Trip to the Park, Updates, Etc.

I know, I haven't been keeping up very good lately. Only one excuse...Facebook. So I'll try to catch you up on what's been happening.

Mari is growing by leaps and bounds. I keep measuring her thinking she is getting taller by the day; she has grown some more but I think she is just standing up better now and also really losing her baby looks. She talks nonstop (nothing new) but almost everything she says now is purposeful (not just babbling). I can't understand it all but she manages to get her point across most times. I'm amazed at her understanding more than anything. She answers questions now and even asks them sometimes. She has started this new (very cute) thing of attaching a title to every sentence..."look Mama," "thank you Mommy," "get down Ollie," etc. I love that she is interchanging Mama and Mommy and she is saying I love you a lot now, unprompted. She loves singing and has several songs that she sings along with (as well as doing the motions), I love to look back in the car and seeing her just beebopping to the Wee Sing CD. Some of her favs are Hokey Pokey, If You're Happy and You Know It, EIEIO, 6 Little Ducks. She also knows exactly which song is coming up next on the CD and starts singing it as soon as one song goes off before the next one starts...impressive considering there are 47 songs on the CD. She does the same thing with her Nick Jr DVD that we have...she can say some parts of the Dora and Lazy Town ("Tay-Tee Town") episodes right before they do. Okay, maybe that's not smartness, maybe that is too much TV!

Her manners are impeccable. She says please most of the time, loves to say thank you, and will cover her mouth and say "eh-muse me" (excuse me) every time she burps or toots. I may not have the most well-behaved child, but she definitely has good manners. Speaking of behavior...zowee! Crazy almost-2! She is very whiny, every other whine is a "boo-boo," doesn't want to potty anymore, does this little thing where she has her head pointed at you but slides her eyes to the side (toddler version of eye-rolling, I assume?), etc. etc. etc. She is very manipulative and calculating, knows how to push your buttons but stops short of actually getting in trouble. I'm gonna have my hands full! But we are making strides...consistency being the key. The threat of timeout actually means something now, we have almost broken the hitting and throwing habits (almost, but not quite), we are now working on spitting and scratching. Oh, and the ever-famous Ethiopian scream...totally ignore that one and she will stop after 2-3 short bursts.

Healthwise...things are going good. We've had a lot less respiratory issues this year (knock on wood), occasional use of the nebulizer but not bad. We just finished antibiotics for her 3rd ear infection since Thanksgiving. I counted up as many as I could remember since we came home a year ago, and I remembered 8 (I think there may have been 1-2 more, but I didn't write them down). The peds office still didn't think that was significant so I called and made an appointment with the ENT doc myself. We saw him on Friday and as soon as he entered the room he said that based on her records, he had already asked his nurse to check the OR schedule...before he even looked in her ears! So Mari is FINALLY getting tubes on February 25th. I am one happy mama!

Well on to some pix. Today was a very nice day...warm and sunny so we made a trip to the park. Considering we had yucky icy/sleety weather earlier this week, it was a nice break. Mari was initially scared of the ducks and the fishies but she warmed up pretty quickly. She enjoyed the swings and the slide on the playground. She even went down the big curvy tunnel slide!
I'm sure there is more great stuff that I'm leaving out but I can't remember!

Future Olympic Ski-Jumper?

Nite-Nite Mickey

Are those braids or little antennae?

Trying on my snowsuit and boots from my friend Kaili. They fit great, now we just need some SNOW!

Snow day at home with Mommy...no snow, but we did do art!

Hmmm....markers and Mari. Not a good combination.

Snow day lunch. Grilled cheese and noodle soup.

Mari's new best friend. The cow from Dr. Seuss' Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? One of our favorite bedtime stories. BTW, the cow's name is Moo! (bet you're surprised!)

Park Trip

Mari was scared to death at first of the ducks and the giant fish in the duck pond.

Taking it slow in Mommy's lap. (We are singing 6 Little Ducks, that's why my hand looks funny, we are "quack, quack, quack"ing. It worked, she seemed to understand what those funny green-headed things were after that!)
"Qack, Qack!" Mari's version of quacking at the ducks.

Feeding the ducks.

Loved this little guy. He was definitely the most beautiful duck we saw today.

Swinging.

The sweetest sound in the world!

If you missed the big Hair Post, see below. Warning, it's long and boring but has some useful information in it.