A Colorado Tradition

For the past few years (man, maybe six or seven by now) my cousins and I go out to dinner in lieu of Christmas presents. The group has grown as little ones come, but it’s always a good time and fun to see every one. Tonight, as we have five kids under five, we went someplace that every Denver child goes to - Casa Bonita. For those none Denver children, it is a crazy place. Cliff divers, gun fights, mariachi band, arcades, waterfalls, and sopipillas. It was loud, it was exciting and everyone had a good time. Myla LOVED the divers and the water in general. She chomped on her chicken finger the whole time the guy was diving. Aimee used to dive there a few years ago and the manager even offered to let her do it again tonight if she'd had her suit. Myla would have been all over that. She walked around and saw the sights and had a great time. As did we all, I'm sure. And then she sat in a snow cone covered ride and the night was over. Tonight, as we left Casa Bonita, she cradled her little beanie baby lion and said, "its okay baby lion." He must have been cold from the snow cone too.

Her words and vocabulary have skyrocketed. John has taught her to say quantify and tonight Uncle Scott got her to say plethora. Not words a two year old says. But she also says normal words like mister moon and "I need the lion mommy!" She knows a few songs like twinkle, twinkle little star, the ABC's, I see the moon, the moon sees me. Today, as we were walking around the house waiting for Uncle Scott, she was singing the song my mom always sings when Myla comes in the door. "Who’s that knocking at my door..." She is also very loving, always giving us hugs or stroking our arms and backs or saying I love you. It’s very sweet when she does it unprompted - or anytime really. She's a very sweet little being.

Hot Stuff

Myla has a pair of pink sunglasses that she loves.  And when she puts them on, she is no longer Myla.  She is "hot stuff".  Ask her when she sees a picture of herself with sunglasses on who it is, she'll tell you.  (Can you say Hollywood?)  But its not just Myla that transforms when sunglasses are on.  Anyone - or anything - really can become "hot stuff" if they are wearing them.  "Hot stuff" mommy, "hot stuff" daddy, "hot stuff" horsey.  That's the power of sunglasses.  Bet you never knew that huh? 

Just for fun, we did an unofficial weigh and measure today.  Its been a long time - since her two year old check up in October - that we've gotten stats.  And not much has changed between then and now.  She's still under 20 pounds but she has grown half an inch to 30.5.  A flyer the doctor gave us said that they don't grow much between two and four, and she runs around A LOT, so we aren't concerned.  Just amazed that she's still right there.  I'm sure she has a growth spurt in her future.  Probably right around the time she gets an Easter dress and then won't be able to wear it for Easter.  Yeah, that sounds about right. 

Tonight, after her bath, Myla was very concerned about her fingers.  "What happened fingers Mommy?" she would ask.  When I looked to see what was wrong, I couldn't tell what she was talking about.  But she kept asking, so I looked again.  Her fingers had become pruny from playing so long with rubber ducky.  She couldn't figure out why they looked that way.  So we put a little lotion on there, we put them in front of the space heater and I told her it would be okay.  After her snack, she looked at them again and said "that's better."  See, mom's know a thing or two, even if it is just that pruny fingers will look normal again soon.

Introducing...

Tiny the Fish!  This afternoon, after being such a good girl all day, Myla was surprised with her very own gold fish.  He's a little guy - hence the name Tiny - with a pretty fan tail.  She was very excited to pick out her own fish and to feed him his first dinner.  (She would have given him the whole can of food if we'd let her.)  We put him safe in the bookshelf where the cat can't scare him, but Myla can still see him.  She likes to open the door and say "Hello Tiny Fish."  She also wants to hold him, but I think we've gotten it through that you can't hold fish.  So she puts her little hands up there like she's holding him and says hello again and again.  Its very sweet.

This morning, Myla got to go crunching in the snow with her Aunt Aimee.  She was so excited that when she woke up this morning, she was already telling Aim to put on her boots.  Aimee wasn't here, so it seemed a little strange, but nevertheless, Myla told her.  And then tonight we went to the chili cook-off at the church.  John was in heaven.  Myla even tried some, although I think she liked the cornbread and chips better.  Its been a very busy day for such a little girl!

Be careful what you say

You know how people change the way they talk when there are little ones around?  That's because they repeat things so quickly, especially when they are trying new words out.  Yeah, Myla is no different there.  John threw out the word "gosh!" at their daddy-daughter day on Thursday and guess who repeated it?  Yep, and he hit himself on the head.  There are worse things she could say of course - and some things she does say sound worse than they are - but still, we are trying to be careful...

This week, Myla was fighting a pretty nasty cold.  So much so that I had to come home from work early to love and snuggle her.  Believe me, my heart was not broken for that!  Thankfully it was just a cold, she never really had a fever or anything, and she slept mostly okay.  She's definitely getting over it, and that we can tell by the way she runs us ragged at stores.  Myla loves to go places.  She woke up from her nap on Wednesday and said "go store mommy daddy" and nodded her head.  When I said maybe later, she said "go see mam-mam pop-pop."  She is a social butterfly and will talk to people at the store, as long as she's close to one of us.  I guess that's a good thing.

Myla has also become very helpful doing things around the house.  She takes her clothes to the laundry, helps feed the dog, and loves to set the table.  She's getting so tall to be able to even reach the top of the table!  We've also discovered that she knows how to read.  Ok, not really.  We borrowed some Curious George books from the library and have read them so many times she knows how they start.  Its fun to hear her say these sentences and know how some passages go.  She's a smart cookie.  Wonder where she got that from? 

A quiet morning

It is a rare morning that I wake up before Myla does and not have to be rushing to be off at work.  Its kind of strange not to wake up to her talking and laughing.  I know why she's sleeping in today (and its not because the snow is making things darker), she didn't sleep all through the night.  She was up for about an hour talking to her stuffed animals and putting on quite a show.  When I went in to check on her a little later she had fallen back asleep, with her socks on her hands.  I guess her feet were hot.

Myla got to play with her cousins Tank and Kaidynce from Omaha this week.  She thought it was fun to have them at her house to play with her toys.  She still got a little nervous, but we reminded her that sharing was good.  We made valentines yesterday for her daddy while he was asleep.  She loved to put the heart stickers on and was very careful about the drawing she did.

And now as the snow is falling heavier (we're catching up North Carolina!), I hear a little voice "mommy, 'r you?"  What does the day have in store for us?