Bath Time Burrito

Lucy asked to be wrapped up snug after her bath last night.  She looked so cute and was having fun, so I captured this video.

Lucy makes some friends.

Lucy found my Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy dolls that my grandmother made for me when I was little.  She hasn't shown any interest in them until yesterday.

She napped with them and last night at bedtime asked for the 'friends'.  I went in to check on her and ensure she had a blanket and found her and the friends in the dark sitting on her pillow.

Miss Lucy seemed pretty pleased with herself.  I had to run downstairs and grab the camera.  I think my grandmother would be pleased that the dolls are getting a second life.

I did ditch most of the clothes as they were extremely tattered and seriously out of style.  I may have been the only kid in 1973 with Raggedy Ann dressed like Maude.   Lucky me, I had about 6 color coordinating polyester pant suits with bum covering vests.  So kicky!  My grandmother made a lot of her own clothes, partly out of frugality and partly out of a desire to have clothes that fit her frame.  She was a tall woman with a generous bust.  I don't remember her shopping for anything other than coats, undergarments, shoes and stockings.  I think she made everything else.  Now that I think about it, Raggedy Ann and Andy each had outfits that matched something in my grandmother's closet.  The barbies did too.  It must have been difficult to sew tiny polyester pants for Barbie, but my grandmother did it.   Thanks Elsie!  Miss you.

Grandma Elsie

Maude

Yucko

Testing a feature with a cute picture

A different kind of pickup

One of the challenging things about being "older" parents is that most of our peers are so far beyond the baby stage that they look at us with a profound sense of relief.  I can see the looks of "wow, thank goodness it's them and not us" in their eyes as we deal with a cute, but willful toddler.  Many of the old high-school gang have kids that are starting and even finishing up college.  Even the college friends who 'waited' to have kids are dealing with the trauma of high school, but here we are talking about moving Lucy to a big girl bed and worrying about our it'll happen when it happens potty training philosophy.  These friends love our girl and enjoy her, but it's with a grandparentish feeling.  You know, hop them up on sugar and then send them home.   The idea of playing in the mini-kitchen EVERY DAY is not something that sounds awesome, to these wonderful people.  They've done their time in the Kid Kraft Kitchen.  (I just noticed the K.K.K. - is Lucy playing in a racist kitchen?)

We have a great set of allies in this journey in JoJo's parents.  They are young, energetic and seem to tolerate us well.  The girls love each other and I know Lucy asks for JoJo almost every day.  It is wonderful to have family who are friends who are going through the same thing we're going through.

However, we've talked about how it would be nice to have some more friends who are around our age and have a kid or kids that Lucy could bond with.  We're attracted to the parents of one of the kids at school.  Lily and Lucy are pals and Lily's mom is great.  She's also pretty full up with friends and family in her own world.  I stalked her for a bit trying to make a mom to mom connection, but alas we are friendly, but not friends.

Today, in the never ending quest for things that are fun and burn energy we took Lucy to Bellevue Square to play on the boats in the Kid's Cove. (See... you can have alliteration without doing a nod to our shameful friends.) Lucy still loves the boats and I love the containment as well as the soft play area.  Lucy made friends with a shorty today who looked to be about her age (turns out is about 3 months older) .  As Lucy and N. played N's mom and I started chatting.  I've tried to talk up other parents at the Cove, but it hasn't gone well.  Mostly I manage to scare tired nanny's or grandparents, but N's mom was funny, open to talking and very friendly.   While the girls ran and twirled, we introduced ourselves.  After about 30 minutes a wonderful thing happened... N's mom asked me for my phone number.  Excited, I gave it up willingly and then horror washed over me.

"You don't sell Amway, do you?" I asked without any fear that if the answer was yes that it would be offensive.  It would be..but then I'd simply be offending an Amway salesperson and I think it's allowed.

S. laughed and said she was a writer.  When she asked what I did I used the simplest explanation that I've managed to work out that doesn't take four hours to explain "IT Security".  This is where S lured me in and stroked my easily bruised ego "Oh that's not what I expected, you're so funny I expected you to be a comedy writer or something."  (Somehow this blog doesn't quite qualify.)   I did and do admit that my day job is rather, um... unfunny.  I do like it though, so what can I do?  I'm like a super hero, unfunny during the day, but when the situation arises I set aside my Security Policy Framework and drop witty one liners to fill empty, awkward silence.

After the girls kissed and hugged good-bye, we waived to our new acquaintances and headed on our way back to our regularly scheduled day.  In the car I mentioned to Jason that it was nice that she asked for our contact information and that even though I'm clearly excited about the prospect of getting to know these also-40ish parents of the uber friendly N, I'm not the one debating when it would be appropriate to make contact.   For once, I don't have to be the stalker.

So, we'll see if a play-date ever happens.

Cuteness!!!

Swingers

shoes

Shampoo or Duck Poop?

Tulip

Success!

Lucy came home from her first day in Young Preschool* happy and well rested.  She didn't seem phased by the change at all and even took a 2.5 hour nap in the new room.

They said she ate all her lunch, but I don't really buy it.  However, I'm long past the need to worry that she's starving.

I think she's a thief though.  She came home from school with about 6 tiny rocks in her pocket.  We are storing them in our own rock garden for later.  Today... her outfit has no pockets.  Bwahahaha.

The new arrival into the classroom means potty training has officially begun.  We were asked to swap out her little person diapers for pull-ups.  They will practice sitting on the mini-potty at school at least three times a day.  At home we will support the program with potty time before bed and first thing in the morning.

I bought all these books about potty training and now I think I'm just going to go with the flow (bad pun).   At home we have what I call 'donuts' as they remind me of the squishy things my grandpa used for his bum, but it sits on the seat of the loo and makes a smaller seat for the toddler bum.  Lucy seems to like them and they are great for training.    However, once she gets the hang of this new concept we'll have to do some practice on our loo without the donut so that it isn't traumatic when we're out in public and have to just go.

See, with every new skill things get a bit more complicated.  My mom says that when Lucy is fully potty trained then she will take her camping - alone.  Boy oh boy, would I love to see that.  I think we'll be waiting until Lucy is at least 4 and has a fighting chance of not playing with the fire pit.

The weather is warming up and tonight after school we will be in the back yard again with the bubble machine and the new water table.  There is a 90% chance of cousin JoJo dropping by, so it could be a wonderful evening.

My $10 bubble machine from Safeway had it's initial outing last night, but it's not a quality product as it stopped producing bubbles after it was attacked by an excited 2 year old monster.  Hopefully it rested well and will be up for an evening of entertainment tonight.

* I was incorrect with the name of her class.  It is not Early Beginners.