in addition to wearing do-rags and playing with baby dolls, one of EBN’s favorite activities is identifying her letters.  obviously, ABN is fully responsible for this – he downloaded a number of different apps and when given access to the ipad or phone, you can find her listening to songs that make the letter sounds, or memorizing sounding out 3 letter words.  this is not advanced – this is just what happens when your dad is ABN, or so i’ve been told.

anyway, in an effort to do something a bit more…me, i suggested that we do project that involved matching sounds with words that we know – but with paper and string and tape rather than pixels.  first she looked at me quizzically but when i took out the often off-limits markers – she jumped at the opportunity to get down and dirty.

the project went a little something like this: EBN was given a large A and a large B to color in, while i drew pictures of nouns that started with either an A or a B.  B was easy – baseball, bagel, bus, broccoli.  A – not so much.  i got ant and apple but then basically drew a blank.  after wracking my brain i added arrow and art (depicted with a paintbrush and paint blotter – she had no clue) and acorn.  i also attempted to draw an alligator but that proved beyond my abilities .

she then got to work identifying the pictures and matching them with the letter that the word started with.  there was tape and yarn involved and a good time was had by all.

this morning, over breakfast, she showed off her hard work to ABN, proudly identifying the letters, and the words – just like on her ipad game.  a-a-apple.  b-b-bat.  it was all well and good until we she got to a-a-glasses!  turns out, i need a bit more practice drawing an ant.

thank goodness she’s going to preschool next year.  i think i’ve reached my limit.

i’m writing from the back deck.  the sun is shining on my shoulders, clean and dry after a morning at the beach and a post-sand shower with the little one.  she’s blowing bubbles at maniac speed, as i type and sip on my arnold palmer.  i always thought an arnold palmer included vodka – and since it’s after 5 (barely) i’ve decided to make my definition a reality.  a few weeks ago ABN worked his magic on my phone, making it so that i could use it to connect my computer to the internet when wireless isn’t available.  and the problem i’ve always had with “working” from my beck deck is that our house signal was never strong enough.  problem solved.

the house next door to us, to the right if you’re facing the street, the left if you are facing our house, is sunshine yellow with mandarin orange trim and pansy purple accents.  in addition to its multi-generational inhabitants with a lineage way more complicated than i can understand, it also houses an rv parked in the driveway, a school bus between the early morning pick-up and late afternoon drop-off and a couple of rowdy pigs who squeal and argue with the dogs that live there too.  in our first few months living in our home, when adults still attempted naps due to a baby that kept odd hours, we’d giggle in response to the raucous, sure we’d never heard dogs, of any breed, that made such a noise, and hypothesizing they must be wild boars.  never to imagine we were right.

anyway,this long drawn out story, and scene really, is just to say…EBN, between blows directed at her orange bubble wand, asks, “what’s that?” in response to hearing the snorting and squealing on the other side of the fence.  “what’s that,” is one of her current catch phrases.  she has many.  to her question i respond, it’s the pigs honey.  we can go meet them if you want (please say no.).  “no mommy,” she says, “not piggies.  it’s lions.”

at this point, nothing would surprise me.

by the time this post goes live, ABN will have arrived back in pacifica, right where he belongs.  this trip was the longest time that he’s been gone since EBN made her debut almost 29 months ago and let me just say – he was deeply missed.  not only is it just a lot of work, you know, being on your own with a kiddo, but she asked roughly every 90 minutes, “where’s daddy?” and that some how made it a bit rougher.  i’m a lucky mama to get so much support from ABN and we’re a better family when we do it all together.  for sure.

that being said – us two did pretty well for ourselves, as evidenced above.  i’m pretty sure that some worried we wouldn’t get out of our pjs or take in the fresh air.  and while we did indulge in a movie on the couch on  cloudy sunday afternoon AND a saturday full of duck dynasty courtesy of BUDDY (we had a slumber party!) we also took a hike, a beach walk, had a ladies lunch AND bounced.  or at least, watched others bounce. oh, and of course, one of us took a turn as “a fairy-princess-flower-girl.” she really wanted to throw dinosaur in too…next time.

this past saturday i found EBN badly in need of having her nails cut.  we were alone in the house (ABN was on a well deserved hike on a local trail) and i decided, rather than make both me and EBN miserable, we may as well make the most of it.  and so i set up my nail station complete with entertainment (tangled), tasty treats (chocolate chips) and more nail polish color choices than necessary.  there was only one rule – no black toes.

she sat there, totally still, forever waiting for the polish to dry.  such a sweet little girl.

cutting nails ended up being a real treat – for both of us.

if the word to summarize my monday was chaotic, tuesday is all about…vomit.

i woke up to EBN crying a very unusual cry in the middle of the night and found her, the bed, and her beloved coco covered in sick.  it sorta went down hill from there.  we cleaned her and the room, started laundry, cuddled in the guest bedroom, got up again, got sick again, headed toward the living room, covered the couch in a sheet, cuddled some more, watched a bit of elmo, got sick yet again and then finally i was able to get her back to bed (and us too).

she’s now up again and seems to be mostly back to her old self although a bit cuddlier than usual.  she’s had a piece of toast and half a banana and fingers crossed, everything stays right where it should.  we just finished a much needed mama/baby shower and have opened some windows to try to air the place out.  i think the rest of the day will include cuddling and apple juice and movies.  maybe a little valentine day card making post nap, or maybe night.

it’s funny – i think we both sorta needed a day like today.  sure i’d prefer to skip the hurling (and here’s hoping it doesn’t travel to me or ABN next) but sometimes it’s nice to slow down and turn the couch into a princess bed.

she’s pretty cute even when she smells like puke