TWENTY TWO ON THE 22ND

Months, that is... Vanessa is 22 months old now, as of October 22nd. New in her life? The word mayonnaise. Tonight we had roast chicken, white rice and broccoli. We let her put a dab of mayonnaise on her food, which she immediately ate, then shouted "Mayonnaise! Mayonnaise! Mayonnaise!" the rest of the meal. [She has mayonnaise on her turkey sandwiches with Daddio. That's how she got hooked.]

She has also developed a popsicle habit. We bought a Costco box of Flav-o-Ice popsicles for her baby dedication back in June. Daddio discovered them since we've been home from our travels and don't you know the two of them curl up together every evening with a popsicle. Nanners can wait, but don't try to put her to bed without a popsicle. Good thing she loves to brush her teeth.



Over the weekend Vanessa got a cold. I pulled out my box labeled "Pediatric Rx" and wee Bananakins insisted on running the show. First she asked her toy kitty, China, "Do you need some medicine?" in a sincere and gentle voice. She stared into China's eyes and waited for a response. Whatever China said, Vanessa took it upon herself to use every item in the Pediatric Rx box on her: Motrin drops, Tylenol drops, Mylicon gas drops, ear thermometer, tape measure, nasal aspirator, toenail clippers, eye dropper, Vics Vapo-Rub (she can say that), and a brush. After she administered to China and wiped her nose with a tissue, she let me doctor her. It was very, very cute. "I fix it," she said.



We've been playing around with Van's buddies. It's always fun at the organic farm feeding the goats, and those hayrides to the pumpkin patch are a real treat this time of year. Nothing can compare, though, to Daddio carving a Jack-o-Lantern. Never has Van imagined such a thing. When he put a candle in it, turned off the lights and lit it... you should have heard the MONKEY SCREECHING! After that, just saying the word "pumpkin" would produce a screech.



Of course our temperatures here have been near 100 degrees, so the Jack-o-Lantern has already collapsed and been sent to the green and clean recycling pit. She's picking up our decorative baby pumpkins, asking, "I cut it?" (We must get more pumpkins.)



Van's vocabulary continues to grow. She has her pronouns down pat this week. She doesn't always choose to use them, but when she does, they are correct. Thank God, because that would be hard to teach, I think. We read her Halloween book from Gramma Patty and her three Nursery Rhyme books every day. Like ten times a day. We don't know why she's fixated on the pumpkin book. The Nursery Rhymes are fun because we sing them, shout them, act them out... we are downright raucous with our Mother Goose around here. Today it was Cheech and Chong do Pussycat, Pussycat Where Have You Been? Her favorite song to sing is still Tomorrow, but she only knows the one line.



We have to watch what we say around her. We've known for a very long time that she understands absolutely everything, but now it's weird that she can talk. I hung up after talking with Daddio about which of our three favorite take-out places to go to and Vanessa shouted, "Taco Rico!" which had been one of the options. "You don't even know what that is," I shot back. "Food," she said. I got Daddy back on the phone and said, "Tell Daddy what you just told me." Van said, "Taco Rico, Mexico food." Hola! Where did she learn the word Mexico?

At Taco Rico that night we met a little blonde haired girl her same size whose birth day is one week after Vanessa's. Her due date was also one week after Vanessa's. They were like twins, except the other little girl, Brooke, had two pigtails on the top of her head. The two blonde toddlers entertained everyone at Taco Rico with their aisle sprinting. We exchanged numbers. The next day Vanessa wore two pigtails.



Favorite phrases these days: "It's broken." "Not working." "Needs batteries." "I fix it." Last night she used a Phillips head on one of her toys that needs batteries. I no longer need to leave the couch when she wants to change out her DVDs.

Here are videos from the past two weeks. Sorry, this layout is funny: there's something up with the blog editor.

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