Calico Ghost Town

Earlier this month we had a nice four-day weekend that we hadn't made previous plans for. For months F and I have been saying we needed to take some time to take C to Calico Ghost Town. It's a tourist spot just a few miles from Fort Irwin. We tried, in vain, to avoid the heat of the day by going early, but it was still a nice, toasty 107 by 1:00 pm when we left. They've certainly captured a sense of the Old West in their preservation and restoration of the site. I don't know how much C took in, or enjoyed of it, but F and I had fun. We wandered among the many craft shops, took an old-time photo of C and me, ate at the on-site cafe, and just generally enjoyed the atmosphere of the old mining town. If you're ever out this way, it's worth the side trip. We're planning to go back, perhaps for one of their festival times.

Miss Personality

My goodness, my baby girl is growing up so much. She's really demonstrating her own little personality and preferences lately. This means, of course, that she's holding regular temper tantrum sessions. However, it also means that she's doing any number of cute things as of late. Let's see, she's discovered a certain capability in problem-solving: dragging a chair over in order to reach things once out of reach.

Her animal-lover tendencies are as strong as ever: her stuffed friends are ever-present, and the only "Little People" she plays with are in her zoo/zoo train set. She discovered the wear-able monkey the other day, and I'm plagued by requests to put it on her, and take it off, and put it on...etc.

Water play is one of her favorite things, and today I caught her banging on the bathroom door, hollering "bath!" I wonder what she'll do when she understands about the baby pool we just got. Eek. Of course, she still wants to be just like Mommy. She has a child-size broom and dustpan, so she "helps" sweep at least once a day. She gravitates to the child-size kitchens with toy food and utensils that some of our friends have. She loves to "talk" on her own phone and carry her "purses" around the house, usually saying "bye!!" Of all her "mommy-isms," my favorite is the wearing of Mommy's shoes. She's totally "stylin'!" and I think she knows it. Here she is, mid-wave, saying "hi".

Grrrr-ma

We have some upcoming visits with Grandma and Grandpa (F's) and Gramma and Grampa (mine) in the next two months. I was hoping to get C to say something resembling "gramma" or "grandpa" for our visits. Here's how it's going.

Me: Say Gramma, C. Say Gramma. Say Grrrr...ama.

C: grrrr (runs to toybox, brings Mommy her stuffed tiger, which she calls "grr") ma-ma-ma-ma, grrrrr. (She holds it out, proudly)

Does that count as Gramma? At least she didn't try to bring back a banana. Those have been "ama" for a while. It makes me giggle when she calls out "ama," pointing when we pass them in the commissary.

"Grampa" is more recognizable, although truncated to "pa-pa".

C's many "friends"

C's not so much into dolls, but stuffed animals are all the rage. Of course, she can't carry just one around, it has to be an entire menagerie. I usually take a few animals with us on our outings, but so far I've been able to make sure they stay in the car. When we go into stores, I tell her that the store doesn't let animals inside, and since she doesn't see animals inside, she accepts that. The park is trickier, since there are often dogs being walked around that area. I've come up with telling her that the dog has a leash on; animals at the park have to be on a leash and we don't have a leash for her animals. I guess that will work until she decides to ask me to get a leash for her "friends". Daddy is right up there in popularity too. Usually, when Daddy arrives home, she drops whatever she's doing, running for him so she can beg him to "up"...before he can take his boots, or even his hat off! However, yesterday, she wanted both Daddy and the friends, Take a look at how pleased she is in that situation.

C & Sophie's Big Day Out

Of course, C and Sophie took their mommies with them.

On Wednesday, C and I went "down the hill" to the Rancho Cucamonga and Montclair area to go shopping with our friends Kimberly and her daughter, Sophie, who's about a year older than C. In preparing Sophie for our trip together, Kimberly told her they were going on a big day out with C. First, we went to Souplantation for lunch. Yum! Then we were off to Nordstroms, where I found a great dress on their 1/2-year sale. C thoroughly enjoyed her snack from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory--a caramel and chocolate covered apple. We shared, but she ate more of it than I did, and she really didn't end up covered in chocolate. Now she asks for an "ap" for snack, but was disappointed when the apple requested came without chocolate. We also discovered a wonderful little grocery store, called Trader Joe's. They have high-quality produce, baked goods and some more unusual items that we are unable to get here at the commissary or even at a regular chain grocery store.

Here's C and Sophie playing peek-a-boo at Souplanation.

Books with an "ouch"

C has recognized that her favorite book is "hurt". A few weeks ago she tore the bottom third off the first page of "Little Quack's Bedtime" by Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Derek Anderson. It's still her favorite, but lately, when she picks it up and brings it to me, she says "ouch" when we turn to the first page, and taps the torn part, and looks at me sadly, imploring me, I'm pretty sure, to fix it. I was going to just leave it, but Fred couldn't stand the torn edge, so he taped it back together. However, she still says "ouch" and points to the tear, so I think she still knows she hurt her book. I remind her when she tells me "ouch" that she "ouched" the book, and that it makes us very sad to have books with "ouch"es. Hopefully this will help her not give any more books an "ouch". When she gets aggressive with her other books, I tell her to be careful, she might hurt the book and give it an "ouch". So far, it's been working, no torn books since this one.

Imitation C

Is it King Louie or Blou who sings "I wanna be like you-ou-ou" in Disney's Jungle Book? Well, regardless of the original crooner, it could very well be C's theme song these days. I should have known this was starting when she climbed up into the driver's seat of my car last week. We have indeed reached the days of watching the words coming out of our mouths. Not that we weren't watching them already, but you know what I mean.

At least I know that I'm cleaning enough, because that's mostly what C's mimicking. So far this week, I've caught her "sweeping", "scrubbing the floor", wiping the table, and scrubbing the toilet. Yes, the toilet. I heard a swishing noise coming from the bathroom while I was in our bedroom, walked in, and found my little girl happily scrubbing away with the toilet brush. I'm glad I have the cleansers locked up where she can't get to them. She likes to close the dishwasher and push the "wash" button, just like Mommy. She's also tried to push the vacuum, but it's too heavy for her, so she tries valiantly to help me when I've got it going. Today she also "helped" bring in the groceries for the first time. I hadn't thought she was big enough to do that, but after letting her out of the car, she picked the orange juice up off the garage floor and with much grunting and heaving, got it into the house. I took the bread and tortillas out of the sack after that, and let her "help" carry those in. However, I think I've taught her all too well about how to close doors. She closed the garage door on me while I was getting the last load of groceries! I know that one of these days she's going to want to help "cook" and that's going to get interesting. I'm going to have to get creative with tasks that she can do to "help".

C imitates some other things as well. She likes to take her (broken) remote control and sit in her child-size recliner and look like she's watching tv. She also really, really wants to push the computer buttons and today, got hold of the mouse and started walking around with it. She's also really started enjoying sitting at the table with Mommy and doing our "work" together. She gets her crayons or markers, which she calls "pens" and her paper and scribbles while I make notes or write in my journal. Of course, she also imitates my time reading, picking up a book and "reading", either out loud in baby-babble or by turning the pages silently.


Beyond the "chores" she wants to do like Mommy, she's started repeating our words, and is slowly adding to her usable vocabulary. She'll repeat what she hears us say, like "hos" for horse, and "bow" for bowl, but she hasn't used them independent of the repeat. However, she now can initiate using "mo" for more, now, "foo" for food, and "hep" for help. Wow.