A New Bedroom

Some people prepare a nursery before their kid arrives. We were too busy preparing a bedroom for Maman and Papa. Then a bathroom, and a kitchen, and new foundation, roof, plumbing....


Fortunately Angelina is patient (besides, the longer it took us the longer she got to sleep in OUR room). At almost 3 years old, Angelina finally has a bedroom.

The Helper

No pictures again, because I was too busy working, but oh how I wish I had a camera handy!

Last weekend we laid sod or rather, I laid sod with some help...

In any case, Angelina couldn't stop herself from helping. She has her own wheelbarrow, rake, and shovel. But of course she wants to use the adult version. We did manage to convince her to use her own tools (she'd get frustrated with the big ones). I can't even begin to explain how cute it was to see her filling her wheelbarrow with dirt, dumping it, and raking it out. She was very happy to be part of the process!

Trying out her new airplane seat

Strange child.

She's always hated car seats. As an infant would scream getting into one, all the way while riding, and until she got out. As a toddler, she's accepted her fate but generally isn't much better. Then she learned to unlatch it, usually at 65MPH on I-37.

Unless it's a new car seat not actually installed in the car.
She's been sitting in this seat since it arrived on Thursday.


After fussing with her other car seat on our last airplane trip (it's narrow, but is not possible to wheel onto the plane, so carrying the seat + backpack + wild 2.5 yr old...well....), we decided to buy this folding car seat. It IS great, it folds up and can be easily carried with a strap, backpack style. I still have to carry it, but at least it's maneuverable. Well, except it's also damned heavy. We'll see next month how great it really is, but everyone who has one raves about it. I hope so, as it wasn't cheap. That said, we have yet to actually pay for a car seat since all ours have been hand me downs from Switzerland (in excellent condition)...

Oh, and she MUST have the belt latched, even though she's sitting on the floor in the house. Go figure. She'll probably refuse to latch it in the car.

"Mommy, I want to see Lucian!"

She is such a girl....

Late today, she ripped off her top and insisted on putting on a dress. Not just any dress, but her frilly frouncy Christmas dress.

Once she put it on, the first thing she said was "I want to see
Lucian". Lucian is our friend Gloria's 2 yr old son with whom Angelina occasionally plays. I'm hoping she just associates this dress with one time she played with him, rather than that she got all dressed up because she wants to see a boy.....it's too soon for that.

(of course, about 30 minutes later she also said she wanted to go see Melody, whom she saw the same day she saw Lucian, so maybe it is just the dress associations)

Why I love Lavaca, Part LXIV

Ok, not technically in my neighborhood, but given that it's a hop skip, and jump from home, that people park in my neighborhood to attend, and half my block were participants[1], it's close enough. Last night San Antonio got Lit Luminaria, a festival of art and light.

This is our second go at it, and it was great! I confess I almost didn't go. We all fell asleep for late naps, and when we woke up, I just wasn't in the mood. But Fredo was and so was Angelina, so I decided to join along. I'm glad I did. Since we didn't venture out til past 8:30, we missed a lot of the early performances, but we still had a great show. Angelina LOVED it all.

I loved seeing the symphony perform. We used to go to see them at the Majestic, but it's been awhile. It was a neat environment to see them, sort of "music for the masses" - kids running around, people wandering in and out, but many many people sitting listening, and the musicians looked to be having fun too. And of course, all the other art: visual, performance, literary....very impressive to know we're surrounded by such talent.

That said, I liked last year better. Yes, they tripled the number of artists, but much of the paint/sculpture/installations were in the Convention Center. Probably a good idea given the threat of rain, but the relative quiet of Houston and Broadway was a little disappointing compared to last year, when every type of art imaginable was packed into little alley ways and main streets. You'd turn a corner and feel like you encountered another surprise world. The Convention Center became a gallery, which detracted a bit from the street show which makes it unique. Still, it was amazing. I liked the use of HemisFair Park for film, and the better dispersement of musicians. I loved the light shows everywhere.

Kudos to my adopted city for the enlightened thinking which created this event. And thanks to Mother Nature the cold and rain went away just in time.

[1] I don't have an ounce of artistic blood in me, so I hang around the cool kids and hope I can be artistic by association :)

My Silly Girl

"She misses you. You should go home to her."

Ouch. Plunge a knife into my heart.

I had to go away on Sunday to Del Rio for work. Again. I've been having to go to this border town A. Lot. Far too much.

I try to keep my trips to no more than 2 nights, 1 if I can manage, though this one is 3 nights (and really I should stay 5 but won't).

She doesn't like me leaving, which is funny because when I'm home she only wants Papa. "Mommy, I need Papa" is what I hear every day.

So, tonight, my second night away from her, I'm sitting outside a presentation (I've heard it before, but I have to be here to answer questions), and call Angelina since it's her time. I tell her all sorts of sweet things, talk about missing her, when I'll be home, etc (she asks for me, she also asks for my colleague JJ...so I'm not sure it's just me she misses).

Anyway, all along there's a little girl, maybe 8 yrs old, playing nearby (we were giving the presentation at a school, parents inside, lots of kids playing outside).

After I hung up, the little girl says to me: "She misses you. You should go home."

I say "I have to stay here to work a few more days."

She says "But she misses you."

Ouch, ouch, double ouch!

Ready to Fly!

She must be taking after her GrandMaman Gisele and Papa. She loves being in the cockpit!


Last month of MLK day, we joined Lucian and his Mommy Gloria for a morning at the Kids' Museum. It was a gorgeous day so we rode the bike over, one of the great things about living downtown. Though I was feeling like crud due to allergies from hell which still won't go away, Angelina had a blast playing with the cool stuff and with Lucian. She loves playing with Lucian! We need to do it more. More photos here.

Dirt

It rained last night and today, so the ground is damp.

As usual, we get home and Angelina wants to play outside.

After some time, I said "Angelina, let's go in side and have dinner."

Her response: "No Maman. I HAVE to play in DIRT!" as she rubs her hands in the dirt...

Yes, she loves her dirt. I guess I'm glad she's not a prissy little girl afraid to get dirty. But a little less love of dirt would be nice sometimes.....

Bare bummed riding

I really don't know how this came about...she does have a tendency to run around naked. I usually let her go for a few minutes, but I guess I wasn't paying attention. Yes, she's wearing a winter hat, light pajamas, and nothing on bottom. Not even a diaper.

Chocolate!

You can take the child out of Switzerland, but can you take a Swiss's love of Chocolate out of them? Apparently not.

This afternoon Angelina wasn't agreeing to her nap (so what is new). After some debate (a few times to bed), I put her in the bed and said she couldn't come out until I came to get her.

I went outside to work.

30 minutes or so later I decided to check on her. I quietly open the door to hear a very sweet, somewhat sad and scared "Mommy?" I walk over to her. "Mommy, I made a mess."

Mess indeed. (which, by the way, is her favourite phrase) She had a chocolate ball (she'd had it earlier, wrapped in a cool globe-like paper, she didn't know it was chocolate, she thought it was just a ball). In her hot little hands it melted....

all over her face, her clothes, her hands, the bed......

Never met a puddle she didn't like....

Need I say more?

Hard at work

For more, go to the Money Pit

Dresses

I guess she's really a girl.

She hasn't worn dresses much lately since we don't have any "winter" dresses, only sun dresses and as she doesn't normally like stockings, I haven't bothered to get her any.

She had other things in mind though. From Saturday where she HAD to wear the black felt/white taffeta dress to Bubblehead, along with the green socks and purple flowered tights. Then squealed "Look Maman! I'm wearing a DRESS!"

To Sunday when she insisted on wearing her favourite multi-colored dress with stockings (and later sweats). We've gotten A LOT of life out of this dress. Given to us by our neighbor, Felice, it's size 18 months but she's been wearing it since before she turned 1 and still wears it now at 2.5. It seems to grow with her.







To Monday when getting ready for daycare we put on her thick brown woolly sweatpant type pants because a cold front swooped in over night. She insisted on wearing a dress. I finally agreed as long as she wore a sweater over it....

A Style All Her Own

Earlier Saturday (before Papa came home) we decided to go to Bubblehead to see Melody (the owners' 5 month old daughter whom Angelina loves). She was ready to go, but HAD to wear a dress. I obliged, even though she was wearing almost hiking shoes, green socks, and purple leggings... She put it on and was twirling around saying "Look mommy! I'm wearing a dress!" while lifting up the skirt.

We saw Lucien (and his mom and dad) at Bubblehead, which was tons of fun for her.

She slept in that dress too. We finally managed to pry it off her this morning.

But then...

It was kind of chilly, and she'd picked out her purple stockings to wear. However when Fredo put on a sweatshirt she freaked, would not wear it. I managed to get her into a T-shirt. Ok, but it was cold. Apparently she has this inner oven which keeps her warm. She never wants a sweater. Over the course of the next 30 minutes she changed to a sleeveless dress to this sundress. She wanted to put on her swimming stuff but we managed to stop that....so here she is, purple cotton winter stockings and summer dress....good thing it was warm by mid-morning.

About that Spirit

I can't complain about it, since it was no doubt all these "spirited" traits that pulled her through her first NICU days when they didn't think she'd survive.

And it comes through in so many fun ways:

Fun with toilet paper:

She had already used a roll running around the house before I'd realized what she was doing...fortunately it wasn't wasted (and I did put a stop to it, but had to get a picture first - she was just having too much fun).

Yay! Papa's Home


After a few days of saying "Maman, I want to go to France and see Papa!" the only way to get her to nap Saturday was to tell her Papa would be here when she woke up, and that he couldn't come until after she went to sleep. Fortunately his flight was on time and when she awoke, there he was! You've never seen a kid so happy!

Make Believe, or not?

Angelina has trouble with "pretend."

Now, she does seem to have quite the imagination about some things, but the concept of pretending you're playing at tea party vs. actually having tea or coffee hasn't quite sunk in.


She got a tea set for Christmas from Nana, as well as a whole box of pretend cooking stuff from her Allegrini cousins (complete with miniature boxes of dried goods, empty of course - all pretend).

First thing she did was go to the Nespresso machine (that would be our coffee) and try to fill the little toy pot with coffee. We said "No, it's for Tea." So she asked for tea. We tried to explain it was pretend, but she was having none of it, she wanted to turn the kettle on.

Frédéric and I tried to show her how to play pretend tea party.

Nope.

It was the real thing or bust.

Yet, she can easily imagine Mouse wants Chocolate...and that the stuffed tiger is actually Baby Jaguar from Dora's Animal Adventures.

But no liquid in a tea pot and pretend it's tea? No way.



And I think I already mentioned how she had to take ALL the pieces of this tea set to bed with her that night....

Adaptability

This one was difficult for me. So far, it seems not only did Angelina fit the description of "spirited", but so did I. Then I came to adaptability. Or rather, difficulty adapting.

Surely this didn't describe me? And I hoped it didn't describe Angelina. I always prided myself on my adaptability: my ability to go anywhere new, make a new home, make new friends, make a new life. I'd hoped that was something Angelina would share, especially as we're not likely to stay in one place forever. I didn't want to think she'd be one of those kids who refused to try new things, or who never wanted to go someplace new.

Then I read more. It's not just new places, it's the transitions.

When we were in CA recently, my mom had a whole day of errands and activities for us to do, followed by 2 Halloween events that night. At first I said ok. Then I said NO WAY. I just knew it would not work. I'd already nixed the two Halloween events, over her protests. She had said Angelina wouldn't know the difference. WRONG. I didn't think about it thoroughly, I just knew multiple stops would not work for either of us. We still ended up with far too much to do that day, but it was nowhere near as bad as it could have been.

After reading more, I realized this made sense. *I* have trouble with too many transitions. I can not double and triple book my day. There was a time when Frédéric and I would plan a day of errands and by the 3rd of 4th one I was losing it. I just couldn't take it anymore and needed to stop. Now I understand. I need time to transition. I need fewer transitions. I can't run run run. I need downtime. I need to stop. I'm good with surprises, I can decide things spur of the moment, but I need some time to regroup. I don't like the idea of a whirlwind 15 city tour in 2 weeks. I DO like visiting 15 countries over 15 YEARS - i.e. spending time IN the country, getting to know the new place, making friends there.

For Angelina, this is very true as well. Note that I'm conscientious not to put my own experiences or personality traits onto her. But this is something I *have* seen. She can handle lots of "stops" if we're walking, because there's no real transition. She doesn't like getting in the car, out of the car, in the car.... she gets all cranky and fussy. Maybe that's because *I* get cranky and fussy, I'm not sure. But I do know she doesn't transition well. She can't switch gears midstream.

SO what does that mean?

We need to provide smooth transitions. She can't go from playing horsey to going to bed in a matter of minutes. She needs wind down time. She can't just STOP watching Dora/playing her game because I said so. Well, she can if I force her, but do we really need a meltdown because I couldn't take the time to warn her? The aim is to prepare her for the transition "Angelina, when the timer goes off/I finish this task/the show is over we turn it off." Doesn't always work. I tried using the egg timer to indicate when she had to stop playing with the coffee. She kept turning the egg timer over...Ok, so it's not fool proof, but the concept makes sense: Prepare her for what's to come, create a relaxing wind down routine.

Don't shock her into something new. Now, this IS the kid who likes to be scared. She loves the "Monster". She loves when Papa jumps around the door and scares her out of her shoes. But those are exciting, fun things, and they're not real transitions.

We're figuring it out. Day by day.

And for those in my family who laugh, who say we're creating a Monster, laugh away. I hope we're creating a kid who learns to deal with her intense emotions, who understands how to manage her sensitivity, how to address her adaptability, how to harness her persistence into something positive.

Creepy Crawlies

I'm glad I don't have a kid who's afraid of creepy crawlies. But for the creepy crawlies' sake, I kind of wish she was.

Angelina has no fear. So this should come as no surprise. She's been helping me move the wood pile into a more orderly location (which involves her loading the wood and pushing the wheelbarrow...). In the pile I saw a little chameleon (or gecko or lizard, not really sure but it blended in perfectly into its surroundings). I pointed it out to her.

Immediately she went to PICK IT UP. Poor thing, her picking it up basically means her squishing it because she can't really get it. I managed to save it. Then she saw a bug - pretty bug, back with a red head. "OOOOH" she squeals, and tries to pick it up. This time she mashed it. I did try to explain that it's better to *look* at the bugs rather than grab them, but she didn't quite get it. We found another chameleon/lizard/gecko which she went for with gusto. I managed to save that one too (it was a different one because this one had no tail, the first did).

Then a few more bugs....

I'm glad she likes nature. Really. I just need to teach her to appreciate it without killing it.....

So excited to see Papa

Fredo was away for a couple of days. Usually Angelina asks for him every morning, but for some reason she seemed to know he was away and didn't ask. But she clearly missed him, as evidenced when he came home - she ran screaming to him and wouldn't stop saying "Maman! Look! Papa's home! Papa's Home!" and then there was the dancing.....

and dancing....