ribbit, nanabooboo

It has been a long time since I posted and as usual, Johari is up to a whole lot. And I guess I am, too! And at the moment, Blogger isn't letting me upload pictures! So I will start with some of the things that aren't related to any pictures.
Johari likes to "meet" me. She tells me to meet her and then we are to take different paths to end up at the same place.
For a while she was practicing, hopping on one foot which looked more like holding one leg while she balanced on the other.
She enjoys pretending to be many different animals these days. We will be driving along in the car and from the backseat, "Ribbit! Ribbit!" She's turned into a frog. Then, "Woof, woof!" I have a dog along for the ride. She pants with her tongue hanging out like a dog, too. Or she told me yesterday that she was putting her "paw" on something. Sometimes she is a horse with a "neigh neigh" and a gallop. Or when we are at the playground and she is practicing hanging from a bar, she told me that she was a monkey and she said, "Oooooo oooo". Then one day she was wading in the pond and she said that she is a penguin and did the penguin waddle and sign. The pig in her came out the other day as well, "oink"! She will flap her wings sometimes when she is a bird and say that she is going to "fly away".
She likes to pretend that things are ice cream. So sometimes, I pretend that her toes are ice cream. She likes this. I make up some flavors. But if I ask her what the flavor of anything is it is ALWAYS orange at this point. Then another time we were working on clipping toenails and I must have mentioned the "baby toe" as I call it because then she started calling the big toe, "mama toe" and the one next to it, "sister toe".
One night before we were going to bed, she wanted to sing "The Wheels on the Bus". And she has a few verses that she still particularly likes... the mama saying "shhhh" and the baby saying "wahhh". She decided to create a few new verses as well. One is about Stacy.... it goes, "Stacy on the bus goes 'hold you', 'hold you',..." And the other is about Ibrahim..."Ibrahim on the bus goes eat, eat,..."
The other night I was trying to figure out something that she was saying. It came to me finally that she was saying, "nanabooboo". I thought to myself how would she possibly know that taunting phrase, "na na boo boo". So I asked her who said it and she told me that Emma said it and Lua as well. So I realized that Emma and Lua have liked to get Johari to chase them recently so they probably have been playing around and saying that in the chasing games. The way Johari says it randomly and sweetly is pretty darn cute.
Another thing that I have been trying to figure out what she is saying is when she is skipping around. She would say something that sounds like "sssssh". I think I have figured it out! "Ashes, ashes" while she is skipping. I guess skipping or more like galloping reminds her of "Ring Around the Rosie" when you say "...ashes, ashes we all fall down." So she just gallops and says "ashes, ashes, ashes!"
Her assertiveness is coming out in a new phrase. If she doesn't like what someone is telling her. Let's say you are telling her that she shouldn't be doing something that she wants to be doing, she tells you, "Don't talk to me, [fill in your name or title to her here]!" She says it calmly but firmly. It is a clear message. It is pretty cool, really!
One evening when we couldn't find the moon in the sky, Johari said that the moon is at the farm.

Notes on me.... I have gone through a detox from carbs and sugar. I am off caffeine. I am trying to walk in the late evening with the long days and it feels great when I can really get a vigorous walk on. I was generously given some classes from my friend, Twitney, to try out Dahn yoga. And so I have gone to a few classes and enjoy them. I am reading. Just finished "Sputnik Sweetheart". Beginning John Gatto's "Dumbing Us Down". A balance between fiction and non-fiction going on here. I have found a school that I am really excited about learning more about. It is modeled after the Sudbury School model. The school is called Clearwater and it is not far from where we live. I am so excited to learn more about that sometimes it even gives me goosebumps thinking about the concepts behind it.

the moon is watching

Last night, we were driving home from visiting Carmel and Nawo. There was a beautiful full moon. When I saw it, I pointed it out to Johari. Her response, "Watch me drive home." My reply, "The moon is watching you drive home?" Johari said, "Yes, Mommy." I guess we had talked about the moon watching us when we were walking the other night. I loved it!
She still wants to see Ilchi Lee, when she sees a flyer with his picture on it, she continues to say that she "want see that guy." I talked to her some about when we did see him, but she wants more, I guess!
She was really into cleaning things at lunch time today. She was even cleaning the avocado pit with a napkin. When she saw the avocado, she grabbed half of it and went to get a really big spoon and started to cutting pieces off of it. Even though she doesn't really even eat avocado at this point. She had a plan. Then she worked on getting the pit out of the other half.

Wanting to see Ilchi Lee

Carmel and Johari having fun in the bathtub together!

She likes to put on this hat

Hyon in my favorite lighting of the day

FINALLY back at the beach!

It has turned beautiful for now. Just pure sunshine and a gentle cool breeze. Gorgeous and what everyone in Seattle has been hoping for and needing in their lives. We made it to the beach today, finally, after a long hiatus. And it was great to be back in the sand and sun, digging around and discovering.
We have been getting out for more walks lately with Hyon and various members of her family. Sometimes Johari will do the stroller but sometimes I just tie her to my back Tanzanian style and start hotsteppin'. While we are walking along the roads, Johari has begun to say to me while I am holding her in my arms, "Be careful of the cars." when a car is coming towards us.
This past week, my friend, Twitney, invited us to see the founder of Dahn yoga that she practices, Ilchi Lee, speak downtown. Julia and Johari got to go to the Benaroya Hall together. In the beginning of the program, before Ilchi Lee spoke there was a couple of demonstrations and an introduction. His picture was up on a big screen behind the demonstrations. The whole time that these were going on, Johari was getting very upset and saying over and over that she "wanted to see that guy" pointing to the picture of Ilchi Lee. She was not going to be distracted or mesmerized by the movements on stage until she saw the grand master of Dahn yoga. We got to see him for a few minutes talking on stage and then we had to go out of the auditorium to play where she could make noise and explore with Julia. I didn't actually get to see or hear much of his lecture but it was great anyway and I am reading one of his books now.

Me 4

Rare blue sky

Drawing on the wall

Stickering from Trader Joe's grocery store

Too cool chickadee!

So the sun hasn't been coming out too often in the past couple of weeks. And sometimes we even have heavy rains that keep us indoors. It is hard after being able to hit the beach so often and now, I long for the beach. But we were on the porch the other evening trying to catch some random sun rays that were coming through. Johari told me to "turn off the sun." Then she said, "I want it dark." I guess her eyes were having trouble with the brightness. But I certainly wasn't about to turn off the sun!!! I needed it. Then this afternoon she had her baby waving "hi" and "bye" to the sun when it was peeking out.
When she gets some clothes off, you might hear her say, "I'm nakers!" She says, "Me 4." So apparently she is 4 going on 2. But I think everyone is 4 according to Johari. Ibrahim is 4. Ishmael is 4. Jordan is undoubtedly 4. Why can't we all be 4? If that is the number that she likes right now, there is no reason we all can't be 4 in some kind of way.
The other night before she was going to bed, she called all of her friends on her pretend phone. She would say, "hi" and "bye" and other things to them. Then she had me call all of them on her phone too and instructed me on what to talk to them about.
She can request very specific books that she wants to read now. I just have to figure out what it is. It is usually by something that is on the cover or in the book. When she requested the "hop book", it meant the one that we have been reading that is about a kangaroo. Or the "eagle book" has an eagle on the cover. I hadn't even known that she could say 'eagle'.
One day recently she woke up at about 4:45 am and wanted to read books for an hour. Then she was ready to go back to sleep.

Y

Playing with bug stuff from Jordan's birthday party and the sand that she emptied from her pockets

Jordan and Johari jumping on the trampoline

Paulo, the beloved dog...this is a popular dog (Jordan's dog)

Johari insisted on going to the park in the rain, so here we are preparing

Figuring out how to balance an umbrella on her shoulder...(Mia's umbrella getting a little use)
Playing with her bike in the garage

Julia and Johari on the ivory together

We have had a few birthdays coming up recently so now I think Johari is getting the concept of birthday parties and BIRTHDAY CAKES!!! She says, "birthday". She even wished her grandma a happy birthday.
She has been putting a Y at the end of many of her words recently that never used to have a Y on them. Home-y. Book-y. Shoe-y. And so on.
We have had some babysitting experiences lately. We babysat for Jordan a couple times and for Julia a couple times. Hyon watched Johari a couple times while I went for a run. So Johari likes to reenact the "I want my mommy" scenes. When someone is crying for their mommy. She likes to talk about how they cried and said, "I want my mommy." or even if they didn't say it and just cried she knows that's what they were thinking. It seems that right now, any child that is crying must want their mommy.
Johari has been into swinging in the past week...when we can get out, if the weather is not too dreary. She even likes to try the "big" swings now. She started working on her swing pumping skills. It doesn't really get the swing moving yet, but she seems to have the concept down from watching other swingers. She first started just with moving her upper body back and forth. Then she start keeping her legs stiff out in front of her.
Johari is getting resourceful about getting up higher to do things or climb up to get something by moving one of her little chairs around.
She likes to scooch up next to me or Grandma when we are reading her a book and say, "close".
I highly recommend the book, "Clap Your Hands" by Lorinda Brian Cauley for the shorties. She loves to follow along aand do each action that it tells you to do. She has been practicing her "roar like a lion". It used to be a very meek roar but it is gaining force these days. She likes to scare people with her roars now.
Last evening we were at the mall playing in the playground area in doors and guess who showed up.....Spiderman. Not only one Spiderman but 2 Spidermen (children in costume). One was especially thrilling for many of the kids because he had a hood/mask. It seemed to create chaos almost immediately and the reactions of many of the children were kind of sadly interesting. Some of the kids wanted to bully the Spiderman. And others were just in awe following him around and following his lead. Others were fearful of him. He popped up next to Johari at some point and she was extremely frightened by it. She kept wanting to see the "fireman" aka Spiderman but saying she was scared of him. Later I saw him trying to help another kid lose his fear of Spiderman. He was talking him through it and showing him that it was just a mask. This is about a 5 or 6 year old kid...the Spiderman kid.
Johari has been dealing with a cold. It has been a while since she had one. Not too bad but not fun either.