Zorba turns two!

We drove up to Grass Valley this past weekend to belatedly celebrate Zorba Spartacus's second birthday. He actually turned two in December, but he was too sick to enjoy it. So, Todd and Delia hosted a great get-together this weekend, complete with pizza, junk food (yay!), cupcakes, and plenty of soda. Needless to say, I was in HEAVEN!

The backyard

Todd invited several of his co-workers who also brought their children of various ages.  Lulu enjoyed playing with them all, especially the abnormally tall 6 year old.

Lulu enjoyed the various riding toys the best, particularly pushing them around the back patio.

Cupcakes!

The highlight of the day was the present-opening, of course!  Lulu wanted very badly to open Zorba's presents and it took quite a bit of supervision to keep her from ripping them open.

The rigors of party-throwing started to wear on Todd, but he soldiered through it.

And the birthday boy himself...

This is a phase, isn't it??

Being Lulu's mother right now is what I imagine being in an abusive lesbian relationship would be like.

This morning, she put her knee in my throat as she's crawling over me to lie next to me in bed. Then, she grabs my chin to turn my face toward her for some open-mouth kissing.  Exactly what I want at 6am in the morning.

Don't get me wrong--I love the affection, but man, I've gotta work with her on closed-mouth kissing!

This is followed up by a series of commands, "Mama, read book!"  "Mama, sit up!"  "Mama, need lipstick?"  (i.e., chapstick)

At various points in the day, the commands change to, "Mama, sit down!"  "Mama, I wanna sit your lap."  "Mama, need tissue?"

When I tell her, "I love you," she replies, "I no like Daddy."

Gearing Up...

I am mentally girding myself for this coming weekend...I think I'm going to put Lulu in "big girl panties" and try potty-training her in earnest.  I bought a "töpfchen" last week (I forget what the word is in English) and she's been "practicing" on it at home:

I love the expression on her face with this one.

She tells us that she's gonna go and will pull off her diaper and pants and sit but nothing happens.  I think the problem is that there is no negative consequence when she goes in her diaper....so I'm going to introduce panties and see if wetting herself will provide the re-enforcement I think she needs?  I've read of folks going diaper/pants-less but I think she's a little too concerned for cleanliness for that approach (we are talking about the girl who loves to help clean after all!).

At least we've got tile floors, right?  Will keep you updated...

Mysterious Rash

So, some of you (i.e., the grandparents) have seen these pictures before, but I thought I'd put them out there for additional input.  Last week, Lulu had a mysterious rash that we noticed as we were getting her ready for bed.  It was flat without any raised bumps or pustules, but it did itch because she was trying to scratch at it like crazy.

When we picked her up at Merryhill, she acted like she didn't feel good and she felt a little warm.  So, she and I cuddled in the comfy chair in the living room and watched videos together for a long while, but we didn't see the rash until we started to get her ready for bed.

To be honest, we weren't sure what it was (hence the photos and emails to the g'parents) and even more mysteriously, it was gone the next morning and she wasn't running a fever at all.  Nothing.

Interestingly, the rash re-appeared (faintly) the next night when Walter gave her a bath.  We think the hot water from the bath must've set it off but we haven't seen it since then.

I reported it to her teachers at Merryhill who said that apparently there were 2-3 other kids in her classroom who had reported similar symptoms--fever and rash for about 24 hours and then it was gone.

She's already had roseola and the only disease that the Mayo Clinic symptom-checker seems to match up with is hand-foot-mouth disease.  The rash was only on her thighs and calves--nowhere else.  Very mysterious!

Inheritance.

When I was Lulu's age, Grandaddy (my mom's dad) used to tease me with my "boyfriend," otherwise known as an old monkey with cymbals.  Back in the day, according to my mom, he used to not only clang his cymbals but also have sparks in his eyes as well as opening his mouth to show all his teeth.  Frightening.

When my grandfather died, his (evil) second wife gave us several boxes of his personal effects, including my boyfriend.  It appears the tradition continues because Lulu LOVES him...

Here's a video that shows him in his FULL glory:

There's one listed on eBay right now for $100.  And it's old enough that it says "product of Korea" (not North or South, just Korea).  Perhaps this IS my inheritance after all...I wouldn't put it past my Grandaddy...

You say good-bye, I say hello....

When I picked her up from Merryhill today, Lulu and I had an interesting conversation. She pointed to the sunset and said, "Good-bye, Sonne!" (or good-bye, Sun). I replied, "Ja, die Sonne geht weg." (Yes, the Sun is going away.)

I noticed that she kept saying it in the car on the way home and when I twisted around to look with her at a traffic light, I noticed that she was pointing to our (almost full) Moon coming up in the eastern sky. I tried correcting her, "Nein, das ist der Mond." (No, that is the moon.) But, she was quite insistent that it was the sun. I tried explaining that when the sun goes away the moon comes ("Wenn die Sonne weg geht, kommt der Mond"), but I don't think my garbled astronomical lecture in German went anywhere.

And in other news, Lulu's new teacher, Vanessa, arrived today. Miranda, the teaching assistant (who's also a full-time student at Sac State), has been filling in temporarily until Vanessa could start. Funnily enough, Lulu's new teacher is a former student of mine. Haha! I guess it's an educational "circle of life" kinda thing?? I recognized her face right away (although couldn't remember her name for the life of me), but it took her about 15-20 seconds to recognize me. I guess because it was odd to see me out of context.

Cooking Rice

The Chef and her sous-chef

Walter and I made a nut pulao last night as an accompaniment to our chicken curry.  It's a rice dish with Indian spices (mustard seed, coriander, cumin, and cardamom), shredded carrot, and walnuts and cashews. So, while we were assembling all the other ingredients, Lulu was "making rice" with our jasmine rice that was soaking.  She was having so much fun, that when we needed the actual rice for our dinner, I gave her 1/4 C of rice in the reserved soaking water to continue playing.

 She got out ALL of my silicone muffin cups and proceeded to use the mixing spoon to pour the rice and water into the cups and then poured the cups back into the bowl.  It was a little mad scientist-y with all the cups and everything!

By the time she was done, there was water ALL over the bar in our kitchen.  Everything was soaked.  But, she had a good time "cooking" and we were able to make our own dinner (which she pronounced "tasty") in the meantime.  We *did* notice the water and moved the cookbook and newspaper you see in the photo btw.

Brrrr!

Tina and Shaya came over for a playdate last Saturday afternoon.  The wintry cold combined with the overcast skies brought back unpleasant memories of how looooooong Ohio winters seemed to be.  We bundled up the girls and headed over to the park to let them burn off some energy outdoors.  I put the flash on for a few pictures and it makes it look like we were running them around in the dark, but I swear we weren't!  We stayed out until the adults got cold and then we headed back indoors.

Action Shot!!

spinning 'round and 'round...

reach for the stars...?

Outfitted.

Lulu graciously allowed me to put one of the outfits I sewed for her on this morning to wear to school.  This is the reversible "dress" that reverses to the blue fabric with trees and birds on it.  But today, she decided that the green would be acceptable.

The shoes are entirely her OWN choice btw.

I put a snap in the back to keep it from swinging open.
She get annoyed when it does that.

Difficult Drop-Off

Lulu and I had a difficult morning yesterday.  We arrived at Merryhill around 9am (in time for morning snack time at 9:30) and she was in a good mood and singing songs in the car on the way there.  But once I got her out of the car and into the building, things went downhill from there...

Her regular teacher, Miss Janice, has decided to go to school full-time and her last day was Dec 31st.  Miss Miranda, her assistant and full-time Sac State student, was on vacation last week and the first half of this week.  So, the teacher from the next classroom was filling in for Lulu's classroom and the chi just wasn't great (which is kind of odd b/c I don't get that same sense when the sub is in her regular classroom, but the whole energy in the Beginners room was off yesterday morning--I could feel it as we walked in the door).

We also suspect that Lulu might be teething again because she's been very clingy and temperamental in the evenings especially.  Putting her to bed has been a marathon of Herculean effort and she was drooling like a Saint Bernard yesterday morning (running down her chin, pooling on the pages of a book we were reading).

Anyway, Lulu didn't want to leave my arms and was crying and screaming.  The substitute teacher came over and tried to hold her and Lulu was having NONE of it.  She was squirming and reaching toward me and screaming that much harder.  I managed to slip out the door when Lulu was temporarily distracted and I stood on the other side, listening.  I know from watching other kids that once the parents leave, the kids (usually) settle down and are okay in a minute or two.  So, I waited with my ear to the door, hoping Lulu would calm down.  And she didn't.  She kept screaming and crying and crying and I finally couldn't take it any more and went back in.

She ran over to my arms and I sat and held her quietly with her face pressed up to the crook of my neck and we rocked.  She didn't acknowledge the substitute teacher (or the assistant lunch lady who was filling in for Miranda yesterday) when they came over and she wouldn't talk at all except to say yes when I asked her if she wanted to go with me that day.

To be perfectly honest, I was fully prepared to leave with her--I was that disturbed by the energy in the room and Lulu's obvious emotional pain.  I even had a few tears rolling down my cheeks as I hugged her.

And that's when Barbara the lunch lady came in with morning snacks (muffins and cantalope melons pieces).  She came over and sat next to us and starting chatting with me and talking to Lulu and offered her a muffin.  She even got Lulu to smile at her and eventually when Lulu ate all of her muffin, she willingly, happily went off with Barbara to see if they could find her another one.

So I took my cue and left.  But I didn't feel good about it and I felt guilty and like a bad mom all day long, especially b/c I don't have classes right now and Lulu could've gone with me.  And I felt like I needed to do something to make it up to her somehow--even though everyone assured me that she had a wonderful day and enjoyed herself after the difficult drop off.  And I mean everyone--I think there must've been a mini-staff mtg or something where everyone was warned that I was probably going to be psycho or something when I came back.

That's why when I picked her up (earlier than normal), we went to Mickey D's and we each had an ice cream cone.  Here are a couple of my favorite shots (and a slide show of the rest):

sweet, sweet satisfaction

she requests two pony tails almost every day now!

Bubbles!

Daddy and Lulu having fun with bubbles this weekend!

Backe, backe Kuchen!

the proud baker herself

pointing out the finer pts of her bread

Lulu baked her own cake today. Well, technically, she assisted, but she assisted quite a bit and was quite adamant that she could DO IT, Mama! So, I chopped up a couple of pears that were just this side of being tossed out and measured out the dry/wet ingredients which Lulu poured into the bowl and mixed together. Then, she spooned the batter out into the loaf pan I had prepared in the meantime and we popped our pear-walnut tea bread into the oven.

She was so excited to see the end product of her hard work--I think we might have a baker on our hands!

a close-up of the end product--very tasty!

die Harmonika

Lulu is fascinated with her "First 1000 Words in Italian" picture book, especially the pages in the toy store. She pointed out the harmonica to me tonight as we looked at the book before we gave her a bath.  I replied that Dadda had a harmonica and he brought it out to show her.  He played on it for a bit, handed it to me and I played on it for a few bars and then we handed it to her.  It took about 5 minutes and several attempts before we were treated to our first "concert."

She was SO excited when she was able to get a sound to come out of the harmonica.  It was really cute.  I can't wait until she's a little older and we can break out the recorders.

Hey, there's an idea--we can be buskers on the street:  The Schwarm Family in Concert!

Die Zukunft

Someone continues to winnow down her future career choices--I don't think podiatry is one of them...  It started off innocently enough as an exercise in outlining our feet with markers before things turned ugly...

Jabbing a crayola marker b/t my toes and saying, "Mommy, hold it!"

I'm just glad these weren't bamboo pencils!

Her finished handicraft, in shades of brown, blue, and green