The Princess has new shoes.

CootieGirland her pretty dress.

CootieGirl has discovered that the word “need” implies importance. Everything is a “need” now.

“Mama, I need to wear this shirt.”

“Mama, I need you to get me something I want to eat.” (she actually said that last night)

“Mama, I need this toy.”

Each time my response was “You don’t NEED it, you WANT it, which is something different.” She’d just look at me, completely nonplussed, waiting for me to get what she NEEDED.

How do you explain to an almost-3-year-old the difference between NEED and WANT? Is that even possible?

Just thought this was fun to see side by side.

So over the next few days we’re going to get rid of the Cootiepie Photoblog and have everything reside here at the main site. We realized that it was a waste to have all her pictures on another site when CootieBoy’s own pics all get shown at his site. The pictures will still be available – just not on a separate blog.

We’re going to sift through and delete some of the shots since they take up a lot of server space, and then import them to this site. Tonight’s mission: pare down the photos.

Sometime during the weekend I put CootieGirl down for a nap. She fussed a bit, but for the most part agreed to sleep. I turned on the video monitor so I could keep an eye on her and make sure she stayed in bed. She got up a couple times, but since she didn’t grab any toys I just left her alone.

After a fifteen minutes she was still up and talking to herself, so I went up to find out what was going on. Turns out she had removed her pants, pulled out a pair of tights from her dresser and slipped those on instead.

“Aren’t you cold, CootieGirl?” I asked, slipped the blanket over her legs.

She shook her head. “No, Mama. No blanket.”

“The tights are enough?”

She slapped a hand on her thigh. “This is good.”

So she napped in a t-shirt and tights.

CootieGirl’s new favorite TV show is “LazyTown“. I think we watched the same 10 episodes (thanks, Tivo!) about 10 times each. *I* now have them memorized. She loves the episode called “Cry, Dinosaur” and kept requesting that particular episode throughout the weekend.

It’s a strange little show out of Iceland featuring a combination of humans and human-size puppets. Add in a comical villain and some chirpy dancey songs and you have a hit, apparently. The guy who developed and created the show, Marcus Sheving, is actually a star in it as well – he plays Sportacus and is apparently quite famous in the European community.

Considering the show is about being healthy and getting off your butt, it works – everytime a song comes on, CootieGirl gets up to dance and sing along.

Judging by what I saw last night, CootieGirl has a boyfriend. And not only does she have a boyfriend but he’s a very sweet boyfriend.

Back in the day she had a boyfriend that I didn’t quite trust – he seemed too quiet and as though he could snap at any time and bite her or push her or be mean to her. That boyfriend has thankfully moved on, and while still at the daycare, he keeps a polite distance from her.

The new boyfriend, whom we’ll call Michael (to protect his privacy), is a sweet little boy with curly brown hair and a sweet disposition. He is about the same age as CootieGirl and is always nearby when I go to pick her up.

Last night I found the kids helping the teacher clean off the blackboard. When CootieGirl saw me she came running and Michael followed her and waved at me while getting CootieGirl’s coat out of her locker. She took it from him and put it on, then asked me to zip it up.

“I can’t, sweetie,” I said, moving CootieBoy (who was in my arms) from one hip to the other.

Michael stepped up, “I’ll help!” he said. CootieGirl turned to him and he spent a few moments fumbling with the coat zipper, attempting to zip up CootieGirl’s coat for her. They stood together, heads bent down, almost touching, watching Michael as he tried in vain to zip up the heavy coat.

After a few moments he finally gave up, dropping the coat from his hands and looking at me.

“That’s okay, Michael,” I said, “Thank you so much for trying!”

He smiled at me and waved again, then said goodbye to CootieGirl. She said bye and followed me out the door. As we walked out the room I turned back and saw Michael still patiently watching, waiting to make sure CootieGirl made it out okay.

Too cute.