Happy Birthday!

T's birthday was today and we actually had the chance to celebrate it with lots of family! (Actually, we celebrated a day early, but we'll pretend it's today.)

Here is Tovina enjoying enough icing to satisfy Aunt Mari's need for a baby smeared icing face. uh..
change that to a icing smeared baby face.
Yes, much better.

And here are general pictures of Tovina enjoying her evening. There are lots of other pictures with her and cousins but those will be for another evening when I can get organized enough to label pictures.

In the meantime... Here is T enjoying some blocks. You may also notice some really adorable pigtails.

Yes she is growing hair!

And here she is playing a drinking game that involves spilling much of the drink down her front. She loved it!

All in all, I think T was happy with her day. Lots of running around. Lots of food. Lots of family. Lots of love.

Baba!

Tovina was suitably happy with the results of waiting.
Baba was seen and hugged and kissed and there was much rejoicing.
Many relatives seen, dimples were flashed, some hugs were distributed, and sleep is now being enjoyed by most of us.
In fact, I think I will go and enjoy some of that myself now.

Oh Can-a-daaaa

We are all packed up and ready to leave the house at oh-bright-600 tomorrow. Posts will likely get light while we are visiting with family but maybe you - our faithful readers - will get lucky and I'll keep posting (could happen).

Tovina was happy to go into her crib tonight because she has translated 'after you go to sleep and then get up in the morning, we are going to drive in the car and then fly in a plane and then fly in another plane and then we'll see Baba!'
to
lay down in bed and close your eyes. When you open them we will get in the car and then.. and then.. and then.. see Baba!
So there I was so proud of her because she went right into bed and laid down so nicely but as soon as I closed the doors she started calling for me.
'MOMMY!'
Opened the door, 'What is it T?'
'Drive car? See Baba!'

She was much less entranced by the whole 'its time to go to sleep now' thing when she realized we weren't going along with her interpretation.

Sleeping and potty training part 2

The other day I posted about nap time. That night we had another adventure.
After I had put T down in the big bed I heard her up and moving. Eventually I went into her room to check on her. As a reminder, when we checked on her at nap time that day she had no pants on and was missing a diaper. This time she has removed her one piece pajamas from most of her body and they were dragging behind her from her ankles because she can't manage to pull them over her feet.
She also had no diaper.
She was so proud of her nakedness and I was so surprised by it that I cracked up.

Once I calmed down I agreed to try out her pull-up diapers, put her child potty in her room, and leave her in the big bed.
After I had put T down in the big bed I heard her up and moving. Eventually I went into her room to check on her because she started crying for help. This time all clothes and diapers were intact. In fact, she had added to her ensemble.
If you haven't already guessed - which I really couldn't - Tovina had taken the removable seat ring from her toilet and pulled it upside down over her head and then squeezed her arms through the opening so that they were trapped next to her cheeks. And those were not normally the cheeks that get stuck to the seat.
I laughed so hard I almost cried. Unfortunately it meant I was incapable of getting the camera and taking a picture.

Upon extraction she was placed in her crib.

Children Museum

We went back to the museum this weekend but instead of going to the natural history part we checked out the Duke Energy Children's Museum.
Tovina thought it started off well with a series of escalator rides.

Then there was this amazing ball pit with all kinds of lifts, falling, piping, dropping mechanisms.
After that we found the water area with a pseudo river and bridge and water guns and and buckets. They even supply rain coats for the kids. Unfortunately the only size left on the rack was for a 5/6 year old but that meant it covered T really well.
You can just see her feet sticking out the bottom.
We finally dragged T away from there to see Lego land.
After that we checked out the construction site with loads of foam rocks that looked very real. (I was a little anxious when we walked into the area and I saw one child throw a small one to another child and almost hit a 3rd child in the head.)
It was hard to convince T it was time to go but she was willing to walk in the right direction as long as she got to touch EVERY shape on the wall.
There was also a grocery store with child sized carts, fake cars and gas pumps, skeletons of animals, fish tanks and another couple areas we didn't even walk through.
What an awesome place!

Nap time

We have been having some difficultly with sleeping recently. Tovina has been trying to convince us she is ready to move to her big bed but she likes to get out of it and wander around rather than go to sleep. We have been giving her big bed trials where, if she asks, she is allowed to lay down to sleep in the big bed but if she gets up and gets out of bed after that she goes back into the crib. It is not clear she understands the connection yet.

She has also started to employ delaying techniques. Water, toilet, book, and renewed requests for going back to the big bed are all popular.

It is reminiscent of the beginning of sleep training with her taking between 5 and 30 minutes to go to sleep. We have decided that we need to get tough for our own peace or mind. That led to today.

Today we put her down for her nap and over an HOUR later she still had not settled. She was clearly tired but if she wasn't going to sleep after over 80 minutes of 'quiet' then we might as well entertain the idea of letting her out of the crib - especially as she was beginning to ramp herself up. Michael stuck his head in to see what was going on.

Michael opened the door and saw Tovina standing in her crib.
Tovina, 'I pooed!'
Michael, 'Really?' This is what usually precedes requests for the toilet so a healthy amount of skepticism is warranted.
Tovina pointed to center of crib and used a new favorite phrase of hers, 'What happened?'
It was at this point that Michael realized Tovina was holding her diaper in one hand and with her other hand was pointing to a poo that was laying in the middle of the crib.
That was when he called me in so that I could witness this first hand.

We are very grateful that she did NOT decide to decorate her crib or herself or ignore what was going on and lay down in her crib and nap. Apparently she had a good reason for not falling asleep. Other than a little on her foot and a corresponding footprint or two, there was surprisingly little collateral damage. We managed to quickly strip the crib, get her cleaned up and in new clothes (same diaper though - it was still clean), and back into bed in less than 15 minutes. She was awake when I started typing this (12 minutes ago) but has already fallen asleep.

Odd concurrence

Today I used a gift certificate for a hair cut and manicure.
It was good timing because I had a phone interview today.
But before that, I helped Michael change the minivan's oil.
Didn't even chip a nail

Backpack?

Tovina has developed a sudden fondness for backpacks. It seems to partly grow out of her fondness for the big red in which we carry her.

It may also have something to do with 'ME!' which roughly translates to, 'I would like to do that for myself please.'
Here she is wearing her own special (ME!) clown backpack from China that she has just grown into.

Setting the table

Sometimes when we walk into the kitchen we discover that Tovina has already laid out dinner. Occasionally she also sets out people to eat it.

Usually she just lays out a wide assortment from her kitchen without the bears. The first time I actually thought one of the adults in the house was just picking up her toys or something. Then noticed that most of the food was right on the edge of the table and that it was happening about twice a day.

Happy Father's Day!

We didn't manage to celebrate Father's Day back in June, so we decided to celebrate yesterday!
We started with a trip to Cincinnati Science Museum. Tovina's favorite part? The DINOSAURS!! (See the dinosaur in the background? She pointed it out at least 15 times as we walked from the parking lot to the entrance.)

Then we went for some Dewey's pizza. (Tovina is explaining the importance of croutons.)

And then we got a malt for Dad.

Or maybe it was Tovina's. Sometimes its hard to tell.

Don't worry, there was one for Mom too.