My Kind of Entertainment

Hanging out at home all day is hard for me.  It's hard for me to have the patience to keep Cora entertained all day.  That's why I love outings. Cora gets to explore something different and exciting and I get to break up our days.

Days spent at home sick always feel soooo long.

But today I have been giggling at my girl's antics repeatedly.  It's like she's accomplishing all these new little milestones and doing it with a serious case of attitude and a runny nose.

Some of the things that have had me laughing or excited in the past day or so include:

• Using signs in new combinations more and more.  Today she knocked on the bedroom door (While Nick was talking on the phone in his home office), and signed "Hear Daddy." 

• Crawling underneath and then getting stuck under a barstool.

• Learning to cruise between the couches and letting go with one hand to reach.  She needed a little coaxing, but soon was doing it with no help.

• Getting up onto the couch by herself for the first time to climb into my lap.

• Learning how to escape from the belt of her high chair.  This mama had to be clever to come up with a new restraint ASAP.

• Refusing to walk with her push cart or any of her other push toys.

• Saying "again" and "push" for the first time.  These words, like most of her spoken words, still count as approximations. Her enunciation needs a little work.  But they are her attempts at words, all the same.

• Throwing fake crying tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants.  (OK, so not super excited about this, but I have to admit that it's been comical at times.)

• And the funniest:  Saying "mum" for "no."  She has said "dada" for ages. She would occasionally say "mama" but only under dire circumstances, like when I wasn't immediately accessible.  But in the past month or two she's been calling me "mama" with much more regularity.  To show "no", usually she has shaken her head in silence, waving her arm in front of her, and occasionally signing "no."  But now she does all the aforementioned movements while saying "Mum. Mum." with a serious expression.  I find it rather hilarious and a tiny bit insulting.  Especially since, in typical two-year-old fashion, absolutely everything is "no" right now.  But hey.  I'll take it. 

So that's how we're keeping ourselves entertained right now, stuck at home with the sniffles, hoping things look up in time for the weekend. 

"Yeah, I'm talking to YOU!"