Hello....anyone still out there?

I know, it's been radio silence. Hope readers still exist...

We've been busy. I'm on augmentin for a sinus/bronchitis infection and am feeling much better (aw, thanks for asking!)  - as a result I once again have the mental capacity to actually note the happenings in our lives....going to bed 38 seconds after the kids do leaves little time for things like blogging. Or, you know, life.

But life has been happening! Let me fill you in:

Jellybean broke my nose. She head butted me. (stop laughing, little brother!) I have been calling her a butthead at work for the past two weeks and only today did anyone get the joke. Head butt....butthead. Oh g*d my jokes are bad that I need to explain them! (I'm here all week! don't forget to tip your waitress! har)

But, no joke here - we're potty training our Jellybean! She's had three days at school without an accident! She's my big girl. We started this process at the prompting of her school - and also because she won't tolerate a dirty diaper. The kicker was that she kept taking off poopy diapers and I had to go find the - ahem - nuggets that rolled away. That was pretty motivating, between you and me.

Monkey wants in on all the praise we're heaping on Jellybean for using the potty - so now she offers to "show her sister how to use the potty" each time she heads in. And what the heck - she's a great role model, so we praise her. I love that kid. And I'm not the only one...

It's amazing how much Jellybean adores her big sister. She wants to sit by her at breakfast. She wants to wear her big sister's clothing to school (she wore two of Monkey's pj tops to school today. Yes, that's right, two. And yes, Jellybean is now picking out her clothes. sigh)

Anything that Monkey does? So does Jellybean. It's (no pun intended) monkey see, monkey do. And it's adorable. We used to think we had Jellybean for Monkey, but I think it's the other way around.

Monkey is thriving at school. We just signed her up for summer camp, and part of it will be Spanish immersion. I give her about 6 months before she starts teaching me things to say in Spanish, and tricks me (you know, like the lead in My Big Fat Greek Wedding who says "I have three testicles" to his fiancee's family....funny).

Monkey has also bought into the Santa thing, hook line and sinker. I was talking to her the other day, suggesting that if she was good maybe Santa would bring her and Jellybean a table that they could do artwork on together, and wouldn't that be fun...and she sighed, said yes it would be great, but "how will Santa get it down the chimney? the chimney is only 18 inches wide!!" Funny kid. Especially since we don't have a chimney!

Oh, baby my baby

Poor Jellybean is teething.

I know, she's been teething for what seems like ages. AGES.

But she's got 4 teeth (eye teeth? canines? gah, I'd be a terrible dentist) breaking through all at once. And she's miserable.

Yesterday, she picked at the gums over one tooth until she was bleeding. My beautiful little baby was wandering around the house with bloody drool, like a pre-school version of cujo. Her pale, pale skin ruddy with blood. Even the wispy blonde tendrils got a bit pink.

She's also got a cold. Of course.

She's in bed right now. She went down well. But ever 4 or 5 minutes she cries. This woeful, piteous lament of mama, mama, mama.

She's had tylenol, and an icy (frozen teether). There's not much more I can do....

It breaks my heart to hear my baby cry.

I feel the need, the need for speed....

Monkey wipes out a fair amount on the playground. Not because she is a klutz, but because she is a daredevil. She outruns kids twice her age....and has a seemingly endless reservoir of energy to hurtle from one side of the playground to the other. Even after a full day of school! (and did you know that it is virtually impossible to catch a screaming, energetic, running toddler while in heels or any shoe other than sneakers? all my "pretty" shoes are lonely....)

When she is on a set of steps, she'll yell "jump" and fling herself off into space. When you push her on the swing she alternates between "faster!" and "higher!" When we run on the sidewalk (as she holds my hand, under the new regime) she exhorts you to go "faster faster higher" as if the two words are interchangeable. She feels the need, the need for speed.

And, under the law of averages, she wipes out a lot. Again, not because she is a klutz, but because she runs and jumps and kamikazes so many times that eventually, one of her efforts to land that dismount is going to go astray.

Last night was one such night. She clambered on top of a cement toad with a sprinkler on its back....and rolled off. Hitting all the cement bumps of the toad's back, sides, and legs before hitting the ground and rolling into a puddle of standing water and sand.

I ran to get her, to comfort her and assess the damage. And, while she was littered with small cuts, scrapes, and swollen bruises (those nice little white welts you get on your skin before the real purple bruise shows...), with blood dribbling down her neck from a cut on her chin, and liberally covered in wet, filthy sand, she was OK! One minute later she was laughing again, running across the playground and having a grand old time.

Four hours later I was in the bathtub, cleaning off the grime from the day, including a layer of sand that had gotten inside my dress and my bra (shudder) and clung to my skin all night long. Ew.

My blankie, my water, AND.....

I have noticed a new, somewhat odd yet endearing, trait of Monkey developing over the past few weeks.

It used to be that (most nights, but not all) she would cry and fuss when we put her into her crib for bedtime. She fights bedtime SO fiercely - there are other things to do Mama! Daddy, let's read at least 10 more books! You know the drill.

But lately, she has started asking for specific items to accompany her to bed.

1.) The blankie. Natch. But this has always been so, and is nothing new to report.
2.) Her sippy cup. Ok, I get this. She got used to having it in her crib just in case she wakes up thirsty at night. I've no empirical evidence that she's ever used it this way - but it is reasonable to want it handy.
3.) And this is where it gets interesting. She wants books. And not just one, but two or three or more. I get the feeling she would take as many books as I would give her! She asks for them by name. These are specific books that she wants to have by her side as she drifts of to sleep!

And after I close the door, she flicks on the light (I've written about this before) and I swear this is true - she reads to herself, outloud! Now, what she is mumbling and what is on the page might be wholly unrelated. But still, how crazy cute is that?

I feel like I should get her a flashlight, and show her how to read under the covers like I did as a kid. Yup, this apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Phew, I'm exhausted

Monkey is officially a kid. A scabby-kneed, sand-eating, thrilled-to-be-alive kid. Wow is she fun.

And her dad and me? We're tired!

This weekend we:

• Drove to the middle of CT to an amusement park that time forgot - it was so cheesy, it was awesome. I've even got photos of Monkey behind the "muscle man" cutout....
• Let Monkey dance to a DJ (company picnic at aforementioned amusement park) that played - by far - the worst/best collection of music I've heard since I was at a wedding that involved copious drinkin' and dancin'....and let's just say that Monkey likes to shake her thang to such tunes as "Baby Got Back" and "Push It."
• Let Monkey run and run and - whoops! she just skinned both knees - on asphalt.
• Watched Monkey inhale no less than 6 slices of watermelon. By herself. Look ma, no bib! Messy.
• Put Monkey into her swimsuit and let her run through the sprinklers in Riverside Park....in October. Global warming......it's freakishly hot here.
• Watched Monkey eat sand. Sandboxes, they're the next "hot" diet in town....
• Generally had so much fun we wore ourselves out.

Thankfully, my beloved Yankees weren't too exhausted and won last night, forcing game 4 in the American League Division Series!! Huzzah! Go Yankees!!!! (yes, I'm watching the game tonight. don't call, I won't answer.......)