6 January 2007
Raina truly is a puzzle master. Now she can do any inset puzzle without difficulty and has moved on to nine piece jigsaw puzzles. She received one for xmas and she LOVES it. It provides endless entertainment, and is a quick "show off how cool our kid is" stunt to any visitor. She also works on the the 3+ shape sorter, with surprising results. I know that it's 3+ because the nieces and nephew struggled a bit with it.
Raina has particularly wonderful at xmas. We were excited to show off her brilliance, and she performed stunningly. She was sweet and affectionate and verbal and cuddly and effusive about her gifts -- saying WOW and thank you and A BOOK! And then she just wanted more: she'd rip open one and immediately move to the next. At Nashville, she actually got bored with all the gift opening, so we had to do it in two rounds. Raina dressed up as xmas tree for the day; there are great pictures!
She has become quite a talkative gal. She went to the doctor right before the trip and Laz asked "does she string two words together to make sentences?" She does; his response was "well, she probably speaks about 50 words." I was astonished. But the list grows every day. Here are some of the latest: touchdown, elmo, phone. She went to the Westport School holiday party, she told a kid: "NO, you go down more!" which was a very clear expression of what she wanted.
She is a smart, smart kid, or at least we think so. She amazes us with what she knows, what she remembers, and what she absorbed without one of us specifically teaching her. The PAT lady came and evaluated Raina. She could do everything except use a normal cup without spilling. Vicky remarked that Raina is very focused, that she concentrates on a task and problem solves until she gets it done,w ithout getting frustrated. Raina is a joy to be around and it's nice to have other people recognize it. Raina's 1st report card was totally "all As!"
Raina has retired herself from the high chair. She doesn't want to eat there anymore; she wants to be a big girl and big girls eat at tables. We spent the last two weeks without her being in a high chair, so we shouldn't have been surprised when she protested to our forcing her back into one.
We set out one saturday afternoon to build the ultimate pillow blanket fort downstairs in the common room. Eric was very excited and nomiinated himself chief architect. AFter multiple hours of construction, the creation was complete using the majority of the chairs, cusions, blankets, and sheets in the house. Raina enjoyed crawling through it although she had some difficulty understanding the concept that it was necessary to crawl. Her head caused multiple disruption to construction. But eventually she caught on.
"terrible toddler" phase - Raina was apparently somewhat spoiled and disrupted by her christmas trips. We aren't sure if she was spoiled by the attention, or the constant new sights, or from getting new toys constantly, but she has been a handlful since she came back. She refuses to go to bed and clings to her parents instead. She is more bossy and demanding about getting attention and exactly what she wants. And she is much more emotionally fragile. We really aren't sure what happened to our little angel that we got to show off to everyone. Don't get me wrong, she is still great, just not as great. It doesn't help that she's sick again. yuck.
When visiting Mini and Manoj and Revathi, Raina was fine as long as we did not pick up the baby. She was happy to look at the baby and talk to the baby, but if a parent made any motion to pick up the baby, then Raina emotionally dissolved. It was startling to see our strong little miss fall apart. She also quickly learned that "bags near the door" means that her parents were leaving soon, and she did NOT want to be left behind. Those 20 minutes of loading at each location were also emotionally taxing for her. In Cincy, she hit both her parents, which was mostly a first. As soon as she was in the car, though, she was a happy little girl again.
Raina can point to the appropriate Comptons 2 weeks after the nashville trip. wow!
Raina finally outgrew her dora the explorer shoes so we treked out to supermarket of shoes to buy her new ones. After a brief detour at the dollar store where we bought lots of socks, and after almost being suckered in by some "Weeboks", that appeared to be questionably constructed, we settled on some sesame street shoes that Raina refused to remove for the rest of the day (including during her nap). She'll stop periodically and say ELMO! and pull up her shoes to show all the elmos that are there.
So we were 3 ish hours in on our whirlwind christmas tour when it is time for our first meal on the road. Eric proposed going to applebees where the Whomp could spend their recently gotten applebee's gift cirtificate. But Krystal had a "better" idea. We should go to McDonald's. Eric was a tad shocked at first but the idea was that it would give Raina a chance to play in their indoor playland (it was rainy so outdoors was out of the question). Eric then realized the genius that was McDonald's. This is how they rope you in. So despite the fact that neither Mom or Dad wanted to eat McDonald's food, that is where we went for lunch for the sake of the child. So we reluctantly parked at McDonald's and checked out their playground. To our surprise, the ballpits of the past had been replaced by an 8 foot high climbing apparatus and slides. While I think Krystal and Eric would have had fun if they could have ignored the half inch layer of grime that was everywhere, it was entirely too big for Raina. So we packed up to leave, at which point Raina freaked out. We cursed McDonald's for their crappiness and their genius again, and reluctantly scavenged the menu for something that resembled food. Krystal attempted to order a grilled chicken sandwich, Eric got a big mac, and Raina got a happy meal. Wee haw. So the meal sucked. We choked it down. And then swore that we would never go to McDonald's again. (Eric violated this treaty 10 minutes later by purchasing a McFlurry). Raina did get to play for a while climbing up and down on a step, she did like watching all of the big kids swarming past her, and she did get a toy that she rarely plays with. So our crappy visit was almost over, all that was left was to change Raina. Fortunately they had a bathroom with a changing station right next to the kids room. Unfortunately, right after we had opened up her poopy diaper, the lights went out. The light switch was right next to Raina's head where any curious little youngster being changed could easily and happily reach. We laughed and cursed Mcdonald's again, and after changing a diaper by strobe light we left - never to return to McDonald's ever ever again. (We stopped by mcdonalds 4 days later to get a milk shake. oh well.)
Raina has particularly wonderful at xmas. We were excited to show off her brilliance, and she performed stunningly. She was sweet and affectionate and verbal and cuddly and effusive about her gifts -- saying WOW and thank you and A BOOK! And then she just wanted more: she'd rip open one and immediately move to the next. At Nashville, she actually got bored with all the gift opening, so we had to do it in two rounds. Raina dressed up as xmas tree for the day; there are great pictures!
She has become quite a talkative gal. She went to the doctor right before the trip and Laz asked "does she string two words together to make sentences?" She does; his response was "well, she probably speaks about 50 words." I was astonished. But the list grows every day. Here are some of the latest: touchdown, elmo, phone. She went to the Westport School holiday party, she told a kid: "NO, you go down more!" which was a very clear expression of what she wanted.
She is a smart, smart kid, or at least we think so. She amazes us with what she knows, what she remembers, and what she absorbed without one of us specifically teaching her. The PAT lady came and evaluated Raina. She could do everything except use a normal cup without spilling. Vicky remarked that Raina is very focused, that she concentrates on a task and problem solves until she gets it done,w ithout getting frustrated. Raina is a joy to be around and it's nice to have other people recognize it. Raina's 1st report card was totally "all As!"
Raina has retired herself from the high chair. She doesn't want to eat there anymore; she wants to be a big girl and big girls eat at tables. We spent the last two weeks without her being in a high chair, so we shouldn't have been surprised when she protested to our forcing her back into one.
We set out one saturday afternoon to build the ultimate pillow blanket fort downstairs in the common room. Eric was very excited and nomiinated himself chief architect. AFter multiple hours of construction, the creation was complete using the majority of the chairs, cusions, blankets, and sheets in the house. Raina enjoyed crawling through it although she had some difficulty understanding the concept that it was necessary to crawl. Her head caused multiple disruption to construction. But eventually she caught on.
"terrible toddler" phase - Raina was apparently somewhat spoiled and disrupted by her christmas trips. We aren't sure if she was spoiled by the attention, or the constant new sights, or from getting new toys constantly, but she has been a handlful since she came back. She refuses to go to bed and clings to her parents instead. She is more bossy and demanding about getting attention and exactly what she wants. And she is much more emotionally fragile. We really aren't sure what happened to our little angel that we got to show off to everyone. Don't get me wrong, she is still great, just not as great. It doesn't help that she's sick again. yuck.
When visiting Mini and Manoj and Revathi, Raina was fine as long as we did not pick up the baby. She was happy to look at the baby and talk to the baby, but if a parent made any motion to pick up the baby, then Raina emotionally dissolved. It was startling to see our strong little miss fall apart. She also quickly learned that "bags near the door" means that her parents were leaving soon, and she did NOT want to be left behind. Those 20 minutes of loading at each location were also emotionally taxing for her. In Cincy, she hit both her parents, which was mostly a first. As soon as she was in the car, though, she was a happy little girl again.
Raina can point to the appropriate Comptons 2 weeks after the nashville trip. wow!
Raina finally outgrew her dora the explorer shoes so we treked out to supermarket of shoes to buy her new ones. After a brief detour at the dollar store where we bought lots of socks, and after almost being suckered in by some "Weeboks", that appeared to be questionably constructed, we settled on some sesame street shoes that Raina refused to remove for the rest of the day (including during her nap). She'll stop periodically and say ELMO! and pull up her shoes to show all the elmos that are there.
So we were 3 ish hours in on our whirlwind christmas tour when it is time for our first meal on the road. Eric proposed going to applebees where the Whomp could spend their recently gotten applebee's gift cirtificate. But Krystal had a "better" idea. We should go to McDonald's. Eric was a tad shocked at first but the idea was that it would give Raina a chance to play in their indoor playland (it was rainy so outdoors was out of the question). Eric then realized the genius that was McDonald's. This is how they rope you in. So despite the fact that neither Mom or Dad wanted to eat McDonald's food, that is where we went for lunch for the sake of the child. So we reluctantly parked at McDonald's and checked out their playground. To our surprise, the ballpits of the past had been replaced by an 8 foot high climbing apparatus and slides. While I think Krystal and Eric would have had fun if they could have ignored the half inch layer of grime that was everywhere, it was entirely too big for Raina. So we packed up to leave, at which point Raina freaked out. We cursed McDonald's for their crappiness and their genius again, and reluctantly scavenged the menu for something that resembled food. Krystal attempted to order a grilled chicken sandwich, Eric got a big mac, and Raina got a happy meal. Wee haw. So the meal sucked. We choked it down. And then swore that we would never go to McDonald's again. (Eric violated this treaty 10 minutes later by purchasing a McFlurry). Raina did get to play for a while climbing up and down on a step, she did like watching all of the big kids swarming past her, and she did get a toy that she rarely plays with. So our crappy visit was almost over, all that was left was to change Raina. Fortunately they had a bathroom with a changing station right next to the kids room. Unfortunately, right after we had opened up her poopy diaper, the lights went out. The light switch was right next to Raina's head where any curious little youngster being changed could easily and happily reach. We laughed and cursed Mcdonald's again, and after changing a diaper by strobe light we left - never to return to McDonald's ever ever again. (We stopped by mcdonalds 4 days later to get a milk shake. oh well.)
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