"Who designed these seats anyway?!"

New Adventures
This week we tried a few new things. Some of them worked well. Some of them, not so well! On Wednesday, we tried a basic Gymnastics class at The Little Gym (www.thelittlegym.com). She was one of 3 little girls and the oldest. She took to it right away, watching to see how things were done and then trying them. She was great - wanting to get on the high bar right away! And of course, we came home and promptly tried all the same tricks in the living room. (sigh!)

Then on Friday, we tried a beginning non-competetive karate class at the same place. There were eight 4-5 year olds. Joy was having none of it!! The finger went in the mouth. Pretty soon she was trying to fit the whole fist in there. The teachers were really great! The teacher from the gymnastics class went in and worked just with Joy. But she really was overwhelmed. She and the teacher sat on the side and watched for a long time. Finally, with 10 minutes left in the class, Joy decided she could play on some of the equipement with just the teacher. Then she decided she could play freeze tag (where they freeze in a karate pose).

Joy clearly knew the poses and when they got to the side kicks, she knew that for sure! In the end, she did look like she was having fun and told me later she wanted to go again. But the little button loop on her fleece was practically chewed off! I'm not sure if she was overwhelmed by the number of boys in the class or just the number of kids in the class. I'm hoping that now that she knows what it will be like she'll relax and have more fun next week.

Something we tried again this week was a playdate with a friend who is 7. Sam is a great kid and he was so sweet with Joy! Especially when she was not exactly sweet with him! After watching her pretend to be hurt so that she could play with something he had, I decided to interfere. She knew perfectly well what she was doing. And she clearly expected to be punished for it - she went and stood in the corner by herself.

Instead I tried explaining to both her and Sam that yes, the toys were Joy's, and after she got through sharing them with Sam, they would remain her toys. I'm not sure, but I think that after being in a situation where nothing belonged to her and she had to share everything, she's very leery of sharing anything right now.

Of course, that didn't quite work, so the toy in question was just taken out of the equation. That made her mad, but a proposed nap seemed to snap her out of it though. It's a process....no question about that!

New Foods
Well, I give up! I have no clue what they fed her in Taiwan! She knows what Pringles are and loves them. She knows what Cheetos are, and loves them. She knows what chocolate milk is, and loves it. And french fries are her favorite!

So the girl is living off of french fries, crackers, chocolate milk, squeezable yogurt, the occasional chicken nugget, ramen noodles and fruit. We can get a few greens in her in the ramen noodles, but watch out if you put too much in her bowl! She won't eat any of it!

While she likes rice candy and chocolate candy, she really doesn't have a sweet tooth. She has a salt tooth! I had to laugh at her in the grocery store. She now knows where all the salty things live and also knows that I might buy her what she points to, trying to find what she likes. She pointed to every single box of crackers and chips, telling me yes, we had that in Taiwan. lol!

Tonight, we tried bbq. She turned her nose up at my offer of brisket. However, Daddy's brisket seemed wonderful! I tried some chicken. Nope, not having that either. Not the mashed potatoes, although we've had those at home. Just french fries and some brisket, from Daddy's plate.

Music Continues to Charm
The most requested song is "One, Two, I Love You!" which is hard to turn down. We have now watched The Little Mermaid for the 4th time and Beauty and The Beast is on it's second playing at the moment. Any song is mimicked, and while she may not know the words, she knows how it ends. If it's a big ending, we have a complete arm-raising rendition. If it's a love song, we have a big sigh and then she'll look around to see who's watching.

We bought a cd of gospel hymns for the car. Joy knew about half of them! I was really surprised. And she recognized that Daddy had been singing "Jesus Loves Me". She said, when the song came on, "Daddy sing, yes?". Beethoven's Ode to Joy was being sung in the backyard today too!

I had to post this video. The music is from a friend's band Just Desserts and the title is "Somebody Robbed the Glendale Train". Joy has decided it's the Mail train instead and she absolutely loves the song! I hope you enjoy it too!