Paul!

A couple of weeks ago I was cuddling Greta and I told her that I love her, and she said, "Nana Kaka!" I said, yes Nanny Kathy loves you too, and so does Nana Judy, and Grandpa Dan, and Grandpa Paul, and Greta interjected "Paul!" So we went on with our morning, and Greta kept saying "Paul! Paul! Paul!" at regular intervals. So I decided I had better test her to see if she really knew what she was talking about (granted no one can really know about Paul, who after 29 years remains an enigma wrapped in a paradox, but I digress...) so I showed her a picture of Grandpa Paul and asked her who it was, to which she responded "Paul!" And that settled it. Here is a little video of us rehearsing that episode, and also reviewing her first "phrase" of two words (we don't really consider Nana Kaka two words, but more like a single title), and also her own special way of saying "pajamas." Enjoy!

Jack-o-Lantern

This is how Greta reacted to our jack-o-lantern EVERY time she saw it! And on Halloween night, and with every jack-o-lantern she's seen, she says "No!" One day her caregiver Linda brought over a jack-o-lantern cookie. Greta looked at it suspiciously and then looked at the jack-o-lantern on the floor---VERY hesitant to eat the cookie once she realized the two matched! She did end up eating it in the end, though. But then another day she got another cookie like it, walked up to the jack-o-lantern while holding the cookie in her hand, pointed at the jack-o-lantern and assertively said "No!!!", walked away quickly, and gobbled up the cookie.

Halloween

Our little smiley kitty cat!
Meow! Greta has been saying that a lot recently.
Out trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.
Do you see that kitty cat tale?
We had a great Halloween night! We went out in our neighborhood to trick-or-treat. We had intended on also going to a Haunted House at a nearby grocery store, but when we got there we saw tons of "big" kids and figured it would be too scary (plus the line was super long) and not exactly "all ages" as the ad had said. We have discovered that Greta is rather sensitive and gets scared easily. Jack-o-lanterns were quite enough for her!
It was so fun going up and knocking on people's doors. Greta got into it. Instead of saying "trick-or-treat" she would say "Meow!" and people often gave her extra candy :-)
On the way home we had a bit of a walk, it was dark, and it was past Greta's bedtime. She nearly fell asleep in the stroller, and was very quiet and serious and seemed kind of out of it. But once we got into our building and she realized we were home she said, "More!"--she didn't want the fun to end yet I guess!

Pumpkin Patch

On Sunday--after Matthew preached a great sermon at church--we headed to the pumpkin patch. I had been looking forward to this all month, and it turned out to be such a great time!
As you can see from Greta's attire, it was a very rainy day. When we first arrived we took in the entertainment for a bit: several big costumed "vegetable people" and a kid's band. Greta was really into the music. She bopped along quite happily until she discovered one of those vegetable people mingling with the crowd--once she saw Korny Corn she backed up from the action as far as she could. In this photo she is watching warily from a distance.
Here is an even safer, more comfortable spot to watch the show: with an apple, next to the big apple bin. Yum Yum! Greta discovered these apples and plopped herself down right beside them.

The apple really kept her busy during all the hustle bustle from the show, to the hay ride, and through the actual pumpkin patch. Every so often she would spit out a stockpile of apple peel that she didn't want to swallow...charming and efficient.
On the hay ride to the pumpkin patch there were more entertainers. Before the ride would leave, though, the entertainers had us all say loudly, "Yee Ha!" Greta did NOT appreciate this!
Surveying the muddy field.
I'll just stick to my apple.



A little worried about the possibility of "Yee Ha!" again...
Muddy!!!
We had such fun at the pumpkin patch. Later that day Matthew carved the pumpkin for us. We turned out all the lights and lit the pumpkin before dinner--thinking that Greta would love it! But...


Not so much...this was Greta's reaction!
We ended up having to hide the pumpkin for the rest of the night. I showed her where it was hiding too--because she kept looking around anticipating it would surprise her or something! This morning she motioned to where it was hiding, and then decided to offer it pretend food (she offers many things pretend food...). We brought it down to her level and she tentatively got closer to it from time to time, but when walking by it in passing made sure to give herself plenty of space from it! However, Matthew did tell me that this morning she decided to hastily and nervously kiss the pumpkin--she's trying to like it!
No haunted houses for her this year! :-)

Greta Language

Greta and Mama
Trying on Mama's bracelets! She did end up breaking one (not anything special...) and now enjoys picking up the beads and putting them into a container.
Up until the other day the only video Greta had seen and really watched is this Raffi concert from 1984 (Matthew and I could have been at it!) She loves Raffi's music, and so we checked out his concert from the library and she has now seen it several times over the course of a couple of months (we kept it for quite awhile...sorry library! good thing there are no late fees for children's materials!) The other day, though, I checked out the classic Disney Winnie the Pooh movie and turned it on for her while I made dinner. She was really into it! She didn't just sit and watch it, though--she played and jumped around (as you see in this photo) and sometimes stood close to the TV and stared at it. We are not wanting her to have much screen time AT ALL, but it sure was fun to see her so mesmerized by the images and the songs. The next day she requested it again, and called it "Boo Caca"! She has a Tigger image on her toothbrush, and after seeing Tigger ONE TIME in the movie she said "Hop Hop!" when she saw the Tigger toothbrush later that night. Now I can really understand how parents end up spoiling their children...it's so fun to see them enjoy something so much!

Over the past weekend we went to the 2 year birthday of a friend of ours. Greta had a blast there! They had rented out a big room with bouncy castles and cars and tons of balloons. Upon arriving Greta just raced over to the balloons and started taking them from children and saying "Hi". She ran and jumped around so much at this party--it was wonderful to see her mixing so well with the other children and "holding her own" just fine.

Some of you may know that Greta recently came up with a name for her Nanny Kathy (my mom) who she sees monthly: she calls her Nana Caca. Below are a couple of videos of Greta saying this...she mentions Nana Caca often and refers to random gray haired women as "Nana" or even "Nana Caca" from time to time. She loves Nanas!!

Greta Bess' Sibling

We've got 6 months to go before we meet the next addition to our family! At the end of November we'll get to find out if Greta will have a little brother or a little sister. The other day we asked her if she thought the baby was a boy or a girl and she said immediately "Boy"...we'll see!

Shaking Her Sillies Out