sewing for the nudist....

I finally did some sewing yesterday. I was inspired to make Johari a jumper. Since she resists getting clothes or diapers on, I figure if there is one item that I can get on her that would be most useful, it would be a jumper. I copied one that she already had. And it turned out pretty cute and it fits! Now I want to make more and more!!! Sewing is very gratifying and fun.



So in this desire not to wear clothes....she decided that her pajamas were hats when I was trying to put them on her. That is as far as they would go.
Then she added the pajama bottoms to the headdress. Welcome into her pajama head fun!

Pants, for what?

I have found though that if we leave the house without various clothing items, she will accept some of them later if she feels cold or something like that. After repeatedly trying to put a shirt on her this morning with no success, when we opened the door to go out for a walk and felt the cool air outside, she turned and accepted the shirt and jumper and sweater.

Eating Mama's sweater

This week Johari had her routine check up with the doctor. She did not dig anything about going to that doctor's appointment. She doesn't wanted to be weighed or measured or touched or listened to by the strangers. In any case, she is more and more of a pipsqueak in the world of percentiles. But I am not going to worry about it tremendously because she seems to be healthy and happy. One of the questions the doctor asks about the milestones is whether she is speaking any words and if so, how many. So on the spot I had no concept and couldn't really calculate. So I responded with 10-15. But then when I was home, I thought about it more and more and was interested to write them down and count them up. And as I have been doing this, I have noticed that she definitely has more than 40 words that she is speaking. And that as I am trying to write them down she is adding more everyday. Then, I was also thinking about how there are different layers of her language...her spoken words, her signs which some overlap and then there are many signs that she uses for words that she does not speak yet, and then there is all of the words that she understands but has no sign and can't speak herself yet. Children acquiring language is such a fascinating thing.
We have been into reading In My Heart by Molly Bang in bed at night. If you have not read it, it is one of my favorites in kids books for Johari's age range. It is great!!! It is about how the mother has her son in her heart throughout everything that she does in her day and everything that he does in his day. At the end of the book, it shows all of the people in the little boy's heart. The other night, after reading this book, Johari and I were discussing who is in her heart. It was so great. She is getting more and more into discussing and signing about things that she sees going on in the book.
I put a figure painting up on our bedroom wall that Ceci did many years ago. I told Johari that Ceci painted it. So now whenever she looks at it, she says "Ceci". And I say, "Ceci painted it, huh?" Johari: "Yeah!" And we can repeat this over and over. She also makes reference to the nyo-nyo's of the figure at times.
We went to a couple of playdates this week and had good times.

barrette party tonight.....

We had our friends over this evening, Cheryl and Jordan and Nawo and Carmel. It was great fun. We had a delicious Thanksgiving meal together. And then great fun playing afterwards. The girls, Jordan, Johari and Carmel, all got lots of barrettes in their hair.

Johari, What kind of look is that?????? Are the barrettes too tight?

Jordan having barrette fun!

Carmel, a few for the hair and a few for the mouth.

Johari and Merlin at the beach.

My hands are sandy, Mama!

A week or so ago, Johari had great fun in exploring the art of putting on lotion. It truly is an art that can not be defined by rigid rules.

And her greatest joy came when Mama accidentally squirted a big glob of lotion out and it happened to land on Johari's leg. That brought many laughs and giggles.

bike ride

Grandpa Marvin put our bicycle together today. So we took our first successful bike ride together. It was fun. Johari enjoyed it. She didn't mind getting her helmet on or anything about the getting in the child seat. She just relaxed and enjoyed the ride. And if I stopped she told me, "Seat", meaning that I should put my butt back on the seat and keep going.
We had a beautiful sunny day today. Right now it is ending with the sun shining through an evening sprinkle of rain. It's beautiful. Now a cloud with a silver lining.
Johari really likes going to the playground by the pond below where we live. She likes to climb up one slide and go down a different slide. She also really enjoys the swing.

climb to new heights

pic from Mexico....

takin' the dog with...

silly mama with lil' sweet stuff

pretend contact lens care in a castanet

mastering how to climb high on a ladder

bathtub girl!

Painted legs and one peepee

Merlin sitting on the bush

I put on mama's socks

Carmel sitting in my lap! More lap!

The other day we were over at Cheryl and Jordan's house for dinner and playing and hanging. A lovely Friday evening hang out. The girls painted together. It was Johari's first time painting and she really liked it. She also tried eating the paint. I figured she would take a lick of it and not like it. But she repeatedly put the brush in her mouth to check it out. She ended up having this goth look with a ring of dark green paint around her lips, she already has the dark eyes, and dark paint all over her hands. Later in the evening the girls enjoyed painting all of our legs and feet. We went to bed with painted legs and ended up enjoying checking them out and showing them off in the morning.
Yesterday we went on this lovely walk along the water in West Seattle. It was sunny and gorgeous. We ended up at a cafe and then the kiddos got to play on the beach. I was able to jog the couple miles back to the get the car. That felt good because I have really been wanting to get back to some running.

Holding hands with Jordan on the walk

Johari likes to serve her imaginary apples and bananas. The apples got hot yesterday. How do I know? Because she started blowing on them before she gives them to me so that I don't burn my mouth. Very considerate of her. She is almost always ready to cook you some apple. She loves that word.

Last week she found my old manual breast pump. While Ceci was here, Johari learned about pumping nyo-nyo's. She even made up a sign for it where she bumps her forehead and says pump nyo-nyo. So she was glad to find that we have a pump. She took it to the bedroom where she works on pumping her own nyo-nyo's. It looks more like she is pumping her belly button.

Johari went peepee on her potty for the first time last night. It was cool. It took several times of her signing that she wanted to go to the potty trying and not depositing anything in the pot before she relaxed to let it go. Good beginning to thinking about it and communicating about it. No pressure to make it happen though.

Taking off the cradle cap and dipping in the pool

Yesterday, I finally decided to try to comb off Johari's cradle cap. I had always thought that it was something that would eventually just go away. For those of you without babes, it is a scaly substance on their scalp, nothing disgusting just like brown flaky stuff. I couldn't really believe that she still had it on her scalp. I thought it was a baby thang! She's no baby anymore. But Ceci informed that you really have to oil it and comb it off their scalp or else it keeps perpetuating itself. So I guess she would have gone to college with cradle cap if it weren't for the grace of Ceci's info. :) I am sure she thanks you, Ceci!
Last evening, we got out of the house to go play at the mall playground. She seemed sleepy on the way there but had a nice time. She is more adventurous. She is getting better at climbing on the stuff on her own. She still one's a helping hand some of the time, but she seems to be getting more and more confident. She also said that any piece that she was on was "mine!". She didn't easily want to let other kids get on her space on any of the play sculptures. She is establishing the world as hers right now. It's Johari's world and we are all just living in it. :) She also shared. She has both sides of it going. The compassion and the autonomy. One older boy pushed her a little and called her 'stupid', but it didn't seem to phase her.
I have been reading this book called 'Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves' by Naomi Aldort. I think it is a great book! It has taught me much about a child's psychology. About their need to be able to have autonomy and have a supported and guided outlet of strong emotions. And about how much of our trying to stop this outlet is our own discomfort with the feelings. It is a very powerful and compassionate perspective on parenting. I highly recommend the book to parents and teachers and those that interact with children and teenagers regularly.
This morning, we went to an indoor swimming pool. The place had a toddler section to their swimming poll which is awesome. Full of things to play with and a geyser and a sprinkler. Johari had a wonderful time. She fell under early on while chasing a ball and didn't get phased by it after I scooped her out. She enjoyed herself until she got too cold and we had to go. The water was relatively warm for about an hour and then she got chilly.

A beautiful day at the Zoo and a yoga class together

Yesterday, we went to the zoo. It was a gorgeous day. Sun was shining. We met Cheryl and Jordan there and Grandma and Grandpa came along too. It was a family affair. We saw a giraffe mama and her giraffe child necking and being affectionate with one another. It was super sweet to see. We walked around and saw many animals and then we ate lunch in the crowd of the zoo cafeteria. It was a very nice day.
In the evening, Ariel came over for dinner. It was great to see her. Johari was digging her and really enjoyed playing and teasing her and getting gotten by Ariel.
Today, we tried a mama and tot yoga class in Seattle. Johari really had a great time. She didn't do much yoga but she played a whole lot and was very outgoing. She would venture out to play without me quite a bit and then come and check back in with me eventually. I got to do some yoga so maybe we will try to do that class with some kind of regularity. Good times for mama and Johari, can't go wrong there.
Johari's bottom incisors are coming up and cutting through. So soon she will have her full toothy smile grown in.
I did a bit of research because of the constant info of the horrors of plastics...to find a metal sippy. And I got one that I think is pretty cool. It is seems to be well made. And they have another one with a straw as well.

Although they sell these at some Target stores, they do not put it in the baby stuff. It kind of irks me because then no one will ever run across them while shopping for a good sippy. It is in the sporting goods water bottle section!
More Johari updates....she can now walk down the few little steps in front of the house without holding a hand or onto anything. She loves to play pretend now. She pretends to prepare food for people. As soon as she gives you the imaginary food, she eagerly asks if you want more. She loves to keep supplying people with more and more of her tasty morsels.

A wonderful visit from Ceci and Mia

Snoozing after good times

The Crew out to breakfast

Holding hands...

Sista Swing

Stroller ride together

Mia drives them through the streets of Ghana

Mia drives them through the streets of Japan

Time for Johari to help with driving

Sista bath fun

Who can get the dolla to the music man

Who is really having the most fun at the Children's library?

We had a wonderful visit with Ceci and Mia. The girls clicked with no hesitation. They played and played and played. And held hands. And Johari loved to sit on Mia's lap in the stroller. Mia helped Johari take off her shoes and socks and coat when we came in the house. We went to a couple children's museums while they were here. And Pike Place Market. And the children's library at the main Seattle library. We had a great time together. The girls chomped on cheddar bunny crackers the whole way. They would hold hands while riding in their car seats some of the time. I love to see all the hand holding. It is such a sweet connection.

Walking Lola

Johari walking Lola today... Luckily since Lola is so very old and slow, she is the perfect speed for Johari to hold her leash. Lola is not about to take off with lightning speed anywhere. Johari was in bliss being able to walk Lola on her own. What could be better...independence and taking care of a dog!!!