News 'n' Shoes

The last few days around here have been unseasonably warm. Our big snow is all melted away, and I can see the area in the backyard that David tilled up to garden in the spring- with last October’s fat pumpkin rotting in the middle. This has me thinking about warmer weather and the changes it will bring. Yosi will soon be going round the bend towards two. I bought her a potty seat last week and she is obsessed with sitting on it. Yesterday I let her sit on it sans diaper. Of course, nothing happened, but she was pretty proud of herself. She is really just starting to recognize when something’s happening “down there”. For a few months, she’s realized after she’d dirtied her diaper that it was time for a change, but she’s hardly been consistent. She has become very proficient at making the pee-pee/poopy “sounds”: tsss and pthh, thanks to coaching from Aunt Kari (oh, I can’t wait until the tables turn…), and even associates them with the potty, but I really doubt that’s going to be much help in the long run.

Yosi’s vocabulary is expanding quickly, but she is now in a phase in which not being understood quickly becomes frustrating, since she has found a few ways to make herself understood. This leads to either lots of whining or wails of protest. The latter happens largely when she is understood, but denied her request- somehow she’s is under the conviction that being ABLE to request something means that you WILL get it. Cute, very cute. New words include “snow” and “no”, which sound exactly alike. This afternoon before I laid her down she said "nap" and "bed", no prompting- in fact, I wasn't even aware we'd taught her those words.

I have begun to wonder if she is not quite as attached to her stuffed puppy as we have given her credit for. She enjoys saying “puppy”, but there are various stuffed animals around the house that can easily be stand-ins. She slept with a white snow leopard (named January) for a couple of nights with out protest. January is the same size and softness of Puppy. He was waiting in the laundry room for a bath. He came out of the dryer fluffy and clean yesterday afternoon and she was shouted happily when she saw him, drug him around for a bit, then dropped him somewhere. She welcomed him back to her crib last night as if he had never left.

Though her bond to Puppy may be indifferent, thankfully, her bond to us is not. Though it is heartpaining, and a bit inconvenient, she has finally begun her phase of separation anxiety. Mostly it has been exhibited only when she's dropped off to nursery @ church. She calms down once we're out of sight though. It is reassuring to us however, that she values and relies on our presence for security. She is still quite affectionate with people she knows, but has become alot more cautious of strangers in the last few months. More likely to bury her head in my neck or just give an apethetic stare when an unfamiliar face is cooing at her and grabbing her fingers. I'm really quite glad about this too. Sometimes people, strangers in particular, just don't have any sense of respect for her personal space, and a smiling response from her only egged it on. I feel protective in uncomfortable situations, but I'm shy enough myself to not have the guts to be aggressive about getting people out of our space. Usually I just try to get out of their area as soon as possible.

NEW topic: SHOES. Shoes are one of Yosi's favorite things. Take a look below and try to imagine why.

Yup. That's 21 pair of shoes. All belonging to a little girl who is not quite 18 months old. Albeit, many of them don't fit anymore. And a few of them don't fit YET. But that doesn't make them unfun. The bottom picture are the shoes in the closet of her play room. She will happily occupy 10-15 minutes dragging the shoes out of the closet. She knows they come in pairs. Sometimes she'll bring them to me asking to put them on. Or else she tries to put them on herself. Mostly she enjoys distributing them around the play room and the house. She learned to say "shoes" (sooes) a couple of months ago. If you want her to come to you right away, just say "Yosi, let's put on your shoes!"

Current favorites are the little pink Converse hi-tops she got for Christmas from Gpa. They are cute, comfy and go with almost everything.

Below are a few sentimental favorites, now long outgrown.

The pair of shoes she was wearing when we met her... The first pair I bought her (1 of only 3 pair total, that I've EVER bought)... The pair she wore on our arrival home and for Mother's Day...