Hoola Hooping in Aspen

Selby Loves Lulu

I, unfortunately, left Lulu at the bottom of a Target shopping cart. By this time, Lulu was so dirty and grungy, I'm sure the staff at Target just assumed it was meant for the garbage. So it was not surprising that she didn't turn up in the lost and found. But now...we needed another Lulu since Selby realized she was missing later that night. I took her to the doll aisle in Target a few days later and let her choose. She was overhwhelmed by her options. "Oh, I want that one and that one" she shouted as she pointed to a doll that burped, a doll that cried and a doll that crawled. She lined them all up on the floor and kept bouncing from one to the next trying to make up her mind (after suggesting we buy two). Finally, I let her know that her time was up and she had to choose one.

She chose the same doll that I had left in the shopping cart. She recognized her as her long lost Lulu (although much, much, much cleaner). Instead of choosing a fancy burping, peeing, eating doll...she chose a doll that does nothing, but gather dirt. Oh well. We took Lulu home and it was like a reunion of two old friends. Selby held and rocked her. Put her to bed and threw her over her shoulders like a "sack of potatoes".

Here's a vide of the two friends, and some photos of Selby in the morning.

Pull Out the Pullups

Two sort of related stories about Selby this week. First off, she was all about the potty and pullups earlier in the week. For some reason she decided that she did not want to wear diapers anymore. She insisted on underwear, which she wet within seconds. I convinced her to try pullups (not that she was ready for these either since she has yet to do her business in the potty) since I thought this would be better than pissing on herself all day (or worse!). She was all about sitting on her new Dora potty, at home and school (I bought one for school because she often says "my potty is at home" ... not realizing all potties will work for her) and wearing pullups (still not doing anything of note in the potty...although at school they think she did at least once). But by the end of the week she seemed content to go back to diapers (which we insisted she wear at night) and lost interest in the potty. Oh well. Seems like we're not as close as I thought. My mom claims that I was not potty-trained until I was three (I don't believe her).

Second story involves her reading preferences (the stories are related only because Tom claims she reads on the potty like my someone, who will go unmentioned, in my family). She is very into the New Yorker! I'm serious! She asks for it by name, although she pronounces it "Newkia", and then browses each issue looking for the comics, which she discusses in detail. "Him not wearing a shirt!" or "She's closing the door!"

Here we are at a party this weekend wearing her favorite Jamie dress and new glasses (I'm in the photo, too, btw). She did not seem to mind that she was the only child there. The other photo is of her reading -- what else -- the New Yorker!

The Secret's Out

What happens in Vegas (or while on errands with Dada) apparently doesn't stay in Vegas anymore. The night before Mother's Day while we were entertaining our friends Charlotte and Reid, Selby announced "Dada got Mama flowers!" I looked at Tom and he grinned sheepishly and said "I don't know what you're talking about, Selby." Well, now we know. Our secret, whatever it maybe, is no longer safe with Selby.

Here she is celebrating Mother's Day, and a bowl of chocolate ice cream, with Ammy, and a pink stringy thing.

Selby Takes Manhattan

We just returned from a 10 day trip to NYC to visit family, friends and for me to attend a writers' conference. My social Selby had a great time being doted on by Grandma and Papa, and Aunt Nancy and just checking out all the peeps walking around the big city. She LOVED riding the subway to visit Kellie, Nick, Sophie and baby Jasper in Brooklyn. And she made friends with everyone on the bus when my mom took her to visit cousins Stef, Izzie and Sophie. Her vocab is pretty impressive these days and her grasp of concepts is amazing.

We had Edmond and Marla and their four kiddies over (although Marla doesn't admit to having four children, she prefers to think of them as two sets of two since she has two sets of boy/girl twins) last night and the older set of twins Noah and Ellie along with Selby helped me make cookies. Everyone one wanted to participate so I took turns having each one pour in an ingredient. I thought Selby would be pissy about letting the other two help since she usually is my one and only helper.. but not only did she gracefully share her sous chef responsibilities, she pointed out who went next after her. "It's her turn," she announced. Ok, sounds silly but I was really impressed how she grasped the "taking turns" concept so quickly.

Cute story of the day: When I was getting her ready for school the day after we returned she announced that she had to bring a gift for Max (her sweetie at daycare). Why do you need to bring a gift for Max, I asked her. "Because I have to!" she insisted. So I found an unopened jar of Playdough and she said that was a good one. How cute is that?

Here she is with her cuzzies.

Hot Tubbing with Dada

Selby on Skis

Thank god for this blog because I could talk about Selby for hours. And at least here I won't bore anyone. Some Selby udpates for your enjoyment (and mine):

1) We put her on skis for the first time end of Feb. at Mary Jane (yes, Mary Jane!). Even before we hit the slopes she was saying "I want to go skiiiiiiiiing." I held on to her for a few runs and she seemed to really enjoy it. We knew she enjoyed it when she said "I want more sking" as soon as we stopped. But my back could not accomodate her. The good thing is that she was open to the new experience and didn't mind looking like a pink marshmellow.

2) I will ask her "Who's the best little girl?" or "Who's the most beautiful girl in the world?" or "Who's the smartest ...?" she always answers either "Me!" or "Selby!" If I tease her and say "Is it Ruby?" she gets perturbed. I started asking her "Who's the best mommy?" and she answers "Nobody." I'm pretty sure she didn't understand that question.

3) Tom and I went to Costa Rica for a week and left Selby behind for the first time. She stayed with Aunt Molly, Uncle David, Katherine (a.k.a. Kackoo) and Sam (a.k.a. Sham) and had the best time. Molly claims she didn't miss us at all. Not even a little. You can read about Selby's stay with the Kirks on this fabulous blog Molly put togehter. Even better than her great blog, Molly taught Selby to put her coat on all by herself and we are very grateful for this little trick.

www.suddenlyselbycomestoboulder.blogspot.com

4) Tom was playing blocks with her last night, going over letters and colors, etc. He'd find a M block and say "What is M for?" and she'd say "Mama" and then run over to me to say "Mama this is for you!" When they'd find an N block, Tom would tell her N is for Nika and she'd run over to Nika and say "Nika this is for you!" Nika was not as impressed as I was.

5) She is obviously copying things we say these days. She frequently says to me "Good job Mama!" when I do things like dress myself or go to the bathroom.





Are you bored yet?

Going up, Ok?

Selby's newsest game is to stand in a corner of our house and pretend she's in an elevator. She usually has her stroller or shopping cart with her and she's always going up. Sometimes she's going to see animals (because we were in an elevator at the Stock Show in January) or shopping (because, well, that's what we do). She presses the wall and waits. The other thing she's started to do is to talk like a Valley Girl. She'll ask me a question and go "Kay? kay?" and then I answer "Ok." And she replies back: "Ok! Kay!"

Unfortuantely she has also become EXTREMELY picky about what she wears. It's a struggle almost every morning to get her dressed. She's very into tights and dresses, even when there's snow on the ground. She's also starting to cut down on her naps to about one every other day. And have you met her baby Lulu, whom she takes every where? I've learned my lesson to never buy a doll that does not come with removable clothing. Lulu is quite disgusting these days and it's hard to pry her away from Selby to put her in the washing machine. Here's Selby with one of her many boyfriends, Ari, feeding a goat at the Western Stock Show.

Bathtime with Grandma

Grandma came to visit last month. We had a great time and Selby is still talking about it. Everytime we sit down at her little pink table and chair set she says, "Grandma broke the chair." Here's some bathtime bonding.

My Little Fashion Plate

Selby Learns How to Play Games

We're at a holiday party in late December for our friends Mitch and Trish, who were visiting from Seattle with their adorable 5-year-old son Cameron. Although Selby kept calling him "Camera", he was still pretty smitten with her. As evidenced by this: we're sitting in the kitchen and Selby asks "Where's my baba?" (really her sippy cup). Cameron sees it on the counter and gets it for her. Selby smiles and thanks him, and then runs back over to the counter and puts the sippy cup back where it was. She then runs over to Cameron, smiles, and says "Go get it!" Cameron smiles and looks at us as if to ask "what?!" -- and then runs over and gets it again. She says thank you and then puts it back on the counter and again runs to Cameron and says, with a really big smile, "Go get it!" This happens about three more times. All the grown-ups are laughing and poor Cameron just keeps getting the bottle again.

Is Selby flirting already?

Christmas Morning

Memory and More

Every day Tom and I are amazed at what Selby remembers. For example, today while driving in the truck, she pointed to the front seat and said "Papa's seat," then she pointed to her left and said "Grandma's seat" and then to her right and said "Mama's seat." She was pointing out who was sitting where on our drive to Sante Fe over Thanksgiving weekend. And she was correct. Another example (and a sweet one, too). There is a playground near our house that is for children a little older than Selby. I used to take her there often, and just followed her around while she climbed and jumped and played. Because this playground is designed for young children, I always banged my head while chasing after her. It is not fun. So, I stopped taking her there (after suffering a near concussion). But she ended up there with my mom (who didn't realize that that was the 'bad' playground) over Thanksgiving. I followed her around, as usual, but she stopped me to say "No, mamma. Stop. No hurt your head!" She remembered and was concerned for me.

And one more... I was cleaning out her toy boxes the other day and picked up a rubber octopus and Selby pointed to it and said "That's an octopus!" What 2-year-old can recognize an octopus?

The Cutest Future Politicians