Cute things Elise says these days

- "mama, do you want some?" As Elise tries to share her food with me

-"mama, remember..."  She says this about 20 times a day, wanting to talk about different memories or random topics for discussion.  The topic she brings up most often is, "remember, I lost my Lego man.  Where's my Lego man?" We lost one of her favorite Lego pieces and she asks for it daily.

Baby fever

I officially have baby fever!  Just a month ago, the idea of caring for another infant sounded like pure torture but somehow with the start of the new year, something inside me just clicked.  We can't even start thinking about getting pregnant until next YEAR and so I will just have to enjoy all of my friends who are now pregnant or have newborns.  I don't want to be pregnant until I'm done with my PhD, I'm more settled in my career, and my body is totally healthy again (haven't gone to the gym in 2 years).  That and I've always wanted a 4ish year gap between two kids (for many reasons).  For one thing, that means less double daycare we'd have to pay for! 

One reason why I'm even entertaining this idea is that parenting has gotten really easy.  Elise is so sweet and independent now!  Another funny story as a follow up to the my previous post...

Today, Elise asked to see her church art paper she made today and I very guiltily told her I threw it away. 

She had a look of shock on her face and she said incredulously, "You threw away my church paper?!"
 I said yes. 
She then said, "Remember, you threw away my school paper, too?!!" 
I apologized profusely and I actually retrieved the church paper from the trash since there were only a few scraps of paper in there.  I've learned that I can't throw away of her artwork until she has fully forgotten about it.  :)

Reprimanding Mommy

Elise is in full-on conversation mode now.  She busts out with at least 3 new phrases everyday.  I think she would talk more, however, if she watched TV.  Since dismantling the PBS app on my phone, she now doesn't watch any TV at all.  I don't mind TV, but it's the incessant begging of shows that drives me crazy, so I like that we just stopped cold turkey.

Anyway, yesterday I made a mommy mistake and Elise made me have it.  When I picked her up from school yesterday, she had one of her daily art pieces, a paper with blue crayon scribbles all over it.  She has 2847837539 of these and can make 10 of them in 1 minute if we let her.  Anyway, when I picked her up, she showed me and said, "I want to show dada" like she always does.  Later that evening while I was cleaning up, I threw away the paper.  When she later went to throw something away, she saw the paper and became alarmed and yell, "Mommy, did you throw away my paper?!"  I said yes and she said, "Say sorry!!"  She then came over to me, started petting me gently and said, "Sorry....sorry mama".  (She was teaching me how to apologize).

After I apologized profusely, she said, "I'm going to tell dada".  She ran to him and said, "Dada!  Mama threw away my school paper!"  Bryant acted disappointed and then Elise made me apologize again.  We made a big show of it. 

The Big Day Has Come and Gone

Today was Elise's 2nd birthday/our housewarming party, complete with Hello Kitty bounce house, Hello Kitty cake, and a visit from Hello Kitty herself (whom Elise decided must be the mama Hello Kitty, due to her being taller than any child kitty could possibly be).  She had the time of her life, and did give Hello Kitty a high-five, despite being rather scared of her.  Hello Kitty did a pretty good Gangnam Style dance to entertain the crowd.

I put Elise to bed just now.  She wouldn't go to sleep anywhere near her bedtime, so I lay down with her and talked with her for awhile to help her wind down.  She was clearly processing today and this week, and had a lot to say!  She was really sweet.

She had been crying for a little bit after I left her room before that, so the first thing she said was "Dada go bye-bye, I was scay-ohd."  After me reassuring her that she didn't need to be scared and I would protect her, she said "Elise has no owwies.  Dada has no owwies."  So I guess we were okay.

Then she cuddled me and said "I love you Dada" about 10 times and "Dada nice," and patted my chest.  Then she said, very clearly, "Thank you very much birthday party.  I happy today."  We had prayed earlier, but she decided to go for it again:  "Thank you Jesus for Mama.  Thank you Jesus for Dada.  Thank you Jesus for the other friends.  Thank you Jesus for Toby (he always makes it in there)."

Then she talked about our time at "My Gym" yesterday, and we talked about going to a new location for church tomorrow.  She said "Go Kidspace tomorrow," but I said no, so she decided, "Kidspace closed.  Maybe Saturday."  I asked her if she wanted to go to school on Monday and see Ms. Gina, and at first she said, "Yes. I want to see Ms. Christine.  Ms. Setha funny."  But then, after thinking about it, she gave the right answer:  "I want Dada on Monday."  She pushed her new pooh bear toward me and told me to "cuddle" him.  Sure knows how to melt a dada's heart.  It's so crazy to have a long conversation with her.

Another funny saying to record:  we left Elise with Grace & Yifei & Ha-mi on New Year's so that we could go to my friend Andre's wedding at the San Diego Safari Park.  Apparently, while we were on our way home, and Elise was steadfastly resisting sleep, she said to them, "Mama not here.  Dada not here.  What happened?!"

Elise on break

Elise started talking about missing school and her teachers and friends yesterday (3rd day of break).  She made something and she said, "I want to show Ms. Gina".  Today, she was slumped in a chair and looked sad, and said (in a sad voice,  "I want to see Ms. Gina.  I want to see Ms. Christine.  I want to see Isla."

Bryant thinks that if homeschooling her would be child abuse.  Hahaha.  Elise loves being around other people.

Elise the boss

One of Elise's favorite phrases is "no, my turn."  She has to do everything by herself which is a typical toddler trait of asserting independence and sense of control in an otherwise chaotic world.  Some examples from today:

- during lunch, Elise would not eat her food and so Bryant tried feeding her a spoonful.  After chewing for a few seconds, she realized the act of unacceptable dependence that had just occurred, spit out the food, said "no my turn", and then re-ate the food with her own spoon.

- right before nap time, she asked for her "birthday bear" and so we all tried looking for it.  She told us it was in the living room and went there to look for it.  I eventually found it in her room and she became exceptionally upset.  She screamed, "No!  Elise found it in living roooooom!!"  I had to surreptitiously throw it in the living room and let her have the privilege of locating it.  Once she found it, she beamed with pride saying, "I found it!"

Iphone Love

This is what happens when you give your cranky toddler your phone while you are driving.  She takes a million selfies.  Of course I am dying of laughter when I scroll through my phone and see all these photos. 

Elise's favorite "toy" is definitely my phone.  I recently deleted the PBS app but she hasn't noticed at all because she enjoys all the other interactive apps on it.  Her favorite are the puzzle apps.

Elise is currently sleeping in her new big girl bed!  This was such a huge step for her and we're so proud of her for making such a smooth transition. 

I can't remember if I've written this before but Elise's FAVORITE thing to do is to put all of her stuffed animals to sleep by tucking them in in various arrangements with different blankets over and over and over again.  She did this for about 2 hours today.  Sometimes she gets really frustrated when the blanket is not folding in the way that she wants that she will scream and throw the blanket.  She then recollects herself and tries to start over.  It is so hilarious.