For Nanny - a place to play

When Nanny was here she complained that Angelina didn't have a table to sit at/play on. I had planned to get one, but couldn't find one I liked except this Ikea one. However Ikea is 1.5 hours away..... I convinced Nanny to wait, that I really would get one. So here it is! I was working near Ikea this week so made a rather large shopping trip. It's amazing what you can fit in a little civic if you try. For now, Angelina is happy with her new table and chairs. Especially as she directed Papa how to play.

As you can tell, we like to mix and match colors.

Mop

This morning Angelina was wandering around calling out to her Cow (she loves cows). In both French and English. She found it.

So a bit later she starts calling out "Eh-ee air! Mop! Where are you?!" After some time we finally figured out the first was "teddy bear." So I took her to Teddy bear. We were scratching our heads at what "Mop" might be.

Then she sees it "Oh Mop! There you are!" Still clueless we waited for her to do something. She finally picked it up - Raggedy Ann. Poor Raggedy Ann didn't know she'd been re-christened "Mop!"

Some kids sleep with stuffed animals

Ours sleeps with other things..... That's the stand on which we place the fondue pot. For some reason, she got rather attached to it the other night. She put a necklace on it which she had received at a birthday party, and kept carrying it around calling it her "birthday."

Then she insisted on sleeping with it. Yes. SLEEPING. She took it to bed with her and had it beside her until she fell asleep.

Another night it was rocks.

She has two caillou (rocks/stones) that are her favourite for some reason. She hadn't played with them much recently, but out of the blue, as she was going to bed, she said "Maman! Caillou" Huh? (I thought she wanted to watch the PBS TV show "Caillou") "ROCKS!Maman!" So I brought her one of the rocks. "Other rock Maman!" So I brought her the other. "Thank you!" she took them, held them close to her, and promptly fell asleep.

Strange child.

(now, she does also sleep with Mouse, Tiger, and Baby Jaguar, but many nights there's at least one additional less cuddly item...)

"Maman, Mouse wants chocolate."

She's getting smart. She knows she can't have chocolate, esp. at night. So the other day, as she was carrying her mouse, she said "Maman, Mouse wants chocolate." Hah! Maman is still smarter and not falling for that. I wonder how long it will last until she outsmarts me?

She's not really into dolls. She has the idea, but can take them or leave them. Mouse, however, she loves (as well as tiger and baby jaguar). She sleeps with all 3 every night now. The other day she wanted to carry mouse, but he had to be swaddled in her blanket and she carried it like a sling. She kept hugging it to her saying, "Shhhh, Mouse, don't cry, it's ok." She also lays Mouse in bed and says "Go to sleep now Mouse!"

She also has a Raggedy Ann doll with whom she has a love/hate relationship. Well, not hate, but she doesn't always love it. Last night (with Papa gone) she was in the big bed fighting sleep and said "Maman, Mouse is scared of Raggy Ann." I asked if the doll was scary? She said no, but Mouse was a little scared.... I guess we're at the stage of "transference" - is that the right term? Where she uses others to explain her feelings?




On another note, she still loves the camera. More photography skills:
This was after about the 4th picture she took of Chakapu. Chakapu finally looked up. They also have a love/hate relationship...


On a different note, we were listening to PRESIDENT Obama's inauguration speech on the way home today, and I said to Angelina "We have a new president now." She said "Presents? I want PRESENTS!" I said "No, a PRE-SI-DENT" but she wasn't having it. She wanted PRESENTS! I guess it is kind of a present...

An Engineer in the Making?

Cousins Matthew, Hannah, and Martina gave Angelina their large bucket of blocks when we visited California recently. She LOVES them. It is so fun to watch her play, this clip doesn't do her justice. She can make towers as tall as she can reach - without Papa's help! If she starts with a rectangle, she'll go through the bucket to get all the rectangle pieces to make a tower. If she starts with the cylinder shape, she'll get all cylinders and stack them. Of course, she enjoys knocking it all down as much as building it.

Her first doll: Raggedy Ann

I just realized that though she has loads of stuffed animals, Angelina didn't have a doll. Well, my colleague, Trudi, fixed that when she gave Angelina her own Raggedy Ann. Angelina LOVES her. She smiles really big and opens up her arms to hold her.

Tupperware Party

A certain little someone is approaching her First Birthday, and Mommy and Papa are planning a big party. We debated having a theme - Dora? Ariel? Cinderella? but at this point she's not really into anything in particular.


So Fredo said "Let's have a Tupperware Party, that's what she likes the best." So don't send her toys, send Tupperware. Or toilet paper rolls (with the paper gone, just the cardboard part), she loves those too. Oh, and empty water bottles.

Un bateau and a trip to Toulouse

Alas, only Papa went on the trip while Angelina stayed home with Mommy. Frédéric had yet another meeting in Europe, this time in Toulouse, France. We'd hoped to join him, but it just wasn't feasible, so off he went for 8 days. Not a long time, but long enough for me to wonder how single parents manage. It was hard! Didn't help that I started my new job that week while he was eating foie gras and having wonderful wine all week. But the little munchkin and I managed, and Papa brought home a very cool present. Angelina just loves her new bateau. She never wants to get out of the bathtub now.