A mouse in the house?

Monkey is sick again. Here's hoping it's the last time this "winter" and that soon we are into the cold/cough/booger-free summer months. Nothing too serious, just upper respiratory fug. 

But, she's lost her voice! Now, when she asks for something (that is when she deigns to use her voice instead of whining, grunting, and pointing) it comes out in this impossibly silly little squeak. Quite adorable. 

The complete adorableness (is that a word? hmpfh, it is today) of her voice helps offset the whining. No one likes being sick, and Monkey is cranky.

Of course, when we ask her if she's cranky she says "yesth" and then says "cranky" repeatedly. She's funny.  I swear, she knows which word she should repeat for maximum effect. A born comic, this one. 

Leaving the baby behind...

Monkey is growing up.

Literally and figuratively. And yes, I knew this would happen.

Still, sometimes it takes my breath away to realize just how different she is than the teeny baby with jet black hair (that stuck out straight like she was channeling Joan Jet or Billy Idol!!!) we took home from the hospital.

We just retired her high chair. It was a gigantic red plastic and metal monstrosity, that took up a ton of space in our kitchen. So honestly, I wasn't sad to see it go. Still, sometimes I walk into the kitchen and wonder what is missing.

To replace it, we bought a Stokke Tripp Trapp (used off of Craig's List - score!!). This is a chair that "grows" with the child - i.e., you can take it apart and lower the seat and footrest as the kid gets taller. Monkey loves to clamber up and down, and frequently will request to sit there, even if we aren't eating or coloring with crayons. She also sits on the blue vinyl cafe chairs we have at the kitchen table - she likes to do what we do, and being constrained in a high chair was no longer viable. 

So, adios dear high chair, you served us well. Sorry we had to put you out to pasture....it wasn't you, it was us. No, really. It seems we've just left the baby behind and moved on, I'm sure you understand. 

Conversations

Monkey and I have a lot of conversations. Some of which are actually interspersed with real sentences, spoken in English!

A representative sampling:

Monkey: Sit!
Me: Yes, that's right, you sit in the chair.

Translation: She was standing on the chair and knows better....

Monkey: Preshush?
Me: Sure, you can have pretzels.
Monkey: Yeah, preshush!

Translation: OMFG do I LOVE pretzels! Must scatter them on floor....

Monkey: Ah-bah-dee?
Me: Um, I don't know what that means, can you tell Mama again?
Monkey: Ah-bah-DEE?
Me: Still, no.
Monkey: AH-BAH-DEE!!!!!!!! (going all ugly american and yelling, like volume is a translator)
Me: Yup, um, no.
Monkey: I give up, you are impossible. (ok, she didn't say that, but she sure gave me that look!)

Charm School

This morning, as Monkey was finishing her breakfast, her hunger subsided and her sense of play (aka toddleritis) took over. In other words, she chucked everything on the floor.

Water bottle? Check. On the floor.

NYTimes? Check. On the floor and fanned out.

Crackers? Check. On the floor with crumbs in a 3 foot radius.

Apple sauce? Check, check and check. On her face, her hands, her jammies, the chair, the table AND the floor. And maybe Ollie, too (poor cat).

Using my stern mom voice I reminded her that "we do NOT throw food on the floor" yadda yadda etc. etc. etc.

I was quite close to her as I was saying this, since I had bent over to put my face next to hers to emphasize my point.

She looked at me very seriously, and nodded her head. Like, ok mama, I hear you.

Then she reached out with both apple-sauced hands, cradled my cheeks, and yelled "HELLO" while crinkling her nose. I must have had a funny look on my face, since she burst into laughter.

I got an apple-sauce facial, the floor needed to be washed, and we were late to school. But she was certainly charming!

Our neighbors are praying for spring

Monkey has a lot of energy. Even after a full day at school (8ish to almost 6), she still is rearing' to go!

Last night, 15 minutes before her scheduled bedtime, after "helping" with laundry, she still wasn't tuckered out. In fact, she spent ten minutes running up and down the hallway of our apartment, chortling and yelling “ahhh”…back and forth, back and forth. No reason, just because it was fun.

She didn't have any shoes on, but still, her little heels were pounding away on the hardwood floor.

I'm pretty sure that our downstairs neighbors are praying for spring, so Monkey can run outside instead of on top of their aching heads.