Purple and rule number 1

*this is not a proud parenting moment.  But I'm trying to document the good and the bad.*

Purple is one of my favorite colors to dress E in. Today she was wearing a purple monkey shirt with jeans that had purple gingham cuffs and purple flowers.  I love purple.

But not the purple I saw today.

I was working in the kitchen, E was eating cashews and kefir at her kid table in the breakfast nook.
I was sorting rambutans to wash them when I heard a gagging noise.

I turned around to see E rigid, standing at the table her face turning a deep purple.

She has eaten cashews countless times before.  The cashews were pieces and halves so I didn't bother to break them up more.  It didn't matter.  She was choking. I broke Rule number 1.

Ensue baby Heimlich.  And terror.  And more Heimlich.  And more terror.  And so much purple.

I know it must have been only seconds before she spit out the cashew but it felt like an eternity.  There was so much terror.

I'll keep dressing her in purple, but I would really love it to NEVER see purple on her face again.

A picture of E at 20 months

Tonight's after dinner/bedtime went something like this:

E: all duh(hands her frozen yogurt stick to Daddy)
Me (cutting up a cheese stick for her lunch tomorrow): are you ready for a bath?
E: CHEE!  CHEE PEAS!!!
Me: Can you use your big girl words?
E: haaaaa chee peas
Me: okay (gives her the small end of the cheese I'm cutting up)
E (on the verge of meltdown): Uhside chee!  (uhside or "other side" is how she asks for something different)
Me: eat what you have before you ask for more
E: HAAA BIG CHEE PEAS!
Me: is your little cheese all gone
E: 'es
Daddy: is it all gone or is it in your hand?
E: han
Daddy: eat it all gone if you want more cheese
E (chews up the cheese, spits it back out for me to see, then resumes eating it) Haa big chee peas?
Me: is your little cheese all gone
E: 'es
Me: (checks) okay here's a big cheese for you! (gives her new cheese stick)
E: YAY! CHEE!
One minute later
E: All duh! (hands the cheese stick back to daddy, with one bite out of it...right of the middle)
Me: are you ready for your bath?
E: NO! NO BATH!  NO! PWAY?  PWAY? (on the verge of meltdown)
Me: It's not playtime.  do you want to go straight to bed or do you want your bath?
E: BEH PEAS!
Me: okay, do you want milk?
E: DADA MUK PEAS!

Fastfoward past milk and potty time (mostly because dada took that duty, pun intended)
Daddy: E come wash your hands
E (runs starkers out of the bathroom right to me)
Me: time to wash hands and brush teeth (picking her up and taking her back to the bathroom)
E: Hi Momma
Me: wash hands, brush teeth (putting her on the step stool)
E: peek-boo? (ducks down below the counter)
Me: peek-a-boo after teeth.  (picking her back up)
E: Baby do? (going limp like a spaghetti noodle)
Me: Momma ABC then E ABC.
E: NO! (drops limply to the stool)
Me: (guiding her to the floor and brushing her teeth laying down while singing the ABC song twice) Thank you for brushing your teeth

Take her into her room for pajamas.  Lay her down on her changing table that has a frog on it...
E: See Froby?
Me: after diaper and pajamas
E: SEE FROBY PEAS?!?! FROBY! FROBY!
Me: after diaper and pajamas
E: FROBY!? FROBY!?! (meltdown imminent)
Me: (puts on diaper tries for pajama pants)
E: Seelee mama (kicks wildly, trying to prevent the pants)
Me: (puts on pajama pants and top)
E: (giggling like evil incarnate and wiggling like an octopus in a sac)
Me: Love you, now you can see Froggy.
E: (rolls over and snuggles the frog on her changing table)
Me: (picks her up and hugs her) love you
E: Uhv ooo (hugs me tight and just happens to smack my glasses into my nose, very painfully)
Daddy: ready for lullabies and snuggles
E: NO! (squirming rampantly despite daddy's snuggles and calming song, manages to headbutt daddy across his nose, very painfully)
Daddy: goodnight. (puts E into her crib)

Cue the impending meltdown....13 minutes of screaming in the crib and then...silence.

E is very independent.  She wants what she wants.  Right now that's any phone or tablet, and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. (really shouldn't have let her watch it when she was sick)  She is very, very stubborn.  She already pretends to not hear us when we say something she doesn't want to hear.  She likes to have any modicum of control of the world around her.

She is also very loving and sweet.  She likes to be a "big girl" and use her big girl words.  She likes to help with everything from sweeping and mopping up spills to making dinner and folding clothes.  She uses her polite words more often than not.  She gives great hugs.  She loves to play with her duplos, especially the cat and dog figurine.

Big girl

Where did my baby go?

I'ts official, my baby is gone and despite the fact that she still refers to herself as "baby" has transformed into a big girl.  While a part of me is mourning the loss of the helpless baby most of me is reveling in the fun that is toddlerdom.  A song that keeps coming on E's pandora station has a lyric "How did you grow so big over night, how did you get so strong and bright, yesterday you were asleep in my arms, today you're growing off the charts, I'm so proud of you"  and every time I hear it I tear up a little bit (still going to blame the hormones)

This age is so much fun!  E is becoming more playful every day, she plays with her toys using her imagination.  Her favorites are her animals and her people and anything having to do with the potty.  Today she put her baby doll on it's potty in front of her alphabet toy and proceeded to show him alphabet letters while making peeing noises.

She "reads" her favorite books and sings along to more songs that I can remember.  Her favorite song is "Wheels on the Bus"  she will sing that song all day.  Her favorite book is her Star Wars Colors book, which requires me singing the Imperial march and the cantina song when I read it.  She loves, loves, loves Sesame Street (especially Count, Elmo and Cookie Monster) despite never seeing a full episode. She knows them from her books. She calls Count "Ah, ah!" which makes me laugh every time.  She sleeps on a nap mat at daycare.  She uses her potty fairly regularly.  She hates clothes, diapers, and car seats.  She has her security items (Ellie, her musical elephant, LinLin her stuffed panda, babypada, and Rexy her t-rex pillow pet that goes to day care with her).  She threw a fit when I washed her daycare blankie over the weekend.

She gets sad when people go away, even complete strangers like waiters and such; and likes to call for people or things "reesa? weh are ooo reesa?"  (she really likes our neighbor Ms. Teresa, and calls for her when we go check the mail, but she'll also call for inanimate objects the same way)

She's curious about the world. Her favorite things to say seem to be "isit?" (what is it) and "do?" (what is he doing) and "eredidhego?" (where did he go?)

fearless!

She loves to tell us what color things are and "count"  For a long time everything was yellow and there were always 3 of everything.  But she's getting better about her colors, there are still usually 3 of everything though.  She loves to climb, swing and tries to jump.  She's a very physical kiddo, but also can be very focused and still.

We went on vacation to California (eventually I'll post about that, I swear) and it was such a different trip than a year ago.  

She's starting to assert her independence more (ie. more temper tantrums).  Her most common tantrum currently is about going to school.  If I even mention school she starts whimpering or crying.  She's also starting to be picky about her food.  Tonight she had a full meltdown about eating, all she wanted was grapes and she made a huge show of spitting out her bite of quinoa.  Between that and kicking dada earlier in the evening, she ended up going straight to bed after dinner for the first time ever.  To be fair she was REALLY tired because she didn't nap at daycare so her behavior had an explanation, but there is still no excuse.  I know it's important to be firm and fair about these things but it's still hard.  Thankfully she went almost straight to sleep with only a few minutes of crying once she was put to bed.

 Thankfully the good days still outnumber the bad, and hopefully that trend will continue as we delve down the path of the terrible twos.

She's my big girl, and she lets me know in her own funny way.  Tonight at dinner she asked for my fork "mama fork?" so I got her, her own adult fork to which she proudly declared "baby big girl!"

Yes baby, you are a big girl; but you're still my baby.