Recently in Junior Category
This has been baffling to me, since whenever we went to B&N, she'd always eagerly visited the potty-training-books section and always wanted some of them read to her, Once Upon a Potty being a favorite. And when Kayleigh started using the commode, she was always suitably impressed.
Well, they tell you not to push them into it, and sure enough, she decided she was ready on her own. And then the transition was pretty darn fast. So now we only put the diaper on for the night, and it's been dry in the morning for close to a week! I wonder how long one can recycle a dry diaper?
Anyways, going to the potty is still a big event and all of it gets celebrated. She sometimes proudly announces her bowl movements to strangers; and just today we were standing around the toilet chanting "Bye, bye poo poo" in unison. But I don't care - my girl's out of the diapers and we couldn't be any happier.
Jennifer had spend most Fridays this spring slowly converting our guest bedroom into Magda's room. Most of the work involved getting rid of crap and I truly appreciate her taking on this monumental task. Recently, though, the work was really about converting the room, and on Thursday we prepped the room and on Friday Jennifer painted the walls a light green color ("Fresh Apple 2"). We still need to finish staining shelves and move some furniture in, but as of this weekend, the room is actually usable as a kid's room.
Rita was spending the weekend with us, so it was still a "guest" bedroom, but on Monday it was just us. So when Jennifer was putting Magda to bed, she got to do it in her own room, rather than in our bedroom where her crib is. Magda was a bit fussy last nigh, but Jennifer convinced her that it was time to go sleep in her own big bed.
I had really mixed feelings giving Magda her goodnight kiss and hug yesterday. Her previous milestones, such as saying her first word or taking the first steps -- or even her being watched by someone else while Jfer and I went out for the first time -- hadn't really made much of an impact on me. But somehow, seeing her sleeping in that room all by herself made me really wistful.
I look forward to each of her milestones and celebrate them when they come, yet at the same time, I'm starting to dread the day we will no longer be her world and she'll break out on her own.
Magda's got a ton of dolls, but her favorite is Plastic-Hair Baby. It's the first doll she ever owned -- a gift from the Hsues which came with a matching pink baby stroller. I'm not sure how she ended up with the name, since most of her dolls have the same kind of molded plastic hair, but that's what she's called. At this point the doll is filthy and without clothes, but Magda couldn't care less.
For some reasons, Magda doesn't pick real names for most of her dolls. most of them reflect where she got them. There is Hawaii Baby, which Rita bought her in Waikiki and Kačenka Baby, which she got from my cousin's daughter and Ikea Baby, which she found abandoned on top of some children's furniture at Ikea. She's got Special Baby which she received around the time she heard about the concept of a "special toy" (one which you do not have to share). And then there is the revolving cast of Toy Library Babies which is what she calls whatever she checks out at the local toy library. The only dolls that have names are things like Dora (the Explorer) and Oki (a Groovy Girl). And then there is Felicia, but that's a purple rat, and thus not really a doll.
Anyway, Plastic-Hair Baby has got a special place in Magda's heart. At some point in Plastic-Hair Baby's young life, Rose used her as a chew toy and gnawed off half of her hand. Magda was always very empathetic about that injury -- even before she could express herself with words.
Well, last Saturday, I went with Magda to her second gymnastics class and she decided to bring Plastic-Hair Baby along. I didn't hear the original conversation, but somehow another two-year old must have noticed the hand with the missing fingers and Magda must have explained. Because there was this little girl with consternation on her face repeatedly asking about Rose chewing off the fingers. I tried to explain about puppies and such, but it definitely made a huge impression. After the class was over, the little girl once again wanted to see Plastic-Hair Baby and inquired about what exactly happened. Luckily her grandma was amused about the whole thing.
I kind of hope that Magda didn't mention that "Rosie is a Pit bull" the way she sometimes likes to announce.
I didn't blog about this earlier, but in early December we trekked up to Dallas to participate in a Czech St. Nicholas celebration. We'd done this last year as well, but this time it's left a lasting impression on the girl.
The party was at my cousin's friend's house and Magda was playing in an upstairs room when Mikuláš, along with the devil and angel, arrived. I raced upstairs to get her before she got freaked out by them and managed just in time. My cousin's son, Martin, wasn't as lucky and was startled when he saw the devil arrive. He then spent most of the evening clutching his mom hysterically.
Magda was pretty terrified of the devil and didn't trust Mikuláš much, either. She spent most of the time with her face buried in Jennifer and barely looked at the trio when it was her turn to face St. Nicholas.
Afterwards she kept proclaiming that "the devils was very scarry" but the angel "was nice". She kept talking about them a lot in the following weeks, but it sort of petered off. I kept waiting for her to start discussing that "the devil is scary" with some stranger and getting a visit from CPS (or some missionaries) but luckily no such thing.
She still occasionally brings them up and -- now in retrospect -- gleefully talks about how scary the devil is. And then she want one of us (mostly me) to "be the devil" and scare her. She thinks it's the most hilarious thing, ever!
Magda hasn't bee using baby sign
Over Thanksgiving we somehow ended up at a mall (shudder!) and killed some time at Sharper Image. Magda was fascinated with all the gadgets, but was especially impressed with the lifesize "limited edition" sculptures of Superman (if he was actually 7 feet tall, I really don't see how a pair of glasses could disguise him as Clark Kent) and Yoda. They also had a statue of Spider-man and when I told her who it was, she kept saying "Spider-man all done!".
It took me a while to realize that she interpreted his posture (holding his web-shooting wrists turned up in front of him) as the baby sign for "all done"!
Due to Jfer's family visit and my busines trip, I won't get to see Magda for a whole week. Before they headed out of town, we met for lunch at Zuzu's. When Jfer went to the bathroom, Magda asked "How do you say yellow?" As it often happens, it took me a while before I understood what she wanted, but then she proceded pointing at different things (table, salt, pepper, water, cup, straw, flower, chair, wall, fan, window, door, etc.) and for each asking how I say it and then repeating it after me. It amazes me the english vocabulary she has -- and most of it can be actually understood. And it thrills me that she wants to learn the Czech words, too.
BTW, for "yellow" I say žlutá...
Magda is starting to have fun with counting. Numbers don't hold quite the interest as letters, but she does enjoy repeating numbers from one to twenty when we recite them to her. Sometimes she counts for herself, skipping around non-sequentially when she gets past "three". She is currently fascinated with saying "eleven", probably because it's got three syllables and is easy to say.
She can actually count up to three things -- if laid out in front of her. But whenever you ask her "how many X are there", she invariably -- and without hesitation -- proclaims "two!" This feat amazes strangers, whenever we actually point to two things and ask her how many there are. She's a bit of a Clever Hans that way. Jfer managed to teach her to answer "one!" when she's asked how old she is, so that's something that she'll have to re-learn in a few months.
And so it begins... Today, Magda asked, for the first time, "Why?" I don't think it's necessarily inquisitiveness, but more of an easy way for her to get a longer conversation going. Granted, a bit of a onesided conversation, but it's a conversation with the potential to go on forever.
Also, to my delight, she now occasionally refers to Jfer as "maminka", which is the Czech diminutive version of "mama" (think "mamasita" in Spanish). That's how I refer to Jfer when I talk with Magda in Czech, but she uses it even when I'm not around. Pretty neat.
Finally, I'm continuing building Magda's English vocabulary in other ways. She has the annoying habit to "need her momma" whenever Jfer goes to the bathroom. She can be perfectly happy playing with her toys or reading a book, but if Jfer gets off to the bathroom, Magda often gets up, follows her and hangs out at the bathroom door, demanding access. It annoys the heck out of Jfer and there's isn't much I can do about distracting or "redirecting" Magda (which is actually what annoys Jfer even more). So I took this opportunity to teach her to yell "push" when she feels that Jfer's taking too long. I figure it's better than her tears and -- at least from my side of the bathroom door -- it's more fun to watch her yelling "Push Momma, push!" (or "push, maminko") than banging at the door in frustration.
Like any toddler, Magda likes her Os, goldfish and crackers; she also loves her dried peas and corn. The problem with all these things is that they're tiny and can be a mess. When she's in the car or in her stroller, letting her hold the bowl usually leads to a spill. The Snack-Trap bowl helps preventing spills, but you still end up with lots of little bits in the car seat. And if you don't want to deal with a bowl, you'll end up constantly hending her the stuff a few pieces at a time; not the safest occupation while driving...
We discovered that the mess-less alternative to crackers is to let her have a breadstick. We like the United Bakery Sesame Breadsticks that Whole Foods carries, but pretty much anything that's not heavily salted works. She can hold the stick and munch on it without making a mess and without parental interaction.
And she's getting pretty good about keeping it away from the dogs: "No Rose -- Magda's stick!".
Jennifer is busily working on expanding Magda's vocabulary. Yesterday, when Jfer dropped her off by the office, I could hear Magda coming down the hall, greeting my coworkers ("Hi Tim!") and then hapily explaiming "I love you táta" when she saw me. That is totally cool. And then she quickly told Jfer to get on her way by saying "bye bye mama" and closing my office door in her face. :-)
I often wonder how much of what she says is just parroting of stuff we teach her. It's probably much less than what I sometimes think. When we got home, she was happy to see the doggies. At one point, she walked up to Rose and giving her hugs and kisses told her several times "I love you Rosie, I love you". Homer doesn't get that kind of treatment from her...
BTW, I occasionally manage to add a contribution to her vocabulary, too. Magda now calls watermelon (her newest favorite fruit) by its Czech name "meloun". Speaking of watermelon -- cut into half-inch cubes, it's the perfect food for a toddler to practice using her fork on. It's easy to spear, doesn't slide around, and stays nicely on the fork.
