Haircut

Grandmothers on both coasts can rejoice--Fiona finally got her haircut. I don't know how well it comes through in this picture, but she now has honest-to-goodness bangs.

We took her to the salon with Mommy on Saturday afternoon and Fiona sat and watched while Mommy had her hair washed and cut. This wasn't something we could have done even six months ago, but Fiona has learned how to sit still for longer periods, and even when she got bored and got down on the ground to play she was very good about staying right next to Daddy's chair and she didn't try to pull down anything off the shelves or tables at the salon.

When the time came to get her haircut, Fiona insisted she wanted a "Cinderella haircut," so we all made sure to call it that. The only thing she had a hard time with was looking down at the ground when the stylist was trying to cut her hair in the back; Fiona wanted to look at the mirror (I tend to zone out myself and just stare at the mirror when I get a cut, so I understand the impulse).

When it was all over, we praised Fiona for doing so well, which led to an emphatic "stop it! Stop saying good job!" It seems Fiona's developed a keen ear for when she's being patronized, or at least she knows when praise is a little too effusive. So we scaled it back, handed her a lollipop, and headed off into a less hirsute evening.

An evening which, I should hardly need to add, was spent with Fiona freqently pretending to cut our hair. That's the way she processes new events.

The Breaking Point

Fiona crawls up on Mommy's lap and lays across her.

Fiona: I'm a baby.
Mommy: You are?
Fiona: Yeah.

From here on we'll put her parents' questions in bold and Fiona's answers will be unbolded.

That means you'll have to sleep in a crib.
Okay.

And wear a diaper.
Okay.

You won't be able to walk. Babies crawl.
Okay.

Oh, and you won't be able to pick your clothes out yourself. Mommy and Daddy will pick them for you.
Okay.

We'll have to get rid of most of your toys.
Okay.

Your horse is too hard, so you can't have that.
Okay.

And most of your stuffed animals have buttons or beaded eyes. Babies can't have that.
Okay.

And you won't be able to eat your Halloween candy.

Fiona jumps up and stands on the ground.

Fiona: I'm not a baby any more.

Out of Order, but Still Pretty Good

On Sunday we took an exciting expedition to the Queens Center Mall so that Daddy could pick up a DVR box at the Time Warner Cable office (do you know what a hardship it is to miss The Office while doing bedtime?). By the time we were done, it was lunchtime, so we ate at the Applebee's at the mall, which was everything we expected and more (I had no idea chicken could taste like that).

Fiona got a children's menu which doubled as a coloring book. For a while she happily colored in and around and somewhere in the vicinity of Casper the Friendly Ghost and his friends. But then she started drawing letters.

"I write a name," she said. And then she announced which letters she was writing as she did them.

"F," she said. "I. N. O. A." The "N" was particularly recognizable, which is quite a feat for a child who's not quite three.

And if you look at the letters she chose, you'll notice that they contain all the letters in almost the right order for a name that we're very familiar with.

"Whose name is that?" we asked when she was done.

"Mommy's!" Fiona replied. With a big smile. I think the big smile meant she knew she was joking.

I Wish I'd Thought of That Excuse

Daddy walks into the kitchen to find Fiona opening drawers on our spice cabinet.

Daddy: Fiona, you're not supposed to be in there.
Fiona: It's okay, Daddy. I was just doing something.

"Sleeping" Like a Big Kid

After she moved to a big girl bed, occasionally we'd wonder when Fiona would realize that she didn't have to stay in bed after we closed the door to her room. Well, the day has arrived.

On Tuesday earlier this week, Andrea hosted a dinner and one of her co-hosts brought Fiona a gift of several small toy animals. They were bath toys, but Fiona didn't care -- she lined them up around the house, played games with them, took them in the stroller, and generally conducted various adventures. That night at bedtime she wanted her animals in bed with her. Since they were plastic, I didn't think they'd be very comfortable, but we lined them up on the table next to her bed. We did our stories and songs, and Fiona fell asleep around 9pm.

About an hour later, we could hear her in her room playing in bed. "You're a hippo," she sang (presumably to the hippo). "You're an elephant." This went on for about 10 minutes, at which point Andrea went in to help Fiona get back to sleep.

Any chance that this was a one-night only aberration went out the window on Wednesday when Fiona lined her animals up before bed (okay, I helped out, in an ill-advised parenting moment), and then proceeded to play (loudly) with them in her bed for over an hour after we did lights out. At that point, we decided that we would have no more toys right by the bed. In my defense, she used to keep a toy Dora by her bed for months, and I never heard a peep.

Thursday was smooth sailing. Lights out by 9pm, and Fiona was totally quiet.

But last night, Fiona noticed her animals weren't there and started crying. We told her that the animals weren't going to be there, and she whimpered a bit more and then quieted down.

A few minutes later we heard her talking to her toy Disney Princesses ring (a party favor from a birthday at day care). Then we heard her banging it on the table, and singing to it.

And then we heard the humidifier getting turned on. Which is across the room from Fiona's bed.

When I finally walked in, Fiona had lined up a whole series of toys on the table in her room, and was standing in front of it with a big grin. She was, shall we say, displeased when I informed her that it was time to be in bed.

This afternoon at naptime she didn't get out of bed, but she did play loudly with Roo and Pooh bear. Unlike at bedtime, we know that if she doesn't quiet down quickly for her nap we're going to miss the window of opportunity, so I went in and reminded her that she should try to get a little sleep. Fiona promised that she would.

Ten minutes later, I could hear her playing with Roo and Pooh bear again. I decided to make one last visit.

As I opened the door, I saw Fiona quickly set her stuffed animals down and roll on to her side. Then she shut her eyes tightly, and pretended with all her might that she had fallen asleep.

I'm so proud. I must have been at least three before I tried to fake my parents out with phony sleep.

Halloween 2006

Fiona was much more active for Halloween this year than last year. Last year she was so overwhelmed by the experience that we wound up carrying her from house to house. This year she walked all the way up and down the block (she needed help on some of the staircases, which was to be expected) and was strong enough to carry her Halloween bag almost the entire way (until the candy got to be too heavy).

She also had a chance to stop by Fatty's to show her dinosaur costume off there and even hit a few more houses on the way home after the day care party ended.

Which isn't to say she wasn't exhausted by the time bedtime rolled around.

And she's spent the past two days sad that Halloween is over and wondering when she can go trick or treating again. The combination of being exhausted by Halloween itself and being upset that all the excitement is over has made her more short-tempered than usual lately. I'm sure soon we'll be talking about turkeys non-stop and Halloween will fade from memory.

All right, photos. Incidentally, you can click on any photo here to see it enlarged. I'd promise to have them over at the main photo site soon, but we all know how quickly I do updates over there.

The fairy at the top of this post is Camilla, who is about a year older than Fiona, and who Fiona idolizes. We watched a little of their relationship on Halloween as Camilla continued to suggest games for Fiona to play (crawl between my legs, hop on one foot, chase me, I'll chase you). Fiona got frustrated that she didn't know how to hop yet, but unlike when she's at home she didn't resort to tears -- it's amazing what peer pressure will do.


The bumblebee seen here is Isabella, who's about a year younger than Fiona. Watching her on Halloween was a little like watching Fiona last year -- she didn't know what was going on and her parents carried her everywhere. As she learns to talk and play more I'll be curious to see if Fiona treats her the same way Camilla treats Fiona. Fiona is definitely fascinated by the children who are younger than her -- she gets especially excited about seeing the babies at day care (they youngest is about 5 months old).

Along with Camilla, Fiona's best friend at day care is Ethan (called "Ito"). He's in the race car outfit next to Fiona on the stairs to the right (Camilla is behind them). Two stories from Halloween about Ito:

1) His dad couldn't make it, but he called Ito on a cell phone during the post trick or treating party (this happened right after this photo was taken). Ito talked to his Dad for a while, then turned to Fiona and asked if she wanted to talk to his Dad (who she's never met). So Fiona took the phone and spoke into it for a while. By the time the phone was retrieved, Ito's Dad had (rather sensibly) hung up.

2) Ito decided that Fiona should come to see his house after trick or treating was done. In fact, he ran up to his aunt and told her that Fiona was going to come home with them, which led to all sorts of jokes about curfew and what Ito's intentions toward our daughter are. We've been meaning to set up a play date with Ito for a while, so we told Fiona she could see Ito's house sometime soon but not that night. At that point, Fiona burst into tears and we realized that the excitement for the evening was just about over.

So it's off to Thanksgiving now, provided Fiona stops asking to go trick or treating and to get a green dinosaur costume to go with her pink one.