Uh-oh. Trash fell down. Fountain broke.

Most toddlers would agree that riding in the car is no fun, and Kalina would certainly agree. Fortunately, with the advent of two-way communication that does not necessarily include crying (for either of us), car trips have become more bearable as Kalina gains more experience with the English language.

For one, I can incentivise almost every trip, whether it's a jaunt to the park (easy) an expedition to the grocery store (trickier: "Will you help me find eggs? And bananas? And milk?" Three of her favorite things to find), or a visit to the doctor (nearly impossible if I didn't plan a visit to Aunt Nancy or a park or even the grocery store afterward, if at all possible).

But mostly, it helps that we're able to converse as we go. I find our conversations cute, if redundant, and Kalina finds them vastly useful in conveying to me the vital knowledge that a green bus is in our vicinity, and that she would like to see another green bus as soon as possible.

To which I reply, "We'll look for another green bus, will you help me find one?" and bank on her being content in anticipation until she forgets the search 45 seconds later on her discovery of a dump truck, at which point we'll begin looking for another dump truck. And so on.

It should be noted that Lamby, or Cow, or White Doggie, or Mountain Lion, or White Cat, or whichever companion she's chosen for the trip will generally aid our search by being held up by the neck to be able to see out the front window (and also directly into my rearview mirror) better. Cute, cute, cute.

Over a month ago, while we were driving to the grocery store on trash day, Kalina noticed that one of the blue trash cans along our route had tipped over.

"Uh-oh, trash fell down!" she worriedly informed me.
"You're right, the trash can did fall down!"
"Uh-oh, trash fell down!" she said more emphatically, frowning and tearing up a little.
"That's okay, someone will pick it up again!" I brightly reassured her. The girl was clearly distressed and I was hoping to smooth it over.
"Uh-oh!" She reaffirmed.

And with a combination of sympathy and a positive outlook for the future of the garbage can, we repeated this exchange several times until we got to the store. And on the way back (despite the fact that I clearly noted that someone must have picked it up, because there were no fallen trash cans anywhere). And then every time we took that route. And now about 5 times a day.

Not only that, we've added a broken fountain to the conversation. It used to spew water. Now it doesn't, so it's broken.

Poor Kalina. She does worry about things, and so her sweet little mind needed to figure out a solution. Which she did, without any prompting from me. Now the conversation goes something like this:

"Uh-oh. Trash fell down. Fountain broke."
"Yes, Sweetie, that's right."
"Uh-oh. Trash fell down. Fountain broke."
"Yes, but someone will take care of them!"
"Di-dah" (this means Daddy. She reverses the syllables because it's cuter that way.)
"Sure, Sweetie, Daddy will take care of them!"
Smiles.

And we still have the conversation several times a day. Daddy must be busy!

We told Matt that his official job now is trash-can-picker-upper and fountain-fixer, and so he mounted a re-branding effort to teach Kalina that really, he's a Scientist. Here's how that went:

"Kalina, Daddy's job is a Scientist!"
"Scientist."
"That's right! What does Daddy do?"
"Trash fell down! Fountain broke!" Triumphantly.

Photo: Kalina in her car.

A family weekend in pictures

Last weekend, members of neither the Hanks nor Odegaard sides of our family could resist Kalina's cuteness any longer: she had visits from her Great Uncle Alan and Great Aunt Diane (my uncle and aunt on my dad's side) as well as her Grandpa Les (Matt's dad).

Here are our best photos, in chronological order:

A quick picture before dinner on Friday night at Aunt Nancy's place, with my Uncle Alan and Aunt Diane. Kalina was not quite confident enough for me to be out of the picture. Cousin Poky also wanted her moment of fame. (Actually, we were using Poky and anything else we could find--like a super-cool tennis ball--as bait to get Kalina up on the couch. It turned out that Mommy was the best bait.)


Feeding the geese with Daddy and Grandpa Les at "Goose Park," one of Kalina's favorite activities. She's quite good at it, and can hit a goose point-blank in the face with a handful of Cheerios before we can (or choose to) remind her to be gentle.








Chasing after a family of baby ducklings (because who wouldn't want to catch a baby duckling?). Fortunately, it's not hard to escape a land-bound toddler whose mommy doesn't want her close to the lake (although if it hadn't been right near a lake, I probably wouldn't have been able to resist seeing how close she could get). That's my girl!







Demonstrating a pull-up for Grandpa Les. She's pretty good at that, too.












No trip to the park would be complete without the chance to sit on a bench, another of Kalina's favorite activities.








Breakfast with the Hanks family on Monday morning. Kalina once again wowed the group by eating Lima beans. Still not sure about the newcomers, but decided they'd be okay as long as Aunt Nancy was there.





Checking out the bamboo at the local giant garden, where everyone patiently followed pretty much wherever Kalina wanted to go. Apparently they all thought she was as cute as I did.






At the 11th hour, Kalina, with some prodding, allows herself to be held.









We even got a smile!








Thanks for the lovely weekend, everyone!

Anticipating Baby #2

Some women really do glow when they're pregnant. They glow not because of the extra blood rushing through their facial vessels, but because they're in their element--safely harboring and nurturing a new life even while they continue their everyday plans (which usually include elaborately decorating nurseries and playing Mozart to their unborn child).

I make it no secret that I do not glow while pregnant (nor do I show, apparently, but that's probably another post). And I'll make it no secret that it's even more challenging to glow the second time around.

Why? You ask. When I already know the extreme thrill of bringing a new bundle of joy home and raising it into a bubbly cherub of a toddler? I'd argue that it's because I know the work that goes into producing an angelic little girl (which mine generally is nowadays, I must confess). And if the bundle of joy were truly joyful, so would I be (side note: I've never seen a Hallmark card that celebrates a bundle of cries, have you?). Besides, I'm too busy to glow.

That's not to say I'm not excited. After all, with the practice child nearing age 2, I have a few tricks and ideas up my sleeve for perfecting the second one. Here are my main expectations for Baby #2:

1. Baby #2 will sleep better.
2. Baby #2 will not present any new parenting challenges, especially colic, acid reflux, eczema or a strong will. Let alone anything even more challenging.
3. Baby #2 will have his or her own endearing personality and individual cuteness that's different from, yet equal to Kalina's.

And we will get along just fine.

Naturally, Kalina and the new baby will be best of friends, too, happily sharing toys and fixing themselves peanut butter sandwiches while I take pictures and cook lavish dinners.

In short, the next child will not only be just as adorable and sweet as Kalina, but easier as well! Can you believe my good luck?

And this is how I get through my days: regularly lying to myself as I ignore the advice that I should be lifting no more than 25 pounds, taking it easy, eating lots of small meals, nesting, spending all of my time dreaming about the perfect new baby, and sitting down.

I've also made a few pregnancy resolutions to ensure this experience is more enjoyable for me than the last.

1. I will milk it for all it's worth.
2. I will milkshake it for all it's worth (this balances out because I so rarely have time for milkshakes that I think I'm drinking less of them than I did with Kalina).
3. I will wear my regular clothes for as long as possible.
4. I will buy at least 1 silly new thing for the baby, even if it's a girl and she already has everything she needs from Kalina.
5. In my third trimester, I will sleep in every weekend since it's rare to get any good nighttime sleep at this point or for months afterward (Matt doesn't know this yet).
6. I will try not to forget that I'm pregnant, unless that's what's most convenient for me at the time.
7. I will not let the nurse decide when I get the epidural. I will decide when I get the epidural. I will not wait long.

In this way, I will have a shot at beginning my new life with the energy to make it through at least the first few months, possibly longer. I suspect m&ms (for both Kalina and myself) and possibly even the occasional educational DVD will come into play as well.

Baby update:
On Monday I had another doctor's appointment, and we once again heard the heartbeat loud and clear, coming in at 156 beats per minute. The doctor speculated with me on the old wives tales predicting girl or boy. The relatively fast heartbeat points to girl, while my lack of nausea points to boy. So it's a 50/50 shot, we reckoned. I'll hopefully find out on May 7th. By May 8th, the new nursery/former guestroom will be adorably decorated, so if you come to stay with us you may be sleeping in a crib.

I've only gained 4 pounds over my whole pregnancy (and I'm almost halfway through it, yes I'm proud). While this is good news, I was disappointed in the fact that the doctor didn't encourage me in eating more milkshakes, a practice I had to resort to last time to produce any kind of a baby bump. So I'll continue to focus on veggies and trust in her reassurance that the baby's just fine even though he or she isn't making much of an outward impression.

Photo: See why Kalina will be a great big sister?

Ham and eggs

Today was a fun day for Kalina. In fact, the shallow side of the Easter holiday seems to have been made for the girl. Lambs, bunnies, chicks, ducklings and eggs--Kalina was in her sweet little version of Heaven.

We kicked off the holiday yesterday by dying eggs with Aunt Nancy. Kalina, who loves anything having to do with eggs (except, often, eating them), excitedly assumed her place at the table in her booster seat while Aunt Nancy and I got everything ready to go. "Eyah!" Kalina said happily, over and over. Yes, "egg" is a 2-syllable word in our house (as is "trash" and "more," to which somehow an "n" is also added after the "m").

We had thought some things through, but not others, and once the initial thrill of seeing white eggs magically turn various shades of blue, pink and yellow had worn off, and Kalina learned that we weren't comfortable with letting her hold eggs nor drink the dye, she was ready to be done. Aunt Nancy and I contentedly finished the job.

Easter Eve presented me with the joy of putting together Kalina's Easter basket and hiding it. But what do you put in a 21-month-old's Easter basket? A giant chocolate bunny? A couple of live baby chicks? A pony? All were tempting ideas, but I kept it simple, with a couple cheap-but-quality toys and books this year, as well as a toy carrot I finished for her far past my bedtime last night. I just can't bring myself to feed my little girl candy (yet).

As predicted, Kalina's favorite part of the Easter basket was the basket itself, which will soon find a use in training her to be the best flower girl there ever was at her Aunt Laura's upcoming wedding (stay tuned in June for that post, which my fingers are already itching to write!).

I hid the basket in the place Kalina hides, just for fun, after every meal: behind the dining room curtain.

The morning dawned and the time came to explain to Kalina that downstairs a basket filled with toys and good things was hiding, waiting for her to find it. "What? A basket? Full of fun stuff? For me? Just like that? Downstairs? Well let's go!" She was all smiles as her posse of Daddy, Lamby and Mountain Lion accompanied us down the steps.

We had to remind Kalina several times that we were looking for a basket as she got distracted by other things, but it took a very appropriate amount of time for her to find it, dismantle it and shoo the nosy cats away from it.

One princess dress (garage sale! $3! not ashamed to admit it!) later and we were off to church, where we bounced along to celebratory songs about the fact that Jesus is risen (unfortunately not as exciting to a toddler as the palm branches we all got to wave last week) and a kind stranger in the cry room gave Kalina a blue bear to play with and then let her keep it, despite the fact that Kalina of her own accord handed it back to her when she had to leave the room. A proud mommy rewarded Kalina's politeness with hugs and kisses (not to mention the blue bear).

And then to the destination Kalina was admittedly most excited about: Grandpa's house! We hurried out of our nice clothes (after a few pictures) and sought a dozen Easter eggs Aunt Nancy had hidden around the yard.

Which went something like this:

"Kalina, we're going outside to find Easter eggs!"
"But I'm playing with my wagon!"
"But there are Easter eggs!"
"Fine, but I'm bringing my wagon with me."
"Kalina, can you find the Easter eggs out here?"
"Only if I can tow my wagon behind me and carry some rocks, too."
"Kalina, are there any Easter eggs over here somewhere?" (standing directly beside an egg in plain view)
"Maybe."
"Kalina, why don't you look in this bush for an Easter egg?"
"Wow, cool, guys, there's a colored egg in this bush! Good thing I have my wagon to put it in!"

And from then on, it was a very easy sell. Kalina eventually caught on to the idea as a whole, and as long as the eggs were "hidden" within plain sight and she didn't get too distracted, she would seek them out. The green one was the clear favorite--only the truly special were allowed to hold it. Would she trade it to Uncle Tom for a yellow and orange egg? Only for a split second, at which point she found a stick in the yard to trade to Uncle Tom for her green egg back. He took the bait and ended up with no eggs whatsoever. Yup, Kalina can play his games. And beat him.

Daddy was busy at this time, too. He found: a couple small lizards (including one he caught and carried around for a while, trying with only marginal luck to pull Kalina away from the third Easter egg hunt of the day), a tree frog, a giant woolly bear caterpillar and at least five four-leaf clovers.

Dinner was also a success, and especially the ham, which Kalina wolfed down more of than Grandpa did if you calculate it according to their size. As you would guess, she was also a fan of deviled eggs. "Eyah!" she exclaimed, for the umpteenth time today.

Fortunately, the holiday isn't quite over. We will undoubtedly be holding Easter egg hunts for weeks to come, and eating ham for days.