Dance party

Scarlett's new dollhouse

I have been waiting to get Scarlett a dollhouse for months now. Every time I'd take a look at them at the toy store I'd have a minor freak out at just how expensive they are. And every time I'd take a look at them at the toy store I'd swear that I'm going to rebel against this dollhouse industry by not purchasing a dollhouse at all. That'd show them. And, of course, this rebellion would only last until the next time I started thinking about buying Scarlett a dollhouse and would take a trip to the toy store only to start the process all over again. Well...I found a small dollhouse already furnished at ye olde Wal-Mart for only $15.97. Even I couldn't argue that price. It lacks some of the bells and whistles (and curtains, bedspreads, and real glowing fireplaces) that some of the pricier models include, but at least this way I was able to determine that Scarlett would, in fact, enjoy a dollhouse before I spent a whopping $100+ on buying and furnishing one. "Enjoy" she does, but "loves" would better describe. In fact, Joe has been hiding the dollhouse in the morning so Scarlett doesn't see it as we're trying to get her out the door for daycare. What can I say...she's a girl. (This is best displayed by Scarlett's reaction to the truck that she hears drive by the front of the house while playing with said dollhouse. Pay attention to what she says at the end of the video.) Right now, the inhabitants of Scarlett's dollhouse fall down and bump their heads a lot. (Scarlett's words, not mine.) They eat a lot of breakfast. They like to "go go." Importantly, they wear pants. Their names are mommy, daddy, girl, and their dog named puppy. And they like to keep all their furniture in the front yard.

Scarlett's mailbox

Scarlett has taken an interest in the mail recently. I don't know why. I don't find it particularly interesting myself. There's never anything fun in there. I think she more enjoys the walk to the mailbox as opposed to the mailbox itself, but regardless, I decided to make her her own mailbox out of a cardboard box. I got the idea from a toddler activities website that has seriously saved my life these past few weeks. I'm not even kidding. Scarlett loves the "letters" I made. I put pictures of our family, and pictures of Scarlett's favorite cartoon characters/stuffed animals on the fronts of the envelopes. Scarlett will mail the letters and then take them out...with a little help. (Mommy's mailbox design isn't really toddler friendly. What can I say...I'm learning.) Then she'll deliver them to the addressee. After all the letters are mailed she always acts surprised when she goes to pull them out of the back - as if she didn't realize there would be letters in there after she just deposited them in there herself. It cracks me up. Here she is trying to find the dog to give him his letter. (He never cooperates.) I have no idea who this giant pregnant woman receiving a letter is. I have never seen her before in my life.

Now if I could only convince the USPS that an envelope with a picture of Joe and the word "Daddy" written below is indeed a deliverable letter, we'd be all good.

Guess what we did?!

Well...I'll just let Scarlett tell you.

That's right, folks. Scarlett did poopies in the potty. And we're not even officially "potty training" yet. In fact, we maybe sit on the potty once a day for about 30 seconds - and that's only if she asks to. And we usually don't even take her diaper off. But tonight, I did, and look what happened. I think I actually scared her I got so excited. As you can see, she's eating an Andes mint that she got as a reward. "What?!" you may be saying. I know. I don't even have M&M's in the house (the typical potty reward) because we weren't planning on starting training for a while. In fact, we're still not really going to start for another month or so. But still, I'm very proud of her! It was all I could do to not take a picture of the actual poop.

Scarlett and Uncle "Keg" play

Making "eggies"

Thursday night, Scarlett and I made Easter "eggies" to hang on the bush in front of our house.

After they were all done, Scarlett loaded them into a bowl and walked them very carefully (and very adorably) to the front door.

She was so proud of herself for not dropping them!Then...up on the bush they went."Ta da!"

The best yet

As I was putting Scarlett to bed tonight, I said, "I love you." This isn't out of the oridinary obviously, but tonight she said it back. Don't get me wrong...she's been saying "love you!" for months, but tonight she looked me right in the eyes and said "I love you too, mama." For the first time I felt like she knew what she was saying and that she meant what she was saying. I don't know if that possibly makes sense. Maybe it was the fact she said the word "I." Maybe it was the fact that she finally incorporated "too" into the phrase. But something about the moment felt so incredibly special that I had to write about it - more for me than for you. In the years to come I want to remember just how special that moment was.

Scarlett and I make pizza

Because Joe is in school so many nights a week, Scarlett and I are trying to do something productive every night to keep ourselves entertained. (Not that Joe necessarily entertains us when he doesn't have school...but you catch my drift. I'm trying to keep the kid busy.) Last night we made a pizza from scratch. We even made the dough. No applause needed. But who am I to stop you?Scarlett caught on very quickly. I really only had to intervene when I determined that if I didn't, only one side of this pizza was getting anything on it.

Adding the kielbasa as a topping was a last second "oh my gosh we're done with the cheese and she's freaking out because there is nothing left to put on the pizza" kind of decision. It worked out well though...far better than the green martini olives would have I'm sure. It looks pretty good, huh? It wasn't. In fact, it was downright bad. Please notice the fleck of blue on the crust right in front. We were playing with markers right before we made the pizza and Scarlett left little blue fingerprints all over the dough.

We did eat it for dinner. And Scarlett loved making it so we'll definitely be doing it again. I just wouldn't invite yourselves over for dinner just quite yet. We've got some perfecting to do. In my defense, Canadians have never been known for their pizza.

Spring here we come!!!

We just had our first beeeeautiful weekend after what seemed like an eternity of winter. After church on Sunday we walked across the street to the New Haven Green. Here's what Scarlett did. She walked on stage with dada.Hey...this is fun!"Dada - stick! Scay-ett stick, dada!" ...Now what to do with it??How about putting it down this little hole right here?Sticks sticks sticks...need more sticks sticks sticks.Got one!"Come y-on, dada - Scay-ett stick. Come y-on!"Down the hole.More more more...and more. Yay!Then Scarlett played with "soccey ball." (It was really a softball, but we didn't have the heart to correct her.)

When we finally went home to take a nap - Scarlett was having none of it. I mean none. None none none. Check out this kid's energy! And her dialogue. I don't know when it happened, but Scarlett has started having conversations with us. It used to just be 2 consecutive words here and there, but I can't get over how well she is speaking all of a sudden. I'm aware that no one but Joe and I can fully understand her, so I typed out the majority of what she's saying to translate. If you read along as the video plays it's pretty obvious what she's saying.

“Daddy bubbles play with Scarlett here. Come on, come here, guys. Come here guys. Scarlett play with water. Pat...(her impression of a horse galloping) pat pat. Come on dada Scarlett play with water. Bounce, bounce, come on dada bounce with Scarlett.”


Crazy, huh? She's talking just in time to boss around a certain baby brother who will be making an appearance very, very shortly.

The cookie

It was a short lived romance. Scarlett was in love with a cookie. We brought her to a real bakery recently and let her pick out her very own cookie. Her choice...a bright yellow smiley-faced cookie. I thought she would instantly devour it - but not so much. We let her carry her cookie up to the register so we could pay for it. She talked to her cookie (which was patiently waiting in a little paper bag) the whole time we were waiting in line. We gave her the cookie in the car for the ride home. Did she eat it?...no. I look back at her in her car seat and notice she is not biting the cookie - no. She has the cookie pressed up to her mouth blocking her whole face and was trying to lick the icing off. When asked what she was doing, Scarlett replies "MMMmmm, eyes."

We gave her the cookie again later that night for dessert, and she was beside herself with the excitement of being reunited with her friend. She never ate more than this. (I, however, did. Yes...it was a little soggy, but let's be honest, when did minimal sogginess keep an almost 8-month-along pregnant woman from devouring a cookie?!)

No...my donut!

Our car. On the way home from work/daycare. 4:29 pm. Scarlett is in her car seat eating a munchkin that was given to her at daycare.

Dada - Mmmmm...do you have a donut?

Scarlett - No...Scarlett's donut.

Mama - What?! That's not my donut?!

Scarlett - No...Scarlett's donut.

Mama - Is it delicious?

Scarlett - No ischious!

Mama - No? Is it yucky?

Scarlett - No ucky!

Mama - Well...what is it then?

Scarlett - ...(long pause).......It's Scarlett's donut.

Well...she's definitely got a point.