Surgery

Talulah goes for her very first ever surgery tomorrow. In the medical world it's a very common, very simple surgery to drain the fluid out of her right ear and insert an ear tube so more fluid won't build up.

It's pretty easy to say that from a medical point of view... But from a Mommy's point of view? Well, from a Mommy's point of view it's pretty freakin' scary no matter how common/simple it's supposed to be.

I've known about the surgery for about a month and, although it was stressful to make the decision to have it done, I felt like I had educated myself and was comfortable with the decision. Donovan and I didn't take it lightly, we did our research and talked to people who had experiences with ear tubes and talked with each other. We made a good decision based on the knowledge we had, I have no doubt about that.

I was pretty calm and thought I had it all together. But this whole week has been a gong show. I'm nervous. REALLY nervous. And also really stressed. I know it'll be fine, but that's my baby girl! Well, OUR baby girl... I know Donovan feels the same way.

Talulah loves the Children's Hospital. LOVES it. Whenever we go for appointments, as soon as the hospital is in view she squeals and kicks her feet and gets so excited! She'll either cry out, "Can we go there Mommy? Pease? Pease?" or, like the last time, "My city! Mommy, can we go to my city?" when I reply with a yes, she thanks me profusely, "Yank you Mommy! Yank you!"

She loves the wavy benches, she loves to look out the windows and touch the stained glass wall. She loves the play area at each waiting point. She loves the stickers and all of the friendly people. She loves stopping in the coffee shop for a treat on the way out and she loves making echos in the parkade.

It's pretty adorable how excited she gets when we go. I really hope things go SUPER smoothly and Talulah is safe, happy and comfortable. And......... I really hope nothing happens that ruins the hospital for her. I love that she loves going to the doctor, hospital, family doctor, whatever. I love that she's not scared of it and I don't want that to change.

Above everything else... I want everything to be as simple as the doctors and nurses say it's going to be. I want Talulah to wake up as happy as my cousin Sam did when she got ear tubes.

Gah... Anyway, I'm rambling. So, send all your good thoughts Talulah's way tomorrow!

Parrots & Such

The other day Talulah kept asking for a parrot. She even busted out the "peas" like nobody's business. Here's how the conversation went:

Talulah: Mommy, can I have a parrot? Peas? Peas?
Mommy: A parrot?
Talulah: Yes.
Mommy: What do you want to do with a parrot?
Talulah: I want to eat it.
Mommy: Oh no! Poor parrot!
Talulah: (giggle) Peas?

She followed me around asking for a parrot while I was wondering why she wants to eat a colourful bird. I mean, I did think it was cute that she wanted a parrot... But there was no way we were getting a bird.

Then, she followed me into the kitchen and pointed to our over-flowing fruit bowl and said, "Peas Mommy?"

I said, "Talulah, do you mean a pear?" to which she replied, "A pear. Yes."

I giggleD to myself while I washed her a pear to nibble on. Seriously? How is it possible that she keeps getting cuter? The confusion may have come from the fact that we watched the movie Rio, which is a cartoon about exotic birds.

Then, yesterday she asked for a "pear-d". Seriously......... CUTEST. KID. EVER.

Quick Update

I got some adorable videos of Talulah bustin' a move at Calaway Park this weekend. Click on the Talulah on YouTube link (on the menu to the left) to check them out... Seriously, it'll be worth it!

Here are some pictures from August so far (these will be repeats for my facebook pals):

Talulah & Papa at the outdoor pool by our place.

One, two, three... JUMP!

Under water smiles. :)

Talulah LOVES being tossed in the air!

Painting on her new easel.

Picking Smelling flowers at Calaway Park with Alexis.

Waiting for their turn.

Watching the merry-go-round and anxiously awaiting her turn.

Making her cute face, hoping that it gets her on the ride sooner.

Giddy up!

Mommy & Lula on the merry-go-round.

Talulah flying an airplane.

Way up in the sky!

Showing me how she's going to fly it (on round two). 

Just about ready for take off!

Celebrity Followers!

Hee.... Scroll down and take a look at the list of followers on Talulah's blog. See "Lydia and Kate"? Yeah... that's right. Talulah's so fabulous that the brilliant creators of Rants From MommyLand are following her blog!

I'm pretty excited.

Also, Talulah wore her fairy dress to daycare today. It has wings attached. One of the older kids said, "Why is she wearing a costume?" to which I replied, "That's the dress she put on today." with a shrug.

This morning Talulah actually left the room, removed her other dress (because she won't wear anything but dresses lately, remember?), got the fairy dress out of her closet and put it on all by herself (backwards, but still...). As if I wasn't going to let her wear it!

Oh yeah, totally off topic but sort of related, last week when I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween I totally assumed she'd say she wanted to be a princess. Because she loves princesses, princess dresses (if they don't twirl enough for her then she declares them "too small"), etc. etc. etc. So, of course she got excited, jumped up and said, "A DIE-SAUR!"

Oh yes, she loves dinosaurs too, very very much (Talulah & Auntie Melissa will be making a dinosaur cake for her birthday like the one they made for Gus' birthday - see below), but I was genuinely surprised that she didn't choose a princess. :) The Children's Place had an AWESOME dinosaur costume last year that was too big for her, hopefully they have it again this year.

Seriously... Cutest. Kid. Ever.

 Auntie Melissa & Talulah showing off their handy work.

Roar!

Talulah vs Sharpie

On Wednesday evening, after a long and exciting day of bring-your-kid-to-work day (that only applied to me) and an appointment to see a doctor, Talulah and I snuggled up and had a picnic dinner while we watched a movie. 

It was super fun.

After our dinner and a movie date was finished, Talulah asked if she could colour. Her favorite tool to colour with happens to be a Sharpie - you know, those fun little PERMANENT markers? We've had issues with the Sharpie before, apparently the feeling of drawing with Sharpie on her table is glorious.

We talked and Talulah promised that she'd keep her colouring on the paper and not on the table. I even taped some construction paper to the table underneath the paper she wanted to colour on in the hopes that any mishaps would still happen on paper and not on table.

I went to the kitchen (which is barely even in another room to where Talulah was colouring) to load our dinner dishes into the dishwasher. I was gone for about 16 seconds, which equates to about 4.5 hours in toddler time. 

When I came back, this is what I found:

When I said, "Talulah, what did you do?" she got a tiny little smile indicating that she was shy but proud of her handy work. OMG... I have the cutest kid in the history of the world. 

Lucky for me, one of my favorite blogs had a recent post from one of it's readers sharing the secret to removing permanent Sharpie from children! (Apparently Sharpie tattoos are all the rage for kids these days.) And, that's not all... If you scroll down and read the comments there are a plethora of helpful tips for parents of budding artists!

So, taking a page from Elizabeth in California's book we slathered on the sunscreen and wiped it off. Talulah had a blast helping with the wiping, which I can only interpret as many many many Sharpie tattoo adventures in the future.

Once we finished up with our sunscreen removal, it was well past bedtime but Talulah (although exhausted) was clean. :)

Thank you Rants From MommyLand and Elizabeth in California!

In other news, Donovan sent me this text last night:

So tonight while laying in bed Lula needed to blow her nose. So I grabbed some Kleenex and got her to blow her nose. Her nose was clear and nothing came out. Then she looked up at me with her eyebrows all scrunched and with the funniest most serious face and said "my blower don't work", then yawned and laid down on her pillow.
 She is way too cute!!!!

Seriously, right? They don't come any cuter than Talulah. :)

Little Miss MELT

Wednesday night with Talulah:

(Talulah woke up at night and peed through her diaper so I changed her and brought her to bed with me. When we were almost asleep, Talulah pops up and says...)

Talulah: Mama, we fends!

Mommy: Yeah, we're friends.

Talulah: You my best fend.

Mommy: Oh Talulah, you're my best friend too.

~MELT~


Thursday morning conversation with Talulah:

Talulah: Mommy, you nuggle me? (She was still tired and not ready to get out of bed.)

Mommy: Okay, I'll carry you to the living room to get dressed.

(Mommy picks up Talulah and starts walking out of the bedroom. Talulah snuggles in.)

Talulah: When I big, I carry you.

Mommy: When you get big you're going to carry me?

Talulah: Yes.

~MELT~

Mom 'n Lula's Excellent Vacation

Wow. We've been busy! Luckily, it's mostly been the fun kind of busy. :)

Talulah and I headed off to Winnipeg for our summer vacation. We went to Nan & Grandpa Jim's cabin, to an awesome outdoor wading pool, for lots of walks/wagon rides/stroller rides, to the Winnipeg Folk Festival, camping at White Lake… Geesh, I'm tired again just thinking about it!

Papa Bruce came out to Winnipeg just after we did, so we had everyone in the same city. It was awesome!

Talulah and Baby Gus were in love, as always. Except that a two year old's idea of love is a tad different than everyone else's. Talulah was really really in love with Gus. She talked in her sleep about Gus. She'd wake up in the morning and ask for Gus. She wanted to touch him and hug him and hold him, etc.

But… If Gus touched Talulah and he was the initiator, then she'd cringe away and holler, "He's touching me!" (Sounds very much like stories I've heard from Grandma Gwen about Talulah's Daddy.) Then, as soon as Gus stopped, she'd be all over him again. Strange little thing.

Anyway, we've been having a great summer so far.

I'll let the pictures do the talking. :)

May 2011

June 2011

July 2011

Just a quick pic until I have more time!

Not so patiently waiting for Velociraptor (a friend's cat that we're babysitting) to arrive. 

Figuring Out Family

Talulah's at an age where she's figuring out who's who in the family. Months ago she was absolutely amazed to find out that her Papa is my dad.

Every now and then, out of nowhere, she'd bust out with a, "Papa yo dad?" (translation: "Papa's your dad?"). I'd say yes and then we'd talk about it and all the other family members.

We've gone through the following extensively:

Papa is Mommy's dad.
Nan is Mommy's mom.
Grandpa Jim is Mommy's step-dad.
Grandma Gwen is Daddy's mom.
Grandpa Wes is Daddy's dad.

She's also finding the "titles" related to Mommy and Daddy interesting. On Mother's Day she asked, "Are you my mudder?" I said yes and we had a few hours of her calling me "mudder" instead of mommy or mama.

As you know, we've recently celebrated Father's Day. I picked Talulah up from daycare on the Friday before, we went to the store to get the rest of the crafts we needed to make our gifts and when we got home, the followng conversation took place while parking our car.

Mommy: Great, now we've got all of the supplies to make our Father's Day presents!
Talulah: Fodder?
Mommy: Yeah, Daddy's your father.
Talulah: And you my mommy-fodder?
Mommy: No, I'm your mother. Remember when we celebrated Mother's Day? That was for Mommy, and Father's Day is for Daddy.
Talulah: Oh... Wha's Dodi?
Mommy: Well, Jodi's your step-mother.
Talulah: Step-mudder?
Mommy: Yeah, your step-mother or step-mom.
Talulah: Step-mom?
Mommy: Yeah!

We hadn't broached the topic of "who" Jodi was yet. Talulah's always said, "My Daddy" and "My Dodi" so the actual who-factor hadn't come up.

The next day, Talulah was still figuring things out.

Talulah: I have two mommies?
Mommy: Well, kind of. I'm your Mommy, and Jodi's your Step-Mom.
Talulah: Mommy's my mommy. Dodi's my step-mom.
Mommy: Right!

I think she's got it. It's pretty cool to see her figuring all of this stuff out. Sometimes I think I can actually SEE the wheels turning in her head.

Months and months ago we were drawing together and Talulah asked me to draw a picture of "Mommy and Talulah"... so I did. Then she said, "And Daddy!"... so I added Daddy. Then she said, "And Dodi!"... so I added Jodi.

Talulah was so excited so we immediately went over and stuck it on the fridge and it's been there ever since. Now, Talulah's using it as another learning tool and walks by pointing to each person and saying who they are. "Mommy is my mommy. Talulah is Talulah. Daddy is my daddy. Dodi is my step-mom."

C-U-T-E

I don't even want to get into siblings. One of her friends at daycare has an older sister so Talulah's announced that she has a sister too. When I've asked her who her sister is she usually says "Papa is my sisser" and occasionally says "Gappa Dim is my sisser".

Sigh... Oh to be two and figuring the world out. :)

Potty Talk

Talulah likes to have talks while she's on the potty. Some people like to "read a paper", some people like to just get it done and over with, some like to play games, most like to make those trips by themselves.


My girl likes to have a serious conversation. Well, she also likes to hug while she's doing her bid-ness, but lately the potty talk events have seriously outweighed the potty hug events.

Last night we were sitting in the washroom together, Talulah on her potty and me on the floor leaning on the bathtub.

Talulah looks down at a little red dot on her leg and says, "Hey yook! A skeeto bite!"

Mommy: Oh no, a mosquito bit you?
Talulah: Yes.
Mommy: Did you say, "Shoo mosquito!"?
Talulah: No, skeetos play wiff me.
Mommy: They play with you?
Talulah: Yes. Dey play wiff me and dey bite me. (Chomp, chomp with her teeth.)
Mommy: (Suppressing a giggle) But I don't like when they bite me. I say, "Shoo pesky mosquito!".
Talulah: You no say shoo. Dey friendsy. Dey play.
Mommy: (Not able to suppress the giggle at "friendsy") They're friendly?

At this point I'm full on laughing while I try to talk. Keep in mind, Talulah's pooping while we have this conversation.... I held it together until I heard "friendsy" but then there was no way I could.

So, I'm trying to teach Talulah to just shoo Mosquitos away. She was TERRIFIED of them before, and now she's apparently embracing them and letting them bite her.

I was trying to tell her that I don't like when they bite me. When I said that, she reached out, cupped my cheeks in her hands and said, "Yissen me dear. Dey friendsy." with her face about 2mm away from mine, big wide, serious eyes staring at me.

I started to howl. I couldn't help it. She was being so serious, but it was SOOOOOO funny! I laughed and laughed.

She kept grabbing my hand in both of hers in a comforting way and saying, "Yissen me dear." and, "Dear, dey friendsy." over and over again while I laughed and laughed.

I've seen her daycare teachers talk to her like that, calling her "dear" and all.

She's so adorable.

Our potty convo ended when Talulah was finished doing her business.

Some may think it's gross that I cherish our time in the washroom together while she's pooping.... But those potty talks are pretty darn special to me.