, but she was fine in the end and adam handled it like a champ, unlike me.

the other day, i gave nissa a glass of apple juice to enjoy while i prepared dinner. i set it in the usual spot, under the butcher block, on the shelf with the pots. she does fine with it there every other day, but that day it spilled under the block. i realize this when both nissa and gibson have their heads under the block's shelf. . . licking up the juice! no dear, we do not lick stuff up off the floor, that's gibson's job. we drink from a cup. oi.

nissa got dropped off by grandma a the other day and she's shouting for something as we get her out of the car. what is it? a "piece of wood." grandma a says, "oh, here it is," and hands her a triangle of wood. nissa shouts "piece of wood!" gleefully. so there you go. her favorite toy for the day? a piece of wood.

preparing for the holidays

first, i have to mention that nissa's latest trick is to drink with one hand. if it's a small cup (open, not a sippy) she'll take it with one hand and drink from it. i think it's her right hand. i was impressed!

she's also been using more words in her sentences, also impressive. "get me out of here" is a common one for when she wants to get out of her crib or is wrestling with daddy. last night she said "thank you wipe my face" after daddy wiped her face. she's getting pretty good at this talking stuff!

we're getting ready for christmas and for grandma and grandpa g to stay with us. it's been a long couple of weekends getting ready, but i think we're pretty close. adam even cleaned the walls in the kitchen! it really, really needed to be done, we just hadn't committed to doing it till now. it's so nice to have a clean house!

nissa has been enjoying playing with the christmas stuff: the music-playing stuffed animals, the beaded garland that i haven't found a place for yet, the purple "stars" snowflake ornaments. she likes the garland we have hanging on the windows. . . she saw the silver sparkly stuff on the table and had to take it. i then showed her what it was for and though she would have preferred to wear it, i talked her into leaving it on the windows. i've been trying to talk up santa, but she really doesn't seem to care. she likes the prospect of presents though. i hope she likes what santa brings her! we tried to get a picture with santa when we went to the mall a couple of weeks ago, but she really wasn't having it. the first time we walked by, it was "no" and kept walking. then we were able to wave as we walked by, and santa came up and said hello; she didn't run away, but she did hide a little. the last time i was able to talk her into saying hello and we got right up to him- only for her to hide in my shoulder (i had to carry her the last few feet) and refuse to even give him a high five. poor santa, left hanging by a two year old.

nissa gets a kick out of the snow and for the first time, will ask for her mittens. thank goodness for small favors.

adventures in parenting

this weekend was a bit of an adventure, and not just because of the crazy weather we had yesterday.

saturday, nissa and i ran errands, one of which included the pet store. of course she asked about it the whole time as we ran our other errands (pet store first?) but was worth the wait. she loved the fish, birds, mice, frogs, even a bunny. the highlight was waiting in line with a very young kitten- nissa was absolutely mesmerized. my favorite thing was nissa proudly carrying around her bag of new fishies- showing them to everyone, including the 2 dogs in the store. hilarious.

sunday was a cold and windy day- miserable for being outside. but we planned some errands for that day too, so off we went. nissa was in a mood, chattering away the whole ride out to the burbs. the fact that she didn't nap the day before was probably a factor (she was in bed, just not sleeping, grrr). i "ran in" to make a return, only to exit 30 minutes later. adam assured me that nissa pined for me the entire time, with tears, screaming and overall unconsolableness. she even watched the crowd, looking for grandma and grandpa to offer some salvation. weirdo. our next stop was a necessary one- picking out snow gear for adam and i. playing in the snow is very important to me, so i wanted to make sure we were both equipped to keep up with nissa, who is already outfitted with a purple sparkly set of bibs and jacket. we both tried on pants and while i was in the changing room with nissa, she was not having any of it. she was yelling "no pants" and "bad pants" so i had to be quick. my goodness is that child loud and crazy when she's tired. i took off the bad pants and returned my jeans to my person- thankfully finding a pair before it got too crazy. while adam looked for his jacket, i was oh so grateful for the audubon society's collection of cards nearby.

at dinner, nissa played with her pizza a bit, making it a puppet of sorts. she'd put the crust on its end and hop it along, "hello mommy!" i'd reply, "hello, pizza crust. i sure do hope nissa takes a bit bite out of you!" for some reason, that worked. i've asked nissa countless times to not play with her food, insisting it's not a puppet, toy, car, what ever. in the end, i'm content that she eats. i'd like her to be polite, but not creatively stifled. we'll work on striking that balance.

s'winter

saturday (or should i say friday night) doused the area with the season's first real snow fall. it was beautiful to see and for a few brief moments i enjoyed it before thinking about the shoveling and salt spreading i'd need to do before leaving the house.

when nissa got up, i pulled up the shade in her room so she could see the white, glistening glory that was our back yard. it had been a long time since she's seen snow and i wasn't sure she'd remember. i don't think she remembered per se, but she did recall something: s'winter! right from her mouth "s'winter outside?" yes, dear. it's winter outside. that's snow. but then i realized she didn't say "winter," it was "s'winter": one of many summer afternoon projects put together by her favorite tv half-brothers phineas and ferb, "It's a unique and logic defying amalgam of Winter and Summer."

so with the onset of s'winter came the need for boots. i've been thinking about it for a while now (for rain, for example) but never committed to the purchase. we braved target and managed to find 2 pair in her size: a pair of warm-looking black and navy classic snow boots and a pair of pink, polka-dotted galoshes with hello kitty faces on the toes. guess which ones we came home with? to be fair, nissa did stipulate on the ride over "boots, cute boots." so i really shouldn't have been surprised. she was really excited, by the way. she talked about them the whole time we were in the store, then wore them constantly once we got home. they're not the warmest, but they should keep her feet dry (if she figures out how to keep them from slipping off) and i'm working on a special pair of wool socks to help the warm factor.

the "boots, boots!" were worn to our friends' daughters' birthday party yesterday and she was thrilled. she had a great time playing with someone her own age and it was funny to see them act so similarly. nissa was a little overwhelmed at times by the affectionate nature of her new friend, but they got along well enough that i'm looking forward to another play date. thank yous and good byes were hard to find while we were leaving, but that's all she said on the way home (balloons in hand) so at least we know she understands when it's appropriate to say those things. . . we just need to work on her timing.

monkey see. . .

last night we were watching a documentary about guitar music and everyone they interviewed illustrated his point by pulling out a guitar and playing a snippet. it was kind of surreal. while we were watching, nissa ran over and shouted "guitar" and pulled out her play guitar. too precious.