Pictures from Fort Worth

We spent the weekend in Fort Worth with our cousins.

Here we are with Robert's cousin Carson and his wonderful wife Julianne outside the Fort Worth Chicken Ranch. Gen liked that there was a rooster on top of the building, and she could say "cock a doodle do" (sort of) to it. . .

Gen LOVED her friend Carson.
We went to the Fort Worth Zoo, and it was great! Gen LOVED the gorilla too. She blew kisses to it. I'm not sure the gorilla was impressed, though.
Robert did NOT LOVE the bird on his head. He only went in the bird exhibit reluctantly, and this did not help.

Wendy's Top 10 Signs you are the Mommy of a Toddler

1. You have wondered if Dora's haircut would be flattering on you. Or, you have actually uttered the words "Swiper, no swiping!" to another human being.

2. You can distinguish between toddler-homonyms. For example: "nana" (banana), "Nana" (her grandmother), and "nyah-na" (blankie. And no, I have no idea why.)

3. You have concluded that goldfish crackers and string cheese are really food and eat them even when your child is asleep.

4. You can recite a Dr. Seuss book from memory at this very moment.

5. You have a favorite wiggle.

6. You have told another adult "no, no," "bye-bye," or "uh-ohhhh" in recent memory.

7. Your recent memory includes only the last 30 minutes.

8. Your bathroom cabinet is the Fort Knox of band-aids.

9. You have over 1000 pictures on your hard drive, all of your child.

10. While reading this list, you had to stop someone from hitting, licking, dragging, jumping off of, jumping onto, climbing, sitting on, jumping on, relocating, stealing, or tickling someone or something in your house.

My bubble bath.

Today, I was taken in by one of the many endcaps at Wal-Mart. Bubble Bath! What fun! Gen's old enough for that, she loves to blow bubbles outside, so what a fantastic idea. Unless this is the first post you've ever read, you probably can guess where this is going...

It's Robert's night to give her a bath.

Oh, the utter horror of a bubble bath. We drained out the bubbles, and ran a new bath. Here she is afterward, happy in her "regular" bath.

We Polings like routine, you know.

Bouncy Thing

I'm going to humble myself here and put in a wide shot of my living room today.

The large pink and yellow monstrosity is Bouncy Thing. I bought it for Gen on Tuesday. I had researched it, and all the mommies in the world that had written online reviews loved it. They raved about how much their kids played on it. They praised its versatility, its storability, and its price. Armed with all this knowledge, I bought it; I anticipated how much Genevieve would love it. I pictured her bouncing happily with all her little friends. I thought how fantastic it would be to air it up on rainy days and then deflate it and put it away for a while. But I forgot one small thing: I have the most cautious child in the world.

So I now present, for your very-much enjoyment......
Genevieve vs. Bouncy Thing

Tuesday night. We open bouncy thing, Robert airs it up.
Late Tuesday night. I picture Genevieve's joy when she gets up and sees it. It will be like Christmas!

Wednesday morning arrives ...

8:05 Gen eyes the bouncy thing but won't touch it
8:10 Gen drops a pair of her baby's pants in the window of bouncy thing and observes results
8:15 Gen peers in the door of bouncy thing
8:20 Gen eats breakfast near bouncy thing, eyeing it suspiciously.
8:50 Gen returns to door of bouncy thing. I ask if she would like to get inside, and she says "no! no! no!"
8:58 I blow up the rest of the rings and chunk them in bouncy thing. She gets irritated with me.
9:00 Gen walks around bouncy thing, apparently testing the wall strength.
9:01 I ask her if she would like Mama to get in there with her, and she says "no! no! no!"
9:03 Gen manages to get one of the rings out of bouncy thing and puts it on like a necklace.
9:58 Gen again considers bouncy thing, but when asked if she would like to get in, says "no! no! no!"
9:59 Gen brings me the bouncy thing's box and says "bye-bye"
10:09 I get in bouncy thing. Gen watches from the side as if she expects me to be eaten. She then retrieves another ring and wears it as a necklace.
10:40 We make cookies and watch Sesame Street, thus distracting Gen from the giant bouncy thing in the living room.
11:00 As Roomba tackles the sprinkle-iscious mess in the kitchen, Gen follows it around. Wonder who she got that from.....
11:20 Gen puts her Easter eggs in the bouncy thing.
11:25 Gen begins singing to the bouncy thing in some mysterious little girl ritual of acceptance.
11:26 Gen retrieves the Easter eggs she can reach
11:30 Gen allows me to put her in Bouncy Thing. She walks around saying "jump, jump, jump" for about 2 minutes, then wails to get out.

lunch, nap

after nap Gen utterly ignores Bouncy Thing's existence

5:30 Gen again allows me to put her in Bouncy Thing. She jumps a little, and I show her how she can crawl out herself. This is followed by more wailing.

Thursday arrives....
she goes to mother's day out, and we go to the park. When we finally get home... a miracle takes place!

4:30 Gen asks to get in Bouncy Thing. I put her in, then she asks for her Baby, her milk cup, and her tea set. Of course, I bring them all to her. She plays happily in Bouncy Thing for 30 minutes. The rest of the evening she was in and out of it. She could get out by herself by the end of the night. After all, it only took 32 hours...

Genevieve is 18 Months Old Today!

Genevieve is 18 months old today. I can't believe it! So just to commemorate the occasion, here's some Genny stats.

We started a list of her words, and have added to it as she learned new ones! Right now, the count is at 67. Her favorite words (besides Mama and Dada) are: baby, dog, cookie, jacket (means she wants to go outside), go, juice, and Daisy. My personal favorite is when she calls herelf by name, "Nenny."

After threatening to never walk, she took to the feet at 15 months. She loves to jump and is starting to learn to run. Right now we are at the "fast, sort of fluid walk" stage.

Genevieve's favorite things to do:

• Play with her BABY! Gen is a baby-fiend! I hear the word "baby" a thousand times per day.
• Read books. Right now, she has figured out which books have the most pictures of babies and dogs, and those are her favorites. There is one called "Baby Dear" about a little girl and her baby doll and all the things they do, and it is always a hit.
• Genny really loves her friends, and she is always thrilled to see her playmates. She likes to tickle them (sometimes rather violently) and to be a big girl with the other big girls.
• Gen loves to dance. She can do Itsy Bitsy Spider and will briefly do the Chicken Dance before losing interest. She likes "If you're happy and you know it" a lot.
• Gen loves her doggie. She and Daisy have this funny game I call Daisy-tag, where Gen stands in the middle of the living room and laughs as Daisy runs laps around her and nose-tags Gen as she goes by. It's hilarious.
• Gen loves the outside and revels in her newfound freedom of opening doors. She can now take herself into the backyard (yikes!).

Genevieve's least favorite things to do:

• Get her diaper changed.
• Eat meat.
• Go to bed.
• Get dressed.

My table dancer

Tonight we celebrated Robert's Grandmother's 85th birthday. We brought the entertainment -- a table dancer. Robert used ringtones on his cell phone so she would have music to dance to. You can see her go back to him to tell him to start another one!

Unfortunately, we'll never be able to get her to sit at a table ever again....

But most importantly, Happy Birthday Grandma!

So this second video was added later. Ever since "Dancing with the Stars" has been on, Gen has started dancing with a partner (usually Baby). So here's a quick clip of her adding a partner to her table dancing....

Nose Patrol

Can you tell it's allergy season around here? Blowing noses has become entertainment..... she tried to blow the dog's nose as well, but that didn't go over very well....