Dad says NO

Sasha wakes up often in the middle of the night. Now that I think of it, she's two-and-a-half and still has never slept through the night. Anyways, during one of her many night wakings, she and my husband had an amusing conversation tonight:
Sasha: I'm DADA!
Jon: So, what does dada say?
Sasha: "Sasha, no!"
Jon: And what else does dada say?
Sasha: "It's okay! Much better?"
Jon: And what else does dada say?
Sasha: Much better? I love you.
She was wide awake for a while, meowing like a kitty-cat and just being generally cute and cuddly. My husband was very tired and wanted sleep, but it's hard to be mad so he just grins and endures it. It is hard for him to return back to sleep after a night waking session as he has some sort of chronic insomnia. After a little more playtime and some chocolate milk, she finally returned back to sleep for a while.
My dear husband always lets me get a full 8 hours of sleep during the day, regardless of how much sleep he got at night with Sasha. He's a great dad and husband and I really appreciate all he does.

Teething again?

It's been a long time since a teething post! But interestingly I think Sasha's getting a new tooth. My clues:
One day while we were riding in the car, Sasha started whining. I asked her if she was hurting and she said yes. I asked her where, and she pointed to the molar area of her right cheek.
Also, she's been gnawing on her finger like crazy lately. All day and night, she's got a finger in her mouth and it's all pruned up.

I haven't stuck any of my fingers in her mouth to feel for any bumps. It would feel weird to do that now that she's like 2 and a half. She's got a lot of chompers in there now so that sounds dangerous!

Monster

Sasha has this thing lately that's been escalating.
At first it started out that she points somewhere, yells "MONSTER!", and runs up to one of her parents. She pretends she's scared of some invisible monster. It was cute at first, and playful. She has this cute mock-scared warbly voice that she uses. I think she learned it from watching Wow Wow Wubbzy.

But it's escalated into interesting territory. At the mall the other day, she was playing around in one of the hallways while we were waiting for my husband to put a bag in the car and come back. She wandered away from me, and a man walked down the hall. She saw the man approaching, pointed directly at him, yelled "OH NO! MONSTER!" and ran back to me at full speed. The expression on the guy's face was priceless. I didn't know whether to laugh, scold her, apologize, make some explanation, or what. I sort of did a little of each. But she did it again to some Hindu woman in the hallway by the laundry room at our apartment. And to some other woman in the lobby of our apartment. And to some other guy on the elevator.
It's getting a bit ackward. I do find it funny but I need to break her of this habit.

Samples

Sasha and I have a little tradition together. It's sort of silly and it's a guilty pleasure of ours.
It's Costco free samples.
I swear, you can make a meal out of it. We skipped breakfast this morning and went to Costco and gorged ourselves on free samples. And sometimes Sasha surprises me with what she'll actually eat.
First sample was chicken burritos with guacamole. Sasha tried one tiny bite of the burrito and rejected it. Too hot. The guacamole, however, she chowed down on it. I remarked to the free sample lady that I was surprised Sasha actually ate the guacamole, and sample lady replied that her kids all loved it too when they were little. Sasha asked for more, so the kind lady volunteered to give seconds, usually a no-no. She gave us a HUGE scoop of guacamole, and Sasha ate all of it except the final bite.
Also on sample today was some breakfast sausage (Sasha ate it then spit it out), mango juice (she wouldn't touch the stuff), carrot juice (she wouldn't drink it).
They had some bourbon chicken. Sasha LOVES chicken, and a chicken chunk on a toothpick is totally up her alley. She scarfed her sample down whole, and the sample ladies giggled at her. They made sure I took a sample for myself too. I didn't eat mine immediately, and didn't notice Sasha staring my sample down. When I finally popped the chicken bit into my mouth, Sasha deeply scowled at me and sighed. I think she was hoping I'd give her my chicken sample, poor thing.
Finally, they had free sample of her most favorite thing in the world: chocolate milk. Sasha is made of the stuff. It is a catastrophe in our household if we run out of the stuff.

Sasha always smiles and says "Hi!", and "Thank you" to the free sample servers. The sample servers normally swoon over her cuteness. I get to see what sort of foods Sasha will eat that I didn't know she liked. It's great fun all around.
And of course, I love shopping at Costco.

A nice afternoon nap

(click to enlarge)
Sasha and her daddy fell asleep on the living room couch while watching television. With the sunlight from the balcony falling over them, I wanted to try a nice no-flash picture of them.
It makes my heart melt a little whenever I look at it. Those two have a special bond. Sasha absolutely and unconditionally loves her dad, and vice versa too. This little girl is so beloved and so very loving.

Knitted sweater

I finished knitting this sweater for Sasha about a month ago but apparently it has the magic ability to transform my toddler into a rocket. Every time I try to photograph her in it, she runs around like I lit her fuse and I just can not get her on film.
So after about 2342837423974238974 unsuccessful shots of this darned sweater, we have a few semi-workable pictures (click to enlarge). Here we go:



Never mind the chocolate ice cream on her face. And she has her beloved toy wrench in her hand and uses it as an occasional pretend telephone.
As for the sweater, the pattern I used was Helena from Knitty.com. I had a lot of fun making the body part of it. (The sleeves were a chore. I hate sleeves.) I added some extra length to the body by adding an extra lace repeat, since my little girl tends to the long and skinny side. I made it a bit big so it will last a while, relatively speaking since she's growing like a weed lately.

I just learned that the designer of the Helena sweater came out with an adult sized pattern too. Oh oh!

Little Sous Chef

Fresh from a nap and going right for the camera
Sasha made her own sandwiches today. And she was pretty good at it too. She took her little butter knife from her tea set and used it to spread mayo on her bread. In this, she was very careful. Then she put her cheese on it, folded it up, and ate it. She ate two of them!

Her favorite drink in the whole world is chocolate milk. She knows that routine too. Milk goes in her special cup. Then chocolate syrup. Then it gets stirred. When she wants chocolate milk, she opens the refrigerator, gets out the milk and the chocolate syrup, and hands it to us.

She's always been a good helper in the kitchen.
Today she also washed dishes. She has a red plastic ikea chair that she drags up to the kitchen sink. It's the perfect height for her to stand on and reach into the sink. We have to be careful because she does this on her own now and we often find her in the kitchen sink lately. Anyways my husband let her wash dishes on her own today. If the dish was still dirty, my husband put it back in the dirty dishes pile and she eventually rewashed it. She has the whole routine down.
She knows how to make coffee and tea but her parents won't let her do that by herself. If I'm in the kitchen, she's always there with me, standing on her little red chair, supervising and watching my every move.

Silly Faces of Sasha

Some silly faces. Alternately, I could title this, "Mom playing with the camera and using her poor defenseless toddler as a practice target". Hehe!
Posing for her picture
Saying Cheese!
Home Alone!
Sad Face-

Deep in thought

Say Cheese!

I got a new camera. A nice one that I'm still trying to figure out. It's a Canon Rebel XS and it should take some really nice pictures if I ever learn what I'm doing. For now it's auto mode until I learn some photography skills.
Meanwhile, Sasha saw me studying my new camera and tried to show me what it's all about by grabbing my old point-and-shoot camera. These are some of my first photos taken with the new camera.
Say Cheese!

About a month late

I uploaded pics from my old camera onto my computer and realized I forgot to tell the tale of our gingerbread house.
My older daughter Cassie got a gingerbread house kit as a gift from her Grandma Pat. Grandma Pat was her babysitter from way back when Cassie was a little baby, and is as close as family. A few weeks back, Cassie went visit her Grandma Pat and family for a weekend.
Anyways, Cassie made her gingerbread house. As I took her picture, she gave me her best "Starbucks Apathetic" facial expression:

It's our joke that someday Cassie will go work for Starbucks, and she has to practice her apathetic facial expressions, annoyed sighs, and condescending glares.
Here is the finished gingerbread house:

And here is what Sasha thought of it (click to enlarge):

Note the sign in front of the house which says, "Trespassers will be shot". Hehe, I love Cassie's dark sense of humor.

Still sick, off and on

At the mall, enjoying an ice cream cone.

Yesterday, Sasha was in great spirits. We thought Sasha had recovered from whatever was ailing her. She was playful and didn't seem feverish. She got to go to the mall and play at the indoor children's playland, which she loves (and her mama got some A&W rootbeer, which she's been craving lately).
But then by the late evening it became apparent she wasn't well again. She was whiny and her fever spiked up to 101.3.
I think she'll have a doctor visit today.
She has no other symptoms other than the fever and her whiny clinginess. She obviously doesn't feel well, but she says she isn't in any pain when we ask her if she hurts.

Snuggly sick

While sleeping, my husband and I both noticed that Sasha felt unusually warm. Actually, her head was VERY hot; I could feel the heat radiating off her before I even touched her. She snuggled up to us more insistently than usual as she tried to sleep.
For some reason, when Sasha gets sick, she becomes very snuggly.
When we woke up, I took Sasha's temperature with a tympanic (ear) thermometer. She doesn't mind getting her temp taken this way. She had a low grade fever, about 100F degrees (38 C). We asked her if she was in any pain, and she said she wasn't hurting anywhere. She had no other symptoms other than the fever and clinginess.
So yesterday, Sasha spent the whole entire day cuddled up to my husband or I, or both. We took turns laying down with her on the couch while she watched tv and hugged us fiercely.
Sometimes she would give me a huge forceful hug, then look me in the eyes and ask,"Much better?", as if she was comforting me instead.
But for the most part, so long as she had someone to hug and cling to, she was okay.
And that wasn't a bad way to spend a day at all. If it wasn't for the fact that I knew that she wasn't feeling well, I would have been very happy to spend a whole day cuddling with my two year old.

Our "cookbook"

Just a quick link to a family project. My husband and I have collected recipes over the years that have become family staple meals. We have been meaning to compile all the recipes together in a central spot, but the recipes are in so many different forms that it's been difficult. It's always been on our to-do list but just never got done.
So we are finally tackling that project. We have started dragging out the family favorite recipes. Some are written on sheets of paper. Some are in cookbooks. Some only exist in our minds and tummies.
Mike, if you're out there! Jon says that he could use some input from you. There were a bunch of recipes that you could probably share with us that he remembers growing up with. Let us know if there are any that you care to share with us. We'd love to have them.

Mom & Daughter moments

Here are a few Mom & Daughter moments:
Watching traffic from a restauraunt with an indoor bridge over a freeway. She and I sat there and watched the cars and trucks pass under us for quite a while.
She and I went for a walk outside a strip mall. We browsed all the stores. But best of all, she loved pushing the shopping cart. "I'm shopping!"
Sasha is my little buddy. I love playing with her and spending time with her.

My buddy

This is the best age! Sasha has been my little buddy and it is so rewarding to be her parent.
I haven't blogged much lately, and I think part of it is there are just so many cool new things with her that there's no way I can keep up. And now I'm way behind, but I guess that's okay.
She still pretends to be different people or animals, which is now the norm with her. She is NEVER Sasha anymore. She's a dog, a cat, a frog, Wow-Wow Wubbzy, Cassie, Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Grandma, "Max and Ruby", Spongebob, or whoever she decides she is at that moment.
For example, if she's a dog, she'll run around the house panting with her tongue hanging out, barking, and she'll try to lick me on my face!
When she's in trouble, she'll pretend she is Dad in the hopes that she won't be punished. "NO! I'm Dad!", as if that changes everything.
When she wears a hat, she is Grandpa. Because a Grandpa always wears a hat, of course.
Sometimes she runs up to Cassie and says "I'm Cassie!", then she'll run around and copy everything Cassie does.
There was a show on tv about animals, and it was talking about snakes. Sasha was enthralled with this new information and clearly found it cool. "I'm SNAKE!", she yelled and then pretended to be a snake for a few minutes until it was time to be something else.

She takes great care of everyone and is so amazingly affectionate. If she thinks we're hurt, she'll kiss our owie, look us deep in our eyes and ask, "Much better?". If we look sleepy, she'll get us a pillow and blanket and carefully tuck us in. Then she'll hug us and try to snuggle us to sleep, the way we do for her.
Sometimes she'll just sit down next to me and snuggle for a little while. Sometimes she hugs me then lays down in my lap and falls asleep. It reminds me of when she was much younger, when she always fell asleep in my arms. It eventually became rare for her to sleep in my arms, so it's cute that she's doing that again. I enjoy it as I'm sure it won't last. I try to enjoy every moment.
I could go on and on. She is very expressive about everything she sees. She cracks little jokes. It's really fun, now that she's talking, to hear what she thinks about things, especially when she observes something new.
Her copycat ways can be very enlightening. Sometimes she'll mimic me and I won't notice. Then I'll see her looking back and forth between herself and me, while she's trying very hard to sit cross legged or to position herself in the same way I am.

I wish I could remember everything I meant to write about, but there is just so much that I can't remember any of it. She has dozens of new skills and tricks every day and she just has so much personality!