Last Dance

While Babymama is on high alert to pop out baby#2 at anytime, we all decided to run an errand this afternoon that included a trip to the ice cream shop to keep excitement levels in check.

As Babygirl sat on my lap and we shared some sorbet in a waffle cone, Babydaddy couldn't help but soak it all up. Babygirl was very focused on eating her cone, and also willing shared with Babydaddy. Even though Babygirl ate more sorbet than Babydaddy, we had a nice memorable moment.

Babydaddy couldn't help but get all sentimental with the thought this could be one of last non routine moments btwn us before #2 arrives and the chaos begins.

All in all Babygirl has been quite emotional, perhaps due to impending life altering changes, as well as normal developmental stages of "terrible two's." Babygirl has really turned up the nurturing factor- needing to sleep with many more stuffed animals, and needing to take more objects with her when leaving home, and all of sudden, "no thanks, thank you, and please" are just part of the norm. Even in tantrums it's hard to really get upset when there's good manners.

So perhaps this was Babydaddy's and Babygirl's "last dance," but in reality there's so many more first's than last's ahead of all of us.



cam you tell Babygirl enjoys eating blueberry pancakes?

Questions

Babygirl is definitely inquisitive like babymama and is always wanting to know the details of things, especially the relationships btwn things.

For instance, Babygirl will commonly ask babymama, "What's Sally's mom's name?"

Other questions that are commonly asked:

"Who bought me this?"- is it clear that we live in a capitalistic society?

"Do you remember me?"- not sure if she needs the reassurance that she's stuck with babymama and babydadyy for life, or just mimicking Babymama when she asks her if she remembers someone or doing something.

"What that guy doing?"- or replace guy with car, man, etc. This question often comes up when Babygirl and Babydaddy are walking to the train station, and passing by people or parked cars.

"What's his/her name?"- this one occurs in passing, whether when we're on a bike ride or we're out for a run.

There are always the non questions that come up frequently.

"This is blue eyed baby's mom"- apparently Elmo is the mom of her baby doll.

"I see the moon"- could be any time of the day, she swears she see the "crescent moon."

"I see helicopter"- every non commercial plane apparently is a helicopter.

"pick-up truck"- taught her this the other week, and of course she loves to point them out.

"Cars every-where!"- often when we're out for a run, and the intersection is busy with cars.

"daddy, go to your kitchen!"- this is when she wants me not up in her grille, whether it's getting in the way of her TV watching, eating, or wants to play alone.

"I'm not a big girl, I'm a little girl."- typically said when you call her a big girl

"I'm getting bigger and stronger."- she prefers this statement, rather than growing up into a big girl.

Of course there are many more funny and cute things she says. She's definitely ready to be a big sister as best as a 2 year old could be prepared for.

"Accidents Happen"

Babygirl has been doing very well with the potty training. Everytime there's a sucessful output it's followed by "Yeah! I went TINKLE!" Sometimes this will be followed by, "I WANT PINK AND BLUE!" which refers to candy that she would receive as an incentive for going to the potty. Since she only likes pink an blue things, she only requests a pink and blue skittle(tropical flavors).

Babygirl typically doesn't make an announcement re: poop, just because she's still working on it. When the poop does end up in the potty versus her diapers when she's napping or sleeping, or simply in her underwear. She's very descriptive in what kind of poop it is, there's been "ice cream, rock, and macaroni poop."

When she's so enthralled in her activity like eating, or watching TV, or watching TV and eating, she may not make it to the potty in time. This typically lead to tears, where poor Babygirl is upset and ashamed that she couldn't make it to the potty. Of course Babymamma and Babydaddy just reassure her and clean up the mess. Shortly afterwards, Babygirl will say "accidents happen," in the cutest nonchalant voice that's part statement, and part apology.

Babymamma and Babydaddy have been blessed with not having to deal with massive poop explosions in the middle of the night that require stripping the crib while half asleep. Although, in the last week they've had to strip the bed in the AM two times due to Babygirl waking up and stating that the bed was wet.

Ya see, Babygirl takes a while to fall asleep, somtimes she'll thrash around, sometimes she'll sing songs, recite her ABC's, talk to her stuffed animals, etc. Her latest trick is to undue her sleeper and take off her diaper and fall asleep commando style(for some reason she keeps her top shirt on). Of course if Babymamma and Babydaddy are not aware of this before they go to sleep, that's when the AM tinkle happens in her crib instead of the potty.

Tonight Babymamma, had the idea to make Babygirl wear her sleeper Kriss Kross style, that's right. . .backwards. This way Babygirl will never be able to pull down the zipper on her sleeper and get undressed, keeping her diaper on, and crib dry, hooray!

Happy Easter ya'll!

Wasn't I Right. . .

. . .just call Babydaddy the Sartorialist, well maybe not yet. Earlier Babydaddy posted about how fashion fwd Babygirl was. Did anyone else catch the cover of Urbanoutfitters' spring catalog? They're basically wearing the same outfit, no?

Choosing a Pediatrician

Since Babydaddy works at a health center, and knows all of the pediatricians here, it was a no brainer, when it came to where Babygirl would get her medical care. Not only is it great that her doctor is my colleague, I also get full access to her medical records, which is a nice bonus.

Babydaddy is aware that choosing a pediatrician can be difficult, and perhaps the following link written by pediatrician may be of help in selecting a doctor.

http://thefastertimes.com/pediatrics/2010/03/04/picking-your-babys-doc-the-prenatal-visit/

Other than that Babymamma, Babygirl, and Babydaddy are down to single digits (9 weeks!) before we meet Baby#2!

Babygirl has been working on her lullabies for her sib.

Grammar

It's true English is not Babydaddy's first language, despite being born in an English speaking country. It's true Babydaddy scored higher in the math section of SAT's compared to the English section. It may also be true Babydaddy did not apply to grad schools that required GRE's.

Babydaddy is not very good at grammar, especially when he's totally into just letting thoughts and feelings fly out of his fingers for the blog, so grammar does take a backseat to just getting a new post up. Due to not posting frequently he even forgets there's a spell check button, but really what's needed is one of those grammar checking buttons or what Staples would refer to as an Easy Button that would just go ahead and correct all of my mistakes that drives Babymamma(who currently is teaching composition college students) bananas, and may or may not be one of the biggest critics of my poor command in written English grammar.

Babydaddy thoroughly apologizes for the lack of editing/proofreading that occurs in about every post. Hopefully Babydaddy will change, and make better efforts to not cause readers visual and mental anguish due to poorly written English.

*anyone looking for an editing job?

Sports

Babydaddy's goal is definitely to instill values in Babygirl that she's fully capable to compete with the boys at the playground, field or court. Time will tell how much she fights Babydaddy on this one, but Babydaddy still hopes that he'll be able to play ultimate frisbee with her on the same team.

Babydaddy isn't going to be like NFL dad who grooms his child to be a quarterback from the age 4. I do hope that she does enjoy sports, because quite frankly Babydaddy enjoys sports- enjoys participating in it, watching it, following it, etc. So far Babydaddy would say he's off to a good start.

When Babygirl was only an infant, Babydaddy would read Sports Illustrated/ESPN the Magazine articles to her while holding her. Obviously she just liked the rhythm of the words and continuity of auditory stimulation that was not babymusic. Soon she began to enjoy the photos, the colors, etc.

Babygirl became attached to balls- tennis balls, spikey ball, yoga ball, etc. It was only natural one day we all watched several minutes of an NFL game together. Babygirl loved how the ball would be thrown in the air, how other people would kick the ball, and of course how people all fall. Right around this time she was really into "Ring Around the Rosie," especially the "we all fall down" part. So many people "falling" on top of each other was definitely sure joy.

Shortly afterward Babygirl began to identify numbers and colors, so NFL/football took on a different level of interest- green fields, numbers on the fields, numbers on the uniforms, different colored helmets(Babygirl likes her bike helmet). Babygirl soon began to ask for "Elmo Football" as well.

At this point, despite NFL season being over, Babygirl will still ask for football, so we'll catch a minute or two on the NFL channel. She's also quick to point out all the football related ads in magazine and Sunday circulars. These days Babygirl will even put on her "helmet" a pink bucket while she wants to play catch with the football. Perhaps Babygirl will be a candidate for the NFL's Punt, Pass, and Kick competitions, heck maybe girls will be playing football with the boys when she's in high school.

Good thing there's such thing as the NFL channel, otherwise I don't know if she would understand if Babydaddy had to explain the off season and this idea of the need to get into baseball and spring training. Babygirl has been to a baseball game and recognizes the game, but it doesn't really captivate her attention like football, same thing with basketball. Babygirl recognizes that people shoot the ball into the hoop, but isn't really interested.

As winter and the Olympics have rolled in, babygirl has definitely taken a liking to ice skating, and will typically watch something, especially like in speed skating where you can cheer for someone in a colored uniform. Prior to the Olympics Babygirl and Babydaddy enjoyed watching Shaun White highlights from the X Games, and particularly enjoyed the idea that people could spin and be upside down at the same time.

So far Babydaddy is happy with the progression of her enjoyment of all sorts of sports, and hope that Babygirl will continue to take an interest in participating in sports (not necessarily in a crazy competitive, got to go to the Olympics type way) but just for the sheer enjoyment of sportsmanship, competing, and pushing various mental and physical limits.

Obviously Babydaddy is excited for Babygirl to pick up ultimate frisbee, skiing/snowboarding, rock climbing, adventure sports, etc., and can't wait to participate together as father/daughter.

"Elmo Football" Babygirl also enjoys doing the "1,2,3, hit exercise"




This is Babygirl's stinky face