Valerese

Here are some cute things Valerie has been saying/doing:

1. One morning I was making Gabriel laugh hysterically by going "Hoom! Hoom!" to him (it's Albanian for "woof"), and all the rest of the day Valerie kept saying "Gabriel ha-ha again, one more time" (holding up one finger). And then at bedtime, after he had gone to sleep she said "Gabriel ha-ha again," and I said "sweetie, I can't make him laugh, he's sleeping," and about fifteen minutes later she said "Ha-ha sleep, take nap." (Except she says "take map.")

2. Speaking of "woof," anyone remember this book? So Valerie is "reading" it now, only in her version, it goes: "one dog: woof. Two dog: woof. Three dog: woof." Etc. to ten. She'll also "read" a lot of other favorite books, basically reciting what I read to her (often an edited down version if it's a very wordy book) - same intonations and everything.

3. Speaking of "one more time," apparently I have used this phrase a lot when she's asked for xyz "again," I'll concede "ok, one more time." She uses it especially at bedtime: "Mama sing Three Bears one more time." (Favorite bedtime story of the moment - I'm working on a transcript for another post.) Only now she's started saying "ten more times," while holding up three fingers. So cute.

3. The day after Terry left, she said "Dada home soon," and I said "Honey, Daddy went on a long trip. He will be back in two weeks." She said "Dada airplane just like Hop-Hop." (Context: Hop-Hop is a bunny who went on a long trip in an airplane - I made up the story for her before we came here, and after we came made it into a little book with pictures of all the things Hop-Hop likes to do, which, coincidentally, are all the same things Valerie likes to do!)

4. And one more: I finally gave in to her longing gaze and bought her a toy at the park - a wheeled, winged, horse on a stick. The toddler holds one end of the stick and pushes the horse along; the turning of the wheels makes the wings flap. She walked all around the park for about 45 minutes pushing the thing before we went home, and pushed it along even in the stroller. But when we were about a block from home, she got out of the stroller, said "bye-bye hisadou," very carefully propped the horse up on some steps, and then came back to the stroller. I was so surprised, but I think she must have thought it belonged outside and didn't realize it belongs to us now and we could take it home! I picked it up and brought it home with us and now she wants to take it every time we go out, which is fine with me :-)

5. Speaking of "Hisadidou" (that, I have realized, is the plural of "hisadou") - here are some other fun words she's produced:

- Mashadou (mushroom)

- Bathadin (dolphin)

- gler (caterpillar)

Another funny thing she does is to over-enunciate the final consonant on words that end in p, t, or k, like "hot" is "hot-t-t," etc.

***

So, we're holding up ok. I predicted to myself that it would take us about 5 days to find our equilibrium after Terry left, and behold today does feel like we're back to normal, more or less. At naptime, instead of clinging to me frantically, Valerie said "Mama go other room, nurse Gabriel," after just two rounds of Three Bears and the Alphabet song. So I left her and she fell asleep! Yay! Also, the past three nights she has slept through without waking up. This was very welcome since the second night after Terry left she woke up at midnight and didn't go to sleep again (and neither did I) until FIVE A.M. Still digging myself out from under that sleep debt.

Gabriel seems to be teething again though. He's really enjoying his rice cereal, mushed pears, bananas, and avocado (although it turns his poop very very green). I think next we'll add potato. I'm sad we can't get sweet potato here.

Well I'll wrap it up here since her highness is due to wake up soon from her nap. More when I have a chance.