M is for Mini Me-isms

M is for Mini Me-isms.

I had a whole blog post written in my head the other day. Something super cute that I wanted to share. However, due to my pregnancy induced amnesia, I can't remember what it was for the life of me, now that I have time to sit down and actually write. Hmm. So, instead, you will be treated to some pictures of cuteness and of some of Mini Me's cute little mis-pronunciations.

How about:

Dryer sheeps (dryer sheets-Mini Me loves helping with laundry)

Peapocks (Peacocks...we all know that Mini me loves her animals)

Sunburp (Sunburn- 'tis the season of shorts and sunscreen!)

Enjoying the waterfall and nice weather.

Riding her Pooh car, with Elmo behind her with a seat belt on.

No, she's not eating Peeps for breakfast. We were having a jammy day.

D is for Days

D is for Days.

As in...Days of the Week. Yes, Mini Me at all of 26 months, knows the days of the week. (Well, except for Thursday. She REFUSES to say Thursday.)

Here's how I discovered this little tidbit of information:

I was making our weekly dinner menu, and was writing the days down. I wrote (and said out loud) 'Monday'. As I'm writing what our Monday dinner would consist of, I hear this from across the table:

"Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday"

Um, what did you just say?! Awesomeness.

I wish I could take credit for it, or even credit her 4 hours of preschool with it. But, sadly, no. The Silly Toddler Sing-along songs that she's been listening to for 2 years have to be given credit. There is a "Days of the Week" song on the CD that she must have learned it from.

Still, it's pretty cool. Now, if I can only get her to say 'Thursday'.....

C is for closet

C is for closet.

We had a very productive morning...before 8am. Since we were up at 5:30, we had breakfast, played with trains, had a tea party and then were looking for something else to do.

I decided that it was time to clean out Mini Me's closet. Since it is *hopefully* going to stay warm enough to wear her spring clothes, I decided to try on all of the stuff she had to see what fit and what didn't.

I kept 5-6 warm outfits out, just in case. It is still April in New England, after all.

We have half a closet full of spring/summer stuff already. Some of it was from last summer that still fits. Some is stuff that I bought at the end of last summer when everything was on sale. And, a few things that were given to Mini Me as gifts.

I took ALL of the clothes out of the closet and put them in a big pile on the floor. Mini Me thought this was great...the indoor equivalent to jumping in a pile of leaves. She was even in a good enough mood to let me try on about 90% of her clothes. She was declaring items as "too big" , "too small" or "very pretty".

I had her separate the clothes that fit into piles: shorts, pants, dresses, shirts.

She enjoyed trying to put things on the hangers, and telling Elmo to help as well.

When all was said and done, we ended up with:

5 pairs of Capri's
10 pairs of shorts
1 skirt
8 dresses
12 T-shirts/tanks
3 other outfits.

Not bad since I haven't even done any spring/summer shopping yet! She has more clothes than I do!

T is for Tea Party

T is for Tea Party

A friend of mine gave Mini Me a mini tea set. Very cute (and breakable...yikes!). But, Mini Me is enjoying having tea parties with her Bee Tea Set.

O is for Oh what a night!

O is for Oh what a night!

And, not so much in a good way.

Mini Me fell asleep around 7:30pm last night. At 11pm, she started screaming and would not settle. After a few tries to get her back to bed, we gave up and brought her into our bed. That is virtually unheard of and has happened less than a handful of times in her entire life.

Sadly, she still wouldn't settle, and even if she had, between daddy, pregnant mommy, dog and toddler who for such a small person takes up a lot of room in the bed....there was just no sleep to be had for anyone.

So, after a few more attempts and sleeping arrangements, I finally decided that Mini Me was going back to her room, and I put the portable DVD player in there with her. Almost 2 hours later, she was *still* awake and was now crying again. There's was nothing we could do, so poor Mini Me screamed her head off for a bit and then was quiet...for 3 hours until she was up at regular time and super cranky. Really? Couldn't we sleep in?

No, I guess not. ::yawn::

W is for wrecking ball

W is for wrecking ball.

Last week, the theme at Gymboree was construction. The children pretended to build a house, paint it, repair roads, and knock down a tower of blocks with a wrecking ball.

This theme was a hit with most of the children, including our very own Mini Me.

She loved it so much that she talked about it all.day.long. When daddy came home, she couldn't wait to tell him about the wrecking ball.

In fact, all week long, anytime something reminded her of Gymbo, she squealed "wrecking ball!". Luckily, each theme lasts 2 weeks. So, today, we were going to get to see the wrecking ball again...or not.

When we got there, we found out that our regular teacher would not be teaching today because she was home with her son who was sick. Instead, we had another teacher that has filled in on occasion that I really didn't like. She is very nice, and I was impressed that she learned all of the children's names in a matter of seconds. But, still. It just wasn't the same. She does different songs, and it's just "different".

The children are also well aware of this since they are such creatures of habit. Several of them just wandered around a bit confused. They just stared at the "new" teacher and didn't really know what to do. It was obvious that this teacher was not as familiar with the "script" as our regular teacher is and she struggled through the class.

To my horror, she skipped right over the "wrecking ball" activity. And, while Mini Me didn't say anything about it at the time, as the class was wrapping up, and they were singing the last song, she sat on the mat, very confused.

Luckily, I distracted her with a snack in the car which avoided our usual discussion of what we had done at Gymbo's. I figured that it was best to not encourage her to think about it all that much, lest she remember that we didn't get to do "wrecking ball" and have a meltdown.

So far, so good. I may just have to hook up a ball on a string and let her knock some stuff over. Anyone need any demolition done?

E is for Easter

E is for Easter.

This very well may be Mini Me's favorite holiday. Not only is it filled with cute little bunnies and baby chicks, but also chocolate and colorful eggs with prizes inside. What could be better?

Mini Me had a great time coloring Easter Eggs. And, surprisingly, hardly made a mess at all. Mom did go through a lot of trouble protecting the table, floor and Mini Me herself, from the egg dye, but all the precautions turned out to be unnecessary. In fact, Mom made more of a mess pouring the vinegar into the cups than Mini Me did putting the eggs in them!

Here are some pictures from the egg coloring session:

Trying to use those crazy egg dippers

Who needs the egg dipper? I'll just use my hands!

How exciting!

Adding stickers (note: the mess on her sleeves is from a previous painting project)

The finished product!

Mini Me also enjoyed finding the plastic eggs that were hidden. Next year, the Easter Bunny needs to do a better job of hiding them, because she was pretty quick to find them all. She also enjoyed opening them up to find the prizes inside.

Back away from my bunny, momma! (Yes, this *is* actually the look she gave me when I asked for a bite)

It's MILK chocolate, therefore, it counts as a dairy serving...right?