Facebook

Babykins was taking pictures with my phone tonight.  Most of the pictures were of the TV, which was playing her favorite movie, Tinkerbell's Secret of the Wings, which we have watched approximately 5 gazillion times in the last 4 weeks.

As she was taking a particularly artsy picture, she states, "This one is going on Facebook!"

I didn't even know she had a Facebook account!

My Hero

We were watching In the Night Garden before bed the other night, and I started combining our names with the characters' names.

Me: You're Babykins-Daisy!  And baby brother's Babyroo-Piggle!  And I'm Mommy-Packa!

Babykins was giggling away.  Then...

Me: And Daddy is Dad-liboo!
Babykins: No!  Daddy is Superman!

Altogether now...Awwwwww!!!!!

Woof!

I've decided that if Babyroo were a puppy, he'd be a lab.  He's good natured, sweet, and happy.  He loves to play and often has a big smile on his face.  He's soft and cuddly and good with kids.  Yep, definitely a lab.

Let's just cross our fingers that he doesn't turn into Marley as a toddler...

My Little Ramona

I loved the Ramona books growing up.  As an adult, I often thought they should be required reading for every parent.  I was always fascinated at how Ramona would do something, and it would make perfect sense to her, but the adults would look at her actions and find them completely inexplicable, and she would get in trouble.  Whenever Babykins does something that just seems completely baffling to me, I try to stop and think about how Ramona would have explained it.

Which brings me to our story.  The daycare Babykins goes to is split into two sections.  All of the 2-year-olds are on the top floor of the building.  The 3- to- 5-year-olds are on the bottom floor.  Babykins has wanted to move downstairs for ages.  As soon as she turned 3, she became very excited because she was finally old enough to go down with the big kids.

Unfortunately, the daycare didn't have room downstairs, so Babykins had to stay upstairs.  She was upset, but I thought it was just because her best friend was downstairs and they wanted to play together.

Then, one day, as I was explaining to Babykins once again that she would go downstairs soon, but they just didn't have space down there, yet, she looked at me and said, "But mommy, if I stay upstairs, I might turn 2 again!"  The look of distress on her face was heartbreaking.  Here, this whole time, she had been worried she'd turn back into a "little girl" if she stayed upstairs too long.

I gave her a big hug and explained that now that she was 3, she would never turn back to 2 again.  And I reminded myself to check out a Ramona book or two from the library.

Characters

Lately, Babykins is all about The Little Mermaid.  We can both literally sing all of the words to all of the songs.  So, the other night in the bathtub, she's pretending to be Ariel.

Me: Who's Daddy?
Babykins: Prince Eric!
Me: Who's Connor?
Babykins: Max! (Max is Prince Eric's dog.)
Me: And who's Mommy?
Babykins: Ursula! (She's the evil sea witch.)

Hubbykins definitely got the best end of that casting call.

Why?

We are firmly in the middle of the "why" phase.  For those of you not familiar with this phase, it goes something like this:

We're walking home from town yesterday, and Babykins points to a random man walking ahead of us...
Babykins: Mommy, where's that man going?
Me (umm...I'm supposed to know where everyone's going?  Ok, he's wearing a suit and walking into a residential area, so I make an educated guess.): He's going home from work.
Babykins: Where's his home?
Me (Seriously?  Where's his home?): I don't know, Babykins.
Babykins: Why?
Me (Why?  Does she want to know why I don't know?  Or have I missed a transition in the conversation?): I just don't know, Babykins.  I don't know where everyone lives.
Babykins (Thinks about this for a second, then takes a breath, and...): Why is he going home?
Me: Because it's getting late.  It's time for everyone to go home for dinner.
Babykins: Are we going home for dinner?
Me: Yes.
Babykins: Why?
Me: Because it's getting late.  You and Babyroo need to have dinner, then a bath.
Babykins: Why? (Then she fully comprehends my last sentence.) But I don't want a bath!  Why do I need to take a bath?
Me: Because you've been playing all day and you're dirty.
Babykins: Why?
Me: Look!  There's our house!  How about some TV?

And for once, Babykins didn't ask "why".

My Baby's Got Sauce

Babykins can occasionally have a bit of a stubborn streak.  And because she's 3, when I try to reason with her and explain that being stubborn is holding her back from something wonderful, I usually (let's be honest, ALWAYS) fail.

A recent example...

Babykins has decided she doesn't like sauce.  She doesn't like tomato sauce (Australian for ketchup) on her meat pies.  She doesn't like pasta sauce on her pasta.  Apparently, sauce is gross.

So the other day, I asked Babykins if she would like some ice cream.  She yelled, "Yes!" and ran for her chair.  She had been especially good that day, so as a special treat...

Me: Babykins, would you like chocolate sauce on your ice cream?
Babykins: No.  I don't like sauce.
Me: Listen to what I'm asking you.  Do you want CHOCOLATE sauce?
Babykins: I don't like sauce!
Me: But, this sauce is made of chocolate!  You like chocolate.
Babykins: I DON'T LIKE SAUCE!

Good enough for me.  Babykins proceeded to have ice cream with no chocolate sauce, and I spent the rest of the evening marveling over 3-year-old logic.