Aspen Antics: part 1

In the news this week in our area, a little boy lost his life at the hand of his parent. It makes me sad.  He was a year older than Aspen, and I wonder how someone could do that to someone so young and still full of life.

Before Aspen grows any more, and I forget all the cute little things she does, I have committed to writing them down.


Lately it is ALL things Dora (the explorer) or Diego.  Thank heavens for Nickelodeon.  When it is time for bed she tries to put off the inevitable by begging to watch Diego, and we say no, she says "four more minutes dad.... PLEEEEEEEAAAAASE"  and he almost ALWAYS gives in.  Ok...he always gives in.

She loves dinosaurs and the movie Land Before Time .   There is a song from the movie that has the chorus line "friends for dinner", which Aspen has taken literally.  She takes the little grape hyacinth tops, taking each bud off, putting them on a plate to serve me up some food, all while singing "friends for dinner".
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Hayden has taken the Bronco out of winter hibernation, and Aspen begged to go for a ride the minute it was in the driveway.  A few days later, while riding in it, I looked back and her eyes were shut and her arms were up, her hands in the air feeling the wind blow through her fingers.  On more than one occasion she has said "I love da Bonko, dad... I love it"
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Aspen has been put in time-out a few times lately.  This consists of sitting on her bed, with the door shut, with no toys or tv.  This is usually for tantrums over getting dressed (but she can invent things to scream over).  I can go check on her thirty minutes later, she will still be crying and wailing.   I got mad at her the other day, and at the end of the ordeal, I ended up apologizing to her for getting mad.  She has taken that one incident and has used it every time we have a power struggle.  "Sorry I be mean" she says, as she holds me (which she requests by saying "I wanna hold you mama").  I think she is trying to apologize for my putting her in timeout, not for her being a tantrum ridden 2 year old.
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Prayers with her are hilarious.  She tells Heavenly Father about all her incidences through the day:  her friends not sharing or someone scratching her.  She always gives thanks for her family, but daddy is always first on the list, followed by Morgan.  She always ends her prayer with "name of Jesus Christ, baby Christ, amen".  I promise we haven't shown her Talledega Nights.  I can't help but chuckle every night.

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Lately she has taken to calling me "mother", which sounds more like "mudder".  Not sure where she picked this up, but it makes me feel much older than I really would like to feel.  She also calls her Grandma Fraser by her first name "Debba".  I think Hayden is secretly coaching her on the side.

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Her umbrella one of her new favorites, and she even has taken to sleeping with it.  She loves it so much that I broke down and bought her another one (hey... it's a different color).  The other day she had them opened and lying on the floor in the living room.  All of the sudden I heard OOONOOO.   I looked around to find out what she was fussing about just in time to see her touch the second umbrella and say DOS... followed by QUATRO, SIETE.
Seriously.

My 2 year old counting in Spanish.
Just when I was thinking I needed to cut back on all her tv.
This just helps the mother guilt... because HEY, at least she is watching EDUCATIONAL stuff, right?