Monaloca

We’ve been gearing up for Halloween for weeks now, starting with reading nightly Halloween stories (somehow, we own close to 10!) and deciding on costumes. Melina knew right away she wanted to be a “ballerina like Isa” in her Dora Halloween book. After I bought her pink leotard and tutu she decided she wanted to be the green princess ballerina from another book, but then got excited about pink all over again when she got to try on her costume.

Last weekend Grandma Weiss brought her annual Halloween cookies to decorate. Melina ate frosting and shook sprinkles on the counter while Kai decorated. They both had fun. We also took Grandma and Grandpa with us to the pumpkin patch, where Meli and Kai decided to pick several baby pumpkins each instead of one bigger one.

This weekend we attended two jack-o-lantern carving parties, one after an impromptu invite from one of Melina’s friends at preschool, and the other at her friend Lily’s house. Mom and Dad did all the carving while the kids had fun playing. Maybe in a few years they’ll chip in. After all the carving fun at Lily’s house, Meli and Lily took turns snapping pictures of each other with Lily’s camera (aka her mom’s old camera, now thoroughly dented). I wonder if any turned out?

Finally, not to leave Halloween in the dust, but we’re already gearing up for Christmas too! The other day Melina insisted on wearing her snowman jammies for nap. Joey told her “That’s fine, snowmen and Santa are coming soon!” She woke up from her nap asking “Where Santa Claus? Daddy said snowman jammies Santa…” I had to explain that Santa comes after Halloween…. and Thanksgiving… and Mommy’s birthday… I’m sure she was thoroughly confused.

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Melina’s blossomed into a full-blown preschooler in the last few months. She’s still two, to be sure, complete with a two-year-old’s urgency around her own needs and sense of self. But she’s very independent, entertaining herself for long stretches of time and insisting on doing everything from putting on shoes to throwing away her own garbage all by herself. Melina has also blossomed into a true silly ball. I found out she’s already earned the reputation as one of two class clowns in her Wee Ducky room at school, and she constantly refers to herself as “Silly Mina.” A true Rapoza, Joey would say!

She mastered trike riding the moment her legs were long enough for her to reach the peddles. She had a blast riding up and down our street, quite literally, during a block party a few weeks ago, so much that she was glued to her trike for nearly 90 minutes straight. She also likes to ride up and down our side yard strip of concrete, and doesn’t mind “off-roading” on our lawn or the dirt beneath our backyard trees.

Amazingly, Melina loves to clean up. Her preschool teachers noticed this within weeks. She even has a little song she sings: “Clean up, clean up, I like clean up…” The other night I asked her to clean up the Thomas train set in her room before stories. Not surprisingly she responded, “NO!” but less than 10 minutes later she came up to me and said with super huge, super proud grin, “I clean up!” And she had, every last piece.

Finally, she’s a puzzle expert these days. A while ago she moved on from baby board puzzles to simple floor puzzles. We also have one where you put different colored shapes on their appropriate pegs. Melina seems to know instinctively where each piece goes. She looks at its size and the number of holes, and puts it in the correct spot, and in a flash is done. What gets me is at this age Kai had a hard time getting past the first piece, and would immediately get frustrated and want to give up. We had to help him at every step. On the flip side, he could name every piece’s shape and color. Melina could care less what they’re called! She just wants to fit them in their spots, then once complete dump them out and start over.

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I’m playing catch-up on blog posts these days. For the past month or two I’ve been noting some silly words and phrases of Melina’s. Sometimes she goes out of her way to speak her own language, just to confirm her silly-monster status! Here are a few that aren’t quite so intentional, but equally fun.

• Mina Poza! = Melina Rapoza, or what Meli says when you ask her for her name
• brorella = umbrella
• oatmilk = oatmeal
• yogit = yogurt
• breakfast = cereal (she’ll sometimes ask for “breakfast with milk” and other times will get mad when we ask what she wants for breakfast: “I don’t want breakfast!! I want yogit!!”)
• pack pack = backpack
• baa baa white sheep = any sheep, regardless of its color, is a baa baa white sheep
• “I too heavy” when she wants to walk on her own and not be carried (of course when we want her to walk and tell her the same thing, she doesn’t buy it)
• “Lisa” when I ask her what school she goes to (or who her teacher is, of course). On the other hand, she knows immediately that Kai goes to “Washington!” and tells me as much whenever we happen to drive by the school.

In the car a few weeks ago I was listening to President Obama’s eloquent speech on health care reform. Melina intuitively agreed to the the rhythmical eloquence of his voice, saying: “I like this song.” Beaming, I responded, “This is our president, Obama.” She thought about it and said, “I like Bama.” Yay!!

At age six and a half, Kai’s on pretty solid ground with his words. Though there’s one slip-of-the-tongue he refuses to admit: Life Saver candies are “lightsabers” to him.

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