Hit by a Truck

But in a good way. It kind of feels like you are hit by a truck full-o-love when you are playing with Petra and she looks up and says "So happy!" And she is such a happy little girl!

And then parents go and screw things up. Petra woke this morning crying out "Daddy, Daddy!" When I went to her she said "Trucks!" (she could here the garbage trucks going down the street), then "Run over you!" (she still says "you" instead of "me"). Poor thing, I must have freaked her out about getting run over by trucks! She couldn't just love garbage trucks, no, Daddy had to go make them something scary again. Sigh, poor little girl!

Dino-girl

Petra is just nuts about dinosaurs at the moment. She insists on playing online dino games, watching dino movies, and walking like dinosaurs (super cute when she does Iguanadon, walking on hands and feet and going "rargh!"). She loves the Gertie videos on YouTube, and just about anything else we can Google up. Well, she wasn't too thrilled about the dinos eating one another, but that's perhaps a bit too much for an (almost) two-year-old. We found a little pith helmet at the party store, and she immediately had to have her "dinosaur hat," and was ready to come home and "dig up dinosaurs" on the computer. We'll have to tell Laura, our Paleontologist friend. She'll make a great role model!

Petra also likes to wear her dinosaur rain coat (not that it's rained since she was born!). The because it's blue, when she wears it she is pretending she is Benny (the blue cow in the Dora books/videos/mind control conspiracy. Really very cute!

Fake Out!

Which is one of Petra's new favorite phrases. She really got me yesterday when picking her up from daycare she was crying and saying "no, no!" not wanting me to take her home. This made daddy VERY sad. But then as the gate squeaked as we got home, she burst out laughing, and was happy and sweet the rest of the day. I don't know if it was a fake out or not, but I was certainly glad that today she was happy to see me and very sweet.
That was really the only truly upsetting behavior I've seen. I can handle the "Go! Go!" first thing when she wakes up, but not wanting to come home with me was a bit scary.
Otherwise, she has been an absolute angel. She is talking up a storm, and has some very sweet phrases she uses. We were walking along holding hands with her smiling and, in a very singsong voice, saying "beautiful day." Every day with her is a beautiful day!

She's in love with dinosaurs at the moment, especially a game on the Caillou website where she (meaning me) can dig up bones and reconstruct the dinos for the museum. Pirates are also high are her list ("yar!", eyepatch and other words on her list).

She is also super girly sometimes though, picking and sniffing flowers, playing with jewelry, cooking in her kitchen, tucking her stuffed animals in bed. But at the same time she refuses to wear a barrette or a hair band, so she spends half her time brushing her hair out of her eyes.

Na naaaa, naa na na na na, naaa na na, nanana

Petra was supercute with our guests yesterday afternoon (of course), including "playing" Katamari Damacy with Jimmy (he was playing, and Petra went and found a game controller and stood in front of the TV "playing"). And I think she was pretty good at it too! Uh-oh, TV, videogames, what's next on this slippery slope?

Uh-oh!

First, the fever went away by morning. No problems at all.

Well, no problems at all unless you count the sound of little footsteps coming down the hall at 5:30 this morning!?! Seems someone suddenly knows how to climb out of her crib (3 times today- twice while trying to get her down for her nap). I suppose now we'll have to invest in restraints, or a cage.

And of course, this coincides with hot weather making her sleep poorly, so we're having a very hard time getting her to sleep at bedtime or for a nap. I hope this is just heat related, otherwise we might be having to start sleep training all over again. yikes!

Such a Mouth!

Petra and Mommy are both conked out on the bed, so time to blog!

Petra's language skills have shot through the roof recently. Not only in improved pronunciation, but also in concepts. A few examples:

Rocket ship, space, planet stars
Garbage truck, garbage black can, grass green can, Dump it
Big blue bus, pay money, bus token
Choking hazard (used to describe coins and buttons)
Hedgehog, hippo, giraffe, monkey, lion, bunny, etc.

She's started using lots of verbs (she's very carefully testing out -ing right now- do-ing, runn-ing, jump-ing), and the occasional mild profanity ("Crap!" when she dropped an earring off the dresser). We've gotta be more careful with our language!

Her brain is almost scary! So sweet and smart!

Of course, her brain is burning up at the moment. Poor thing has a fever, and in the middle of a heat wave at that. If she hasn't cooled down by tomorrow it's off to urgent care for us all! Mommy had strep a couple of weeks ago. I just hope Petra hasn't become a carrier (like her dad!).