Robots, monsters and worms, oh my!

When I dreamt of what life would be like with T, I never could have imagined the conversations that we would have. Of recent, T has become even more of a chatterbox. She was already decent at trying to converse, just not as clearly as she does now. Some days I can completely understand her and then others, not so much.

People in the grocery store line are so kind, they just smile, nod and say she's talking so much for a 1.5 yr old...umm, yeah try 2.5 yr old. I guess we are behind in her high fructose corn syrup supplements to help her grow...

Lately, our conversations have often involved three topics -- robots, monsters and worms (oh my!) and not necessarily in that order.

T watched briefly part of I, Robot with S about 3 months ago. Ever since then, she has become obsessed with robots. She sees a crane, and she tells me "That's a roooobot arm!""...complete with a robotic arm gestures and noises. Our truck has a lift gate (a wonderful invention I must say) for the back hatch so it has a "roooobot arm". She's going to be an engineer I swear.

Next, here come the monsters.

Lately, out of nowhere, T will coming running to me and tell me she's scared.

Me: What are you scared of?
T: Monsters.
Me: Monsters?
T: Yeah, monsters. Me scared Mommy.
Me: And what do we say to monsters?
T: Monsters no scaring, monsters no scaring.

T does this with her hand firmly up in the air as if to say STOP! Sometimes for added effect, she puts her other hand on her hip. My little Xena, warrior-preschooler! Hopefully Dora the Explorer people won't mind us borrowing her 'Swiper, no swiping line' and modifying it for our own needs.

I've save the best for last.

Everything it seems is a worm to T. Pine cones are worms, carpet tassles from the scratching post are worms, and of course, the dead worms on the driveway are worms. However, this rampant worms everywhere problem has gotten worse.

Recently, my lovely daughter informed me that I have worms. Not just worms, no that wouldn't be bad enough....I have WOOOORMS. And I was under the foolish impression that I bathed regularly and was in good health. Hmmm.

Me: Really? Mommy has worms?
T: Yeah, woooorms. Look Mommy, wooooorms. (she says this as she points to my legs)
Me: Hmph. Do you know who gave me those worms?
T: No. Who?
Me: YOU! (that just opens her eyes really wide and she shuts up really fast...ahh yes the guilt trips have started already and they are quite effective!)

God love her, a biologist she ain't. Apparently my daughter thinks my varicose veins are worms. Charming. I can't wait for that pleasant little nugget to come up in the grocery store line conversations T strikes up with anyone who will listen. My mommy has woooorms! I don't look forward explaining that one to a 80 yr old man. Can you say, awkward?

Now that you've all had a good chuckle at my expense, may I wish you all a wonderful Christmas 2009 and a safe/healthy 2010.

To all of you who have been kind enough to send us a Christmas card, thank you - they are all lovely. I'm a bit behind this year, so yours will be coming in 2010 once I find a decent enough photo to use. And if Walgreens stops selling them, I'll just have do a mass email.

An email is more environmentally friendly...I won't want to harm any woooorms after all!

Someone got caught kissing Santa Claus...

I just realized how long its been since I updated T's blog. My apologies.

Anyways, T is relaxing on the couch watching Franklin the Turtle, so I have a few minutes. She was has had a bought of stomach flu as of last night. She projectiled vomitted all over me three times last night in the span of a minute. We aren't sure what caused the tummy bug but she had a fever and was rather clingy. She was in bed by 6:15pm, I have forgotten how long its been since she was in bed that early. She woke up at 330am and talked to herself for a good 1/2 hour about what I can't remember as I was half comatose myself at that hour. It didn't help that Gryffin decided that was a good time to snuggle and purr really loud near my ear.

So far today, her Cherrios and milk have stayed down. Let's hope I've seen the last of that for a while.

Anyways, we have been in full Christmas mode for a few weeks now. The house is decorated, the tree is up/decorated and the lights are on the roof line of the house. The Christmas cards and packages to be mailed aren't done but they are in progress.

Decorating the outside of the house is a tough one as we don't have any electrical outlets near the front porch/lawn. I have to get creative if we are going to acknowledge the season anywhere but in the house. S put up the lights on the roof line, only to discover that we had a short circuit somewhere. Its been bitterly cold so he hasn't had too much of a chance to fix them. When he does go out, T must go too. She has taken to digging up my front garden, thankfully there aren't any live plants out there and the evergreen is pretty hardy (I haven't manage to kill it yet so T won't be able to either).

Many of our neighbours have those blow up Santas, reindeers etc. and honestly I can't stand them, so its not a terrible shame that we have not hydro outlets. I still wanted to do some form of decoration so we had to investigate our options. It required a little bit of field work by T and I. I want her to enjoy the holidays and help me with decorating so a couple of weeks ago after one of T's Kids Day Out, we popped by the better mall (on the east side) and hit up Kirkland's (its a decor store).

I wanted to get another Santa for my indoor collection and something for the porch. T helped me pick out a Santa for the indoors and then we proceeded to find some outdoor decor.

We spied these wooden/metal figures about 3.5 feet high that go out on your porch/display. There's a pole in the back that steadies the figure so it can be sat up at different heights (see the photos below). There was a Santa and a Snowman. They were about 20$ so it wouldn't break the bank to get one...unlike the huge metal snowman she also spied (he had a nose on a spring that she could make go boing, she loved that and it kept her occupied while I was at the checkout) that was 125$.

I asked T which one she wanted, the Santa or the Snowman. Santa, she very quickly replied. I asked again just so we were clear. Santa. Well, Santa it was.

We bought our purchases and proceeded to go past the Santa's Workshop (she wasn't too keen on the idea of sitting on Santa's lap, maybe next year) but she was quite enthralled with the tree displays and fake snow. After I dragged her, the 3.5 foot Santa and my indoor Santa away from the Christmas display, we had to go for a ride on the moving staircase (read escalator) at Sears before leaving for good.

I should say here that T is obsessed with the Christmas tree at our house. When she gets up in the morning, the first thing she does after turning on the TV, is to plug in the tree lights (under supervision of course). They must stay on whenever she is in the room. We are going to burn out the lights for sure.

Back to the Santa story. So I get the outdoor Santa all unwrapped and placed outside. My grand plan was to put up presents behind him to add to the display. I forgot how windy it can be so I've since added some tinsel to help down the presents, although I think I might have to rejig how its attached as its currently looks kinda dumb.

Santa has been adjorning our porch for about 2 weeks now. Whenever we come in through the front door, someone stops to say hello to Santa and more often then not, he gets a big smackeroo. I'm sure the Santa is covered in lead infested paint but a little peck isn't going to cause any grave health issues.

Santa!

Ms T. kissing Santa

I bought this jacket at a yard sale for $3 when T was about 3 months old...it finally fits her. The hood makes her looks like a little elf, too cute!

The much loved tree..between T and the cats 'playing', the ribbon needs adjusting hourly...

This is what T does while Daddy is on the roof..its a good thing I bought a cheap coat for her to wear outside, she was very dirty after digging to China.

Hallowe'en 2009

Our day started off busy. We had to finish up T's big girl room as we had started having her sleep in her new big girl room and bed Friday night. This meant more trips to Lowe's to get child proof outlets etc. T decided she wanted a butterfly and flower theme. So far, so good on sleeping in her toddler bed.

Then it was off to T's friend S's birthday party. It was a Haunted Mickey theme. The lady of the hour was a Minnie Witch and her younger sister L (who is recovering from major heart surgery which is why she has a feeding tube) was a family tradition, a devil. The devil costume has been worn by L's mom, aunt, cousin and older sister.

S's birthday was at the beginning of October but she wanted a Haunted Mickey party so it was postponed until Hallowe'en.

All the kids wore their costumes to the party. I took off T's before the cupcakes and ice cream as I just knew it was going to get dirty. For pictures of the other kids costumes, please visit here.

The kids enjoyed cupcakes, ice cream, haunted oreos and a pumpkin craft. I was exhausted just looking at how much work it was. T's parties are way less elaborate as I just don't have the time. Oh well, maybe for her 3rd birthday.

Then it was on the main event of the day, trick or treating. After the party, we grabbed some take out as we had left the birthday party late. By 6:30pm, we started having knocks at the door.
T went out with S and their respective fathers, while L, her mom and I manned our door. Apparently it was a successful night for both girls, as they came home with quite a haul. There was a lot more throngs of kids this year so the dads had to do a little crowd control or S and T would have been squished.

All ended well until we awoke Sunday morning to find that the local deliquents had smashed every single pumpkin on the block by 'composting' them in the middle of the street. We've never had any issues before leaving out the pumpkin at night but from now on we will have to bring it in. They kindly missed T's little pumpkin.

See I've got my tail and pitchfork all ready!

A smile just for you.

My little fleur du jour

Ta da! S, T and L

Enough with the camera already, let's get the party started!

Pensive for mere seconds before she's off on another adventure

The birthday girl!

The Great Pumpkin Carving Adventure...

Here are some shots of the great carving adventure of 2009!

Scooping out the pumpkin

Daddy designing the face

Critiquing the design

More scooping

Ready to proceed with the 'operation'

Step 1 - Design the Pumpkin

Step 2 - Dig out the guts

Papa's Pumpkin Patch

So that last couple of years, we have gone to a 'pumpkin patch' that really isn't a patch. Its more so a field with pumpkin headed scarecrows posed in vignettes and you pick a pumpkin from a cardboard box. Not so much what we've been looking for.

This year, based on a friend's FaceBook recommendation, we drove north to Papa's Pumpkin Patch . We were cautiously optimistic as we turned down the dirt road. We had used our navigation system in the truck to find the place so we were hopeful we had found the right place.

We have had early hard frosts this year and a lot of rain, two things that aren't so good for pumpkins. Upon arrival, we noticed a large slide (T's eyes got really big at the sight of the slide) and were greeted by one of the staff. They gave us a brief description of the patch and its many activities. T just wanted to go back to the slide but we carried on to the patches.

The first patch was rather picked over and had suffered quite a bit of damage from the frost and rain. So off we made our way to the second large field. Success! We also got T a T sized pumpkin. Next time we will take the wagon as the ground was quite mucky and the pumpkins were quite heavy.

After we paid for our bounty, off we went to the slide. It was a very bright and windy day so it made for difficult pictures. I only wish my video had turned out better. T squealed gleefully every time she went down the slide. We tried to get a shot with her and S in front of a display but she was not having any of it. She threw a fit and cried the whole time because she wanted to go back to the slide.

Stay tuned for the Great Pumpkin Carving adventure!

Whee!

Dad and T attempt the slide

Insert squealing here

Again!

I don't want my picture taken, I want to slide!

A little pumpkin, just for T

What about this one?

Success!

Too many choices...

Off to the patch...but the slide is the other way, Dad?

An original musical compostition by T!

Sorry its been a while, but T keeps me hopping and I don't get much of a chance to get stuff moved off my camera and onto here. Truth be told, we've been house bound most days as its been really cold weather for October in Kansas.


Normally, our Octobers here are like September in Ontario but the last week has been more like late October/early November in Ontario...dreary, wet and cold. Hello cold and flu season. T and I got our flu shots today and apparently this means we have to wait about a month to get the H1N1 shot, should we choose to get it.


If the Farmers' Almanac is any indication, the cold might just kill off the flu bugs before they can take hold. The flu around here seems to love mid 40s to mid 50s temperature wise and the Alamanc is calling for a bitterly cold winter with lots of snow. Thankfully we now have heated leather seats in our new to us Cdn flag red CX-9 so my tushy will be nice and toasty. And of course, T loves the DVD entertainment system.


Here's a new video of T. She must have picked up the interest in drumming from the Nick Jr. Fresh Beat Band commericials or maybe its Kindermuzik.


Whatever the reason, its too cute!