Red

Petra still loves Little Red Riding Hood. Yesterday, as she was running out the door wearing only a diaper, she stopped and said "cape?!" She wanted her Little Red Riding Hood cape (really just a hoodie sweater). I hung her sweater on her head, and she asked for "bask?" her little wire easter basket, so she could collect flowers for Grandma. Once she had her basket, we walked around our yard picking flowers and filling the basket. We tried to video with grandma (any of them!), but alas, none were available to take the cutest video call in all history. Oh well, their loss!

Petra is also big on the three bears at the moment, and we've gone from having oatmeal in the morning to having "porridge" (still oatmeal, but easier to get her to eat!). Very cute!

Belly!

Petra went belly dancing this weekend! She and Daddy were out on a walk and we stopped by at the Bazaar on the corner to see what they had. Petra was obviously attracted to all the shiny objects. The back room of the shop was set up as a dance studio, and they had just finished a belly dancing class. Petra started playing a drum she found, and the women from the class ooh'd and ahhh'd, and came running over to meet her. One wrapped her up in a scarf covered with jingly things, and got Petra to start dancing. She loved it! She shook her little self round and round, jingling jingling jingling! Add the giant mirrors on the wall so she could admire herself, and Petra was in heaven!

If she hadn't just filled a diaper, we would have bought her an outfit, but we got out without spending a penny. She was so cute though, and had so much fun that we'll have to go back. She has a standing invitation to come for belly-dance lessons every Sunday!

Summertime

And the living is easy! It's always easy with Petra. Well, easy for Daddy at least. Mommy and Petra were left alone for 4 days while Daddy was away on bidness (long story involving missing groundcrews, thunderstorms, mechanical problems, and squalid accomodations. Don't ask). Petra remembered her daddy though, and came running down the hallway calling "daddy" when she heard his voice when he got back. Ahhh, my heart! Such a sweetie!

Daddy and Petra stayed home together to play on Friday. We played in the water table in the back yard and played around the house, but despite being tired she refused to take a nap. We decided to head to the beach, and of course just before getting there she conked out in her car seat. We parked in the shade and waited, waited, waited. But 1/2 hour later she was still out, so we just came home. She woke just as I parked at home, cheery and ready to play some more.

We went to meet Mommy for lunch, and Petra got cuted left and right on the visit. Co-workers and strangers all adored her.

Back at home it was nap time again, but no nap was forthcoming. By 4:30 she was getting cranky and I put her down, like it or not. And like it she did. She must have been more tuckered than I thought, because she conked out and didn't wake up until the next morning! Sleepy baby!

Saturday Petra woke up hungry (shocker there, she didn't have any dinner)- she ate a whole bowl of oatmeal and some yogurt, and a few strawberries. While Mommy hit the gym we had an early morning visit to Le Maison du Pain for yet another breakfast. Petra was greeted as a celebrity, and got the full tour of the kitchen. Then she scarfed two rolls, two bowls of fruit and feta, and a slice of ham. She might be having a growth spurt- so much sleeping and eating! Petra met a 3 year old named Zoe and greeted her with a big hug. Zoe is all of 4 inches taller than Petra. Zoe's mom was amazed at how big Petra was, and how active.

We finally did make it to the beach with Katie, and the girls had a great time. We stopped for coffee at Peet's and Petra took a little swim (it IS awfully hot). Again, though, she conked out the second we got home, and didn't wake up again. She MUST be growing.

Petra continues to be a little monkey, despite the name change. At the park Sunday she was climbing the monkey bars and hanging by her arms with no problem. She poits up to the bars and says "monk." Soon she'll be swinging from one bar to the other! She also loves her motor vehicles, from cars to rockets. Mommy found a little car by the side of the road and brought it home for her and she loves it!

The Keys to my Heart

She always had them, but recently she really learned how to use them. Keys that is. She has her own little set she'll carry around and stick in all the keyholes in the doors. Such a clever little girl! Thank God for deadbolt locks though! It won't be long before she is on her way out the front door!

Petra is in a very loving mood. She is giving everything hugs and kisses. Trees (hug, smooch), toys (big hug, kiss, kiss), the pillow (hug!), Mommy and Daddy (big hug! Big kiss!). I love our loving little girl!

She's become quite a walker. Sometimes coming home from daycare can involve walking 4 or more blocks as she keeps picking new directions to go. Going anywhere is not particularly efficient, but at least she isn't a couch potato! Now if we could only get her to go the direction we want her to walk in!

One of Petra's favorite stories right now is "Little Red Riding Hood." She loves both the cheesy pop up book version (wolf with no teeth, sent down river on a log) to the Trina Schart Hyman version (Red and grandma eaten by wolf, woodsman splits him open to rescue them). From the popup version she learned how to cry "help! help!" and now she'll stand in front of the window in the breakfast room and cry "help! help!" out the window. I just hope a cop isn't driving by or Mommy and Daddy will end up in jail! Petra likes to dress up in her "Red" out fit, with her hoodie sweater and a bucket. So cute!

Bad Parents!

We are bad parents- lounging by the pool at the mansion while poor Petra's blog sat unattended. We should be ashamed!

Petra's Uncle Joe is in town cutting a movie, and Petra is in love. She flirts with him endlessly, and will say his name over and over if we mention him in conversation. He's house-sitting a lovely old Spanish house up in the hills, and the whole family (well, half of it) came together to BBQ and hang out by the pool for the weekend. Auntie Naomi brought new books to read (and read and read and read) and Auntie Kirsten brought a kitchen (!) for Petra. Petra had fun in the pool with Gramma and cousin Adia, and ran herself ragged playing. She loved the room to run in the big house and courtyard, she was entranced by the koi pond, and she got to play a solo on a grand piano. What a lucky girl!Her cousin Adia really loved playing with Petra, and they did everything together, including take a bath. Poor thing, when we went home she fell asleep in the car and didn't even wake up when being changed into her sleeper and put to bed!

Watch your language!
Petra has begun broadening her vocabulary beyond your basic nouns (though she's added plenty of those, like wall, floor and ceiling). She added proper nouns (Unka Joe, and all the kids in her daycare's names), a bunch of verbs (get, hold, push, pull, catch, kick), a few adjectives (more most prominant), and she's started trying to figure out pronouns (me and you- try explaining those without sounding like an Abbott and Costello skit). She is really a language sponge now- she seems to learn every new word the first time she hears it. And of course, we really have to watch our own language as well. She seems to like to repeat the word "Crap!" whenever she hears it (though luckily rarely enough that she doesn't use it on her own (I hope!).

We've started to introduce Petra to the idea of using the potty. We bought one and had it around to let her get comfortable (hah!) with it, and have started to check with her if she thinks she needs to go pee or poop (she loves the words at least). She certainly doesn't have any fear of it! She does say yes occasionally and go in to sit on the potty, but no luck yet. Just stinky diapers (she loves to say stinky and pinch her nose!). Along the same hygiene lines, we've got her brushing her teeth every night. Well, eating toothpaste off her brush at least. She does wiggle it around in her mouth a bit, but she refuses to let us help her ("Hold" she says whenever we try to take it). She also likes to take floss and run it through her mouth (but not her teeth). It's probably better than nothing at all, but we've got a ways to go before achieving real dental hygiene.


Daddy got his first night home alone with Petra. Mommy was out of town on business. The evening went very smoothly (if you can call reading the Dora book 2.5 hours straight "smooth"), with no fuss at all. She took a book to bed with her, and didn't want to lie down, but sat and read while I left the room and she just read herself to sleep. Such a sweetie. Of course, morning she wanted Mommy and nothing but. She screamed and wandered room to room looking for her, and then going to the front door and yanking on it crying for Mama! So sad. She eventually screamed her way back to the crib, and once I put her in she again started reading, and when I came back in a few minutes to take her for breakfast, she was smiling and sweet again. I love this baby! Though I'm going to have to stop calling her a baby. She really is a little girl now, with opinions and everything.

Auntie Patti sent a pair of frog galoshes to Petra today, and she carried the box into the house, and as soon as she saw the boots she pulled off all her clothes (?!) and put on the boots to march around the house. Very cute!!! Petra likes running around naked ("nay"), though we've had a couple of puddles to clean up because of it. She's also getting good at taking off her own clothes- too good. We've been reading the Dora at the Beach book, and emphasizing the sunscreen application scene to her, to get her on board with the whole SPF thing. Luckily, it looks like she has Daddy's skin, so she tans rather than burning (so far at least, and Hawaii was a good test).

Ten!

Petra sat down in a basket of old baby clothes ("old"?) that we were sorting through this morning. "So many clothes!" Daddy says, so Petra...starts to count them! Pointing to one after another:

"on"
"two"
"tee"
Daddy's jaw drops "One, two, three" he repeats, dumbfounded
"fo"
"fi"
"shi"
"sha" (almost every S word is "sha" right now)
"eh"
"ni"
"two"

She just counted from one to ten unprompted!!! (well, if 10 is two, but just yesterday all numbers were "two"). Lots of praise and hugs!

I love this baby!!!

Opinions

Don't know where they came from, but sometime after we returned from Hawaii, Petra got herself some opinions, and pretty strong ones at that. Remember the sweet, querulous "nooo" that she used to have has been replaced by a no-nonesense "No!" She now makes it clear that she wants to be the one to "hol" things (no matter how messy that makes the eating). She goes limp and drops to the floor screaming if she doesn't want to go with you (or wants to go, or wants to play, or wants something, whatever that something may be, not really sure on this one!). She is still a playful darling, but clearly she is rapidly approaching the dreaded "terrible twos." It's just a phase. hope hope.

Grandpa and grandma came to visit last week, and Petra loved seeing them (especially "Pa"). She was a perfect darling when we went out to dinner at the (delicious) La Bodeguita de Pico. She was boogie-ing to the salsa music and scarfing pork. As we passed a yard sale on the way to the restaurant, she was gifted with (in her eyes) the best gift on earth- a Dora doll! She has been madly in love since then (as long as love includes the pulling out of hair). Awfully cute that she has fallen so hard for a symbol of the military-industrial-entertainment complex. Sigh.