Civic Duty (22 months, 2 wks)

Hello!

Look at my amazing block tower! I really like to make them tall! I needed some help getting the last blocks up as it was taller than me! Speaking of "me" , I refer to myself as "me." I refuse to say my name, or even attempt to say my name, so Mommy taught me that another way to refer to myself would be to say "me." I like this a lot and say "ME!" with a lot of gusto. One of my favorite activities is to do an official roll call. I start naming off everyone I know. I always count myself in roll call. If I do roll call while at the dinner table I point to the chairs that my papa and nana sat in when they came and visited. That was well over a month ago so everyone is impressed at my always improving memory skills. One day we were eating macaroni and cheese and Mommy asked me if I remembered the delicious mac & cheese I had when we went to Texas last winter. When I heard the word Texas I get excited and said, "Papa! Nana!" Almost every day during roll call when I say papa and nana, Mommy tells me they are in Texas ( and Daddy is at work, and Steve is at work, and Papa and Grandma are at their house, etc etc) So I guess I have heard the words Papa and Nana together with Texas enough to make the connection. Pretty smart, eh?



Another shot of my building skills. I am thinking of a career in architecture but I'm still keeping my options open. I have quite a while until college. And even then, your first two years are basically generals anyway.

On Tuesday Mommy, Dora, and me headed to the polls to vote. It's our civic duty you know! We only got one ballot as both Dora and I are underage. We helped mainly by sitting under the voting booth, grabbing onto the "legs" of the booth, and shaking them. My Dora doll also sings a fun song about being a big sister, so everyone at our polling place got to hear that over and over. Due to the noise, and the booth shaking, Mommy decided to forgo filling in all the little circles in any race that was unopposed. The goal was to vote as quickly as humanly possible. When we left, we all got "I voted" stickers. Mommy tried to get a picture of Dora and me with our stickers but I was much more intrigued by the grand piano in the corner and quickly ran off to play as soon as Mommy snapped this picture. Thinking we had already been disturbing enough in the voting process, Mommy decided that a good photo was not worth it and we should get out of there before we were kicked out or got any dirty looks!

Mommy didn't take many pictures this week so it's a pretty short blog. We did our usual things like school and dance. I didn't cry at all when Mommy left for parent time at school. This was a first! I am turning into the model child for separation which makes Mommy really happy. School has been really good for the both of us. At dance we started the second session so there are two new students in our class--twin boys! I was a bit unsure of them at first but I think they'll be alright. I'm a little hesitant to any sort of change.

On Saturday I went to Grandma and Grandpa D's house to stay overnight. Mommy and Daddy had tickets to the Vikings game today so I needed a babysitter. I entertained them as always. And I came home with more clothes than I started with as always. This time I got all kinds of fun underwear. Mommy says we're going to start potty training after Christmas. I'm pretty interested in the potty but Mommy doesn't want to deal with traveling and potty training. So come 2011, I'm saying goodbye to diapers and hello to Dora and Elmo undies! Tonight I really wanted to wear the Elmo ones, so my parents put one over my diaper. I loved it and didn't really want to cover them up with my pajamas.

What else is new with me?

• I am starting to learn about counting. Daddy and I always count the steps when we go up and down the stairs. I'm particularly fond of the number nine. I say "Nine!" rather enthusiastically.

• This week Mommy and I have been working on shapes. I'm really good at picking out "circle" and "star". Still working on square and triangle.

• I am getting better at saying my colors but not yet very good at identification. My parents really like how I say "purple" so they try to find purple things all the time.

• One of my new favorite phrases is "I sing!" I try to put on music whenever possible whether it be the stereo in the den or the clock radio in my room.

• I've started announcing when I burp or toot so my parents are trying to teach me to say "excuse me". I've said it a few times. I "get" that you say it when you burp, but haven't figured out the tooting part. If I toot, my parents will say "say excuse me" and then I say "burp?"

• We are all healthy now and Daddy managed to not catch the flu bug that got Mommy and me last week. Whew! This week when we went to school and dance there were several other kids that had the same flu last week so there was a definite bug going around our town.

• Since my last Elmo Dance Video was so popular, we decided to make another one. Enjoy!!