The Cheese X2

We took The Cheese with us to the doctor yesterday. She's always happy just to be included and go someplace different. We gave her some news that shocked her. Perhaps "shocking" isn't the right word - "confused" I think is better.

Happy Birthday Cheese

I can't believe the Cheese is 2! We had a low key birthday - typical Teves style. Auntie Beth, Uncle Brent, and David came over for cake and presents. I took her out for pancakes at IHOP, where she was fascinated by the little individual cups of creamer. The only way I could get her out of there without having a complete meltdown was by tempting her with the tent that Bubbie and Poppee sent. It worked.

After we played in the tent and took a nap. Auntie and Uncle showed up. We had cake. She really wasn't too into the food because she had a cold, so she went for the textures.

The birthday fun continued and rolled over into Sunday. Our good friends from church, Wilma and Sharon, got her this loud ball blowing thing that she LOVES. She freaked out over this thing for about an hour. We had no problems falling asleep that night.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Always a classic! My favorite parts:
1. When The Cheese says "Down came the rain with lot of water."
2. At the end - the sun comes out, all looks really good, then SPLAT, she gets the spider. That's my girl! Killing spiders.

Flower

Since she was old enough to say "flower", it has always come out "Flow-blblblblblbblblblb-er". I don't know why, it just has. Note, too, the Bo Julia at the end. Whenever we take out the camera to take snaps or video, The Cheese will frantically say, "Bo Julia!" over and over. It's her way of asking to see herself in the camera. I think it's a variant of "baby Julia" but who really knows?

Library Cheese

Every week, Lynnie takes the Cheese down to the library. There is a little children's program where they sing songs and hear a story - if you can over the din of 35 wee ones. She takes after her old man, sadly. This is what I look like in an aerobics class - I can kinda do it, but not most of it and I'm happier when it's over than at any other time. I don't think she's gonna be much of a dancer - just a mover and a shaker.

Prayin' Cheese

Before every meal, we try to have The Cheese give thanks for her food. For months we've said the same prayer and this week, she's finally started to say it on her own. I can't seem to get her to pray a different one at bed time, though. If you ever ask her to pray, this is what you'll get:

It's kinda hard to understand. She's saying, "Yoko Jesus for our food, Amen."

Cheesisms: Yoko = Thank you. Nyoko = No Thank You.

The Big Girl Bed

The other day, we got the Cheese her first big girl bed. So far, so good. The first day was a bit dodgy. She wasn't sure quite how to fall asleep in all that space, but today she's doing much better. She likes her bed, a lot, but not nearly as much as the blanket that she sleeps with. She calls her blanket, "biddy." She has some very deep emotions when it comes to the biddy - and the cat down the street called, Nicco - and the camera.

More Screamin' Cheese a.k.a Girl Practice

The other day, I heard screaming, lots of screaming coming from the Cheese and Lynnie. I went down stairs to see what the deal-i-o was. What I found was a sacred rite of passage. You see, when a young girl reaches the right time in her life, her mother will share with her the secret of womanhood - that would be the ubiquitous lady scream heard in countless cultures from around the world. This went on much longer than this clip. Turn the sound down. She's always had a good set of lungs.

Hangin' with the Cheese

I was on vacation this past week.  We didn't go anywhere.  We just hung out around here.  I like to create problems for the Cheese to solve - it keeps her busy.  One day, we were doing something in the dining room and I pretended to be stuck under the table.  You can hear her suggestions - I help in the translation.  My favorite part is when she stops caring that her Dad needs help.  You can't miss it.  I hope I'm never in peril and at the mercy of the Cheese.  

The Farm

Summer is upon us, here in beautiful northern Virginia.  We are enjoying our time outside.  The Cheese gets very bored from routine, so we have to take her to hot smelly places in order to tire her out.  There are several free farms with animals that are run by the state parks department.  She LOVES the farm.  All the animals and the stink and the mess to step in - it couldn't get any better for a baby Cheese!  Today we took her to Frying Pan Park.  I don't think any of these animals will be in the frying pan - although there was a rather ornery cow who yelled at us.  The Cheese didn't flinch.  The cows weren't that great, but she discovered that she is quite fond of piggies.  

C is for Cookie

Youtube is one of the coolest things about the interweb.  We have used it so much to entertain the Cheese.  We've gone through several fads, beginning with the great Snuggle Puppy video that she's dug on since she was about 9 months.  Then there was Davy Jones' Personal Penguin.  Lately these two oldies, but goodies haven't been cuttin' it on the entertainment front.  Lynnie started pulling up these classic Sesame Street shorts - including Jon-Jon counting.  Everyone loves Cookie Monster, but the Cheese takes it to levels bordering on obsession.  She is the Cookie Monster groupie.

Phone

Technology is what really moves the Cheese.  Some kids like music, some kids like a favorite toy, but the Cheese is all about technology.  Anything with buttons and lights will cause her to drop what she's doing and go in hot pursuit.  I recently got a new cell phone which has become part of our bedtime routine.  Every night, either before or after her bath, she spends some time on the potty WITH my cell phone.  She holds on so tightly to that thing, I don't worry about her dropping it in there.  She has some great conversations on it, too. 

Moo Baa LaLaLa!

When the Cheese was but a wee lass of 4 or 5 months, Lynnie started reading her stories.  The Cheese loved this, especially after bath time.  We would all go into her room, and Lynnie would get her all ready for bed while I laid next to her on the floor and distracted her with the same stories night after night.   

Here she is enjoying some cereal and reciting on of her favorites with her mom.  This is Moo Baa LaLaLa.  It's highly entertaining.  

  

Waking Up

Waking up isn't always easy.  The Cheese, however, has no problems with starting a new day/continuing her day after catching some zzzz's.  She just pops up like toast, starts talking, and gets right in there.  I wish I was like her!

You can pick out somethings that she says.  I think she talks about momma, her "biddy" - that would be her blanket, and the potty.  

Basket-Head

The Cheese has found a favorite new past time, taking things out of containers and putting them back in.  She does this with everything.  She took all of her bath toys and threw them out of the tub, one by one.  The other day, she got a hold of a basket with blankets in it.  She took all the blankets out, then walked around the living room schlepping this basket around with her.  She walked it over to Lynnie and, I'm not sure how, but this is what happened.

The Cheese and Lynn sat there for a while.  When Julia gets under the basket, she points to her fingers and talks - a lot.  I tried to get it on video, but as usual I was a bit too late, as the Cheese was starting to wind down.  

Bawl!

The other day, Lynnie came home from a shopping run with this giant ball.  The Cheese pretty much flipped her lid.  She loves chasing the ball, especially after it bounces off her head.  I know it's weird, but she really likes saying, "BONK."  Today, Lynnie put peas on her plate.  She had seen these in their natural state before, but tonight after rolling them around in her fingers for about 10 minutes, it finally hit her what these things on her plate were.  "BAWL!"  I don't know why, but when she says ball, she totally sounds like a New Yorker.

  

Answering the Eternal Question: Who DID Let The Dogs Out?

I know it has been a very long time since our last post.  We are settling in here in Virginia and are really enjoying our new life out here.  On Valentine's Day, Julia got a card from Bubbee that played music.  Julia is used to the more sultry tunes of The Wiggles, Aretha Franklin, and Johnny Cash.  So, when Who Let the Dogs Out screamed at her from the nice doggy pictures on the card, she got a little scared.  It's kind of funny because she makes the same face as the monkey on her favorite hoody.  But you can't believe what a difference a day makes.  Check it out.

Thankfully, after a few days Julia's techno-curiosity got the best of her.  She finally found out that this cool lookin' computer chip thing was making the card sing.  Thankfully, this discovery is what finally stopped the song.  There are still nights, when I am laying in bed, falling asleep in our quiet house, and I can still hear, "WHO LET THE DOGS OUT? WOOF WOOF WOOF!!" banging around in my head.  Aaah.  Good times.