At least we know she's listening

Cliff was lying in bed this morning as Juliet was wandering around our room.  "I need a hug.  Juliet, may I please have a hug?"  "Not if you whine," she told him serenely without missing a beat.

We hope Daddy is third, at least

Juliet is feeling better after a miserable cold, so she and I decided to walk to the corner for ice cream last night. When we came back in with the ice cream, she said, "Let's eat it all, 'cause we're girls!"

"Oh, let's save some for Daddy, Juliet. I like him."

"I like him, too, but not best."

"Oh?"

"I like Mommy and TV best."

A mess!

I walk in on Juliet in the living room, where she has assembled a midden of newspapers, towels, pillows, random toys, and the clean bedsheets that we're supposed to take to school for her to nap on.

Me: Juliet, what are you doing?
J: I'm making a mess!
Me: Oh?
J: Yes, it's really horrible.

At least she knows what she's up to. And, she said that she would clean it up when she's done.

I'm HUNGRY

Juliet is in the midst of a growth spurt: she's been eating huge amounts of food, and I swear she's an inch taller after Christmas vacation.

As Joyce was tucking her in this evening, in her PJs and having brushed her teeth, Juliet decided to campaign for more food:

"I'm hungry."

"Could I have food?"

"I just want food so I can grow big like Cade." (her classmate)

"Oh man, I never get food!"

"I wish I could have food."

"Mommy, can I have food?"

"I'm hungry right now!" -- repeated a dozen times.

Then she cried for about five minutes, and pointed to her mouth for another five minutes.

Reader, we fed her cheese.

Someone's Got To Do Them

Juliet fended off my attempts to wrestle her into her pajamas last night. "No! I'll do it! It's MY JOB!"

So I asked her, "What are the things that are Mommy's job?"

She thought for a moment. "Dangerous things."

Halloween, belated

Juliet and Heather carved our pumpkin today:

http://flickr.com/photos/littlecabbage/3029219199/

http://flickr.com/photos/littlecabbage/3030051792/

Juliet's first day at school

On Juliet's first day at her new school, she ran into the Dramatic Play area, donned a doctor's smock (there was a nice reflector headband, but it's not on in the photo), and picked up a baby doll:




So I'm thinking: pediatrician.

Boarding school at 3?

Juliet's last day at Bright Horizons (her daycare center for the last two years) is tomorrow. She starts at her new school, the Weekday School at Riverside Church, on Monday. Starting a couple of weeks ago, she started seeming a bit more insecure and skittish than usual, and I figured it was the upcoming school transition. So I asked her about it:

C: Juliet, are you looking forward to going to your new school?
J: Yeah, I'm going to miss you.

Which made her insecurities seem much more real. I quickly reassured her that mommy and daddy weren't going anywhere, that Heather and Erica would still be babysitting her, that she would still get to see Shawna, her teacher at Bright Horizons, and that we'd be staying in touch with her friends. She brightened up immediately, and has been much better ever since.

Outmaneuvering

Occasionally Juliet asks for some of the junk food that we imperfectly allow in the house. Up until now we've been able to ask her how many she wants, and since she never asks for more than five, it's not such a big deal. Sunday, though, she asked for five yuppie cheese puffs and then I watched her counting the fingers of her right hand with the fingers of her left hand. Failing to make it come out to any number higher than five, she gave up and cut to the chase. "I want the whole bag."

Only the first time this will happen

Juliet finished her dinner and dashed to the living room to look over her new library books. I asked whether she wanted more shepherd's pie and was met with silence. I asked again, a little exasperated, and she said "Yes. Sorry, I was reading my book."

She's definitely my daughter

On Juliet's day sheet today (the report from her daycare teacher, Shawna), the report was: "Juliet was excited about our science project this morning. She ran over and said, 'yay! science!'"

O frabjous day!

Of Course, She'll Always Be Our Baby

Juliet has been imitating a baby lately, crawling over to me making babbling sounds, pulling herself up on my legs and holding her arms up to be picked up and snuggled. I'll ask her whether she's being a baby and she'll nod, but sort of parenthetically so that it doesn't disrupt the flow of her performance. She's pretty convincing, and I have no idea what is on her mind when she's doing it.

Eggs and Bunnies

Juliet found many, many eggs this Easter, enlisting the help of her friend Sammy from Vermont to reach the higher ones and Sammy's mother Beth to open the eggs. (Sammy also did an excellent job of standing casually next to the harder-to-find eggs, sometimes with game show hostess-style hand gestures, so that Juliet cried out "I found it!" every time).

But the best part was on Friday, putting little candy bars in eggs for her friends at school and separating out the ones in the gold wrappers, which had peanuts. "These are for the elephants," she told me.

Be Vewy, Vewy Quiet...

Juliet came into the living room wearing Cliff's headlamp (correctly worn and turn on) and announced, "I'm going to find the crocodiles."

Life imitates Knuffle Bunny

If you haven't seen Mo Willem's books Knuffle Bunny and Knuffle Bunny Too, we highly recommend them--they capture fundamental truths of parenting and urban life. Without spoiling the stories, KB2 has aspects of the terrible young-adult plotline where the heroine and her nemesis show up at the prom wearing the same dress.

For Christmas, Juliet received a baby doll with Asian features. Upon opening the present, she exclaimed, "It's my baby, it's my sister!" And proceeded to name the doll "Baby Lala". On the 9th of January, she insisted on carrying Baby Lala to daycare with her. Juliet entered her daycare room (Toddler 3 at Bright Horizons), saw her buddy Mei, and Mei turned out to have brought exactly the same doll (I sharpie'd a "J" onto Juliet's doll to avoid embarrassing confusions). This video was shot just a little bit after that first encounter; they don't seem to have internalized the social opprobrium of bringing the same dolls to school.

More videos of Juliet!

Well, that seems to have worked. Here's a bunch more:

Uncle Michael visited from Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago. We took Juliet and Michael to an FCC (Families with Children from China) event at the Harlem Meer activities center; here's a video from that day.

This is Juliet swinging at a playground in Central Park, 12/28/07.

Joyce's friend Tyler Ochoa, and his daughter Elizabeth introduce Juliet to how to stomp in the mud on January 6.

From our Oregon trip in January, here's Grampy demonstrating his sock-puppet skills (a Farnsworth family core competence), much to Juliet's delight.

Juliet stomps through the snow

Let's see if this video link works:

Photos from MK Wong

MK Wong forwarded a photo set from a visit with her and our families (not just the Wongs, but the Woos, and Kirstin Ho) in 2006.

Pictures from the West Coast Family Deathmarch^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HGoodwill Tour!

Here are a few photosets that my mom, Matilda, snapped at Fung Lum, the SFO noodle joint with surprisingly good noodles:

first set
second set
third set

Truly our daughter she is!

I turned on HBO's hi-def broadcast of Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith last night and ended up sitting through the last third of it. Either Juliet wasn't sleeping well because she's teething, or the bass rumble from our subwoofer kept her from falling asleep. In any case, Joyce eventually took Juliet out of her room and brought her out to watch the movie. Which she watched raptly for the last 20 minutes, especially the swordfighting bits.

At the climactic scene, right after Anakin/Darth made his ill-advised flying leap over Obi-Wan, and got his legs cut off Black Knight-style, Juliet blurted out "Bye bye!" and waved goodbye to the projection screen.