What a Character

Character

• 7a. a person marked by notable or conspicuous traits: quite a character

Conspicuous

• 1. obvious to the eye or mind: conspicuous changes
• 2. attracting attention: striking a conspicuous success

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Lately Miss Thing has been demonstrating some...character. Most notable is that demonstrated with all things musical. She does indeed love to sing, dance and play instruments. I would not go so far as to say that she is adept at any of the activities, but boy does she love it.

Her favorite instrument is the kazoo. We Santa gave her some rhythm instruments for Christmas. She was very excited. She somehow managed to break the drum on the tambourine on Christmas Day. Who knew it wasn't strong enough for a two-year-old to stand on it, eh?

What is obvious to most is rocket science for some.

It took her a while, but now she is most capable of kazoo-ing (new verb, alert the dictionary people!). Granted, her kazoo sounds most like a goose and least like music, but hey, she's got the whole blow air + hum = sound thing down.

Small steps, people. All towards an eventual band member, indeed.

Let's just hope she will one day realize that the humming is to be dropped.

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Dancing, more aptly called moving-to-music has always been a favorite activity. This is most likely because I like to sing songs to her and move to them as well. I mean, if you're going to be singing children's songs, then you should be moving around like an idiot. The movement goes right along with how you feel about what you're singing in the first place...right?

She's had a variety of favorites along the way, but right now Wheels on the Bus is the Number One Hit at our place. You can ask her what anyone/anything does on that bus and she will tell you:

The Guga on the Bus says "Chicka-boom, Chicka-boom."
Uncle Brent on the Bus says "Rub noses, Rub noses."
Pop-Pop on the bus says "You're a Stinker-Pot!"
Geat Ganny on the bus says "Wheeeeee, Doggies!"
Uncle Mike on the bus says "Trouble, trouble, trouble!"
Zorro on the bus says "Catch the ball, catch the ball."

Some of my favorite verses include:

The airplane on the bus says "Go higher, go higher."
The books on the bus go "Read, read, read."
The trains on the bus go "choo-choo, choo-choo."
The Kassie on the bus goes "Don't you peek!"

You can ask her for anything and she will come up with an answer for their bus-ride.

Recently she's been attending a dance class. I have no idea what they do in there because parents aren't allowed. The teacher is Russian, so I can't really ask what they do either. I have found out that Miss Thing pays attention very well and works very hard for fifteen minutes, which the teacher tells me is twice as long as most students her age.

Then she plays.

While the other kids are still having class.

Yeah....

So I'll be picking her up after fifteen minutes from now on.

Yesterday she went to class dressed like so:

"So pretty, Mama!"

I asked her to show me what she learned in class and she took a long, oh so long, time staring at her feet. She then demanded "Mama, help me!" and we ended up with this:

First position-ish.

I asked her what she did with her arms at class, since she was very sure of her feet/legs, and she began to move them up and down like so:

Then she ran around in circles, in a so-not-ballet fashion.

I'm pretty sure that was the play portion of the lesson.

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Singing is her most favorite activity. I blame attribute this to The Wonder Pets. For the uninitiated, A.K.A Those Without Children, The Wonder Pets are three little animals who save other animals using teamwork. In addition, they sing their entire day/story/event. An entire show, sung by Linny the guinea-pig, Tuck the turtle and Ming-Ming the duckling. Every show is entitled The Wonder Pets save the insert animal name here.

What they really need is a The Wonder Pets Save the Parents show where we are made immune to the melodies and therefore do not dream in Wonder-Pet-Song all night long.

You know, just to provide us with a slightly larger chance of sanity.

Miss Thing adores these characters and spends much of her day singing things to me because of them. The most amazing thing to me is that she can truly improvise (on a two-year-old level) with her words. As for the melodies, well...let's just say that she either wouldn't make the cut on American Idol or she'd be one of those "human-interest"/"get ready to laugh" segments.

A perfect example of her new-found ability to sing about anything/change words at will is the blessing.

Yes, the blessing.

She knows one, learned from her cousins, that goes to the tune of Frère Jacques. The words are as follows:

God our Father, God our Father
We thank you, we thank you
For our many blessings, for our many blessings
A-men, A-men.

One night we were all sitting at the table, hands clasped as directed (she likes film-work too, apparently), eyes closed and waiting. She sang her usual blessing with one small change...

Amen, sister!

Amen, indeed!

Hello from Tokyo!

This is a game called "Dee Dah, Dee Dah, DAH!" that Miss Thing has been playing with her Daddy and her Tokyo Souvenir, which she named Patches.

Enjoy and I'll hopefully post soon from the states!

Basketballs!!

When we first arrived here on Sakhalin, most of the families with children were M.I.A.  We had a few toys for Miss Thing, but only those that would fit into a tiny carry-on, so not that many really.  Boredom was a pretty major factor in casa crazypants.  Add to that the fact that we were fairly loopy due to the jet-lag and, well, it was a bit rough.

Thankfully, there is a playroom up at the community center that we could head off to whenever we just needed to get out of the house.  Right beside it is the gymnasium.  One Saturday after eating brunch in the restaurant, we headed to the gym to play basketball.

Miss Thing was OH SO EXCITED!  She threw the ball and she kicked the ball and she chased the ball.  Then, after she finally got the ball ("I get it!  I get it!"), she would run and shoot the ball.  This is an activity she still enjoys (although now if Daddy is there she tells him that she needs help to shoot so that he will pick her up) and we play from time to time.

This video was taken the second time we ever went to play basketball, one day after her second birthday.  She is much better at catching the ball on the roll these days, but she enjoys herself just as much now as she did then.

Pop-Pop Giggles

Just before the final race-to-the-finish of moving, Pop-Pop and Grammie came down to visit us in Houston. They came over Easter weekend. We had plenty of fun and they assisted us with some outdoor-type cleaning as well. The cars were washed...a little early, since we didn't sell them until the first week of May, but at least the insides were super clean. Grammie and I cleaned up some outdoor play things that had been lent to us by some friends. Note to all: we miss everyone!

That afternoon, once all cleaning had been accomplished and Miss Thing had taken her nap (and I had successfully not let anyone know I was pregnant, cause boy howdy did I feel awful by that point), Miss Thing and her Pop-Pop had some fun.

Why is my child naked? I have not a clue. I believe it is just because she wanted to be and therefore: naked. Anyway, the following is a fabulous video of the two of them playing:



As you can see, it doesn't take much to get her going!

Ready, Set, Go!

Our Saturdays are usually pretty routine. We wake up and lounge around for a little while. Miss Thing watches some Pooh Bear (bae-ah) or Mickey (never woulda guessed, eh?) while I check things out online and attempt to wake myself up. This is especially true of late since our somewhat good sleeper has become a not-so-great one and it is kinda killing me.

Rocket Man usually wakes and does his morning routine, which consists of reading, tea and work email. Again, imagine that.

We usually try to talk to my parents on the webcam for a little bit (man does that thing suck away the internets...we pay by usage here) and then anytime after 11:00 we head up to the community center for brunch.

Rocket Man and I eat breakfast and Miss Thing almost always chooses "Peanut Butter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" for her meal.

Then? Oh, then. We do what Miss Thing has termed: Play Basketballs.

At first this actually meant going into the gym to shoot some hoops...Rocket Man and I for reals and Miss Thing for pretend. She's pretty good for a two-year-old.

Nowadays "Play basketballs" just means go to the playroom and RUN with Daddy.

Below are two videos. The first is the two of them running around the ping-pong tables (hello, corner, please take my eyes out) while Miss Thing squeals. Usually she yells "Let's run!" the whole way.

Video two is one of my favorite because she tells Daddy to "Ready, set, go!" and then enjoys his running before she realizes that she should run too, and her facial expressions are priceless.

Enjoy!

"Fishes!"

We've been in Seoul since Thursday evening. I had to come here for some medical testing (for the pregnancy) that they cannot perform in Yuzhno. I plan to blog a bit about our time here, but until then here is a little taste of what we've been up to:

V is for Vicious

Grammie and Pop-Pop sent Miss Thing a valentine gift.

It is...well...you can decide for yourself.

She enjoys it, but to the point that letting her play with it means that when she is done (read: we tell her she is done) she cries and carries on as if the world has ended. It is quite a lot to deal with.

The dog sees it as an imminent threat. We are all about to die, he just knows it. He attacks, although he isn't sure which end requires his attention, so he alternates between the two. That is quite a lot to deal with as well.

Needless to say, it spends a lot of time "hanging out" somewhere in the depths of our closet.

And it looks so innocent....

Best Pretend

Jeepers Creepers it took me forever to get this thing to load onto YouTube tonight...and it is still saying that the video is being processed, so the quality isn't great just yet. Hopefully if it looks bad on your computer now, it will improve by tomorrow morning! Your volume will need to be up to hear her.

Miss Perpetual Motion has been playing pretend lately. Her favorite thing to pretend is going Night-Night with Dog-Dog.

Why is it that things have two names...the same word...when you are dealing with infants/toddlers?

Anyway.

Here she is, pretending with me. If you hold out until the end, you'll get to hear/see her "Cheese" for photos.

Best Boo!

Today was a tough day for many; we all had to get back into the swing of things. People went back to work, kids went back to school, and for us? We had to deal with the fact that Perpetual Motion didn't get to see her Daddy all day long.

It is very difficult when you are a little one.

At one point during the morning, she was saying everyone's name she knew. This included the Aunts and Uncles as well as the grandparents and great-grandparents. Randomly she would state their names and occasionally a name would be accompanied by a very purposeful nod of the head.

Our outing for the day was a trip to find a couple of long-sleeve outfits since she has just in the last few days outgrown some. Unfortunately, we live in Houston, land of the warm and humid, and although it was cold for our averages today (and supposedly remaining that way and colder for the week), there were no long-sleeved anythings to be found.

I searched through three stores worth of clothing and only managed to find two outfits. I also managed a pair of long-sleeved pajamas, but even those aren't fleece, which is what we are wearing right now. It seems whenever I shop that the clothes I like are available in every size except hers...as if everyone in the surrounding area has a little girl that big and bought up all of the clothes already.

There were bathing suits and thin, little clothes out.

It is only January 4th.

Anyway - here are some photos of what I found:

 

 

 

 

 

Any of you who know her are well aware that she has a penguin with which she sleeps and she absolutely loves elephants.  They are her favorite at the zoo and it is the best animal sound that her Daddy makes.  As she is working on her Fs/PHs, the name comes out "Elelant", but we'll get there.

And now for our best of the day: Best Boo!  Also, the first video I've ever posted. We bought ourselves a mini recorder (like the flip, but a different brand) for Christmas. I hooked it up today and apparently we already have about thirty videos recorded.

We are in so much trouble.

Anyway, here she is playing Peek-A-Boo with her rocking chair. You can hear me very well as I am holding the camera, but in order to hear her, I suggest turning your volume up very high. Enjoy!