Chop Suey Blah Blah Blah

I heard a speaker on some podcast Dr. B was listening to say that Chop Suey means "odds and ends" in Chinese, sort of. Leftovers. So here's some random thoughts from the last few days. This is a long one. Sorry about that.

My space bar is still gone. I have no idea where she could have put it, or how she got it off, but she did. Ordering one, but having trouble with paypal. Dr. B is supposed to help. He fell asleep after supper and is passed out snoring on the couch. Blame the DayQuil + the first week of the semester. (I stole his laptop to write this.)

Rowan has a cold. This means she needs 2 naps, but doesn't want them, so the 2nd one is forced and she wakes up disoriented and cries for about 45 minutes afterward because she didn't want to sleep. It doesn't help that she wakes up after sundown and thinks she missed something really important.

On the bright side, she is coming to me when she sneezes. (Sometimes.) She points to her nose and says, "Nose!" and then I wipe it. She even says "Thank you!" as she runs off to grab another toy.

She is learning so quickly, it's almost scary. She knows appropriate times to say please and thank you, and now says "EXCUSE ME!" loud and clear when anyone burps, farts, sneezes, or makes a funny noise. This includes shopping carts. Then she giggles.

The nurse at her 18 month check up asked if she knew 4 or 5 words. I said closer to 200. And growing. We really have to watch our language, because she repeats whatever you say. She knows lots of animals and what they say, especially the cow. She yells "MOOOOOOO!!!" whenever she sees something black and white. I'm hoping this doesn't result in any embarrassing situations in the future. She loves to identify puppies, kitties, babies and Elmo. Going to Target or Walmart is interesting--you can find us easily by listening for the call of "ELMO!"

She's very helpful, and loves to put things in the garbage, in baskets, by the stairs, etc. This does not extend to picking up her toys, except when I do 90% of the work. (I'll take 10% for now.)

She watches carefully and notices things you'd never expect. Sometimes I find her with a dishrag in her hand, scrubbing at a spot on the floor, or mimicking dancers on television with unbelievable precision for a 19-month old kid. At Cosi the other day, she piped up with a quick "thank you!" when the server brought out my croissant. She looked her in the eye and gave her a big smile.

She has amazing manual dexterity. This includes taking apart laptop computers, starting dishwashers, messing up the stereo, and almost ordering porn on TV (until I put some parent blockers on the cable.) She likes pushing random keys on my clarinet while I'm playing, too. (This doesn't work so well.)

Rowan loves music. Loves LoVeS LOVES "moodic!" Classical, country, jazz, rock, pop--anything. She dances and boogies and giggles and howls and it's just wonderful. Sometimes I don't even want to answer my phone because she's got such a funky groove going to the ringtone.

She's showing signs of being close to potty training, but so far all we've done is read books on the pot (like mother like daughter.) She'll get off the potty chair, but would rather not put her diaper or pants back on afterward, so I end up chasing a half-naked babe around the room hoping she won't poop on the floor. I have a special potty that plays a tune when you go, so I'm looking forward to the first time she actually does the deed. Once, she got close, but stood up and leaned against the wall while it happened, so the floor got wet, but not the pot. I'm not worried--I know it's really early.

Despite all her successes, though, she's still very much a little kid. Big tantrums are thrown when she doesn't get the crackers she wants 2 minutes before dinner, and she rips her mittens off the minute you put them on, over and over again, and then screams when her hands get cold. (I have a few solutions for this in the works; will let you know what is effective.) I am grateful for my years of teaching middle school band--I am good at ignoring these fits, and she's learning that I don't give in easily. I've sabotaged her, too--yesterday I took the handle off the pantry door so she can't open it and pull down juice boxes and cracker packages.

I joined a band that rehearses once a week. Dr. B's class that night goes too late, so he has to have Rowan join the class for a bit while I head off to rehearsal, and then she goes home on the bus with him afterward. This was the first week of it, and he made the mistake of adding a meeting with the dean after class. He paid the price with an over-tired screaming toddler to deal with on the way home. It didn't help that it was 14 degrees and snowing and they had to walk quite a ways to get to the bus. (Of course, she wouldn't put her mittens on.)

Oh, and we went to Washington DC last weekend--it was great. Dr. B had a conference for the Solar Decathlon, and we got really cheap rates at a posh Marriott. Due to the storm (and how tired we were) we decided to stay over an extra night, so the ride home was much less stressful. While he was in conference, Rowan and I went to the national mall (where the houses will be come October) and to the Smithsonian American History museum. I love history, but was a bit disappointed. I was hoping to see more of the collection, and less exposition--I'm a history buff, so knew a lot about it already. I didn't need 8 panels describing Lincoln to see the Gettysburg Address--I would have loved to see more stuff from that time and less of the storyboards. But I did get to see the desk where Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, an early Constitution copy, many Stradivarius violins and even a cello, and a real Kermit the Frog. Rowan had her picture taken in front of Steven Colbert's portrait. (I'll get those on Flickr soon.) She had her first subway rides, and is now officially obsessed with "choo choos". The Natural Fusion house will be on the mall for 3 weeks in October, so we will see more sites when we're there then. By then, the Obamamania will no doubt have died down a bit. (I'm glad I'm not in DC this weekend!)

And last but not least--it's cold and snowy in PA. We're above zero, but they're calling it "frigid" and "bitter". When it hit 30, people at the store were complaining about how cold it was. I can't stop giggling. My hometown currently has -40 degrees. Sorry, 5 above is not frigid. Not even close. IMO, if your snot doesn't freeze when you walk outside, it's only chilly.

And... scene.