A Month in the Life - 3

I like throwing things a lot, and especially running after them and playing catch. I played catch with my friend Theo the other day. He is a big kid, and he has a baby brother. It is fun when we go and play at his house because he has so many animals and cars and trains and balls. He likes to pick me up and carry me and he always chases me when I try and play tag with him.

When we went to his house we built a little house for the animals using big blocks, they were lots of colors and one had a fish cut out of it. It was like a puzzle to put it together and we all had to work on it. Mommy helped us a lot because some of the pieces were standing up to make the wall and she had to hold them while Theo pushed them in and then she held the walls while we put the roof on. When we were done building it we made a door. I wanted to climb in but Theo said I was too big and it was only for the cars and animals to play in.

Later we went to Theo’s room while his baby brother was eating and Mommy let us take out all of his toys. Chloe was there playing too and first we found all of the balls, I wanted to make sure that I saw every one and then I climbed into the basket. It was a boat. Then I told Chloe to put all the balls in too. I was like a big ball. Then when I was all hidden I could jump out.

Then the balls all went crash and we dumped the basket over fast. It was hilarious. Chloe found another basket this one was filled with so many animals. I didn’t know there was that many, because when Theo was playing with the house with me there were only two of them. I didn’t even know what all of the animals were called. Chloe and I decided that we had to take turns with every animal. So she would take one out and then I would take one out and then we would trade so we both got to hold every one. I wanted to make sure we knew what each one was called so we said the names. There was a Pig and a Cow, and a Baba and a horse and a cat and there were lots of Dinosaurs, I didn’t know what they were called so I asked Mommy, and gave her the Dinosaur to hold but she didn’t know what it was called either so she asked Theo and he knew, It was a big word I think he said something like Stegosaurus and Ptyronadon, I said each one after he told me the name but I don’t remember them. Sometimes I would just call them animals, and Mommy would say, Dinosaurs.

We had so many animals that me and Chloe could not see our feet and legs anymore. It was funny, I liked to push them and throw them and make them all go crash, but when I throw them Mommy tells me no.

Then I wanted to open up all of the sliding toy bins but I could not pull them out because there was card board blocking them. Mommy said it was because I was too little to play with the toys, but I reached in and found a Choo Choo, and Theo told her that he had lots of cars and trains, so she said it was ok and opened it for me. She told me she was going to go and talk to the other Mommies and would check in later. We had a lot of fun with all of the cars. I got to push them around and make them go. There were busses and trucks and cars in every color. When mommy came back in she started to laugh and told us that we made the biggest mess she had ever seen. I just giggled, I didn’t see a mess at all, and we just took all the toys out. How can you know which ones to play with if you don’t see them all?

But the best part was Mommy let us keep playing. It was a lot of fun. Theo gave us directions and made up fun stories and we drove the cars all around and they flew in the air and then we rode on the train and the train brought food to the animals and then we fed all of the animals. That’s when Theo’s baby brother came in to play. He liked to chew on the cars, I can see why they do feel good against your teeth and are hard when you bite down on them but his Mommy told him know and that’s when we had to clean up. She put up the gate to keep him out, but he cried and wanted to come and help. Chloe and I were really good and getting all of the cars and putting them in one box and getting the animals to put in the other, but the baby kept on crying. It made me sad for him, he wanted to play too and he wanted his Mommy but she was busy cleaning. I climbed up onto the toy box and I had a big car that she told me I could play with and I tried to drive it, but I kept seeing how sad the baby was, so then I missed my mommy too. I called her and called her, and then she came, but she was locked out too. So Theo’s mommy picked me up and brought me to her and I gave her a big hug. She squeezed me so tight, and that helped a lot.

I gave her lots of kisses and she kept squeezing me. That helps me to calm down and not feel so upset. She brought me back to the living room and we sat on the couch and I took a Mommy break, as she likes to call it. I gave her lots of cuddles and it was nice and quiet and soon I was ready to play. Mommy doesn’t always know when I am ready, she likes to kept giving me hugs, but I told her play and wiggled away. All the fun toys in Theo’s room where cleaned up and put away again, so it wasn’t any fun now. But then we made up a new game. Theo’s Mommy showed us the toy bins in the living room. They were bright pretty colors and I didn’t even know there was stuff inside. But in just a flash all of the sudden there was a huge pile of soft animals filling up the entire room. Theo was jumping. I was so excited I jumped up and ran over and went CRASH!

Theo kept building the pile for us and then Chloe and I got to jump into the middle of it. It is just like when Mommy squeezes me except I can do it all on my own over and over again.

Then we played hide and seek. Theo would lay down in the middle of the animals and Chloe’s mom would cover him up with the animals, and then we had to tip toe around him and then we wouldn’t know when but he would jump up from the middle of the animals are go “Raaarr” It was such a big surprise, it made us laugh so hard that I got the hiccups.

We wanted to hide too, so I decided that the colored toy bins were the perfect place to hide and I put one over me. Mommy said I was a red ghost Holly. We played Peek-a-boo. When the bins were on their side we crawled inside of them. Even Theo’s baby brother crawled inside and hid. There were four colors, brown and black and red and orange. I liked all of them, but Coco said that the black and brown ones were too dark so she was scared. She wanted to play too but didn’t like it when she was hiding by herself. So I told her she could hide with Mommy. She sat in Mommies lap and they both went bye bye together. Then I would crash on Mommy and pick up the bin and they would yell Boo! It was great. We played this game for a long time. Theo became a caterpillar and he hit inside both the brown and black bins together so that he was all gone and then when she crawled out he was a butterfly and he flew all around the room, and we chased him and caught him.

It was time for Chloe to go home, but I was having so much fun I didn’t even want to say good bye to her. She didn’t want to leave either, but her Mommy said that they had stuff they had to go home and do. I told Mommy, “No Home” and she said I could still stay and play some more. Mommy told us we should clean up all of the animals, so we ran and got them all and put them all in the baskets. Theo liked to throw them into the basket, I could dunk them too, but only when I was standing right next to them. But then Theo said he had a new idea and dumped them all out again.

So then we made up and new fun game, it was the best one of all. Theo would throw the animals across the entire room and then I would run and get it and say what it was and then run back and throw it back to him and then he would throw another one really fast so I had to run run run and get it as fast as I could and say what it was called and then run back and give it to him. It was crazy. I was just learning the game, so sometimes I got so carried away I would run all the way back to Theo and Mommy would have to remind me to throw it. Just like the other animals I didn’t know what they were all called. So we all worked together. They had Horses and dogs and a owl, and baby Ick, that one was my favorite. Mommy said that baby Ick is called a raccoon. There were more Dinosaurs and a turtle and something she called a hedge hog and some pigs and an ant eater. There was small ones and really big ones.

Theo said that Mommy should play too, I think he saw how much fun it was to do the running part and he wanted to run too. So Mommy sat where he was and she threw the animals. She was much faster then Theo, but I think that was because we were both running to catch the animals. She would call out what they were as she threw them, and she would go fast, “Giraffe, Lion, Dog, Bunny” and then I would get one and bring it back and she would already have thrown 3 more. But Theo is a faster runner and a better thrower then me, so she had to be fast so that there were enough animals for both of us to play. I like when Mommy plays with us, it was fun to take breaks and go and run fast to Mommy and crash and then go and run after the next animal.

Mommy said she was tired and wanted to go and talk with Theo’s mom and that I had ten more minutes. We decided to make up one last game. It was Theo’s idea. He said we should throw every animal to the other side of the room. So I ran back and forth and got all of them and brought them over. Then he brought all of the bins and the blocks and the mats and everything, so the entire first side was empty. We could roll on the floor and run in circles and then run really fast all across the room and jump on the pile on the other side. Theo ran and got mommy to show her what we did. The look on her face made me laugh, she was definitely surprised. And she laughed when I jumped on the pile and we both said CRASH at the same time. I love my mommy; she lets me play the most fun games of all. But then she said that ten minutes was over and it was time to go. I told her “no” and then asked if we could go to “Coco’s House?” she said no. But she did say we were going to go and see Daddy. “Daddy! Daddy, Daddy Home” I told her, and so we put on my shoes. I told her “Mommy Up” and she picked me up and we said goodbye to everyone and went to get daddy.

It was a fun day, I was so tired. She gave me my phone so I could play the Monster feeding game, I don’t remember what else happened, I know we got Daddy and then we went home and pretty soon Mommy was tucking me in and I was fast asleep.

A Month in the Life - 2

I’m in school today. Some of the other kids are playing with “Dough” but I am doing a puzzle with Mommy. It has a banana and an apple and grapes. The grapes are behind the orange, so it is tricky but Mommy helped me fit the pieces in. Normally I might have run right to the dough table, but today I played dough with Daddy before we left for school. I had a good morning. I like to wake up really slow. First I open my eyes just a bit to peak out and see who is in bed with me, and then I stretch really big making my legs very long and I look to be sure I have gee and this. (Blanket and pacifier)

Usually just Mommy is in bed with me, but sometimes Daddy is there too. After a few minutes I climb up onto Mommies pillow and look at her. Her eyes are closed and I can hear her breathing. Her cheek is soft and squishy and I usually reach out and hold it. I love Mommy so much that I want to get as close to her as I can. Sometimes I lay on her cheek, it is just so cozy. It makes me giggle when I can feel my eyelashes on her cheek. Sometimes I put my cheek on her cheek that is fun too. And sometimes I like to push my fore head into her forehead. This can go on for quite a while depending on how sleepy Mommy is. Once I wake her up she usually doesn’t let me do it is much as when her eyes are closed. Sometimes she is slower to wake up then me and I tell her “Mommy Up” I have to push her check sometimes so she will listen.

That doesn’t mean she will wake up though. She usually gives me a big hug and tells me to go and find Daddy. So I do. But that is on the mornings when it took her a long time to wake up. If she wakes up right away I am not ready to get out of bed yet. I am so excited to see her and I missed her from when I went Night Night. So some mornings we cuddle more than others. This morning I got up and went to find Daddy. We played a lot I like dough, it is so colorful I want to open every one and see all the colors, but Mommy and Daddy don’t like that that only want me to open one at a time. Mommy will usually let me have three but that is only because I am very persistent and I keep trying. I have heard her tell Daddy I get that from her.

After a while I miss Mommy and I go and visit her. I make sure to grab Gee and This and then I run into Mommies Room and climb up to the bed and give her a big hug. Today I was hungry and yelled for Daddy, “Joel, Jooooel.. Gogourt Juice” I said. Mommy calls Daddy Joel, I think that is his name, like my name is Holly. When I call him Joel like Mommy does he hears me better. When he comes in to check on us Mommy tells him I want a yogurt juice. Usually by this time she is actually thinking about getting up and she will turn towards me so I can lay next to her on her arm. Sometimes though on days when we don’t have school she sleeps a lot and I go in and see her lots of times before she will get up. On those days when I say, “Mommy Up” she turns the other way. That’s when I get to climb on her. Sometimes I climb onto the bed from the bottom, I use the cloths hamper like a step. Then I have to wiggle my way in next to Mommy between her and the wall. This is extra fun because it is like the Holly pancake game and I like to be smooshed.

Today Daddy brought me my Yogurt Juice and I asked him for my phone so I could play a game while Mommy wakes up, Mommy recently taught me the Monster match game, it is a lot of fun. I like making matches. In the game there is a little monster and he is very hungry. He is thinking about what he wants to eat. Sometimes her eats letter, like a Big R and other times he is thinking he wants to eat colors. Then there are three things I can pick to feed him. If he is thinking about the Big R then I have to find him little r mixed with more letters. If I give him the Big B he won’t eat. But sometimes it is fun to do that too. He gets grumpy when I give him the wrong food and that’s funny. Sometimes when he is thinking about yellow there is a Red Apple and a Black Cat and a Yellow Bus and so I give him the bus because it is yellow and he munches it right up, till it is all gone.

I love busses. When I am driving in Holly’s Car with Mommy I look for busses. I am really good at finding them. Mommy is silly and she needs my help to find them, she is always getting them wrong. But I like to help Mommy so she can find the busses too. She will point at the car’s and ask me, “is that a Bus” and I tell her “no” when it is a car. Sometimes she points at trucks and one time she even pointed at a Bicycle. Then if I see a Bus I tell her “Bus, Bus!!” I get very excited about them. Apparently there are lots of different kinds of Busses and Mommy is teaching me all there names. I think I like the Yellow School Bus the most. They have Big ones and Little ones too. When we drive to Coco’s house we see lots of those.

Yesterday we saw a lot of the City busses. Some are green and some are white. They have different kids of those too, I like the Two Busses Bus, it is a city bus too, but it is really really long and has two bus parts connected together. Once I saw it when it was driving around the corner and one part was on one street and the other part was on another street, it was so funny. Mommy likes to practice her numbers too. Sometimes we see lots of busses at one time, and I know if we saw two busses or even three busses. Mommy likes to count all the busses but that is too many for me to remember. Maybe that’s why she needs so much help finding them, because she is counting all the ones we already saw. I learned about a new bus yesterday too. Mommy was always letting me just call it a bus, but then yesterday she said “This one is called a shuttle bus” I knew it was different, but I didn’t know it had a special name.

We saw that bus when we went to the toy store. The toy store was lots of fun, when we go there Mommy doesn’t make me sit in the cart, so I like shopping. Today we had a cart when we first got there and she let me push it. It is very heavy but I like to push it. Mommy says I am really strong. Mommy was looking at the bottles and talking to a lady and I was getting bored waiting to go and play with more stuff, so I decided to run down the isle. Mommy lets me do this sometimes, I am never sure when it is ok to go and run and when it is not, but usually when we are shopping if Mommy lets me down from the cart then it is ok.

When I got around the corner I saw Chairs! It was so exciting. There was a table with two chairs up on the ledge so I took one chair down for me and sat on it. Just then mommy came around the corner and so I told her to sit too. But she said she was too big.I like pushing the chairs, they had soft ones and long ones and ones like I have at home. Mommy showed me one with a space man on it but I told her “no” I like the one with the cars and I like the one with the “Choo Choo” they also had a giant Choo Choo, it was so big that a bed fit inside of it. It had a box on front where you could put stuff. Mommy picked me up and put me on the bed, but I got mad. Doesn’t she know it is not Night Night time. Besides I was playing with the chairs and I did not want to go night night. She told me she wanted to take a picture for Daddy but I told her “no” and climbed right down.

On the next isle they had cars. I like cars, and trucks. Mommy kept shopping me the red one that she said is not a bus, but I don’t like that one. I like the Big Yellow ones. Mommy tells me the names of them, but I don’t think she really knows because every time she tells me it is something different so I just point and say “truck” that must be right to since mommy doesn’t tell me no. I think that are all trucks, just like there are different kids on busses but some of them have special names. Mommy and me just haven’t learned all of the special names yet, but I know when she learns them she will tell them to me too.

On the next isle they had babies. I wanted to open the stroller so I could push the baby, but mommy said I could not open it. They had one baby that was just like me and loiked to jump up and down on its bed. She is just like the Tigger I have at home, I just push her head down and then she bounces up and down on the bed. She giggles too, it is so funny, I like it a lot. They keep them up high so I have to jump to reach them, but when Mommy sees me jumping and reaching she will hand it to me, so I got three of them and we all jumped together.

Mommy showed me the Doll houses too, I didn’t really want to play with them today but she was carrying me and I could give her lots of hugs and kisses and play with her smooshy check so I didn’t mind. She showed me so many and asked me which one I liked. But I didn’t want to play with them, so every time she asked I told her “no” Mommy sometimes is really slow and it takes her a while to listen to me, so I just have to be patient with her and tell her no lots of times. If I just wait, she will tell me she is tired and then put me down, that’s my chance to play with something else. As soon as she does I have to run really fast to the end of the isle, But I want to make sure she sees me, she has to try and get me, so I wait at the end of the isle for her to catch up. She isn’t as fast of a runner as I am.

That’s when I saw them, all of the cars. Not the little cars that I can hold and I can push, but these were big cars that I could climb into. There was one that was black and it had big doors and I climbed right over the platform and opened the door and got inside. There was even a key so I could drive just like mommy does, but it didn’t go anywhere. Maybe the key was broken. The key wouldn’t come out either. So I thought maybe mommies keys will make it go. I asked her for her keys and she actually gave them to me. I didn’t think that she would, didn’t she know I could drive away now that I had them? But she didn’t look worried. I guess that is because she must have known that her keys wouldn’t fit either.

I don’t think Mommy liked playing by the cars. She kept asking me if I was ready to go. She also kept trying to get me to sit in the other cars, but I wanted this car, it was the best car. It was big and it was higher up then the rest. I think she would have had more fun if she got into the car with me. I told her too, “mommy sit” I said and pointed to the seat next to me, but she said she was too big. So then I pointed to the pink car next to me and told her again, “mommy sit” but she said she was too big to sit there too, so she just stood and watched me. She was silly because then she leaned on the car’s hood and closed her eyes. She was blocking my view and I did not like this very much so I told her “Mommy Up!” So we came up with a compromise, I told her she could have the pink Car, “Mommies car” I said and so she moved off of MY can and she leaned on the pink car. She was silly and that made me laugh, if I climbed up on the seats I could almost reach her and give her kisses.

I decided it was time to drive to Chloe’s house, I remembered what the big highway looks like and the hills we drive by and the buildings, “coco’s house?” I asked, but Mommy told me know, “Chloe is in San Francisco having lunch with her Mommy” she told me. Hmm.. Well we could go to her house after she eats lunch, so I asked, “Coco’s House?” but Mommy just told me the same thing again. She must not realize that we could go to Coco’s house and by the time we drive there she will be done eating lunch, so I asked her again, “Coco’s house?” this time she told me, “Chloe can’t play today, she is in the City with her Mommy all day, maybe tomorrow. Do you want to go hom?” Now why would I want to go home? I just told her I wanted to go to Coco’s house, sometimes I really wonder how she comes up with these things. So I told her “no” I think Mommy was ready to go home though, but I wanted to play some more. She then asked me, “Do you want to go and find a ball?” ooooooh “Ball!” I like balls, they are fun to play with. So Mommy reached out her hand for me to come down. But wait. I like my car, why would I want to leave my car, I wanted my car, and a ball. So I told Mommy, “Ball, Ball!” So then she tried to make me climb down again. I mean really.. I think sometimes she just isn’t paying attention, “No, no, I said, Ball! Ball” now I was getting a little irritated with her. Where was this ball she was talking about? I didn’t see a ball, and I was quite happy in my car, but since she said there was a ball, I wanted it too! “Ball, Ball” SO then she walked away! “MOOOOOMMMMYYYYYY” Why would she just leave me there? She turned and smiled and said she would be right back. So I watched her very carefully and waited, and it was very fast and she was holding a green Ball!!

“Sigh” Well that was close. I almost got very mad. I don’t like having to wait, and I don’t like when Mommy goes away, and I don’t like leaving my car. But mommy fixed everything and she threw the ball to me! “Catch” I laughed and laughed. “Throw the ball back to Mommy,” she told me. So I did. She bounced it back to me and it hit the car and then the shelf and then went back to Mommy, it was so funny! She tried two more times to throw it to me and it bounced everywhere and she had to run and go get it, it was so funny. I think she needs more practice, so when she finally got it to me, I threw it back and we played catch. But it was funny to watch her run after the ball so I threw it to one side and then the other as far as I could. It was a good game.

NanoWrimo!

It’s NanoWrimo time. It has been 4 years since I have last completed a Nano novel. I think getting pregnant and having a baby had a little something to do with that. Before that, I had completed two Novels. Now my Daughter is 2 years 7 Months old and after Joel, the Husband, asking that I participate - to provide support and help him actually complete - for the last two years running. So this year, I decided to take the plunge. This year however my Novel will be a little non-traditional. It is a story, a live memoir so to speak, it will be a daily account of the life of Holly my daughter, in her precocious two year old voice. It should be funny, it should help me to step into her shoes and reflect, it should be a chance to document the life of a two year old, I will be posting it hear, day by day… Assuming I write every day as I should, each day 1666 words at least, so that I make the goal of 50,000 by the end of the month. I won’t include pictures, as that is too much work (the layout part) but I will have other picture posts throughout the month. So I hope you enjoy the stories!

www.nanowrimo.org

NaBloPoMo

National Blog Posting Month is now officially Over, Happy December. I have actually posted every single day of November. many of my friends were doing nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) and sadly Joel only reached about 8000 of the 50,000 words needed to "win" I did with NaBloPoMo but it took me only 28,986 words to do it. I was using my blog posting to try and help encourage Joel to write, but since I write most of my posts at like 2:00 AM when he is asleep (the only time I have) it didn't really work.

Anywho... I am glad it was a success. I will continue writing, but I may miss a day here or there.

Monkey

Monkey
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

SO this month, November, my hubby is doing NanoWrimo (National Novel Writing Month) you write 50k words in 30 days, with an average of 1666 a day. This year I decided not to do it, because I write more then that for my blog, and I don’t have time. Then I was over at And then there were two… and learned about NaBloPoMo National Blog Posting Month…. So I am so totally doing this.. But here is the thing… I am kinda cheating.. see… I wrote every day this month, and every day is accounted for in my blog, but because I wanted to post all the pictures I already missed the 2nd and 3rd, even though I have 9 posts so far… So from this day forward I will post daily, even if it is just a short update and I have to add pictures later. I guess I will have to “win” next month, but I can still participate the rest of this month… Many more posts to come.