very far behind

I am so far behind, I have no words for my behindness. Except that I am behind.

In the meantime, I have uploaded birthday party pictures and some more recent goofiness, and also updated the link here so that it will go to the new set I just created for Gaz's fourth year.

I swear, I will have update soon.

Kid Logic

This morning I was in the bathroom, when I heard a loud banging coming from the dining room. I called out to Gaz, asking her what all the noise was. She came running over to me, and said, "I was just trying to understand Proton. By BANGING!"

"I don't think that's going to work," I replied. It was hard not to laugh.

"But it worked yesterday!" she asserted, and ran back to understand Proton some more, but now with less noise. I'm still not sure what she was doing, but I know she wasn't banging on the cat.

In other news, we're gearing up for her birthday party on Saturday. She's been asking for make-up, of all things, and is convinced that she'll be getting some on her birthday. I'm not sure where the cosmetic mania has come from, but we'll see how long it lasts.

Haircut time

New Hair
Originally uploaded by georgiegrrrrl

I couldn't stand the tangles anymore, so last night I cut off the oldest bits of hair. Don't worry, I saved them this time, unlike when I first trimmed her bangs.

The bad news is that her hair isn't curling up higher now that it's shorter, so I think she's going to be maybe just wavy to mostly straight-haired. Oh well. It's not like I passed along much other appearance-related DNA. No point being vain now. Besides, she's beautiful.

Thanks, Auntie Aiiieeee

Today at dinner, Gaz was happily eating her pasta when she said, "I eat the pasta and then it turns into blood, right?" I shake my fist at thee, Aiieee!

But it's cool that she's retaining some information about her circulatory system. While discussing knee owies over the weekend, we talked about "why red comes out" when you fall down. I'm sure most of it was over her head, but some of it has to have soaked in by now.

And speaking of things I would rather her not bring up in public, she's been singing quite a lot lately. A current favorite is "Sometimes People Don't Poop All The Time," which, I think, is an ode to constipation. I guess that's one of the side effects of potty training. You have to talk bodily functions so much to get the whole point of the potty across, and then the kids don't always know that it's time to not talk about poop anymore. Joy.

Anyway, we've just gotten back from a trip to Shelbyville, where we visiting Grandma Judy, Grandpa Will, Great-Grandma Wasson, and Grandpa Great. If you can, send some good thoughts to Grandpa Great, as he's just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. We're all hopeful, since it looks like it's been caught before things get difficult, but still. We worry.

Today we went outside to look for bugs and Gaz spent some time catching ants with one of the neighbor boys. It was hard to drag her back inside. Oh, and she's really pestering us for a bike now that everyone else is out on them these days. I don't even know if she's tall enough. Please, someone tell me that she isn't tall enough!

Gah, it's been a while

I had no intention of being so lackadaisical. Many things have happened, followed by Mark saying, "that's the kind of thing you should be blogging!" and I would say "I will blog!" and then I wouldn't. Because at the end of the day, I'm really tired and into laying on the couch. Read a little or watch a little teevee and then go to bed. Lather, rinse, repeat. In between fits of beating myself up for this, I suggest to myself that maybe this is just one of those times (like August - November last year) when Gaz just completely wears me out to the point that I shouldn't try for too many or too involved extra-curricular activities. But mostly I'm just hard on myself.

Like, I should have blogged about serf (surf?). Gaz has a little pink Disney Princess tea set (which I did actually buy for her myself, because we were desperate for a tea set and there were no others in my price range), and just as soon as we got all the pieces out of their nuclear fallout resistant packaging, she started saying that the cream pitcher was "surf" or "serf," it's hard to get a kid who can't read to spell out the words she makes up. So this goes on for months. "Mommy, would you like some tea and serf (surf)?" is the question I'm always being asked, to which it is my duty to reply, "Yes, that sounds lovely." And then finally, a couple of weeks ago, she comes running up to me with the little pink pitcher, holds it aloft, and yells "SERVING WENCH!" At which point I realize that surf (serf?) was as close as she could get to saying serving wench, and this is a major accomplishment for a complex term like that coming out of her mouth. And also that she picked this up from a What's New, Scooby Doo? cartoon we have on DVD (it's set at a Renaissance Faire, and some guy hands Daphne a pitcher and says, "Serving wench! Take this hence.") and I am both amused that she picked up the most hilarious term from that and embarassed that it's patently obvious to the world how much television she must watch from her ability to quote Scooby Doo. It's still funny, though.

And then yesterday (someone should sound the scatological post alarm now) Nana Cel, Papa Charley, Gaz, and I were in Borders, picking out some new books for Gaz. She was lurking in one corner of the kids' section and we all kinda figured she was probably filling her diaper. So I went to look at a kids' book about Barack Obama, and Agatha suddenly came running up to me shouting "Mommy! I dropped some poop on the floor!" over and over. I calmed her down, sent her off to the bathroom with Nana, and all I can say is thank God I had wipes in my purse. And also thank Gaz that it wasn't as messy as it could have been. Somehow the poop completely missed her clothes, her legs, her shoes . . . everything but the carpet, of course. But it didn't make a mess really, except for it's undeniable presence. Anyway, thank God for wipes. I can't say that enough.

But the best part is that she did all this right next to the potty training books. And it should go without saying that we've had a good laugh or eight since then.

Since the subject has already come up, potty use has dramatically increased. She's generally not peeing in her diapers anymore at all, and is pretty responsive to questions about whether or not she has to pee. Today we got her some training pants with flowers and such all over them to help encourage her to keep up with the potty habits. I have to say, except for the late evening/early morning potty requests, this is all rather effortless. I'm glad I haven't pushed her to get out of diapers. Encourage her progress, yes. Push, no. She's so willful, I suspect it wouldn't have worked anyway.

As we near the third anniversary of Gaz's birth, I can report that she is as tall, blond, silly, and nursey as ever. I've long said I would happily give her three years to breastfeed and after that we'd negotiate. I'm still not feeling the need to negotiate, though. How much she nurses varies so much depending on the weather, travel, owies, etc., it always makes sense when it comes up. So sorry if that weirds you out or you think it's crazy. It's worked fine thus far, and so long as it works for me and Gaz, it'll be part of our lives and I'll probably blog about it from time to time.

Now bathtime nears and we must scrub bug repellant off Gaz. Gotta love that west nile virus.