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!).