Hakuna Matata

I wrote earlier how MLO has gotten to love singing Ariel's main song over and over in the car.

Well she has now moved on to "Hakuna Matata" from Lion King.

I just stick the CD in my car stereo and let it repeat the song over and over. She is still learning all the words to this one, but getting there.

She loves singing these songs so much the CD actually travels into the house with us and gets played on the stereo.

Her favorite shows to watch are things like Dancing with the Stars and currently the Carrie Anne and Bruno war one. She loves to get up and spin around and around.

Think I am going to have to find some dance classes for her soon.

Bathtime

MLO has decided that a bath is no longer a good thing. She doesn't like her hair getting washed and hates the water getting anywhere near her face.

I have recently only been able to get her in the bathtub if I am taking a shower at the same time (and daddy is on hand for watching her). I think, she thinks, that if mommy is in the shower, her hair won't get washed.

Unfortunately she has discovered this not to be the case and her hair still gets done. She screams through the entire process.

I am sort of at the point where she is just going to have to get through this as I have tried washing her hair twenty different ways and none of them have made any difference.

Any suggestions welcome, or similar experiences.

Give-away

Winners are:
Nat King Cole - HomeandHearth
The Three Tenors - Deborah
John Denver - Earthmama

Update: Giveaway now closed. Will announce winner Sunday or Monday :)

So there is another give-away happening at Rocks in My Dryer and I thought I would play along.

I seem to always be swimming in new CDs (I buy a lot) so they end up being the easiest thing for me to give-away. I have three CDs for you to pick from:


1. Nat King Cole, The Very Best of




2. The Three Tenors, The Best of... The Millennium Collection




3. John Denver, 16 Biggest Hits



How to Win
1. Leave a comment below with which one you would like (please be sure I can reach you)
2. Give-away closes Saturday the 2nd at midnight
3. I will randomly pick winners Sunday, post it and try to contact the winners.

Ariel

I have my own little Ariel.

Over Christmas I bought MLO the Little Mermaid soundtrack and it became the car CD. Wherever we go, if MLO is in the car, you can be sure Little Mermaid is playing.

MLO has almost learned all the words to Ariel's trademark song (I have learned them all too now) and I need to record her sitting in her car seat, belting out the song.

She fudges the words she doesn't know, but she knows how long the note is held, when to pause, everything.

My little 2.25 year-old Ariel and budding singer.

Why I Love California

I am a California girl (not the classic looking one necessarily - more in spirit).

I grew up in Sacramento and loved visiting the Redwoods (with the oldest trees on Earth) and Yosemite. I stayed in San Francisco for a little bit too. My grandmother lives in Santa Cruz (in the Monterey Bay Area) and we visit there all the time. I now live in an outer suburb of Los Angeles.

I love how we have so much coast line, anywhere you live you can drive to the ocean (it may be a longish drive, but here in California driving for five hours is nothing). But then we also have the mountains and farm land and forests and rivers and wine country and so on.

I heard once that California makes almost everything it needs within the state (except tin or something like that).

While I love to travel and see other places, I would love to explore all of California too. There is so much to see and it is so big that you could spend a lifetime exploring all of it.

One of my favorite childhood memories is going to Yosemite with my class. We stayed in those big tent cabins (one of the boys and one for the girls). We got to stay up as late as we wanted and sit around the fire. We climbed trees, mountains and ran until our feet gave out. We learned about the different animals and how to be very still so you could watch a deer eat.

I love my state and will always call it home.

Even after

Even after I force MLO to let me change her diaper.

Then later throw her (screaming) into the bathtub and hold her still so I can wash her hair and body.

Scoop her out of the bathtub and force her to put on a clean diaper and jammies (with more screaming and much squirming).

All she wants to do, to be happy and content again, is sit in my lap and have me give her hugs. Even after I was the one who did all the horrible things to her.

And this is part of why words can't even express how much I love her.

Thor "kibby"

I love watching MLO play with her "kibby" (though it is now kitty more often).

We bought Thor some toys and MLO loves to "play" with her.

She makes me throw the balls really far and we watch Thor run after the ball, then MLO follows behind screaming, "no, Thor" wanting to fetch the ball and have me throw it again.

This has lead to Thor being protective of her "toys".

Case in point, we popped some popcorn in our air popper and unpopped kernals made mad dashes for freedom all over the kitchen floor. MLO and I picked most of them up, but as Thor proved we missed some.

Thor had a great time pushing them around the floor and chasing them. Whenever MLO got interested Thor would practically sit on the kernel and look up at her when she came over pretending that there was nothing there.

MLO would try to move Thor and have success part of the time, not every time. They both seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the game.

I had a great time watching too, my belly still hurts.

Bedtime

After much protest how it wasn't bed time and she was okay and just wanted to sit on the couch with mommy, I finally got MLO into her bed.

We read her favorite book (still One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish). I turned on the "music" and turned off her big light.

She asked me to lay down with her (a bad habit I need to figure out how to break without breaking both our hearts). I climbed into her bed and reached over to give her a hug.

Her little arm encircled my head pulling me gently to her chest. Then her wee little hand started patting me. She rubbed my head, gently played with my hair and otherwise totally comforted me.

Perhaps needless to say, we curled up together on her bed and both fell asleep.

Note: Still no sign of the digestion problem - yeah!

Contrary child getting better

Well, we have gone two nights with MLO sleeping straight through and no signs of throwing up or upset digestion. Success to the extra detox stuff she is eating, she even went to daycare!

Need two more nights for me to feel totally in the clear on it.

Last night grandma picked MLO up from daycare so I could catch up on some work. However grandma also had other friends come over and they didn't eat dinner. Now MLO gets dinner at daycare, but insists on another meal afterwards (she has two hollow legs). So she was a little cranky and just wanted to eat.

Luckily I had some snacks in the car (dried fruit which is great for longish storage in the car for emergencies). I also had some leftover chicken from dinner the night before which I quickly warmed up and she scarfed it down.

She didn't want to take a bath, but I had let her skip one the night before so she went anyway. After some protest she remembered how much fun she haves and then I couldn't get her out.

Didn't want to put PJs on, just the diaper, but it is a little chilly so I wrestled them on her.

Didn't want to go to bed, and I basically had to hold her down (not really) and read her favorite book while I was laying down. She then quickly fell asleep.

This morning, didn't want to get dressed, just stay in PJs. More wrestling so she could go to daycare.

I tell people she is my contrary child.

Children's rights

Sitting with daddy

MLO has been home (because of her illness, which I will cover below) a lot and so when daddy finally came home last night I rushed off to take a shower.

While I was enjoying my hot shower and no little one underfoot apparently MLO and daddy were really bonding.

When I came back out he told me how she sat down next to him and put an arm around him like I do sometimes. She drew Christmas trees with him and helped him finish up a snake he was eating.

I love it when they bond!!

**********************

On her illness, it appears her liver isn't operating at proper levels and her body is having trouble detoxing. She is therefore throwing up after it builds up and that is how her body is taking care of it.

I have her on some special stuff to help detox and get her liver working again. This includes peppermint tea, chamomile tea and beets. Still waiting to hear back on a parasite test (which included the lovely benefit of me having to get her #2 into two small sample containers).

MLO still sick

MLO is still throwing up at night (this puts it at over two weeks). She throws up just once, around 2-3am and not every night.

We have gone beyond stomach flu and I have several doctor appointments lined up so we can figure out what is happening.

Trying to tell myself it is probably just an allergy she developed to something, but can't help being a little worried.

Sorry - just going slightly political

Just for a moment, I want to share this:

Excerpt: ‘Memo to the President Elect’ — Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has advice for next president.

It moved me to tears and I hope whoever wins this next election takes a good look at what she is saying here, because I agree with it all.

Stomach Flu

Well alrighty then - my entire household was out with the stomach flu, MLO got it, I got it and hubby got it (also my mother got it who came over to help when I got it).

Happy to report that we all seem to be on the mend now. However there is the huge pile of laundry to do now as well as some mad work catch-up.

MLO got it first and I spent a lot of time over the potty with her throwing up. So when I got it and she first saw me throwing up she came over and stood next to me (while I hurled into the potty).

When I was done she smiled at me, pulled my head to her chest (I was sitting on the floor and she was standing) and hugged me and patted the back of my head.

I have never felt more comforted than at that moment.

Something silly and creative

Just thought this was a cute and fun idea.

Converstion with daddy

MLO is definitely in mimic mode, great way to learn new words and phrases (and good training for mommy and daddy to cut down on the swearing).

Conversation with daddy over the weekend:

Daddy to MLO: You are awesome

MLO: You are awesome.

Daddy: No, you (points) are awesome.

MLO: I am awesome

...other things happen...

Daddy: You are so cute

MLO: No I am not

Daddy: You are so funny?

MLO: No I am not

Daddy: What are you?

MLO: I am awesome!

Strange trend

So yesterday I picked up MLO from daycare. She was telling me all about what they did, giving me blow-by-blow by each friend.

At the end she was telling me who didn't cry and that one girl did.

When I asked why the one girl did cry:

"Because (pause) it is dark outside."

Not sure where this is coming from.

Because...

MLO was at grandma's house last night because it was hubby's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY) and we went out to dinner.

When I went to pick her up she was banging away at grandma's piano. Turns out they had spent a bunch of time looking at music and MLO had been playing the songs.

MLO started pulling binders (grandma has a lot of original sheet music of which some is kept in binders) out and putting them on the floor. I told her we should probably put them on the piano bench and not the floor. She agreed and moved them to the bench.

After that was done she start putting them on the floor again.

I asked her why she was putting them on the floor:

"Because (pause for dramatic effect) it is dark outside"

Can't argue with that sort of logic.

Blending...

Catchup post

Hello, thought I would preserve for posterity our trip to San Francisco over the holidays. I know, holidays are over, move on, but I do want to remember it so here goes anyway:

We flew to SF and got there Thursday night (the 20th). Brought grandma along so she could watch MLO and hubby and I would get some time to do stuff ourselves too.

We arrived to find the hotel room not what we wanted. We had gotten a "Junior Suite" but what it really was, was a room, slightly bigger than a regular room so they could fit a love seat and coffee table in, in addition to the beds, the usual desk, dresser and TV. After some discussion we decided to leave it be and we would be fine.

Friday we worked (great start to the holiday right) with MLO and grandma playing back at the hotel and hubby and I at starbucks, getting on-line and finishing up some work before the holidays.

Friday night we went to Fisherman's wharf saw the huge Christmas tree they had covered in blue lights (MLO had fun running under the tree and looking up and coming back out).

We went on a horse and carriage ride which MLO loved. We paid for half an hour ride and when we were done MLO didn't want to get down from the carriage.

Saturday was an hour drive to see family and get our "holiday" family party over with. My mom has three sisters, they all have kids and so it isn't a small party. MLO was the highlight of the party with my 14 and 17 year-old girl cousins asking people how they could be doing anything else but playing and watching MLO.

Sunday we went back to Fisherman's Wharf and thought we were going to make it to the Aquarium they have on one of the piers. But nap time and eating didn't work out before we had to leave to catch our plane back home.

We ate at Rainforest Cafe which MLO also loved, we stayed there two hours (part of why the aquarium didn't work out). Then walked along Pier 39 and MLO went on the carousel at the end of the wharf.

It was a great trip, not to stressful, plenty of relax time, we could easily change our plans as needed (something you must be able to do in order to enjoy it when you have 2 year old along).

MLO at Karaoke

We went to a friends house on New Year's Eve where a Karaoke party was happening.

My hubby was smart and sang right at the beginning, before there were very many people there so didn't have to sing to a huge group.

I, on the other hand, was trying to just get out of it all together (I can't sing people, really, except really simple songs or ones that I have known forever and then somehow I manage to stay near to the right key in my shower).

When the pressure first began on singing I managed to get out of it by having MLO sing. You see, they had a children's Karaoke CD and on it was the ABC song. MLO had so much fun singing it into the microphone that she did it twice.

Of course it was the most adorable thing ever and everyone was clapping and hooting and MLO had a big smile on her face. She had so much fun she wanted to go again after some other people were singing.

I ended up trying to sing My Boyfriend's Back because my sister and I used to sing it when I was little and I thought I could pull it off. No such luck, would have been better to put the mic to someone strangling a duck.