Transcript of Bedtime Conversation

Cosette often talks and sings to herself in bed at night before she falls asleep.  She was being especially chatty tonight, so I crept close to her door and recorded what she was saying.  Here's a transcript:

It was green grass.  Green was Daddy's favorite color in a minute when he turned into orange color.  He be orange favorite color.  [Gasp]  That would not ... that would be sad!  Mmm hmm.  He would not be sad.  I wouldn't be sad.  Ok.  I'm not sad right now.  I'm talking ... loud.  Yeah, yeah.
[Pause]
Now I'm sleepy.  Aaah, mmm [kind of a yawning sound].  I'm sleepy.  I'm sleeping on the car bed.  The bed would turn into brown.  Hmm, it's underwear.  That would be sad.  It would turn brown, and that would be sad.  Ok.  I'm done talking about brown.
(We started potty training today, and we had a conversation about how her underwear would turn brown if she pooped in it, and that would be a sad thing to happen - trying to reinforce how the potty was a better place for poop to go.)
Ring ring ring.  Hello!  Goodbye.  See, it's a phone call.  When Mommy gets a phone call, she talks on the phone to people.  Yeah.  Is that what Mommy do'd?  Yeah!
[Pause]
Umm.  Now I'm sleepy now.
[She then proceeds to hum Twinkle Twinkle Little Star]

So entertaining.

Cosette turns 3

Our little girl is now 3 years old!  I can't believe how big she's getting.

Here she is opening a present from Mom and Dad, some new furniture for her doll house.

Grandma made a felt playhouse that goes over a cardboard table.  I only took a picture of two sides, but it is really cool.  One side has a flap door and a mailbox that opens and shuts with velcro.  Cosette loves playing a game we call "special delivery," where she's sitting inside the playhouse and I open the mailbox and hand her a toy, saying "special delivery" while I do it.  Two of the sides have windows with a mesh material in them so you can see through it.  Then Cosette can put flowers in the flower box on the windowsill, pick spinach, corn and carrots from the garden, and pick peaches from the peach tree and put them in a little basket.

Her birthday was on a Saturday this year, so we decided to have a birthday party with her two friends Elsie Crawford and Emily Anderson.  The party had a rainbow theme (thanks for the idea, Suzanne).
Grandma made this fun birthday cake with M'n'ms.  It was strawberry flavored and tasted REALLY good.

We did a few simple games, and the girls got to pick different colored prizes to go in their gift bags.  I bought some taffy, flavored tootsie rolls, bouncy balls, and necklaces at the dollar store.

As we waited for people to arrive the girls decorated gift bags and colored their own rainbow (half a paper plate).

Emily and Elsie did a lot of "helping" when it came to opening presents.  These three girls are really cute together.

Wearing a rainbow outfit she got from Grandma and Grandpa.  I tried to get her to wear it to the party, but she decided not to.

Lots of Questions

Cosette has entered the phase of asking a lot of questions, and I find myself ill-equipped to answer many of them.  How do you explain basic concepts?  Here is a list of things that Cosette frequently asks (insert the following words and phrases into the question "What does _____ mean?"):

• yes
• no
• I don't know
• boom
• awesome
• food
• all gone
• near
• got it
• goodnight
• hello
• goodbye

Here is an example of a typical conversation when she's asking her questions:

Mom: Cosette, no you can't climb on the table.

Cosette: What does no mean?

Mom: It means you can't do it.

Cosette: What does do it mean?

Mom: It means you can't climb on the table.

Cosette: What does can't mean?

Mom: It means no.

Cosette: What does no mean?

Mom: Cosette, you know what no means.

Sometimes it's cute, and other times it gets really frustrating.  Sometimes I try turning the question back on her:

Mom: Cosette, what do you think it means?

Cosette: I don't think.

What do you do with that?  I always thought that when my child got into this phase, I would be trying to explain obscure concepts like "Why is the sky blue?"  But she just wants me to define everything, and then she's never satisfied with the answer.  Funny girl.

Cute Things Cosette Says

I wanted to post a few cute things that Cosette has been saying lately.  Enjoy!

Mom: Cosette, was your smoothie yummy?
Cosette: No, it wasn't yummy.  It was drinky!

Cosette often mispronounces words, which is really cute.  One of her favorite TV shows is Daniel Tiger, and she often sings the theme song while she's playing.  One of the lines from the song says "a land of make believe."  Cosette sings "a land of make de-weave."  Precious!
She also calls breakfast "breaf-kast" and chocolate is "chalk-wet."

Mom: Cosette, you are so cute.
Cosette: What is mommy?
Mom: Daddy, what is mommy?
Dad: Mommy is ... cute and goofy.
Mom: Goofy!?!  Mommy is goofy?  Cosette, what is Daddy?
Cosette: Daddy is ... caboose.  (laughter)

Cosette: I'm washing it to get dirty (referring to a plastic Hello Kitty ring that she was rinsing off in the sink).

One day Cosette was saying the prayer before dinner, and she started to end it without blessing the food.  So in the middle of "...in the name of Jesus Christ..." I interrupted her and whispered "and bless the food."  She repeated after me and then finished the prayer.  Now when she says a prayer, even when it's a bedtime prayer with no food at all, at the end she'll say "...in the name of Jesus ... and bless the food ... name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Seven New Blog Posts

I wanted to let you know that I have posted seven new blog posts (well, eight if you include this one).  So be sure to scroll back through and enjoy the pictures and stories of what we've been up to for the past few months.
The only big thing I didn't blog about was the fact that I'm pregnant, but I figure that anyone who's reading this blog is either a family member who I've already told or a friend on Facebook who saw my post a few days ago.  But in case you don't fall into either of those categories, I thought I would mention it briefly.  My first trimester went pretty well, as long as I snacked frequently.  I'm due around Pioneer Day at the end of July.  We'll find out if we're having a boy or a girl in the beginning of March (I think it's a boy, but I would be perfectly happy with a girl).

Additions to the Living Room

We used Christmas money from parents and grandparents to purchase some additions for our living room.
First, we bought a shoe cabinet from IKEA.  I had my eye on this piece of furniture for the past several months.  I love how narrow it is (about the width of the bottom step), and that it doesn't really look like a place to store shoes.  Our entry closet is quite small and inadequate for shoe storage, so we were lining up our shoes along the wall by the front door.  It just looked so cluttered and disorganized, and I longed for a better solution.

Before

Here's a picture of the shoe cabinet, closed and unclosed.  We use the top drawer to store gloves and hats in winter, and it will probably hold things like suntan lotion and sun hats in the summer.  I love it!

After

The second thing we bought was canvas prints of photographs I took of flowers in our yard (I posted a blog about this project back in July).  I'm really happy with how they turned out.  It was fun to take the pictures myself, and to know that these are flowers from our own yard.  It puts a fun personal touch on our front room, a guest's first impression of our home.

Now, I'm not completely done with the things I want to do in the living room.  At some point I'm planning on taking down the wallpaper border and repainting the room a solid green to match the other wall (that you can see behind the shoe cabinet).  At some point I want a new couch (the West Point blanket is laying on it to cover up the rips in the vinyl).  And I also want a different picture of the Savior, preferably one that's horizontal and looks good in a black frame (I picked up that picture at DI for $5 - I like it, I'd just rather hang it somewhere else in the house).
Even though I still have more projects and ideas for the future, I really do love our front room the way it is now.  I feel like our new shoe cabinet and art work lend both functionality and beauty, and I'm really pleased with how it's all coming together.

Playing with Animals and Mommy's French Horn

One day Cosette decided to host a picnic for her stuffed animals and dolls.  She started with only a few, and then kept adding more and more.  Eventually we had two blankets and every friend we could find. At that point we ran out of play food, but all of her friends were still part of the picnic party.

Cosette loves our dryer.  Sometimes I think she thinks it's her own personal toy, because it's sitting in the toy room.  Lately she's had fun putting all of her stuffed animals inside, then taking them all out, then putting them back in, then taking them back out...

Occasionally Cosette will ask me to get out my French Horn.  She can put the mouth piece on and off by herself, and she enjoys sitting and "playing" it.  Her version of playing involves putting the entire mouthpiece in her mouth and humming into the instrument while occasionally pressing some of the keys.  She'll get out my books of music and sit with one in front of her, stopping occasionally to turn the page.  She also loves watching me put oil on the valves.  Who knows - maybe I have a future horn player on my hands.