nice art, mama

i can't believe all the things a child can learn to recognize--and pronounce--before they are two years old! their brain has to be making so many connections in order to even make sense of the world they are born into without motor skills, and then to organize it to a point where they can recognize an airplane in the sky as well as an airplane on a page, even a poorly drawn one. to know the difference between a man and a lady, to be able to say "uh-oh, mac and cheese on the dog," or "that's glass--it breaks" and know what those concepts represent.

here are some of sparrow's most impressive little detailed words that she knows and can pronounce!: mac and cheese*rolling pin*mittens*scarf*heart (shape)*knuckles*rocket*praying mantis*somersault*helicopter*dinosaur

she is getting to the point where she tells me, "good job, mama!" (yessss! i must say good job to her a lot!) oh and the other day (feb. 2nd) she also told me, "nice art, mama!" she was watching me finish the birthday card we were making for samuel.

speaking of samuel, he's been potty training recently, and has been walking around in a bath robe all day so he has easy access to the potty. well he is practically naked when the thing flaps open. anyways, sparrow the other night took her shirt off (she loves naked time of course and likes to say "hi, nakey girl!" to herself when she gets in that state) anyways, she took her shirt off and said happily, "all naked!...just like samuel."

funny tidbit from feb. 7th: i gave her a glass of water to drink, and she saw a bubble in it and thought it was sparkling water. she said, "it's bubble water!" i said, "no, it's not bubble water, it's normal water." then she "copies" me, but says (adorably), "it's nibble water." she couldn't quite get that pronunciation of "normal" after saying "bubble." haha. she also says the cutest thing for pancakes: "pa-pakes." m for several months it was so cute too cause she would pronounce kitchen "chicken." sooooo funny! every morning when she'd wake up (and wake me up), she'd immediately say, "go chicken." she just wanted to get out into the kitchen right away and nurse! now she still says it, except she's learned how to say kitchen correctly. bummer i never got it on tape.

so we were sick for about a month straight with three different things... the first and possibly worst was the stomach flu, which sparrow and i both got. luckily i got it a day later than her, so at least she was feeling better on the day i was constantly barfing. i had tried to get her to barf into a bucket, but whenever she would throw up, all she'd wanna do was cling to me so tightly. so i had her vomit in my hair, on my clothes, ...i took to catching it in a towel after awhile, and used all our towels in the span of 24 hours! anyways, she must have really observed me barfing in the bucket all the next day, because for the next couple weeks when we were sick with cold and other flus, i would tell her "i feel yucky," a lot. then a couple times she noticed me feeling yucky, and this is what she said: "mommy feel yucky--get a bucket." (01-29)

the other day she was looking at one of her favorite books which contains farm scenes. it has these flaps that you open to reveal pics underneath pics. well this one page is an "opposites" page, and you flip the flap over the large carrot to reveal a much smaller carrot. so the other day, sparrow flips the carrot flap and says, "mama carrot, baby carrot!" hah! she also did it with two hearts she saw on the cereal box, one smaller than the other: "mama heart, baby heart." (01-28)

we have been reading several dr. seuss books from the library. amazingly, the first one we ever got was a little board book version of "dr. seuss' ABCs." it had been several weeks since that one, when we got another dr. seuss book. but she called the new one "dr. abc" and she keeps doing it most of the time, with dr. seuss books: "read dr. ABC."

haha one time recently she found my wallet and was playing with it. we were in the car so i wanted to get it back before she took all the cards out and dispersed them everywhere. i finally got it off of her, and she said to me, "I need that!" (01-26)
the next day she told me "i need the cereal." (she has been eating mostly cereal and milk since i've been feeling so sick and pregnant.) then just today she was standing by thomas who was playing the guitar. all of a sudden she says, "i need a pick." (02-09) she amazes me!

she likes to be just like me which is so flattering! when i give her a towel too after i get out of the shower, she says, 'just like you!' earlier this week (02-04) she was playing with her toy cookware, and whisking her imaginary eggs. she said to me, "i making eggs--just like you!" aaaah! i almost wanted to cry.

oh yeah, the other day in the bathroom she left and told me, "i'll be right back." haha! she is so grown up! then she was paling with her bear, and she said, "sit down, have a seat." have a seat!? where did that one come from? ...thomas. had to be. super funny.

when she wants to read books, she grabs one off the shelf and says "read 'em." melissa has been pretty diligent in trying to get her to get in the habit of putting the books back on the shelf. tonight in the bedroom she had a stack of books out, but put them back into the shelf saying, "clean books on da shelf." i die!