IKAT to the Rescue!

Isabella is a genius. Let’s just get that out there right now.

Ok, so I’m a little biased. After all, every parent thinks their kid is the cutest, smartest, sweetest one ever. But mine really is. 😉

Munchkin has been talking for a while now. She started out like any other baby saying words like, “Mama”, “Dada”, “Baby” and “Dude”. Oh right, other babies don’t say ‘dude’. Well she did because that’s my nickname for Samson. She picked up on that right away! I tell ya, it’s funny to hear a one year old say “Dude!”

Anyway, once she started saying more words, they just came rolling out. Now she pretty much says any word that we say which means we have to be really careful…sure, some of her regular words sound like swear words but we don’t actually want her saying real cuss words.  

So back to the genius part. Not only does Isabella say a lot of stuff, she says it in different languages, or rather with different dialects. I think that’s her super power. We all have one right? Mine is being able to hear someone open a cookie jar or candy wrapper from anywhere within a 5 mile radius. We could call her IKAT (her initials) when she’s in disguise, on a mission to save an innocent person from another attack of poor language skills and bad accents.

Here are a few examples of her various talents:

She speaks Chinese and German pretty regularly (translation = gibberish). Neither of us can understand Chinese so who knows, maybe she is saying cuss words. That or she and Samson are planning to take over the house, which would mean Samson speaks Chinese too. Yeah, I doubt that. If he did, he would only know the words for “food”, “car”, “treat”, “walk”, and “Kong” because those are the only things he cares about in life. So IKAT must be working alone.

Certain words she says with an Italian accent, like “Elmo” (AHL-moh) and “Ernie” (EH-nee).

“Andiamo Ernie! Cerchiamo di andare a prendere Elmo in modo da poter salvare il mondo dal malvagio nemico che sta cercando di erradicat lingua dal mondo!”

Translation:

“Come on Ernie! Let’s go get Elmo in order to save the world from the evil enemy who is trying to erradicate language in the world!”

SHe says one word with a French accemt – “bib” (Beeb). When she says it, she wears a beret and turns her bib around so that it looks like a cape.

She knows one word in Russian – “Samson” (Se-am-sun). She just started referring to him by his full name the other day only she thinks his full name is Samson Dude. Makes it sound like he’s the John Wayne of the dog world.

And then there’s her American slang – “macaroni” (roni), “bananas” (nanas), “Yo Yo” (yo yo),  and “Droid” (d-r-o-i-d – said just like the Android phone). Seriously, she does this every time I get a text or email on my phone and the little “DROID” alert sounds.

Put it all together and you’ve got one smartie pants little Toddler!

Situating the hat

 

Consulting with Elmo (or should I say AHL-mo)

 

Here I come to save the day!

 

Capable of climbing the couch in a single bound!

 

Phew! Even Super Heroes get tired!

Hopefully she’ll use her genius for good and not evil. I’d hate to end up on Oprah someday talking about how my sweet, innocent little girl tried to take over the world.

Hark! What’s that I hear? Someone just ripped open a Snickers bar! Gotta fly!!

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Snip

Yesterday I decided it was time to give Isabella a haircut. She was born with a full head of hair so this will be the 3rd haircut in her 15 months of life. It’s mostly cutting the bangs as I’m trying to let the rest of it grow out long. She seems to have my hair though (poor thing) – thin, fine and slow-growing, with some curl in it. So it doesn’t need to be trimmed that often. I just do it myself because it’s only the bangs and there’s no way I’m going to shell out money for someone to do 3 snips and be done.

But, perhaps I should reconsider.

The first 2 times and it turned out great. Silly me didn’t take a pic of the first haircut (I know, major milestone that I missed. Doh!) but here she is after the 2nd one.

Pretty good, right?

The key is to distract her. Since she is constantly moving, it can be a challenge getting her to sit longer than 30 seconds. Usually if I can sit her down in front of the TV, she’ll get absorbed in it and not even realize I’m chopping her hair.

Well that didn’t work yesterday.

I put her in her Einstein chair and turned on Sesame Street. She was also reading a book so I figured, hey, bonus!  Once she was settled, I got the comb and scissors and started to work. However, she was fully aware of what I was doing and would either pull away or try to grab the comb/scissors, neither of which was helpful. I finally got it  lined up and just as I snipped the scissors, she moved and I cut off more than I had planned.

Drat!

So of course I had to even it out which meant cutting the rest shorter. And it wasn’t straight so I had to take a little more off and a little more until eventually she looked like this:

And it’s still not even! But I couldn’t bear to keep going shorter so it’ll have to work. I’ll just tell people I did it on purpose to give her that super hip, short choppy bang look. Um, yeah.

By the way, she’s not pointing at the camera here and saying “Bad mommy!” She’s actually eating chocolate Malt-o-Meal for the first time and my guess is she’s trying to slime CJ’s phone.

Anyway, they will grow back and let’s face it, [warning: parental brag alert ahead] no matter what I do to her hair she will still be adorable so I won’t chide myself too much.  I actually do think it’s kind of cute. Makes her already angelic face look that much more cherubic.

 

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Last night I was feeling a little sad and contemplative after attending the memorial service of a fellow volleyball player. He was too young and left behind a wife and 2 beautiful little girls. Naturally, I was taking stock of my life and feeling extremely grateful for all that I am blessed with.

Isabella and I played for a little while and then she wanted a cookie. I got one for her and one for me and we sat on the couch eating them together. Samson was sitting at our feet waiting eagerly for some crumbs to fall. I was holding her tight and kissed her little head a million times as we sat there. I think she sensed that I needed some extra love, because she turned her head and looked right in my eyes before leaning in and giving me a kiss. It was so sweet. Next, she leaned in against me and gave me a hug. It was exactly what I needed.

Then she tooted.

Without skipping a beat, she looked down at Samson and said, “Dude…” as if blaming it on him. She learned that trick from her dad.

There’s never a dull moment around our house!

 

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Snow Play!

Way back in November, as the weather was starting to show signs of the coming winter months, I bought Munchkin a winter coat and snow pants. I hesitated on the snow pants because I was being cheap and they cost an extra $9. But, my practical mind won out and told me that she would need those some day and probably on a day when the streets were too crappy to drive out and buy some.

I was right!

Yesterday was just such a day. I was home working and kept promising myself that when I was done, I would take Munchkin outside for her first adventure playing in the snow. I was really looking forward to it.

At precisely 4:19 p.m., I logged off my computer and marched upstairs, determined to start having fun, dammit! Munchkin was napping so I stuffed my face with popcorn and watched Jenny McCarthy tell Oprah about her first Playboy shoot. It was fascinating (insert Star Trek Spock voice here).  Eventually Munch woke up and I immediately changed her diaper (after she looked at me and said, “Diapa, poo poos.” I think she might be ready for potty training sooner than we thought). Then we started suiting her up in her snow gear.

First the snow pants, then the boots, the gloves and hat.

That look on her face kills me! It’s like, “Oh my God what is going on? Is the end of the world near? Is this my HAZMAT suit?”

Then we put on the coat and were ready to go!

I started out slowly because I wasn’t sure what her reaction would be. The first few times she was exposed to grass she freaked out and cried, refusing to put her feet on the ground…figured snow would be similar. But she actually took right to it!

I set her down on the deck and let her get used to it. She just sat there and looked at me. Gee mom, this is great fun. I showed her that you can kick it and run your hands through it and stuff. She eventually started getting brave and trying things.

After a few minutes, I took her down in to the yard. This time she stayed standing and tried to walk in it. However, the snow was up to her knees so she was unable to go anywhere. I suppose it would be hard for anyone to walk in that. I showed her how to lay back and make snow angels and she did! Sort of.

I love that she is laughing and enjoying herself. I remember being a kid and playing in the snow with my sister. We would pile it up along the side of the driveway and climb up, pretending it was Everest or something. And of course building forts and throwing snowballs. She’s too young for that yet but we got her started!

We went back in after about 10 minutes. I didn’t want her getting too cold since her gloves were wet and her face was exposed. Ok, fine, I was getting cold. Anyway, we headed in to get out of our wet clothes, take a nice hot bath and bundle up in warm jammies.

I’m so glad I took her out to play. Sometimes I hesitate to do that stuff because it feels like too much work. Or I’m afraid she’ll hate it and be fussy. But I do it anyway and am always surprised at how well she does and how much fun we have!

Happy snow days to everyone!

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