Updates

First, a video of Fiona running around with our noses:

A couple of weeks ago we went to Fiona’s school barbecue and had a great time:

 

Fiona loves school and talks about it at dinner a lot. I am so glad we enrolled her in a preschool!

Fiona decided to wear a dress one day and ran around the house:

 

She tried to put a little boat on her feet:

Fiona knew that the boat was not a shoe, but she thinks it’s funny when I tell her it’s a boat and not a shoe. She thinks she is making a really funny joke.

We had a nice visit from Nicole and her sons Caz and Kaleo:

Caz is such a sweetheart. Fiona is a little bit obsessed with Kaleo and likes looking at pictures of him on the camera. She wants to hold him a lot. Nicole thinks it’s because Kaleo is the only child Fiona knows who is smaller than she is (probably not for long by the looks of these pictures) and thus is not as intimidated by him as she is by other children.

One day last weekend, we didn’t know what to do with ourselves and I read in the paper that the Kinetic Sculpture Race was taking place. John and I saw the race a few years ago and my students volunteered at it one year, but we haven’t seen it in a long time, so we decided to check it out. The gist of the race is that oddly dressed people must maneuver strange contraptions in water, over sand, and on grass/asphalt and mud. They get prizes for being the fastest, but also for being the most creative. Some of them have been doing it for years.

 

 

 

Fiona got to pet this pig:

 

 

Not everyone gets off to a good start:

 

Lately Fiona asks to look at pictures of “Baby Mommy” which is to say my baby albums:

At first, she did not believe that it was me, and there is one picture that she thought was of her, but looking at them fifty times in the last two weeks, I have concluded that Fiona definitely does NOT look like me, AT ALL, with one exception. The face she is making in this picture?

There are numerous photographs of me making the exact same face. So even though she doesn’t look like me, her mannerisms take after me. I feel better knowing there is some physical evidence, however small, that I am actually her mother.

One of Fiona’s classmates lives very close to us, so last weekend we went to the park together:

 

These were the only photos I took, but it was a fun time. His parents are really interesting people and I enjoyed getting to know them a little more.

Fiona has been her usual self lately, with addition of extra temper tantrums. I began weaning in earnest in September, and it has taken its toll on us. I think in the future, I am going to let any nursing child wean themselves, even if the child is 10 years old. It’s just not worth it. In between feeling betrayed and abandoned by Mommy, Fiona still manages to get a little cleaning in:

In fact, a lot of the tantrums are because we try to clean up after her, but she insists on doing it herself. She will take anything that is put away, put it back where it was before, then put it away herself. Now we ask her “Fi do, or Mommy/Daddy do?” and she says “Fi do” and does it. It takes a little longer, but who am I to argue with an almost two and half year old who wants to clean?

Wearing her Daddy’s shorts:

Go out to lunch with Grandpa and Mommy and behave nicely, plus open the straws and look amazed when Grandpa catches flies with his bare hands:

Playing in the sandbox:

Our corn and lettuce are really growing! Fiona is spending more time playing by herself. She narrates her actions, so I always know what it is that she is doing, and she talks to her stuffed animals. Ever since the weaning, she adopted Panda as her baby (and calls him Baby) and asks me to swaddle him in a blanket. She then carries him around and positions him so he is not far from her. She will forget about him for long periods of time (he’s not allowed out of the house, for example) but eventually, when it’s time to go to her room, Baby must be there, and Fiona must be the one to carry him to his destination. Recently, we were in her room and she took a lot of books off the shelf. I thought she wanted to read with me, but she asked me to leave her room, then proceeded to “read” to herself for 10 minutes. My child is already a teenager.

Friday, John came home from work early, so we had a little family afternoon. We went to lunch, where we shared fish and fries and Fiona hogged the strawberry milkshake, and to the beach. Here are John and Fiona in the trunk, putting her shoes on after the beach:

Fiona can put on her own shoes and socks, but still likes help sometimes. Today we went to the zoo. She couldn’t wait to go, so while I was brushing my teeth, she put everything on, then came running in my room to tell me she was ready. We had a wonderful day together, then after nap, had a visit with family from Israel that I haven’t seen since I was in elementary school. It was such a nice visit. Someday I will take Fiona to Israel to meet that side of the family and I can’t wait.

John is currently in Victoria visiting Grandpa Don. I hope he has a nice visit. We miss him, it’s definitely quieter without him, and I can’t wait until he returns home, but I do hope he has a good visit with his family.

So it’s been a weekend of family so far. I hope the rest is good too! And bonus, Fiona had almost no tantrums today! Yay! Her only issue was when it was time to leave the zoo, she didn’t want to. It lasted all of 10 seconds and was over. We had a pleasant car trip home, where we talked about what we saw and Fiona’s favorite part (the lions) and sang Happy Birthday to Pookie (a little pig in a series of books that she likes).

Look! It’s been less than a month between posts! I’m sure I will remember a bunch of stuff that happened that I did not write about here. For now...

Have a great week!