Dolly's Day-to-Day

Dolly likes to assist with the housework.  She always helps unload the dishwasher.  The silverware is her specialty; she hands it to me one by one.  She helps put groceries away after we go shopping.  The last time I tried to mop the floor was a total nightmare because she kept wanting to take the mop away from me. 

She's very silly.  Once we watched her (on the video monitor) take her shirt off in her crib before she lay down to nap.  Another time, when I went in to get her, she had taken her pants off.  This day, she got one of her arms out through the neck of her shirt, which she thought was very funny (she pranced around and around showing it off; I couldn't get her to stay still for a clear picture):

 

Her favorite game is throwing her little yellow ball into the wood bin next to the fireplace and having Jim pretend that he's totally infuriated.  He fake screams, "Noooooo!  You threw the dirty ball in here!"  Then he takes it out and throws it, and the fun starts all over again.  Sometimes when Jim's not around she throws the ball in and then says to herself, "No!" 

She's had a lot of fun putting things on her head:

She really enjoys playing the piano.  Now that she can climb up onto the bench and dismount with ease, she goes into the construction zone (where the piano is) multiple times a day to play.  She messes with my sheet music, too, as if she knows what it is.  She doesn't usually pound too much and actually sometimes plays one note at a time, so that's nice. 



 

She likes being outside and tries to reach the door handles to let herself out.  She's still just a little too short, thank goodness.  Jim hasn't replanted the backyard, so it's not very enticing.  We go out once in a while, though. 

I always worry about sun exposure.  I would take her outside way more if I didn't have to either a) lube her up in sunscreen or b) fear that she's gonna get fried and end up with skin cancer.  She won't wear her hat anymore, but I have hope that she'll get used to her sunglasses:

Sometimes she eats; sometimes not so much.  We've decided that if Jim's around, the most effective meal strategy is to have Jim feed her while I prepare her numerous courses (the majority of which are invariably rejected).  Avocado and asparagus are usually hits.  Sometimes she'll do cheese, peas, quesadilla, macaroni and cheese, bananas.  I can't figure out why she loves something one day and then won't touch it again.  (She ate about a million tomatoes and strawberries at our friends' house one day and then has generally rejected both of those things ever since.)  She's into utensils.  In order to get her to eat, I give her silverware for things that would be a lot easier for her to eat with her hands. 

Jim takes Dolly on walks when he gets home from work, usually down to the end of our cul-de-sac.  Dolly walks in the middle of the street and points and grunts at various items of interest (like storm drains or dogs). 

I threw my headband on her to keep her hair out of her face. 

She loves walking up other people's driveways and climbing up/sitting on their steps.  This is not our house:



 

I still haven't consistently switched her to one nap a day.  Can't quite figure out what her schedule should be right now.  Often I try so hard to get her the naps she needs, only to have her sleep ended prematurely - or prevented entirely - by ill-timed bowel movements.  I don't understand why she always has to go at naptime!  (Because this is my journal, I get to include these details.)  She doesn't cry about dirty diapers, so I have no way of knowing if she needs a change or if I should leave her in case she's just taking a long time to fall asleep.  I think I should invent some sort of odor monitor.  She will seriously hang out quietly in her crib for hours.  I'm so glad we broke down and got a video monitor so I can at least confirm whether she's sleeping. 

Legoland

My friend Amera Alo was given three free tickets to Legoland.  Melanie has season passes, so Amera invited Kelly Jo Eddy, Melanie, and me to go. 

Amera and Kelly Jo both have toddlers and newborns.  (The newborns, born a couple days apart, are about a month old.)  The plan was to meet at Legoland when it opened at 10:00 A.M. because Melanie was going to have to leave at 11:30 to take Kara (her daughter) to school and because Amera's and Kelly Jo's toddlers nap in the afternoon.  I skipped Dolly's morning nap to get there.  Amera is notorious for being late, and she and Kelly Jo had an understandably difficult time getting all their kids situated and to the entrance of the park.  (I remember what it was like trying to get somewhere with a newborn!)  Melanie and I ended up waiting outside for an hour.  The kids hung out for a while on this bench, which was made with recycled milk jugs:

Christian Karner, feeling confident in his new hat and matching shades.

Mel finally went in so she could have a few minutes in the park before she had to leave.  Amera had my ticket, so I waited for the gang.  We got in to the playground in time to overlap Melanie, Kara, and Christian for a few minutes. 

Dolly stood with me for a while until she got up the courage to explore.  She drove a few cars, played with some legos, and went down the slide. 

Dolly (already tired) riding on the back of a motorcycle driven by Ireland Eddy.

Solo ride.

Dolly was already losing it from fatigue, so we decided to take a quick train ride and then run through the aquarium on our way out.

 

In the aquarium, we touched a sea star (apparently "starfish" is no longer an acceptable term because they're not actually fish):



There was some stadium seating by a big tank containing rays, sharks, and other nifty animal life.  Dolly had no interest in the tank; she just wanted to play on the stairs.

 

Some presentation was about to start when Dolly got too tired for life, so we took off.  All in all, I can't say it was the best use of a free Legoland ticket, but we tried. 

15 Months and a Bag Lady

Our little Dolly is 15 months old.  At 19 pounds, she didn't quite make the 4th percentile for weight.  She's in the 28th or 30th percentile for height, and her head is in the 80th percentile. 

We finally got childproof lock things on most of the kitchen cabinets.  The drawers and the single cabinet under the utility sink can't be childproofed with the doohickeys we got, so they remain open for business.  Dolly has a thing for bags and sponges, both of which can be found in the cabinet under the utility sink.  She has spent a lot of time lately pulling sponges and bags out of that cabinet and carrying them around. 

 It's really, really hard for Dolly to get all the bags on her arms.  She perseveres, though:

This day, she took the bags out to visit Jim as he stained our new fence an inexplicable orange (he said it was the only color Lowe's had). 

Jim killed our grass on purpose (again) because it had been infiltrated (again)
by a type he doesn't like.  Someday he'll dig it all up and replant it (again).

Dolly had a hard time walking on the tall grass.

She just kept getting up, though, and no bag was left behind.

She says probably 20 words at least.  Some favorites are "doctor," "thank you," "nana" (for Karen Wilson and bananas), "milk," "mail" (which sounds an awful lot like "milk"), and apple (pronounced "bapple").  Getting the mail is one of her favorite things.  I guess she's got some of Pod in her. 

We visited Eric and Mariah Koehle today, and Eric took a video of Ever saying a few words and confirming what we already knew - Daddy's her favorite:



I thought she was over the hitting thing, but she's had some bad spells lately.  I'm her primary target.  It was super-upsetting at first.  Now I'm just trying to break her of it. 

She loves roughhousing with Jim.  They growl and wrestle on the couch. 

She's getting more physical, trying to climb up on couches, chairs, and the like. 

She loves baths.  She likes to throw the rubber ducks out of the tub and splash water everywhere, so it's not my favorite. 

She's eaten peas and asparagus lately, which has brought me much joy.  She still absolutely refuses milk out of anything but a bottle.  (She sometimes will drink a little water out of a cup, which is a big step.)  Today she threw a giant fit in her high chair, crying for "milk" and pointing to a bottle on the island.  I kept trying to give her a sippy cup with milk, but she would have none of it.  We're going to have to starve her onto the sippy cup, and we probably won't do it for another couple months. 

I look forward to her expanding her vocabulary.  She now does this annoying whine/grunt while pointing at what she wants (which is everything).  That's not our favorite, but Dolly, on the whole, is still pretty great. 

Cherry Blossom Festival

Once upon a time, Jim got the idea to try to convert me to San Diego by showing me all the neat things to do here.  (Not that I didn't like it here; I just didn't think it was the wonderland everyone else seems to think it is.)  Though fun, the original San Diego tour didn't last long.  Recently Jim decided to pick it back up.  Our first outing was to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Balboa Park. 

Sam and Tatum and their two girls met us there.  It's a one-day-only event, and we didn't get there until less than an hour before it ended.  About a million other people were also there at that time, and the place wasn't very big (particularly the narrow trail we had to take down to where most of the booths/cherry trees were).  I had been looking forward to authentic Japanese cuisine, but the couple of food booths near the entrance were so crowded that we a) couldn't tell what the booths were selling and b) passed by them as quickly as possible.  After we wound down the trail to the bottom of the hill, we found a bunch of pretty trees; booths selling trinkets, origami art, and the like; and a little breathing room.  The only food offerings down there were shaved ice and kettle corn - really big in Japan, I'm sure. 

The way down:


Notice Dolly's gesture.  No. 1 baby.



 

At the bottom of the hill:

Tatum took a whole bunch of photos of us trying to get a decent family shot.  It didn't really work out.

Jim took a lot of artsy blossom shots. 

We got a bag of kettle corn and caught the last performance of the day - this sweet little high school sophomore playing the shamisen (which I just learned about in Memoirs of a Geisha):

Between songs, he told us a little about himself.  He goes to Japan every summer to learn the shamisen.  From September to June, he learns by watching people play on You Tube.  He was totally adorable. 

As we headed back up the trail, we saw this Japanese (I'm guessing) teenager wearing a Britney Spears-inspired schoolgirl outfit, along with what appeared to be bunny ears and some other bizarre accessories, doing a photo shoot:

Odd.  And fascinating.

Toward the top of the hill, Dolly took over pushing the stroller.  I had to help with steering:

She didn't want to quit.  She pushed it over the grassy area by the car and then (due to her lack of steering skills) over this dirt/rock/stick area . . .

. . . until she couldn't go anymore . . .

. . . which made her very, very sad:



I got her back on the grass, and she took off:



A mini tantrum followed when we had to stop the stroller-pushing and head back to Oceanside for Ward Conference that night.  Life's tough when you don't get everything you want all the time.