The Mystery of Veronica Vep

Many moons ago, my friends Chuck and Lebron were a hilarious production of The Mystery of Irma Vep at the Phoenix Theater here in Indianapolis.  Chuck and Lebron played a billion characters and one of them, played by Chuck I think, said "Janey" in this way that was really funny and has stayed with me for years, so much so that if I meet someone named Jane, I have to say it that way that he did.  I wish I could add a video clip but that seems like a lot, but it's kind of a ... ugh I can't do it justice, but anyway it was great and like I say, I think of it a lot.  I wish I could get her to call me Jane.

Veronica says LOTS of words like this.  She makes, like, a super long A or something.  So she says, Mama, can I have some lemon-ay-ud? for lemonade.  It cracks me up.

And it's a good thing it makes me laugh because sometimes she drives me bonkers.  She was super, super bad in church today.  It's about 150 degrees in our church because we've been baking like cupcakes all summer and there is no air left, and all Veronica does is wrap herself around me.  I suppose it's good that she doesn't run away from me anymore, she is leaving the confessionals alone, thank God, but man.  Why can't she just SIT THERE?  The priest knows how hot it is, so the Mass is pretty quick, like 50 minutes or something, so how hard is it?  Pretty hard for Veronica, is I guess the answer.

Her new teacher called today, we're going to meet with her on 8/22.  Both girls have preschool sponsored park playdates starting this week, and we are going to the fair and the museum, so it should be a fun week.  Ha ha ha boo hoo, I always think that and it never really is.  

Even More Talking

Seriously.  She will NOT shut up.  Hoo boy, it's crazy.  I was telling my parents this last night, as an example of her extreme talkitude.  Yesterday Anthony was in the bathroom downstairs and, as usual, Veronica picked that exact time to have to go.  So I said go upstairs already and she did.  THEN of course she yelled for me to come upstairs because I had shut both bathroom doors up there, so up I went. I opened the door to the upstairs/kids bathroom but she wanted to go in mine, she said.

We went into my room and she was yapping away, telling me the reason she wanted to go in my bathroom was because her butt fit better on the toilet in my room, the toilet in her room was WAY too big, she said.  It's true, the one in their bathroom is an oval shape and it's just a circle in my bathroom.  I know that's a lot of information about our toilets, but what can you do.  Sooo, we go into my room and she proceeds to pee, which I know because she says "I peeing, mommy!".  She says how when she's done, we can flush the toilet and I say, I'll flush it after you want, if it's too noisy.  She says, NO, this toilet does not flush too loud, but the other one does.  She says "I don't like loud noises but I like quiet noises, like this:" and she puts her index finger up to her mouth and, dirty looking me the whole time, says SHHHHHHHHHH.  I said okay, then, so she finished peeing and jumped up and flushed the toilet, talking the WHOLE ENTIRE time, "see Mama, I fine, I don't mind this noise because it's a quiet noise and I like quiet noise just not loud noise like the potty in my room is too loud but this is fiiiiiiine". Sheesh.  SHEESH.

She did great at swimming yesterday and she VOLUNTEERED to go out with Mr. Isaac, swimming.  At one point, I was sitting there with Felicity, who was standing holding on to the bench, and I noticed Veronica was crying so I went over.  I said "what is wrong?", she seemed SO upset and she said "Mr. Isaac won't let me go first!".  Ugh.  I shooed her away and went back to Felicity.  It's annoying but so funny that a month ago she wouldn't get in the pool and now she's mad she can't show off her dog paddle.

Three weeks from Monday they start back to preschool.  What a difference a year makes, right?  I was worried she'd never be able to leave me and now she can't wait to get back!

Irony

Is it irony that I was so worried that Veronica would never talk and now she never, ever shuts up?  Today I went to get Anthony and Maria fell asleep right away, the baby was quiet and sleepy and Veronica yapped and yapped and yapped.  Here's some of what she said:

Hoe mah han, mama! (Hold my hand, Mama)

Doe!  DOE!  DOOOOOEEEEE!  (Go!  Go!  Goooo!)  (I tell her the light is red so I have to wait)

You late for the light to turn led mama? (You wait for the light to turn red, Mama?) (I tell her I am waiting for the light to turn green)

You laiting for the light to turn gleen mama? (You waiting for the light to turn green, Mama?) I say yes

Gleen means glo, led light means stop and lellow light mean slow (Green means go, red light means stop and yellow light means slow)

Sheesh!  I tell her 100 times a trip that I am trying to DRIVE, Veronica, I can't hold you hand because I have to keep my hands on the wheel!  She cares not, she has been all over me like a duck on a june bug here lately!  If I sit down with the baby, she is on my leg immediately.  Hold me!, she says thousands of times a day, she wants to be carried into the Y, carried to swimming, held while we are at the park, etc., etc., on and on.  She is a lover, and not a fighter, for sure.

She is getting much better at swimming.  I am hoping we'll go to the pool tomorrow for the first time.  I'm scared to take all three of them but there is a baby pool and a splash pad and I'm hoping they'll hang around the splash pad more.  We'll see.  You never know.

Swimming

Veronica finished her first swimming session last week, she starts her second session on Tuesday.  They do three week sessions, two times a week, for 30 minutes, which works well for us.  Like, on the first day, she had a very hard time and it was good to go back just two days later to work on it again.  She usually made a good amount of progress in the 30 minutes and I'm glad she never had to wait a whole week to go back so she could pick up on the progress where she left off.

Her teacher said this about her in the comments:

• Veronica likes to be with an adult
• Veronica is still hesitant and needs encouragement to get in
• Playing with toys is a good way to keep her having fun at the pool
• Keep coming to the pool and having fun this summer, Veronica!

So that's nice.  It's true, she does like to be with an adult in the water, but she got much better about it as the weeks went on.  She did like to have a toy, and although she was worried about it, by the end, she laid back in the teacher's arms and kicked her legs.  She is so different than Maria was when she started.  First of all, she was younger - Maria turned three in the January before summer lessons and Veronica just turned three in May.  Secondly, Veronica will just *leave* if things are unpleasant and Maria will stay right there and scream in your face.  It's funny to see the differences in them.  

She is doing just fine this summer, although I am glad it's now July and not June anymore - anything that gets us closer to them being back in school.  We are continuing with swimming two days a week and I am looking into some one day camp things at a local park for them to do.  They like to do more things than I can have them do at home so maybe we'll make July busier than June and we'll see how that works.  

For Gael

 

Party Girl

She really isn't much of a party girl.  We went to Charlie's birthday party a few weeks ago and we went on a playdate to a park last weekend and both times, she kind of hangs by herself.

Veronica's been doing well, I'd say. She is completely toilet trained, she is getting a little bit better in church, and she never shuts up.  Sometimes I still get a little teary when she is yammering away at me.  I was so worried, for a while, and now she is just perfectly right for her age.  She is still a little hard to understand, but I'll take it.  Maria is a great interpreter, in fact they are really thick as thieves lately.  They're mostly very sweet together but it is all Veronica, really.  She is a Great Compromiser.
 

Almost three

One week from Monday she'll be three years old.  It's hard to believe, because she seems like my baby but also it seems like she's been around for longer than three years, much longer.  My mom sent me an email with some party stuff for sale and said "maybe you'd want this for Veronica's party" and I thought oh, crap!  A party!  I still don't know what we'll do.  Veronica doesn't really have any friends of her own yet.  I mean, she has two friends at school, Brookie and Halie, but I don't really know their moms so I couldn't invite them to a party.  Anyways.  We'll see.  I know she wants a Tinkerbell cake, at least she did a few weeks ago when she saw one in the window at the bakery.

She is doing very well with the potty training.  Not VERY well, I guess.  I guess if she were doing VERY well, she wouldn't have peed on her underwear, "just a little" and taken them off and handed them to me while I was sitting at the table at Chic Fil A today.  BUT she goes in the bathroom on her own most of the time and she did perfectly one out of two days at school this week, so we'll take it.  She wants to be in underwear, which is half the battle.  Ha, we were at a party on Sunday, though, and she had already peed through one outfit so she was in her second.  She came walking up to me and my friend's boyfriend said "I think she has mud on her foot" and I thought no, not mud, and it wasn't.  Sigh.  It's hard at a party, right?  Hard to stop partying?  She's like Lindsay Lohan or something, ha!

She has been driving us insane and I mean INSANE lately.  Maria wakes her up too early and then she is grumpy for most of the day.  She cries and whines a lot, she takes off her clothes in public, and if you speak even the slightest bit sharply to her, she BURSTS into tears and cries for 20 minutes, super loudly.  Her hair will never grow back from where Maria cut it, LORD GOD these girls have some fine hair.  Um, what can I say to end this on a positive note?  She is super sweet with Felicity.  She never wakes up when you move her from the floor to her bed at night.  Um.  Her teacher loves her and she has always done great at school, every single day of this year.  There.