Just another CarleSpawn weblog

Thinking inside the box.

Ezri has started to use her powers of deduction.
One day last week Eric was going to do some work down in the basement.
Ezri and I returned home from the sitter with me hoping that Ezri would think Eric had gone to the office as usual.
Thus, he could work uninterrupted.
Upon entering the house Ezri stated, “Dada home.” She looked around and said, “Where dada?”
I said, “I think Dada is working.”
Ezri said “Dada home. Dada car.”
She had seen the car he drives in the driveway.
After a toddler lap of the first floor, she pointed to the basement door and said, “Maybe downstairs.”
We went downstairs to say hi and I realized it’s only going get harder to trick this one.

“Mama wash bottle.” Pause. “Good job, Mama.” She was watching me do the dishes. I love it when she lets me know I’m doing a good job in exactly the cadence of my voice saying, “Good job, Ezri.”

“Ezri put booger mama’s arm.” This while I was reading her a story. At least she let me know what I needed to wash off. We talked about tissues and handkerchiefs as the appropriate place to put boogers.

“Happy Hanukkah Honk! Honk!” This was said on the drive over to the Hanukkah party.

“Dada. Light up. Light up.” Excitement over Hanukkah candles.

“Mama, vacuum.” This while pointing at cat fur on our rug. Yes, I am sure it is time to vacuum, but my housekeeping is now being critiqued by a toddler who likes to spread yogurt on the table in interesting patterns.

If you read a protocol droid a story. . .

he will then need to be rocked in a cradle and sung twinkle, twinkle little star (droid’s favorite song)

While in the cradle he will do something – perhaps a leaky motivator, that will require Ezri to change the sheets and put the droid in the bath.
Ezri says, “C3P0 bath. Naked Hedgie.” Nothing like bathing with a naked hedgehog to comfort a leaky droid.

After the bath, the droid will probably want a bottle and a snuggle.

And if you give a droid a bottle, he’ll probably want another story!

Ezri’s pretend play is getting more detailed and more fun.
After naptime we probably will need to get the droid a snack.
Perhaps, Ezri will whip up some bagels with her new bowl and spatula set.

Ezri enjoys stomping in the snow in her new snow boots.

Here’s Ezri hanging out in the cuddle corner of her room.

Baby Dance by Ann Taylor
This is sung to the classic tune of Daddy’s Gonna Buy You a Mockingbird. The illustrations show a dad comforting and playing with his baby daughter by rocking and twirling her. Ezri made me read/sing it again 5 times. She asked for a sixth, but I made her pick another story. This was recommended by a coworker librarian – gotta say she knew what she was talking about! It would make a great baby shower gift.

For her next story she selected
Hairy Maclary
She told me, “Ezri read.” And took it over to her bed, sat on the edge, opened the book to the first page and said , “Hairy Mackary Donson Dairy.” The book is about Hairy Maclary from Donaldson Dairy, but she was so close and seeing her “reading” was excellent. We then spent a lot of time with her pointing to the dogs in the story and asking “who’s that?” The dogs all have funny rhyming descriptions and names like “Hercules Morse big as a horse.” She especially enjoys making the fiercesome cat noise when the toughest tom in town, Scarface Claw, scares all the dogs away.

For Hanukkah Ezri received
Heads by Matthew Van Fleet
I highly recommend this one as a present for folks aged 18 months up to 3 years. It is a very sturdy pop-up book. Not just lifting the flaps, but pulling thick board book tabs to make the animals move. Cleverly, many of the moving parts are underneath plastic film and so less likely to be torn. The book talks about the parts of the head – hair, ears, mouths, eyes, tongues. It shows different animals with varying kinds of these bodyparts. Ezri loves it. She turns the pages saying, “ahh ahh” and looking for the page on which the elephant sneezes all over a probiscus monkey. When she finds the page, she pulls the tab and the trunk lowers and sprays green mucus on the monkey. Then Ezri says, “CHOO!” A great new book from the guy who brought us the joy of Alien Opposites.

Ezri celebrating Hanukkah last night.

I asked her to say Happy Hanukkah and she sang, “Happy Hanukkah, Irina.”
Irina is a friend whose birthday party we attended and we prepared by practicing singing Happy Birthday, Irina.
Irina’s party was back in October, but it seems to have stuck with Ezri.
Ezri wishes her a Happy Hanukkah too.

Our local bookshop runs a Book Angel program where you can buy discounted books for children in need as holiday presents.
The tree of kids to gift with books included a tag for a two-year-old girl. Ezri is inching up on her second birthday so we selected this girl to gift books. She seems much more two than one these days.

I am hoping each year Ezri and I can pick a book she likes to donate to someone around her age. Here’s what we did last year.

This year I picked (and Ezri approved with a loud “YES”) the purchase of:
Time to Sleep Sheep the Sheep by Mo Willems
and
Here Comes the Big, Mean Dust Bunny by Jan Thomas

Not knowing the girl’s particular interests, I went with universal humor and re-readability. The Book Angel tree does make me feel festive. I will probably revisit it and pick books for one of the teens on the tree – a tradition of mine that predates Ezri. Thanks, Anderson’s Bookshop, for being part of my holidays.

She’s grown enough hair to get some serious bed head going.

What is Ezri reading? These are some titles that are for reading, but also for playing with.

Carrots or peas? illustrated by Anthony Lewis.
This has a baby on each page whose face can be turned to smile or frown depending on whether the reader thinks they like or dislike the item or activity at hand. For example, Does Jack like to shop? You can flip his face from smile to frown to decide. It’s like the youngest version of those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books possible. Ezri likes flipping the faces about especially on pages where the reader is being asked if the baby likes a certain food because then I say, “Yuck!” or “Nom-nom-nom” depending on which way the face is turned.

Farm Faces
Goodnight Faces
Zoo Faces
all 3 of these books of masks are by iBaby and written by Lucy Schultz and illustrated by Ana Larranaga
Ezri now likes to peek through the pages of this book of masks and make the animal noise of the animal facing her.
She does not actually know what the viewer is seeing, so she is making a moo with the cow page against her face while I see a mooing pig.
These books of masks have stayed a hit across the months as a book/toy.

This morning we spent some time in the Pop-Up book corner of the library playing with the book:
Maisy Bakes a Cake by Lucy Cousins
The pull tab that made Maisy rub her hands under the water faucet to wash her hands seemed useful for instructing cleanliness and also easily recognizable to all toddlers. There was a pull tab that made Maisy mix her cake, one that made the cake rise in the oven, a slider that let you sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar and a page of Maisy’s friend Charley chomping on the completed cake. This would be a great book to use before a toddler baking session. The pop-ups were not too delicate for my almost two-year-old.

As we were leaving the Junior Room of the library, Ezri waved and said “Bye, bye, Harry Potter” to the cardboard cut-out of Harry. She then said, “High Five Harry Potter.” And we went over so she could high five the cardboard cut-out’s outstretched hand. Is it too early to say she’s a fan? She really only knows Harry from the library displays. Too young to be a Rowling reader for some years yet, but she gives him high fives.