Sometimes All it Takes is a Bit of “Mind Power.”

See that? It’s a train, and I made it all by myself this morning. My Mama was in the kitchen making me breakfast, and I came over and said, “You want to see my kitty train? I made it, come see it.” I then grabbed her by the hand and I took her over to our little library room to see my masterpiece.

This morning I got the blocks out all by myself, putting them all over the floor. I have done this many times because I love to build with blocks, but I usually just build towers that I make as tall as I can so that I can have an “earthquake” and I make them fall. I do this over and over. This morning, though, I wanted to make a train for my kitty. My Mama says that this was special because I was looking at the blocks and trying to figure out how to make a picture with them in my mind, and then I had to make that picture look like the one in my mind.

I had to get the Jenga blocks first (I took those for my projects instead of the game because they make for good building) to make the bottom part because they are bigger. Then I took the little blocks and built it up, and I put the round one at the front for the “steam” (as I explained to Mama) just like on Thomas the Tank Engine. I love that show, so I wanted to make my little train look like Thomas and Percy. I put the round piece up front so that it could have a “face” just like Thomas, too. Once I was done, it was time for my kitty to be the conductor of the train.

I was so very proud of my work as you can see from the giant smile on my face, and my Mama said she was very proud too and that it showed how my imagination is growing. My imagination is huge, Mama, as you can see from all of the games that I play every day. All that it takes is a bit of mind power, and I’ve got a ton to spare.

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Me and My Shadow.

Mama and Daddy and me all go out for walks and runs and play sessions outside a lot. I can go and ride on my little balance bike, and I can run as fast as I can, and I can go and play with the bugs under the rocks and throw little rocks into the water near our little house. I love being outside in the warm, warm sun, and I love to feel the ground beneath me when I run so fast, so fast, that no one can catch me… not even the wind can keep up. No one, apparently, but shadow me.

When I was outside last time, I noticed while I was on my little bike and I noticed that a bigger version of me had made the ground dark in the shape of me, but bigger. I said, “what is that?” because I had never noticed that I had another me following me around before. My Daddy stopped me, and he explained that it was my “shadow,” and that it goes everywhere that I go, all over the place. He didn’t get too much into the “how” yet because he said I wouldn’t understand until I was a bit bigger, but he showed me instead how he had a biggggg shadow and that when you lean down really low that you can make shapes with your hands and move your shadow around the way that you want for it to go.

Then I tried it out myself, and I made my hands move all around while my shadow-hands moved with me. Everywhere I moved, they moved, and Daddy was right… I couldn’t get away from my shadow. My Mama says there is a boy who once lost one somehow named Peter that had to have it sewed back on, but she says not to worry because that can’t happen to me. I’m glad, because I like my shadow Dorian. I am never alone as long as I have her with me after all.

My Daddy is so, so smart, and he says he will teach me all sorts of things as I get bigger. As I tell Mama, I am so, so big already that I am practically grown. I have to admit, though, that I still have a lot of things to learn, and my Daddy is the best teacher that I could possibly have as I figure everything out and as I grow.

“All children, except one, grow up.” — J.M. Barrie

Happy Birthday, Dear Chris, Happy Birthday to You…

My great aunt Chris’ birthday was yesterday, and a little bit before that, we had a surprise birthday party that my cousin Mandy planned so that we could all celebrate with her. My great aunt Chris is one of the very nicest people that you will ever hope to meet. She gives and gives and gives and gives all of her heart to all of the people around her that she loves (and there are a lot of those).

Chris’ celebration was also because of the end of her treatments for something that the bigger people around me call “cancer.” I don’t really understand what that is, but my Mama says not to worry because I don’t need to know anything about it quite yet. She said, though, that Chris had a long time of getting medicines that made her kind of sick to make her all better again. That is why she is wearing that fancy headscarf, but now that she is all done with the treatments, she won’t be wearing the fancy headscarves for too much longer (unless you want to Aunt Chris… you do look really fashionable you know).

I got to do a lot of things at the party like eating food before I was really supposed to (my Mama says that I can get away with these things because I am so little), playing with hula hoops and giant balls, and running around in the giant gym over and over again. I also got to stare at the Peanuts cake that was right in the middle of the room every time that I passed it.

The best part, though, was getting to help blow the candles out of that Peanuts cake with Chris. She said that she couldn’t blow candles out quite as well these days, so she needed to have my help. So suddenly, even though it was Chris’ birthday, it was like it was part mine too because everyone all around was singing the happy birthday song and I got to sit in front of the cake on Chris’ lap and blow out all of those candles with her. Everyone clapped and cheered, and I felt like the life of the party. Honestly, that was about it for me because all of that action packed adventure was a lot for a little person to take in. I slept like “a rock” that night, Daddy said, whatever that means.

Happy birthday again, Chris, and many, many more to come.

XOXO,

Dorian

Hello my Friend, Mr. Apple…

My Daddy is so silly, and he made me a little apple buddy to play with that had a face and little hands. I called him Mr. Apple, and I played with him, telling him, “Don’t worry, Mr. Apple, I won’t hurt you.” I had him play with my little Barbie dolls, and they talked to each other and had a great time. I was even wearing my Snow White dress, and I know that an evil witch gave her an apple too, so I was just like her (well, except for the fact that my Mr. Apple was not a poisoned apple and was a dressed up apple instead, but otherwise, it was just like the movie).

See? There he is. Isn’t he cute? The problem with Mr. Apple, though, is that deep down I knew that he was an apple. Deep down I knew that he was one of my favorite foods, and I knew that he was delicious under all of that cute. After a while of playing with him, I took his hands off and took a bite of him. My Mama heard me chomping on him… I just couldn’t resist his deliciousness.

He was just pretend after all, and he was food, so he couldn’t go to waste. He couldn’t have stayed my play friend for long because he would have gotten all yucky, so I made sure that he was nice and happy in his new place… in my belly. I’m sure that there will be a new apple buddy soon, and he just might meet the same fate… because apples? They are one of our very best foods. Crunch.

I am the Picture of Beauty… Thanks to my Daddy.

When I woke up this morning, the first thing that I wanted to do after getting dressed was the have my Daddy fix my hair. My Daddy is the hair-fixer-upper in the family. Mama says that she is worried that she will hurt me while pulling it up, so she lets Daddy take over on that one. My Daddy is so, so gentle with his soft brush that I hardly feel it, and he sings and talks me through while he is getting my hair all pretty. My Daddy, he can be magical sometimes, especially when he sings to me.

There he is working that magic. It may not stay completely put together all day (because really, I play rough, and when I am busy being a toddler hurricane, my hair is the least of my worries), but it still stays away from my face, and my Mama says I still look like a beautiful princess even when it gets a little messy. After all, isn’t that what life is? Getting everything all put together just so you can work to mess it up again?

There I am, already working to undo the beautiful work that Daddy did. Play hard, but always look absolutely gorgeous when you do. 🙂

Take a Moment to Just Breathe and be Part of Nature.

Little people know, but big people sometimes forget, that it is okay to get a little dirty sometimes. Being in nature, rolling around in the leaves, is sometimes the very best thing that you can do. Our world is big and beautiful, and if you just look at it but don’t become a part of it all, you are missing out. Jump in the big leaf piles, roll down the hills, put your hands in the dirt… you can always get clean again, but you can never get those moments back where you get to stop and just become a part of everything around you.

Technology Can Bring People Together, Too.

I have heard people say since I was really, really little that technology takes people away from each other. I know that this can be true, too, because sometimes my little family all has separate things that they are doing on little glowing screens for a bit, and I have also seen that out with other people at restaurants not talking or at the playground. My Mama admits that this happens to her, and she says that it is a problem for big people and little people, too. She says that there are a lot of people out there who work against being on those little glowing screens more than they should.

There are just too many things that are fun on those screens sometimes, and if big people don’t watch little people, they can get sucked in just as much as Mama with her work and her “social media,” whatever that is. I mean, there are so, so many great blogs out there, and sometimes you can just get sucked in and can read and read and read. You should read a lot of blogs, but you should also take the time to play. Yes, big people, I am talking to you. I am little, but I am wise.

Technology doesn’t always do that, though. Sometimes, when I am waking up and starting my day, my big sister Addie will sit with me and we play games together that makes me learn. My big, big sister Lilli and my giant brother Jonah sit and play games, too. This, my Mama says, is when she likes that we are on those little screens. After all, there is nothing wrong with snuggling up and playing games… just as long as you are doing it together.

It’s Daddy Car Party Time!

Sometimes, when it is just me and my Daddy in the car, we can be silly. Daddy will make funny faces at me, and I can play and dance and shout-sing and laugh, and we have such a good time. My Daddy sent Mama this picture to show her just how much fun we were having shout-singing and laughing together.

Sometimes though, all that shout-singing and laughing and dancing, with the buzz of the car and the noise of the road passing under our little car can make my eyes so, so heavy so, so fast that before I know it, we’re home and I don’t remember getting there.  Oh Daddy, you’re so good at wearing me out with the highest level of fun that a little girl could ever have.

Sometimes you Don’t Need to Go Far to be on Vacation.

See that giant, fluffy doggie that is sitting with me looking like a white colored Clifford? That is Luke, and he is my Grandpa Mo and Jennifer’s and my cousin Catherine’s doggie. Catherine does flips and twirls and dances and jumps in a thing called “gymnastics,” and she goes to do those flips all over the place in things called “competitions.” She is very good and wins a lot, but that means that they have to travel a lot to go to even more of those competitions.

There’s me practicing, Catherine, on your baby beam that is my size. I got on the big one with the help of Mama and Daddy holding my hands, but that one was a bit scary. For now I’m going to stick to the itty bitty one, okay? You can handle that big practice one.

Oh, I got distracted. I do that a lot, it’s called “being two” according to my Mama. Sometimes, when Catherine is flipping in other places, Grandpa Mo asks us to come over for a night to play with Luke and to walk him. I love when that happens, because it is right down the road, but it is still like a mini-vacation for me. I get to play and play and play and play, and there are so many fun places to explore. For little people, anything different is like vacation, and I love different.

I do lots of fun things. I get in Luke’s crate and pretend to be a doggie (Luke looks really confused when I do), I play on the piano making beautiful music, I play with Luke who is still a big puppy and needs to be worn out (I am good at that one, Grandpa Mo, I take my job very seriously), and I run all around in circles watching Daddy play on the hoverboard (my Daddy is really good at it and goes really fast).

There is so much to do that I never get bored, but I do get very sleepy, and when I do, I get to sleep way, way up high in Catherine’s bunk bed with her buddies. It is so very cozy up there, Catherine, that I bet that you sleep really, really well after all of that flipping. I didn’t even do flips and I slept like a log. (By the way, Catherine, that giant chili pepper buddy you have hanging in your room? I said, “he’s spicy!” over and over and I pretended to eat him up. Some little kids might of been scared of that pepper, but I was very brave and laughed at him instead.)

In the morning, I got to take a bath in the jacuzzi tub with the big bubbles. As you can see, I liked it even though I was really worried every time that the jets were turned on because of the noise that they made. I got over that really fast, though, because… bubbles.

Then Mama, Daddy and me walked Luke around the neighborhood before heading back home. It was cold, but Luke and I got to run and play outside, and I think that made both of us very happy.

Until next time, Luke, my giant doggie buddy. Mini-vacations near home? They can be just as fun as going really far away.

 

 

I Got my Wish! One More Snowfall.

I have been wishing and wishing and wishing for more snow every day for weeks now, and I finally put my wish in writing the other day. That must have worked, because last night while I was dreaming about snow, snow actually fell from the sky again. I woke up this morning to it, and I was edgy at the window and waiting for what seemed like forever to actually get out to play in it.

Daddy said something about needing breakfast and vitamins and to get dressed, but those things just didn’t seem to matter nearly as much as they usually do in the morning (although I admit that it was really cold, and getting bundled up was a good idea, Daddy).

Once all those boring things were done, though, I got all snug in my warm jacket and mittens and hat and snow boots and we all headed outside. We only had a little bit of snow, so I didn’t need my snowsuit on, I just got to go out to play. I ran and ran and ran around in the snow in circles and all around our yard, eating the snow everywhere that I went.

I played out there for so long that I was cold from the bones out, but I didn’t care because this is probably our very last snow for the year. Mama says that she hopes that it warms up soon, and I guess I do too because it will be closer to swimming outside and playground time, but I am going to miss my white, fluffy friend when it does. Until next year, my snow friend, and thanks for coming out to play one more time.