songs, apologies, and brains

It's funny how quickly things change. I suppose it's partly because I haven't been keeping up my blog like I did in the past, but only a few posts ago I was ranting about toddlerhood and the woes of being a parent of one. I can only really vaguely remember that now. Things have gotten so much fun with Plava. Her personality is quite interesting and keeps us on our toes constantly.


She is quite the chatterbox, and not just about anything these days. It's very conversational and descriptive and serious sometimes. For instance, at dinner when Ryan has come home and we're all sitting around the table, she often very seriously tells him about her day - the good and the bad, the naughty and the nice, and she usually adds in some things that are right out of left field.

"I had a gooood nap, and I watch dada's video and got candy. And we went to the pumpkin patch and saw pigs!!" (The pumpkin patch was last week...)

Dada's video, by the way, is a favourite these days. It's a dvd of a musical Ryan was in last winter about the blackouts in London during the war. It has become quite an obsession with little Plava, and she has learned many of the songs quite well. One of our favourites that she sings rather often is, "PRAISE THE LORD, AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, AND WE'LL AAAAALL STAY FREEEE!!!"

Yes, our child is really absorbing things these days.

Thankfully there are less offensive songs on that video too, like the all-favourite "Hey Little Hen" song, and "Run, Rabbit, Run". Fun songs and a little more toddler appropriate.

Yeah, she's quite the spunge. There's a certain song that she learned off a video from the library that is called "SO BIG!". It starts with an innocent verse 1:

How big is baby?
How big can she be?
Is she bigger than a fly? YES YES YES!!
Is she bigger than the sky? NO NO NO!!!
Is she bigger than a slice of blueberry pie? YES! YES! YES!
Baby's SO BIG! SO BIG!!
Look and you will see, baby's so, SO BIG!!!

So, that would all be fine if it was left at that one verse. But of course the song needed to be longer so the writer made a "how big is mother" verse, and then a "how big is father" verse. A little on the edge, but passable, I suppose.

Passable, until she sung it at the top of her lungs in the bakery department of the supermarket the other day, "MAMA'S SO BIG! SO BIG!! LOOK AND YOU WILL SEE MAMA'S SO, SO BIG!!!"

Normally, I would laugh it off. Funny kid. Funny song. But recently, it's really true. I'm massive. The clothes aren't fitting, the waddle is in full swing, and I'm walking half the speed I was a couple weeks ago. Yes, this mama is big.


Toddlers, so hilarious. Tonight I was over at a friends' house for the early evening and Plava hopped in the bath with two of her favourite friends - my friends' two sons. Three naked preschoolers in a bath is as cute as anything I can imagine. It ended when Plava gave a little curious pinch to one of the boys' wieners.

Bath time was over, but then it was naked jumping on the bed time!!!


I have to keep reminding myself as Plava gets older and more independent that I need to allow her to have the independence she so needs. Rules and guidelines are important, but there has to be a balance between being a dictator and allowing her to flourish as she tries to. It's a hard thing to remember.

I was saying to Ryan the other night that I'm feeling like a cranky pregnant woman with Plava lately (hmmm, could it be?) and that my mothering has taken a dive into major irritability. I don't know how many times recently I've had to take Plava aside and tell her that I'm sorry for how I treated her in a moment when I could have been patient and dealt with the situation in a wiser way. But at least that's something, you know? If I didn't apologize and show her that it's an important part of a relationship, how would she learn? She's just getting a glimpse of a slightly more realistic relationship. I'm not always right, and my dealings with her aren't perfect.

Anyway, that was a swift change of subject from funny toddler to learning to apologize... I'll end it here.

As always, I feel like this is another strange string of thoughts made into a new post. But hey! My brain is muddled right now! Allow me that! Soon it will turn from pregnancy-brain to brand-new-mother-with-newborn brain! Maybe that will be a better brain to work with. It was the brain I had when I started this blog after all.

Wish me luck then, will ya?