Princess Cakes

So we're at Walmart the other day, and Dalyn sends Ireland and me to get a box of cherry pies for her.
Next to the pies are all sorts of pastries.
Ireland zeros in on the Disney Princess Cakes, I give in to my Princess.

The box has 3 Disney Princesses and looks rather fancy. After you open the box, you realize the power of marketing.
At least the wrapper looks cute.
But the cake itself?
It has *NOTHING* to do with Disney or being a Princess.
It's just cake.

But Ireland enjoys them, and that's really what matters. She's the one that picked them out, and she doesn't seem disapointed at all.

To be young again.

What's In A Name?

So Ireland calls me "Papa". Scotland will probably follow suit. So there is noone in her life called "Dad", "father", or the like.
Dalyn calls her father "Daddy". So when Ireland hears her mother call "Daddy", she has every reason to think that she can call Grandpa "Daddy" too.
We've slowly gotten her off of that habit, and gotten Dalyn to say "Grandpa" more.

But wait.

What about *my* dad?

Dad (as I call him) came up back in November, so I kept trying to distinguish them more. Dalyn's dad is "Grandpa Frank" & my dad is "Grandpa Roney" (just the way our families are).

So Ireland was able to easily distinguish who we were talking about--no problems.

But now, she's trying to shorten "Grandpa Frank" to "Frank". Afterall, Grandma calls him that.

So the other day, Grandpa Frank comes over, and Ireland shouts out a welcoming "Hi Frank!".

It sounded like he walked into a small town diner.
Besides having to "correct" her, it is awfully cute.
And when he leaves, yup, "Bye Frank!".

My Baby! My Baby!

So ever since we brought Scotland home, Ireland has been saying "I want to hold her! I want to hold her!". What's odd is that we generally don't use personal pronouns when speaking to Ireland, so where did the "her" come from?

Then, a couple of days ago, I heard Ireland say, "My baby. My baby. I want to hold her!" and it clicked! I knew not only where the mysterious pronoun had come from, but the phrase itself:

Elieth.

We moved to Indy in April of '07-Ireland was about 5 months old. She's now 2. For most of her life, Elieth has run up to her at church shouting "My baby! My baby! Let me hold her!" and then smothering her with hugs and kisses.

It seems to've rubbed off.

Glasses

So I first wrote this on 10/8/08, but this blog was under review for being SPAM. Now that it's not, I can post again.
-------
So several months ago, people began asking if Ireland had a "lazy eye".
We hadn't noticed anything ourselves, but when we looked, we saw that
one of her eyes was "drifting".
Her pediatrician recomended a specialist (who knows how to check little
eyes who can't read letters off a chart).
Her appointment was today at 9:30.
We waited in the appropriatly named waiting room for a good hour, and
then saw the Dr.
He used some animal toys and a prism to check her eyes. Then came those
dreaded drops.
It takes 30 minutes to dialate a child's eye, so it was back to the
waiting room.
As the drops took effect, she got more and more fussy.
Eventually they checked her again & wrote her a prescription for
glasses.
Yes, my 23 month-old daughter has to wear glasses.
It turns out her eye was trying to focus, and that's why it's
not "straight". The glasses will help her focus without straining her
eyes.
They had an on-sight glasses shop (which sells *small* frames) & we
picked out a cute pair. They should be ready in about a week.
So, we shall see how she adjusts to this change in lifestyle.
Sadly, when she got her papa's eyes, it wasn't just the color.

"Space"

So my Ireland enjoys watching Baby Einstein, and as part of the bonus features, they have 'flash cards' that feature simple vocabulary.

This is how it works, a picture of a tractor is displayed. Then the word 'tractor' is displayed underneath the picture, and finally a voice says "tractor".
To simplify, you're shown a picture, and after a pause, you hear the word.

So this is the manner in which she has gained a large part of her vocabulary, and wouldn't you know-it extends beyond Baby Einstein.

In the opening sequences for Star Trek: The Origional Series, The Animated Series, and The Next Generation; we start off with a starfield-there is a pause, and then we hear Kirk/Picard say "Space,..."

Yes, my daughter learned the word "space" from watching Star Trek. in fact she calls the show "Space" as well.

She has also learned how to say "Captain" and "Spock".
On more than one occasion, while Kirk is fighting the alien-of-the-week, she has exclaimed "Uh-oh! The Captain!"