Big Wheel Success and Other Stories

Raina adores her Big Wheel. She frequently pulls it out and travels all over the basement with it. Her legs are too short to push the pedals effectively, so she mostly shoves from the ground and moves very slowly in comparison to walking. But Raina doesn't care. She delights in moseying around, bothering the dog, trying to reverse, and then parking the Big Wheel in the "garage" (under the table). We've taken the Big Wheel outside a few times; Raina loved zooming down the hills, but detested slowly moving back up hill. She, understandably, abandoned her three wheels and took to pushing it back uphill as opposed to biking. (This whole procedure reminded me of sledding -- all that hill climbing for such a short period of downhill ecstasy.) Samantha and I were relieved to see the Big Wheel become such a hit.

Raina has warmed up considerably to Roxanne. For the longest time, Raina would travel from couch to couch, hardly ever touching the ground. She knew that, if she was on the floor, she suddenly became fair game for Roxanne interaction. And Roxanne LOVES Raina. I think she's mostly confused and entranced by this little squealing creature who continuously giggles when approached. Raina has moved past this fear and now delights in greeting Roxanne each morning and afternoon. In fact, she wishes Roxanne good night before she goes to bed! Astounding.

Flag football season begins tomorrow, and Raina's initial dog fear is a throwback from last year's football season. Here's hoping that this year leaves her unscathed.

With Raina's ever increasing vocabulary and emotional capability come rather astonishing comments from the little miss. Yesterday, Raina ran downstairs and greeted me with "Mommy, I missed you today" and a big hug. It melted my heart. Today, all her post-daycare love went to the cow. He immediately got smushed/hugged and told that she missed him today too. Also, Raina has watched a fair amount of construction over the past week, and recognizes that it's "sad. Big machines make trees fall down."

Last weekend's fascination was the nighttime sky: the moon and stars. Raina spent approximately one hour in the car continuously saying: "Look, [Mommy, Daddy, Sammy] the moon! Where did moon go? It's hiding.... I found it!" as we drove around town. It was a surprise to her each and everytime that the moon and stars came in and out of view. Sam, Raina, and I went to the Cardinals game on Monday and Raina's only interest was the sky.

According to Samantha, Raina has hair that looks professionally styled, or at least like her parents devote considerable amount of time brushing and curling each day. The real truth is that Raina gets a bath once a week, so all that pretty shine is a result of oil and grease and dirt. But she does have adorable curls, and they get tighter and cuter the more humid it gets.

Raina is a bona fide artist! She revels in coloring with crayons, or molding clay, or sketching with her DoodlePro. She has progressed far past just marking the page; she does great ovals (which she calls circles) and shapes that look a lot like squares (without the sharp edges). She readily identifies what she's trying to draw -- that's you, Mommy! -- and you can actually sort of see what she put together. And she's so proud of each accomplishment! A lot of her painting work hangs in her bedroom and every night, before bed, she points to the walls, says "my paintings!" and then lists off each one. This is a great development for Raina (and for us), and we're tremendously excited for her.

Raina uses "big girl underpants" now, a.k.a. training diapers, and she can go half to three-quarters of the day with the same diaper. Unfortunately, she poops in her diaper and then gets a little upset with herself. Today, she pooped twice in the potty and she was SO PROUD OF HERSELF it was insane. But she totally gets the fact that peeing and pooping in the potty are good things. In fact, she complimented me today: "You peed in the potty. Good girl, Mommy!" We're slowly inching towards freedom from diaper tyranny.

Over the summer, Raina emotionally re-attached herself to me rather firmly and she occasionally would protest when I'd take her to daycare. Now, the opposite has happened. Sunday afternoons see Raina trying to put on her shoes and open the garage door, saying "Go to daycare!" And when we shake our heads no, she tries "Go to grocery store?" or "Big kids playground?" or "Ride in car?" or anything to get out of this house? Please? Monday morning cannot come soon enough for the little miss :)