Tutus and Toys

Naisa and Yonah are both growing more, and becoming more independent of me and Ben. They play together nicely some, and I break up a lot of fights.

Before Christmas, a little to much Katarina and Daniel Tiger has made its way into her brain and she desired to be a ballerina. She located a pair of tights (which we soon found were too small, because not amount of "hiking up" would amount them to stay over her bottom) and her pink "dress" (very much a shirt length now) and wore them incessantly.

Then, Naisa got a tutu for Christmas that she has not taken off... hardly. It is in the rotation of the three or four outfits that she changes to wear each day (a completely different story). Now the tutu is typically the bottom layer, followed by the pink, then, since it's winter, a purple shirt that has a mouse's face on it. (called the kitty mouse sweater, if you must know)

And she also wears a pair of pink tights that the elastic has been broken on for several weeks. . probably after the first week started wearing them, they no longer held themselves up. So we constantly see her tights on her knees, looking like the "stylish" or "cool" guys who attended my high school. On top of these, she wears a pair of ballet slippers that came with the tutu and sometimes her pink boots, which were also a Christmas present.

Naisa is very attached to these pink tights. She has an identical pair of tights in grey that she has not touched, and a pair of nylon tights that are pink and a pair that are white and these she also shuns.

Yonah has discovered the special-ness of the tutu, as Naisa calls it her "costume' and parades around the apartment, sometimes "dancing", but mostly playing, always the emphasis on the tutu. Yonah began to desire the tutu. Naisa has several bright and fluffy shirts to choose from and soon enough, we discovered Yonah putting on the tutu skirts, pulling them on over his pants as high as he could make them go: until the bottom of his diaper. He also learned the word and will say it anytime he is prompted, "tdutdu."

Naturally, one of us felt his little boy mind would be forever swerved toward tutus, and the the other thought a costume was a great idea, although it didn't have to be tutus. So when my sister was in town and we were at the thrift store, we found a barney and big bird costume (if you would call it that.... I call it his big bird hospital gown), and presented those to them. Yonah has lost interest in the tutus at large. He and Naisa are very creative with the toys.. and the not-toys that they play with. Yonah particularly likes the steamer, and the pots and plastic containers. Some have gone missing into the toy basket.

And Yonah and his stools! I cannot have my back turned, because he pulls his stool up the the silverware drawer, picks out a few to stick in his mouth, and puts a few dirty ones in the drawer. And so demanding is he to do the dishes! Every time I turn on the faucet, he runs over to me, hands above his head, ready to get them wet, screaming, "Dishes", which, to him, means, "run water on his hands for at least five minutes, and play with cups on water, typically pouring water out of the sink, onto his clothes.

The obsession with mail in our apartment is out of control. Naisa receives a card or letter in the mail at least once a week, and Yonah has noticed and has begun to demand his own main every time we pick it up at the mailbox. Naisa is specifically sour when we won't give her something in an envelope after we've made a trip to the mailbox. But then, Naisa, when she Does receive something in the mail, she refuses to open it, instead to cherish looking at it. Probably fascinated with the smoothness of the envelope, and she brings it to the stash of mail that she has, placed in a special box (this special location changes every couple of days of so), and has asked me to tie a string around it and calls it her present.

Nana has reappeared (I found it behind a pile of unfolded (i.e. shoved) towels in the bathroom closet, and presented it to her, and it has taken on a different role, now that it has been several months since she last 'needed' it. Now it is a toy, and still a comfort at night, but no longer needed at nap time, and is sometimes forgotten. It also no longer exits the house, and remains quite clean, as she no longer r requires it to attend dinner with her. Yonah's blanket "blanket", on the other hand, could do with washing, as could Naisa's tutu (although I managed to sneak her tights in the the wash last week, knowing that we could use the dryer of our neighbor to speed the drying, because it was too cold out side.

Yonah's vocabulary has been expanding, slow and steady. New words that I have been hearing: brush, nina (he learned the name of Naisa's blanket. ha!) memaw, josh (that's ben's cousin), milk, eat (I hear this, sometimes at 4:30 in the morning). Berries, banana, bread, milk, apple. and outside , and all done, and down and lots and lots of nonsense language that tends to be much more descriptive about his present situation. This shows that you don't need to know a language to get your basic needs met. ha!

Lately, Yonah and Naisa love to play with the blankets we have in the living room: the big afghans and quilts. They lie wrapped in them,  resting on the couch and on the floor, and I often hear contagious giggles when one throws the blanket on the other.

ah, I know everything is a phase, and these things, once bright and memorable in my mind, will pass away from my distinct memory.