25 Random Things about Mari

1. Mari loves to talk, and talk, and talk, and talk. Some days she never shuts up...those close to me tell me this is payback.


2. Mari knows all the characters on her shows and has to say bye-bye to them when they go off. Bye-Bye Taytee Town, Bye-Bye Gaga Gaga (Yo Gabba Gabba), Bye-Bye Blue, Bye-Bye Dorda and Boos (Dora and Boots), Bye-Bye Backwawaga (Backyardigans), Bye-Bye Elmo, Bye-Bye Eenie and Burr (Burt and Ernie), Bye-Bye Max and Booby (Ruby). Hmmm...yes, we do watch a lot of TV but it is always accompanied by coloring or doing puzzles, etc.


3. Mari can do all her puzzles by herself now, including the hard number puzzle that doesn’t have matching pictures below the pieces.


4. Mari has discovered climbing. I think she’s a little late in the discovery but she is making up for it in the actual action. She can scale her giant gate, she can climb the stools like a ladder up to the kitchen counter, she has learned how to move items where she needs them to climb wherever she wants.


5. Mari loves coloring but is so over crayons. She prefers colored chalk and markers. Crayola makes these great little stubby markers that are perfect for her and they wash up SO easy. I’m okay with that.


6. Mari loves organization. She knows where all her toys go and if I try to change their location, she will move them back where they belong (even if I do it after she’s in bed, she notices first thing in the morning).


7. Mari moved into the 2s room at daycare a couple weeks ago...I was excited because they do potty-training in there. She has yet to use the potty at school (except to fall in the toilet fully dressed). On the other hand, she’s doing really well at home and even asked twice while shopping to go potty. Yay!


8. Mari slept in a big girl bed last night for the first time. She is getting a room makeover for her birthday, so I wanted to start transitioning her to a non-crib. She did great. Yes, she climbed out in the morning at 6:15 but that was nice because, instead of me having to go get her out of bed yelling Mama, she just climbed into my bed without me getting up and we got to snuggle.


9. Mari loves to sing. I’m uber-impressed with her singing. Even when she hums, I recognize it...so that means she can carry a tune somewhat (I’m tone-deaf, really really tone-deaf). She knows the words and motions to countless songs and it’s really funny to listen/watch her "speed-sing" her way through them.


10. Mari now eats broccoli. The only food I’ve found that she absolutely refuses is beets. She’s less than thrilled with bananas but will eat them in cheerios.


11. Speaking of food, Mari now eats everything Mommy eats. We are no longer eating separate meals. This makes me very excited. About the only thing left that I like that she hasn’t had is pork chops. Now that she finally got her molars, we will try.


12. Mari has really little feet. She wears 6-12 month socks. Her shoe size is a 5. I’m not sure what a normal 2-yr-old wears but I know her shoes are tiny compared to those of the kids around her.


13. Mari has a new friend named Daniel. He was adopted from Russia. His parents used the same adoption agency I did. I read their blog because it said VA on the CHI bloglist. I thought the mom looked really familiar and, after she posted a picture of Daniel with a background I recognized, I sent her an email. It was really funny (especially if you hear Rachel’s telling of it) because I wrote something like "I hope you are who I think you are and if you’re not then you’re going to think I’m really weird but I promise I’m not a stalker." Anyway, Rachel and I did go to high school together. We do live close to each other. We did use the same adoption agency. Our kids even go to the same daycare...and now they are even in the same class! Who would’ve thought?


14. Mari loves her grandparents...she talks to Grandma on the phone all the time and goes absolutely nuts for Grand-dad. Granddad works at Lowes and she loves to visit him...then I carry her out of the store screaming hysterically when it’s time to leave.


15. Mari still loves her giraffey ("Raffi"). It was the first thing I gave her in Ethiopia and she still uses it to self-soothe, basically holding it against her cheek while her tongue licks her lips (almost in a pacifier/suckle action). I think she will do this for a very long time...I’m okay with that. It gets us through tough situations.


16. Temper tantrums are plentiful and very tiresome. I am learning how to tell the difference between her angry/attention-seeking tantrums and her frustrated/scared hysterical ones. They need to be treated very differently by me and things are going a lot better. Ignoring works great with the first kind but is very detrimental with the second...only hugs and raffi help the second kind.


17. Mari has learned that "pee-pee?" accompanied by the sign for potty will get her out of anything she doesn’t want to do. Mommy has learned that Mari uses this to get out of timeout. That ploy no longer works. I’m onto ya’, kid!


18. Mari has become very attached to Ollie-dog ("Oyyie" - I guess she’s doing the Spanish double-L pronounciation!). She has started to have hysterical tantrums when we leave him behind. We had to stand in the vet’s parking lot in the freezing cold for 10 minutes the other day until she was calm enough to get in the car seat (hey, if she doesn’t want to bend, you can’t force her!).


19. Mari is getting tubes in her ears on Wednesday. I’m hoping this will eliminate all her poor earaches. Maybe help her speech too...I don’t know if she is getting lazy because of her language explosion or if her pronunciation is slipping because of her ears. We will see.


20. Mari hates having her picture taken now. This is a complete 180 from a couple months ago. I have to make a big stupid fool out of myself to get pix of her. She freaked at school for the photographer...no school pix this go-round. (The current picture at the top of the blog is what her school pix should have been)


21. Mari LOVES lollipops (pop-pops) and will do anything for one. This is a very handy trait, especially in the checkout line at Wal-Mart. I always have lollipops in my purse. She is very good about sharing licks too.


22. Mari loves to blow her nose. She has the mechanics down but isn’t really effective yet.


23. Mari has a boyfriend at school. His name is Garrett but everyone calls him Archie. Mari is so in love with her Aw-chee. It motivates her to go in the morning and as soon as we top a certain hill on the way to school, she sing-songs "aw-chee, aw-chee, aw-chee". I think the feeling is mutual...he comes running to the gate as soon as she gets there. They are in separate rooms now but they still greet each other...he should be moving up soon.


24. Mari’s re-adoption is almost finished. One more signature is all we are waiting for...and that document in on the judge's desk. Just waiting on it to be signed. We are almost done with paperwork.


25. Mari says "I wuv you Mama" all the time. And appropriately, I might add. I will never get tired of hearing that.

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