I’m still having a hard time falling asleep. Actually, the hard part is going to bed. Ironically, naptime is pretty easy. I am honestly tired by 2pm. Oh sure, some days I’m too busy playing and won’t sleep at all or just won’t lay down, but that doesn’t happen often. And I never fall asleep playing. Mom wishes she could catch me face down in a pile of crayons, but it hasn’t happened. Yet.

The other day, just like most days, I was in my princess dress. I had just received a whole trunk of princess shoes (thanks Aunt Chris!) and the dress/shoe/tiara combinations are endless. So, I was busy playing princess and it got to be naptime. I wasn’t tired, but I agreed to lay down for 15 minutes. I was convinced I’d be back playing princess in no time so I didn’t bother taking off my tiara. Two hours later, Mom peeked in on me and there I was… a living Sleeping Beauty, crown and all.

I’m waving! See me waving? Here, I’ll wave again. Did you miss it? Wait. I’m waving now. What time is it? I know! It’s waving time.

What? You mean you can’t discern “waving” from “flailing”? This open hand closing hand motion doesn’t look like anything? You don’t think waving during dinner is appropriate when my hands are full of bits of food? Waving in the bath just looks like splashing? Who ARE you people?

Flailing, clapping and splashing are all of my ways to wave. I do it when I play, when I eat, in the bath, at the sitter, in the car, in my bed… everywhere. Come on over. I’ll wave at you.

The other night we had a “wolf moon",” which in native American tradition is the largest full moon of the year. Because it is at its closest approach to the Earth it appears to be 30 percent larger and 14 percent brighter (according to the National Geographic web site and because I know these things). Maybe I’m a lunatic or just plain loony, but whatever it is, Mommy & Daddy have not been happy that I’ve been staying up all hours of the night.

I’m just not tired.

You can read me story after story, and then do 3-6 dark stories until your mind becomes mush, but I’ll still stay awake until after you go to bed. I try to limit actually getting up (I know how harsh the scoldings can be if I get caught), but sometimes changing the music cd or grabbing a different stuffed animal will make the difference and make me sleepy. But getting up would really be the best solution. You wanna try that Mom & Dad?

I got gas. I’m not going to fluff it up with pretty words like "toots” or “breezers.” When I gotta fart, I gotta fart. (I’m a boy. I’m gross like that.) Problem is, around 10:30pm after I’ve been sleeping for a bit, a pesky gas bubble gets in my belly and causes some incredible distress. And I can’t always get it out by myself.

So I cry. I cry loud. And if there was the slightest chance that my sister happened to fall asleep, I wake her up. The only way to calm me down is to get me out of bed to “crawl it out.” I gotta move to get that bubble moving on it’s way out. Sometimes it’s a fart. Other times I burp. Either way, once it’s gone I’m good. Toss me back in bed and I’m out until morning.

Unless another gas bubble shows up.

“In” can be a preposition (used to indicate motion or direction, like you’re going in); an adverb (showing possession or going into some place or in style); an adjective (located or situated within, like inside); a noun (someone with whom you have pull or influence); and even a verb (about to suffer chastisement or unpleasant consequences, like we’re in for it).

Now that you know all the different ways you can use “in”, let me tell you how I use it: I go in the bath. I’ll be in size 2T sooner than you think. Food goes in the cat bowl – socks/toys/hands do not go in the cat water bowl. I’m always into where I’m not supposed to be. I’m often not “in” with Daddy and I’m very often in for it. But the most “in” way I know is what goes in a bucket: toys. It’s been a few weeks and I’m totally getting the hang of it. I like it even. I’m with the “in” crowd in that respect. I’m in to putting stuff away.

I like being in style and getting into my clothes by myself, even if it means I change into 3-4 outfits a day. And by outfits, I mean those princess dresses. They are so “in”. They are the hottest things out there for girls like me. And having one is simply not enough. I have three in constant rotation plus additional accessories so it’s never the same outfit twice.

What I’m not into lately is spaghetti. Yeah, it was really good the first day after Mommy and Daddy had a sauce cookoff, but after the third day of finding for yet another dinner, I was ready for anything else. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! I don’t know what’s “in” that PB&J, but you can never get sick of them! More please.

The princess costumes are back! Playtime is better than ever! I got a new Fairy dress (Silvermist from TinkerBell’s movie) and when I get home from daycare, off come my daycare clothes and on goes the fairy dress. And when I’m not feeling fairy-like, it’s my old stand-by… Princess dress.

I’ve really ramped-up my playtime imagination by using my toys and accessories to play out real life. This weekend I got married. And not just once, but a couple dozen times. To Mommy, Daddy, Evan and even Buca. Mom found an old veil that I can wear. It looks great with my princess wedding dress (which is red velvet with gold trim). And I have a beautiful bouquet of colorful flowers that I use to get married with. I make a beautiful bride. Daddy says I have to wait until I’m 30 to get married… or maybe 28. I don’t know why he says that.

People need to let me do my thing too. I try to take opportunity and these bigger people just keep holding me back. Gate open = opportunity. But then someone realizes it and quickly locks it. Unattended cat food and water. Opportunity! I get yelled at again and forcibly removed from the situation. Elise’s toy sitting unattended is another opportunity. Before she can say “that’s mine” it’s yanked away from my tiny grasp in seconds.

But I do have one thing going for me: organization. I am very good at putting things back where they came from. The toy gumballs go back in the top to play the game again. The kitchen food goes back in the bucket. And the spilled cat food goes back in their bowls. See? That’s what I was really trying to do – clean up. (yeah… right.)

She’s like a detective finding that last missing sock. She’s kinda’ like a pirate finding buried treasure under the couch or behind furniture (we found a missing piece of my new toy that way). But as Indiana Jones she played detective AND found buried treasure yesterday. I have four new teeth on top. Four! And if you think that these things aren’t enough to compare her to Indy because he has more death defying physical feats, you’re wrong. Just this morning she saved me from falling to my potential death off the bed and from near electrocution from the computer cords when I went crawling by them.

If Mommy is Indiana Jones, Daddy must be Darth Vader because he knows what’s going to happen before it happens. Like today, I had my very own chai and I wanted to drink it in the living room. Daddy warned I’d spill it, but I was being careful using two hands and drinking it away from the couch. However, I was using the couch as my own personal gymnastics mat and kicked my chai over on the side table. Darth Vader intuition, I tell you. I got a Star Wars-sized time-out after that.

I am a magician. I can disappear in the blink of an eye. I also can make food disappear in a split second and make shoes, toys and bottles fly. See me sit. Now see me stand. See me here. Now see me there. Cheerios? What Cheerios? Either they’ve disappeared into my mouth or you’ll find them under the table flung far and wide.

Happy New Year! I’ve already accomplished my first resolution. It was to see the ball drop for New Years Eve. Mom and Dad let me stay up, have some [grape juice] champagne and stay up real late. I got to ring in the New Year just like everyone else (except Evan).

It’s been a cold and relaxing holiday week at home with the family. Our holiday sitter got hurt and couldn’t babysit us, so we were home with Mommy and Daddy. We had shopping trips and errands to run. And we played with our toys and cleaned up the house – every day because we have so many toys. My favorite toy is a bubble gum machine that plays music every time a ball rolls out. Elise’s favorite toy is her Littlest Pet Shop, but she’s enjoying the ribbon that decorated the tree the most.

And it’s back to our regular schedule this week. Back to Kay’s house. Back to work. Back to early bedtimes. I’m also going to start going to the tip-toe gym every week…try to kick my tip-toe habit. I consider it high heel practice, but no one else likes that idea.

…could keep us away from celebrating Christmas in Michigan! Going to Grandma’s is always such a long trip and this winter weather doesn’t make it any easier. We even had to do a trip re-do because it was too bad the first time. But we plugged along and Daddy made sure we didn’t end up in a ditch like we saw so many other people in.

When we got to Grandma’s, the real Polish Christmas was in full swing. I didn’t want to try anything that I could barely pronounce, so I stuck with bread and ham and vegetables. The rest of the group had borscht, pierogies, kapusta (sausage and sauerkraut), golumpki (stuffed cabbage rolls) and chrusciki (angel wing cookies). We were stuffed. Only one person ate pumpkin pie! Evan.

Then it was present time. Paper everywhere! Toys everywhere! It was awesome.

Later we put a plate of cookies out for Santa and I hurried to bed. And the next morning, Santa had come! And he brought me my Jessie doll and my ladybug pillow pet. But did he forget my TinkerBell nitelight? Nope! (He remembered to leave it at my house when he filled our stockings and left presents for the kitties too.) And he brought Evan toys too – blocks and a truck.

On Christmas Day we headed to Uncle Ken’s house where I got to play an intense game of hide-n-seek with cousin Ryan and Katie. More toys, more food, more candy. I slept really good that night – mostly because I used my new pillow pet as my pillow. I didn’t even hear Evan crying during the night. Christmas was good. Thanks Santa and Mom and Dad and All my grandparents and cousins and friends (like Kay and Grandpa Ronnie).

You would think that I would not like to sit in a car for more than a few hours. It typically takes about five hours to drive to Michigan. Add in one stop because I get hungry and cranky and it takes six. Take away that stop and add in messy stormy weather, and we’re in for a long, long haul. Our trip out battled rain and sleet, but we made it there in decent time (6.5 hours). The 45 minute trip to/from Uncle Ken’s was rainy, but we were worried it would get cold and ice the roads over. We left Grandma’s pretty early and almost turned around because of snow and icy roads. It got better, but then it got worse with lots of snow coming down closer to home after a 7.5 hour day.

The good news is that Santa left us a sled to use in the 12+ inches of snow at home! We went sledding! The sledding hill is so big that you need a break halfway up to catch your breath. The big hill was too big for me, so only Mommy and Daddy took turns going down the big hill. Me and Elise took turns going down a smaller side hill, and that was plenty. On my turn, the sled when nose first into the deep powder and covered me up like a snowman. I did not like sledding anymore.

Our weekend ended with hot chocolate, video games and playing with all our new toys. Thanks to all who made Christmas 2009 so wonderful even the weather outside was frightful. Merry Christmas to all! And a Happy New Year too!

Boy, oh boy… Do I hear that a lot lately. No, Evan. Stop, Evan. That’s mine, Evan. Not for you, Evan. What IS mine?

ooh! All these toys? All of these new toys I got from Nana & Papa and my Uncles, Aunt and cousins? These? These are pretty cool and make lots of noise and have lots of parts that roll all over. (Fun for me… not for Mom & Dad.)

But they only hold my attention for about 10 minutes. The tree and the ornaments are hours and hours of potential fun… If only I could get a hold of them.

Christmas at Nana & Papa’s was so much fun yesterday! We had brunch and opened toys and made gingerbread houses. And right when everyone (that’s me and my brother) started to get crabby, it was time to go home. We got some wonderful presents! Thank you everyone!

And when we got home it was time to decorate the Christmas tree. Evan got in trouble over and over to stop touching the tree, but I got to help hang ornaments and even put the angel on the top of the tree.

And I don’t care that it doesn’t match or is weather friendly. Sundresses in winter seems perfectly fine to me. I’ll wear a dress with a coat. Leggings and a shirt work in a foot of snow, right? Of course! I’ll wear socks. Pink shirt with pink pants… pink and pink. They match. We’re good. And the really fun one that I do all the time is when I say I’m going to wear jeans and a shirt, but when it comes time to put the clothes on… the fight is on for a dress, a skirt, leggings or anything other than jeans and a shirt.

Mommy and Daddy went to a fun party the other night. It was a work party murder mystery and they had to dress up like they were going to a 1920s speakeasy. Mom was Madame Flamingo, a burlesque nightclub owner. Dad was hit man Tony Capone. There was motive and murder and opportunities, but they weren’t the killers. It was a really fun time and their outfits were really fancy. I liked Mommy’s dress a lot. I want to go to a dress up party.

Mommy and Daddy left us with Nana and Papa. I wasn’t happy when they got here. I cried and cried. I don’t get to see them too often and sometimes they’re a little scary. Food. Food is the answer. And once they fed me, they were my best friends.

My other best friends are the kitty cats. I like to follow them around the house grabbing their tail or their ears. Their food is always out so I want to check out what kind of snacks are available. I’ve gotten yelled at enough, but that doesn’t stop me from looking. And no Mom, I wasn’t going to eat that cat food… I was putting it back in their bowl. Honest.

This may be a blog title we see a lot from now on. That boy is into everything – especially the cat food. Ahh… it seems like such a long time ago that I myself was a precocious 9 month old getting into the feline treats, but Evan’s got me beat by a whole month and does not listen like I did. Oh I got yelled at and cried more than a few times, but those were all days and days apart. Evan gets yelled at, pulled away and then goes right back into the crime scene! When will he learn? You gotta be sneaky!

We went to see the big man himself yesterday… Santa Claus! I wasn’t particularly happy with him. He surprised me pretty bad – came from out of nowhere and “Ho, Ho, Ho’d” me out of my seat! Scared me silly. I didn’t like that. And when it came time to tell him what I wanted for Christmas, I needed Daddy to talk for me. I did get up the nerve to ask where Rudolph was. Santa said that he’s at the North Pole resting for Christmas Eve. Santa had to take a van to lunch yesterday. It took 6 days to drive from the North Pole. Wow.

And did I mention that we went on the train to get to lunch to see Santa? It was really neat! I can’t wait to go on the train again.

No baby barrier can keep me away from cat food and water! I’m like a ninja maneuvering over and under chairs. And I’m quick. Three times in under two minutes – I’m there like a flash. You can’t leave me alone or unsupervised unless I’m locked down in the high chair. Like the bathtub, the water is awesome splashing fun. The cat food, a tasty nugget that’s easy to grab and shove in my mouth. Getting yelled at only makes me laugh. HA! The only time I cried is when Mommy forcibly removed said cat food. But don’t worry, I’ll be taste-testing soon enough.