All about Alice
My girl is so big now, but also not so big. We're still working on the potty training. She went on total strike a couple weeks ago and so I backed off and just let her fester in her diaper and stopped all changes that she didn't initiate. Two days before her birthday she spontaneously began peeing in her potty by herself. We were pretty excited, but then when it came to Monday, we switched her to panties for daycare and she peed twice and they switched her to diapers. On Tuesday, she refused to even put panties on and was back to striking again and that's where we are now. So, sigh. Every other kid in her class is trained except her now.
She says things to us now like, "That boy just kicked the ball into the atmosphere!" and "Actually, it is, Mama. I'm saying a truth." She is obsessed with stories and dressing up. I posted two videos on Facebook today of some of her stories. In one, she is retelling the story of Noah's ark, only in her version, Noah is a little boy, God is a godmother, and the main point of the story is that everybody laughs at the boat and Noah dances with all the animals on the beach or something. It involved a rooster? I'm really not sure, to be honest.
Two days ago she renamed me Apple House and herself Apple Puter. We were standing in line to buy groceries when the clerk asked her name and she revealed our new identities. I told her that was silly and that if she tells people the wrong name, people might actually call her that and that she won't be Alice anymore. And wouldn't that make her sad? After that, the clerk said, "Bye, Apple Puter" and Alice laughed and laughed all the way back to the car. She laughed so hard that she actually snorted.
She's big on telling jokes and big on playing doctor. I had to have paper taped on my lower legs for casts today (again) so that she could sign the casts, make me walk around to prove that I was better and then let her carefully do "surgery," which means cutting the casts off with child scissors. I worry a little bit that these proclivities are because she wants to make me happy and because we tried to describe my depression to her as a sickness and describe my weekly counseling visits as going to the doctor to help with my feelings. I suppose there are worse things that she could fixate on. I just don't want her to grow up thinking she has to be responsible for my mental health. I've been trying to focus lately on telling her that I feel much better and that I'm not really sick anymore (which is mostly true).
In any case, her birthday was a success. It was a huge amount of work because I let the house go to shit amidst all the emotional drama and etc. that is my life and so Dustin and I had to really get our asses in gear to get the place clean. It pretty much took the entire day Saturday and part of Sunday morning. I also had the foolish idea that it would be fun to make a ribbon pinata myself and that it would be fun to let the kids make their own crowns in the backyard with glitter glue. The pinata turned out great, but somehow I'm pretty sure that the project would have taken me 2 hours without toddler assistance. With toddler assistance, there were tears and it took a total of three days. The crowns idea was fun and turned out wonderfully. The kids had a great time. The glitter gluesticks? Not at all like gluesticks. More like puff paint that gets everywhere and takes forever to dry.
Alice asked for the following things for her birthday: a brown cake with roses all different colors on top, a ukelele, a dress like Elsa from Frozen, a bubble bath with all her friends, an airplane ride, all her friends to come to our house and see her room, a pinata, a jumprope, and a yoga mat. What she actually got was a party with five other kids in our backyard. I only invited three, but then there are siblings. And I didn't realize that these days the expectation is that both parents will come, so actually there ended up being 12 people in addition to our family at our house. Oh yes, and there are food allergies. So planning is way crazier than I anticipated.
On the day of her party, Alice went down for nap promptly since we told her that she would get her birthday when she woke up from her nap. She woke up at about the right time, which was lovely. A half hour before her birthday party we did a Skype with the grandparents on Dustin's side and she opened the gifts from us (an Elsa dress, a duplo kit) and the gifts from her grandparents (a crazy fancy puppet owl and puppet peacock). People started to arrive 15 minutes early (note to parents: Don't do this! Please! Do you know how much work setting up a kid party takes without people arriving 15 minutes early to be entertained?). We handed the early birds sidewalk chalk and I finished hanging balloons and crepe paper with my sister's help. By the time I had all the food out on the table, we had a full back-yard.
After snacks, the kids made the goopy crowns and I put them in the house to dry. Then Dustin set up the pinata and then my parents wanted to Skype in. We had to delay the kids while the pinata hung from the tree taunting them so that Dustin could connect my parents. Originally, I had a brilliant idea to put bubble bath in her water table, but it was bit too cold for that, I just broke out the regular bubbles instead. The kids were antsy waiting, but generally had a good time chasing one another around with sticks. They loved the ribbon pinata. Then we had cake. It was so wonderfully easy to find a chocolate cake with frosting roses and Alice was absolutely delighted with it, declaring it delicious and beautiful.
We weren't going to open gifts at the party initially, but then the children at the party all wanted Alice to see what they brought so we went with the flow and did a massive unwrap session. From my parents, she got a toy ukulele, an Olaf doll, and a doctor kit. The other kids gave her a stuffed cat doll, books, a beanbag game, and stickers. And my sister got her a jump rope. So she got all her wishes, minus the bubble bath, the yoga mat and the airplane ride. Then, in a situation that just sort of happened before I could even do anything about it, she was leading her friends up to her room and showing them around the whole house, so I'm glad we cleaned up first!
She loved her party so much. She was so excited by her dress and the people and the chaos. She's kind of an extrovert. And the image I will hold of her in my mind is when she put on the doctor jacket my parents sent her over her princess dress and played the toy ukulele singing hollering and encouraging her little friends to Dance! Dance!
I know the party was a success because afterwards she kept asking "Where did my party go? Bring it back." And I forgot, she also asked for candycorn as a gift. We served it alongside the cake.
She plays this game with me lately. It goes like this.
Alice: "Mama, would you like a big beautiful hug?"
Me: "Oh course!" I move in for a hug, but Alice backs up and wags her finger at me.
Alice: "It's not reaaaady! It's not reaady yet!"
Me: "Is it ready now?"
Alice: (pounces on me) "Yes! It's ready now!"
She says things to us now like, "That boy just kicked the ball into the atmosphere!" and "Actually, it is, Mama. I'm saying a truth." She is obsessed with stories and dressing up. I posted two videos on Facebook today of some of her stories. In one, she is retelling the story of Noah's ark, only in her version, Noah is a little boy, God is a godmother, and the main point of the story is that everybody laughs at the boat and Noah dances with all the animals on the beach or something. It involved a rooster? I'm really not sure, to be honest.
Two days ago she renamed me Apple House and herself Apple Puter. We were standing in line to buy groceries when the clerk asked her name and she revealed our new identities. I told her that was silly and that if she tells people the wrong name, people might actually call her that and that she won't be Alice anymore. And wouldn't that make her sad? After that, the clerk said, "Bye, Apple Puter" and Alice laughed and laughed all the way back to the car. She laughed so hard that she actually snorted.
She's big on telling jokes and big on playing doctor. I had to have paper taped on my lower legs for casts today (again) so that she could sign the casts, make me walk around to prove that I was better and then let her carefully do "surgery," which means cutting the casts off with child scissors. I worry a little bit that these proclivities are because she wants to make me happy and because we tried to describe my depression to her as a sickness and describe my weekly counseling visits as going to the doctor to help with my feelings. I suppose there are worse things that she could fixate on. I just don't want her to grow up thinking she has to be responsible for my mental health. I've been trying to focus lately on telling her that I feel much better and that I'm not really sick anymore (which is mostly true).
In any case, her birthday was a success. It was a huge amount of work because I let the house go to shit amidst all the emotional drama and etc. that is my life and so Dustin and I had to really get our asses in gear to get the place clean. It pretty much took the entire day Saturday and part of Sunday morning. I also had the foolish idea that it would be fun to make a ribbon pinata myself and that it would be fun to let the kids make their own crowns in the backyard with glitter glue. The pinata turned out great, but somehow I'm pretty sure that the project would have taken me 2 hours without toddler assistance. With toddler assistance, there were tears and it took a total of three days. The crowns idea was fun and turned out wonderfully. The kids had a great time. The glitter gluesticks? Not at all like gluesticks. More like puff paint that gets everywhere and takes forever to dry.
Alice asked for the following things for her birthday: a brown cake with roses all different colors on top, a ukelele, a dress like Elsa from Frozen, a bubble bath with all her friends, an airplane ride, all her friends to come to our house and see her room, a pinata, a jumprope, and a yoga mat. What she actually got was a party with five other kids in our backyard. I only invited three, but then there are siblings. And I didn't realize that these days the expectation is that both parents will come, so actually there ended up being 12 people in addition to our family at our house. Oh yes, and there are food allergies. So planning is way crazier than I anticipated.
On the day of her party, Alice went down for nap promptly since we told her that she would get her birthday when she woke up from her nap. She woke up at about the right time, which was lovely. A half hour before her birthday party we did a Skype with the grandparents on Dustin's side and she opened the gifts from us (an Elsa dress, a duplo kit) and the gifts from her grandparents (a crazy fancy puppet owl and puppet peacock). People started to arrive 15 minutes early (note to parents: Don't do this! Please! Do you know how much work setting up a kid party takes without people arriving 15 minutes early to be entertained?). We handed the early birds sidewalk chalk and I finished hanging balloons and crepe paper with my sister's help. By the time I had all the food out on the table, we had a full back-yard.
After snacks, the kids made the goopy crowns and I put them in the house to dry. Then Dustin set up the pinata and then my parents wanted to Skype in. We had to delay the kids while the pinata hung from the tree taunting them so that Dustin could connect my parents. Originally, I had a brilliant idea to put bubble bath in her water table, but it was bit too cold for that, I just broke out the regular bubbles instead. The kids were antsy waiting, but generally had a good time chasing one another around with sticks. They loved the ribbon pinata. Then we had cake. It was so wonderfully easy to find a chocolate cake with frosting roses and Alice was absolutely delighted with it, declaring it delicious and beautiful.
We weren't going to open gifts at the party initially, but then the children at the party all wanted Alice to see what they brought so we went with the flow and did a massive unwrap session. From my parents, she got a toy ukulele, an Olaf doll, and a doctor kit. The other kids gave her a stuffed cat doll, books, a beanbag game, and stickers. And my sister got her a jump rope. So she got all her wishes, minus the bubble bath, the yoga mat and the airplane ride. Then, in a situation that just sort of happened before I could even do anything about it, she was leading her friends up to her room and showing them around the whole house, so I'm glad we cleaned up first!
She loved her party so much. She was so excited by her dress and the people and the chaos. She's kind of an extrovert. And the image I will hold of her in my mind is when she put on the doctor jacket my parents sent her over her princess dress and played the toy ukulele singing hollering and encouraging her little friends to Dance! Dance!
I know the party was a success because afterwards she kept asking "Where did my party go? Bring it back." And I forgot, she also asked for candycorn as a gift. We served it alongside the cake.
She plays this game with me lately. It goes like this.
Alice: "Mama, would you like a big beautiful hug?"
Me: "Oh course!" I move in for a hug, but Alice backs up and wags her finger at me.
Alice: "It's not reaaaady! It's not reaady yet!"
Me: "Is it ready now?"
Alice: (pounces on me) "Yes! It's ready now!"