Imitating Instructions

Fiona's getting excited for Halloween. We've been watching the Pooh's Heffalump Halloween video on a regular basis. One of her favorite new games is to say "boo!" to one of us and then burst out giggling when we say "eek!" She loves to point out the ghosts on display in front of various houses as we walk around the neighborhood ("ghost" can refer to ghosts, goblins, witches, skeletons--pretty much any of your typical Halloween bric a brac). She also points out every pumpkin we see. If you ask her to point to a pumpkin, she will, but she prefers to cut to the chase and just call pumpkins "Halloween."

So the other night I bought a small pumpkin to put out in our living room, assuming I'd eventually move it to the window. Fiona got very excited when she saw it and wanted to pick it up and carry it around. We let her, but instructed her every time she picked it up to be careful not to drop it. Now Fiona carries the pumpkin around the apartment repeating "careful, careful."

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With the colder weather has come Fiona's first cold of the season. And with each cold comes her inhaler, as we try to keep her coughs from devolving into full-fledged asthma attacks. Fiona has to take six breaths through a spacer in order to get her dosage, and we count the breaths off with her. When Fiona sees the spacer, she immediately says "four, five, six..."

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With the colder weather, we've also started using a space heater in the living room to augment the "heat" our landlord gives us through the radiator. The first day it was out, Fiona asked what it was and we told her it was a heater, that it was hot, and that she shouldn't touch it. Now whenever she sees the heater (which is often), even when it's not running, she shouts out "don't touch! Hot!"

Indoctrination

Since both my parents come from Chicago, I rooted pretty hard for the White Sox in the playoffs this season, with happy results. On Wednesday night before Game 4 of the World Series, with the Sox up 3-0, I asked Fiona if she could say "Go Go White Sox!" She did, with a big grin--it's obviously a fun thing to say.

Well, the White Sox won on Wednesday to complete the sweep, and on Thursday I told Fiona that we were very happy today because the White Sox were world champions. Hearing the words "White Sox," Fiona lit up and said "Go Go White Sox!"

This morning, apropos of absolutely nothing, Fiona looked at me and said "Go go White Sox!"

So it looks like we've got her rooting for Chicago baseball teams now. I think she's too young to know that it's mostly heartbreak in that direction (on the other hand, the only two champs since Fiona was born are the Red Sox and White Sox, so she may be a cursebreaker just by her sheer presence in the world).

I am happy to report that she loves playing catch and chasing a ball around. So far her signature move seems to be the Buckner, but hopefully that will change once her coordination improves.

Laundrylollipop

Fiona loves going to the laundromat (go figure). Usually when we go the place is reasonably empty so she can run around, and there's a ramp leading from the washers to the dryers that she loves to navigate. She likes to sit on the stepstool in front of the washers that's intended for people who need a boost to get the detergent poured in up top. There are chairs to climb up and down. And when the weather's warm she can go inside and outside as often as she likes (or as often as Daddy can tolerate it), just like when she's visiting grandparents.

The other day the laundromat was a bit crowded and it was cold and windy out, so she wasn't able to go through her regular routine. On the other hand, the man who runs the laundromat gave her a lollipop, which she took about half an hour to consume (with an assist from her sweater--after a look at her outfit it seemed to me the guy was very savvy about insuring he'd have more business). For the rest of the day after we got home Fiona would see me putting fabric softener away or taking a pile of clothes into the bedroom and we'd have the following exchange:

"Laundry?"
"Yes, we went to the laundry earlier today."
"Lollipop!"

If her lollipop was memorable I can just imagine what Halloween's going to be like.

New Photos (No, Really)

Well, the big website used to get updated on a monthly basis, then quarterly, and now we seem to be on a semiannual program. Regardless, I finally got some new material up there, with photos from February through late August. Enjoy.

Two New Games

#1

Fiona mixes up some "food" with a spoon and a bowl. She then tries to give one of her parents a bite. Our job is to respond "I don't liiiike it!" in as whiny a voice as we can manage. Fiona doubles over in laughter.

Fiona seems to have taken this game home from day care, where we assume her day care provider plays the role of parent. The first time she tried to play with us, we enthusiastically made "yummy" noises as she offered us bites only to be confused when Fiona started yelling "no no!" at us for playing the game wrong. Finally fully frustrated, Fiona gave her Mommy the spoon so that Mommy could try to feed her. She then cried out "I don't like it" and doubled over in laughter at her own reaction.

#2

Fiona gets into a tug of war at the dinner table with her Mommy, using a spoon or napkin or any other convenient object. She and Mommy then yell "let go!" at each other until one of them wins the tug of war. If Mommy wins, Fiona yells "no no no" and then reaches to start over again (after all, the game isn't supposed to end with Fiona losing!). If Fiona wins, she smiles and then yells at Mommy "Go away!" while Mommy pretends to cry.

Okay, maybe she hasn't fully developed a sense of empathy or gracious winning just yet.

Daredevil Gone Wrong

Well, it finally happened; Fiona fell off the couch while playing.

On Sunday night after her bath, the two of us were sitting on the couch, or, rather, I was sitting and Fiona was running along the cushions. I got up to help Andrea finish cleaning up under the table after dinner (ah, how I miss the days when I didn't have to clean under the table after dinner), and the next thing we knew we heard a loud bump and had a screaming baby on our hands.

Fiona fell off backwards and smacked her head against the bottom shelf of the coffee table. She had a small cut on the back of her scalp. After we cleaned the wound and consoled the baby, we spent a stressful few minutes reading What To Expect's guide to head injuries and trying to decide if we needed to call the doctor. Fiona didn't seem to be displaying any signs of a concussion (the injury was to the back of the head rather than to the side, she could focus clearly, and within a minute or two of finishing her crying she wanted to play on the couch again). We knew that if we called the doctor he'd tell us to take her to the ER, since he didn't want any liability on his hands. We decided to monitor her throughout the night.

We checked on her at 11 and roused her enough to make sure she was responsive. We meant to check on her a second time in the middle of the night, but both of us slept so hard that it wasn't until about 6:45 that we woke up--to the sounds of Fiona chattering with her stuffed animals.

So Fiona's fine, although she occasionally talks about her boo boo and points to the back of her head. I'm sure it won't be the last time she gets a little too adventurous and takes a fall; hopefully we won't have to face any damage more severe either.

3-4-5

This evening at dinner while she was ignoring the corn and making faces at the spinach while trying to dig out the beans Fiona started counting, pointing at spots along the edge of the table to indicate each number. As she continued, Andrea and I looked at each other in astonishment:

"Three"
"Four"
"Five"
"Six"
"Seven"
"Eight"
"Nine"
"Ten"

She skips one and two, and you certainly couldn't show her, say, four widgets and expect her to tell you how many there were. But it's impressive nevertheless to see her get the numbers in the right order, especially since we haven't exactly been drilling her with flashcards for the past 21 months trying to build a genius baby. We count blocks with her when she builds towers, and she sees the Count on Sesame Street every morning, and I'm sure she hears some counting at day care, but it's still impressive.

There is one additional bug in the system that I haven't quite figured out (besides not being aware of 1 and 2). Sometimes when she counts, it goes like this:

"Three"
"Four"
"Five"
"Six"
"Seven"
"Twelve"

Both times I've seen her count out of order 12 followed 7. I know 7 and 12 are both numbers that recur in a lot of contexts (days of the week, months of the year; deadly sins, apostles), but I doubt Fiona's thinking at quite that level yet. But you never know.

Some Fiona-isms Translated

Boose: Spoon (not, booze, we don't give her any of that, at least not too often, at least not in front of company)

Binklet: Blanket, meaning she wants to play "bedtime" and have you put her blanket on top of her (which she can then kick off while laughing hysterically)

Shade: The shade on her window. Meaning she wants you to pull it down so she can pull the shade aside and look out the window from underneath the shade.

In uff: She wants to be lifted over the arm of the couch, preferably as quickly as possible so she can feel the G's at work. (And I have no idea what word she's really trying to say on this one).

Potty: She wants to wash her hands at the sink. She does not, however, want to use the potty.

Water: See potty, above.

Diaper: She wants you to pretend to change her diaper. She does not want to use the potty, nor has she filled her diaper.

Rosy: She wants to sing "Ring around the Rosy"

Pa kay: She wants to play patty-cake (a game that is so exciting that Fiona needs to take breaks to giggle in anticipation after each phrase, as in: "patty cake, patty cake, baker's man"--hysterical giggling)

Pablo: She wants to watch her Backyardigans DVD. We don't always oblige on this one.

Pirate: She wants to watch the pirate episode on her Backyardigans DVD.

Kay-yuhn: She wants to draw with her crayons. Even though the rule has clearly been established that crayons can only be used on paper while sitting at the table, Fiona tries desperately to circumvent the rule; we've had a few tantrums as a result.