This is going to be long ...

This is a very interesting and entertaining article posted by Hunter at Daily Kos and cross posted at Mother Talkers. Quite political in nature but beyond that just his description of how his daughter "is" at the tender age of 7 is quite interesting. It makes me worry a bit as I already see many of these traits in my sweet little Jaida and she is not yet 5 years old. What in the world is she going to be like when she is 7?!? A little frightening to think about.

Foreign Policy As Practiced By Seven Year Old Children

by Hunter

Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 04:47:00 PM PDT

My daughter, in second grade, has been (let's face it) an unholy terror of a child, of late. I blame this entirely on her fellow classmates at her public school, as she was an impeccably well adjusted, unfailingly polite and conscientious child before she met them -- that's my story, anyway, and I'll stick to it. Before starting school, she was an emotionally competent if energetic child, able to comport herself with all the grace a preschooler is capable of mustering. After starting school, she almost immediately absorbed all the most primal lessons of grade school social interaction, and has become a small, pink-clothed monster.

Some of this I recognize from my own childhood, of course. The petty tribalism, the true vapidity of what counts as "friend" or "enemy", and the seemingly tidal nature with which the two designations come and go, primarily revolving around who brings what fabulous new toy, marble, trading card, sugar bomb, handheld game, whatever, etc., and so on. Some comrades show the first twinges of what may someday become true friendship; others reveal themselves to be the future bane of all those they come in contact with.

Other lessons, though, are different. As a grade school boy, I cannot deny that social interactions were much more twinged with actual violence, in our circles -- "social" skills were not just lacking, but actively avoided. My daughter has given me a new window into the interactions of sub-ten-year-old girls, which combine the implicit physical violence common among boys with an underlying social viciousness that we boys would have been boggled by. Deny it all you want, but young boys and young girls are different, and if I had my pick I know I would far rather have been made to eat playground dirt than be subjected with the withering, coldly plotting glare of a grade school girl contemplating my relative value in her social circle, and what she was about to do about it.

Life never progresses much beyond high school, goes one common observation. I think, though, that this is perhaps being more charitable towards many adults than is warranted. Perhaps some people never manage to evolve past basic high school social interactions, but for others even that seems a lofty pinnacle indeed. Everything I needed to know about the implicit tenets and instincts of conservatism, for example, I learned and rejected before I had turned ten. My daughter seems on the same path.

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Of all the habits of two legged little monsters that my daughter has recently adopted, by far the most prevalent and annoying is the phrase "Do what I want, or I won't be your friend anymore." I have no idea which of the cloven hoofed little brats from Satan's personal jungle gym first introduced her to this omnipresent schoolyard concept, but my daughter has now made it fully her own, along with clever variations like "do what I want, or I won't love you anymore," or "do what I want, or I'm not going to listen to you anymore," or the minimalist, unsubtle version, "do what I want, or I hate you." My daughter considers this to be a master stroke of manipulation, the ultimate takedown when faced with any adversary who demands that she brush her teeth or stop tying things to the dog. Of course, all it actually does is enrage the recipient of the threat, convincing them that all promised decades of bitter, loveless relationship with their child will be just fine, thank you very much, if You Will Only Brush Your God Damned Teeth This Instant.

I shudder to imagine what the schoolyard must be like, with my daughter's dozen or so second-grade friends in constant orbit around each other, each threatening at all points in time the ostracism of all of the others unless their will is adhered to at any particular moment. Every child seeks to find that delicate balance between getting what they want and over-irritating all the others to the point of potential retaliation. Every child, when faced with the threat, attempts to be placid enough to not invoke resentment, but all of them are too bent on domination to stop issuing the threats themselves. For a child in those first few years of social interaction, there are no shades of gray, there is only black and white, friend and enemy, compliant momentary footstool or bitter rival. One day "Peggy" is a bosom friend; the next day "Peggy" doesn't want to share her favorite toy, so she is now called "Piggy" and despised. Repeat until the children grow out of it, or until Peggy develops telekinetic powers and starts popping the other children's heads like grapes.

It seems difficult to imagine such stumbling social misfittery finding any home in anyone over the age of, say, ten. Surely it is a product of the most rote years of childhood, when you are learning your social balance alongside your physical balance, and only accomplishing either through trial and error. In the end, though, "do what I want, or I won't be your friend anymore" is a time-honored tradition of the highest levels of discourse. If you want to witness the interactions of eight year old girls on a school playground, you need look no farther than Bill Kristol, or Sean Hannity, or any number of devoutly conservative pundits and lawmakers.

"Hey, France. I'm going to go attack that country over there. Help me or I'm not going to be your friend anymore."

"But that's a stupid thing to do. Why would I want..."

"OK, that's it. You're a jerk and I hate you."

"All I'm saying is that--"

"Hey everybody! I say from now on we don't call french fries french fries, we call them Freedom Fries!"

"You know, french fries aren't even French--"

"Too late! Freedom Fries, Freedom Fries, Freedom Fries!"

Yes, when faced with the grade school gambit of "do what I want, or I won't be your friend anymore," the fear of every child is to end up like France, mocked and alone, with people making fun of your name in the cafeteria.

I wish I could tell my child, during those times when she herself has been declared France for the day, that eventually people grow up and that sort of thing doesn't happen anymore. But then I watch CSPAN, and it seems an impossible promise to make.

The second behavioral abomination that my child has decided to make her own is the I Know Better Than You phase. My daughter is absolutely convinced -- without question -- that she is the expert on any subject, any device, any process, and any phenomenon of the physical world that she declares herself to be the expert of. I do not even know when she learned the word "expert," but now she is one, and her subject of expertise changes according to the winds and whatever anyone else is doing at the time.

My daughter has declared herself an expert driver: she has never once driven, and cannot reach the pedals, but she is insistent that she knows more than I do on the subject. She can play the piano better than I can; can play video games better than I can; can chainsaw tree branches better than I can; can program computers better than I can; can choose quality merchandise at moderate prices better than I can, and so on. She has achieved expert status on how banks work ("they give people money"), how tall trees can get ("until they poke the sky"), how big the moon is ("bigger than the whole city!"), and the full and complete definitions of any word you can show her, read to her, or make up on the spot. She can fix the plumbing under the sink using nothing more than my biggest pipe wrench, used as a hammer (crap -- excuse me one moment...)

... and is an expert on where the pipe wrench goes, after it has done its duty. My child, in other words, is that special kind of genius, the genius that does not even need to know that a field of study exists in order to have mastered it to an extent greater than all others in recorded history. She is only foiled, alas, by the fact that all other second graders in her school have acquired the exact same superpower. This, as you can imagine, leads to fights.

It is unfathomable to me how society could function if our primal young did not quickly outgrow this conceit. I can only imagine what would happen if my daughter were to, say, be suddenly placed in charge of the economy and legal frameworks of a large but damaged Middle Eastern nation. She would not even be able to speak the language, could not read a newspaper, could not so much as understand T-shirts she saw on the street, but she would insist she had a thorough and complete comprehension of the nuanced economic policies needed in order to rebuild that nation into a better place. She would not have studied economics at all, in fact, nor have a degree in anything but personal self-satisfaction, but she would be absolutely certain in her convictions, and just as certain in her dismissals of anyone who spoke to the contrary.

The result would likely be ruinous. I can only quiver at the thought of someone like my daughter, in her current state, running amok in the halls of power, whether it be in that country, in this one, or in any other. The scientists would come to her with their scientific findings; the small child would simply rewrite them, insisting she knew more about the subject than they did. The economists would tell her that her most cherished preconceptions were fundamentally flawed; the child would declare it all bunk, and insist that she knew better. Constitutional law, environmental policy, foreign policy, education, welfare, disaster relief -- imagine, if you will, a government populated at the highest levels by small children chosen for the unbudging resolve with which they hold their preconceptions, rather than any actual expertise in their assigned fields. Imagine a half-formed leader who, upon being told what the laws were, simply wrote down on a piece of paper what his or her "interpretation" of those laws were -- and asserted it loudly to be more binding than the actual law itself. Or, when faced with any dicey situation, simply ignored all dire assessments until they found a single, sole other child who said what he wanted to hear -- and elevated that person over the others, and placed that person in charge of the situation, and presumed from then on in that the problem was solved by simple virtue of their own decider-ness that it was resolved.

Someone like my own seven year old daughter, in charge of a nation, declaring with all the strength a pouting seven-year-old can muster which inviolate laws of man and nature were true and which were now to be declared false, dismissing all fields of study, all expertise, indeed all experience throughout history other than her own barely formulated, primal notions of her surroundings?

I cannot imagine the catastrophe; it boggles the mind. I am glad for my daughter's newfound self confidence, yes, but thank goodness we keep such undeveloped, emotionally primitive people away from any true power, in this country, choosing instead to elevate those that seek to study and understand their surroundings rather than recast them according their own cherished fantasies. Thank goodness we do value expertise over simple stubbornness, and science over self-serving, evidenceless declarations, and thank goodness indeed that you need to be a competent, well-functioning adult to rule the world, and not a petty, stubborn child.

And yet, I confess, I sometimes wonder whether the presumption of innate expertise ever truly goes away, in adulthood, or simply recedes into the background as actual expertise displaces those first mere perceptions of knowledge. What would happen, if a child or even young adult grew up in an environment in which fictional information was more highly prized than real information -- in which a system of beliefs was cherished over actual, provable facts? Would they ever, even as grown men and women, outgrow those claustrophobic mental confines -- or even seek to, or even understand the difference? I watch the news, on most days, and watch the unending stream of faces who seem to exhibit those very characteristics, the ones that in my daughter represent only a fleeting, passing phase, and in my darker hours I wonder if perhaps there is not a secret underground movement of people trying for exactly that environment of willfully arrested development -- a kind of Freemasons for the promotion of ostentatious idiocy, perhaps?

Certainly, the signs are plentiful: obscure websites, magazines, think tanks, famous pundits, authors of no discernible expertise or talent, all revolving around the same central vortex of studiously enforced factual illiteracy. I for one am resolved to find out whether such an underground society exists or, more to the point, why all evidence points to it existing if, as my conservative friends keep insisting, it does not.

There is one more developmental car crash that has manifested itself in my young daughter, and I suspect it is strongly related to her own aforementioned sense of supernatural expertise. My daughter remains steadfastly in the disassembly phase of development.

The most obvious and frequent manifestation is the "destroy the city" game. My daughter can build soaring, tall buildings made out of blocks, or can tame the wildest frontiers of the living room via well-planned railroad construction. Flat surfaces of all sorts become miniaturized parking lots, or superhighways, or more frequently both at the same time. Sooner or later, however, all living room civilizations must fall. Whether it be by unexpected child-shaped meteor, or horrific imaginary plane crash, or the dreaded Ballerina Godzilla, or some other natural or supernatural fate, every block building will eventually be toppled with giddy glee. Every railroad line will be wrecked by giant beasts; every crowded superhighway is fated to become an apocalyptic scene, and usually before dinnertime. I have never known any child, anywhere, who did not instinctively enjoy destruction as much as creation, and consider them the inseparable, joyous yin and yang of childhood. It is instinct, and it is a small token of much needed personal power; complete control over the fate of some small, discrete, petty thing, even though the wide outside world is unfathomably large, and unmovable, and opaque.

My own child, however, takes disassembly quite seriously: in addition to a steady stream of creative indoor apocalypses, no toy or other sufficiently tantalizing individual item is safe from a methodical, astonishingly thorough deconstruction. My daughter believes that nothing is worth playing with unless it can be carefully destroyed, reduced to its smallest, most elemental parts. Not only is this great fun, but she considers it the inexorable methodology of the universe: my daughter is entropy, born into human form.

As a recent gift, my wife and I presented my daughter with a fully posable doll, meant as diminutive rider for an appropriately sized but rather non-posable toy horse. Within twenty minutes, the floor looked like a crime scene. The first minutes were spent removing all articles of clothing, including the hair braids. That lasted only a moment; after that, the arms and legs were all somehow detached. The figure was unceremoniously decapitated, and even the posable wrists were detached from the posable forearms. And all were scattered in a small section of the floor, as if the poor doll had stumbled over a land mine buried in the living room rug.

From this, my initial deduction was that my child was going to grow up to be either an accomplished scientist, or an equally accomplished serial killer. (Which she leans towards seems to shift by the day, but for the moment I think perhaps some more abstract, non-human toys may be in order, just to give some relief to the unnerved grownups around her.)

This was not, though, an act of violence or even aggressiveness. It was a mere act of childhood entropy -- of discovering the true nature of a new thing by fully dissecting it and categorizing the remains, whether it be doll, toy car, a strand of beads, the parts of a flashlight. If something unscrews, it is meant to be unscrewed; that much seems transparently obvious, even to a child. If something is openable, it is meant to be opened. If something can be disassembled, than it was clearly meant to be disassembled.

If you are excruciatingly foolish, leave a child alone in a room with only two things: a hammer, and a vase. Any parent with a functioning cortex can predict the outcome. The answer, to the child, is obvious: if I have been given access to a hammer, that must mean something needs hammering. If I have been given access to something that can be destroyed by hammering, then it clearly is meant to be hammered. It is so transparently predictable and ingrained that the most rudimentary form of this instinct has been reduced to aphorism: give a man a hammer, and the whole world looks like a nail.

To a child, creation and destruction look like the same thing. They are merely alterations of their environment from one state to another. Who is to say that an intact doll is the natural state of the doll -- why could not the disassembled state be the more fundamental one? It certainly, if nothing else, requires more work to accomplish.

What, then, would happen if this grade-school instinct were practiced at the highest elevations of power? What if a fool were given access to a military, what would happen? An air force is like the best, shiniest, most spectacular hammer ever developed; what level of studious adult restraint would it take to not start waving the thing around? Never mind even that, reduce it further -- what if, God forbid, we were governed by children who could not tell the difference between the constructed and unconstructed states of a thing? What if "destroying the village in order to save it" actually was considered a perfectly unironic thing -- a most distinguished policy, in fact?

It is an unnerving thought because this developmental phase, too, seems to have stumbled unaccountably into the halls of power, and seems to be rolling around those halls haphazardly and unchecked. It is inexplicable due to its sheer nonsensicalness, to adult eyes: if a child does not understand the difference between an unsmashed vase and a smashed one, and does not understand why one would be any more desirable than the other, how on earth do you debate the subject? Countless adults are finding themselves in that precise predicament.

If Social Security needs "fixing", the premised modern fix is to disassemble it and scatter the pieces. If an agency is producing troublesome data, dismantle the agency. If education policy needs fixing, the asserted cure is threatened dismantlement. If the United Nations is deemed inefficient, the solution is yet again reform through disassembly. The hammer fixes all. If a nation is led by a repulsive tyrant, what possible response could their be but to disassemble the country, utterly and completely, under the presumption that the pieces will of course reassemble themselves easily into a better form?

How many vases can one country have, after all?

It seems remarkably consistent. While past recent American political regimes have claimed great accomplishments, ranging from the establishment of social safety nets to moon landings, monumental highway networks, national parks, public education and the like, the current obsession is for deconstruction, not construction. No moon landings, this decade, nor abolition of dread disease, nor great public works. After many years of governance, the sole new edifice added to the American landscape by the current hammer wielders is a desolate, fragmented wall in the desert. It seems Ozymandias has vowed to dissect himself, not content to leave the task to time and the desert winds. Even nature itself seems eager to deconstruct our cities, out from under our very feet, while we seem listless and sullen in our defenses.

I know my daughter will eventually learn self control, and moderation. She even now is beginning to grasp the difference between things disassembled constructively, and destructively, and why one is more valuable than the other. And in the meantime, I will let her be Ballerina Godzilla, in her own living room -- it is not like her explorations into the utility of destruction cost human lives. If they did I would be a monster for allowing it, but she is only a child, and her games are not real.

All of this is, as a parent, exhausting. I have been through all of the previous phases, and so far lived; I have seen through each of them the natural progress of a mind coming to terms with its environment. Temper tantrums, food-related ordeals, the slow, agonizing process of teaching a two-foot-high human to refrain from crapping in their own pants even though it is so very self-evidently the most efficient solution: all of this came, then quickly went. We are past the danger of experimental self-administered haircuts, and the dog is finally safe from being used as furniture. So if all of those developmental speed bumps have been successfully navigated, it gives hope that these will pass just as quickly -- and hope brings much-needed sanity.

In politics, however, there is no such certainty. One cannot expect legislators to refrain from the same petty verbal or social tyrannies that would be abominable behavior for a grade school child. There is no parent that can teach a political movement the difference between what is true and what is false, if the movement insists on celebrating their own lack of distinction. There is no available path to teach a pundit or leader that some acts of destruction cannot be easily undone, if they cannot intuitively grasp the notion themselves.

The only consolation is the knowledge that my daughter, at least, will outgrow it. I am at least confident of that much; the rest of the nation seems doomed to the common path. When my daughter grows up and has children of her own, perhaps she shall see the very same behaviors on her own higher-definition, thousand-channel television, and will write a similar essay.

Alligators

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

Jaida thought the alligators were pretty cool. Especially when they would high walk and get all growly. Alligators make a really weird breathy growl/bark sound when they are feeling anxious. I have never been really up close and personal with a gator so I had no idea.

Shamu

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

Jaida was just amazed at the size of the huge Orcas. She just kept saying "the Orca is looking at me!" She might have been right for all we know.

Cousins

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

Jaida just adores her cousin Mattie.

Surprised

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

I really thought Jaida would have a blast at Seaworld. I think she would have had a lot more fun if it hadn't been for all the rude adults that kept crowding her out of the way around the exhibits, stepping on her feet and generally attempting to trample her. She did enjoy watching the dolphins and got the biggest kick out of feeding the Sea Lions some really smelly fish. She did love her trip to Aquatica and couldn't get enough of all the water rides.

Generally though she really enjoyed getting to explore the historic and more natural areas of Anastasia Island and St. Augustine. The fort (Castillo de San Marcos) was one of her favorites ... so many chambers and neat areas to go crawl around in.

I think she had a good time on the trip. AND ... she handled the 15 hour car ride (straight through) like a champ .... not so much for her brother.

Sometimes we forget ...

that Jaida is actually only 4.5 years old. Most of the time she is like having a mini-adult around. Every now and again though she does something that is so totally typical of a 5 year old that it just throws us for a loop. Not anything that is wrong ... just something that is totally goofy and characteristic of a normal five year old. We tend to forget that these things are normal goofy little kid behavior and not something we should be wishing she would just stop already because it is annoying us to no end.

We are trying really hard to be more patient parents to our sweet but sometimes silly nearly five year old daughter.

The Power of Belief

This is Dad (Joe) checking in today with an interesting story about Jaida. A few weeks ago we were all sitting around the diner table and the topic of “belief” came up. Now those of you who know Gia and I know that this is a touchy subject with us. Suffice it to say that we accept that other people can believe what they want, as long as they don’t try to force those beliefs on us (or our children). However, we are both quite adamant about not confusing facts with beliefs, and we want to make sure our children grow up knowing the difference.

Alright, back to the story - so to add to our discussion, Jaida brought up that one of the boys in her pre-school class does not believe in Santa Claus, but she does, “and that’s OK” she said. Gia and I were happy and a bit amazed that she seemed to understand what could be a rather abstract concept. However, then she added, “I don’t believe is space, though, and that’s OK too.” When we asked why she didn’t believe in outer space, she refused to talk about it, but simply added, “It’s OK to believe in different things, right?” Of course, we had to agree, and then just let it slide.

A few days later, Gia asked her again why she didn’t believe in outer space, trying to explain that some things are facts, and are not beliefs, citing that outer space is where the moon is, and where the stars are. Again she dismissed these, and repeated that it’s OK to believe in different things. Later, Gia and I discussed this and Gia said she was going to drop the subject for now, because if she really sat down with Jaida and discussed the difference between “facts” and “beliefs,” the original subject of Santa Claus would come up and what would we say then? Jaida has a bright mind and forgets nothing! We want her to grow up thinking rationally, but at the same time, we don’t want to kill her childhood completely by making her realize that Santa Claus might not be real after all, especially since she really wants to believe in him right now. That will come later, as it does for all children, and we don’t want to spoil that one bit of magic for her.

Ok, we now jump forward a week (and to the point of this rather long post). I was alone with Jaida, playing dolls or something, and she brought up the subject of jobs and what I do at my job. I mentioned that when I’m not on a boat, I look at images taken from cameras in space, and suddenly we were back to that strangely taboo subject. After telling me again that she doesn’t believe in space, I asked her again why. Then she sort of closed down in a way Gia and I both know means there is something she is afraid of. I picked her up and hugged her and said it’s Ok to tell me what’s bothering her (and that we don’t keep secrets in our house - another subject that we are keen on). She finally looked up at me with those big brown eyes and said that she didn’t want space to be real because she was afraid of falling off the Earth and floating away.

What a smart and clever girl, I realized as I hugged her and reassured her that that could never happen. Rather than confusing fact from fiction, as we had originally thought, she was simply protecting herself from the scary unknown by refusing to admit it was real. Jaida is much better now that she can talk about it, but it kind of makes you realize just how many beliefs are born out of simple “fear of the unknown.”

The power of belief can be strong and overpowering for children (and also many adults who have difficulty thinking rationally). I hope we can always find a way to help both Jaida and Jaxon understand the power of belief, own it (as Dr. Phil might say), and never let it control them.

Shots!

Jaida survived her doctor appointment. She received not one but two immunizations ... she was less than thrilled when she found this out last minute. However, she might be the bravest 4.5 year old ever. She went to the appointment knowing she was getting a needle. She didn't do any of the following (all of which I expected would happen) cry, whine, or plant her feet and refuse to move forward. We talked a lot about what it was going to feel like ... a poke and stinging ... and the great treat she would get afterwards.

She ended up getting her first varicella vax and the doctor decided to go ahead with her 5 yo MMR vax also. This way at her 5 year appointment it will be nothing other than pleasant seeing as how there will be no shots of any kind.

When the nurse gave Jaida the varicella vax Jaida just winced a bit. The MMR made her nearly cry but by the time she was getting wound up it was already over. The promise of a pink kitty beanie baby and a cupcake from Starbucks was enough to make her very happy. I had a MMR booster before I started college .... I remember that one hurting quite a bit.

Talking about Presidents

We have gone to Chick-fil-A a couple of times in the last couple of weeks. In their kids meal the toy is not exactly a toy but rather a set of flash cards bound by a ring. The cards have pictures of our Presidents on the front and a short bio and a very small picture of the first ladies on the back. We are sitting at the table and Jaida is flipping through them showing us which ones are on money when she looks up and says there are no girls in here. She seemed quite dismayed that there were no girls on the front of the cards. Joe and I explained that in the history of our country having Presidents there has never been a female (or girl in Jaida lingo).

I am still a bit conflicted as to which dem candidate I will vote for. I like them both and think either would make a great POTUS. The extremely liberal feminist in me is screaming that I should vote for Hillary. The idea that my daughter could be raised in a time where having a Madame President is just normal makes me positively giddy with happiness. What better way to illustrate that as a woman Jaida is fully capable of achieving anything her heart desires.

I can't wait to vote in the MD primaries and you better believe Jaida will be going with me when I do it.

Fuzzy memories

My entire labor with Jaida is still quite a blur. I suppose because it was SO long and I was SO tired I just don't remember much of it. Morning turned into night and repeat a couple of times ... that is all I really remember at this point.

The other day while driving to work some music came on and suddenly fuzzy memories of laying with Jaida came flooding back to me. It was odd though because I couldn't really place the memories. They weren't recent memories but she was generally the same size she is now. After a bit I realized they were from the night Jax was born.

It was sort of a whirlwind of an evening. My water broke right around 7pm. After that point the contractions didn't take too long to get ramped up. Around 10 p.m. I was already settling down in my bedroom to try to relax all the while everyone else was bustling through the house getting last minute things finished up, eating, etc. After a bit I heard Jaida in her bedroom sobbing while Joe tried to soothe her to sleep. She was just too excited and ramped up and tired all at the same time. I got up and went padding into Jaida's room where she immediately launched into my arms. I shooed Joe and my sister out of her room and just curled up on her toddler bed with her and held onto her. After a few minutes she asked me why I was breathing funny and I told her that my belly was squeezing pretty hard to try to push her brother out. We laid there for a bit while Jaida felt the contractions and talked about all the new stuff tomorrow would bring. Her goodnight music was playing on the cd player. Eventually, she settled down and fell fast asleep. At no other time have I been so uncomfortable and completely overjoyed and relaxed at the same time.

A very happy memory.

SAD

This entry is not directly about the kids ... maybe it is about them in a round-a-bout sort of way such as "I have no patience to deal with them right now" but that is about it.

EVERY.SINGLE.YEAR right about mid-January I start feeling down in the dumps (is that an actual term? it seems odd). I never get what I would think full-on depression is like but I feel blah. It is usually at its worst come mid-February and by the first day of Spring I feel that renewed sense of being and happiness but I seem to have to go though the winter blahs first. I have never been to a doctor about this and have never been officially diagnosed with anything. That is the beauty of the internet I can diagnose myself with Wikipedia or even better yet WebMD without having to go to the doctor and commune with the sick people and possibly catch something worse than my minor case of SAD. I love the internet!

Anyhow, I am thick in the heart of the winter blahs. If I had an un-limited supply of cash I think I would just up and move to someplace warm and sunny for the winter. I do wonder though if I would still have the blahs ... they would probably just be called something else. I am not a big fan of medication (don't have a problem with others using meds - just not for me) but I do wish there was something like Botox for the brain. Something that could make me superficially happy just long enough to get me to Spring.

ho hum ...

School

Jaida will be starting full day kindergarten in the public school system in the Fall. I seriously cannot believe that my baby girl is going off to real school soon. Anyhow, she needs to get her varicella vaccination before she can be registered. I was really hoping she would get the chicken pox (and thereby natural immunity) before she turned five but as it seems no such luck. She is not going to be pleased when she finds out she is getting a shot next Wednesday.

Shhhhh .... please don't tell her until I think of something to bribe her with!

Grandparent's Day

Jaida's preschool has a little Grandparent's Day celebration every year on Valentine's Day. Last year this was an intensely stressful day for me as I just want nothing more than for Jaida to be happy. Jaida was still fairly naive to the fact that every other kid she knew had Grandparent's locally and she didn't. Last year our wonderful friend Alice agreed to be Jaida's Grandfriend and take time off her job to attend the program at Jaida's school. Jaida just beamed with happiness when she saw Miss Alice come through the door of her school. She talked of nothing else for the week that followed.

This year Jaida is a bit more aware of her situation. When she found out Grandparent's Day is coming up soon she very timidly asked me what we are going to do since her Grandparents all live far away. I explained that she was correct that the Grandparent's that would be willing to come to such an event do live far away so they would not be able to come but that we would figure something out. She is worrying over this though and that just about tears my heart out. Surely other kids have Grandparents that live far away but why is it that at this time of year it feels like mine is the only child in this situation? Anyhow, as it stands now it appears that my good friend (and the mom of Jaida's best friend) is going to go with Jaida to her school program. She is not a Grandparent or even a Grandfriend for that matter but she is someone that adores Jaida and I suppose that is all that matters.

Pink Mushroom

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

Jaida started ice skating lessons. She really seems to love it and has really (surprisingly ) good balance. At one point all the kids were toppling over and I look out on the ice and there is Jaida standing on the ice watching all the commotion. She catches me watching and gives me two big thumbs up. Right before lessons started Jaida looks out at all the other kids on the ice and tells me "mama, none of the other kids are wearing helmets". I told her that her brain would thank me when/if she fell on the ice and banged her noggin. As she was leaving with her teacher she looks over her shoulder at me and says "mama, you worry too much". I think she would be paralyzed by fear if she knew how much I worry about her on a daily basis. I must hide it well (for the most part).

Taking a little break from all the excitement

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

I think Jaida had a great Christmas. We had a lot of fun on our break and of course she received many nice gifts. Jaida really got into all of our traditions this year. I think for Jaida preparing for Christmas was more fun than the actual day this year. Quite fun!

I am reasonably sure she did not like the present

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

What do you think? ;)

We have a visitor

Jaida has a little friend that suddenly showed up about a week ago. We named him Elfie and he is an Elf on the shelf. The first evening Jaida found him spying on her from the shelf in her playroom. The second night he found his way to the Christmas tree, then he was found riding one of santa's reindeer (on our mantle), etc. It is so much fun for her to wake up in the morning and go look for him. She talks to him but never tries to touch him. Can I say that Jaida has never been more well-behaved. :)

Christmas in New York City

We recently returned from a nearly week long trip to the big apple. It was rather exhausting but in a fun sort of way. We saw the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. The kids were all enchanted. Jaida's favorite part was when the Rockettes dressed as reindeer pulled Santa and his sleigh across the stage. Jax enjoyed all of the appearances of Santa Claus. We visited Fao Schwartz where both kids picked out a toy to purchase and Jaida was able to dance on the piano featured in the movie Big. Jaida and I ventured to the American Girl Place where Jaida picked out a new outfit for her Bitty baby. We spent time in Rockefeller Square and watched the brave people try to ice skate. We also braved Times Square at night which was an adventure. Generally, we did A LOT of walking. It was rather difficult as it was very busy and the stroller just got in the way. Poor Jax ended up strapped into his stroller most of the trip but he did enjoy running up and down the ramps in teh hotel lobby a lot. ;) It was a fun trip but we are all really glad to be home and are looking forward to Christmas.

She LOVES Santa Claus

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

There is no greater person on Earth than Santa Claus this year. I definitely think this is the BIG year for Santa with Jaida.

The picture of beauty

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

Jaida was a beautiful (non-Disney-fied) princess for Halloween. She had lots of fun at her schools trunk-or-treat event but has no interest in all the candy she collected ... that is what she has her dad and me for though. ;)

Trying to explain the concept of charity to a four year old

This is a subject I have been talking a lot to Jaida about recently. Mostly because she is four and is entering that phase where a lot of little kids sort of live in a self-centered universe. We have always made donations to various charities, etc. We give to the toys for tots campaign during the holidays and stuff like that. Though honestly it really has not made quite the impression on Jaida that I was hoping for. If at all possible I try to avoid having Jaida be involved in monetary contributions to charity mostly because she has very little concept of how much money it takes to buy stuff and secondly she has a hard time wrapping her little mind around the fact that there are kids and adults in the world that do not have as much (food, clothes, love) as her. It is all hard for her to understand.

Our church does a lot of social activism work (for our local area) and the children are pretty involved through the religious education program. Still I feel the need for Jaida to understand just how fortunate she really is and to find a better way to help her understand ways that we can help other people (on a global scale). In my endeavor to achieve both these goals I found this website. You purchase your child an on-line gift card and then they use that gift card to shop on the website to buy things that can help other people. I think it has more overhead charges than I normally like but I think this is a good way to help Jaida understand the global enormity of the problem and how a simple thing can really help.

Parent-Teacher conference

I went to our Fall conference with Jaida's teacher. Of course Jaida received a glowing report in every category. Academically she is doing outstanding. Her teacher could not say enough about what a pleasure it is to teach Jaida and how eager she is to learn/discover new things. She commented on Jaida's amazingly long attention span also. One striking thing her teacher said is that Jaida is by far the most popular kid in her school. This is such an odd thing for me seeing as I spent much of my younger years on the outside looking in (so to speak). Her teacher said it is odd because Jaida is totally not an attention seeker at school yet the kids just flock to her. Joe and I see this in other areas such as at church or in her dance class also. I think part of it is that Jaida is a genuinely nice kid. She is also usually very happy and cheery. She is not the type to be another child's friend one minute and not the next ... she treats everyone equally and with respect. This is something we harp on her constantly about ... well that and treating others as you would like to be treated. I am glad some of what we talk to her about is actually getting through.

For the record

Jaida told me this morning that when she grows up she wants to be an artist that mainly paints, a book writer that draws pictures in books and a dentist (because she has shiny white teeth). I told her that I am sure she can be any one or combination of those that she wants to be if she sets her mind to it. She gave me a big smile in return.

A gruesome scene

Jaida recently received a bunch of books from her Grandma. They are all the Disney stories ... Lion King, Jungle Book, etc. Jaida LOVES these books. We don't own most of the Disney movies so this is really her first introduction to themes such as sibling violence, mother-less youngsters, killing (death she is familiar with but not the actual taking of a life) and a fair amount of violence. We use these books as a jumping off point for many discussions.

Anyhow, Jaida is quite intrigued by the fact that animals eat each other (Lion King?). She had her Lion King figurines as well as some other plastic animals at the table this morning while I was making breakfast. I deliver her food to her and see a grizzly little scene she set up. She had a plastic cow laying on its side and all the other animals were circling it and positioned as if they were eating it. I asked if she remembered that Giraffes are veggie eaters and typically only eat leaves from trees. Jaida's response - "not these Giraffes, they grew up in a way they shouldn't have , like Mowgli, they eat meat". I answered with a shrug and okay. She says "hey mom, look at all the animals they are feasting on beef - hey that rhymes!"

Names

Jaida has several baby dolls that she plays with. All have been named by her with no help of us. Most have had these same names for at least a year if not longer. Her favorite baby doll is the Bitty Baby from American Girl. Bitty is named Sam. At first we thought Sam was maybe short for Samantha since Bitty wears a lot of pink and appears to be a girl. Recently, Jaida informs us that Sam is NOT a girl but instead a boy baby that just likes to wear a lot of pink. Then there is Pix. Pix is a baby doll that has been adopted by Jax. He hauls Pix everywhere. Jaida named Pix though ... Pix is short for Pixie. There is also a big baby doll (generally newborn size doll), named Ping, that has never been in the inner circle of Jaida's doll favorites until lately. This doll is a girl and was recently promoted to the inner circle when Jaida realized some of cousin Mattie's newborn baby clothes fit her. Many outfit changes everyday. Lastly there is this little baby doll that Jaida calls Ching Ching. This doll mostly lives in the car. So, we have Sam, Pix, Ping, and Ching Ching ... quite the motley crew. :)

Goofy Girl

We are having our bathroom remodeled ... aka - gutted. The workmen show up Wednesday a.m. bright and early. Jaida is hanging out downstairs as we get ready to go for the day. She sees a guy walking out the front door with our toilet and says "the toilet has left the building". It was pretty funny. Then she proceeded to say the same thing every single time another bathroom item was hauled out the door. What was once cute became old very quickly.

Photos

Today I made all of the kid's pictures on Flickr available only to people I deem as friends or family. I might make them public again after the mess with Orkut gets straightened out but until then you will need to email me so I can make you friends and family so you can view the photos. I don't mind doing this so just drop me a line. Email is in my profile.

Not your typical kid's music

Not sure if I have ever mentioned the fact that Jaida has musical abilities. This fact surprises me because she came from my womb and I am assuming shares at least a portion of my DNA. I have no musical abilities .... zero, zip, nada, none. Not a single person in my family has the slightest amount of musical abilities. It really is quite pitiful. Jaida however is simply amazing ... not in that young musical prodigy sort of way. She simply can carry a tune when singing, she can point out when others are not carrying a tune, she can listen to a tune and change the lyrics around on the fly all the while staying in tune, she can remember lyrics to fairly complicated songs, etc. She has even learned how to play several little songs on the piano we received from freecycle. Being completely tone deaf and not having a memory for lyrics AT ALL I find this simply stunning. She even sings in the youth choir at our UU church. The music director often compliments Jaida on her ability to stay focused, sing clearly and loudly, good breathing and posture, etc. We often find Jaida singing to the cat, herself or Jax . It makes us happy to see this.

I have not been the best at introducing Jaida to tons of children's music although we always have adult type music playing in the car and often at home also. I was never one to sing to her as a baby ... it just wasn't my thing. Especially since I am tone deaf and cannot remember lyrics to even the most simple diddys. Takes some of the fun out of it. Lately Jaida has been enjoying exploring her collection of children's music on her own ... she definitely has her favorites. The Giddy Up song (not sure of the real name) is one of them.

Jaida absolutely loves two songs that are not typical kids music. First is Waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer. She actually knows a fair amount of the words to the song. I have to say it is a little strange to hear a four year old (any four year old) singing it.

Waiting On The World To Change lyrics

Me and all my friends
We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There's no way we ever could

Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

It's hard to beat the system
When we're standing at a distance
So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change

Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door
And when you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want

That's why we're waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

It's not that we don't care,
We just know that the fight ain't fair
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

And we're still waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting waiting on the world to change
One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

The other song she loves and routinely requests that Joe play in his car is Fine Knacks for the Ladies from Sting's Songs from the Labyrinth. I do hope Jaida's love of and interest in music continues to grow along with the rest of her.

No fun at all

The appointment was not a disaster but it was less than ideal. Jaida woke in a dentist angst induced foul mood. She finally snapped out of it in time for her appointment but then chomped down and refused to open her mouth for Dr. Sona. After much pleading and promising on my part it was clear she had dug her heels in and was not planning on cooperating. She finally kind of opened her mouth enough to get the little bite thingy in and then we just sort of held her in place while Dr. Sona worked as quickly as possible. Luckily, no nitrous oxide or novocaine was needed. We got through it, eventually. As her prize for semi-cooperating she chose a Beck doll (Disney Fairie) that sits on the back of her Chipmunk friend, Scamper. It is pretty cute. Not sure why I like the Disney Fairie toys so much considering I am not at all fond of Disney stuff in general. Anyways ... that is how it went.

I might have promised her a car

or maybe it was a pony or a cute little pink pig that can live in our house and drink from a baby bottle ... not sure. I have a feeling I will be buying something big if this all works out though. This is what happens when a parent relies on bribery as a means to get the child to do something they don't really want to do .... but oh well.

Jaida has a dentist appointment tomorrow to finish the work that was not finished the last time. And since the last visit was such a raving success I imagine this one will be loads of fun (hence the bribery). We decided to not do the sedation with versed since it made Jaida twitchy and screechy last time. Even though there is not much to do I imagine the short 20-30 minute dentist visit is going to last a freaking eternity for all of us. Wish us luck .... loads and loads of luck. I think we are going to need it.

First day of Pre-K

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

and no first day jitters at all. Jaida marched right into her classroom and put her backpack and lunch bag away. She looked rather perturbed that Joe and I kept lingering by the door saying "bye baby, have a good day" over and over again. It was definitely harder on us than her.

Why do kids have to grow up SO fast. It seems as if time is flying by. sigh ....

A little whip cream among friends

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

Jaida went to her friend Caleb's forth birthday party. There was a whip cream eating contest. The kids were to dip their faces in the pan and eat/smear the whip cream. Jaida and her best friend decided not to waste the whip cream so they just scooped it into their mouths. ;)

PINK!!!!!

Jaida went to her pre-K orientation yesterday. The child is floating on cloud 9. Not only did she get the teacher she was hoping for but three of her classmates from last year are in her class this year. Plus the classroom is painted purple and the only color better than purple is PINK. And her helping hand color is PINK. This means her mailbox is pink, her cubby is pink, and her coat hook is (yes, you guessed it) PINK. Apparently, life gets no better than this. ;)

Summer Days

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

We are starting to slow down on all the summer activities that have been swallowing large chunks of time. Jaida's last group of swim lessons ended on Friday. Her lazy days spent playing with her friend Paige and the older girls and swimming at Nancy's are soon to be replaced by more structured days spent at school, dance class, soccer, and possibly piano lessons. I think we are all looking forward to these things but the transition still seems to be difficult at times. I feel like we are spending a great deal of time getting ready for all of these things only to be left sitting here waiting for them all to start.

We have bought Jaida's backpack and coordinating lunch box for Jaida to use at school. As you can imagine this involved a bit of a struggle between my desire for neutrality and Jaida's desire for PINK. We spent part of this last weekend buying Jaida's new school clothes ... most of which Jaida will not be able to wear for at least a month due to the lingering summer heat. Jaida was fitted for her tap shoes for her dance class. Left to purchase is a new soccer ball since her old one seems to have a hole in it. All of these preparations have left us feeling like things should get started now. However, we still have a bit of a wait. School orientation is tomorrow but the first day is not until Thursday Aug 30. Dance class starts Sept 5th and soccer starts Sept. 10th. It promises to be a busy fall.

Until then Jaida still enjoys her time spent playing while at Nanacy's house. We will likely make a few last trips to the pool before the weather starts cooling, the life guards go back to school and the pools close for the season. We have a few summer sort of activities still planned but generally we are ready for all the things that come along with fall.

The book of Jaida

Jaida's adventures from her time as an embryo through her first birthday are now published in this handy little book.

Uh Oh

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I think Jaida's reign as queen of the Lamela-Rhea household may be coming to an end. ;)

Bejeweled

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

Jaida has pierced ears. She has asked about getting to wear ear rings a couple of times. I never had a problem getting them done as long as she wanted it. Honestly, I didn't think she would be willing to go through with it once I explained someone had to actually put holes in her ear lobes in order to wear real ear rings. Joe on the other hand was not crazy about the idea.

We were in Annapolis this last weekend and decided to run by the mall on our way home. I figured it was as good a time as any to get her ears done. I explained exactly what was going to happen and that it would hurt/sting a little bit (but no worse than the vaccine she got at the doctors office not long ago) but it would be done very quickly. She was wavering ... wanted it done but didn't want it done but then again maybe she did. We went and watched another girl about Jaida's age get hers done. She cried .... loudly. I figured that would end it for Jaida but instead she went up to the girl and asked her if it hurt. The girl said just a little bit. Jaida decided she would go ahead. I honestly could not believe she still wanted it done. She actually climbed up on the chair by herself and looked at me and said "let's just get this over with mama".

I picked her up and had her sit on my lap instead. I could tell Jaida was very nervous as the technician cleaned her ear lobes and put the tiny dots on her ears. Jaida happily picked out the pinkest little studs they had. I suggested the tech get another person so they could do both ears at once ... she thought that was a good idea. About 30 seconds later Jaida had pierced ears. She didn't even cry. I think the sound of the gun popping scared her which distracted her from any pain.

She looks very cute. Let me tell you how proud she is of herself. She shows anyone that even briefly looks in her direction. She was especially happy to show all the big girls at daycare and she just was beaming when they were all making a big fuss over her.

She also bought finger nail polish while at the mall (Ack!). I painted her nails tinkerbell pink when we got home. She is just as girly as can be right now. :)

A very brave girl

I am often surprised at how brave Jaida can be. I suppose this is because she is such a cautious child by nature. Joe and I have always known that Jaida is a child that has to think before leaping. She is not a kid that will just rush out and do something at the spur of the moment. There is always a bit of hanging back and watching and assessing the situation. I would not categorize her as shy at all ... she just needs a bit of time to warm to a new situation. This is not a big shock to us as Joe and I are both similar. We have seen this behavior many times with her.

Most recently though it has been in swimming. We have been going to a local pool several times a week all summer. Also, Jaida gets to swim practically every day while at daycare. It seems for the longest time there has been a stumbling block for Jaida and that was getting her face wet. She didn't like to be splashed in the face and going under the water was simply out of the question. Also, she was a bit nervous to be in the pool at all without her float vest. About three weeks ago we started her in group swim lessons and for some reason she had a really hard time doing any of the things the instructor asked even though she would do all of them for Joe or me. Then Nancy (her daycare instructor) did something that pushed Jaida over the edge and turned her into a total wild woman in the pool. Nancy has a large inflatable slide that she set up at the deep end of her pool. Jaida was scared to death to go down the slide (with floats of course) but Nancy worked with her and got her to slowly start going down the slide. First she held Nancy's hand, then she just bounced off the end of it into the water, etc. Then one day Nancy announced this was the day Jaida was going to go down the slide all by herself. I suppose because she didn't give Jaida the choice of not doing it it made it easier for Jaida. Within a day Jaida was going down the slide headfirst, feet first backwards, forwards , sideways, etc and having a blast.

Since that day everything has changed. Jaida no longer has any fear of going under water. She was bumped up to the next level in swim class because she is doing so great. She now eagerly goes all the way under the water, takes a breath and kicks off from the side of the pool and will swim a short distance to her instructor or us. She jumps off the side of the pool to us. Floats face down and on her back. She is learning to tread water and swim under the water now. She is doing so great. She loves going to swim class and it has the added benefit of wearing her out completely which leads to a very early bedtime. ;)

Difficult Parenting Moment

Maybe I should make this a recurring topic of this blog because there seem to be many more difficult parenting moments now that we have two children that are both big and wise enough to be up to no good - often at the exact same time.

This is one of those times where I have to say I have no idea how a single parent deals with an issue like this seeing as how Joe and I had issues with how to deal with this and there are two of us. Jaida was in a bit of a raucous mood yesterday evening. Not mis-behaving necessarily just on the hairy edge of not behaving all evening. Bath-time came and the kids get in the tub together as is their normal. They have a little foam disc that they were each taking turns holding with their teeth while the other took it away using her/his teeth. Seemed like an innocent enough game at the time. So much so that Joe asked me to go downstairs and get the camera since it was a cute photo op ... and it was until the blood curdling screams were sent forth by Jaxon. I had turned my back for the briefest of seconds to set the camera outside the bathroom door and not sure what Joe was looking at but it definitely was NOT Jaida biting her brother on the finger - HARD.

Jaxon screamed for what seemed like forever. Judging by the volume of his screams I half expected to see his little nub of a finger floating in the bathwater. When we finally came to our senses and realized Jax was screaming and Jaida was trying to melt into the toy net with her hand over her mouth. We figured she must have done something so we asked "what did you do?" - definitely not one of our finer parenting moments. She did not answer so we inspected Jax and found deep teeth marks on his middle finger. No broken skin but it was quite a bite all the same. Jax was still screaming like he had been violated. We get everyone out of the tub and at that very moment Joe and I look at each other and realize we have absolutely no idea how to handle this situation.

I wrap Jax in a towel and take him in the bedroom and leave Joe to deal with Jaida - which he does with a very stern voice I might add. I finally get Jax to stop crying ... he is a sensitive little guy. Now Jaida is in her bedroom bawling at high volume. I meet Joe in the hallway and we switch kids ... I think I heard Joe mumble something about good cop/bad cop as he was heading downstairs to give Jax his nightcap. I talk to Jaida very calmly and get her to finally tell me why she felt the need to bite Jax. First answer "I was hungry" ... Jaida and I both had a little chuckle at that answer. Then she finally admitted she just wanted to know what it felt like. I offered to show her ... but she declined. When she declined we had a long talk about how she knew it would hurt (that is why she declined having me show her) yet she still bit Jax. How it was wrong to do that, blah, blah, blah. When all was said and done she calmed down a bit but still wanted her daddy and was very upset until he came back up to remind her that he always loves her no matter what. She goes through all the rotten things she can think of that might make someone not love her (in her little world these scenarios are pretty limited) and Joe tells her that even when she does X he will still love her no matter what. She drifted peacefully off to sleep.

I think this might have occurred partially because there has been a fair amount of biting going on ... Jax is working on another tooth and gets a bit nippy - only with Joe and I though. This morning both Jax and Jaida woke in a great mood. Jaida was filled with guilt and remorse (apparently) and was VERY affectionate and willing to share with Jax. Jax was his normal happy self and from his actions I would say does not remember the events of last night or at the very least is no longer bothered by them.

The entire event made me realize how hard it is to parent when you have two kids of differing ages and needs. One kid needs to be disciplined for hurting their sibling and the other needs calming because they have been hurt. It is hard to know where to start. We are fortunate that there are two of us and we are equally involved in the parenting of our children so we could divide and conquer. But what if Joe had been on travel? Not sure what I would have done or what order things would have happened in but guaranteed the whole event would have been more difficult to deal with.

Jaida does not heart the dentist!

Jaida had a couple of her teeth repaired last year. She did not have actual cavities but due to all of the antibiotics she was on as a toddler, for her ear infections, the enamel on the two year molars is less than perfect. Apparently, this can happen if a baby/toddler has to take a lot of antibiotics before all their teeth are in. The issues were not from eating sweets, poor dental hygiene or anything like that. Anyhow, we were in "let's watch it" mode with the last of her two year molars to come through. At her yearly exam in June Dr. Sona announced that while the tooth did not have an actual cavity it did have the beginnings of a little carie and the tooth was quite soft. So we should start thinking about fixing it and then sealing the tooth.

Today was the day to get the tooth fixed. Jaida sees a pediatric dentist. It is quite the fun place if one is not getting their teeth reamed out and puttied. They have a very detailed aquatic theme with a HUGE pirate ship play structure in the center of the waiting room. There is a picnic table in the exam area with a thatched umbrella over it for sitting at and coloring. They also have a green parrot named Flossie. Jaida really does like the place. They do sedation dentistry. They use Versed to relax the kids and make them loopy before any work is done. It has the added benefit of causing amnesia so they really don't remember anything that happened. Thank goodness!

No food for Jaida this morning which made her a bit cranky as the girl does love her food. Get to the dentist and they give her grape flavored *happy* juice. Within 5 minutes or so we start seeing the first effects of the meds as Jaida is leaning heavily on me, slurring her speech and is acting a tad bit loopy. However, I could tell almost instantly that it wasn't going to go well. She was loopy but not in that totally relaxed I don't care what happens to me sort of way. In fact that is the way she was last time. This time however, she very much cared about what was going to happen to her and she was feeling obviously loopy and totally out of control. For a type A personality this is not a good combination. We took her to the chair where she was totally freaked by the little nose mask that delivers the nitrous oxide. Then she was freaked by the water squirter, the suctiony thing, air from the fan blowing on her ... you name it and she was freaked out by it. The Novocaine put her over the edge. The screaming began ... I am sure there were a few dozen small kids running for the door when they heard her screeching like someone was torturing her. We had to hold her down to get the work finished up in a jiffy. That was a regular party.

Afterwards we took her to Dunkin Donuts for a very sugary early morning treat just to ensure we have to do this all over again someday. ;) The Versed seemed to kick in full force while we were in the car on the way home (once her body relaxed a bit). She sounded like a little drunk woman. Apparently, her feet are quite cute and funny because she had a good laugh at their expense on the way home ... it was pretty funny. It is quite something to see your child completely stoned. Once home Joe took her to the potty since it had been a while. She tried to dismount once finished and nearly fell on her face. We took that as a pretty clear sign that today needs to be a lounge on the sofa and let your brain rot in front of the TV sort of day. So that is what she is doing today. At least the tooth is fixed. Oh yeah ... she remembers none of what happened at the dentist. We are very happy about that because the whole scene had the makings of a horrible and very traumatic childhood memory. ;)

An illustration

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

Look at Jaida's hand and then read last post. ;)

A posse of imaginary friends

We have several recent photos of Jaida and the one common theme in all of them is that she has one hand extended like she is holding a friend's hand. She has an imaginary friend named Paige. Paige is modelled after her in real life friend Paige. The real Paige is at daycare with Jaida and the imaginary one comes home with Jaida from daycare. In many of our recent pictures Jaida is standing with one hand extended that Paige is holding. We include Paige in many of our activities. It is pretty funny when I tell Jaida and Paige to get up to the table for dinner and Jaida very matter of factly informs me that Paige went home over an hour ago.

There is also a Kamen. Kamen is apparently Jaida's way of exploring all the things she is not supposed to do. Kamen rarely shows up in imaginary person form but rather calls Jaida on her toy cell phone. Kamen says the word butt A LOT ... as in calling Jaida a butt, etc. As if Jaida doesn't have enough reason to tattle on Jax constantly she now tattles on Kamen also. Kamen also hits people and Jaida tells me about that also. I usually try to use the Kamen activities as a jumping off point for discussing why Jaida should not do these things.

There is also a Mr. Sparks. There isn't a lot of information available about Mr. Sparks. Although from what I can tell he resides in the playhouse attached to her swingset. Don't worry there is no real Mr. Sparks living out in her playhouse ... trust me - we have checked. :)

Little Crush

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

We spent a long weekend at the beach. More about that in a different post though. While we were there we met up with a friend and her kids. Jaida just has such a little crush on her son. She says he is a wild and crazy boy and apparently she just loves this about him. Anyhow, we went for a stroll along the boardwalk and Jaida was determined she was going to stroll while holding his hand. How insanely CUTE is this picture? There is something about this picture that just screams summer to me.

I just realized we might not think this is SO cute when Jaida is sixteen and doing this same thing while wearing a bikini. Ack!!!!

Do clowns make you feel nervous?

If so you may not want to look at this post. :) Jaida had her big birthday bash on June 23rd. She had a ball. Her favorite friends all showed up and she was just vibrating with happiness the entire day. We had a moon bounce which surprisingly didn't see as much action as the new playset that Joe assembled. We also had Big Red the clown. She came and did a magic show and then did face painting. Even the kid's that were slightly nervous about clowns warmed to her fairly quickly. She was a very low-key sort of clown.

Below are a smattering of the pictures from the fun day:

FOUR

I often wonder where the time goes? It seems that I blink and 6 months have zipped by. I am thinking this is only going to get worse as my kids get older but maybe I am wrong? This picture is the direct result of Jaida being both four years old and completely adorable. Jaida turned a whopping four years old on June 17th. She was so excited about her birthday this year and started marking the days off the calendar back in March. Unfortunately, she had a terrible stomach virus on her actual birthday which meant she spent the day in the bathroom. Fortunately, her birthday party was scheduled for the following week. Jaida did get a brand spanking new Trek mountain bike (16") for her birthday from mom and dad. She had requested a big girl bike that was pink with white tires and had a basket. Let me tell you how hard it is to find a girl's pink bike that does not have Disney princesses all over it. She also received a Hooked on Phonics set to help with reading and the My Pretty Pony castle set-up along with a pony to inhabit the structure. We had cupcakes once the vomiting stopped. :)

Much has happened since my last update. Jaida started in a 5 day a week three year old program last fall. She loved it and absolutely thrived. She only had slight first day jitters but happily marched into her new classroom and found her chair and started her day. She looked a bit nervous when it was time for me to go but did very well and just waved goodbye and let me go. She continued to thrive the rest of the school year. We were constantly given glowing reports of well Jaida was doing (both socially and academically) by her teacher. Jaida really loved going to school every day. Some of the highlights of her school year were her bike-a-thon, bear cave reading adventure, trip to the pumpkin patch, doughnuts with dad, muffins with mom, imaginary field trip to outer space, trips to several local parks, spirit week, and lots of other fun that was had in the classroom. In August she starts the pre-K program for four year olds at the same school. She is very excited to find out who her new teacher will be.

Jaida went trick or treating this last Halloween and she dressed as a beautiful flower. She also did a trunk or treat event at her school and had tons of fun. In October she also played in her third season of peewee soccer. It was amazing to see her out on the field ... she just has so much confidence. She also started her ballet class which she looked forward to every week.

The winter was filled with holiday fun. We didn't get that much snow this last winter but the little we did get Jaida enjoyed playing in. Lucky for her she seems to have inherited her dad's metabolism and is always too warm so she likes winter quite a bit.

The Spring was very busy with get togethers with friends, outings to fun places, playing soccer for the spring season, and getting ready for her first dance recital. She finished school the end of May. Since then she swims pretty much every day at Nancy's house and has become so confident in the water. She seems to enjoy every minute of swimming and is getting a great work-out in the process. We have also been enjoying a local pool quite a bit so far this summer. We go a few times a week and at least one day each weekend. Jaida starts swim lessons at this pool in mid August.

Jaida is the best big sister in the world. I am surprised that there isn't more fighting between her and Jax. They seem to just work things out amongst themselves pretty well. We have learned that Jaida is very much not a morning person and Jax very much is ... for a while this was causing a few issues as Jax practically woke up screaming for yae-da. Now we keep him locked in our master bedroom with us until Jaida has time to wake and get moving on her own without her brother inviting himself into her room to poke her in the eyes until she wakes up and plays with him. Works much better and leads to a much more harmonious morning. :) Jaida just loves Jax so much ... she is constantly kissing on him and hugging him which is saying A LOT since she is not a kissy/huggy sort of person. Jax of course completely adores his sister and Jaida just loves this.

Most of all ... Jaida has just turned into such a lovely little lady. She is just the love of our life.

Fancy Nancy (ahem ... Jaida)

jaxon_02062007 050
Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

This is a little test to make sure my blog link is working. Just bear with me for a moment.

I am just Jaida

This is going to be the title of Jaida's Autobiography when she is famous. Joe and I have all sorts of pet names for her ... stinker bell, stinker butt, Jaida Bo Baida, etc. What we always hear is "I am not (enter pet name) I am just Jaida". For some reason this strikes us as so funny. It is a little game we play.

Another thing I have been meaning to write about is Jaida's love of the movie The Borrowers. I have never watched the movie myself but apparently it is about a family of little people that sneak belongings of their larger housemates ... hence the name Borrowers. So now whenever Jaida can't find a thing she is looking for she blames it on the Borrowers. So far the Borrowers have multiple hair bands and clips, a blue rubber frog, Flo (plastic Cars character), and the cat from her doll house. These are all things Jaida has misplaced and is convinced that the Borrowers have taken. Quite the vivid imagination.

Growing up TOO fast

No more promises to update this blog in a timely manner because apparently I am incapable of such things. :(

I think my last update was after Jaida potty trained herself. Since then a baby brother (Jax) was born. Jaida loves him so much. Her first words every morning are "is Jaxie awake yet ... I want to cuddle him". He looks up to her and watches her SO intently. I am sure the fighting will start as soon as he figures out how to move but for now we are loving the interactions between them. Jaida is a great helper with all things baby. She has never shown much interest in helping with changing diapers but then again she isn't stupid ... she finds the whole poopie diaper thing to be pretty darn disgusting (and rightly so). She is however excellent at calming Jax when he is feeling fussy. She quietly sings You Are My Sunshine to him and strokes his head ... works like a charm every single time.

Jaida also started pre-school. She is in the 3 year old program and attends 5 days a week for 2 hours in the morning. She LOVES it and is absolutely thriving in the environment! She is now able to sound out words and is starting to read and can write her name without looking at anything. She can write just about anything we tell her how to spell. The first day Jaida walked right in and found her name on her chair and didn't look back. Joe and I peeked in on her a couple of times and while she did look a little unsure of everything she just went with it. Never cried or asked for us. She is always happy to tell her what her job that week was ... calendar, weather, line leader, flag holder, light person, etc. Her teacher said she wishes she had 10 little Jaida's in her class. Apparently, Jaida only throws temper tantrums for Joe and I or her teacher might not say that. :)

Jaida just finished up her third soccer season. She REALLY got into it this year. She did very well at all the practices and followed directions from Coach Robin eagerly. Her best friend Jordyn played with her this season which she loved. They just had their PeeWee World Cup tournament and Jaida actually played real soccer so that was fun to watch. Jaida and her friend Jordyn are also taking a dance class together. It is sort of the basics of tumbling, ballet and tap all rolled into one class. She loves it and is in pink heaven since she has pink everything ... dance bag, tights, leotard and ballet shoes. How in the world did I end up with a child that loves pink SO much?!?

We had a pretty lazy summer since Jax came along the end of June. We stayed close to home but had fun doing lots of local stuff ... went the beach, zoo, multiple fairs and carnivals, etc. We have a fun Fall and Winter planned ... again with mostly local stuff.

Jaida is officially toilet trained

We have never pushed the potty training on Jaida. The simple fact is I am pretty lazy and enjoy the convienence of diapers but beyond that it was just a battle I wasn't willing to take on. Well, then we realized we are going to have some serious timing issues. First being the arrival of new baby ... I wanted Jaida to either be trained well in advance of his arrival or well after. Well in advance didn't really work out for us as we followed the relax and it will happen when it happens method. Jaida played/sat on the potty a lot and even pooped in it a handful of times but was hesitant about the whole peeing thing. Well after brother's arrival wasn't going to work out either since the month after he arrives she starts pre-school and she needs to be potty trained before then in order to attend.

So ... Joe and I declared Memorial Day weekend as a diaper free weekend. Lucky for us Jaida went along with our plan and got up Saturday morning and collected all of her Easy-up's and threw them in the trash and put on her big girl underwear. We immediately took the trash out so it was clear to Jaida that the Easy-up's were not coming back. We kept Jaida fully hydrated by continuously offering Capri Sun raging water drinks ... which are quite the treat as she only gets water or milk normally. She flooded herself and eventually had to relent and pee on the potty. She was little twittery about it at first but once she realized it wouldn't hurt she was gung-ho. Lots of celebrations, hugs, fruit snacks, lollipops and stickers were handed out. I think we would have given her a new car just for peeing on the pot had she asked. :) On Saturday she had no accidents but was still holding it for 4-5 hours in between going on the potty. She appears to have a bit of camel in her. She even napped in underwear and stayed dry. Sunday she was all into the potty. I swear the child peed every thirty minutes all day long just because she could and it was apparently loads of fun. Joe and I were suddenly worried that we were going to be tied to the potty chair forever since she was going so frequently. Again she napped in underwear and had no accidents all day long. Monday we decided to go to the beach. This seemed like a risky proposition considering but we went anyhow. I set up the portable potty http://www.kidsurplus.com/kal1730.html in the van and we put her in underwear and stuck her in her seat. She made the hour long trip to the beach just fine and we never had to stop. Then she continued to use her special portable potty all day while at the beach. No matter what she was doing if she felt the sensation to go she told us and we helped her on the potty ... again no accidents.

So now we are on day 6 of being accident- and diaper- free. I have to say the word liberated has new meaning for all of us. :) We no longer even really remind her to go unless she is REALY engrossed in playing or a movie or something and it has been a while. She even pees on the pot a couple of times before bed to try to empty her bladder ... she does this all on her own while we are downstairs and then she crawls into bed and goes to sleep. She has also learned to pee on command before we get in the car which takes some of the guesswork out of the whole situation. Now we just have to work on getting her on the big potty ... she is fairly terrified of it but we have lots of time to tackle that problem. We are so proud of her for all she has managed to learn in one week ... it is unbelievable.

Jaida had her peewee world cup soccer game a couple of weeks ago and she played so well. She even made one goal ... she was quite happy with herself. They held an awards dinner (pizza, juice and cake) and she received her award and certificate. She was SO proud of herself. She also recently started a gymnastics class for the summer at Elite Gymnastics and is loving it also. She is a wild woman in that studio though.

Anyhow, I will try to be a bit better about updating. We are working frantically to get everything finished up before baby brother comes along.

Jaida the puppet master

Jaida has a new way of playing that involves a huge elaborate pretend world with all of us having scripted (by Jaida of course) roles to fill. Godzilla help us if we get our lines wrong or don't remember exactly which pretend scene we are re-enacting and we try to ad lib. We hear screeches of "mommy, daddy you remember the game don't you?" Mostly we re-enact scenes from the movie Toy Story 2 with her roundup gang dolls. It gets quite intense at times.

She also loves to tell us what is funny and what is not. Especially, if Joe and I get laughing about something outside Jaida's domain of knowledge ... she gets quite peeved and informs us that what was said was not funny and that we shouldn't laugh. After a few minutes she will usually concede that maybe it was a little funny and we can laugh but just a little bit. She is a bossy little thing.

Jaida started her second season of peewee soccer and is doing so well. She now stands and listens to Coach Robin's directions. She follows said directions without any action on our part. She dribbles pretty well and isn't afraid to try to make a goal. She gets a little confused as to what direction she should be running but then again so do all the kids so that is not a biggie.

Jaida is really becoming quite the little girl and no longer a toddler. I often feel as though I am speaking to a five year old and forget that I am talking to a little girl that is not even three yet. She is such a BIG girl.

California

Jaida had a total blast in California. Unfortunately for us the trip did happen at the same time her last 2 year molar was trying to cut through. Between tooth pain and a bit of over-stimulation she was a total bear at times but nothing unmanageable. Many temper tantrums were had and a good deal of time was spent either discussing how she should act or in time-out or a little bit of both. :) We brought an inflatable Dora bed with us and she happily slept in it for both naps and night-time sleep and slept very well the entire trip. She really enjoyed spending time with Uncle Dave and Aunt Cheryl and meeting some of her other distant cousins. She also enjoyed spending time with her Grandma. Her Grandpa Don left a lasting impression as he tried to *steal* her Curious George doll once and that set the tone for the rest of the visit with him. She thought it was funny ... kind of ... and even now talks about it often. We spent a day at Disneyland. Jaida wasn't terribly impressed although seeing Woody from Toy Story and Tinkerbell were both highlights for her. We also went to Sea World with Dave, Cheryl, Lori and Niki and Jaida did get a huge kick out of seeing the orcas and dolphins. It was a nice trip.

All I can smell is grape chapstick

Why, you ask? Because our lovely Jaida is completely addicted to the stuff. I swear at this point she has a tube of it in every room of the house plus the car. She smears it on like it is suddenly going to disappear from the shelves of the super market. She loves to spend 10 minutes applying it and then proudly exclaim that her lips are shiny and kissable. :) Did I mention that the smell of grape chapstick is VERY grapey and it lingers for a really long time?!?

Jaida is doing great in general. Her language skills and vocabulary have taken another leap. It is incredible to hear her talk. It seems as though we are speaking to a small adult. Sometimes we forget that she does not automatically know what everything is called. It always tickles us when she comes in contact with something new and she labels it as something she knows that most closely matches it. Other times she just asks "what is this thing called?"

Jaid helped us pick the color of the paint for her new room. She decided on purple and we compromised with a pretty lilac color. Saturday she helped us as we masked all the trim and cleaned the walls. After nap we stripped her down to a diaper and handed her a roller and let her get to work. She helped us paint for several hours before finally deciding it was time to go play. We finished the room Sunday and she moved in Sunday evening. She was VERY excited about sleeping in her new big girl room. Joe and I barely slept as her new room is all the way at the other end of the hall from ours. We just knew she would wake terrified and calling out for us. But nope she happily slept all night and then in the morning she stayed in her room and played for a bit before coming in to get us. She even seems to be mostly okay with the fact that her old room is now going to be baby brother's room.

A few updates ... Jaida was accepted into the pre-school program we wanted her in. We felt like we were sending out college applications ... so stressful. It is a great program with only 10 kids per class and she will be attending and in the same class as three of her friends which is perfect. Open house is in July ... likely the same time that baby brother is due but we will deal. Jaida's dentist appointment went well. She was very cooperative and let the hygenist clean her teeth and give her fluoride. She then let the dentist poke around at her teeth with no complaints. She had no cavaties which was super and she got her picture taken and put on the perfect teeth wall. She still talks about the dentist and loves to pretend she is our dentist now. :)

Next week we are leaving for California for 10 days. Jaida is VERY excited about the plane ride. After much talk of both visiting/staying with family and visiting Sea World she is convinced that her Grandma, Uncle Dave and Aunt Cheryl all live at Sea World with the Orcas. Jaida is also packing her mouse ears as she is very excited about a possible trip to Disneyland. It should be a great trip ... we all need a little warm weather at this point.

I smell somefing

Apparently, Jaida's sense of smell has kicked in full-force. Unfortunately, the filter in her brain that tells her when she shouldn't blurt out that she smells something unpleasant hasn't. :)

We have many discussions a day ... usually revolving around our dog's fartiness ... about how she smells somefing. According to Jaida I smell good (which is a relief) but the dog's do not. This morning I put a bit of perfume on and Jaida announced that she smelled somefing beautiful. Yesterday however we were in Starbuck's and apparently the person in front of us had a little gas issue. Jaida very loudly announced that she smelled somefing and it smelled stinky. We had to have a little discussion about speaking quietly rather than loudly on the way to the car. :)

Role Playing

Jaida's new favorite game is role playing. For a while this only involved Jaida ... she pretended to be a dog, cat or orca. But now they often involve elaborate scenarios and Joe and myself. Joe is on a research cruise this week so I have Jaida's full attention. Tonight Jaida specifically asked me to pretend to be the big sister so she could be the baby. It was pretty cute. Then we swapped roles. She also loves to be Doctor Jaida. Since Jasper dog is rather gimpy right now with a bad knee she is really enjoying tending to him with her doctor kit. I think it makes him a bit nervous though ... as it should.

Jaida has her first dentist appointment on Thursday morning. I am taking her to a pediatric dentist group here in town that just seems fantastic. This is just a routine check-up meant to get her used to being seen by the dentist. There are no problems that we know of. In fact, Jaida has beautiful straight teeth and a nice bite ... not sure how this happened as both mine and Joe's teeth required a fair amount of orthodontics and are still fairly crooked. She has been dutifully practicing holding her mouth open while I count her teeth. She is hoping she gets a lollipop from the dentist ... I told her she is more likely to receive a new toothbrush ... she does not seem impressed.

Preschool Open House

It has taken me a while to find the right preschool program for Jaida. One where she will be able to work at her own level throughout the program. After much calling around I finally found a program at a local church. We went to the open house last night and Jaida had a blast playing in her new classroom with the other kids. She loved it. The class rooms are bright and cheery and everything is on a miniature level which is too cute for words. I simply felt like a giant. Now Jaida and I get to go stand in line with about 30 other people on Wednesday to try and be one of the ten that gets a slot. Should be interesting.

The good thing about this school is it has a five day a week (2 hours/day) program for 3 year olds. A similar program for 4 year olds and then kindergarten (likely an all-day program) all in the same building. Nancy will be able to drop Jaida off and pick her up for me so my schedule will not have to be altered and best of all Tayler and Jordan (Jaida's friends) will be in Jaida's class with her. I think this will make the transition very smooth for her. The bad part is it is a school affilitaed with a church therefore there are religious aspects that I am not crazy about. I did explain to the director that we are not religious but we do plan to teach Jaida about religion but in our own way. We do not want any one religion forced on her in any way. The director seemed okay with this and said she would do her best to work with us. I actually believe her ... you can tell they all just love the children there and that is what is important. That and the fact that the kindergarteners routinely work at a first to second grade level.

Conversations with a 2.5 year old

Two recent conversations with Jaida come to mind. The first started as we were discussing her new pre-school and how she would be attending this Fall. Her immediate response was "I don't want to fall and get a bump when I am at my school". I explained that Fall is a word that has two meanings. It means tipping over and possibly getting a bump and also a time of year. I explained that the year is divided into four parts ... Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. Fall is a couple of months away and is the time of year when she will start going to her new school. She was nodding her head like she understood and then suddenly I hear a little whimper and the words "but mama I don't want to fall and get a bump". We now say she will start school in the Autumn ... she likes this MUCH better.

We also talked about how people in different countries speak different languages. How every object can be called by many different names depending on the language being spoken. I figured this is a concept that we could easily deal with since she is very into saying Spanish words right now and she seems to understand that the colors have an English and Spanish name as do the numbers. So we were talking about all the different ways we can say hello. Hello, hola, salaam, guten tag, namaste, ciao, konnyeje wa, neih hou, etc. She loves practicing this but now thinks she can only say hello to our cat Isis in German ... "guten tag Isis cat" is a common thing to hear in our house.

There is also the forever popular and entertaining public conversation about who she thinks has penises and who has vulvas complete with finger pointing at the individuals . That is an oldie but a goodie. ;)

There are also words that she says that are just fun to say. There are three words that I highly doubt I will ever again be able to pronounce correctly ... hangigurger (hamburger), fridgelator (refrigerator) and froffie (froggie). The alternate pronunciation is just too much fun to say. ;) Oh also referring to cats as maus (meows) ... that has just stuck ... we no longer have cats we have two maus.

The Artist

Jaida is becoming quite the little artist. It is amazing how quickly it has happened also. Just last week she was only drawing rough shapes and now full blown people. I love watching her draw she has to list each part she is drawing as she draws it. So much fun. Her latest creations are daddy (in blue) and mama (in red/pink). These were done all by herself ... no help from us.


She is also drawing cats and dogs. The only real difference between the two is dogs have floppy ears and cats have pointy ears. :) Considering I am likely the least artistic person on the planet I am highly impressed.

Sleep child of mine

dear godzilla please sleep! We are going on two weeks now of very interrupted sleep. It is making us all miserable. We will survive but will not be happy in the process. Why oh why does Jaida have to be such a miserable teether? She is such a great sleeper at all other times but when she is teething sleep goes right in the toilet. She is trying to get the last two of her two-year molars plus half of a third. They just won't come in. I am thinking about giving her a spoon to bite down on to see if she can force them through ... we are getting a little bit desperate here.

It takes forever to get her to sleep at night and involves a great deal of coddling. It seems she knows she is most uncomfortable at night and just doesn't want to go through it alone. So for most nights of the last two weeks Joe ended up camping out on the floor next to her bed or at the very least (if he is lucky) at the top of the stairs reading his book. It takes her a LONG time to fall asleep and she doesn't seem to stay asleep all night. If we are having a good night she just wakes herself up crying and one of us cango in and lay her down and shush her until she falls back asleep. On an okay night Joe ends up camping out on the floor in her room for a while until she finally drifts off. On a not so great night she ends up in bed with me (while Joe is in the guest room) but does fall asleep quickly but wakes early. On a horrible night like last night she ends up in bed with me at 1:15 a.m. and doesn't fall back to sleep until 5:45 a.m. after much flailing, twisting and flipping about. It makes for a rough day let me tell you. I will celebrate in a big way when those teeth come in.

Did I mention that she had her six week appointment with the ENT doctor on Tuesday? Her ears look perfect as did her tempanogram. Her hearing is back into normal range which is super. She is released from his care until 6 months from now when she gets another check-up. This is all barring any ear infections popping up ... but so far so good.

A boundless imagination

It is so fun to watch Jaida when she is engaged in pretend play. There are no limits as to how things can happen. Joe and I often joke that Jaida goes beyond thinking outside the box since technically there is no box. She is not bounded by reality in the slightest which makes her pretend play just too much fun to watch. Scale does not matter. A 3 inch dollhouse figurine can happily co-exist in her pretend world with a 12 inch tall stuffed elephant. They get along well. In fact quite frequently we witness the dollhouse figurine in her little red car which is being pushed about by none other than stuffed elephant. There are also no real differences in animate vs inanimate objects. If she gathers all the people from her dollhouse to go on a trip to the zoo often the toilet or a kitchen chair gets to go along for the ride and enjoy the sights as well. There is the ever popular tea party that always involves an entire menagerie of animals ... frogs, bears, an elephant and a duck. Quite the motley crew but they have one thing in common they all love to attend Jaida's tea parties. Her cuddle blankies can be folded in such a way that they apparently strongly resemble a swaddled baby to Jaida ... she sees a face with a mouth, eyes and hair. She loves to rock these blankie babies and coos them. I guess to her it is the best of both worlds it allows her to indulge in her love of babies while also getting to cuddle her blankie. Joe and I just can't keep up with her ... by comparison our mode of play is so boring.

Jaida loves to trick us now. In fact, being a little trickster is one of her favorite past-times these days. Her and I were sitting reading a magazine the other evening when she points at a picture of a woman in the mag and tells me that she wants that lady for a mommy. When she got a rise out of me she lets out a little evil grin and giggle and tells me "I trick you mommy I am a trickster". She also tricks her daddy but most of the time it involves poop. As in "I have poop in my diaper" but when he goes to change her she yells "I trick you daddy there is no poopie".

Lastly, Jaida LOVES to play hide and seek. For some reason I have a very irrational fear of this game. I just always worry that she is going to hide and not come out and I won't be able to find her. So far though this fear has not been realized since Jaida hides in the same place ... right out in the open ... EVERY single time we play. Finding her is always easy. :)

I just cannot describe Jaida in a way that actually does her justice. She is just a joy to be around. Even on cranky days she honestly does her best to be a sweetie. She is so fun and sweet and smart and funny ... it is hard to describe. Anyhow, we just love her to pieces. We couldn't ask for more.

Happy New Year and Happy News

We had a wonderful albeit very busy month of December. Jaida enjoyed all the preparations for Christmas very much. She was quite intrigued with all the hoopla this year. She helped us pick out the perfect tree, she did a bit of decorating, watched Polar Express MANY times and drank A LOT of hot chocolate. She really got into the magic of Santa Claus this year and made many visits to talk to him. She never sat on his lap but by the last visit she would walk right up to him and tell him what she wanted for Christmas .... usually involved asking for some boys because she likes them (much to her daddy's dismay) along with some books and puzzles. She really enjoyed the ritual of putting a new Christmas Ornament on her Christmas tree advent calander every day first thing in the morning. I think it really helped clear up how many days were left until Christmas for her. She also loved all of the Christmas cards. We exchange greetings with many friends so we usually end up with well over 70 cards ... mostly picture cards of everyone's kiddos. This was a highlight of just about every single day. We would pull into the drive after work and Jaida would request that we stop and grab the mail. I would hand Jaida all the cards and she had a ball opening them and oohing and ahhing over all the kiddos. She had A LOT of fun getting together with her best friend Caleb and playing with him also. They are at such a great age and really enjoy playing together now ... it is fun to watch how different they are.

As the month progressed we were very busy. We did lots of fun Christmas related outings. The week of Christmas Jaida and myself made a road trip to Brooklyn to visit my friend and her twin boys. We stayed overnight and Jaida had a total blast playing with O & T and now considers them her boyfriends. ;) The whole group of us then went to NJ the next day to see a bunch more friends. We had a lot of fun. Christmas Eve we spent most of the day relaxing and then in the evening we met up with our friend's and their son downtown. We spent a few hours walking around the National and Capitol trees and theother lights about town. It was the perfect thing to do on Christmas Eve and we plan to do this as a group every year ... a little family tradition if you will. Then we came home and Jaida arranged some cookies on a platter and put a nice cold glass of milk with it for Santa. We opened a couple of presents each. Jaida opened her new Christmas penguin PJ's and The Winter Tale pop-up book. Joe and I each opened our new Christmas PJ's. Jaida went upstaris for a warm relaxing bath and then she put her new PJ's on and we read the Christmas book to her. She went to sleep and had sweet dreams of her upcoming Santa visit.

Santa came some time during the night and when Jaida FINALLY woke up in the morning we all went downstairs to find the tree all lit up and Christmas carols playing. Santa had eaten all the cookies and drank all the milk ... Jaida was thrilled beyond anything to see this. Santa did leave a scrap of cookie behind and Jaida decided it really shouldn't go to waste so she ate it right up. :) After a minute or so she noticed the beautiful dollhouse Santa left her. She played with it all morning. She took quite a while to get through all the little presents in her stocking and then we had some breakfast. It took Jaida most of the next 4 days to open the rest of her pressents. She really wasn't all that interested in the opening process but did appreciate every single gift. Some of her favorites are a Dora bedtime doll from her Aunt Noa. She saw the Dora text and started vibrating with happiness before she even saw the doll. She also loved the dollhouse although it has a lot of small pieces so often she gets a little frustrated but she will grow into it. She LOVES her doctor's set and comes at us with the syringe many times a day saying "I docor Jaida this will only hurt for a minute" with an evil smile on her face. She also loves a pink cd player and cd of music specially recorded with songs about Jaida on it. This came from Grandma Lylah and Grandpa Don. Every morning she wakes up and first thing she does is push the play button on her cd player so she can hear the "Wake Up Jaida song". It kind of freaks the dog's out a bit ... they recognize her name and think a stranger is in the house with us. Like I said she loves all of her gifts ... those are just the most played with ones right now. My sister Noa and her guy Charlie came over and spent the middle part of Christmas day with us. Jaida really enjoyed seeing her Aunt and Chachie (as she calls him) again. We lost power late in the day on Christmas Day so we postponed our Christmas dinner until Monday which was very nice for Joe and myself. It was quite relaxing. Overall, we had a relaxed and fun Christmas filled with friends, love and laughter ... which is the best kind.

Some funny Jaida things from lately. When Jaida is tired of watching a particular program on Noggin she will tell us "this is not a great show let's turn it off". She dances like a maniac and it is the funniest thing ever to watch. She has a new yoga for kids dvd that she LOVES and she does yoga every single day. It is pretty hillarious to watch. She tells me all the time that her hair is soft and long and that she is beautiful. Not vain at all. ;) She speaks like an adult now but sometimes uses the wrong word so she is just a hoot to talk to and talk she does ... just about constantly. She loves to talk on the phone now and talks to mom and dad while they are at work, to her Aunt Noa and her Grandma Lylah. Jaida is in the process of potty training and has pooped and peed on the potty now. We are just working to make it all happen more regularly at this point.

Happily, Jaida has been cold free so far this winter. I am quite happy about this after last winter. I guess it helps that she now is completely and utterly addicted to purell for her hands. That's our germ-o-phobe girl! ;) Her ears seem to be doing well also. She hasn't had any infections that we know about even though she is getting her last two two-year molars right now and they are giving her a great deal of grief. She goes back to the ENT doctor on Tuesday for a re-check. We are hoping for clean and healthy ears.

Some happy news is that Jaida is going to be a BIG sister! Her new sister or brother http://2006firecracker.blogspot.com/ will be here right around July 4th. We really didn't mention any of this to Jaida but she is an amazingly perceptive child and apparently picked up on the fact that a baby is coming just from some rather cryptic conversations Joe and I were having. The kids at daycare likely mentioned it to her also. One day she suddenly announced she wanted a baby boy. We figured at that point we should prabably talk to her a bit about all of this. Since I started showing really early this time around and we have been listening to the new baby's heart using our doppler it didn't take Jaida long to figure out the baby (or at the very least the baby's heart) is in my tummy. She now loves to tell everyone that the baby is in the baby holder in mama's tummy. Then she promptly whips up her shirt to show the person that there is a baby in her fat tummy also. :) She does seem to love it when we listen to the baby's heartbeat using the doppler but especially loves to listen to her own heart with the doppler. She completely knows how to operate the thing all by herself. Anyhow, this is just another happy addition to our already VERY happy existence. :)

Due to some minor annoyances I might have to password protect this site along with the new baby's site. If this happens just send me a quick email requesting the username and password. My email address is on my main site at gia@gialamela.com.