Beautiful Fall Day

Today in Toronto, it is a beautiful(or as Isa says bupipal) autumn day. I absolutely love days like today, cool, crisp and a little over-cast. Before Isa, I would love to spend days like today in my bed with a cup of tea, something sweet and a good mystery book. Now I can only do this on the weekends, when the Husband can entertain her.

Today, Isa and I spent some time at the park before lunch and collected some bright red leaves to use for arts-and-crafts. I figured I needed to do something autumnish(certainly not a word) with her.

At first she was not very interested in bringing the leaves home, she wanted to leave them at the park, but as soon as I said that she can put sprinkles on the leaves she was picking up as many as she can hold in her little hands. Now I have to figure out a way to not get sprinkles everywhere. This is what happens to me when I try to be all crafty and stuff.

On a side note, I posted a blog at the BabyThoughts.ca blog about a great offer we are having on the Haba Walker Wagon...check it out if you are in the market for a fabulous walker for your toddler.

Howdy Partner

Isa's first ride on a horse!

I was the only unlucky one to not get to ride the horse because I did not bring appropriate foot wear...sucks to be me.

At times she kept yelling faster faster, only to get freaked out when the horse would actually go faster. We all had such a blast and we were pretty happy to be able to give her this special memory.

It's All About The Stickers

Last week I began potty training Isa, in fact I had started writing a post on her first day's progress and I never got around to finishing it. Lets just say that after spending a good part of an evening Googling "potty training" and reading all the advise, as well as the dos and don'ts I was prepared to take on the challenge.

That first day, she went through three of her new pretty 'big girl' underwear in 10 minutes. But I did not freak out, no, I was prepared. I knew that this would happen and I made sure that I explained what happened and got her to sit on her potty and went with the motions. We were able to make it to the potty one time that day. You can imagine the commotion I made when it happened. After all they tell you that you have to make a big deal of the thing so that they feel proud of their accomplishment. And believe me I did.

That was our first day, on our second day things where pretty much the same in the morning. Thankfully I had bought enough underwear to last me for some time before I had to do a wash. I had also prepared the house by rolling up the carpet and making sure that she did not play in her carpeted room (though it did not escape unscathed). A good friend told me that she would reward her daughter with one sticker every time she made it to the potty. So given that Isa LOVES stickers I decided that I would use this as well. All is fair in potty training.

With the promise of a cool sticker as a bribe, potty training turned into the easiest thing in the world. By the third day, she was doing very well and there were only a couple of accidents. Now after one week she is almost fully trained. It is just amazing, she pulls down her own pants and underwear and sits down. When she is done, she does her little cheer and dance, she oversees the flushing of her efforts and chooses her sticker. I ran into a small problem at the beginning of the sticker implementation when she wanted to get two every time. I did not give in and she eventually stopped crying and accepted her one sticker. Nice try on her part though.

Believe me when I say that I was soooo dreading starting this thing. Now the only thing I am unsure off is how to wean her off the stickers. They are like a drug to her. I will ask my friend how she did it...thank goodness for friends.

So, if you are reading this post and are thinking about potty training your little one...use the stickers. Get yourself some cheap ones at the dollar store and bribe your way through.

Good Luck!

My Petit Litigator

I recently read a a short chapter from the new book Toddlers Gone Wild! by Rebecca Eckler, where she talks about what a poor litigator her child is. Isa on the other hand is a great litigator, in fact she has learned to negotiate her way into getting more time than we anticipated.

A typical negotiation with her goes something like this:

Me: Isa, it's time to ....(insert activity, ie. change diaper, eat, go home, have bath)

Isa: FIVE MINUT (holds out hand while shouting)

Me: Ok, five minutes
(wait anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes, depending on what I have going on and how in a hurry I am)

Me: Isa, five minutes are up. It's time to...

Isa: TWO MINUT ( again holds out hand with two chubby fingers sticking out)

Me: One minute!

Isa: ok, mama. (point goes to Isa)

After these negotiations she is very responsive, I think that she feels like she got her way and is very proud of herself, which we all know she has.

All this success at the negotiating table has encouraged her to pull out the 5 minute card again on us. Sometimes she gets away with it and sometimes we catch it in time, it all depends on how on the ball the mother is.

One Month and Counting

Isa has been with me full time now for one month. At this moment she is sitting at the dinning room table singing to her self and breaking up her play dough into little little pieces.

I have to say that the dollar store is a mom's best friend, I have stocked up on construction paper, tissue paper, crayons, glue, stickers, play dough, Popsicle sticks and much much more. Now all I have to do is google for things to do with all the crap.

It looks like I am going to have to keep this post short as Isa is yelling my name over and over again and I can't concentrate.

I have a call at noon and I hope to have her in dreamland by then.

Snowed In

Today, Isa and I will be spending a cozy day at home hiding from the snow. On days that are too cold or when a big snow storm is expected I keep her home.

The funny thing is that she declared after she finished having her morning bottle that "Isa, no school". Lately, she has been saying this quite often, we have had to bribe her with the promise of fun toys and activities at school to get her to head out the door. So every morning it is a small struggle to get her to go and when I pick her up, it is another struggle to get her to leave.

At times when I pick her up from school, I have to use the "I'm leaving now" tactic, many times this has absolutely no success. In fact she actually looks at me, waves goodbye and says "bye mama, see you later". What can you do after this?

So then I have to resort to plan B, which is not very nice...I take Bear and tell her that Bear and I are going home. This usually gets her running fast towards the door. I don't like using this because I find it quite mean but at the end of the day, with the dreaded transit ride home in the cold and darkness, I just don't care. But I should not whine, she is usually really good and is great about putting on her jacket, hat and mittens. Small victories is what being the parent of toddler is all about.

I am off to have another nice cup of coffee and turn up the heating. Let the fun begin.

Where Have I Been?

When Isa was around 3 months old, we attended the Husband's company children's party and she received a Fisher Prize sorting toy (see picture). Needless to say she did not get to enjoy it right away and so I put it away until she was the right age to play with it. The toy says that it is good for children 6 months+ and so I waited to introduce it to her.

Well, I did just that, and what happened you wonder? As expected she had no idea what to do with it. I then tried to show her how you play with the thing but she still had no idea. Furthermore, she would get really frustrated with trying to fit the pieces in the holes and ended up banging on the toy and getting really upset. In the end I would take the lid away and use the toy to teach her the shapes and colours in Spanish. We or I, would build towers out of the circles, squares and triangles, I would also sort them into categories and by colours. Isa on the other hand could care less, she enjoyed destroying my towers and disorganizing my neatly ordered shapes.

After some time, I decided to just put the toy away and to bring it out later. Well, that time came a week or so ago and this morning while I was playing with Isa in her room, she takes the sorting game, takes the lid off and dumps all the shapes. She then takes a moment to sort the squares, triangles, circles, and stars into little piles. Then she lines up each little pile in a straight line. Once she is happy with how they are arranged, she places the lid back on the thing and turns it so that the right hole is in front of her in order to make it easier for her to put the piece in. My mouth dropped to the floor. I wanted to grab her, squeeze her, kiss her and laugh all at the same time. I could not believe that she had done it.

What a wake up call this was for me. I cannot believe that I missed her attempts at mastering this very important toy. I have to be honest and say that I wanted to cry with happiness at her accomplishment. I have no doubt that she has been able to do this for some time and I have not had any idea. It has made me ponder all the other things I don't really know she can do.

This is just another indication that my baby is not a baby anymore. But I am so not ready to see her grow-up. One thing is for certain though...she is lots of fun to play with.

Infinite Love

I don't know if I can put into words the love I have for my Isa. Every time I think of her my heart swells and I can't help but smile. I could be in a crowed bus, at the grocery store or just watching tv at home and if I think of her a smile comes to my lips. I have always been a affectionate person, when my little brother was born I was always kissing him, hugging him and calling him all kinds of funny names. In fact my pet name for him for a very long time was 'lover', now at 15 years old, I have been asked to stop calling him that.

After my parents and little brother moved back to Nicaragua I went through some serious withdrawal and so my husband got me a cat. Let me tell you that I poured all my hugging and kissing and cute name calling on the cat. And like any self-respecting cat he was completely disgusted but tolerated me.

Then when Isa was born, I fell in love all over again. But I was scared to hug her too tight or to kiss her too often, she just felt so delicate. My awkwardness did not last long, soon enough I was able to show her all the love that I had for her. We would have so much fun together, cuddling, and kissing. I have a million and one pet names for her, I had to stop calling her by her many names because I was afraid that she would not know her own name. Now that she is an active toddler, she does not allow me to kiss her as much. She says no bepos mama, bepos is how she pronounces besos which means kiss. Now I have to ask for her permission to give her a kiss, but every once in a while I sneak one in and she laughs and says ' no bepos mama, no bepos'.

There are times when I miss the baby that Isa was, but I love the vibrant, active toddler that she is and look forward to seeing the young little girl that she will become. I have a need to go into her room right now and hold her in my arms, give her a good squeeze and shower her with kisses...but I can't because she is sleeping and Isa sleeping makes me really really happy.

The Party Continues

This year I was able to put together a little party at Isa's daycare to celebrate her birthday with her classmates. It went as follows:

Date: Monday September 17, 2007

Time: Again after nap time (around 2:30)

Place: "School" a.k.a. daycare

It was quite an exciting surprise to the birthday girl to see not only her Mamá arriving at her school but her Nana as well. Even better was the fact that they were both carrying trays filled with cupcakes smothered with vanilla icing and sprinkles. Many of the invited guests were still sleeping but were soon awoken by the shrieks being emitted by the others, who were dancing and singing to birthday music. Once everyone was up and changed they were all invited to sit at the table with their birthday hats and served a yummy cupcake.

Birthday wishes were sung to the birthday girl who was very much taken with the lit candles on her cake that she ended up hurting her finger. There was a small pause as she realized that her finger hurt but with a quick kiss from Mamá she was able to continue singing.


As soon as the singing ended all 12 guests dived in into their cupcakes. Many took their time to savour their treat, others were not as patient, while others did not seam too interested in the sugary snack preferring to eat their healthy bagels. Overall, the majority of the guests enjoyed the icing quite a great deal, the birthday girl true to form inhaled her first cupcake and asked for another one. With her second cake she only went as far as licking the icing off and taking only a couple of bites, but no worries she had friends who were able to help her.


After everyone had enjoyed their vanilla icing, guests were treated to more dancing music. Everyone enjoyed dancing to 'If your happy and you know it" and "Mambo #5". The birthday girl performed her signature move of running around in circles and falling over. She gave a few performances before she was whisked away by her mother and grandmother.

It was an early departure but a great deal of fun was had by all. The happy day ended with a screening of Dora in parents room while Mamá took a short but necessary rest.

The End

Feliz Cumpleaños to Isa!!!

I meant to put up a post this weekend to commemorate Isa's 2nd birthday but sadly I was not able to. No worries, this means that I can write about all the wonderful festivities in one post and put up some pictures (which I spent about an hour editing yesterday).

Here it goes...

First Event

Date: Sunday September 16, 2007

Time: after nap (say 2pm) until bath time 7pm

Place: Grandpa and Nana's house

The birthday girl was a little late to arrive at her party as she was enjoying her beauty sleep and her Mamá took too long to get ready. She arrived at the party location at 3:30, most of the guests where already waiting, they included the grandparents, Tía Caro, Tío Lance, Tío Miguel and Great-Aunt Jen. The last party guest to arrive was Tío Chente as he had also enjoyed his beauty sleep.

Guests were invited to spend some time in the garden and enjoy the nice weather before Winter arrives. Everyone moved inside quite soon as dinner was about to be served and those dressed inappropriately for the outdoors, or those with colds were getting a little chilly. The birthday girl's place was set with new Dora themed dinnerware, this was greatly admired and commented on quite frequently by said person. Dinner consisted of steak, potatoes, roasted corn and salad.

Everyone enjoyed themselves, conversation revolved around the birthday girl's resent move to a toddler bed, the upcoming election and the yummy food. Once dinner was finished, the birthday cake made by Tía Caro was brought in.

This is Isa's favourite as it has strawberries and whipped cream... in reality it is everyone's favourite. Birthday wishes were sang, the candles were blown and the entire cake was consumed.

Once the eating portion of the festivities were over, everyone retired to the living room for the opening of presents.

The birthday girl really enjoyed herself opening her gifts, she was particularly taken by the tissue paper but once she discovered her Dora pajamas she had no interest in anything else. She demanded to try them on right then and there. As soon as she had them on, she was able to return to her task at hand. All presents were opened and ignored at once. She them proceeded to run around in circles. Her parents were quite concerned as they worried about the upcoming bed time.

The celebration was a great success, everyone really enjoyed themselves. There was good food, great wine, an absolutely delicious cake and best of all family. The birthday girl refused to depart from her party until she had gone to feed the ducks in the ravine. Her parents were really anxious to get her home to start wining her down and get her ready for bed.

The birthday girl fell asleep in 15 minutes (to the relief of her parents) with visions of Dora and Boots in her head.

Feliz Cumpleaños Isa. Con todo nuestro amor Mamá y Papá.

Event #2 to come tomorrow

Toilet Training...Not Happening

I like my diapers mama

Isa will be turning two this weekend and I have been wondering if I should be encouraging the potty training thing. I have to admit that I am not looking forward to the training, quite frankly I would like to whole thing done with and by some sort of miracle have a fully trained child without me having to put too much effort. I know that this is so not going to be the case, and though I am not grossed out at all by the process I am just not looking forward to having to be consistent about it and always be aware of her bodily functions. When did she last pee? When did she last have water or juice or food? Did she poo already? Will she poo again? These are the kinds of things that I will have to be very much aware off.

In any case I have started looking out for signs that she might be ready to begin but have not noticed much change. For instance she does not really go for long periods of time with a dry diaper, she certainly does not tell me when she is going to go pee pee or poo poo. In fact if I ask her she denies it and runs away. I also asked the day care if they think that she is ready to begin the training and this is what they said..."not Isa, she is not ready at all". They don't think that she is there yet, though she does know what the potty is and she has sat down on it, she is still not ready. They told me that it will probably be a couple of more months before she can start and that we should not worry about it. Who's worrying? Not me. I am going to leave it up to them to tell me when she is ready to go. Her teachers have SOOOO much more experience with this than I do and as soon as they tell me she is good to go it will be full steam ahead.

I have decided that I will go out and get her a potty and have her get comfortable with it. My hope is that she will get used to it, start using it and begin to put two and two together. My biggest fear is that she will have a negative reaction to it at some point, though I guess if that happens I just have to remove it from sight and bring it back out later. Not a big deal when you think about it.

If you have some tips on potty training and would like to share, please leave a comment. I know that I can use as much help as possible. You are welcome to share your story of how your child(ren) were potty trained and what worked and did not work.

My next challenge...transition to the big bed. We are in the process of transitioning Isa to the toddler bed as we speak. It is certainly not fun at all, more on this to come.

How Isa shows you she likes you...she lifts up her shirt

I am not sure if I have blogged about how Isa loves good looking men. This daughter of mine enjoys flirting with men on the subway on our way home from day care. But she does not flirt with just anyone, no no she only has eyes for the hot guys.

I am always amazed at how good she is at it. She would spot some guy as soon as we get into the train. Then she makes sure that she makes eye contact and gives him a big smile. She quickly turns away and every once in a while she will look his way and try to get him to smile at her.

unfold trying By the time we are leaving the train she waives goodbye and gets a wave back from him. Can you believe it. I am always watching things unfold desperately trying not to laugh and not to look at the guy because who knows what he may think.

Well, today at her day care they had a visit from the local firefighgters who brought along the fire truck. I am sure you can well imagine where this is going. Her teacher tells me as I go and pick her up that Isa really liked one of the firefighters, as soon as she saw him, she walked up to him, lifted her shirt to show him her belly button, gave him the look and a big smile and sat down next to him. Her teacher told me that she did not leave his side for the entire time he was around. I could not stop laughing as she was telling me the story. I kept picturing her lifting her shirt up and being all proud of it.

Boy I really do hope that this stops by the time she is a teenager, I don't want her showing off her belly button to every guy she likes. She is just too funny:)

And She's Off....

Just wanted to share another video of Isa, this one is of the first time she crawled. For a very long time she would just get on all fours and move her body back and forth, back and forth. Then she started to move backwards, until one day in May she actually put everything together and moved forward.

The only reason why I was actually able to capture the event was because I was filming her do her back and forth movements. Then all of a sudden she started moving forward. It took all the restraint in the world not to put down the camera and run to her to give her a big hug and kiss.

So, as I used to say when I worked at Famous Players Theater...sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

The Good Old Days

There is so much to say but I have no energy to get into it at this time...so I will upload a video of when Isa actually enjoyed eating many things beside just cheese and bread. Rest assured that I was always ready to jump in should she take a bigger bite than she could handle...just in case you are worried:)

My Brain Is Going To Explode

I have been doing quite a great deal of research lately that I feel like my brain is going to burst. Even though I need to take a breather for half an hour I thought that I would take five minutes to write. I meant to post yesterday but I had Isa with me as we had a play date that afternoon, as you all know, I can't spend more than two minutes sitting at the computer before she starts having a breakdown. I really have to work on this problem, but knowing me I will just let it be and just not work in front of her.

Well, what can I say that is remotely interesting and worth reading. Not much I'm afraid. I find that now that Isa is older there are 'less' things that are funny or embarrassing(for me). This is not to say that she does not have her moments, like the crayola incident but now I forget faster and if I don't take the trouble to jot things down they are lost.

One little funny thing, which maybe only be funny and cute to me is that now she is calling herself 'Ita', she can't say Isa and for sure she can't say her full name. So now it is always, 'Ita shoes' or 'Ita up', 'Ita bear' and so on. I think that it is hilarious and sometimes I actually catch myself calling her Ita, but really I should be calling her by her full name so that she eventually uses it. I am just so lazy when it comes to names, I have always given people short names, if I could have found a nice short version of my name I would have used it but you can't do much with Karla...Kar does not work for me.

What other useless tidbit can I share....let me think...I guess that I can share some of the new developments in the eating and bathing routine. It seams that Isa has lost any interest in all kinds of foods, now she will only eat dairy products (cheese, milk, yogurt), peanut butter, bread, avocados and strawberries, oh and she will each sweet bad things like cakes and chocolate(she is my daughter after all). This is all! You can imagine my frustration as every attempt at getting her to have a nice cooked meal fails. So I have taken a step back and decided not to fight her on it, now I give her what she likes. Though I always offer the food that is available for dinner for her to try, maybe one day she is accept it.

One thing that has helped me keep my sanity is that she does eat cooked food at the day care. Why you may ask? As I have mentioned before, it is due to a thing called 'peer pressure', this maybe bad for teenagers but a wonderful thing for toddlers. So she gets vegetables and meat during the week at day care. Sad but true.

Now for the bathing routine, for some reason, I have no idea why or when or how it happened, Isa HATES to have her hair washed. She screams and squirms and tries to get away from the water. She is okay with having shampoo in her hair she just hates it when it is time to have it rinsed. I wish I knew when we freaked her out for the first time or whether this is just her thing. This means that I have to be quick about the whole rinse and deal with the screams that come out of her. In toddler fashion, as soon as it is over she is all smiles and happiness. What's up with this?

Well, it looks like I have spent more than five minutes on this post, but I needed to write the new developments down before the next batch arrives.

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-K

Off With Their Heads!

Over the last few months now, Isa has really begun to enjoy painting and drawing and though she does quite a great deal of both at day care she does not have many supplies at home. It took me too long to realize just how much fun she has and how much fun I have playing with her and getting all messy with her. So the last time I was at the store I picked up a big pad of paper, paints and crayolas for her.

Well, we were coloring just yesterday and after some time I had to leave her by herself at her little desk and do some house work. I figured that since she was happily scribbling that I could probably get quite a lot done. Well, I did but there was a small cost. After I finished doing as much as possible I went in to check on her. I noticed that her cheeks were bulging, I look down at her hand and the she held crayon had been decapitated. So I ask her as I open her mouth to investigate if she has been eating the crayon? Needless to say she is adamantly shaking her head no as I open her mouth and find a kaleidoscope of colours. I look around at the other crayons scattered on her pad and notice that many have had a little taken off the top.

My first thought is nooooo not the new crayons, then I try to hold in the laughter that is threatening to escape because Isa looks hilarious trying to close her mouth in other to keep her crayon tops in. In the end I stick my finder in her mouth and scoop out the stuff and try to get as much as possible. I was not able to get everything as she was not a willing participant of the removal of the crayons and her teeth are sharp. I am just thankful that they are non toxic.

It looks like I have to make sure that when I get her markers that they too are non toxic because if she is like this with the crayons, imagine what she will do to the markers. Can't wait to try out the paints.

And Then There Were Three

I have mentioned many times that Isa LOVES her small little bear like it was her own baby. Her 'Bear' is very much just like her in her mind and whatever she does he has to do as well. This means that if she eats, he eats, if she has to put on sunscreen then he has to have some as well, if it is time to put on sock, then Bear has to have socks on as well... you get the picture.

I have also mentioned how we almost lost Bear a while back and since then I have been on the hunt for a back-up bear. I have gone into countless stores trying to find the same one, because she will certainly not accept anything else. Unfortunately it looks like her Bear has either been discontinued or he is just not that popular because I can't find him anywhere.

Well, on our way back from Ottawa with my mother in law, we stopped by to get gas at this nice place called The Flying J. As we walk in we see that they have a huge display of Ty Baby toys and head over to see if another bear is there. No such luck. Isa on the other hand is grabbing anything and everything she can carry in her two little hands and calling out 'mine, mine'. My MIL and I are rumeging through the selection to see if we can find a comparable, as we are doing this Isa spots this nice little cat and starts getting excited. This little cat has the same feel of Bear but obviously is not a bear, and she knows that. She keeps saying 'gaco' which means cat and is walking away with it. So my MIL says, well why don't we get her that and slowly take Bear away. So we look for a second little cat which will be the backup. Unfortunately Isa sees us and dives for the second one.

She is all excited because now she has two 'gacos'. Big Mistake. Big Mistake. Instead of solving the problem of one bear we now have the problem of one bear and two cats. She has to go to sleep with all three of them, and all three of them must be present everywhere. I was able to draw the line at taking them to daycare so only Bear gets to go, but now I have to figure out how to remove one of the cats without her getting too upset. I think that I will give it time and see if she gets bored with them.

In the end I still have to find another Bear because she is not giving him up, any other toys is just an extra and not a replacement.

Party Time

As promised, here are some pictures of Isa at the birthday party for all the children in my amazing mom group who turned 2 during the summer. Enjoy:)

We are off to Wakefield, Quebec for the weekend and I am so looking forward to my mother-in-law's delicious cooking, lots of nice conversations and a good amount of drinking. Oh and all the nice outdoorsy stuff that we do in the country like having bonfires, swimming in lakes, sipping a nice cold beer while lying on a hammock as you watch your child run around naked as the day she was born and loving it.

So without further ado here is the great Isa. Needless to say she had a blast. She ate a ton of guacamole dip with nachos, as many strawberries as she could get her hands on, two cupcakes (hers and mine), lots of soap and who knows what else.

As soon as we arrived, Isa spotted the balloons and had to have one. She held onto the thing like it was her life line. She never let go.

There was a station set up for the kids to blow bubbles, at this time Isa did not know how to blow . In the end all she did was get completely full of soap and scream any time one of the other kids wanted to play. She is very possessive.


And she is off...see that even when she is off sailing she will not let go of her balloon.


Isa decided that her hands were not picking up enough cake so she took matters into her own mouth. By the end all the other kids where bobbing for cupcakes. It was hilarious.


And that is all...afterwards I took her home and tried to help her get down from her sugar high. Though she is used to sweet things so she does not get that hyper.

Soon it will be time for the second round of birthdays...the Fall babies are turning 2.

Mama needs a vacation

This week Isa had to stay home from day care because she had a mild case of diarrhea. Thankfully it is not a severe case but she is still not up to the right standards to return to day care which means we get to hang out together until Tuesday. Yay.

But I have to be honest and say that I am exhausted, I don't have to tell anyone who has a 21 month old that they are busy people who require constant and varying entertainment, who always criticize your cooking (at least mine does) and who must be exercised at least twice a day. Thankfully we were able to go and visit friends for a pool party and today we are off to the park to hang out in the splash pool. You can imagine my excitement.

Right now I am able to bring you this update thanks to Sesame Street and it's power to captivate. Every time I have to do something that I don't want her to join me in I pop in the trusted DVD and like magic she sits down and quietly watches it. Hey I take the help were I can get it, cause if not the girl would be hanging from my leg all day long.

Well it looks like it is over now and she is probably going to require feeding and hopefully a nap. I wanted to share our interesting time at the pool party but it will have to wait until she is down or maybe even for a later date.

Have a Happy Canada Day weekend!

This and That, That and This

This post is about some of the special things that Isa has been doing lately. I want to write them down so as not to forget, cause we all know that it happens.

- She has finally started calling me mama. When I was teaching her to call me mama, I would touch my chest and say 'mama' then touch her and say 'Isa'. But instead of calling me mama she would touch her chest and say 'mama'. Then she started to think that the shirt was called mama so she would touch my shirt and say mama and then touch her own shirt. But now she knows that I'm mama. She never had a problem with papa because I would always call out 'here is papa' and so on. Needless to say I was so happy when she finally made the connection.

- She gives people hugs and puts out her cheek to be kissed when someone asks her. Its funny because she will give you a kiss if you ask for a 'beso' which means kiss in Spanish but if you ask for a 'kiss' she will give you her cheek for you to kiss her.

- Every morning when she leaves for day care she says 'bye mama, I yo you' and reaches up to me for a kiss. This just makes me not want to let her go.

- When she goes off to day care she must have her purse, this cute little bunny thing that her aunt got her for Easter with her sippy cup in it. She must also carry her favourite stuffed toy 'bear' on her other arm.

- At school, we have been told that she loves her sensory activities, like painting and playing with goop. She loves it so much that they have to change her out of her clothes and put her into day care clothes because she bathes herself with the paint. I never know in what state I am going to find her in when I pick her up. Its just too funny.

- She has been responsible for teaching her class mates Spanish. Her favourite teacher Carrie speaks Spanish and ever since Isa joined the toddler room she likes to speak Spanish to Isa as much as possible. So the other children have learned as well and actually ask Carrie for certain things in Spanish such as 'leche' which means milk, and 'agua' which means water. The day care people just laugh at how the other children can pronounce the words so well, probably better than Isa.

- Isa's speaking and vocabulary is improving, though she still does not pronounce things correctly she is consistent with her words and many times knows both the English and Spanish word for something.

I just love this stage, we have quite a lot of fun together, though there are times when all I want is for her to take a nap so that I can have some quiet time.