I, Robot

All hallow's eve-ish

Weekend Update

Petra had a busy but fun weekend. Saturday was Family Festival Day at the Getty, and Petra had great fun making a sun print and charming all the volunteers at that table. She also enjoyed a pear pastry, while Mama and Dada had some espresso and tasty coffee cake from the cafe (the coffee cake was still warm...yum!). While waiting for her sun print to dry, she checked out the other activities, and made a couple of postcards and a frame for her print. She had gotten up pretty early that morning (her plaintive cry of "I'm staaaarving!" around 6 am roused Richard), so she started to fade around 11:30 or so. She wasn't interested in doing her "pony dance" to the music, so we knew she was ready to nap and started heading for the tram. She was out before we made it to the freeway.

Later that afternoon, we headed over to a concert at Creative Seeds, where a chamber music group called Tonoi was doing a performance of "Madigan the Pumpkin". Petra enjoyed the music and the story, and thanked the musicians enthusiastically as we left. We had planned to head for home, but saw that the local neighborhood association was having a Halloween carnival that was about to start, so we headed over the that. Petra had lots and lots of fun on the giant inflatable slide; she was a little wobbly climbing up to the top of the slide the first couple of times, but was soon scampering up like a champ. She charmed the teenage volunteers by thanking them and offering them candy from a bag of treats that we were snacking on. Other highlights included a bowling game, and a "fishing" game, where she won a spider ring and a gummy rat, respectively.

We bought a few raffle tickets just to support the neighborhood association, and were pleasantly surprised to have one of our numbers called in the first drawing (good thing too, as we were getting ready to leave). We got to pick a prize from the prize table, and Petra chose a cute pink purse adorned with flowers. As we arrived home, we saw one of the neighbor kids and Petra invited herself over to his house. They played happily for a half hour or so, until it was time to go home so he could have his bath. We thought it would be a good idea for Petra to have a bath as well (twice a week whether she needs it or not!), but she didn't share our opinion. Note to self: put in earplugs before putting Petra in the water.

Sunday was a birthday party for one of the girls from Petra's class. Mama played chauffeur and Dada stayed home to finish up Petra's robot costume for Halloween. The party was great fun (ponies and a pinata! How will we ever keep up!), and we ended up staying longer than we expected. The attendees had lots of fun, and it was fun to meet other parents from school. The robot costume is finished and looks great - Dada did a spectacular job. Petra is excited and keeps asking if it was Halloween yet (and talking about Madigan the pumpkin). Just a few more days!

And then she was Three!

My goodness, she can't be three years old already, can she? Yes, yes she can.

Petra had a big party at home on Saturday (sandwiched between visits to Kaiser Wednesday and Monday, more on that later). She had about a dozen kids at the party (Jessica and Katie and Jenna and Eden and Erik and Landon and Bennett and Andres and Sophie and Jeremy and Julian and Jan and Tamryn) as well as assorted parents, and a couple of grandparents (hers and theirs). Quite a houseful. And mercifully un-themed. Just lots of kids playing and having fun and eating "strawberry heart cake" (Petra's pick), and beating the heck out of a giant Strawberry Shortcake pinata (a gift from Uncle Guillermo at year one, which has been waiting for Petra and gang to grow up big enough to really wail on it with a shovel handle).

It was a very busy Saturday, because her school also managed to schedule "Beautification day," when all the parents are expected to come and help do cleaning/building/painting for the school. Alison and I scrubbed the urine stains off 26 cots, stained (a different kind) wooden blocks, scrubbed bikes and generally had a wet time of it. Petra played with her friends, and left early with the grandparents (lucky they were there! They kept her (and napped) while we finished the party preparations, and brought her home just before friends began to arrive in the afternoon).

There was also a nice party for her at school Monday. She is well loved at school, and has lots of friends. Gold plated or not, she is loving her school and learning a ton (human body parts and the skeleton at the moment).

Now the doctor's visits. Remember the toe? Well, it was healing nicely, with 1/2 the nail grown back, when Petra and I went to the park (she was "sick" so stayed home, and the second Alison was gone, she was well again. I thought we had years before she figured out that trick!), where she played barefoot - up to the point I noticed blood and gore all over her toe! I cleaned and bandaged it (apparently stubbed badly, and tore the nail a bit), and she seemed fine until the evening. Then she was playing in her room when I heard a clang and a scream. She managed to drop a frying pan (toy) on her toe, and it exploded again, instantly soaking her sock in blood, and smearing Alison and I both in it as she struggled against getting bandaged up. Again, she was fine, and off she went to school the next morning, where she did movement class, and started her toe bleeding again. The teachers freaked and had us come pick her up early. Though I was pretty certain what the doctor would say, we felt we better take her in to urgent care. As expected, after a soaking and a cleaning, the doctor said "keep it bandaged. Soak it when you can." One amusing part of the trip- obviously the computer system was reporting her age as two. The nurse and doctor both took a look at that and asked cautiously "how long has she been two?" She is WAY to big to be just a two-year old anymore! Petra's been pretty much fine ever since (she actually insisted we go to Target to shop after the visit).


Today was the usual 3 year check up, and she gets all gold stars. Well, except for the "borderline obesity" warning. That was actually a glitch; when we came in for the toe, they weighed her but didn't measure her, so they had her 2 year-old height with her current weight (which happens to be 37.5 pounds, 38 inches tall). That made for an interesting BMI chart!

Now the fun stuff:

Somewhere, she picked up a southern drawl. All her vowels became vowel-Y-vowel (Hayat for hat, Miyine for mine etc.) Certainly funny to hear, especially since we don't know anyone with that speech mannerism!

When she and I were on a walk on her "sick" day, she said "I love spending the day with you Dada."

I walked into the dining room the other day, and was puzzled- where were all the chairs? She had moved them all into the kitchen to build a doctor's office where she was examining Linny, Tuck and Ming Ming too.

Did we mention that Petra is potty training herself? She decided that she wants to wear big girl underwear, and has pretty much stopped wearing a diaper. A couple of accidents in the first days, but she's pretty much dry now (even slept in underwear last night without mishap).

We've had a great month of arts and crafts at the Santa Monica farmer's market at Virginia park. Petra's made treasure chests and pirate maps, jewelry boxes, pirate hat, etc. It's nice living so close to the People's Republic!

Petra's planning on being a robot for halloween. We've got all the makings of a costume, and Petra even has picked up talking like a robot (how do you type to represent a super cute little girl saying "I-AM-GOING-TO-BE-A-ROBOT" in robot-speak?).

We had another visit to Disneyland to see Minnie. Petra had a great time (more rides this time, including flying in Dumbo with Dada). Minnie was a bit of a disappointment for her though. Last visit, she took Minnie by the hand and went for a walk with her, and had lots of hugs. This time Minnie was goofing off with Goofy (get it?!), and didn't really pay much attention to the kids, who the handlers herded through lines like cows at a slaughterhouse (OK, maybe that's not quite fair). A small stuffed Minnie to take home made up for it though, and her love is unbowed.