Pico DiPaolo

A few weeks ago I received an empty text message from Petie. I asked her about it later and apparently Elise had gotten hold of the phone. Her first text message by the age of 2, not bad.

That reminded me of Joelle’s first instant message. She was 5 months old and was sitting in Petie’s lap when Petie was IMing me at work. It went like this:

petietx (9:26:43 AM): she’s trying to type
petietx (9:27:16 AM): ‘,….
petietx (9:27:37 AM): ,mmmmmmmm
petietx (9:27:47 AM): d
petietx (9:27:57 AM): gv x

Now Joelle IMs me all the time from Petie’s account. She likes to abbreviate random phrases. Like “from joelle” is “fj” …to let me know that she is the one typing, not Petie.

As was mentioned before, Elise made a quick and relatively uneventful switch from her crib to her bed.  I was surprised that, unlike Joelle when she was younger, she didn’t get out of the bed much.

Well, recently we moved a doll cabinet into her room with a shelf full of books.  Instead of settling for the few we left in her bed we heard her going back and forth to the cabinet to get more books.  This lasted almost two hours after her bedtime.  But she didn’t cry or fuss, so no big deal.  I checked on her before going to bed and she had EVERY SINGLE book in her bed with her.  She barely fit.  We now keep a much smaller selection for her nighttime reading.

Another random sleeping note: There is a trash can in her room that we actually are using now to block her from opening the cabinet door into the wall.  We had it for a long time but it was put away because she had a habit of standing in them and we were afraid she would hurt herself in the night.  Now that we leave it in the room, she almost always places it by the door or knocks on the door until we remove it.  It’s as if she’s saying “hey, you keep forgetting this thing, please remove it.”

Last night she slept fitfully, fussing once in a while.  I went in there at 3 to calm her down and she made a small fuss at 5, but she quieted down quickly.  As expected she slept in.  It was 9:30(!) and we finally said, “we have to wake her up”.  I go into the bedroom, tripping over the trashcan she had again deposited by the door, and the bed is EMPTY (except for all the books of course).

My first split second thought was “we are one of those families” where the baby is stolen and you have no clue.  But I remembered that we had stuck the trashcan in the closet so I knew she had gone in there at least once.

I quickly open the closet door (it was nearly closed) and she rises up with bleary eyes and a forced smile on her face.

With all the amazing mess, strange furniture placement and other changes in our lives with the whole bathroom project, I’m sort of surprised that the girls have kind of ignored most of it.  I think it’s hilarious to watch Elise, sitting in her chair watching Dora, ignoring the various workers coming in and out of the house.

Tonight, I decided that Elise really has some “street smart” baby skills.  1. She can usually imitate actions after seeing it only once.  2. She was able to remove the battery cover off an ornament which allowed me to finally understand why all toys make us screw the battery cover on and off.  3. She knows to suck in her belly when a footie PJ ensemble is being closed up.  4. When she wanted in the chair that Joelle was in, she knew to grab Joelle’s lovey and run.  As expected, Joelle bounded after her and Elise got the chair.  5. She likes to forage for her own food.  She often has the monkey grass berry residue on her shirt, which means she found another berry and ate it.

Tonight, I also got to witness a funny Elise moment.  This was a very rare occasion where Elise was in Joelle’s room when we were kissing Joelle good night.  Elise usually gets tucked in first.  I saw Elise process this development.  She turned and slowly sneaked out of the room.  I was following her and saw her first run to the playroom.  It was as if she was thinking, “I’ve gotta get some more play time in!”  She did an abrupt stop though and turned back to her room saying, “Nigh-Night.  Bear.  Bink.”  She grabbed bear and climbed into bed.  She pulled up her own covers, another street start baby move of hers.

Joelle asks if I want to play with the stuffed nativity set we have.  She is trying to put all of the wise men, shepherds, Joseph, Mary, etc. on the animals that come with the set - sheep, a cat, a dog, etc.

“Why are they riding the animals?” I ask.

Joelle answers, “All the nativity characters need an animal, so they can attack stuff and use them for food. Baby jesus doesn’t need an animal because he can use this (she pulls out the manger) to shoot guns and fireballs.  Baby jesus is a big boy now.”

When Petie walked by and I told her what we were doing (I was stationing a wise man behind the manger to “take cover”) she said, “I bet you almost forgot how to play this type of game”.

What happened to changing clothes on the Barbies to get ready for the ball?

Don’t worry, the next night we were “taking care of babies”.

We’re seeing little glimmers of the Joelle we treasure back in attack.  Tonight, after dinner, I pulled up to McDonald’s and she said under her breath, “please be chickie nuggets.”  When I asked the guy over the mic for 4 sundaes, she said, “YES!”  Elise said, “I cream,” when she saw it handed over. 

When we pulled out into the street, Joelle said, “This is Joelle DiPaolo and I am reporting from the dark.”  Chris and I both chuckled, so she continued, “It’s so dark, I can’t even see what I am saying.”  Hilarious.  I love that girl.

A lot is going on with Elise right now.  I took her to the doctor today, thinking her cold had gone into an infection, but he surmises she just caught another virus.  She’s cranky and totally not herself.  She woke up at 4 in the morning, refusing to go back to sleep.  She similarly refused to take her afternoon nap and decided that today was the day to crawl out of her crib for the first time.  Really?  Plus, she can’t utilize her bink because she’s so congested.  We’ve got a hellish cold, we’ve lost the bink and now we’ve lost the crib.  So, I leave her in her room screaming to kinda see what will happen.  Of course, I’ve left bear out of the crib - it’s the only thing we’ve got left! 

After 10 minutes of crying, there was silence.  I’m tempted to leave it, but I have to sneak back in to see what happened.  She’s curled up in a tiny ball by the door, clutching bear.  I scooped up my poor little angel to put her in her big girl bed.  I wonder how long nap will last today?

My dad put a little poke out there for me to write a blog.  I’m glad he does this because it’s generally a good spur for me to post; however, I just haven’t been in the mood as of late.  Yes, we’ve had some cuteness and adorable moments, but they’ve been overshadowed by some rowdy tantrums from Joelle.  We actually asked her pediatrician if it was okay that she was still having them (yes, Joelle and I asked together AND it is ok, for the record.)  I knew they’d eventually break and they did.  I think Nana even uncovered the root problem.  While dealing with her utter exhaustion after school, Joelle couldn’t also absorb the frustration that her wishes weren’t coming true.  Yes, Joelle is mesmerized by fairies, wishes and magic.  She wished upon a star that she would get to do whatever it is that she wants to do and, well, that hasn’t exactly happened.  It was a strange discussion, but I think she kind of understands the concept of “unanswered prayers” and “you shouldn’t always get what you wish for.”

As if by magic, her tantrums reached an apex and then sort of petered out.  Then, the very next day, no joke THE next day… Elise started in on her tantrums.  Think Joelle’s tantrums in a tiny miniature form.  Elise stands in the middle of the living room, her little fists balled up, and yells, “I haaaaa  you.”  She has no idea what she’s saying, but she’s imitating the “I hate you,” that Joelle likes to hurl at me.  I really thought I was going to lose it.  I had dealt with Joelle for about a month and having to switch over to dealing with the new foe with no break was really hard for me.

I did snap myself out of feeling sorry for myself, no worries, but coupled with some sicknesses and halloween, I’m really looking forward to moving on!  Here’s to some fun and more frequent blogs.

On Sunday, after a friend’s birthday party we were talking about what kind of party to have for Elise’s second birthday in January.  Joelle asked if she could invite a friend.  We said yes, but also told her that a lot of kids her age will be there because a lot of Elise’s “friends” have older siblings.  One sibling we mentioned, Hannah, got her going, “oh good! Hannah is my best friend in the whole world…” and went on about how much fun they have on the playground, etc.

Thursday night, the day before her 6th birthday, she said “can we invite Maya to my next birthday party?”

“When you turn SEVEN?” I asked.

“Yeah, she’s my best friend in the whole world, we are SUCH good friends!!”, she squealed.

“I thought Hannah was your best friend,” I recalled.

“Well, she went to California and has been out of town so I’ve forgotten ALL about her.  Yep, completely.  Now it’s Maya.”

This reminds me of how she would be mad at me, even at age one when I would return from a short (3-4 day) business trip or even if I would get home after her bedtime the night before so it seemed like I had been away.  Out of sight out of friend with this one.

I haven’t written in a bit and decided to share a slice of what our mornings are usually like. I now see a new value in these blogs because we may go back to scan them for proof of Joelle’s gifted and talentedness. I actually didn’t really think she was until Chris came home armed with information from the seminar. Turns out, I think Jojo actually does fit a lot of the descriptions. If she is, she totally got that from daddy because I’m just your typical “high achiever” student.

Back to the morning. Joelle has been super, super cranky. She’s wiped out from school. I could go more into the GT stuff, but I won’t. There may be a deeper reason behind it, but whatever, she’s grouchy this week. She woke up this morning and Elise and I were both already at the table eating. She’s been waking up at 7:12, almost every morning. Which gives us about 25 minutes to eat and get ready. I just try to let her have every ounce of sleep she can get.

She screams from across the room, “I DON’T WANT SAUSAGE PATTY. WHY CAN’T YOU ASK ME WHAT I WANT?” I calmly reply, “because you’re waking up really late and I have to have your breakfast ready or you won’t get to school on time.” “I WANT CEREAL WITH MILK. (big scream.)” Elise is sitting in her little chair, mouth open. Joelle walks to the kitchen and pulls out the milk and bowl. She then walks to the cupboard and almost loses it when she says, “I can’t reach the cereal.” Again, calmly, I say, “it’s on the counter.” She lets out a tiny giggle, grabs it and returns to the table. I offer to help pour the milk and she says, “yes, please, mommie.”

The moment is past us and Elise lets out an audible display of relief. She kicks into her high humor mode where she starts making faces and shaking her head. She likes to also put her head down on the table sideways. Without fail, it always makes me laugh…. and it makes Joelle laugh.

I hope our family dynamics do evolve into this. I know Joelle will always be emotional and high drama, she just came to us that way. I like that Elise tries to break through all that and make us laugh…. and her timing can be impeccable.

It all started with me wanting to get my hair done. When the girls started back to school and everyone asked what I would do with all my loads of spare time, I always said, “I want to get my hair cut.” Then, I finally got both girls to school and I was hit with bronchitis and an ear infection. I got well from that and Ike hit.

I know everyone has heard tons about the hurricane. I won’t write too much. It’s just that it’s so amazing that something out of the blue can come along and change so much. I feel like a week out of my life is gone. We were survivors and made it in our own home for 5 days, but eventually opted for refugee status and my parents’ house. Having a home with no power really affects children. Personally, I didn’t think it was too bad as long as a. we had water and b. the neighbors across the street didn’t have power. It was really difficult living in a home with no water (we went for about a day and a half without). That’s one thing I didn’t count on. Had the water not come on Sunday night, we would’ve left. The water did come on and we stayed, but on Wednesday night, when the street minus our last 4 houses received power and we did not, I couldn’t stand the heart wrenching display of lights across the street. I know they weren’t purposefully flaunting it, but every light in every window was ablaze!

Living with my parents was a blessing. The girls were much happier. Elise would routinely check in with everyone to make sure all her peeps were there. Coming home to check on our dead house every day was sad though and we’re so happy it’s back up. The girls were happy, too. Every day we would get excited about one thing “working again.” Now, we wait on Wilchester and Memorial Drive United Methodist Church. Neither have power yet, so the girls will continue to wait on school.

Poor Chris will never live down his comment to me, but on the day he went back to work (uh, Monday, most guys have been home all week), I was grumpy. He would have A/C, internet and be generally normal. He said, “it’s just like summer.” I know he was trying to cheer me up, but this was definitely not just like summer.

Thank you CenterPoint for getting our lights up! I just hope the girls transition back to school happily when the time finally comes. Should I take back to school pictures…. again?