Wonder Pets

In which Daddy has his first experience acting oblivious to what the kids today are into.

As I flipped through the Arts section of the Times yesterday morning, Fiona climbed excitedly on my lap and pointed to a picture in an article I wasn't reading.

"Whale!" she yelled.



I nodded, and said, "yes, that's a whale."

"Wahnna pet!" she shouted.

"You want to pet the whale?"

"No, wahnna pet!"

I was done with the arts section anyway, so I started to hand it to her. "It's okay. You can pet the whale if you want."

Fiona was getting exasperated now. "Wahnna pet!"

I finally took a look at the caption. The article was describing a new show on Nick Jr. called Wonder Pets.

"Oh, Wonder Pets!" I said, finally understanding what my daughter was saying.

"Yeah, Wonder Pets!" Fiona shouted. And then she proceeded to look at the pictures from the show while I tried to read up on what my daughter's latest favorite TV show is.

Animals. Songs, by reasonably talented musical theater composers. Sounds like something right up her alley.

I know they watch more TV at day care than I'd like; that seems to be uniform at local centers. I'd worry about it more if Fiona's TV habits were worse, but, unless she's very tired, she tends to pay attention to shows when somebody's singing a song and when people are just talking she usually runs off to play with her toys. I've seen that at day care, too. I've picked her up from day care and seen a few kids sitting at the table watching TV while Fiona sits on the futon "reading" a book to a stuffed animal.

And the party line from the Times article seems to be that Wonder Pets is no Barney. Which is all most parents really care about.

I'm Hoping for a Gallery Showing

On our walk home from day care, I like to ask Fiona what she did during the day. Sometimes she'll say something like "I played with Ito" (or one of the other kids in day care).

One day, however, she told me "I drew a choo choo." That seemed pretty specific, and I knew that the kids do a lot of drawing in day care, and so I told her that was very exciting.

The next day, when I asked Fiona what she did in day care, she said "I drew a choo choo!" This continued for several days; even a few weeks later, sometimes she'll still tell me that she drew a choo choo today in day care.

So I conclude one of two things. The more likely possibility is that Fiona saw Daddy's reaction the first time she drew a choo choo, and thought Daddy was dazzled by the idea of drawing a choo choo rather than being impressed with her specific recollections, and so she decided she wants to get that reaction again.

My preferred interpretation, however, is that Rita is a train enthusiast who makes the children draw railroad cars all day long, every day, and that one day she'll open up the door to the hidden room behind the center and it will be filled floor to ceiling with toddler choo choo drawings.

Musical Gifts

Fiona picks up songs astonishingly quickly. Sometimes she'll walk around the apartment singing a song we didn't even know she knew--completely recognizable, although here and there some of the lyrics get garbled. And when she started singing a song with her mother the other day and Andrea needed to move the pitch down to a lower key, Fiona caught on immediately.

When she hears a song she likes, she wants to hear it again and again until she can sing it herself. Yesterday morning she pointed to a picture of a star, so I sang her the first verse of "When You Wish Upon a Star." For the rest of the day, she wanted me to sing it, and she'd started singing it back to me by evening.

She's also started making up her own songs. The lyrics are usually just some bit of information repeated again and again ("I go in the apartment"), but she finds a bit of singsong and repeats it.

Now, the downside to this is that she made up a song to sing as we navigated the grocery store over the weekend. The lyrics were, in their entirety, "I go poop in the potty."

I know every parent has his or her moment where the child announces information to the world that is usually only discussed behind closed doors. Really, it wouldn't be so bad if only the lyrics were, you know, true.

Actually, I promised way back when we first purchased a potty that I wouldn't share the training details with the blog reading world (did you know www.technorati.com includes this blog in its search algorithms? It's true; head over there and enter some text from one of the posts here and this blog might well pop up). I'll just say that A) after a long layoff, we do seem to be trying again, with increased interest from Fiona; and B) between that and a conversation we had last week about trying not to step in dog poop (which has led to Fiona pointing to every brown object on the street and calling it dog poop), we're talking about waste around the house almost as much as we did when Fiona was two weeks old.

Didn't I start this post by talking about Fiona's musical gifts?

I Guess We Should Be Happy She Can Use Six-Word Sentences

Fiona, who still doesn't have great control over her body when she gets excited, rolls back and forth on the bed, inadvertently ramming her foot into her mother's face.

Mommy: Fiona, stop kicking Mommy in the face.
Fiona: I don't want to stop it!

Might as Well Jump

After working at it for several months, Fiona has figured out how to get both feet off the ground on a jump. She can't do it with any balance, which means she holds on to one (or both) of her parent's hands, but the liftoff is pure Fiona. Her toddler dance marathons have now turned into jumping marathons.

I actually wound up apologizing to the landlord on Sunday after Fiona first figured out the jump (they live below us, and they did know that they were buying a building with a toddler living upstairs, so I don't really feel bad). Justin admitted he'd heard the shaking and commented that "Fiona's a very energetic girl."

Playground

It's in the thirties and windy this morning, but last weekend we had a sneak preview of spring as the temperature soared into the high sixties with lots of sun. After a winter cooped up indoors, we were all ready to get outside--Fiona most of all.

When we asked Fiona if she wanted to go to the playground she not only ran to the door, she practically ran all the way to the playground. It's about a ten minute walk from our place to the swings, and Fiona walked the whole way, not even stopping to do her patented "now I'm going to run around a tree trunk and point at squirrels" routine that turns ordinary four block walks into 45 minute journeys.

As soon as we got to the playground, Fiona went into overload mode, trying to do everything at once. She ran to the swings, but asked off after about a minute. She then ran to check out the whale slide (the playground has various aquatic animals scattered about for climbing), then over to the little slide with stairs she can climb, then over to the big slide with stairs she needs Daddy's help to climb, then on to the turtle, then off to the picnic tables, and then...

Well, after about ten minutes she realized that the playground wasn't going to go away and she settled down to focus on one activity at a time. She climbed a ladder for the first time (with help from Mom and Dad, obviously, but she pulled herself up on the rungs without being lifted), and even went down the big circular slide for the first time (she got stuck and didn't seem eager to repeat the experience, which was fine by us).

As the morning progressed, the bigger kids started showing up (I've joked before that there's a linear equation you can use to determine what age group is at the playground at a given time of day). Fiona saw one of the bigger kids climbing the slide instead of using the stairs and decided that she wanted to do the same thing (she did, again with help from Mom and Dad). When one of the bigger kids went down the slide head first, Fiona decided she wanted to try that, too. Mom and Dad drew the line at that point.

We've started asking Fiona at dinner each night what she did during the day. The playground was so exciting that it basically wiped out everything else she did not only on Saturday afternoon but on Sunday, too (Sunday was rainy, so she was confined to playing indoors). When we asked her at dinner on Sunday "what did you do today?" Fiona replied "I go to playground!"

Feline Manners

Fiona finds one of Buddy's toy mice and brings it over to where Buddy is sleeping. She puts it directly in front of his nose.

Fiona: Here, Buddy!

Buddy opens his eyes to look at the mouse and then closes them again.

Fiona: Say thank you, Buddy!

Big Steps

This morning for the first time Fiona walked all the way to day care without riding in the stroller.

That's more of a psychological breakthrough than a physical one; Fiona's been able to walk home from day care for several months now. But she gets easily distracted, and it's difficult to corral her out the door some mornings, and I don't have the same type of time flexibility in the morning as I do in the evening, so we've fallen into a pattern of walking the first and last blocks and letting Daddy push the stroller during the blocks in between. But today Fiona was happy and focused and eager to get out the door, so we made it all the way.

Oh My Goodness

From the Sentences Only a Toddler Would Say Dept.

At dinner tonight, Fiona tore into her bread, completely ignoring the sausage in the middle of her plate. Finally, I asked her if she wanted to try any sausage with tomato sauce. Fiona looked at the sausage as if she'd just noticed it and then exclaimed:

"Oh my goodness, I got to use a fork!"

Latest Data

Weight: 31 lbs.
Height: 35 1/2 inches

3 feet tall here we come!

Fiona loves going to the doctor. Go figure. She cried as soon as she realized she was going to get a shot (we were there for a vaccine), yelled when she got the shot, and then two minutes later was happy as could be once again (and she didn't need a lollipop or any other bribery to cope). When we left, she turned to the building and shouted "bye bye doctor!" with a big smile.

I guess the excitement of riding in an elevator and a waiting room with a Big Bird chair is makes the shot worthwile.

Fiona and Friends

On the happier front, yesterday morning when I took Fiona to day care she looked through the window as we walked down the stairs and shouted out "Oh, friend Eric!" It was the first time I'd ever heard her use the word "friend".

And yesterday evening she explained to me that Tigger is Pooh's friend. As I said earlier this week, she's making major conceptual leaps this year.

A Less Happy Milestone

Fiona told her first lie yesterday. She threw one of her Pooh dolls at her mother, and then when asked by her mother if she threw it said "no." Andrea then asked who threw the doll and Fiona said "Buddy."

Something tells me she's going to figure out how to be a bit more believable in her deceptions in years to come.

I'll Bet Mommy's More Interesting Than the Letter 'R'

Fiona, waking up earlier than usual this morning (but still at a reasonable hour), calls out for Daddy to open her door. Daddy turns on the coffee and obliges.

Fiona: (after Daddy opens the door) Good morning, Daddy!
Daddy: (leaning down to give his daughter a hug) Good morning, Fiona. Did you sleep well?
Fiona: Yes.
Mommy: (sitting up in bed) Good morning, Fiona.
Fiona: Mommy.
Mommy: Do you want to give Mommy a hug?
Fiona: (seeing the refrigerator letters and running into the kitchen) Oh, a letter 'S'!