Here is a picture of CootieGirlwith wet bath hair. A bit fuzzy because, like both our kids, she wouldn’t sit still for me as I took the photo.

CootieGirl’s latest thing is to kiss us when she does something wrong or when we’ve asked her to stay away from something. Case in point:

Last night the whole fam damily was in the children’s room playing – parents, children, dog and a couple cats were all fooling around having a good time together. At some point while CootieDad is occupied by the dog and I’m holding the infant, CootieGirl rambles over to the lamp that is temporarily sitting on her floor and begins to fiddle around with the lampshade.

“No, CootieGirl,” I said, “Don’t play with that.”

She immediately raised her hands in the air in a defensive motion, then ran to her daddy (who was sitting on the floor) and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Seconds later she was back at the lamp fiddling with the shade.

“No, CootieGirl,” CootieDad said this time. “Don’t play with that.”

CootieDad got another kiss and hug for his effort.

“What about me?” I asked her. “I don’t get a hug and kiss for chastising you?”

“Go kiss Mama,” CootieDad told her.

She came over to me and kissed me. Then kissed CootieBoy. And Cooper. And Daddy one more time for good measure. And then ran back to the lampshade.

It could have gone on like that all night I think, but I talked CootieDad into taking CootieBoy and the pets downstairs so I could get CootieGirl ready for bed.

I wish I could Tivo my daughter. She does little things that make me laugh, and then when I try to recall them I have forgotten, but I just remember her doing something very sweet/funny/cute/mischievious/you name it. I’ll look at CootieDad and say, “We have the cutest daughter”, and he’ll say, “I know – we need to cherish these moments,” and I’ll sigh and say, “I know – she’s growing up so fast”, and then we’ll both break down in tears. Okay, so we don’t cry, but the rest of it does happen all the time.

Her wonder at the Christmas Tree this weekend was a highlight – I don’t think her eyes could have gotten ANY wider when she saw the lighted/ornamented tree this weekend.

Her wonder at her first taste of cookie dough, and her immediate cry for “Mooooore!”

Her desire for a kiss from Mama when her face is covered in applesauce and pasta – she won’t take no for an answer, but she has to settle for a kiss on the forehead.

Her gift of memory is amazing – last Wednesday she mimicked me tapping my umbrella on the ground as we were walking to my office. She had her own umbrella and tried to do the same thing. This morning as I was leaving work I was taking my mini-umbrella back to work and she began walking around the kitchen, tapping the umbrella on the ground just like we did five days ago for all of two minutes.

She loves to sing “Ring Around the Rosey” but all she knows is the “Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!” part, and she’ll just randomly starting singing “ashes, ashes” but because her H’s aren’t quite there, she sounds like she’s cursing.

Ever since our Wiggles experience last weekend she’s been much more cognizant of who they are when she sees them on tv. She interacts with the tv even more than she did before when they are on.

Her vocabulary continues to increase – again, the actual words sound like gibberish, but I know what she’s saying. She said “pizza” this weekend – although it sounded more like “zoba”, I knew what she meant.

My favorite sound is her giggle.

When she knows people are watching, she’ll roll her eyes when she’s trying to be all cute. It works – it is cute. She’s cute. I want to Tivo her and save all these moments so that when she’s older and a complete terrorizing teenager, I can show the Tivo’d bits and say, “Look how cute you were – you still can be if you want to. SNAP OUT OF IT!” and she’ll magically become the one teenaged girl that actually gets along with her mother and doesn’t rebel and gets good grades and gets a scholarship to college and meets a nice boy and marries him and has a lot of little tiny babes that I can get gooey all over.

Today CootieGirl and I had a fun day. She didn’t sleep a lot last night since we got home so late from the church dinner, and she woke up at her normal time. I was able to get her to take an hour nap before we left the house, but it wasn’t enough – she was a bit needy and emotional as we left the house around noon to hop on a bus into NYC. However, it was the first time she rode on a bus where she actually knew it was a bus (previous times she was just too young to understand) and so she had a blast and loved sitting in her own seat looking out the window.

When we got to Port Authority it was a “short” walk to the Madison Square Garden theater. Short as in 8 blocks with a 19-month-old in a drizzling rain. Fortunately, we had more than enough time to get there, so we took our time and I let her walk about half the distance off and on (the crowds of people weren’t appreciative of the mother-daughter duo walking at a snail’s pace).

When we reached the theater we went right in and found our seats – I was a little disappointed. The MSG website implied that the seats we got were about the fifth row, but in fact we were in the 12th row or so. Still close, sure, and still the front row of a new section, but not as close as I hoped based on their seating chart. But CootieGirl didn’t care – she was fascinated by the large set and spent a good portion of the pre-show time hanging over our ledge.

I was upset to see all the parents with their cameras – the MSG Theater website specifically stated that no cameras were allowed, but parents had not only regular cameras but video cameras. I was completely unprepared. *lol*

Finally, just after 2 p.m., the lights went down and the The Wiggles took the stage. CootieGirl didn’t really know what was going on at first and watched the large tv monitors, but once she figured out that there were people on the stage, she was hooked. For a long time she sat in her seat spellbound. When Dorothy, Wags and Captain Feathersword came onstage she climbed into my lap, leaned into me, and proceeded to watch the show. I was hoping she’d dance, since she dances at home all the time when The Wiggles are on, but she was content to sit and point, occasionally clap, and sway back and forth.

About halfway through the show Jeff Wiggle came out into the audience for quite a few minutes. Murray had come out at the beginning of the show, but Jeff stayed out for a long time as they did the “Where’s Jeff” song and a skit about him falling sleep. Because our seats were right in front of the pathway, he did run by us a couple times – the photo was the best I could do with my cellphone as he ran by the last time before going back up to the stage.

The show was about 90 minutes long, which was perfect for CootieGirl because during the final number she was very antsy and cranky. She also was very concerned about the 15-month-old sitting next to us. He fell asleep about halfway through the show and she kept making the “shhhh” motion to me once she saw he was asleep. She does this with CootieBoy a lot, so I laughed when she did it for this other baby. When The Wiggles announced their final number was coming up the crowd got really loud, and she kept shushing everyone.

We sped walked back to Port Authority after the show and rode the bus home. We got home just before 5 p.m. and by 5:45 p.m. after having some dinner she passed out in her bed. Long day, but a fun day (for her and me). She’s a cute kid and I don’t regret the decision to fork out all that money for tickets to the show – I look forward to taking her and CootieBoy in a couple years if The Wiggles are still touring at that point.

Side note: I enjoyed the show myself because they put in some stuff for the adults. During “Music with Murray” he played Led Zepplin and The Rolling Stones, which made all the adults cheer. And Anthony and Captain Feathersword did a skit that involved impressions of Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, and other rock stars. And of course, you can’t beat singing along with “Hot Potato” or “Fruit Salad”…

And now I’m going to bed as well – I’m just as exhausted and need to catch up on sleep!

Tomorrow is Wiggles day! Tomorrow I get to take my daughter to see The Wiggles at Madison Square Garden. I plan on taking pictures with my cellphone and hope that I don’t leave the event with a major headache (I like my own kids, but tend to get impatient with other people’s kids if they are spazzy or loud).

And yes, in case you were wondering – she slept in the toddler bed again last night. But this time she DID crawl out. I saw it on the video monitor in our living room and snuck upstairs. I quickly opened her door and flipped on her light just as she giggled and scrambled back into the bed. Fortunately, after a mild admonishment to go to sleep she stayed in the bed and eventually fell asleep.

I know I’ve been posting a lot on the whole toddler bed thing, but it’s just such a triumph that I’m excited to share!

Last night I had planned on putting CootieGirl back in the crib because we had small group at our house. But at 7:15 p.m. I put her in the toddler bed just to test her out and give her more freedom. I sat with her in the dark for about 5 minutes, then gave her a kiss and told her I’d be right back. She fussed a bit as I opened her door to leave, so I turned back to her and told her that I’d be right back and that I wanted her to stay on the bed. I went downstairs to turn on her video monitor and to help CootieDad set up for small group, and after about 5 minutes I went back upstairs.

When I entered the room she giggled from her bed, and I said, “See, I told you I’d come back”. I sat for another five minutes in the dark with her, then once again got up and said I’d be back. This time I stayed away for ten minutes. I went back again and she was still on her bed, having a good time with two of her stuffed animals. Again I stayed for five minutes, then I gave her one last kiss, told her goodnight, and left the room at about 7:45 p.m.

Back downstairs I was able to keep an eye on her with the video monitor. And do you know that my precious adorable beautiful and smart little girl stayed on that bed and quietly played until she fell asleep at about 8:30 p.m.?

Huzzah!!!

Another successful night for CootieGirl in the toddler bed. Yippee! I think the pacifier is a done deal – she didn’t fuss for it at all last night. That’s such a relief. She did fuss about going to bed, which was surprising since she was up early and took a short nap yesterday.

Tonight she’ll have to go back into the crib because we have small group at our house and I can’t take the time to sit with her to make sure she doesn’t get up. So I’ll start her in the crib and then when she’s asleep I’ll move her to the toddler bed. Even if she wakes up when I move her she’ll go right back to sleep, so that’s not a big deal.

Last night I attempted again to have CootieGirl sleep in her toddler bed without a pacifier. She was more awake this time though, since she had a long nap during the day, so it wasn’t as easy. She balked at going to bed at all, and fussed for a good five minutes. That was the real fussing. When she was done with that I put her on the toddler bed and gave her a couple stuffed animals. The lights were out, but the door was cracked to allow some light in and I saw her making her way to the edge of the bed to crawl out. I quietly said “No” and got her back onto the bed. At this point the fake fussing commenced. Lots of wailing but no substance. I knew it was fake because she’d periodically look up to see if I was still sitting in the chair. I also knew it was fake because eventually the screaming turned to singing.

At that point I flipped her over (she had her feet resting on the pillow and her head facing the end of the bed so I flipped her so her head was on the pillow). More fake fussing, but I gave her Clifford the Big Red Dog and she quickly settled and began playing with Clifford. Singing, talking, etc. went on for a good 30 minutes. At this point I had been in there about 45 minutes trying to ensure that 1) she stays in the bed and 2) she falls asleep. Finally at the 55 minute mark she fell asleep and I was able to leave the room knowing she was out for the night.

This morning I was up insanely early (5:30 a.m. as opposed to 6:30 a.m.) and got ready for work. I was just about done when I heard her doorknob rattling. I opened her door and she ran back to her toys where apparently she had been playing since she woke up. I think the only reason she tried to open the door is that she heard me in the hallway (our floors creak really badly). Since I didn’t have to leave for work any time soon (remember – it was early, I played with her in her room for a few minutes before getting her dressed for the day.

So for two nights now she has slept with no problem in her toddler bed with no pacifier. Tonight might be difficult – I won’t be home and CootieBoy is a demanding little bugger. So CootieDad probably won’t have the time to dedicate to getting CootieGirl to stay in her bed. The only options I see are 1) I take CootieGirl with me to band practice, 2) CootieDad keeps her up until I get home or 3) we just let her sleep in the crib tonight. Any recommendations on which one we should go with?

So this weekend I planned on having CootieGirl take at least one nap in her toddler bed (which before now was simply a really big toy in her room). I also planned on having her sleep at least one night without a pacifier, since she doesn’t use one at all during the day or during her naps.

By last night I hadn’t done either of those things with her. So I decided to do the no pacifier thing. Earlier in the day I had put away her pacifier – hoping for an “out of sight, out of mind” kind of thing. However, the minute CootieGirl was in the crib she looked to the spot where her pacifier is normally hanging and said, “Uh ohhhh.” Then after looking frantically around her crib she began crying profusely. I gave her a quick hug and kiss, told her goodnight, and closed the door on her screams.

I waited about five minutes then went back in and picked her up for a cuddle. She immediately stopped crying and put her head on my shoulder. I told her she was a big girl and that I loved her. More snuffles from her, to which I said again that she was my big girl. At that point she motioned toward her toddler bed. “You want to sleep there?” I asked her. She nodded, so I tripped my way over there (the lights were off and it was pitch black so I couldn’t see well) and dumped her on the toddler bed and put a blanket over her.

I sat in the chair we have next to her toddler bed, determined to sit guard so that she wouldn’t be tempted to get up and play. She banged on the sides of the bed a bit, sang to herself for a few minutes, but eventually I heard a yawn. Then I heard another yawn. And then nothing.

I tentatively stood up to leave the room and when I didn’t hear a protest from her, I quickly exited the room, closing the door behind me so that she couldn’t wander around if she woke up in the middle of the night.

And the girl slept in her toddler bed without a pacifier until this morning! I was so excited when I got up this morning and she was still in bed. I was getting ready for work when I heard her chirping in her room. I opened her door and saw her sitting on her bed all proud of herself with a huge grin on her face.

And rightfully so!

CootieDad and I just recently finished printing CootieGirl’s new one-sheet for her modeling. We were going to send it to the agency even though she hadn’t been called about a job in many many months. But today we got a call about a job for Burberry. Burberry! That’s awesome, you say!

Not when the job is in The Hamptons. Who shoots in The Hamptons? BURBERRY, that’s who! Well, CootieDad said, “No thank you” since it would take him four hours to drive there. As CootieDad pointed out, if the appointment time was 9 a.m. it would require getting up at 4 a.m. just to be out the door by 5 a.m. for the drive over.

But tomorrow I’ll send out the one-sheets to the agency and see if they think she’s still adorable and worth sending out to jobs.

Another reason why we couldn’t do the Burberry’s job anyway: CootieGirl’s shiner from her Coffee Table Battle yesterday.