About bloody time

The title pretty much sums up my view on this. This is a link click on me!

Shoe Day

Since Bin is more German then Chinese, it is only fitting that we celebrate everyone's favorite holiday Shoe Day! More traditionally minded people call this St. Nick's Day. We put our shoes out and Santa fills them with candy. Bin also got a Strawberry Shortcake doll in each shoe. Apparently, Santa's definition of good is pretty loose. Though we did learn from Dora that even Swiper is on the good list. She was very excited over those little dolls. The funniest part though was a few days later, we were driving home and she said she wanted halloween again. I explained that Halloween was over and now it was Christmas time. She looked up in confusion "We get to have Christmas again." Of course, Peter was very upset. I am confusing her about Christmas. He is way into the making a perfect Christmas for a 3 year old. If we spent Christmas somewhere with snow, he would be out there making reindeer prints on Christmas morning.

Speaking of snow, Bin loves it! She keeps asking if I can make it snow again. I don't control the weather. I will someday but not yet.

Why Fantasy?

As I discussed my nano project with people, I got to enjoy my share of “you are writing fantasy?” Why?” “What’s the appeal?” “So you are writing for teenage boys?” I associate online with enough fantasy writer’s to know that this is a required right of passage for every speculative fiction write (if you answer that you write speculative fiction, you get to confuse the stupider of your naysayer’s, which is always fun). Though to be honest, I think speculative fiction is a better description of the genre. Somehow, in our society we have reached this place where speculative fiction is bad fiction. Novels that should be placed in this genre are considered mainstream if they are good enough. By removing the best selling, most meaningful works of speculative fiction (1984, Brave New World, Handmaid’s Tale) are taken away, it is no wonder that the genre is considered trash. With the great works not counting, it is difficult for the good to balance out the bad in the genre.
The mostly minor, unintentional slams to my chosen genre left me thinking a lot about the works of literature that have most affected my life. As I considered books that have meant something to, have helped me grow as a person, most of them are speculative fiction. And so, as my defense of fantasy, I am going to give short descriptions of the fantasy that has impacted my life. Next time: Chronicles of Narnia.


More in line with this blog, new pics on snapfish. Old pics will be moved soon, so if you want copies of pics, I would suggest you get them soon, before the next time I load pics. Though since nothing interesting is coming up, that may be for a while. Or she may do something super cute tomorrow. :)

Hello! Goodbye!

As I immerse myself in NaNoWriMo, I have pretty much abandoned this blog for November. Also, I have been lazy about putting up pics, videos, etc. We had a good camping trip, where we took a canoe on the lake, with the dogs in the boat. I have pics and video from tumbling (watch bin not do as she was told :)). And I have lots of random musings and stories. And yet none of it is getting posted or discussed. Instead thousands and thousands of words are being written about a warrior and a pacificst monk, traveling across a fantasy country, attacked by demons at every turn. Their lofty quest is to find the holy scriptures and return them to their country, so that their countrymen's hearts and minds will be elevated to goodness and all will find enlightenment. As they travel, they are joined by a disgraced courtier, an aspiring monk who is not sure that is truly her path, and a demon searching for redemption.

So, while I briefly popped my head out of my fantasy world, don't expect more until November is over. And then you can enjoy my first planned blog series- A defense of speculative fiction: Fantasy and Sci Fi that has influenced me. Along those lines, no the book I am writing does not have teenage boys as its target audience. The target audience is (as it is for all my writing) me.

Happy Halloween!

Not the best pic, but the best we could get. :)

Boo at Zoo

We went to the zoo yesterday. Bin is not that big a fan of zoos. Outside of the zoo is a train and she spent much of her time asking when we were going on the train (there is a video of her on the train in facebook). She did like the pumpkin patch, but she is a little obsessed with pumpkins right now. She liked that random people gave her candy, but I wish they had had a few more trick or treat stations (they had 5, each one giving 3 pieces- mostly the small size tootsie rolls). She also liked the fountains and the splash park at the zoo. Of the animals, she ignored most. She did like the elephants a lot. She wanted to stay there a long time and she kept saying "Mommy, take a picture! " She wanted to ride an elephant and didn't get why the zoo wouldn't let her. This is probably my fault. At Ren Fest last year she rode an elephant and when they have ads for this year's festival, they show elephant rides, which I have told her we will do that when we go. Lately she has been playing with her stuffed elephants a lot (Kai-lan has an elephant friend so that might be the origin of her interest). They complement each other on their ears, which I think is so funny. We did get her a small stuffed elephant, so now she has two baby elephants and three big stuffed elephants.

She also liked the giraffes. Giraffes must be easy to breed, because they have lots of baby giraffes. Bin likes baby things. Tangent: we were doing some basic maintenance on the deck and hammering things. Cutie helped her hammer and she asked to do it herself. Cutie told her it was too big for her. "Can I have a baby hammer?"



We are watching Pride and Prejudice as I blog and Bin was mostly ignoring the movie, until we get the scene with colin firth in the bath tub. Suddenly she is all attention. Other times we have watched this movie, she has behaved in the same manner. I guess I should be glad she has good taste atleast. I let a friend borrow Sense and Sensibility. Bin was very upset that we could not watch "mommy's orange movie." Now, she has found some soda cans and they are going to the park.

Another story: She found a bunch of her old teething rings. She asked me- which one do you like? I said the blue one. She said "No, that's for daddy." So, then I answered "the purple and orange one". She said- no it's orange just like me! (she was wearing an orange outfit.) She then put it on her head and said "Now I'm king!".


Bin has been in tumbling classes. I took one pic and then the camera ran out of batteries. She does not like the little gym outfit, but I do. She laughs and giggles throughout the class and then comes out and tells me she hates it. She also doesn't really listen- like they were doing some little routines (2 steps, jump, 2 steps, jump) and she just does her own thing. She also won't do a saumersault. She wants people to flip her around, not her to do it. But she does great with the bars and tumbling and decent on the balance beam. :) I really like her in tumbling though and am planning on keeping her in the class. If I can't get in through the Parks and Rec, I'll have to pay the higher amount and go through the gym. But atleast for now, that is a priority. I liked the idea of karate, but she most places want 5 year olds at least and right now bin says she doesn't want to do that (of course, that doesn't mean much).

One of Bin's teachers pointed out that Bin seems to recognize her name when written. On one of her crafts, her name was written (as Elizabeth- even though I told the school she prefers Bin Bin, they still call her Elizabeth). I pointed to it and asked her what it says. She shouted "BIN BIN YIP!!" So, not at all what it says, but similar meaning. :) Cutie was shocked that she knows her last name.

I have shirts!

Bin is now dressing herself. Sometimes, she comes up with interesting outfits- like five shirts. :)

And here is her sick and miserable, sleeping on the messy coffee table. She put her nap mat on the table and then slept there.

Bin's Birthday

For people who will be in phx while I am in phx, any feelings about birthday celebration? I plan to celebrate in Houston on the actual day, but not sure if others would like to have a party for her. Let me know your thoughts! The current schedule, two posts down, does not have a party, but if people want one it can be added.

I want snow!

Bin put socks on her feet, then socks on her hands, calling them mittens, found a jacket and then asked to go play in the snow. The news that we have no snow did not go over well, as you can see :(

Possible Christmas plans

Here is a very tentative schedule for our Christmas trip. Input is welcome. :) And we haven't consulted with anyone yet, so if you see you name and go, hmm, I haven't heard anything about this, I know. :)

18		Peter Work
19		drive to El paso
20		drive to phx- possibly Steve's b-day (might be too tired, they might not be in town, etc)
21		peter family
22		Friends?
23		Nat-gingerbread
24		my fam/lutheran/temple lights
25		peter family
26		dim sum/zoo lights
27		Martin's Birthday Celebration
28		stay in flag/play in snow- Lowell Observatory at 5:30pm
29		play in snow
30		drive to abq
31		stay in wichita falls

Now in Chinese!

Today is a big day for uploading. New snapfish pics and new videos on youtube. Most of these were taken on the same day, but it's the thought that counts.

One of my friends says that letting Bin watch Kai-lan because I want her to learn some Chinese is never going to work. Today, Bin was counting and after counting in English, she shouted "Now in Chinese." And then counted to three in Chinese. So, she may not learn enough to be fluent, but its a definite start.

Today she did not want to go to school. She clung and cried and when I dropped her off, she clung to her teacher. I hope her day gets better.

I am working on a cross stitch for Bin- a Christmas tree with buttons. She keeps asking to help, so I got her yarn and plastic stars with holes in them and told her she needs to make the star for the tree. It helps a little. Now she plays with the yarn and shouts "I'm making a Christmas tree with buttons!" over and over.

She has also started using the word because. While very cute, I am not sure she understands what because means. "I am sad because I am mad!" "I used daddy's scissors because I did!"

First day of school

Today was Bin's first day of school. She is going Wed and Friday at Epiphany Lutheran. After the meet the teacher day, she realized that school did not mean playing with her friend. She told me this morning that she didn't want to go to school and she was going to be bad at school. When I dropped her off, she cried pitifully at the door. I went down the hall, realized I had left my forms in the car and by that time she had stopped crying and was playing happily with some toys. At the end of the day they said she was very good- no time outs. She did keep taking off her shoes and barely ate any lunch.

The other funny thing was their surprise at her climbing ability. I told them to watch her cause she is a great climber and can get into things you would never expect. And yet, when I picked her up, they said, omigosh, she is a climber. She got on top of all the playground toys and would wave down happily. We couldn't figure out how she did it and we would only turn our back on her for one second. I wonder if there are other parents who claim their kids are climbers who aren't as skilled as her and that is why they seemed so surprised.

An interesting conversation when I picked Bin up. Tomorrow is her playmate's birthday (he's two). I told her we should get him a present. She sadly told me that she can't play with him because she had to go to school. I guess she used to think his house was school, so now that she knows school isn't his house, she thinks she can't play with him. A weird logic, but for a two year old might make sense.

Sense and Sensibility

This weekend, after Bin went to bed, I watched Sense and Sensibility. Little girl is awful about going to bed, so she kept popping out, wanting to watch "mommy's movie." This afternoon she asked for mommy's movie. I showed her the dvd cases and she said yeah, that one. So, we watched Sense and Sensibility. :) She liked when they danced. I guess it is never too young for the classics.

She also really like Kai-lan's moon festival. We watched it and then she described it back to me. The fact that I watched it with her didn't hamper her enthusiasm for recounting it in detail.

Nihao!

Today when Cutie came home, Bin jumped up and shouted "Nihao Daddy!" We watch Nihao Kai-lan so often, it is good to see some of it is rubbing off. Whereas I listen to my Chinese tapes and learn nothing.

Other cute things for today. Bin was throwing a temper tantrum and I asked "Should we take a time out?" She started screaming "No! I'm not being bad!" Along those lines, when I told her no, she said "NO! Mommy no say no!"

Nap time

It may not look it, but I swear, this is how she napped today. How that is comfortable or even possible, I don't know.

Hair cut

I attempted to get Bin's hair cut today. The stylist thought that the bangs are very close to being able to push back- like a month, maybe two, so she didn't want to cut much off. We also didn't want to cut too short, since we want her to look girly and she won't wear bows. In order to get her to behave while cutting the hair, they strapped her in, gave her candy and animal crackers, put on a tv, had me blow bubbles and had the front desk person play peekaboo. As soon as any of those things stopped, she screamed and fought.

Bin is developing many picky little demands lately. For example, today, she really wanted mustard with her hot dog. The thing is, she hates actually eating mustard. She just wanted some on her plate, next to the hotdog. Her daddy does put mustard on his hot dogs, so maybe somehow she think it is part of the meal. Another weird thing- Powerpuff Girls. We own the entire collection on DVD- which is 12 discs, in 6 boxes. She will only watch episodes which come from boxes that feature Bubbles on the cover.

Random conversation overheard. Small oriental folding wall (like dollhouse size) talking to blue frisbee.
Wall: "What's you name?"
Frisbee: "My name is blue plate." Got to love the amazing ability of two year olds to name things. I think Bin still thinks we should be calling Loki puppy.
When I asked Bin if her name is Bin or RL name, she say BIN BIN!

She is my daughter!

No- those are not half eaten. That is how they looked fresh out of the pan. And while they may be just about the ugliest cinnamon rolls ever, they were yummy and delicious. :) And made from scratch.

We went to the carnival and fireworks for the Fourth. Bin loved the carousal, but was more then willing to abandon it when she heard that there was a teacup ride. After the teacups, she shouted, again, again. :) Another funny thing, when her daddy went to buy the tickets (while I waited with her in the ride line), she shouted his actual name after him, not daddy. This is something new that Cutie has not actually noticed, but Bin has done it a few times.

And then it was time for fireworks. The last time we went to fireworks, she pretended to sleep through them, eyes firmly shut, her daddy's hands over her ears. This time, the first firework startled her, she climbed in my lap and then she started watching. She eagerly pointed to them and said, "look, daddy, look! Fireworks." And when they ended she asked "more fireworks?"

More cute stories: After we went to the beach (for father's day), despite our sunblock, I, of course, was massively burned. I think if I spent the day at the beach in a burqa, I would somehow still burn. Bin noticed my skin, peeling away and with the most concerned, intense look, asked "mama, are you ok?" It was the cutest, sweetest look, as she seemed honestly concerne with my funny looking skin. I told her I had a booboo but would be fine. She then said, you need medicine and went to her little play doctor kit and pulled out some medicine for me. See, KJ, she does love me!

In the weirdly clever, I changed my toe nail color from purple to green while Bin was sleeping. The next afternoon, she got out her markers and colored her toe nails as well.

Philosophical question- is it possible to be happy where you are at and yet still regret the road you took to get there?

That's all for now. New snapfish pics of Bin and her daddy putting together a puzzle. She is actually very good at jigsaw puzzles. And she thinks they are the neatest thing ever.

Pool time

Bin has decided she likes playing in the pool. In the community pool, the tiles are old and randomly discolored. Bin used them like a Rorshach test. She found dogs and cows and sheep in the shapes. Then she asked me, "What does a cow say? It say Moo! Moo!" then a minute later "What does a dog say? Woof" She did stump herself on the bunny question. I answered hippity hop. Which led to another tricky one- what does a hippo say? :)

New Nickname

Turns out Red Eyes has a nickname at work. They call him Cutie. So, henceforth, he will be called cutie on this blog. After all, too many nicknames just gets confusing. :) And he turns a lovely shade of red whenever cutie is mentioned.

To clarify, the pic on the last blog is the homemade bread I made.

What kind of freak am I becoming?

Bin stories- as we were grocery shopping, she picked up the hot dogs and holding it up, like it was a person, she announced "I am sailor moon! (something I couldn't understand) And that means you!" The sailor moon quote is I am sailor moon, champion of justice, and in the name of the moon, I will punish you. I will right wrongs and triumph over evil. And that means you."

Right now she is taking swimming classes. So far, it is half an hour of her screaming to get out, followed by her screaming to get back as soon as I pull her out.

Other family stuff- Red Eyes is enjoying his job, though the 7 am start time is still a bit of a challenge. He is also now trying to update our hurricane kits. Apparantly, from his safety prep lessons, he has learned we do not have enough water for a hurricane, so we need to rectify that. :)

Home from Mesa

NEW SNAPFISH PICS POSTED!
Well, we are back from Mesa. Bin was very upset that grandma wasn't here when she got home. She says she misses grandma, but when I asked if we should go back, she said "No, I got my tea sets." The child can now have tea for 19 (that is 5 4person tea sets with one cup lost).

Too smart for me

I decided that we had watched too much tv for the day, so I turned it off. Of course, Bin just turned it back on. So, when she wasn't looking, I switched off the extension cord it uses (I didn't feel like hours of her switching it on, going to time out and then immediately doing it again). I told her "it's broken." She looked at me, then climbed over the tv to the extension cord and switched it on. Of course, luckily for me, there are two extension cords over there and she switched the wrong one. I said, "honey, that didn't fix it, it's still broken." She smiled and said "we'll see."

Here are some other cute things she has said recently:

"How about some milk in a cup?"

"I'm going to go home and eat some food." (One doll to the other).

"Christmas tree?" This one took me a while to figure out- when I said show me, she took me outside to the garage and pointed to the box of ornaments, then said decorate? One of the episodes of Calliou has them decorating a Christmas tree so that is where she gets it from. How she remembered where the box was in the garage is anyone's guess.

"I think he's outside." When we asked where dog was- the cute part is how bin says tink for think.

Defiant child

HeeHee! HeeHee! I look over as my daughter is climbing up the bookshelf. I have my nativity village on the top shelf and she likes to look at it. Laughing, she says "I'm climbing, mommy, I'm climing." I then ask her, "Should you be climbing?" She proudly proclaims "No! Go away mommy!" She does make life interesting.

Bin's new house

New snapfish pics!!!
And some are quite shocking- prom night photos. ;-)

Bedtime

I am so not a morning person. So, this morning, Bin wakes up and I drag myself out of bed, only to crash on the couch. Bin looks at me, asks "Mommy sleeping?" Trying to, but failing. Then, she insists that I follow her. She points to her bed and then starts pushing me in, completely ignoring my protests that I am way too big. Finally, I crawl into her bed, where she puts a blanket over me, kisses my forehead and activates her glo-worm. She then wished me a good night and closed her door on me. Two seconds later, she popped her head in to check on me and then snuck back out. :)

We also had fun with ice cream today. We went to Marble Slab Ice cream. Bin was so excited and wanted to watch the woman mix in her candy. So, I picked her up so she could see. Bin immediately grabbed the plastic shielding and tried to propel herself head first onto the table where they mix the ice cream. Obviously, she did not want to wait for her ice cream. What I found strange though, is the ice scream scooper woman said, wow, I have never seen a kid try to do that. How is that possible? Ice cream, a row of candy jars and just a thin plastic shielding- surely lots of kids try to fling themselves over it. Red Eyes says I am just the only parent silly enough to hold a kid up that close to the ice cream.

Bin and the Camera

Bin got a hold of the camera today. You can see all the things she found worth taking pics of on snapfish. :) Of course, I did not include any of the pics of me- which was the majority since the puppy was climbing all over my legs. I figured no one needs to see a bunch of crotch shots of me. She was very excited to take pics of the puppy and her toys.

While at the children's museum, she found a stuffed version of Loki. We thought maybe it might make things a little easier to let her get it. Like at night, when she screams for puppy, we could let her sleep with the stuffed puppy. We'll see if that actually works out.

Family Expansion

NEW SNAPFISH PICS!!!! And there are way too many up now, so old ones will be gone sometime next week.


We decided that it was time for our family to expand. So, as we do for all important decisions, we asked the two year old. Should we have a new baby or a new puppy? She wanted a puppy. Actually, she really wanted a kitty, but with hubby and I allergic to cats, that was not happening.

We are calling the puppy Loki. He is 5 weeks old and so far a very good puppy. Much better behaved then Mars was. Mars is scared of Loki so far. Whenever Loki is near him, Mars runs away. Bin is obsessed with puppy- she wakes up, where is puppy? All day, is puppy asleep? Where is puppy? Is puppy eating? And at night, she screams, no, want puppy!

So, what should hubby's online nickname be?

Bad sign

Bin has a little person that she calls "daddy." Today she grabbed the little person and colored his eyes red. I think daddy needs more sleep.

Aww

Bin broke her balloon. With her sad face on, she brought the pieces to me and asked me to put a band aid on it. :)

Beauty and the Beast

Does it disturb anyone else that Beast was transformed when he was 11? It seems like they could have dropped the 21st birthday reference or the ten years comment. And then they show portraits of him in human form. He doesn't look 11 in them. So were they age projections? Also, why is the fairy cursing the entire castle? Here you are, a good hard working servant whose only mistake was working for the prince (who probably wouldn't let you say no anyway) and suddenly you and your children are stuck being a tea set for all time. I think this fairy is an evil fairy. Which does fit some versions of the fairy tale, but I don't think that was Disney's intention. Perhaps if the orphaned 11 year old had been nurtured and guided instead of made into a hideous monster, he might have turned out alright.

Library

Bin went to the library for the first time today. I don't think she gets the concept. She liked running around, sitting in one chair and then running to a different chair. They had soft chairs in weird shapes, which she thought were slides. She did not like any of the books on the shelves, but she loved the books that other kids were looking at. We got her ten books. She seemed to really like Clifford and the Bernstein Bears. The library is still pretty empty. They said that several thousand books, about half the catalog, had not come back since the hurricane. But hopefully in the future she will actually look at the shelves.

If anyone has any book suggestions...

"THAT'S NOT FAIR!"

What my daughter shouted when I wouldn't give her a banana. If she's saying it at two, how am I going to survive the teen years?

My brother

I was around my brother for just one weekend and still I end up bruised. This is like 3 days later, so not as cool as it was earlier.

Disney

First thing- Snapfish pics posted!

Bin seemed to enjoy Disneyland (though she says she didn't). She loved the carousel and the teacups. While she used to say tea, now she says teacups (shouted over and over again until we got in the line). She also learned the word castle. And she says guacamole perfectly. She hated pirates though. She doesn't like tunnels. She was extremely interested in It's a Small World- kept pointing to things and asking what they were. Though, she says she didn't like that ride either.

Throughout the trip, she kept calling her aunt uncle which was kinda funny. Once or twice, she did say auntie, but I guess uncle is easier. Most of the newly posted snapfish pics come from her uncle. There are a few hundred more of Legoland, but they didn't have Bin so I didn't share. But they are pretty neat. :)


The beach was a bit cold, but Bin still loved the water. She stood there, playing in the waves and shivering away. It was pretty pathetic. When we tried to pick her up, she screamed that she wanted water.

At Legoland, they had a bunch of little houses and slides she could climb on and she enjoyed that a lot. Didn't want to see anything else there. We bought her a box of legos and it had a book showing how to build various things. She pointed to the helicopter and asked daddy for the car. She also pointed to the car and said "car" and then the house. She got very upset when pieces broke off. She would break one off and then hand it to her daddy, with a pathetic little cry of "car." Repeat five or six times.

Too much fast food

I think we eat too much fast food. As we paid for parking at the airport, Bin started shouting "FOOD." She was very upset when the man did not give her anything to eat.

When the car stopped at home, she shouted, "Done," over and over again, in tears. I think the day was just a little too long for her.

More on trip later.

Back from New Orleans, Off to San Diego

We just got back from our weekend in New Orleans. Bin loves her cousin (who for online purposes, we will call Giant). Whenever we separated from them, Bin would start screaming "Giant." Throughout the very long car ride home, she would occasionally look up from her DVD player (where she watched 101 Dalmatians over and over- thanks Grandma) and ask "where's giant?" Though considering that we spent an hour to go one mile at one point on the trip, she did remarkably well. I take back all my mean remarks about personal DVD players.

Bin and Giant had this fun game where one would steal the others toy and then run away. They seemed to like the chase. Of course, Sunday night, all night, Bin would wake up crying out for her cherished possessions. "BABY!" "Calliou Book!" But it was good for them to spend time together. Of course, poor giant never did get a hug from bin. It was pretty sad. Giant sat there asking "cuddle, hug" and would try to hug bin and she would shove him away. Bin is so not a cuddly baby.

New Orleans seemed to be not a family friendly place. We loved spending time with family and are glad we got to see New Orleans, but we were pretty done with the city after the weekend. We did have the beignets which were good. We did the carriage tour and the haunted tour and we walked all around the french quarter. We also went to city park, which the kids loved. But it seemed like for non drinking folk with a kid, there was not much more to do.

Next blog post- find out if bin likes Disney! Should be exciting. :)

Kitchen fun

Bin has a little play kitchen. Today, she discovered that her tea set had been left in the "oven." She excitedly told me "My tea!" Then she closed the oven. "It's cooking." Then, "It's done." As she pulled it out she told me "It's hot." She then added "milk" to all the tea cups and cooked them again. I just wish I knew where she got the idea that adding milk to tea is acceptable, so I could eliminate the evil influence. :)

Rodeo

PICS POSTED ON SNAPFISH!

Tonight we went to the Houston Rodeo. We saw cows, sheep, chicks, pigs, etc. They have a huge carnival with lots of rides. And with all this excitement, what was Bin's favorite part? The free balloon they gave her. The nice man did make it into an apple, but still... She also repeatedly begged to go on rides and then screamed as soon as we put her on it. When we left, she did ask where the cows went.

We also took her on her first light rail trip. When the voice came on telling the next stop, she looked around, asked what's that? We told her "that's the captain." She looked around again- "Where's Eve? Where's Walle?"

Where's the poop?

As part of our potty training efforts, we got two potty themed books: "Where's the poop?" and "The Princess and the Potty." We read where's the poop today for the first time. She really likes the line "there's the poop!" As I tried reading her her second bedtime book, she kept announcing "THERE'S THE POOP!" By the fifth time, I was laughing so hard I couldn't finish the story.

Yeah! No fever.

Bin is still acting a little sick, but atleast she doesn't have a fever anymore. She is still on the couch, though today she is insisting on having her cow. I swear, she has the weirdest taste. In general, she doesn't like stuffed animals, yet she loves her cow. The only other stuffed creatures she likes are the EVE doll her grandma sent her and the Japanese bear that was mine and the only one I didn't want to share (I really shouldn't have left it in her room).

Sick baby

Today Bin has a fever. :( Of course, her response on waking up, after the whole diaper routine, is to run outside and demand water for her water table. It wasn't until four hours later that she stopped running around and playing. After her nap, she decided to camp out on the couch and watch her favorite show. After several hours of Calliou, I can't imagine a worse, more annoying tv show.

Oh to make it worse, the video she has is Calliou's winter episodes. So, Christmas carols!

Potty training

Why we think it is time to start potty training:

Bin's new habit is to wake up, go potty in her diaper and then pull her pants and diaper off. She then goes over to the changing pad and lies down, waiting for us to change her. Of course, since she wakes up before us and is very silent, this has not been working as well as it might sound. She also takes off her wet diapers immediately. Which is why, even though she is a bit young for potty training, we are thinking we need to start.

So, we went and bought a book on potty training. They recommend a very slow plan for potty training- which with Bin being only 26 months, might be a good thing. Our doctor said 30 months for potty training, as did the book and most of my friends. The idea is to ease them in and work on the whole mental side. You read stories about potty training at bedtime, have them sit on the potty with their diaper on, wear panties at times you know they'll be dry for 30 minutes,etc. Crossing fingers that this will help. And hoping Bin takes a lot less time then the 4-6 months the book warns for difficult children. :)

New Blog

The purpose of this blog is to tell all sorts of cute stories about my amazing 2 year old. I imagine for people who aren't related to her, this will be dull beyond belief and for people who are related, they'll read out of obligation. I doubt I'll be posting pics- those will be on snapfish and friends can ask for an invite to see those. I also will probably not post anything about my life or my husbands or politics or anything else. Like the title says, it's all about bin. Hope you enjoy!