Cupcake

The other day Michael and I took Rosalie out to have a mini-cupcake at Verite Cafe/Cupcake Royale. I like this shot because everyone in the shot shows intense focus. The guy a few tables down is probably doing some reading for his masters thesis, and Rosalie is plotting her attack strategy for her first cupcake.

"Google"

Yessir, that's our baby. That's right, she says "Google" now. I have a couple of Google t-shirts, and she has been interested in this set of characters she keeps seeing on Mommy. So I told her what it said, and now she'll point to my Google t-shirt and say, very clearly, "GOO-gul." We are so proud.

We took a survey of all of her words, and at this point I think we can't keep up with them all. But off the top of my head, Rosalie says the following words frequently:

ball
bird
book
bubble
boat
bye bye
cheese
daddy
dog
fish
google
hello
hi
keys
mama (sometimes this refers to me now)
more
thank you (you have to really know what it sounds like to realize what it is, but she definitely says it when anyone hands anything to anybody--when she feels like it. It sounds like "DAY-too!")

The other day we were making our Spanky-the-Cat rounds next door, just hanging out with the big guy while he tried to sleep on the sidewalk, and then we had to get going to the car. "Come on, Rosalie, let's go," Mike and I urged. She started to walk with us, then stopped and turned around. "Rosalie..." we called, and then realized what she was up to. She needed to get back to Spanky, squat down to his level, and wave her hand bye bye right in front of his eyes. You know, so he could see that she was leaving. Oh, the cuteness.

She visited Forest Ridge with me today, because Dr. Mary Smith, head of school, is retiring, and there was a mass in her honor. Before it began, I came by and visited my old classroom where Pat teaches now, but I saw class was in session. Pat waved us in, though. The minute we walked in, the girls launched the expected "Ohhhhh..." with the lilt at the end. They do this for all cute things. Rosalie was practicing being shy and tried to go back out the door. However, she was just getting warmed up. Soon she made it to the front of the classroom to the whiteboard. She reached up and took a couple of whiteboard markers off the tray. For some reason the girls started to laugh at this. Rosalie turned around at them, as if to say, "Really?" Then she came over and brought me the markers. This also brought laughter. She stopped and looked at them, starting to get that smile she gets before she's about to put on a tremendous dance show. She knew what to do now...she went back to get some more markers, then turned around, expectantly. Obviously this was hilarious, so she got the expected result. After depositing the markers with me she continued this comedy routine til all the markers were cleaned off the tray and into my heaping hands (Pat is always well-prepared with the markers). You think it's over? No, then she came back to pick up the collection of markers from me, a tumbling pile way too big for her hands, but she managed to get about 6 of them over to the whiteboard, and reaching up, she attempted to return the markers to their original spot. If it weren't almost time for mass, I'm pretty sure she and the students would have been happy to continue this all morning.

Getting to Know Animals

Rosalie continues to be enormously intuitive with animals. She met some chickens this weekend at Mom's house, and here you can see how she gets down on their level to interact with them.

Speaking of animals, yesterday we made our daily visit to Spanky the cat next door. He was lounging at his usual daytime spot, the front porch of his house (we have our neighbors' permission to join him up there). While we were up on the porch, Rosalie found a bottle of bubbles sitting on the platform by the steps. The bottle was open, so she pulled the wand out and held it up to my mouth to blow bubbles. I obliged, a couple of times, but there wasn’t much juice in the bottle, so we didn’t get much bubble action.

About the fourth time, she gave up on me. She dipped the wand into the bottle and held the wand up to Spanky the cat, so that he could have a chance to blow bubbles. Spanky blinked sleepily. He must have seen that the wand lacked bubble juice, so why bother?

Finally, Rosalie tried the wand out herself. Incidentally, she’s been working on her blowing technique with hot food by putting the food in her mouth between her teeth, and blowing on it by breathing in and out, passing the air over the food. It’s a great technique. She applied this technique to the bubble wand. For some reason, this did not produce bubbles. I was surprised that the taste of bubble juice did not deter her efforts.

It is very fun to watch Rosalie’s mind at work.

Too Cool for School

Just look at this cutie in her shades! If we put them on her outside when it is bright out, she's just happy as a clam and usually doesn't take them off. A mole-like Seattleite, just like her parents.

As always, the phone is a huge favorite in our household, though it's come to a new level. One day we were in the kitchen and my back was turned to her. I heard Rosalie say "Hewwo." and I turned around and she had a phone to her ear. But wait, the cuteness is not over. Yesterday she was occupying(!) herself(!) in the living room, reading some books with Bear for awhile, and then suddenly ran into my office with my cell phone. "Oh, thank you..." I said, because she often randomly hands me things. But when I looked down I realized someone had text-messaged me a moment before, so it must have made a ringing sound! Which explains the purposeful, meaningful look on her face when she'd handed me the phone. Oh, I cannot explain to you how precious it was.

Her current favorite way to help is to push things--closing the door, closing the drawer...She helps me push the stroller back into its spot, the vacuum back into the closet, and today, she "helped" me mow the lawn by helping me push the mower. That was actually kind of tricky and I might not do that again, upon reflection. Maybe we need to get her a toy toddler lawn mower so she can help that way.

Emotionally she continues to be a sweetie. Her friend Owain bonked himself and was crying the other day and she tried to soothe him by stroking his hair. She also has learned to be gentle with cats and dogs. She'll squat down to their level, and hold out her hands so that the animal can sniff/lick her. Then after some aquaintance time, she goes in for some petting. It is heartbreaking and magical watching her with animals.