Pig on Her Head

Today, Ryanne crawled into my lap and started clapping her hands like the Alligator in the video. I started it up. She was overjoyed and just giggled like a mad woman when the alligator segment came on.

Given that, I think it's time for an animal sounds recap.

• Cow - mmmmoooooo
  
• Cat - Mrow
  
• Dog - Aaaa Aaaa (in her best little girl squealy voice)
  
• Duck - Qua Qua
  
• Frog - Ree Ree or Tah Tah
  
• Lion - Raaaa (in her best deep voice)
  
• Bird - Wee Wee
  
• Fish - kissy lips that move
  
• Bunny Rabbit - some funky combination of moving her lips, squinting her eyes and sometimes pushing her nose up (trying to wiggle her nose like mama)
  

We need to get the series on video, but that may take us a bit as we'll need longer than the 30s allowed by our digital still.

Oh, and I'll bury these since they're no fun to talk about. She's just about given me a heart attack twice in the last week. First, she cut herself on one of L'il bro's knives. He was cutting up boxes and she got to the knife as he tried to keep it away from her. It nicked her finger pretty deep so it took a while to stop bleeding. She hated having to sit still while I put pressure on it.

Second, I followed her out on to our 11th story balcony today. She walked into my bedroom, up to the door, unlocked it, walked outside, shut the door behind her and climbed onto the bottom of the rail (about 6" off the ground). I'm pretty sure the bars are too close for her to ever squeeze through them, but I'm not 100% happy she has this new skill.

Bring on the grey hairs!

Drama Queen

Ryanne is turning into quite the little drama queen. These days, when she doesn't get what she wants, she will throw herself on the floor or flail herself into my knees and just 'cry' and scream. We reached new heights on Sunday, though. She would get mad, run into the living room and look at her reflection in the television screen and then cry. She'd practice (I guess) for a minute and then run back into the kitchen, fling herself on the floor and use the cry she just perfected. It was SO hard for me not to laugh...so. very. hard.

Today, she also started singing. She stared out singing the little song on her morning program (but it was during the afternoon repeat). There's a segment where they sing "pa ja ma" with various repetitions while the selected 3 year old of the day puts on a pair of PJs. Today, I hear a tiny "pa pa pajama, pa jama jama, pa ja jama" coming from her as they sang on TV. It was SO cute to hear her little voice. Then, she started singing the "we're going to get dada" song while we were in the car. Her version was just "dada dada". *melt*

Today was also, apparently, naked baby tv day. It was really nice outside, but every time I tried to get her to play or do something else, she threw a fit and went back to the television. She watched some REALLY boring stuff. It wasn't worth the tantrums to get her away from it, though. After she spilled water on herself, she sat in a diaper, watching television. I was reminded of the years of my dad watching television in underwear in his favorite chair. Yeah, she's related to him, alright. She was perfectly happy. My attempts at clothes did no better than toys. Oh well...maybe it'll be nice again tomorrow and the park will be a better option.

Easter

Ryanne had a terrific Easter. Chrys and I colored eggs for her after she went to bed on Saturday night. The Bunny came to hide them and left her what he could for Easter. Turns out Easter isn't a major deal over here so I was VERY glad I picked up a few items for her in the US.

She had a great time hunting eggs. We coached her to look for them and then she ran around yelling 'ay guh' and picking them up. She was a great huntress and tracked most of them down with little help. The one in her bookcase confused her a bit...not sure where she thought her books were when we suggested she look with them. She kept running into the office when they were two steps away in the kitchen. Oh well... I think her favorite part was bashing two of them together to listen for the crunch. She did that with most of them.

Of course, now, she won't eat any of them. She'd never had a hard boiled egg, but has eaten lots of scrambled ones. I can't even get her try a bite of one of them. I guess I'll be eating lots of eggs...

Speaking of Easter, I took her to see the Easter Bunny while we were in Vermont. I had a hard time keeping her away from him while a littler baby got her picture taken. Turns out the first baby liked seeing other babies and that was a guaranteed smile from her so Ryanne did some good. When it was finally her turn, I told her to go give the Bunny a hug. She ran up to him with her arms outstretched. He picked her up and we got a HUGE smile on photo. I need to send those out soon - bad mama!

Hi-yo

Ryanne has said her first Japanese word. We were playing as we waited in line for the bus at Narita yesterday and we were saying "ohayo". After a bit, she looked at us, bowed (which we hadn't been doing so I was very impressed) and said "hi-yo". I was so proud and the people around us smiled and 'awww'ed at her.

She finally cut tooth #8 while we were in the states. We're guessing around 3/12. It's the lower right eye tooth. We've been waiting on that one for a while now. There's been quite a bit of swelling in her back gums (molar territory), but nothing sharp or visible yet.

She was a HUGE hit at the wedding. She behaved very well and even napped at the reception. She did the perfect amount of dancing and just being too darned cute in her little blue dress. Many people commented on how good and sweet she was. It made me feel good to have our efforts recognized by so many non-family members. I didn't even get too much 'drive-by' parenting advice so I must be doing ok. ;)

We've had a rough couple of days getting back into schedule here. I think part of it was that we never really got into a schedule in the US this time. Our days were SO full and hectic that we never knew when she'd be going to bed and we'd need to wake her up. I think we're lucky she didn't just go into full meltdown while we were there. We got more whining than normal, but not near as bad as it should have been given how sleep deprived she was. It just makes me realize how thankful I should be that I got such an easygoing kid. Right now, I'm not afraid of doing this again. She's such a joy and doing so well at everything that I'm sure she'll do great with a sibling (NOT that we're trying right now, but we all know it will happen).

Right now, though, she naps so I'm going to take advantage of the time and finish getting unpacked and the place cleaned up.

Sick baby

Poor RC's got a runny nose. Right now, that seems to be the extent of it. She just has constant flow. She's also got the blotchy cheeks and *NASTY* diapers. All that put together and you get...that's right, teeth (at least mama hopes it's just teeth)! Yeah...we can feel a sharp one below the surface. I can't tell which one it is. She's waiting on her lower right eye tooth, but this almost feels too far over. A canine, maybe. I need to find a tooth map and see what all we're in for.

Of course, she was also swapping cups with everyone at her gym class so she might have picked something up. For now, though, I'm going to be optimistic. I mean, we're getting ready to cross the Pacific Ocean. Her body HAS to know it's time for another tooth to pop because that's what she does over the ocean. Nothing better to do on an umpteen hour plane ride, right? Oh well...it's not going to change anything regardless of what it is. I just hate trying to keep the booger nose clean, especially when she likes it less than I do.

In other news, she now says "do-uh" which usually means she wants to out the door. She mimics most words we say, but few make it into the daily vocabulary at this point. "dider" is used to identify a need to potty as well as the done deed and need of a new one. She can now "raaah" like a lion in as deep and rumbly a voice as a little girl can muster.

She still loves to brush her hair (hay-uh) and teeth (tee) and does so multiple times a day some days. She identifies her eyes, nose, belly and sometimes belly button. She's starting to identify numbers and be able to pick them out of the mess of ABC123 magnets on the fridge.

Her plans for today stopped at sitting with her head on someone's chest and drooling while she tried to breathe. Given that, we started watching "My Neighbor Totoro" today and she seemed to enjoy "toto". With any luck, we'll get to the Ghibli museum before we leave Japan, but that's something else entirely.

She asks for "boo dd" multiple times a day. I have to wonder what they put in kids' videos that makes my one year old so addicted to "Blue's Clues". For my own sanity, we'll get a couple of new Blue DVDs for the plane ride home.

Just a few things to hand finish on her dress before it's done. She's going to be a very cute Cinderella next week!