Lens Day: Portrait

Alice’s Nana Phyllis and Papa George.

Nana, play blocks! Papa, play blocks!

Nana Phyllis and Papa George headed back home yesterday after a good but brief visit. Alice sure enjoyed seeing them again. Within minutes of their arrival she was comfortable with them. Nana and Papa brought the rest of Alice’s birthday presents with them. One of the gifts was a 100-piece set of wooden blocks of assorted shapes and colors (red, green, yellow and blue). These blocks were an enormous hit! Alice preferred playing with her blocks over all other activities – even watching her movies. We suspected she plays with blocks at the dayhome. “Alice, do you play with blocks at Donna’s?” “Uhh yep.” Ahh, that explains why she’s so good at making towers. Her favourite activity: make a tower of blocks and then knock it over. When the blocks fall down everyone has to clap, then build the tower again. “Cwap. Cwap. Again.” For the rest of the visit Alice was often heard to say, “Nana, pway bwocks! Papa, pway bwocks!”

Auntie Lana Coming Here

This morning over breakfast I reminded Alice that Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa George are coming to visit today. I also mentioned that Auntie Lana, Uncle Dwayne, and Cousin Zach would be coming this weekend too. For the rest of her meal she chatted away to herself, “Auntie Lana coming here.” It was pretty darned cute. It’s so much fun having conversations with our little girl.

So many blogs, so little time

We’ve been terrible at posting lately- Don and I have sadly neglected the blog. Alice had her 2nd birthday- we practiced for weeks preparing her for the big day- reading her birthday book, which talks about birthday cards, presents, party cakes and more. She even learned how to sing “happy birthday to you”, and sings it often. She was a little shy when it came to blowing out her candles (we practiced this as well); mommy blew out one, and Alice managed to blow out the other. Alice received many presents and is a very lucky girl. We’ve also started potty training; she is so proud of herself when she uses the potty, and we’re very proud of her as well- it’s so precious to see the look on her face! She dosen’t use it very often yet, it’s still somewhat of a novelty at this point. We aren’t pressuring her; we want to keep it positive. She likes putting on her Elmo panties, and we tell her that once she starts using the potty all the time, she can wear her panties. My precious girl is growing up! Alice also saw Dr. Pow last week for her 2 year check up. She weighs 28 lbs and is 36 inches tall. She was very good for the exam, and let Dr. Pow check her ears, mouth, heart and lungs. Dr. Pow would show her the examining light, and tell her if she said a magic word it would turn on (mommy whispered in her ear, “say please”); Alice would say please, and the light would come on! Dr. Pow then would say, “say off” to turn it off; Alice said “off”, and the light went off! This was a great game to play, and made the exam interesting for Alice. We sure love Dr. Pow… Alice’s speech is getting really good, too. She can say 4-5 word sentences, like “No, my Dora shoes Daddy!” Poor Daddy. She also said, “Rock in the wagon,” on the way back from the park the other day. Oh, and have I mentioned we can now count to 100? It goes, 2, 4, 5, 100. Well, dosen’t it?

Going Potty

A few days ago Corinna brought out Alice’s potty and put it on the toilet in the bathroom. She explained what it was and had Alice sit on it briefly. Tonight just before bed Alice wanted to go sit on the potty again. I didn’t think anything of it, since she’s done it a couple times already. We took off her diaper and sat her down on the throne. Wouldn’t you know it, she actually used the potty. I guess we’re now potty training in earnest. Our little girl is growing up so fast! We’ve all come down with a nasty cold – sinus congestion and cough. Alice woke up this morning with a bad cough, and Corinna and I weren’t doing great either. We all stayed home and sniffled and coughed and drank orange juice. Alice has been really good about taking her medicine. Corinna and I less so, mostly because we’re taking Buckley’s. Toddlers get to have bubble-gum flavouring. We get toxic sludge…. Alice and I are staying home again tomorrow, unless we’re miraculously cured over night.

Adding TrueType fonts to CentOS 4

I use Xfce on all my Linux boxes (Fedora Core and CentOS). To add new TrueType fonts on an Xft-based CentOS 4 system, I did the following:

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Orange and Yellow

We’ve figured out the difference between orange and yellow. This morning after breakfast I gave Alice one of her little washcloths. She was busily washing her hands, her face, the table, her knees. Once she was done washing she placed the cloth on the table and pointed at the little spots of colour. “Orange. Yellow. Purple.” This is the first time we’ve seen her distinguish between orange and yellow. Orange used to be yellow, but that was when Alice was just a little girl. She’s older and wiser now.

Cheque Please

This evening Corinna, Alice, and I went for supper at Silver Inn (home of the best ginger beef on the planet). Normally, Alice will not eat rice unless it’s in rice pudding. Tonight she was interested in the special fried rice. Corinna gave her the entire platter, along with the big serving spoon. Much to our surprise, Alice began to gobble up the rice. It was pretty funny to watch – a little girl and her big platter of fried rice. When everyone was finished (“Mommy done, Daddy done, Ali done.”), Alice said, “The bill?” Our girl seems to be paying attention when we’re in restaurants.

Ali Done; Two, Eight, Nine

Alice has begun to announce when each of us is finished eating. “Mommy done.” “Daddy done.” “Ali done.” She’s not really able to say her full name – the C is silent at the moment. But it’s pretty darned adorable. Alice has also started to demonstrate her counting skills. We point at her Ocean Wonders and ask, “How many fish are in there?” “Two, eight, nine.” These are the numbers that seem to have ‘stuck’ in her mind. She always counts, “two, eight, nine.”

Bedtime for Bear

This evening as I was getting Alice ready for bed, she did the same for her stuffed bear. First she got the change pad and layed it down on the floor. Then she placed Bear on his back and pretended to change his diaper. Once his diaper was changed, Alice pretended to do up the snaps on Bear’s sleeper. Finally, she wrapped bear up in a blanket and gave him her soothers.