love....

Well, it really has been a while since I have posted. And I end up thinking that I have too much to post about to actually ever do it. But I want to get back to posting so I will just try to let go of all that I might have let pass and not updated about. I will try to be in the now with what is going on.
In the mornings particularly but throughout the day as well, Johari will hug Barney Boy over and over and say, "I love him." over and over and over. Then, she tells me to say it as well. She can't get enough of expressing her love for Barney. She is also starting to talk about loving me sometimes. :) That feels good. Yesterday evening we were talking about loving lots of people. She wanted make sure that I love Ahdji-oudjou and Ahdji-oudjou's grandpa. I do. Then, the question has come up, "Why do you love me?" Or why does someone else love her. I haven't figured out a good answer for that one. I am totally stumped on how to describe why people love her. Everything that I come up with seems so surface or just a miniscule part of the whole love picture.
We are totally into singing and dancing. We were doing the "Hokey Pokey" a whole lot after we came back from our roadtrip to Missoula, Montana to visit Grandpa Gary and Granny Em. Sometimes we trade off between "Here We Go Loobi-Loo" and "Hokey Pokey" over and over. She likes to put her whole self in the best! She is also really into, "Where Is Thumbkin?" "Wheels on the Bus" and "Twinkle Stars" are still in the mix.
Johari asks about "Who gave me that..." about anything and everything. I am not sure if that is what she is getting at or where something came from and how it came to be in the world. We can be sitting in the family room and she will ask, "Who gave me those lights (the ones installed in the ceiling)?" or "Who gave me the floor?" She will definitely keep me thinking with all her thinking.
I realized the other day that I can't even imagine all that this girl understands. She will say something that just blows me away and makes me realize that I probably totally underestimate all that she is getting and picking up on. She was talking the other day about how Barney was from a rescue and whether another dog was from a rescue. She hung out with her grandma this past weekend because I worked a temporary job for the first time. Things went really well with her and there was no real upsets. Anyway, Sunday, Johari and her grandma were heading to a Baha'i Center that was closing to buy a few things. On the drive there, her grandma offered to get her something. Without given any choices or prompting, she told her grandma that she would like to get a prayer book. This blew me away because her exposure to prayer books is not particularly frequent or direct just sometimes when she is around an event that her grandma is having or something we go to with grandma.
We finally got back to the Children's Museum in Seattle a couple of times recently. They have a fun Mr. Potato Head exhibit. I think we will start using it more often with the winter coming.
She told me recently that she wanted me to paint her toenails with her regular paint set. And then her fingernails too. She wanted to do this over and over for a few days. It doesn't stay on at all because it is just washable paint. I got her some "safe" nail polish and we painted our toes with Stacy one night. We all have sparkly beautiful toes. She said, "I need to paint my toes!" Who would have thought that my child would end up saying that at age 2? I am following her lead on this. She is the intiator. I am just the support and enjoying it immensely.
We have gone to 2 playdates at the school I really like called Clearwater. Although not many other parents and preschool kids show up, we both enjoy playing at the school and meeting kids that go there and talking to the staff and just beginning a relationship with the school.
Johari loves to tell the story of how things happened and kind of act it all out. When she was telling Stacy about me going to work, she said something like, "Mama go to work and she went out to her car like this." Then acted out a funny walk out to my car. She is quite a comic!
I know pictures are desired. I will get back with that soon.