Huginn, Muninn, and me

June. Part 3: In other news. . .

June 30, 2009 at 2:22 pm (catching up, craftiness n' colors, random Puffs, status report)

“It is better to be a young June-bug than an old bird of paradise.”

– Mark Twain

A few random happenings to round out the month of June:

First and most exciting: About 7 of Super Puff’s hairs are actually long enough to get into her eyes, as shown in the image above. This is big news to those of you who, like me, have been impatiently anticipating the day when those locks would finally sprout, and girlie barrettes could become a way of life. She has fully outgrown the mullet-ish hair-do that she’d been sporting for the last 6 months or so, and the husband and I have made the decision to forgo bangs of any kind and let those gossamer filaments grow and flow! Looks like the first haircut will have to be delayed for another year. . .or 6! Teaball loves her barrettes, and will frequently say things like “Mommy, I’m so GORGEOUS! I have beautiful ponytails in my hair!” She begs for ribbons and pigtails, and this makes her mommy very happy!

Even though we’re not quite at this point yet. . .

. . .baby girl has come a looooong way since January of 2008!

In other news, T has finally gained mastery of bubble wands. . .more or less. She still insists on blowing with her mouth closed, however. The rude noise that is created by this is certainly amusing, though I feel a bit sorry for the poor wand (and the neighbors who have to hear it). Still, it is improvement, as she does manage to tease out a couple of bubbles here and there. . .

T’s obsession with smiley-faces and emotions is still going strong. She frequently bullies her father and I into drawing them for her, and she’s naturally quite demanding when it comes to the emotion or situation she wants said smiley to portray. Her current list includes, but is not limited to: happy, super happy, sad (don’t forget the tear), mad, silly, scared or surprised, sleepy or sleeping, happy birthday (including hat and blow-out), mommy, daddy, boy, girl, and baby. Ears, eyebrows, lashes, hair, noses, mustaches, beards, glasses, and hair bows are also available upon request.

It was getting bad, and I found myself wondering where this unhealthy obsession would end. Would it be me? Would my husband come home from work one day to find me with my mind gone? Would I end up drooling in the corner with a gigantic super-smile plastered across my face, Puff gleefully face-painting me with a yellow marker? Or would the insanity come in a milder form? Panic attacks in Wal-Mart – and anywhere else the cheerfully grinning logo was displayed. What should be done? What could be done? Is there some sort of a Smileys Anonymous support group out there for situations like these? Do they accept toddlers? I couldn’t take it anymore. . .

And then one day she started drawing them herself. This is amazing and astounding to me. Drawing smiley-faces at ONE?! T is my first, and I don’t know too much about early-childhood motor skill development, but I’m thinking we’re a little bit on the early side here! I’ll post up a few she did just before nap-time today for your perusal. YOU tell ME if I’m seeing these through mommy goggles or if these odd doodles really do resemble the faces she was attempting to portray. I’ll even give you a play-by-play of what she said each of them are. The ONLY editing that I did to these pictures after scanning them in was to, crop them, re-size them, and add a black border. The blue one on the top was done with a crayon (the others were marker), and the color was so light it was difficult to see, so I darkened the blue. Nothing else. I was with her when she drew these, but I didn’t tell her what to draw, nor did I help her to draw them. She told me what she was drawing as she was drawing it.

According to T, the blue one is a ‘sleeping smiley’ it has 2 tiny dots for eyes (they’re closed), 2 ears, hair, and a mouth – but no nose.This is the one that I darkened the color on. When we draw sleeping smiley for Teagan, we draw them like this:

Although the orange one in the center looks like it just attended a horror convention, but T assures me that it is, in fact, a ‘SUPER HAPPY smiley.’ We draw super happy smileys with big gaping smiles, as opposed to the single curved line that plain old happy smileys possesses. This one has 2 eyes, a tiny nose, and a huge gaping (presumably smiling) mouth. It has 2 ears, but the one on his left is just a tiny dot. This one is a girl, and as such has long hair. . . on the sides of her head. It seems that the hair on her right is curly, but she only has 1 long hair on her left. T likes to make long hair circle around the chin an come back up on the other side. When we draw super happy smiley for Teagle, we draw them like this:

The purple one on the bottom is a mad smiley. Because of this, he has eyebrows. Unfortunately for him, his eyebrows look like a second set of eyes. He also has a nose and a mouth, but was left bald.

When we draw mad smileys for Teagan, we draw them like this:

The Princess of Puff has understood for quite some time that although names are exclusive to the thing that owns them, they may have more than one of them. This was made clear to her many moons ago when she learned that lambs and sheep are, in fact, the same animal. It wasn’t until very recently that she came to the realization that this rule also applies to people. . .

T: Mommy? You’re name is Mom.
Me: Yup! That’s me!
T: . . . You’re name’s J–??!
Me: Sure is!
T: And your name’s Wifels, too?!
Me: *giggle* You got it! I have all those names!
T: And Daddy’s name is Daddy AND Husby?!
Me: You’re right! And YOUR name is T, and Teaball, and Puff, and Kitten, and Little Owl, and Teagle, and . . .
T: Your name is MOMMY!

Unfortunately, there is a flip side to this new-found knowledge. And so, as a testament to our poor parenting skills, T occasionally pops out with the random insult. Like the time a month or so ago when she looked her daddy dead in the eye across the dinner table and said in a scornful tone, “Dad, are you retarded?!” Just for the record, I don’t use that phrase. She picked this one up from her dear old dad. And that’s not the only thing she’s learned from him, either. . .

One balmy evening, I pawned off tubby time duty off on Daddy. After the Puffin was washed and dried, he was getting her into her pajamas and ready for bed. Now Puff has never been fond of the whole getting dressed thing. She’s been trying to get out of it (and her clothing) since the day she was born. At this point in her life, she’s pretty much resigned her little self to the fact that, like it or not, this is a part of life that she’s just going to have to deal with. But she’d rather get it over with as soon as humanly possible. She knows how the dressing thing works by now, and in an attempt to speed things up, she often ‘helps’ by pushing her arms through the arm holes before her collar is properly situated. This can be a problem. . . On this day, she got stuck in her shirt with her face showing through the collar, and her arms stuck on the inside of her shirt against her head, with only her hands out.

Of course, she was in such a rush to get the dressing done, that she continued to struggle, pushing and straining against the fabric that restrained her instead of allowing her father to help. Finally, in complete exasperation she shouted at the pajama top:

“STOP BEIN’ A JERK!!!”

To really get the feel for stories like these (if you don’t have children of your own), you have to imagine such rude things said in the most adorably high-pitched angelic baby voice that you’ve ever heard. The juxtaposition between the voice and the words is nearly too much to bear. It is impossible not to laugh. Of course, you really shouldn’t. . .its naughty for a 1-year old to use such words, and by laughing, the child feels that they have done something that makes you happy, and will continue to try to please you in the same fashion. I know this. I laugh anyway. . .

The month of June brought summertime to our world, and along with summer comes bugs. The Itsy Bitsy Spider was the #1 song on the Puffy top ten this month, followed by Catchin’ a Baby Bumble Bee, and anything bug-related was the epitome of awesome. We spent many hours following ants around the backyard, watching spiders, and learning all about things that creep and crawl. Teagle had her first experience with a click beetle, much to her delight, and Daddy discovered this beautiful Polyphemus Moth in the back yard.

To keep in the theme of insects, we made egg carton caterpillars and ladybugs, (thanks to all of you who so kindly donated your cartons to our cause!) and added a few butterflies to the growing collection on Puff’s art wall. . .Mommy did all the cutting, of course. . .

And speaking of creepy things, we had a second trip to the zoo in the merry merry month of June! This time we went with Mrs. L and her June-bug daughter Little Miss L. T had a splendid time, of course. . . but as we were leaving, something odd happened. We passed under a tree.

T: Mommy. Pick me up. You pick me up NOW!
Me: *looks around in confusion for the problem*
ML: I think the pinecones are weirding her out. . .
Me: *picks up T* What’s wrong, baby?
T: I don’t like those big beetles.
Me: These? *picks up tiny pinecone*
T: Yes. Those beetles are very crunchy.
Me: Baby, this isn’t a beetle. It isn’t a bug. Its called a pinecone. Its just like a leaf or a stick, its a plant. It won’t bother you.
T: *nods and smiles* Oh yes! Pine-cones!
Me: *moves pinecone closer to her* See? It can’t hurt you!
T: *flinches back away from pine-cone* MOMMY! YOU PUT THAT BEETLE DOWN! PUT THAT BEETLE DOWN NOW!

I must point out the fact that there are very few things in this world that SuperPuff is afraid of. In fact, the ONLY other thing that really bothers her is vibrating toys (although we are in possession of a talking Cookie Monster toy that creeps her out on occasion). Which is also strange. But that is another story altogether. When I told her father about her new-found pinecone phobia, he laughed, of course. And the next day came home from work with. . . a pinecone! Teagle wouldn’t come near it. She gave it a very wide berth as she passed by, hugging the wall, and wouldn’t take her eyes off of it. I asked her if she wanted it. She said no. I asked her if if she wanted to come look at it. She said no. After explaining the harmlessness of pine-cones for about an hour to no avail, I finally asked her if she wanted to put glitter on it. She debated for quite some time on the pros and cons of glitter -vs- pinecones, but in the end glitter won out. Of course.

We now have a new roommate. His name is PineCone Man (the hair, moustache, and mouth were all her idea). She isn’t afraid of him one bit. I mean. . .how could anyone possibly be afraid of something that silly?! We’re hoping that we’ve managed to get her past this odd phobia, but we haven’t seen a wild pine-cone since that fateful day. Only time will tell. . .

Also from the arts and crafts department comes the news that Teaball really loves to create (and wear) jewelry! This isn’t the first thing that she’s made, but this is the first one that she did all by herself (except for the knots)! She made it to match the dress that her Gammy gave her. . .and it took a few days to painstakingly get all those beads on there.

Things are really getting wiggly on this end of town, too. Baby N is really moving and shaking now! Walking is on the list of new achievements, as is climbing onto (and falling off of) the couch. . .and anything else he can manage to squirm himself onto. His vocabulary is starting to take off, and I find myself understanding his babbles with more frequency. He’s started singing a lot, too. Catchin’ a Baby Bumble Bee is one of his faves right now, too, along with the ever-popular Monkeys on the Bed.

Baby A gets 10 points in the mobility department, as the end of this month finds her crawling on hands-and-knees, pulling up, and cruising around my living room – clinging desperately to whatever she can find to keep her upright. This is a MAJOR step up from her last mode of travel, which involved sitting in an upright position and pinwheeling slowly around the room. . . I feel a bit sorry for poor A sometimes, being the littlest of the motley crew I’ve gathered. . .but she holds her own against the biggest of them, and really seems to enjoy their company. T has always loved helping me give A her bottle, and now that A can feed herself, I sometimes allow T to sit on the couch and ‘hold’ A on her lap all by herself and feed her. A really seems to enjoy it, and T loves playing grown-up.

T has finally resigned herself (for the most part) to sharing, and has even been caught asking N nicely for toys – and saying please! They’ve all been playing very well together, much to N’s (and my) amazement and delight. It seems that T doesn’t recognize anyone who is not actually walking as a human. Now that N is taking his first shaky steps, T has been behaving a bit more kindly toward him. In retrospect, N is much more interested in A now that she’s moving around. And A is interested in anything she can reach. . .Things have been very entertaining around here to say the least, and every night before I sleep I thank the Lord for blessing me. . . with a very nice baby gate!

My little criminals

And so there you have it! Hope you all had a happy June, and I’m praying for a boring July!

coming soon on Huginn, Muninn, and Me:
where are they now?:mary's little lamb
tales from the sandbox confessional
toddler's speak out - the 'no more tears' myth