Ponies and Trauma

Beverly Hills being Beverly Hills, the farmer's market there has a pony ride and a petting zoo once a month. Last month they weren't there (Petra had a great time shopping anyway), but this month- score! Petra was the smallest girl on the pony ride (and they were all girls), but arguably the happiest. She kept up a non-stop monologue the entire trip. She had the operator laughing as each time she came around the ring she'd be chatting at him about how she was riding a pony and holding the "handle bar" etc. etc. etc. She wanted to ride again after shopping, and even the petting zoo didn't appease her.

The trauma part, however, didn't involve not getting to ride the pony again. For a day or so Petra kept grabbing her crotch and crying "ouchy ouchy!" We didn't see anything out of the ordinary, so thought it might be a urinary tract infection. We went to Kaiser, and the pediatrician wanted a urine sample, and said the quickest way to do it would be with a catheter. Well, Petra didn't much like this idea. She screamed and cried and fought off Me, Alison, and two nurses! They had to give up because they couldn't hold her down long enough to insert the catheter. Poor baby! We had to go with plan B, which involved a glue-on plastic bag. Petra didn't like this much better the "funny diaper pokes me!" Rather than sit around the hospital waiting, we went home, where she had some Mac and Cheese for comfort, then slept on the couch with Mama for 2 hours. Then she sat on my lap watching Wonder Pets until she cut loose (more than 3 hours after leaving the hospital), soaking me and getting only an ounce into the bag (enough for the tests at least). We dropped the sample at Kaiser, and Petra was so cheerful that we went to the beach, played in the park, and splashed in the wet sand. No mention again of "ouchy." The Pediatrician called us and told us everything was normal in the tests. D'oh, trauma for nothing! Poor baby!

Petra and I cut school on Valentine's day and played together. We had brunch with Eden in the morning, then visited Mama's work for a party, then to the park where we met MiraZoey (and traded email addresses for playdates- they are both within a month of each other in age). Then a good nap and a trip to a farmer's market for kettle corn and tamales for dinner. Yum! A good birthday for Dada.


Silly things she is saying now:
"Oh my gosh!"
"But why not?" (we hear this a lot, it's frequently used instead of "No!")
"This is my favorite ..... I love it very much!" (often used for toys that she has never seen before)
"Let's have a sleepover with Jenna!"

Petra is just shy of 3 feet tall now, and over 32 pounds. Oh my back!

Random Cuteness

A mashup bedtime story mixing the Backyardigans and Katamari Damacy left Petra laying in bed telling me she was "Thinking about the King-about-the-cosmos and the little green guy the prince." So cute, at least to me.

We got her a little tent at Ikea, and she's been "camping" with us and all her friends (stuffed animals). We all pile into the little tent, and she'll curl up in our arms and chat.

The last couple of nights she's asked us to get in the tub with her. She likes to do her "trick" where she slides like a seal down our knees onto our stomachs. She got rug rash from my leg hair. Ouch!

Her favorite YouTube video at the moment is a fan vid of They Might Be Giants' "Robot Parade". She's liked the song since she was a baby (?!), but loves the robots in the video now.

She still loves Plex from Yo Gabba Gabba, though she doesn't seem to be so enamored of them anymore. I made her a quickie robot costume and mask from an old box and some packing material, and she liked that. I can't believe I don't have spray adhesive in the house to huff, ummm, I mean to put tinfoil onto the costume with.

Kittens & Books

This morning, while watching YouTube kitten videos Petra started singing "hundreds of books, thousands of books, millions and billions and trillions of books!" I suppose she is mixing up two of her favorite memes- cats and books, which come together in "Millions of Cats."

Cars are also a hot item. Walking home from daycare yesterday, she saw the car and went "my car!," did a little dance, ran up and gave it a big hug and a kiss! So sweet!

Special Guest Blogger!

I'm a bad parent! So, the good parent has thoughtfully provided the blog update that I have been too busy/lazy to write! Thanks Alison!

It's been a busy month—sorry for not posting more frequently!
Grandpa and Grandma Judy came down for a visit during the second week in January. Petra, as always, was thrilled to see them, and we had a delicious dinner at our favorite local restaurant, Bella Roma SPQR. Petra ate most of a dish of olive tapenade and sat on Grandpa's knee and helped him eat his pasta. The last time Grandpa & Grandma Judy were in town, they got her a cool pair of blinky shoes, which she has since outgrown, so they got her a new pair, which she loves.
Grandma Kate also came down from Oregon for a visit. Over the 3-day weekend, we did a quick getaway up to Lake Arrowhead. I had a conference at the UCLA Conference Center last June and thought it would be a fun place for all of us to go, so when we found out they were offering special rates during their off-season, we decided to give it a try.
Petra was excited about going to the snow, until she actually experienced it. There hadn't been any snow for a couple of weeks up in the mountains, so it was more ice and slush than powder. "It's cold and wet," was her opinion, though she did enjoy smushing snowballs with her toes. Sledding only ran about 4 runs, then Petra told us "I want to go to Peet's Coffee!" and wouldn't sled any more.
There were lots of kids staying at the center, and Petra had a lot of fun going up to different children and saying, "Hi, my name's Petra. Let's play a game!" After dinner one evening, all the kids found themselves in the library at the lodge and started running around in circles and playing together.
She also had fun with the fruit bowl at the lodge. She ate bananas, pears, and red and green apples with gusto. She also plunked at the piano in the lodge, and said "The pinano is my favorite instrument!"

On Sunday night and Monday morning, it was snowing! Petra was excited, but still didn't want to touch the snow or play in it very much, though she giggled when Dada made a snow angel and pretended to throw snowballs at her.
Once we were back home, she had fun with Grandma Kate at the Zimmer Children's Museum. They ended up going two days in a row, and both times, Petra didn't want to leave!
Back home, Petra had lots of play dates, with Jenna and Katie coming over on different days, and staying until everyone was tuckered and melting down. Lots of fun!

End of an Era

Or at least a year. Despite the trauma of the beginning of the year, 2007 was pretty good to us. We finished it out quietly, celebrating New Year on Halifax time. We spent today gardening, fingerpainting, and transforming Petra's crib into a "big-girl bed!"

Not being a mathematical genius, I just can't figure out how this is Petra's 4th calendar year, but she's only 2 years old!

And finally, Welcome Andres! He's managed to get 2 calendar years under his belt, and he's only a day old! Petra already can't wait to play with you!

Busy Social Calendar

As if Christmas wasn't enough, Petra has had a super busy week! In addition to daily runs to the park, on Thursday she visited the "dinosaur museum" (and became a member, including a free gift of the "Owl Puke" learning kit) where she saw lots of dinosaurs that she knew ("A Triceratops!" she says, while an older boy seconds later points and says "A Dinosaur!"), and a few she didn't. She loved seeing them all, and asked lots of questions. She also liked the old-school animal dioramas. She went barreling through the "Africa" animal hall to the Elephant/Giraffe diorama, stood up on the rail and said "We're in Africa!" (much to the amazement of some adults taking in the scene). She loved excavating "fossils" in the discovery center, and learning about bugs stuck in amber (she herself became "stuck" every time we passed the amber exhibit, and a few times at home since then). The only disturbing part of the trip (for me at least) was how many times I heard comments like "Well, if a day was really millions of years long, then...." coming out of people who clearly didn't understand or believe in evolution.

Friday we met Katie at Travel town for some big train action, then went to Katie's for a long nap, playtime, dinner, a bath, and bed (well, she and Katie tucked into bed, but didn't go to sleep).

Saturday was Jenna's 2nd birthday party (Jenna is at the same daycare as Petra). All Jenna's relatives were searching the crowd to identify Petra, whom they had heard so much about from Jenna. Lots of kids were there, and they all got along very well. We were the last to start heading for the door, and were instead invited to stay for dinner. Petra and Jenna had a great time playing and having dinner together. You could tell both hit the wall at the same moment though. Petra yanked a toy away from Jenna and said "No! Mine!", and Jenna started crying and put her head down on my knee. Clearly, they had had all the fun they could handle. We'll have to arrange a play date though, they get along so well!

There are lots of new pictures in the Photo Album, don't miss them!

Christmas Past

Another Christmas has come and gone. This is certainly the first "real" Christmas for Petra. She loved the whole run-up to the big day, opening the advent calendar, singing Jingle-Bells, turning on the Xmas tree, talking about Santa. She was up at 5:30 asking to go turn on the tree, and was quite stunned by the loot piled up there (especially the tricycle). Alison slept another hour while Petra rolled around on her bike, then had breakfast. Opening presents took most of the morning, mainly because she would get involved in doing something and forget other presents were waiting for her. She had a great time though!

Today, instead of being Santa, she was talking with Santa. She has a sticker book with Santa on the cover, and for at least an hour she was having conversations with him (and us, doing ho ho ho Santa voices). It was incredibly cute! She put on her jammies because Santa asked her to, and climbed into bed with Santa, asking me to read a Santa story, and a snowman story. She is such a darling!

We went to the library today, and she found lots of books to read ("I love this library" she said). Then went across the street to get her an ice cream cone (she was singing "I scream you scream" all the way there). Her eyes lit up and she had such a happy look on her face as we handed her a cone (and then she snarfed it down rapidly).