Big Adventure of 2011

Well. Carmela would like you to know all about her Big Adventure of 2011. Carmela has been on several airplanes in her young life, but she doesn't remember them, which kicked the Big Adventure of 2011 off to a great start: She got to board and ride two airplanes! In one day! She loved it. She held Mama's hand during take-off and landing because that part is a little bit scary for Mama, and the rest of the time she watched some of her Sesame Street DVD and ate some snacks on the way down to see Aunt Tauni and Uncle Justin. She and Mama had the best time. They went to the park and the splashpad, and the library, and they went to Zion National Park to see where Uncle Justin works, and they walked around a bunch and met some neighborhood horses and a few kids. They got to visit a whole bunch with Uncle Justin and Aunt Tauni and watch some movies, and, best of all, Carmela got to meet and pet Uncle Justin and Aunt Tauni's five rabbits! Carmela's favorite is Marduk, who she told Grandma about today on the phone. Carmela also got to try her first snow-cone, and she had some chocolate, too, from the candy store at the park. It was a little bit sad to leave, but Carmela was pretty excited to ride two more airplanes to come home (her fellow passengers were pretty amused with her antics, especially her post-flight dance moves while she and Mama waited their turn to get off the plane) and she was very happy to see her Daddy, and gave him a big hug when he picked her and Mama up from the airport.

Carmela cools her heiny off at the splashpad.

Carmela jumps and squeals when a water jet gets her.

Having a great time in the sun at the splashpad.

Carmela enjoys a shady walk with her sun hat, which she later used to scoop sand, at Zion National Park.

Carmela enjoys one of her favorite activities — riding the bus — at Zion National Park. The bus shuttles visitors up and down the canyon, and is a really terrific way to see the park when you're a toddler dragging around your Mama.

Carmela falls into a chocolate coma on the drive home after sharing Mama's dark chocolate covered honeycomb candy from the candy store at Zion National Park.

Kiddie Parade 2011

Every year for the past 62 years, our neighborhood has played host to the annual Kiddie Parade, which kicks off a summer of exciting events in our neighborhood and around town. This year was the first year Miss Carmela got to participate, as in years past she was asleep during all the excitement. Carmela enjoyed her first parade, and watched in awe as several drill teams, wearing about a million sequins and feathers, marched by, their boots clicking on the street, drums beating in the background. Carmela also very much enjoyed her balloon, and she enjoyed looking at the ponies, but backed out of a ride at the last minute (forcing Daddy to ask for his money back). But mostly, she enjoyed the bouncy inflatable toys the Kiddie Parade procured this year, and she also enjoyed peering down the tall, tall, tube slide at her favorite park. Small pleasures. :)

Guess who loves root beer floats in the sun?

This kid!

"This my dangle."

Poor Carmela has come down with croup this week; not only is she a little bit feverish and a little bit miserable, and not only did she throw up a little bit of her lunch, but she also had to pay a visit to Doc Hogg, and of course he stuck things in her ears. It's been a rough day.

Still, Carmela is making the best of it. As you may recall, one of Carmela's favorite playground activities is dangling — hanging by her arms from the monkey bars or parallel bars until her arms get tired and she lets go. Well. Carmela has recently seen a few big kids dangling BY THEIR LEGS, and this got her thinking about how to do it herself. She's still a bit too cautious to do it outside at the playground, but, as you can now see, the inside of her crib is a totally different story. Before she demonstrated, she told Mama, "This my dangle." Mama said, "Ooooh! Very good!"

Color

Carmela's colors are still hit or miss, but one thing she knows: She loves a red balloon.

The Big Two

It was a momentous weekend for Carmela. She turned 2!

Carmela is doing some pretty amazing things these days. She's all about doing things in a big way: When she climbs, she climbs as much and as high as she can; when she runs, she throws her head back and runs as fast as she can; when she throws, she throws as hard as she can; when she yells, she yells as loud as she can. The world is a huge chemistry, physics, and sometimes ballistics lab, and she is the head scientist, learning all about it.

On a typical day, Carmela wakes up about 6:30 by either crying (when she has a cold or is getting some teeth), in which case Mama or Daddy get her and comfort her, or by talking and singing to herself, in which case Mama and Daddy let her be so she can have some personal quiet time. On those blessed mornings, Mama and Daddy can find Carmela in her crib a half-hour after she wakes up sweetly looking at the pictures in one of her little books. She looks up as though she wasn't expecting company and says, "Hi, Mommy," with a hint of "What a surprise to see you" in her tone.

After she wakes up, Carmela likes to watch some Sesame Street, Cat in the Hat, and Curious George on TV while Mama and Daddy make breakfast and get things ready to go. Mama usually has to duck out before breakfast is done, but Daddy and Carmela usually eat some eggs and fruit together. If it's a particularly fine day, Carmela gets to have some smoothie, which she loves. Then it's time to get dressed, which Carmela still doesn't like at all, and off to daycare to see her friends. She plays all day, eats some snacks, shares some toys, and sings her A-B-Cs until Mama comes to get her in the afternoon.

Carmela is always very happy to see Mama when she comes to get her, especially because Mama likes to sneak up to the house and peek around the fence to surprise her. Carmela always squeals, "Mommmyyyy!" and runs over to be picked up. Then, Carmela goes one of two ways. If it's a good day, Carmela and Mama chat all the way home about friends Carmela played with, snacks she had, and the airplanes in the sky and buses on the road. If it's a not-good day, Carmela screams her head off almost from the moment they leave daycare until she goes to bed. Mama hopes for the best and turns the music up for the worst.

Once they get home, Carmela helps Mama make dinner by taste-testing the vegetables, the cheese, and crackers. Carmela's absolute favorite dinner is fish; she loves fish, and wants to eat it every day. In fact, on the way home from daycare today, Carmela said something about "fish" and "dinner." She had salmon for dinner last night with her best friend, Maddie, though, so she might have just been remembering. After dinner, Mama and Carmela play a little bit, and then Carmela watches some Sesame Street while Mama cleans up. Then it's time for jammies, which Carmela likes to zip up by herself, brushing teeth, which Carmela likes to do herself but Mama insists on doing first, and then time for her blanket and some milk. As they head to bed, Carmela likes to say "night-night" to Tiny, to the TV, to her toys, to the table, to the cars outside, and to whatever else she sees on her way to bed.

Carmela's language continues to develop at an explosive pace. She's learning verbs, and is able to put them with nouns in simple, two-word sentences, such as "close door." She also uses pronouns, and is pretty good at saying "I" instead of "me" or "Carmela" for the first person. She's becoming somewhat more articulate, though there are definitely still times that Carmela tries and tries to say something, but neither Mama nor Daddy can figure out for the life of them what she's trying to say. Carmela is learning her A-B-Cs and her numbers, and "counts" by rote and recites her A-B-Cs by singing the song. She repeats many of the letters and numbers, so Mama and Daddy help her along by singing or counting with her. If there are several similar things in a row, Mama and Daddy can say, "How many?" and Carmela knows to say, "One, two, free, foor." Carmela still really loves to paint, and is getting pretty consistent with her colors. She does better if Mama asks, "Where the green one?" than if Mama says, "What color is this one?", but she's getting it. She's also learning her emotions, and likes to make her face into a big pout to say, "I'm sad," then into a big expression of mock surprise for, "Surprise!", then into a regular smile for, "I'm happy!"

Carmela's still not a super-great sleeper, but at least she's pretty consistent when she's not sick or teething. She remains a terrific eater, however, and loves fish, broccoli, beans, rice, melon, strawberries, avocado, nuts and olives best of all. She does not like raw tomato (but she does like tomato sauce) or spicy foods.

Her most favorite activity right now is anything that Maddy is doing, but she also loves riding her tricycle and kicking her new soccer ball that Daddy and Mama got her for her birthday. She also still really enjoys playing in water, experimenting with filling things up and dumping them out, splashing, spilling and just having a messy good time. She also really likes to run, run, run, and likes to let loose at the park, where she has a great big expanse of grass to run in. Whenever she hears music, whether the theme song to Thomas the Train or a car driving by, Carmela can be counted on to dance, and she especially loves it when Daddy picks her up and spins her around and around. Carmela also likes to explore things close up, like slugs, ants, leaves, bark, dirt, rocks, flowers, and other little things. Sadly for her subjects, she explores best by squishing.

As she's gotten older, Carmela has become a little bit less extroverted and is less inclined to walk up to any kid on the playground and insinuate herself into his or her world, but she is definitely still more outgoing than shy once she gets comfortable, and she continues to be a very affectionate, loving little girl. She and Maddy (did I mention they're best friends?) exchange multiple hugs and hold hands, and Carmela loves to park next to Maddy on the front porch steps and jabber her ear off about all the things she has to say. Her other best friend, by the way, is her kitty cat, Tiny.

Mama probably could go on and on about all the things Carmela is doing, but this is probably plenty to give her friends and family an idea of what she's up to. She has her 2-year check-up with Doctor Hogg next week, but until Mama gets confirmation, she's going to estimate that Carmela is 40 inches long and weighs about 30 pounds. It's amazing how tall Carmela is, actually. She's already wearing 3T duds!

Here's to another wonderful year!

Monkey

Carmela will be 2 years old in just a few days, and so she has been getting boxes in the mail every few days full of great presents. Today, she got a box from her Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa and her Aunt Lynda and Uncle Larry, and it was the first time she seemed to understand that she had "a present"; she actually made an excited face, with her mouth in an "O," and she was definitely excited to open the box.

In this box was a very exciting toy — it's a little battery-operated, motion-activated monkey that laughs and laughs and rolls around on the floor; when it stops, a wave of the hand in front of its face makes it start all over again. At first Carmela was intrigued, then completely tickled by this funny little laughing, rolling monkey. But then it got too close, and suddenly it wasn't funny anymore. What at first seemed like a silly, harmless monkey became hysterical and crazed, its goofy antics threatening and unpredictable; monkey was terrifying!

Soon enough, Monkey returned to his status as a safe, funny toy — so long as Carmela was on the couch and he was rolling around on the floor, and after she'd admonished him with a stern, "No feet!"