too cold

It's about -27 Celsius outside right now. Feeling lucky that the house came with a (now officially 'permitted' and inspected) wood pellet stove and pallet of pellets in the basement. Feeling lucky that the handy dandy diesel jetta has been starting without a problem, even when left out in the open all day. Especially since they don't have block heaters. Knock on wood. Feeling lucky that my Mom and Ted gave us their old monster snowblower that was inherited from my Dido. Thanks Mom! Feeling lucky to have new monster boots to make the 4+ block trudge to the bus stop each snowy weekday morning. They may not be pretty, but they sure work well. Feeling lucky that Mika fared so well during the usually nasty sickness month at daycare. Just a couple more days. Knock on wood again. Maybe there's something to those ear tubes after all. Or maybe because she's already had every sickness known, she's finally building some decent resistance. Feeling lucky for Mika period. Basement Playroom Stuff: She just loves to make me squirm. One of her current favorite activities is jumping from my Grandpa's old armchair onto her playmats. She waits until she's caught my eye and given me "the look" before making her jump. We have a yet to be unboxed, let alone assembled media cabinet downstairs. The biggest box is Mika's catwalk. She loves stepping up and doing her little turn. She also insists that whomever is with her play the game. She commands you up and you must do your little turn. Over. And over. And over some more. The weird little basket toss game is hot right now too. Mika loves to make baskets, but even more so loves to throw balls at people. I try, I really try to get her to stop, but the harder I try, the more she seems to enjoy throwing the balls at me. Table play is dominated by the wooden shape puzzle and the peg board. Stacking....it's all about stacking. Mika digs stacking those little pegs from the Giant Pegboard. And then throws them all on the floor to serve as little land mines for her parents. It's like being in training for the lego years to come.

Mika has come out of the phase of saying 'no' to anything that you ask her. She's finally saying 'yes'. Very calmly too, I might add. The 'no' is still rather, uh, boisterous. Another cool thing is that she can just tell us when something hurts and sometimes why. Like when she bashed her face into the side of a box while jumping about. Me: "Are you okay? Did you get hurt?" Mika: "OK. Hurt cheek. Hit box."
Or as she pulls partially chewed food from her mouth. Me: "What's wrong?" Mika: "Teeth hurt." Her molars are taking their time and messing with her already finicky eating habits. Her sass is coming along well too. If I select the wrong thing for her to wear in the morning, she'll sometimes look at me and utter 'seriously'. That's supposed to be my cue to pick something else out. She's nuts. I love her to bits.

Tired.

Happy 21-Month Birthday, Mika!

We had a busy day! Started out by going for breakfast with Baba, Grandpa Ted, and another couple that they golf with. Then it was off to Canadian Tire for more house supplies. Home for a nap while the 310-DUMP folks came to haul away the junk left behind from the previous owners. Up from the nap to greet Baba and Grandpa Ted who came to drop off Dido's snowblower as well as Uncle Chris who came to get a painting that we had for him. After that, we went out grocery shopping, came home and ate, bathtime, and now Mika is in bed. Non-stop action today. Tomorrow we hope to take it easier...maybe see if Uncle Lucas and Auntie Jenn are around so we can visit them and their dogs and fishtank. Or maybe Auntie Laura (Bling Bling!) will drop by for coffee. Who knows?

Mika is still suffering from some rash that may or may not be leftover from the 5th Disease. Aside from that, she's just going like mad. She's currently into heavy machinery. Apparently, she was entirely delighted to watch the bobcat clear the parking lot at daycare.

This post kinda sucks, but I'm tired and wiped. Maybe I'll get around to posting something better later.

Yay More Pee!

Mika used her potty again last night. She looks so damn cute sitting there...especially when she brings a book with her. Anyway, we took another step forward last night: Mika announced that she was "All Done" and then pulled a square of toilet paper off the roll and wiped!
On other fronts, something bad is happening. We don't know if it's her 5th disease, teething, or being unsettled from changing rooms at daycare, but Mika has been getting up in the middle of the night and not wanting to go back to bed. Last night, she and Daddy read and watched Tv for about an hour and a half at some point between midnight and 6AM. Not cool.

5th

After a night of frantic scratching and screaming, we took Mika in to the Dr. this morning where she was diagnosed with Fifth Disease.
Mika was freaking out pretty badly this morning - it was her decision to go to the doctor. She seemed to know that she needed it. I'd ask if she wanted to go to school and she would reply by screaming 'NO!' at the top of her lungs followed by a calm and quiet 'doctor?'. Mika fell asleep during the ride between the medicentre and my work. Daddy took her home for the day. Lucky nuggets. I wanna be at home too!!!

Pee!

Mika peed in her potty tonight for the first time! We actually didn't even notice until she was in the bath. Each night before her bath, she insists on sitting on her wee toilet to 'pee', but usually nothing comes of it. We were just pleased that she was getting into the routine and idea of such a thing. Now its just a matter of getting her to repeat her performance. As of tomorrow, I'm going to try and make sitting on the potty a morning routine as well and see how that goes.

From what we heard, Mika had a good time at her daycare Halloween party. We had planned to take her over to a couple of the neighbor's houses to trick or treat, but Mika was having none of it. I asked her a few times if she wanted to go trick or treat (yes, she has an idea of what it means, etc.), if she wanted to put her monkey costume back on, and/or whether she wanted to go outside to look at the pumpkins. Each question was answered with a definite 'No' every time. I finally asked her if she understood what I was asking her and she said 'Yup'. So be it!

Mika has officially moved up to the toddler room and is going through an adjustment period that is No Fun. Most of our evening with her was spent trying to figure out what was wrong as she just screamed and cried and generally freaked out (after it had been established that we were not going out for Halloween). She eventually fell asleep and woke up in a terrible mood this morning. She was such a terror that I was worried and called the daycare midmorning to see if Mika was OK. The teacher that I spoke to said that Mika finally calmed down shortly after her Daddy left and was, at that point, happily playing at the water table. Phew.

Mika has a newfound love. It's a lullaby glow worm. Grandma Barb and Grandpa gave it to her on their last visit from Ontario. For months, it sat in the corner of her crib. About one month ago, Mika rediscovered it and it's now joined the Three Gritty Kitties in her circle of most prized possessions. Last week I had to go out and get a replacement because she actually wore it out. I didn't even think such a thing was possible, but after multiple battery replacements, it was obvious that she had somehow killed the glow worm. This was a Very Bad Thing in her world. As I type, Mika is in her room playing the glow worm over and over and over. As she does every night before falling asleep. Sometimes, you can hear it playing in the middle of the night. I don't know if she wakes up and plays it or if she rolls onto it and triggers it...

Mika has decided that the baby in Mama's tummy is hers. We shall see how long that lasts after the baby has arrived. The best I can hope for is that she will learn to treat the real baby better than her dolls. They've been removed from her custody a number of times by Mama's Social Services due to the abuse that they suffer from her hands. For example, Mika's way of putting the babies to bed is to grab them by the feet, smack them face down into the cradle in a couple of times, throw a blanket over their heads, and exclaim "Night Night". Night night indeed.