The Moana Chronicles, March 2011

So here you go... this is mostly for my mom... I swear I used to talk to her all the time and tell her all this stuff but lately I just have not had so much free time during the day and if Moana is home with me she's not such a huge fan of me being on the phone. Speaking of which, I should probably check my plan with AT&T because I'm pretty sure I'm still paying for like 2000 minutes/month when I currently use about 200. Add it to the list.

Anyway, Moana is a cuter version of herself every day. She finds a way to accessorize the plainest of outfits with a pearl/heart necklace and bracelet or fancy shoes... she always chooses a skirt over shorts when offered the choice (who am I kidding? She sometimes flat out demands her skirts and knows how to ut them on herself now)... she loves checking herself out in the mirror if she is wearing a cute headband... and she will NOT wear denim, even if the shorts have a flower on them.

Her hair is getting so long- it's half way down her back! Beautiful blond with a perfect amount of curl... (I'm quite jealous.) She has not had it cut yet and I really want to keep it that way, except on the mornings when she wails like I'm trying to kill her if I'm holding a brush. I swear I try to be gentle with her and her knots are NOT that bad. Most of the time I chase her around like we're playing tag and then catch her (ha ha ha!) and she laughs and giggles and then figures out that I'm brushing her hair and starts wailing. On the mornings that I'm gone before she gets up, you can only imagine what her hair looks like as she goes off to daycare. Let's just say that Scott is very non-confrontational and will not force the issue with her hair. So there she is, wearing some super cute outfit/shoes with hair hanging in her face a complete ragged mess.

I love it that Moana is not even yet 2 1/2 yet she can name and pick out avocado, mango, papaya, and kiwi. I grew up in Ohio and did not taste any of these fruits until I was old enough to vote. So yeah, I think it's cool that when Moana wants a snack she pulls up a chair to the kitchen counter, grabs an avocado, and says, "Mama get a knife I want to eat this avocado!" And the other day, on Sesame Street, Elmo had a kiwi but he didn't know what it was (a furry rock?) and I asked Moana if she knew what it was and she said nonchalantly, "Yeah, it's a kiwi." Like, duh.

Today we were in Costco and we passed a table that was giving away samples of some sort of chicken nugget thing with a sweet/sour sauce. I picked one up for Moana and offered it to her. She looked at it closely like what the heck is this? Then did handed it right back to me and said sternly, "I don't want that!" How awesome is that? She's never had a chicken nugget, or really any type of nasty processed meat and apparently she's not going to start now. I actually sort of felt bad for even offering it to her after the way she looked at me like mom, that is not food. Looks like unless there's some major shift in school lunch policy, I'm going to be packing lots of lunches in the coming years.

Moana is still just as social as ever and loves her aunties... loves going to parties... loves playing with girls slightly older than herself at the playground... Most of the time on Saturday afternoons she's bored hanging around at home and says something like, "Let's go to Auntie's house" (which auntie? There are several that she loves) or the best one last week, "I want to go to a party!" Unfortunately we didn't know of any parties to go to so we had to figure out another way to entertain her. Scott did take her to a party last Sunday though and said she had a ball with all the kids and dogs and a pool. That's like heaven for a social butterfly like my daughter.

Next month she'll be officially 2.5 and hopefully I'll be able to give some news about the end of the diaper days... so far we're just dabbling but I did go buy a whole bunch of big girl underpants for her so we're getting closer...