"Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree"

I can't help but smile when life involves a Christmas tree.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!

While incredibly late, I'd still like to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. We went to my mom's for a low key dinner, and low key was exactly what we needed. (I'll explain more about why later.) Scarlett got to see nan, Larry, Aunt Stephanie (Na-chie), Uncle Craig (Keg), and, very importantly, Graham the cat. God help Graham if he left the room. Scarlett ran around saying "Ga-hem...where'd go?" until she found him. Poor cat. Of course, any civilized person would have intervened and prevented the torture of this poor cat. Of course, any civilized person is not the mother of a toddler. I was ecstatic that Scarlett had found some safe hobby to preoccupy her time. Sorry Graham. So...now back to this low key part. I know it's not cool to discuss vomiting while eating, but I think it's kosher to discuss vomiting after merely discussing eating, and not eating itself. But correct me if I'm wrong.
If you haven't guessed, we've been sick. Joe and I have seen Scarlett vomit more in the past week than we thought we'd see in our parenting lifetime. Prior to this experience, Scarlett had thrown up twice; once randomly in her car seat, and once at the IKEA restaurant. Last Sunday alone Scarlett threw up 8 times. Scarlett caught a stomach bug from hell. She then gave it to Joe and I. Time was taken off of work and daycare. We really never seem to get sick. Of course, colds come and go - but man...we were all sick. Like SICK sick. After about four days the worst of it was over, but last Wednesday (when I inevitably got it) I was on a diet of Popsicles for like 24 hours. No fun. Come Thanksgiving we appreciated a very low key family get-together.

Oh...and Scarlett and her new toddler bed are best friends now. That poor bed got assembled and slept on one night before this utter chaos occurred. Scarlett threw up in that poor bed more times than I can count...seriously. On the plus side, she has only gotten out of the bed to come get Joe and I when she was covered in puke. Fun times. But seriously, she has done awesome in the bed - even considering. You'd think that after being sick and realizing she could get up and come into our room any old time that she would continue to do so after the puking stopped. But not at all. I love this kid. She is so easy going! We don't even have to gate or shut her door at night. (And yes, the gate is up at the top of the stairs Grandmas.)

So...I've gone from Thanksgiving dinner, to a horrific stomach bug, to praising Bubsy for being an awesome toddler bed sleeping in little girl. What a post!

Mine!

Saturday night driving in Mommy's car. Passing by a McDonald's on Rt. 5 in North Haven.

Mommy - "OOooohhhhh...they have pumpkin pies two for a dollar."
Scarlett - (randomly) "My dollar."
Daddy - "Oh really?"
Scarlett - "Yeah."

Oh boy.

Big girl bed!

I decided I wanted to transition Scarlett to a toddler bed when she turned 18 months. I researched, ordered a bed online, and was very confident in my decision - that is until Scarlett's 18-month checkup Wednesday. I asked her Dr. if he could give me any advice on how to make the transition. His advice was "don't make the transition. Not until she's 3 years old. If she's sleeping well in her crib then why bother moving her." This came as quite a shock. I said I wanted Scarlett out of her crib so it would be readily available for #2 in May. He suggested we borrow another crib. Um, no thanks.
I asked around a bit, and got some positive reassurance from friends and co-workers. Joe and I got up enough courage to put the bed together last night and to give it a whirl, desite the Dr.'s suggestion. I don't know why I was so nervous about the transition. She slept in the bed all night as if she had always slept in a toddler bed from birth. At bedtime, I put her into the bed, she grabbed Mickey and rolled over, just like she always does. I had huge fears that she would be in my room pulling on my arm at 3 am, but it never happened. She got up about 1/2 an hour earlier than normal, walked into Joe and I 's bedroom, and said "hi!" So that's it folks. Scarlett sleeps in a toddler bed now. (Low whisper) Just don't tell her Dr.
Here's a video of Scarlett seeing her bed for the first time. Be warned. It's a boring video. She sees the bed and immediately lies down. And that's about it. But please humor me. It was exciting for us.

And these were taken with a flash at 10:30 pm. That's why it looks so bright in the room. I'm a brave woman. I know. I actually thought it would be worth taking the pictures of her first sleep in a big girl bed, even if it meant I might wake her up from her first sleep in a big girl bed. I thought Joe was going to kill me.

Yay Bubsy!!

An 18-month old Scarlett

An 18-month old Scarlett...

• looks like this:
• she sometimes looks like this:
• or this:
• but usually looks like this:

An 18-month old Scarlett...

• loves ketchup on everything
• loves Mickey Mouse and Elmo
• hates sliced cheese

An 18-month old Scarlett...

• goes up and down stairs alone:
• and loves to perform:
  
  
  
  
  

An 18-month old Scarlett...

• uses a fork by herself
• loves taking baths
• can say short sentences, some of my favorite thus far include "Nan (who was no where near us at the time) has a boo-boo." "That dog is crazy." "Uncle Craig is a good girl."

An 18-month old Scarlett...

• will sometimes call her father by his first name:
  
  
  
• says "hi" and "bye" to almost everyone we see...ever
• is very gentle with babies
• likes to brush her own hair
• loves dancing with her dog
  

An 18-month old Scarlett...

• says "OW, boo-boo" as she's taking off her shoes in the car...as if to suggest a boo-boo is the reason she is taking off her shoes in the first place despite her parents yelling "LEAVE YOUR SHOES ON!"
• wants to do everything by herself
• sits in booster seats in restaurants:
  
• loves to read, and says "the end" before shutting a book:
  

An 18-month old Scarlett...

• wants to unload the dishwasher
• invented her own "Scarlett Says" game. We must do everything she does - from touching our heads to spinning in circles to stomping our feet, etc., etc. (etc. etc. etc. - I'm seriously amazed at how many gestures this child can come up with to ensure we continue to play said game.)
• loves tapping her toothbrush on the sink after brushing her teeth, just like daddy

An 18-month old Scarlett...

• looks like this:

Don't call me, I'll call you.

Scarlett has always shown an interest in telephones.
Admittedly, I thought we'd have problems when I bought Scarlett her very own toy phone when she was about 6 months old. Here's why...


She got better and better though. She started bringing phones (and remote controls, calculators and ipods) to her ear. She eventually started saying "hello" into the phone (/calculator/remote control). Then she realized that other people should say "hello" too so she'd bring the phone to my mouth, to Joe's mouth, and yes, even the dog's mouth. Recently, she has started saying "bye, bye" before hanging up the phone. But this past week Scarlett has been having conversations into the phone...for real.

Joe and I were grocery shopping last weekend and Scarlett was playing with her Cinderella cell phone while in the shopping cart. She opened the phone and spoke as follows;
"Hello...Boo Boo (Boo Boo is a little girl from daycare - and everyone, for some reason, calls her Boo Boo. I wish for the sake of the child that I could tell you Scarlett invented the nickname, but alas, no such luck.)...yeah...Boo Boo...hi...yeah...bye, bye."

As if that isn't fun enough, last night I spoke to Scarlett on the phone...for real. We've always held the phone up to her ear while the person on the other end would loudly say "Hi Scarlett! Hi Scarlett!" and she'd look at us dumbfounded. Last night, Joe picked Scarlett up from daycare and called me while I was on my way to class. I could hear Scarlett on the other end yell "Mama...Mama!," so Joe gave her his cell phone while I was on the line. Scarlett immediately said clearly into the phone "Hi Mama!" I couldn't believe it. I started to go with it. The real live phone conversation went as follows;

Mama-"Hi Scarlett, did you have fun at daycare?"
Scarlett- "Yeah"
Mama- "Were you a good girl?"
Scarlett- "Yeah"
Mama- "Did you play with Boo Boo and Ally?"
Scarlett- "Yeah"
Mama- "and Baba and Jaju" (daycare grandparents)
Scarlett- "Yeah"
Mama- "Okay Bubsy, I love you"
Scarlett- "Love you!"

and she hung up and immediately called Joe's voicemail by mistake - but we can work on cell phone technologies later. I know the conversation was lacking depth - but no one can deny that a conversation occurred. Yay Bubsy!

Yawnnn....

In the car this morning, 6:31 am. Everyone's tired. Utter silence.

Scarlett: "Yawwwwnnnnn - ohhhh boyyy."

Clear as a bell.
You said it Bubsy.

She's broken the fourth wall

Oh no. I've been letting Scarlett watch videos of herself on my camera and now she thinks every time I pull the camera out that I'm going to play a "Sca-yett" movie instead of record one. Talk about The Scarlett Show. My home videos will never be the same now that she's broken the fourth wall.

The Potato Head incident

Well folks, I have some unfortunate news to report.
Scarlett is petrified of Potato Heads.
How was this discovered, might you ask? Oh…I’ll tell you. Her Nan bought her a mini Mrs. Potato Head recently. We went out to dinner on Wednesday so I stuck the new toy in her diaper bag thinking it would keep her busy at the restaurant. Oh man. Not wise. We sat down. We ordered food. I took the toy out of the diaper bag and put it in front of Scarlett. Initially, she seemed excited. Heck, Mrs. Potato Head was wearing a hat and shoes. You can’t go wrong with a hat and shoes, right? Scarlett picked up the toy and upon raising Mrs. Potato Head off of the table – Mrs. Potato Head’s feet fell off.

Now that’s just not right.

Scarlett immediately dropped Mrs. Potato Head like…well, a hot potato. Joe thought he’d save the day by putting her feet back on and handing her back to Scarlett. Scarlett looked horrified. Brilliant me thought she might not like Mrs. Potato Head’s face (which is a little creepy) so I took off her mouth and eyes and tried to hand her back to Scarlett. Now this was just going way too far. Scarlett shrieked like this faceless potato wearing a hat and shoes was going to eat her. She squirmed so far back in her high chair that I thought she and the chair were going to topple over. The faceless potato was immediately thrown back into the diaper bag never to be seen again.

Now I’m pretty sure it’s a proven fact that all parents will do something to their children which will require those children to seek therapy as adults. Never did I believe that in my case this “something” would involve a Potato Head.
So…come Christmas, no Potato Head’s please. Turns out, we don’t like them too much.

It's official. She's a boo-zo.

Here's a conversation that occured while carpooling to work/daycare this morning.
Scene 1 - Mama's car, 6:42 am

Mama- "They told me yesterday that Scarlett can hold her own at daycare. She doesn't run for help everytime she gets into a conflict. She can take care of her own problems."
Dada- "Oh yeah?"
Mama- "They said it was quite impressive - but it's a good thing."
Dada- "That she's a bruiser? My bruiser baby."
Mama- "Yeah...(turning around)...Scarlett, are you a bruiser?"
Scarlett- "Boo-zo!"
Mama/Dada- "ha ha ha"
Scarlett- "Dada boo-zo"
Mama/Dada- "Yes, Daddy's a bruiser."
Scarlett- "Mama boo-zo."
Mama/Dada- "Yes, Mama's a bruiser."
Scarlett- "Sca-yett boo-zo. Boo-zo, boo-zo."

End scene.

Trick-or-Treat!

Oh man, was last night a success. Scarlett really got the hang of it. She loved collecting candy and putting it in her little orange pumpkin. Taking the pumpkin away from her at the end of the night was not such a success. Major meltdown. I swear, she would have slept with the pumpkin had we let her! Here's a video documenting the night...