Grandma Poppins

One of several group photos we tried
to take, with variable success

Daddy has been out of town a ton lately, much to the disappointment of both girls and the exhaustion of Mommy. We like Daddy! We need him around!

Fortunately, Grandma came to our rescue on Monday afternoon. She floated in through the clouds in an airplane (Kalina is positive she saw the specific one as we were headed to the airport to pick her up) and brightened our week considerably. Spoonful of sugar and all--in the delectable form of caramel brownies.

I'd been telling Kalina for weeks that soon, Grandma will come to visit us. The girl would get a huge smile on her face and vow to show off all her toys to Grandma. We also decided we needed to take Grandma strawberry picking.

So it was with high hopes we all loaded into the car after all-too-short naps on Monday afternoon to meet Grandma in the vague area known as "baggage claim." Kalina had been asking all day when Grandma would arrive, and once we got to the airport became disappointed anew every time she didn't see her beloved relative in such places as the parking lot just outside our car, the airport entrance, and every square foot thereafter.

Fortunately, after not too lengthy of a wait, Grandma appeared as if by magic coming down an escalator. I held Kalina back until a path was clear, and then watched her sprint joyfully toward Matt's mom. Elise, who only recognizes about four people in the entire world, continued to snack on her Cheerio halves and wonder what the big deal was.

Elise soon learned--Grandma's games and amusements are all fresh and new, and generally administered with more patience than a sleep-deprived, busy mommy can usually muster. Kalina, who was already well aware of this fact, endeavored to secure as much of Grandma's attention as she possibly could.

We all settled in quite cozily--even the air mattress that was (unfortunately!) Grandma's bed for four nights became a lovely playplace for our bouncy toddler. Elise was not quite so enthusiastic, as the mattress's top was a bit too rough for the scooting the baby was bent on practicing every waking (and some non-waking) moment.

The rest of Monday was spent in a flurry of dinner, playtime, chatting and, all too soon for Kalina, the bedtime routine. Before Kalina settled down to sleep, she made sure to confirm with me that Grandma would still be here tomorrow. I said she'd be here until Friday.

By Tuesday, Kalina firmly preferred Grandma to Mommy for any and all activities. Which worked well, as Elise loudly proclaimed her preference for Mommy about 5-10 minutes into Mommy's shower. We began the morning by baking brownies, and continued the fun with a park playdate. Naps were a success (to my great surprise, as I thought Kalina would stage quite the protest), and the rest of the day was spent with a Mommy/Elise grocery run, oatmeal pancakes, and a tour of the yard, including a visit to some of our newest pets: a tadpole and a crawfish living in a shaky harmony on our deck, as well as a family of Carolina wrens that nests in a yard waste bag.

Several times throughout the day, and every day thereafter, Kalina asked which day it was and seemed relieved it wasn't Friday. I began to wonder how I was ever going to pry the girl away from her Grandma when it became time to send her home.

Kalina, however, solved this problem for me. "On Friday, Grandma will go home to take care of Grandpa Les," she rationalized to anyone within earshot. "Yes!" I almost shouted with glee. "Yes, she needs to take care of Grandpa Les after she's done taking care of us!" This was an idea Kalina could really get behind, with about 34-ish small animal friends to take care of herself.

On Wednesday, we noticed that the girls were both exhibiting signs of tiredness from all the excitement. We laid low for a while, but the beautiful weather tempted us outside for a walk, where a kind stranger took our picture. Along familiar trails we spotted mushrooms, crows, cats, various bugs and other exciting sights--even the very spot where we gather algae for the tadpole and crawfish to eat. We had a photo shoot, that turned out about two dozen mediocre shots. Maybe after another few dozen we'd actually manage to get everyone looking at the camera at once? Nevetheless, it was fun to try. No one really wanted to come inside, but lunch and naps called.

Throughout the trip, Elise increased her scooting abilities almost hourly, catching us all unawares, not least of all her mommy. Clearly, the girl was hard at work as she slapped her hands on the ground and used them to pull along the rest of her body. She amazed us all, and all three of us older girls ran to remove hazardous or treasured objects from her path. No matter--Elise is equally adept at turning 180 degrees in a flash and heading out again after whatever we'd moved. We all had our work cut out for us! Despite her newfound capabilities for exploration, the baby exhibited some signs of pretty intense boredom, having seen and mastered all the toy or like-toy objects we could put in front of her. Around this time, she learned that cool objects come from the stove drawer, and just today I witness her open it to try to get inside. [Not kidding--not sure what else to do, I pulled out a pot lid for her to reward her effort.]

The afternoon was spent at Grandma Tom's house, with a much anticipated hot dog for Kalina for dinner. In a new setting, Elise graced us again with giggles, smiles and coos, and everyone was happy. Grandpa helped Elise practice crawling, and Kalina tagged along for the ride.

The next morning, Thursday, we set out for our promised strawberry-picking adventure. We saw horses on the way. No longer bored, Elise sat in her stroller happily trying to stuff as many strawberry leaves into her mouth as possible, while Kalina, Grandma and I alternately picked and tried to distract the baby from the strawberry leaves. Kalina made sure Grandma knew exactly which berries to pick: the red ones. Not the white ones. And the ones with a little white at the tip "need to grow a little bit more."

On the way home, the adventure continued as we got to follow a real-live fire truck part of the way! Even better: it later turned on its lights and sirens. Is there a better end to a morning than that? This sight could only be topped by the strawberries we gorged on back at home for lunch. Elise giggled through the entirety of lunchtime at Kalina's antics, thereby eating almost nothing without spraying it all over Grandma. Good thing Grandma thinks both girls are pretty cute!

Thursday evening, we made it out for a fancy dinner at Chick-Fil-A. We dined to classical music al fresco, with dinner carried courteously to our table for us. Mommy got to sneak in a few bites, too, and no one ended up covered in ketchup. A success!

And then, the dreaded Friday morning arrived, when Kalina would have to say goodbye to her beloved grandparent. We spent the morning soaking up as much playtime as possible before piling in the car to head to the airport.

Amazingly, possibly because of Kalina's sweet little spirit that wants to make sure Grandpa Les is as well taken care of as we had been, there were no tears shed. However, that's not to say there weren't some long faces (mine and Kalina's--Elise was a bit oblivious) as we trooped home by ourselves.

I reminded the girl that Daddy would be home soon from his trip. Kalina cheered up a bit, but would possibly have cited the age-old adage that a Grandma at hand is better than a Daddy on the road. Come back again, Grandma!

Baby noises

Elise probably in mid-sound. Look
how happy she is!

Vocal cords are a funny thing. Apparently, anyway, to someone who's not used to using them. And Elise has quite the repertoire of sounds. Following is a list of the noises Elise can make/has commonly made using hers:

Grunt: One of Elise's earlier noises, this grunt meant little more than "I'm here, making noise, hear me grunt."

Mmmmmaaaaa: Elise's first consonant happened to be the letter "M!" Which means she can kind of say Mama. I insist to Matt that she doesn't associate the word with me yet, but as the baby only uses it when she's upset, I'm secretly not so sure she doesn't know exactly what she's saying.

Roar: The baby began to roar a few weeks ago, quickly followed by the toddler, who thinks roaring is fun and hilarious. Really, it is, and it passes my criteria for a safe activity we can all do together.



Elise loves to swing! I
actually swing her higher than
Kalina.

Boo-boo-boo: The other day I got to witness Elise saying "B" for the first time. She'd let out a little puff of air, and then say "boo," and it was so adorable I couldn't help but say "boo" back. Many times. I congratulated her on her new skill and she seemed quite pleased with herself.
Oooooowooooowooo: At times, Elise's sounds resemble that of a sweet little fire engine. This is most likely to happen when she's well-fed and well-rested and has something interesting to play with. It's my favorite.

Shriek: Elise has certainly perfected the shrill, glass-breaking shriek that makes the whole family cringe. This often happens during solid-feeding time when Mommy has to leave the table (and a still-hungry baby) to fetch something from the kitchen (ketchup and mustard for the toddler's carrots, for instance). As this can happen about a dozen times in the course of one meal, I now prepare for my absence by sprinkling Cheerios halves across Elise's tray to keep her happy. Kalina appreciates this tactic, happily commenting when I return, "Elise didn't even scream!"

Laugh: Of course, Elise is quite adept at laughing by now. After all, she has a hilarious older sister to watch. When she's supposed to be eating, or getting her diaper changed.

Cry: We do this one too, on occasion.

Pppbbbttthhh: Elise still loves to blow raspberries. They mean, "I'm done with my food, Mommy, so you can have this bite back." I really just need to learn to wear a raincoat, especially when Elise is dining on pureed prunes. Sometimes Elise uses tiny raspberry noices to voice her approval of or interest in something, a habit that I've unfortunately picked up.

Conversation: Although most of the conversation in the house happens around Elise, she'll occasionally join in in her sweet little way. "Oooha?" she'll ask. "Ooowwwooo!" we'll reply. And so it continues.

20 million questions

My dear friend, Krista, who happens to
be a photographer, took some amazing
pictures of our family!

As soon as a child can begin to form words and sentences, you finally begin get a good peek into her mind. This has been going on for more than a year with Kalina, and I've always thought every glimpse I've gotten has been fascinating. Here is creativity unbridled. Few things are more inspiring than the mind of a child. What in the world is going on in there?

Sometimes not much more than, "Kalina would like a snack," and sometimes, "Mountain Lion is spraying water, milk and juice out of his tail. And his tail is cleaning it up," in response to my educational diatribe about what happens at the post office. Either way, Kalina's at an age where she pretty much tells me everything that's running through her mind, including an ironic "Kalina does not want to talk," followed a mere 10 seconds later by: "But Elise wants to talk," followed by Kalina letting me know what Elise was thinking.

As Kalina's language skills tighten up (we're now perfecting pronouns, saying "Mommy" instead of "Mama" and beginning questions) and she becomes increasingly in control of her linguistic universe, we face new challenges. For instance, we have her keen ability to notice every single mistake I make:

Me: Are your cats going to drink their milk?
Kalina: No, Mommy, they lick milk.

Or

Aunt Nancy: Time to add oatmeal to the cookie dough!
Kalina: No, oats!

Plus every single story in which I accidentally switch a "the" for an "a" and the like. Skipping a sentence or a page by mistake usually results in tears, while for other mistakes I may have to endure minutes of chiding laughter at my ignorance.

I'm slowly pondering how I'm going to teach Kalina that some mistakes don't require a gleeful "Mommy messed up!" and that in some households, pointing out each and every little accident of speech might be considered rude, even.

But that it's okay to let Mommy know if her socks don't match or she has frosting on her nose. But only before we go out, and not once we're in public lest she draw extra attention to my foibles. It's a delicate balance.

Fortunately, Kalina doesn't use all of her linguistic talents for ill. In fact, she's been remarkably handy lately in interpreting Elise's grunts, roars and "monkey-being-attacked-by-a-hyena"-shrill screeches for me. Sometimes with the best grammar I've heard out of the girl yet (does that mean Elise will be even more of a grammarian than Kalina? Heaven help us!).

For instance, Elise's grunts in the grocery store apparently meant, through Kalina's undoubtedly exacting translation, "'I want to get out of the cart, Mommy, let me out, I want to walk, I don't want to ride!' says Elise." If Elise were uprightly mobile I might have believe Kalina, but I had a sneaking suspicion that the toddler might be making things up.

Considering Kalina herself never uses such phrases as "No, Mommy, I don't want to wear a hat!" or "No, no, no, Mommy, I don't want to take a nap!" I sometimes think that Kalina sees Elise as an evil twin, alter-ego, or merely an outlet for unpopular expressions. That is okay: she can state her true feelings via Elise and we can both have a good laugh as we get on with the day.

And then there are the questions, which are always phrased like statements. "Kalina does not know if flowers turn into leaves," or "Kalina does not know if Lamby (or Beancat, or Elise) has stuffing." There are questions about everything--from where cars come from to if there will be a truck at church to whether a friend's dog will be attending a birthday party.

The best/worst part is trying to explain complex systems in straightforward English so that Kalina can actually understand and relate to. Sometimes my explanations end up so garbled that even an adult couldn't understand, while sometimes I actually succeed in making sense of a complicated matter. Sometimes I get it completely wrong, either because I have no idea what the real answer is or I know the real answer would only scare her  ("Thunder is just clouds bumping together!"). Sometimes Matt corrects me when I get it wrong ("Thunder is the sound lightening makes as it rushes through the air to hit the ground or an object!"). It's probably both a good and a bad thing that Kalina is not yet old enough to Google things herself.

While I have had to explain a million times where Daddy is every day, I fortunately have not had to silence Kalina's queries about whether another grocery store patron is particularly rotund. Yet.

Kalina also never asks, "How's your day been, Mommy, and is there anything I can do to help?" Yet.