I'm in love

I'm officially sorry we let Muffin watch Disney movies & videos. I walked in through the door yesterday, and she told me that she was in love, she wouldn't be happy until she found her true love, etc. - in other words, she was parroting what she's seen in the Disney media. First time she did this I freaked out, told her she was too young to be in love, which confused her, she thought I was upset because I reacted like I did (my bad). Note to self - next time pretend its nothing so it hopefully goes away!

SO, if anyone has an ideas of role models for her that are NOT simpering princesses waiting for their prince, please share!

Cat Angel

We had an unexpected sad surprise Saturday in the week hrs, when DaddyMuffin sadly discovered that our kitty had used up one of his lives. We suspect he must have had a heart attack, because he was completely normal and apparently healthy until we discovered he was gone. :(

Muffin took it very well overall, I am proud to say. . We told her after she came back from playgroup Saturday afternoon. lAt her request we went to the basement to check our cat's favorite sleeping spot and verify he indeed wasn't there. We told her that our cat was very old, and had gone to heaven to become an angel with God, and now can play with all the other cats in heaven and have a lot of fun. She had many questions about Buster playing in heaven: who opened the door so that Buster could go to Heaven? Where is Heaven? Can we get a new pet? Why will he sit on a cloud? What will he eat? Will God feed him? ...

We drew a picture of an angel cat - I used my third grade drawing skills to draw a cat, per her direction (she told me what to draw and what colors to use), then she taped on a couple of dried leaves as wings.

One day we'll go pick out a new kitty at an animal shelter, with her help of course! In the meantime DaddyMuffin will print out a picture of Buster for her to have as a sweet memory.

Thanks everyone!

Thanks to everyone that donated to the Children's Specialized Hospital for Muffin's birthday party! We took the checks over and they thanked her by giving her a sparkly new teddy bear. We collected a total of $330 in donations !!

It was such a gorgeous summer day, that we decided to follow up our good deed by having a nice little picnic lunch. Yum! As you can see she was hamming it up to the camera.

Wisconsin

What a weekend! The whole family went to Wisconsin this past weekend for the wedding of MamiMuffin's goddaughter. It was a wonderful time, we got to see old friends and meet new ones. We partied all weekend, literally! Muffin did wonderfully the whole time, though she was extremely bored by the wedding ceremony (which I can understand from her point of view). Muffin got to meet her godmother for the first time since her Christening, and it was love at first sight for both :) Her godmother was quite busy being the Mother of the Bride, but she always made a point of listening to Muffin. It was so sweet to see them both together!

A few tidbits from the trip...

• While at the airport restroom, Muffin informed me (in a very loud surprised voice) that this bathroom had "magical toilets" and "magical faucets" because they worked by themselves. Thereafter, every public toilet was inspected to see if it was a magical toilet or not. LOL!

• While driving into Wisconsin from the Minneapolis airport, we stopped at a convenience store for a drink and snack. Here's what Muffin had to say when we walked into the store: "I didn't know they had food in Wisconsin!" She said it so sincerely too!

• While getting ready for the wedding, MamiMuffin went to get my nails done at a local salon and Muffin came along to get her fingernails done too! She spent the rest of the weekend showing EVERYONE her beautiful nails, especially the thumbs which had a flower painted on them.

• After the ceremony she requested to go for a nap (!!) and promptly fell asleep when we got back to our hotel room. We did make it down in time for the end of the cocktail hour, and she had a wonderful time making new friends and dancing with everyone from kids to the bride (see picture!). She missed out on quite a few naps and she did wonderful (no temper tantrums, meltdowns, etc) though she was tired. Today she is determined to get her nap in, now that she's home.

• One of the couples at our table turned out to be neighbors of Muffin's godmother, and they were generously offered to do a playdate with Muffin and their 4 yr old daughter. This was a much needed playdate for Muffin, I think she was missing playing with kids her own age and really enjoyed this playdate. Thanks Dawn!

• The music for the wedding was fantastic (it was a salsa band - and they were smokin'!) but it was quite loud. Muffin asked me (on her own!) for a pair of earplugs to wear while dancing (note the yellow plugs in her ears). Smart girl!

• Special thanks to Titi Ali for the beautiful necklace she made Muffin to match Muffin's dress. Muffin loved it!

All in all, a fun trip, but it was nice to be back in our cozy beds last night.

Daddy & Daughter

I can SO see DaddyMuffin one day doing this….

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Birthday!

Muffin is now officially FOUR years old! Time sure flies fast.

She had a wonderful birthday weekend. On Saturday she had a 'children's Princess and Pirate party with a special guest, 'Giselle' from the movie 'Enchanted'. All the children looked like they had a blast. Muffin dressed like Cinderella and truly felt like she was a Princess.

Then she had a second party for Daddy & Mami Muffin's friends and family. Not as many kids but this time she got to dress like Alice in Wonderland.

For her actual birthday, Sunday, we went to a playgroup friend's birthday party at a local gym. Three parties in one weekend, not a bad deal!

Busy Weekend

Spent the weekend doing prep work for Muffin's birthday party next week. We were were very lucky and grateful that a friend lent us her almost 11 yr old daughter to be a mother's help and play with Muffin while DaddyMuffin and I did our house/yard cleaning work. Of course Muffin had a fantastic time playing with Sarah, and she seemed to enjoy herself too.

Muffin will be having two parties on Saturday - a morning party for her playfriends, and an afternoon party for family friends & relatives. In part we made the decision of having two parties so we could manage the crowds inside our house, in case of rain. But it would be so much more fun & comfortable to be OUTSIDE!! Right now the forecast for Saturday reads:

Partly sunny with a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 80s. Chance of rain 30 percent.

Let's hope that rain percent goes down by the weekend, or that at least the rains hold off until late in the evening! We're looking forward to sharing Muffin's special day with all our friends and family (and perhaps a surprise princess visit? Hmmmm...)

Villains are Good People too

For some reason Muffin has had a fixation with the villains in Disney stories for a while. She asks me to play-act the villains (i.e. Mami, please be the Stepmother), then she'll talk me (i.e. the Villain) into becoming a 'NICE' person. For example, when she's asked me to play the Stepmother from Cinderella, she'll ask me to smile (which the Stepmother never does). Or she'll ask me to be the hag from Snow White, and then proceed to tell me/ show me whatever's happening at the moment (i.e. Old Woman, do you want to see my new spinny toothbrush?). Gotta love how she tries to humanize them and make them 'good'.

Sunday Pancakes

As usual, when we woke up on Sunday morning I asked Muffin what she'd like for breakfast, and started rattling off options to her. And for once, instead of cereal, she picked Pancakes. STOP THE PRESS - she hasn't had them since January! (not from lack of offering, btw). I seized the chance to get her to eat something different, and she helped me mix them. She ended up eating FIVE of them, can you believe it? (I made them small, so its not as much food as it sounds). Of course DaddyMuffin got to enjoy them as well, and he was a Happy Daddy.

Then that evening we had a visit from Muffin's uncle. My brother patiently played with her before and after dinner, and Muffin was in uncle heaven. Thanks, Tio!

First Dentist Visit

Sofia's first dentist visit was today, and she did great!

The dental hyegenist spent quite a bit of time cleaning her teeth, since some plaque had built up. She was SO patient throughout the whole thing! And the office was wonderful. They first showed her a very well done cartoon video of what its like to go for your first dentist visit. The hyegenist talked very gently, explaining all along what was happening. And at the end, she got a dental goody bag and her very own spinny tooth-brush! They also showed her their big "pacifier" bank where all good binkies go after the kids are done with them… ahem, she's still sleeping with her "bobo", which we remove once she's completely out. So we told her that maybe by the time of her checkup (in 6 months) she can deposit her bobos into the pacifier bank, for a prize. We shall see…

They also did digital x-rays to check how her grown-up teeth are coming up, and they look great (knock on wood) so it appears that using the pacifier hasn't affected them.

So of course Muffin spent the whole weekend showing everyone her beautiful clean teeth, and everytime she washed hands she also wanted to brush her teeth with the spinny toothbrush. What fun!

Barbies

We have discovered dolls, ayayayay! It’s adds a whole other dimension to play. Not to mention tons of stuff to buy and store. Its all so commercialized nowadays that I'm ambivalent about doll playing, though this article explains it’s a good thing.

To test how much she really wanted to play with dolls, I took out my old Barbie dolls. We're talking 30 yr old Barbie dolls. Amazingly I still have them! So I took them out, looked at all the beat up clothes and dolls, did my best to clean them, and let her play a bit.

Yup, she loved it. OF course DaddyMuffin was horrified at the condition of the dolls, and wanted to immediately buy her at least one new one, which I did. And I discovered Barbie has changed considerably in 30 yrs! She's not as busty but has more hips. Who knew? Very few of my old Barbie clothes fit the new doll, so we'll have to shopping for some new doll clothes. It will be challenging to hunt for "appropriate" doll clothes. Sigh. Of course Muffin isn't quite dextrous (or patient) enough to put doll clothes on yet, so guess who ended up doing all the clothes changes? ;) Once again we have proved that Motherhood is a chance to relieve childhood

…

Raspberry Pies

Muffin loves to play in the kitchen, when I can I try and invite her in to "do something". Usually she gets bored fairly quickly but she still has fun.

On July 4th, I woke up early to bake a couple of pies to bring to a party, and I knew I'd have some leftover dough, so I asked her if she'd like to make her own "little" pie with it. Rather than opting for blueberries, she said she'd like to make a Raspberry pie. We took out her bake set that she got for Xmas, and she "rolled" her dough and "mixed" her raspberries. But rather than baking her pie in the kiddie sized pans, she wanted them in ramekins. And they tasted so yummy I think we need to do a big sized one next year for Raspberry season. They came out quite cute, don't you think?

Girls Night In

DaddyMuffin had plans last night (Friday), so I told Muffin that we would have a "Girls Night In". She LOVED the idea! She even informed DaddyMuffin he needed to be out of the house because we had to have our Girls Night In. Gotta love the power of words!

So after dinner, we sat down to watch a movie, 101 Dalmatians. It lasted about 1 hr before she got too restless to watch anymore. But it was fun to watch together. She loved munching on frozen blueberries while watching the movie.

Puppet Show

Last night when I arrived home, the house was redecorated with a "stage"… apparently Muffin requested, nay, demanded that MuffinDaddy create a stage for her to create a puppet show. Desperation breeds creativity they say, and in this case it proved true. MuffinDaddy eventually was able to create a fantastic stage with a string and a couple of baby blankets.

So as soon as dinner was over, I got a little show. Unfortunately Muffin didn't want me to film it, so this video isn't the best quality but here it is anyway:



She's hiding behind the curtains, sticking her arms out with two "spider" puppets, and talking about Sleeping Beauty (I barely understood the rest of what she said but it was cute of course).

Mermaid

Daddy Muffin had an evening errand to run, so it was just us girls home for the evening. For some reason I remembered I had some scraps of fabric I'd bought months ago to make dress up clothes for Muffin (but of course I never did make anything), and I thought, given Muffin's penchant for playing with fabrics, maybe she'd enjoy playing with these scraps. Sure enough, she had a blast! She decided immediately that these scraps would manke a great mermaid costume, so I had to go to work and dress her up - something to cover her chest, something for the tail, and yet another fabric scrap for the tail "flap" (or whatever its called). And she immediately proceeded to "play" the story of Ariel (with me providing the rest of the cast, per usual).

Fashion Makeover

Last night, as I walked in thru the door, Muffin immediately asked me to come over because she needed to dress me up. And I got a makeover with the help of her collection of assorted scarves and baby blankets. I guess it was my turn to get dressed up! Here's a picture of her giving me my Fashion Makeover. Move over,
Stacy London !

Pirates!

Yesterday was Father's Day, and of course Muffin and I did our best to make Daddy Muffin feel special. First we let him sleep in, the we gave him some fun trinkets he had to find via a fun scavenger hunt througout the house. And then Muffin and I went out for the afternoon so Daddy Muffin could take care of some stuff at home without any "Muffin" distractions.

So Mufin and I went to a Pirate Faire held at the NJ Kingdom. She enjoyed seeing pirates and watching a few shows - we watched a re-enactment of Jack and the Beanstalk, a puppet show telling the Little Riding Hood story, went to the craft table, and watched a fairy tale mime (they mixed up a bunch of children's stories into one). She did so well here, I think she's ready for the NY Renfair ! Muffin had so much fun she even wore her pirate bandana when we went out food shopping at night. AARGH!

.

Oh - I forgot to add - of course she got her own card and her own gift for Father's day! While shopping for Daddy Muffin's gift at Target she spied a movie that she saw clips of in Youtube, The Swan Princess, and she sweetly asked for it. How could I say "no"?

Anniversary

Now that Muffin's older, she doesn't want to be left out of ANYTHING, so when I got home yesterday, she had an anniversary card that she wrote for herself (Daddy Muffin bought it for her when he got mine, per her request), and she asked for a present, so she got her own "anniversary" present (a toy we had sitting around). She was so excited about it being her anniversary too, it was so cute! And of course she joined us for our anniversary dinner at a local Spanish restaurant.

Dance!

Muffin is officially a dancing star! She had her very first recital yesterday, and she of course stole the show. About a dozen little girls danced to "Lollipop Lollipop", all lined up. They had to pickup a lollipop prop at the beginning of the dance routine, and Muffin accidentally grabbed the wrong one. She immediately realized this and exchanged it for the one that she should have picked. Of course this is all live in front of everyone, and she stole the show by switching her lollipop. Too cute!

Afterwards, her Nana & Grandad gave her a lovely bouquet of roses, and took all of us out for a lovely Italian dinner. Muffin being true to her "hard to feed" nature, asked for rice and black beans, sigh. It took a little explaining for her to understand she could have pasta but not rice at this restaurant. And as a treat she had ice cream for dessert (a rare treat indeed given her acid reflux issues). We told her to only eat half her cup, but next thing we knew, she'd eaten it all and was drinking the melted ice cream from the cup! She's a quick one, what can I say?

Florida

Well, we're back from a long and wonderful trip to Florida. We had a great time visiting Abuela, Abuelo, and other local family & friends in Miami. We also enjoyed a visit to Walt Disney World. But for now we're all recovering from the trip (and the ensuing reality shock). Will try and post stories & pictures soon...

Princess Party

Last Sunday, Muffin went to a "Princess" birthday party, where the birthday girl and her little friends got their hair, nails and makup done. Muffin went dressed as "Belle" from Beauty & the Beast. She *loved* having her nails done, enjoyed the makeup, and didn't care much about the hair. She wanted it up in a 'bun' but the hairdresser didn't do it very tight - she used lots of hairpins, whereas I just twist all the hair into a knot (yes its that long). Overall a fun party! Though it made me so glad we're not doing the Bibiddi Babidi boutique while we're in Disney, she's way too picky with her hair, not worth paying the $$$$ it costs for the boutique! Not yet anyway.

Jokes and the Potato Head Family

Its interesting to see how Muffin's sense of humor is developing. What she thinks is a joke is weird, she'll say something like " A dog and… a rock". Then she'll laugh. I guess she thinks putting together things that don't seem to go together looks funny to her. We just play along and laugh heartily and she loves it. Lately she's taken to just piling on the words, and will keep going on and on.

She's rediscovered Mr & Mrs. Potato Head. First she had to take down Mrs. Potato Head's phone number in her phone book, then she had to get them married using her magic wand. I hear there's a store in Magic Kingdom (Disney) where they sell more parts for Mr Potato Head, we may have to hunt this place down!

Toddler Years

We've reached a new milestone. The one where Muffin gets really upset when things don't go her way. For example, we went to the mall the other day, and she wanted us to get inside via the pink store. We asked her what was it, she just kept repeating that it was the pink store she wanted. When we didn't use the "pink store entrance" she began wailing. WAILING? Our normally sweet girl, suddenly wailing? Daddy Muffin took her to the side until she calmed down, and then we entered the mall. Our whole visit to the mall was the same way, and Daddy Muffin again had to take her to the side a few times to calm her down. We've had meltdowns because I didn't put enough toothpaste on the toothbrush, because daddy cleaned her hands instead of mami, etc. I'm talking wailing, end of world meltdowns that take 20-30 min to calm down from. For toothpaste?

We hear from her friend's parents that they're going thru the same thing so apparently its very age appropriate. Hope she outgrows this phase SOON!

What's been confusing is that she's old enough that we can talk and reason with her, and so far that’s worked wonders, and its very frustrating that she's suddenly getting upset over such trivial things. If anyone's got any gentle parenting suggestions, we'll take them!!

Update 4/30 - I was talking with my hairdresser and she tells me her 6 yr old daughter is the same way. Others have told me this lasts years. O joy... (she is, the tantrums aren't...)

Summer Clothes

Now that we're planning our Florida vacation in early May, we started to go thru Muffin's summer clothes.
Last summer I went to a few garage sales & summer end shopping sprees, then a good friend gave us a boxful of girl shorts and shirts. PLUS, since she has lost much of her baby belly (snif! It was so cute...), she can ALSO wear many of her old pants/ shirts from last summer. Daddy Muffin and I have been sorting thru these for the last couple of nights, and we've come to the conclusion she's got TONS of clothes for this summer! Here she is modeling one of the outfits she was given last summer (thanks Kathy!).

Garden & Camera

Sunday was an uneventful day for the Muffin family, nice & quiet.

Muffin and I went shopping Sunday morning for pansies to plant in the garage flower bed. Then we planted the flowers together (sort of). She enjoyed taking out the old poitting soil from the container, and somehow kept covering the whole flowers with the potting soil as we were planting them. She even got to water them, now I'll be teaching her to watch the flowers as they grow. I tried to get her help in clearing out leaves from the garden bed but she was more interested in climbing over all of her yard toys. She does miss running back there, we need to start getting the yard ready for the summer. Can't wait!

In the afternoon, somehow Muffin got the idea that she wanted to take pictures. Probably because she saw Daddy Muffin taking pictures during the birhtday party we had just gone to. I offered to lend her my camera so she could take pictures of her most recent toy, and she did a pretty good job (with just a bit of help from me). Watch out Daddy Muffin, you've got competition!

Disgusting

When I came home yesterday evening, I was greeted by Muffin, who gleefuly declared "I'm DISGUSTING", while she danced around, smiling and clearly proud of herself. She seemed to think this was hysterical, and was having a blast being "disgusting". We asked her where she got the word, she said it was from Max & Ruby (a cartoon she watches sometimes). Clearly there was nothing disgusting about her (just adorable as usual). But she had a blast pretending to be disgusting. Go figure!

By the way - the spanglished word of the day is MILKA = which is her version of Milk in Spanish, she just added an 'a' to translate it. Yes, she knows the correct word is 'Leche' and clearly thought she was very clever calling it something else. She did tell me earlier today that she can sometimes speak in Spanish. I'll take what I can get!

Whining

Muffin seems to have entered a new developmental phase, the one where she thinks she needs to whine to get what she wants and she will not take "no" for an answer. Daddy Muffin came up with a great way to deal with this… when she wants something unreasonable, he just says yes, you can have it, but be aware of the consequence. So far seems to be working like a charm! Typical dialogues go something like this:

Muffin: "These aren't my pencils, I want my regular pencils." (spoken with a whiny complaining tone)

Daddy Muffin: "Those are your travel pencils. Sure, you can have your regular pencils, we'll just leave Nana's & Grandad's house, and drive home and get your pencils. Come on, let's get your coat now."

Muffin: "No, I don't want to get them. I'll play witht these"

It seems to work (so far), we'll keep using this as much as we can! Certainly much easier and gentler than saying "because I said so" or yelling. Go Daddy Muffin!

Cabin Fever

For someone who's been cooped up almost a week at home with the flu, she's done pretty good. It probably helped that we used TV a lot more than we normally do.... though we've been telling her that this is ONLY because she's sick. I hope she doesn't start pretending to be sick now so she can get more tv! We did have one evening when she was very contrarian, doing the opposite of whatever we asked her, I blame cabin fever for that. Daddy Muffin has been a trooper, surviving the flu himself, and playing with her a LOT.

Today is the day cabin fever ends - we think she's well enough to go to ballet class this morning, hurray!

BTW, if anyone feels like leaving comments, please feel free! Would be nice to know others are reading this blog ;)

Play Dough

Muffin is getting better but she's now gotten used to all that TV watching, sigh... to try and reel her back into play mode, I decided to make some play-dough from scratch and let her use cookie cutters on the 'dough'. Of course I had to dye it a nice reddish/ fuschia color. Thankfully it was a big hit and Muffin loved the dough. We cut out shapes which she proceed to bake in her playkitchen's oven. And a great time was had by all!

Her fever finally broke, she's just got a runny nose, every time she sneezes, we're rushing to her with tissue to clear her nose/hand from the wicked buggers coming out - not pretty! She's still coughing a bit and energy level is not up to normal but she's much more active than the last couple of days.

The Flu

I had taken Friday off so that we could go with some friends to the Crayola Factory (Easton PA). But Friday morning we had to change plans. Muffin woke up with a fever! Plus she had low energy, glassy eyes and a drippy nose. Spent most of the day watching tv which is rare for us (we try to limit tv watching to 1 hr a day or so).
Daddy Muffin has been sick too, so they both shared a little tv watching.

Saturday morning we took her to the drs to make sure there was nothing else, thankfully the dr said she looked ok otherwise, and that she's just have to ride this thing out.

Carrota

Muffin and I have a little tradition at bedtime when we read our nighttime stories. Every night she will go to her "library" and pick out one book to read as "hola" and one to read as "hello" (i.e. one in Spanish and one in English). If the "hola" book is originally written in English I just translate it on the spot for her. Last night she picked a picture book as the "hola" book and I thought it would be a good opportunity for Muffin to practice her Spanish. So I asked her to tell me what the different food names were in Spanish, and if she hesistated I'd help her along... Then she decided to be sly and funny… and started inventing her own translations by spanglishizing English words - for example for Carrots, she called them "Carrota". She very obviously thought she was clever because she was giggling through the whole thing. Sigh… she's too smart for me already and she's only THREE !!!

Pigtails

Today Muffin asked me to put her hair into pigtails, then she picked out a hat that she *HAD* to wear. When I asked her if I could take a picture of her braids, she said no, she wanted a video. So that's what we did, here is a link to the video, enjoy!

UPDATE: I did manage a picture after all, here it is.

Of Pancakes & Skunks

Muffin has a new favorite story, The Runaway Pancake , which was our Valentine's day gift for her. It’s a pretty cute story actually, and the book even has a CD of John Lithgow reading the story. So now we have a new imaginary friend, the "boy pancake" who comes to visit and play and even has done sleep overs (who knew?). He even greets me whenI come home from work! Of course we all have to be careful not to sit on him, since we can't see him ;)

But don't worry, she has not forgotten about good ol' Baby Skunk... For the past 6+ months we have had an ongoing saga with the poor litle Baby Skunk that fell off a log and hurt his leg. Usually played by Muffin herself (aspiring actresst that she is), with yours truly typically assigned as the person who finds the Baby Skunk, and takes care of the boo-boo. Sometimes I'm transformed into a Princess or another storytime character, but the story is pretty much the same everytime. Baby Skunk even enters into the stories I have to spin for her - say, she asks for a story about Blues Clues, I'll start inventing it, then Muffin stops me & tells me how Baby Skunk somehow has entered this story. Thankfully both Baby Skunk and Mamma Skunk don't stink (she doesn't know how skunks smell and I’m not about to tell her).

I can just see the evolution for our next story, maybe tonight… about how Baby Skunk meet Boy Pancake. My imagination is getting tired from all this invention, help!! Actually I’m very grateful to see how creative she is, though it can be exhausting its also very rewarding.

Grandma the Clown

Yesterday we went to see a little reading & show given locally by Grandma the Clown , from the Big Apple Circus. Sofia got to sit with all the children on the gym floor of a local school, while the parents got to sit on the bleachers. We were a little nervous leaving Muffin alone even if only a few feet away, but she did great. And Grandma the Clown was fantastic! Grandma is actually a guy, he showed us how he puts his makeup on, then stepped out to put his costume back. He's VERY funny and if he's a preview for our visit to the circus this Friday, we're in for a treat. At the end of his little 'show', Muffin wanted to go see him, and Daddy snapped a wonderful picture of her.

Sock Puppet

Yesterday we made our very first Sock Puppet!! Her name is Snowman Sockpuppet. We used an old sock of mine that she grabbed from my drawer, its red with white snowmen on it (hence the name). Muffin helped me pick out the buttons for the eyes/nose and she insisted she wanted pink hair on it. Thankfully I had some pink cheap yarn we could use. And then mommy got to work sewing. Of course after I finished it she got upset because I said we couldn't use the pink yarn to make the sock puppet completely pink. By bedtime, though, she told me that she now liked the sock.

Here's a link to a little video of Muffin telling the story of the sock puppet being made by Mami.

Play Rules per Muffin

Per Muffin, the rules for playing these classic games are:

HIDE & SEEK: Muffin hides, and counts to 10 while hiding. When she's done counting, the other person says "I'm coming to find you", at which point Muffin darts out of her hiding spot.

TAG: The person who is "it" runs, and the other person tries to catch them. When you catch them you become "it" and have to run away and "avoid" being caught.

I know - she's got them backwards! Its so cute though ;) We've tried explaining to her the 'typical' rules but she doesn't buy them. Gotta admire how she likes to do it her own way!

On a related note, I think this NPR article does a great job explaining why creative play is SO important.

Of Carrots & Muffins

Muffin woke today up asking for muffins, so how could I say no? Except I didn’t have any. So we proceeded to make Dr Weil's Carrot Cake except I baked it as mini muffins for 15 minute instead, and substituted the pinapple with applesauce. Yum!

Bowling

Today we went to a Bowling birthday party, her first time bowling! Unfortunately one of the first things she tried to do was run after the ball. Anyone who bowls will remember how oily those lanes are… so yes, she took one step and immediately landed on her back. Poor honey was so stunned it took her like a minute to finally wail away. Of course we held and comfoted her quite a bit, checked her out to make sure she was fine, etc. Eventually she calmed down, and was even willing to bowl a bit again, but only with the birthday girl's help. Hopefully she's not scared of bowling, I'd love to do it as a family when she gets older!

Picnic in February?

Sunday morning Muffin woke up asking for a picnic. My response was, honey, its too cold to have a picnic! But that didn’t deter her, she just suggested we do it at the mall. And being true to herself, it was just not any picnic, she asked for tablecloth & flowers & an an umbrella. I was able to dissuade her from the umbrella and we used placemats instead of a tablecloth. It turned out great! I packed up simple sandwiches for everyone, brought some water & some chips, and we had a wonderful little picnic in the middle of Woodbridge mall.

Later that day while we were chatting, she suddenly asks me about talking in Spanish and she says, mami, I'd like to learn Spanish. I almost hit the floor! So now I'm trying to talk even more Spanish with her, which is hard b/c she speaks English so well its automatic to respond back in English. When I catch myself, I'll repeat my response in Spanish, repeating in both languages whatever word or phrase might be new to her. Hey, she just might still turn out bilingual!

Woe is me

Oh, big tragedy! We ran out of stickers yesterday, oh no!! Muffin and I did a quick run to the local Target last night to get some stickers. (BTW Its amazing how quiet the stores were just b/c it was Superbowl Sunday.) But on the way out we happened to walk by the little Target Cafe (which was closed) and all the way home Muffin kept saying in her actress voice "Oh, owe is me!" just because she wanted a big soft pretzel and couldn't get it.

Where do they get stuff like that? Had me cracking up all the way home.

Turns out that when she turns on the suffering actress mode on DH, he responds by saying 'woe is me'. Hmph, and he blames ME for all her acting ability! Methinks she's learning some from her daddy!

Just for the fun of it, here's a picture of our aspiring actress in full costume. Enjoy!

MLK Day

Last Monday we went out for some shopping and stopped for a quick bite for dinner. During dinner we were talking with Muffin about who Martin Luther King was and why he had a holiday assigned to him. So naturally she asked us who Martin Luther King was. I loved DH's simple "toddler level" answer: He was a teacher who taught people that they have be nice and get along.

Growing up

Muffin is growing up so fast… Yesterday morning when she woke up, she said she wanted to go potty all by herself. She closed the bathroom door, took off her bottoms by herself, sat herself on the toilet, and only called me because she couldn't reach the bathroom tissue. After I gave her a few pieces, she asked me to leave her alone. She then proceeded to cleanup, get off by herself, flush, then wash & dry her hands. ALL BY HERSELF! My mommy heart is torn between pride and sadness at seeing her grow so quick.

And she's got spunk! Last night we went to a birthday party for her cousin (his first b-day!) and they had a little musical chairs game for the kids. Inevitably she got left out at one of the turns, so what did she do? When she realized she didn't have a seat, she nonchalantly grabbed the nearest empty chair and sat there instead. Everyone roared at that, and she got a prize for sheer chutzpah ;)

A nice quote

"Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body."--Elizabeth Stone

PhD in Imagination

These days I feel like I'm earing a PhD in Imagination... Muffin just loves loves loves stories. Which is great, except that she'll spend a good part of the day asking me for stories on things like: a toothbrush (what kind of story can you tell about it??) 3 kittens, a baby ducky, 3 fishies, Nemo and the baby skunk, Sleeping Beauty and the baby skunk, (do you see a pattern here?) etc. The longer the story the better she likes it. And she's got definite ideas on the story details. For example, when I said the 3 fishies lived in a pond, she told me that no, they live in the sea.
I tell you, its exhausting to be so creative on demand ALL the time!! Then again I love that she's got such a vivid imagination and is so creative. She's great at mixing elements of stories together which I think is wonderful. Its tough to keep up with her though!

I can see how people start writing children's books though - some of the stories I've created have potential as books... I told DH that we should consider writing children's books - use his pictures and my stories and we'll have a business in no time!