Dada, why haven't you updated the blog in months?Because we've been very very busy, sweetie.
Why have you been busy?
Because we've been doing lots of things, like traveling, going to parties, doing arts & crafts, recovering from colds, crushing your toe, and going to your new school
My new school? I love my new school! Are we going to my new school now?
No honey, we're going to your new school tomorrow morning.
Why are we going to my new school tomorrow morning?
Because now we're at home. Hey look, I see your friends outside; do you want to go say hi? Wait, come back here Petra!
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While the above dialogue is completely made up, it's certainly true that Petra now asking "Why?" endlessly. Sure, we want to encourage a culture of inquiry, sometimes we also just want her to STOP ASKING WHY! "Why do you want me to stop asking why?" would be the response of course.
Loves her tricycle and will get up & ride it from her room to our room first thing in the morning (California baby - already into the car culture). 6 months after getting a tricycle at Xmas, she still didn't seem able to ride it. Then one day she wanted to "ride" to the bakery. With a sigh (expecting to have to push the whole way) I put the trike out for her, and she climbed on - and took off like a shot down the street. I had to run to catch her. apparently she's been practicing at school! Sly trickster!
Did we mention that on the second day of school she was sent home with a notice saying a kid at school had hand, foot & mouth disease? Well, we thought we dodged the bullet but then while on a flight up to the bay area she started crying and holding her tongue whenever she tasted juice or fruit or yogurt. I was able to spot a blister under her tongue, and thought perhaps it was a burn from soup she had at school. She hardly ate a bite all weekend (COMPLETELY out of character for her). We were even considering taking her to the hospital, when on the 3rd day she suddenly started eating again. Turns out, another round of HFM was going around school. Lucky us! On the upside though, it also eliminated the Nuk in a relatively trauma free way. She wouldn't suck one while she had the sores, and never asked for one again afterward. Hooray!
We were in the bay area for Grandma Judy's birthday party. There was a band on a stage, and Petra decided that it was for her. She got on stage with the microphone and sang "Baa baa blacksheep" and "ABCD" until the band played her off. She also did the "Jump" dance and the Macarena (yikes!) with her cousins. She had an incredible pouty lip because she was removed from the stage after the dance.
We've had a couple of trips to the Getty this summer. One family crafts day where she made a crown of leaves with bobbly bugs on it, a picture frame, a postcard, and a butterfly. Another trip was for a kids concert with Elizabeth Mitchell. The music was fun, but Petra had more fun playing with other kids, like the girls on the next blanket who practically adopted her.Loves her new school - lots of arts & crafts. Came home with a collage with pipe cleaners and googly eyes and told me "It's an insect. It has three body parts - a head, a thorax, and an abdomen." So smart and arty!
Petra's teacher says she is "the welcome wagon," introducing herself to everyone she sees and asking "what's your name?" She learned the names of all the new kids right away and has a good friend who she talks about all the time. She was sad though when some kids "graduated" to a different class in a different part of the facility.
Petra is in the Panda class, and is a "Blue panda." We'll hear her sing the class songs now and then ("If you are a blue panda, blue panda, blue panda; if you are a blue panda, time to go to lunch"). Riding home with Mama, she was singing it for the red pandas, and orange pandas, and blue pandas. But then we realized she was pointing at the banners for the Chabad telethon, which were like iPod ads - red, orange, and blue backgrounds with dancing Hassidim in black and white. Funny girl!We're still working on potty training. She went most of one day in "big girl panties" without any mishaps (though she asked for a diaper around 4pm, she was getting pretty tired of the effort by that point I guess). Every night she goes before bed, and occasionally wears panties over her diaper (thought sometimes they are worn on the head rather than the bottom).
Sometimes, Petra is just too busy to even take a nap (gasp!). On that rare occasion, she did fairly well, but was obviously tired and fell asleep next to Mama listening to nursery rhymes around 6:30. Not a peep out of her all night, and she woke up at her usual time. Sleepy muffin! We run her ragged.
Petra is definitely a pre-reader. Especially any word with "P for Petra" in it. Her new favorite show is "Word world" and she sometimes follows along with words in her books. We swear there are times when she reads signs, but there is always some doubt because she remembers EVERYTHING, and if we read the sign to her a year ago, she'll remember it.
Over Labor Day weekend, Petra pulled my expensive, delicate, and heavy digital SLR camera off the desk and down onto her toe. Lots of tears, black toe nail. She was walking fine though, so we figured it wasn't broken. Two days later Petra and I were playing catch with a baseball, and it landed, of course, right on that toe. Splat! Blood on ball, blood on sock, crying baby. The good news though is this seems to be exactly what the toe needed to heal, and while the toenail is still black the toe is healthy pink again. I consulted with a pediatrician at work, and she confirmed that if we took her in to the hospital, they probably would have drained it themselves. Hurray, homeopathic medicine! She has worn a sock day and night for two weeks, crying "I might see my owie!" if we try to change it. One day we had to resort to a paper bag over her head to get the sock changed.
I sit by her bed and tell her a story with the lights off at night. I was lounging back on a pile of stuffed animals during the story one evening, and when I sat up to kiss her goodnight, I smacked my nose good on the headboard. Clearly it made an impression, because a week or two later when I dropped her off at school, her teacher said "I heard you hit your nose on her bed."
