Yeah, those days are a distant memory now. But with the cute things she says, I guess it’s okay.

Rebecca got her first real haircut!

Just kidding! (Silly you.)

We bought a bag of Reese’s minis for Rebecca as an incentive. “Are dey gowd?”

“Yes, they’re gold.”

“Are dey gowd doub’oons? [Doubloons] . . . No, dey are just gowd.”

Rebecca gets her middle name right about half the time; the other half she thinks her middle name is the same as Hayden’s (a mistake he’s just learning to correct). But she knows Rachel’s middle name, apparently because I say it so much. She even knows what it means:

“Waychew Deana [Rachel Diana] means ‘Come hewe!’”

“Good job, Bex,” I told her as we were cleaning up.

“No, I not Bex. I jus’ one Becca!”

During Rachel’s nap one Saturday, I left the other kids playing on the computer while Ryan went to church for a bit. When I came back from my shower, Rebecca announced, “We take gooood cawe of Wachew, Mommy! We takin’ good cawe o’ ouwsewves.”

Rebecca the ice princess (note the hat and the tiara)

A while back, she insisted “I Buzz!” when we called on “Becca” for our family prayer one evening. We informed her Buzz was not allowed to pray, but Rebecca could. After we convinced her our minds were made up, she stuck out her arms and legs and wiggled them.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I shakin’ off my ‘tendin’ a be Buzz Wightyeaw.”

After the prayer, she mimed pulling on sleeves and boots: “I puttin back on my ‘tendin’ a be Buzz.”

This summer, we’ve crammed in waaay more travel than I’d initially planned. On her first trip, we stayed in a hotel. As we departed for home, Rebecca repeatedly asked if we were going to the hotel (since I guess we said “home” when we said we were going to the hotel while we were there). Finally, she understood that we were driving back to our house.

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Hotew was jus’ ‘tendin’ a be ours home!”

She’s used this logic on other nouns as well. When she doesn’t want to go to bed, like tonight, she’ll inform us that “The daytime is just ‘tendin’ a be nighttime.” Or when she was having a little trouble on a playground and I read to her the sign that said the playground was designed for kids ages 5-12, and she told me she was five, she clarified, “I was just ‘tendin’ a be five.”

What funny things did your kids pretend?

“Mom, Rachel just smells like some weird vampire. Those guys are funky!”

“If you break this fourf wall . . .”

Hayden was playing with a truck and announced that it sold “Chocolate fondues!” Rebecca asked “I haf a chockit fonnu?”

Hayden pulled up a picture of Disney princesses on the Internet and called for Rebecca to come over to see “your favorite blog!”

I mentioned last week that Hayden rode bikes with the neighbors. Back and forth on the sidewalk. It’s cute how much they loved it. (It’s also been cold and rainy, so they haven’t had many chances to do this). Over the weekend, I walked Hayden and his bike across the street to play with the little girl his age over there. She got her scooter out and again, they rode back and forth on the sidewalk till we had to go in.

He needs a helmet and really likes his friend’s bell, so I started him on an incentive chart. He can get up to 4 smileys a day in each category: no whining/fits, be nice to sisters, obey quickly, and extra/misc. He’s just about got enough to earn his helmet (horrible that I made him earn his own vital safety equipment, I know—we did have one, but he’s outgrown it). Next on the list to earn: the bell!

He’s very excited about kindergarten in the fall. He’s working hard on his letters. We’re learning letter combinations now, including ck, sh, st and more—so Hayden has actually read his first words this month! (It was see, in case you’re wondering.) I’m so proud! He drew a cow (when we were learning “ow”):

I’m also proud of this adorable picture he drew of Rachel’s lovey, a caterpillar named Cally (both shown here).

He loves to create awesome buildings out of his block sets and cardboard boxes. We’re regularly impressed by the symmetry and balance of his creations. Here’s one of his buildings: the sign on the awning was dictated to me and our friend Brianna. It reads, “Hayden’s Toy Story 3 [it's a movie theater, but he and Rebecca insist they're showing Cars 2 on both screens]. Hayden’s Bookstore. Everything is $18. Hayden’s Fanciest Candy Store and Also Necklace Store.”

1. Our freedoms.
2. Those who have sacrificed (and are now sacrificing) to preserve those freedoms.
3. A day off!
4. Rachel going from hands and feet to just feet without support.
5. Craft store sales.
6. Ambitious art projects (I’m so NOT that, but I’m ready to try now!)
7. More exciting (and delicious) projects coming up for Wayward Girls’ Crafts
8. One (and only one) fun find at garage sales/thrift stores over the weekend.
9. Lining up the first teacher for the first class for my writer’s group!
10. Ryan putting Rachel to bed.

Today:

1. Finally, May-worthy weather!
2. Time at the park (even if we all got a little sunburned)
3. Takeout for dinner
4. Lining up more teachers for my writers group
5. Homemade doughnuts
6. Going to bed early! Seriously couldn’t keep my eyes open after 10:30 last night.
7. Rebecca’s imaginary toys at the park (which she told her daddy all about at dinner)
8. New friends for Hayden at the park.
9. Rachel said “Hi, Dada” three times this morning!
10. Man—just a great day!

1. Rain—don’t have to water the garden! (Borrowed from my friend Elisa, who’s also participating!)
2. My garden (okay, my sugar snap peas) is growing.
3. Ryan just cut both yards and they look very neat.
4. Hayden’s drawings—today he drew me an awesome cow .
5. Getting things done with the rest of the Executive Committee of my writers’ group.
6. Chopped!
7. Chatting with my sister, which I missed today.
8. Contact lenses and glasses.
9. Already having my pineapple CUPside-down CAKES, done and posted on Wayward Girls’ Crafts for this week!
10. Sleeping in! (relatively)

And today’s:

1. Naps, even if in theory only.
2. Rachel kicking with delight!
3. Checking things off my to do list (like this post!).
4. Putting the kids to bed early-ish.
5. That Rebecca’s hair will grow. (See last picture.)
6. Potty training! (And being done!)
7. Finishing off the cookies we made last night—no more temptation.
8. Left overs and Ryan reheating them.
9. Tuna salad sandwiches with celery, making me think of my mom.
10. Hayden including his sisters in playing with his blocks. And his blogs. But more about that next week.

“Dees are my wobots,” she informed us. So these are Rebecca’s Robots:

(Her hands. Also note the plate of shredded cheese, which is pretty much all the child will eat for dinner.)

Her robots talk and help her do all kinds of things (being her hands). They love their mommy robots (my hands) especially.

Some cute things Rebecca has said lately:

• Teese neveh wive in cups! Teese wive in bowws! (Cheese never lives in cups! Cheese lives in bowls!)
• Wohwa’kates: roller skates
• Yeh weww: yeah, well (at the beginning of a sentence)
• Beebee: I’m not even sure what the exact translation of this would be (baby?), but it’s something she says a lot when she’s playing with Pinky, her stuffed animal. It’s either what she called Pinky, or what Pinky calls her. Or maybe both.

And some more:

Another favorite game is MontahINK! (Monsters, Inc.) Rebecca is Suwwy (Sully) and Pinky is either Boo or Mike ‘Akow’ki. I’m usually whatever Pinky isn’t, though sometimes Rachel gets that honor. Hayden has played Mike and Wannaw (Randall). Once I was even Wannanoos (Mr. Waternoose).

Her hair, obviously, spends a lot of time in her face, so today I did this (she cried, but she’s come to accept it):

I’m not really thrilled with how I did, but cutting my kids’ hair too short is something I’m good at.

What do you think? What are you grateful for? Isn’t Rebecca pretty much the best little girl in the world?

• yeyyow
• yittle/yiddew (especially Rebecca’s favorite nickname for Rachel, “yiddew baby!”)
• yeash (leash)
• And my favorite: I yub you!

I also love little kids’ attempts to jump. Rebecca is obsessed with jumping over the cracks when we’re walking on pavement, but her little feet never leave the ground at the same time (though she actually can jump—just not while walking).

What are your favorite learning (yearning?) processes to watch?

My favorites from Rebecca:

• ackshee . . . (actually)
• s’uw (sure, but without the sh. Or the r.)
• Kudaihav . . . ? (Could I have . . . ?)
• Pe-p’ease? (Pretty please?) (This just recently advanced from “Me-mease?”)
• Mayme we can . . . (Maybe—Rebecca is generating alternatives)
• F’iends (Friends)

But I think the most surprising recent words were this:

Last night at dinner, we were talking about our visit with Nana (my mom). I asked my son Hayden what his favorite part of the visit was. He decided his favorite part was getting new blocks from Nana.

“Here’s the backstory,” he said. And he proceeded to explain in great detail the shopping trip a week ago when we bought the new blocks.

“It’s great on so many levels,” he concluded.

(!!)

What are your favorite kid phrases?

I used my “finger phone.” “Hi, Rebecca. How are you?”

“Gud.”

“What are you doing?”

“Nuffing. Watcha TV. Fee Ferm.” [Phineas & Ferb]

Rebecca really looked forward to her birthday this year (probably mostly because Hayden thought it was exciting). I kept having to tell her that it wasn’t her birthday yet. Finally, she got the message—whenever the subject came up, she’d say, “Becca birt-day! Nek week. Mon-ay.” [Next week. Monday.]

After her birthday, we (again, mostly Hayden) taught Rebecca her age. “How old are you?” we’d ask.

“Two!” she’d proclaim for the first week, and hold up her fingers:

After the first week, the answer changed. “How old are you?” we ask.

She’s still just as proud to proclaim her new answer: “Becca!”

Sometimes, Rebecca has rough naps. It takes her over an hour to fall asleep (though she seldom cries, so that’s good). One day, she’d been in bed for 90 minutes and started bawling. I came in to get her.

“Becca ‘wake,” she told me piteously.

“I can hear that.”

“Becca ky.” [cry]

“Did you sleep at all?”

“Uh huh.” She holds up her fingers the same as above. “One minnut.” (She also likes to tell me “one minnut” when she wants me to wait for her.)

Last week, Rebecca got sent to her room for the first time. She and Hayden had been fighting, so they both got sent to their room. Rebecca submitted peacefully, allowing me to lead her to her room, and sitting quietly in the arm chair there. She insisted I close the door. (This was probably because Hayden threw his usual screaming fit at the mere mention of being sent to his room, and as always, I had to physically drag him there. Maturity FTW.)

After Rebecca’s two minutes were up, I opened the door and invited her to come out. (Hayden was still screaming at this point, laying over the threshold to his room.) Rebecca preferred to stay in her room. Can’t say I blame her.

Later that day, something happened to upset her while she was in another room. “I go my woom!” she announced to her father amid her tears.

I found her there, laying on the arm chair, crying, a few minutes later. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I sad.” [Biggest frown in the world]

“Can I hold you to help you feel better?”

“No. Me’cine [medicine] help me feel better.”

Edited to add: whenever she thinks I’m upset, she uses her cutest, most innocent tone: “Sumping wong, Mommy? Needa Pinky?”

What are your favorite kid moments recently? Or what are your favorite toddler moments?

While we’re still teaching Rebecca lots of signs, we’re trying to encourage her to use her “words” more. For example, Pinky is probably one of her favorite things to sign about—she needs to know the whereabouts of her stuffed rabbit at all times. We taught her to tap her index finger on her chin to refer to Pinky (the sign for ‘red’; I figured the sign for pink was still a little challenging). If we ask her to “Say Pinky with your mouth!” she moves her finger up to tap on her lips.

Hardy har har, little girl.

About a week and a half ago, Rebecca finally found her voice—but not for Pinky. She started calling Hayden “Eee.” (Considering Hayden calls himself “Haydie” almost exclusively, it’s not that surprising.)

There is a drawback to this, however. She’s now rhymed all our names, and every hour or so she feels compelled to take roll: “Da-Dee? Da-Dee? Da-Dee? Mahmee? Eee? Eee?”

She’s also taken to referring to Nana as “Nanee”—which is exactly what Hayden called candy.

That’s pretty sweet .

What are your favorite new word stories?

When Rebecca got up, he told me to “Tell her what I have now.”

I correctly guessed he wanted me to tell her he was four. Hayden came to stand over her, and Rebecca grunted at him to go away, using her sign for “all done/all gone/no more.”

“See wants my fee years old back,” Hayden explained.

Birthday boy needs a haircut

Just a few of the inventions Hayden claims are in “his car” (the red Honda we haven’t driven in years, but still have):

• wings, so it can fly to Nana
• guns (that go “pew! pew!”)
• a machine that makes purple monkeys with sad faces and happy faces
• two ovens
• [added later: bathtub]

Some words Hayden puts his personal spin on:
woo — you
wuze — use
Werbecca (still)
foon — spoon (and all other words beginning with sp-, sm-, etc.)
[added later: DVDV ("divvydivvy") — DVD]

Words Rebecca can say (at 18 months, in the order she learned them as best I can remember):
des/dah (yes/yeah)
dat (that)
Dada (this was a long time before the next ones)
Mama, Nana, Papa
Beebe (baby, sometimes Pinky)
Deesa (Jesus)
oooh (no)
oosh (shoes or juice)
[added later: mmmmooowa (more, which came after Dada), boo' (book), ba'/bap (bag), ba' (ball), hi, bye]

Words Rebecca can sign:
more
shoes
cookie/treat
Jesus
milk
apple
cheese
Pinky
Hayden
baby
cracker
clean
no more/all gone/all done/FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY STOP CHANGING MY DIAPER!!!!
[added later: hi, byebye, please, thank you, bread, excuse me]

Body parts Rebecca knows:
Hair
Head
Eyes
Ears
Mouth
Nose
Chin
Tongue
Cheek
Neck
Knees (sometimes)
Feet
Toes
Fingers
Hands
Belly

The DVD in question is Robin Hood (which Hayden likes to say as “Wobin. Hood.”). As of probably about last Friday, it has become Hayden’s favorite movie. Luckily, it is also one of my favorites (favorite Disney film, too), and we have it on VHS and DVD. (This has taught him the word “rewind,” too.)

I wrapped it in an envelope because I knew if Hayden saw it or came across it in his diaper bag, he’d instantly insist on watching it, and I wanted to leave that to his aunt and uncle’s discretion. So I gave the DVD directly to Aunt Jess and explained what it was before Hayden made it in the apartment.

Naturally, none of that mattered in the end. The envelope sat on the entertainment center next to the TV and they watched Nick Jr. shows On Demand. The Blue’s Clues episode that was available was on a treasure hunt.

I don’t know if Hayden was familiar with the concept before, but apparently he caught on pretty quickly. During the episode, he seized upon the envelope by the TV and proclaimed it “Treasure!” He then headed off across the room to open it.

“Wobin! Hood!”

And yes, they watched that next.