Language Explosion

Veronica's speech therapist wrote on her note last week that "Veronica is having a language explosion!", which is incredibly exciting to me. Poor Veronica, I feel like a lot of the things I waited for with Anthony at first are coming true with her. "Language explosion!" is something you hear about a lot with speech therapy, or at least I do, and let's face it - I may never get one from Anthony, not in the way I *thought* I would. The way I thought it would go, at the beginning, is the way it is actually going with Veronica, and even THAT feels like a long time. Veronica's speech therapist also said "jeez, if she keeps going this way, I won't even be seeing her much longer". THAT sort of killed me, too, because it has been such a great experience. She really loves Veronica and Veronica loves her and it's nice to be in a room where everyone is succeeding, even if I'm not directly involved, ha!

She is doing so well in school, I just love it - some of the kids in her class are maybe a little weepier or needier and I just told Mike tonight, because of that, I never get to talk to her teachers, but I am FINE with that. This morning I took her in and her teacher, Judy said "Veronica!" and Veronica jumped out of my arms and into hers and never looked back. Then when I went to get her, she was all warm and sweet from a nap and she was super excited to see me and that was cute, too. She is really getting to be her own person and I love it.

We went for a walk tonight and my sweet LORD she is slow! But we had a good time, we made it all the way around the block with no stroller and I just had to carry her a little. She and Maria held hands quite a bit of the way, which is nice. If she and Maria could have a relationship with each other like I have with my sister, it would be great for them - beyond great, it would be the best gift ever. It would make it worth it that they are so close in age and that they fight a lot and can be super noisy and crazy. And who wouldn't want MARIA as a sister? I never have to worry about anyone giving Veevsy Voo any guff, anyway. There's that!

Tot Talk

Veronica gets a little write up of how she did at her preschool, jeez, it's all beyond cute, in my opinion.  Here's her Tot Talk from her second week:

My favorite play today was with the:  BALL MAZE
I ate most of my lunch today LOVED MY WATERMELON!
I napped today.  (She has napped both times she's gone, this is apparently odd, as it takes some kids a while to settle down.  Funnily enough, she won't really nap at HOME anymore.  I don't know if that's how it's supposed to work, but whatever).

TODAY WAS A SPECIAL DAY FOR ME BECAUSE:
Today I made animal sponge prints and put balls in the ball maze.  I used a feather duster on the toys and used a hammer on the shelf.  I pretended to eat food in the kitchen and played in the house outside.

Isn't that adorable?  I'm so happy she's doing so well.  Have I mentioned that I had to bring in $6 and a disposable camera (which they still sell!) and they will give us a photo book of her first year of preschool?  Isn't that cute?  I think it's all super cute, obvs, and I just love the idea of her puttering around the classroom, doing her own thing.

To say that she is talking a lot would be a big understatement.  It's beyond exciting, it's such a relief and ... well, it's just great.  I can't talk about it too much.  She's doing well, here at 28 months old, I hope the baby doesn't throw her for too much of a loop but so far her fall is going just great.

Sunday

Veronica.  How she has turned on me.  She is so bad at church, we can't go anymore.  She is becoming willful as anything, she makes me think of Oprah in the Color Purple?  Sophia, is her name?  Let me see if I can find a link.  Here it is, the Miss Sophia part starts at around 2:30, but it's a great scene anyway.

That's how Veronica is now, in any case.  She is back!  She is EATING what she wants and DAMN THE FOOL that will take anything from her!  I'm so happy, in a way.  She is going to be great at school, she just marched in and met her teacher this week.  They painted her hand to make her handprint and she was all, that's cool, whatever.

She's going to love school, I hope.  I hope we start doing some toilet training there.  There is the cutest little toilet and when I saw it, I thought, maybe that's it!  Maybe she is afraid of falling in the toilet, with her skinny little bottom all wet.  She did fall through one time, up in our bathroom, so maybe this will help the healing begin.

So.  Starting school - she'll go from 9-2 on Tuesdays, she's supposed to nap there, we shall see.  We're moving her into a twin bed if my BROTHER ever comes to visit from TEXAS and will help me move the Queen sized bed over from my parents' house so Anthony can have it, then I'll give Veronica his bed and then maybe everyone will go to sleep when they are supposed to and stay in their beds all night.  Ha ha ha boo hoo, I hope it comes true.

Gross

She's gross but cute. She recently got her canine teeeth, look how hard she is teething on her toe! A friend of mine pointed out how her finger is WHITE from how hard she is pressing it. She's secretly intense, this one.

She's been doing fine, I think we are going to move her to a twin bed here soon. I think she is fine, size-wise, in her toddler bed (that she is been in for all of TWO months) but she is hella jella of Maria and Anthony's beds. Yesterday she wouldn't nap in her bed but I went in to get her, because Maria was sleeping, and she put her arms up and I carried her out and put her in my bed. I had to go to the bathroom, probably because five minutes had passed from the last time I went to the bathroom - Lord, the peeing that goes on in the third trimester is INSANE. Anyways, I went in to the bathroom and came right back out and she was fast asleep in my bed.

So. We're going to move Anthony to a queen sized bed that my parents have available, move Veronica into Anthony's bed, and then we'll just put the toddler bed away for the next one. Oh, boo hoo, how can Veronica be moving to a twin sized bed? Where has my baby gone? What will I do when she goes to school full time? *

*Ha ha ha just kidding.

See This Here? This is a COW!

She's so cute. Our little farmer. We went to the Fair yesterday and she did great, she wasn't really scared of anything! Maria was a lot more nervous last year than Veronica was this year, which is always nice. I like when they surprise me. Mike and my sister Laura and the girls and I went and it was fun, it was a beautiful day. Ha, we were trying to find this building that had rabbits and chickens in it, and we had to walk by the MIDWAY where all the RIDES are to get there and then girls were going insane, both pointing and shouting from their stroller, ha! We skipped it, they're not tall enough for most of them anyways and Mike wants them to get through their whole childhoods without realizing there is a Midway there. We'll see!

Too Bad She's So Hideous

Ha! She's not. She's gorgeous, right? Thank God, this week. She has been VILE. HORRIBLE. BUT we won't focus on the past, will we? She was great yesterday, we had a nice day, mostly it was just the two of us. We also didn't go anywhere, which helps. I am about to take Maria and her to the store, God only knows what will happen, but I'll probably have to leave in shame, but what can you do? I have one that starts demanding to go somewhere upon waking, and one that is guaranteed to be horrible and awful out in public. This is what the experts call a paradox, I guess.

Oh good Lord

What has happened to my little Veronica?  She is a demon, a DEMON.  This picture is from last night, she was mad because I wouldn't give her any more grapes until she said 'grapes'.  We just left the mall, IN SHAME, because she was so bad.  I am not joking when I say that a woman with ONE LEG had to help me with her.  

What the hell, world?  She is my third and I don't know one freaking thing more about dealing with a jerk like this now than I did in 2005.  I have NEVER, EVER been kicked out of anywhere.  I have never had to LEAVE somewhere because of BEHAVIOR.  Yet now, because I am the mother of these JERKSTORES, I have to leave the mall, all ashamed and red faced, CARRYING the biggest jerk of all, while I hold the hand of the other, crying one, and walk in the 1000 degree heat to the car, where I have to STRAP them into their SEATS like they are some kind of ROYALTY or something.  

I don't know.  I'm sure this is a chuckle, chuckle, ho ho ho situation, isn't it so funny when kids are so bad but I don't like it.  I wish I could ... I'm not even going to say what I wish I could.  I wish they were better.  Not perfect, not GOOD, just better.  I mean, we were playing!  Then Veronica said EAT so I took them and got them lunch.  We shared everything, I did everything, everything was FINE.  So...how does it happen?  How does it go from that to THAT, so quickly?  Um, I think Veronica wanted to take her drink into the playplace which is not allowed.  So I didn't let her.  So she ran and ran from me and then when I caught up (which takes a while, I am 30 weeks pregnant, IN CASE I FORGOT TO MENTION), she dropped to the ground AS I was getting the drink and it spilled everywhere.  So.  Then I got to do some janitorial work too.  AWESOME.  

I don't even know what to say.  Maybe she's getting teeth but MY GOD.  I do every single thing I can do all day every day of my life so that these bastards are happy and they are almost never happy.  It's the worst paradox I've ever been involved in in my LIFE.  

Otherwise, though, everything is AWESOME.  We are BLESSED and I LOVE BEING A STAY AT HOME MOMMY!  

AWESOME!