happykiddo

The Ella Lexicon at 20 months old

Can I help you?
Originally uploaded by happykatie.

Ella now says 'real people' words, like:

         1. Shuuhs = shoes
         2. Noh noh noh = uhm, yeah... no that's SO not what we're doing right now
         3. 'nana = banana
         4. Muh (accompanied by sign language) = I want more of something that I don't quite feel like articulating, but instead prefer for you to scramble around until you figure it out at which point I might stop crying giant real tears with a disbelieving look in my eyes
         5. Mama = all dependent on the inflection:

               1. Mommy
               2. Are you seriously even thinking of walking/turning away from me even though I know you're not actually leaving the room or me, but enjoy prostrating myself on the floor and rolling around vigorously with a dramatic arm over my eyes while wailing nonetheless
               3. I'm bored and this is a really easy sound to make, so I'm going to sing it to myself in a really high pitched voice until someone asks me to use my indoor voice

         6. Baby = anything furry or very small, particularly something very small AND furry
         7. Uh... Oh = well THAT was unexpected, I imagine you'll want to rush over here immediately mother
         8. Eash = ears, which Ella can now point out.  I know, she's kind of a genius - she's practically in Med School.  However, her favorite facial feature to point out is her nose.  I believe this is for 2 reasons:

               1. Noses are fun to smoosh and pinch, both of which Ella does to her nose regularly
               2. Nose rhymes with the word 'no' and this makes the Bunn wildly happy

         9. Cook-ee = cookie or maybe an organic Fig Newman, yum

Life at 21 months of age

The bedroom scramble
Originally uploaded by happykatie.

The Bunn is 21 months old now - which is so close to 24 months / 2 years that I have started telling non-parents that ask about Ella that she is 'almost 2'. I used to be one of those non-parent baby inquirers, so I know how annoying it is to be forced to do math to understand how old a child is :)

21 months means a happy, long-legged, sassy Ella. A little girl who practically insists on having music on at all times - all the better to dance her heart out to while on her way to the kitchen for a snack. She is especially fond of David Bowie and The Cardigans, but can dance to just about anything (including the 'thump thump' from noisy ghetto cars on the street - very creative).

Ella is developing a strong love for books, in fact she is now selecting her own, bringing them to us and crawling in our laps to read. Her daddy is the best story reader, as he can do all of the voices and accents. Our favorite Adam-narrated story is Platypus Has a Birthday who holds this honor for the perfect opportunity to read about a platypus in Australian accents and say fun names like 'Echidna'.

Thanks to the recent Flip video camera addition to our camera family, we are starting to take more video clips of the short one's escapades. This has also given the chance for Ella to be a filmmaker in her own right. She has shot several short films, mostly a couple of minutes of her wandering around the house singing to herself with the lens covered by her fingers. Awesome!!

We are getting closer to transitioning Ella to Montessori school - which will be a big change from her current environment. We know she's going to love the Montessori program, as she is so passionate about cleaning, helping and working on things with her hands. She has a great lady watching her now, but it's so much more of a 'babysitter' atmosphere, she needs more stimulation and I just can't wait to see how she grows with it!

Life is very good for the girlie - she is as healthy as can be and a chatty little character who waves and says 'hiya' to everyone that moves (and much that doesn't).

Essentials for veggie kids and their familias

tomato family
Originally uploaded by herr_hartmann.

Holy Moses... for once there's actually a useful and non 'you really need to feed your kid milk' article on a mainstream site for parents raising veggie kids. Check out this Pampers vegetarian kiddo nutrition page - it's really quite good.

Okay, I know there *are* others out there but honestly they are pretty far and few between. Even the most promising of MS resources seems to eventually throw in a sly reference about adding a little cheese or yogurt to a short one's diet -- because, you know, apparently no one can trust that nature will take care of us the best as it has for thousands of years before Yoplait and string cheese.

It gets a little old after a while, and this is coming from a serious cheese addict here. I'm working hard to stay off the stuff but having the Bunn to look out for has opened my eyes wider to a lot of things I already knew.

Chomp! Healthy munching encouragement

Chomp from rei on Vimeo.

A quickie veggie video for kiddos - how silly and sweet - as part of a neat campaign by artist Reina Takahashi to encourage short people to make smart/healthy food choices.

All about the video these days...

How simply glorious that Flickr is now offering video upload capabilities!  As you know, I've been a loooong time Flickr user, so the chance to combine both short video clips (90 seconds max - just right for a 'long photo') with regular snapshots is just too convenient.

This is also on the heels of losing Video Egg video uploads (although I'm over that now) and testing out Vimeo (which I like very much and will continue using for longer videos), so online video has definitely been on the mind lately on a personal level.

So much so, in fact, that I just bought my own Flip video camera - so we never have to be without an easy way to film the Bunn and her ramblings/adventures.  If you haven't tried one out yet, the Flip has pretty much the absolute most simple video camera interface ever  - giving you less control than other cameras, but with a built-in USB and reasonable filming quality that doesn't always really matter.

Ella and the bathtime hairdo

Ella and the bathtub hairdo from happykatie on Vimeo.

A little Bunn Zen straight from the happyfamily's kiddo bathtub.