Monaloca

Pink Girl Notes:

Melina insists on picking out her own day clothes most of the time. She usually chooses a dress. The other day she went to school in a pink striped dress, pink leopard-print pants, and pink polka dot shoes. “I match!” she shouted. “It’s all pink!”

She still calls the baby “Pink” and says that she’ll wear pink clothes and eat pink food. (Good thing we’re having a girl.)

When I asked Melina what color was used to celebrate Chinese New Year she said “dark pink” without missing a beat. Yet she refused to wear it (ok, it was red) for her preschool’s dragon parade. When I pushed her on the topic, though, she said “I don’t like dragons.” Fair enough. But did you know dragons have pink tongues?

Baby Sister Notes:

To help prepare Melina for the reality of her new little sister-to-be, we told her the baby’s real name – but it’s unique enough that she’s having a hard time remembering it. The other day we asked “What’s the baby’s name?” and after a good hard thought she said “Mmmm… Salami?” It’s actually not that far off!

As for Baby herself: She’s very active, and huge! I’m all belly these days, no joke. Even people who see me several times a week have started to comment, “Wow, she’s really popping out now!” I kinda hope she’s not a nine-pounder, but as long as she’s healthy, no matter.

Random Development Notes:

Our girl is very independent, especially when she has a stool at her disposal. She uses it to turn on lights, to reach upper shelves in the fridge (it took her a couple attempts before she realized she had to open the door before moving the stool in place), and to reach shelves she’s not supposed to reach. She loves pulling out her own snacks and lunch, and usually finds appropriate food. Though I did catch her opening a box of Girl Scout cookies for breakfast the other day.

A stuffed monkey from Grandma and Grandpa’s house has taken purple batchie’s place as the security item of choice. Monkey gets dressed in baby sister’s duckie jammies for bed each night, and goes school with Melina each day (sans jammies, unless it’s a jammie day).

Finally, Melina got her first “big girl” haircut earlier this month. With her hair reaching over half-way down her back, we decided it was time. She got to sit in the chair all by herself and did great, mainly because she knew she’d get a lollipop (she chose pink) when it was all done.

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Joey and I finally had kids-free getaway weekend! It’s only the second since Melina was born, and will likely be the last for at least another year, til I’m ready to leave baby with my parents overnight. But it was fantastic.

We dropped Melina off at my parents’ on our way down to Carmel. She was somewhat prepped for what was going to happen, having known for a few days we were going to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, and even having understood from our conversations with Kai that Mommy and Daddy were going “to the beach” and without them. (It’s always questionable how much to reveal directly to a two-year-old.)

But earlier that morning she’d told me “I’m going to GrampaGrammas with Kai Kai” and I’d had to say “Ummm, noooo… Kai’s going to Jen’s. And you’re going to Grandma and Grandpa’s.” Her face dropped and she screamed “No! I don’t want to go!” Luckily, she was fine when we got there, and did great all weekend.

For our part, Joey and I stayed at a little inn right in Carmel, dined in style for two nights and two mornings in a row, and lucked out with fantastic, sunny weather smack in the middle of weeks of rain. Besides strolling in and out of fancy village shops, we took in a few new sites. Point Lobos was the perfect spot for light trail walking along the coast, and in driving out to Carmel Valley I got to live vicariously through Joey while he did a bit of wine tasting. He claimed it wasn’t that good, but I wouldn’t have minded joining him. Something for the next getaway!

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