Recently, Chiara has been sleeping on the floor in our bedroom. She goes to sleep in her own room but at some point in the middle of the night comes into our bedroom, and in half sleep I tell her that with Luke, me and my growing belly, there’s just no room. So, she goes to the foot of the bed and lies down on the floor! Since she sleeps on the floor of her own bedroom most of the time, shunning her oh-so-comfortable bed, I don’t worry too much about it though I find the whole thing strange.

But the last few nights she’s had nightmares. And honestly, I have to giggle. The one I remember most vividly is when she cried out: “I don’t want vanilla in my chocolate (milk — she uses the Korean word for it)! I don’t want vanilla in my chocolate milk!” Loud sobbing ensued.

It was Mother’s Day Weekend for us as we celebrated on Saturday at our place with my brother and his family, and my mom, and then had a mothers’ brunch on a gorgeous Sunday with Luke’s mom, nana, my mom and Grandma Vitti, along with a bunch of non-mothers like luke, his sister monica, her dad Michael, her uncle and aunt Tom and Carrie and Chiara.

Chiara made a beautiful gift of her handprint on a white tile. She managed to get both blue and purple handpaint and make a perfect impression of her little hand. Before I had seen this Mother’s Day gift, she had a conversation with a dad, Ed, at her music class in which she asked him what his favorite color was. He said blue and she said, My favorite color is blue and purple and white.

But my big gift today was when I asked Chiara to pick out which shoes she would wear today and she said her pink jellies, or the plastic candy-colored sandals that have ankle straps. She said, I want to wear my jellies, but mommy, can you snap them?

So I said, sure, I’ll snap them for you.

And she replied, “You’re an expert Mommy.”

Grandma Mimi gave Chiara a tie-dyed dress today and in the gorgeous spring light, she looked as brilliant as a sunburst. You can see her jelly sandals on her feet!

Two years and seven months old, Chiara is officially in the Why? phase.

I have to go grocery shopping today, Chiara, do you want to go?

Why?

Because we need to buy more food.

Why?

Because we are out of milk.

Why?

Because you drank all the milk — you tell me why.

I don’t know.

But today, at breakfast, Chiara just looked at me and said, Why? No context, no preface. I hadn’t said anything.

My first thought was, We’ve reached the ultimate Why. And that meant: The beginning of the end!

But it turned out she was continuing a conversation we had had before we sat down for breakfast.

I hope it still means we’ve turned a corner!

Saturday, Namgi and his family came over for dinner to celebrate Namgi’s birthday. Chiara and her cousin Matthew (1 3/4 years) had a great time playing together. Here they are breaking one of our house rules and lying on the coffee table.

Sleep has continued to be the hardest thing to train Chiara to do. She’s potty training really well, but going to sleep and staying in her own room all night is a challenge.

Tonight, after about the sixth time that she came out of her room and asked for me, or cried, or just ran through the apartment trying to run past my outstretched arms, she and I met in the living room and she finally said something I could understand.

–Mommy, I’m sad.

–Why are you sad?

–Because you keep leaving me.

heartbreak!

So I walked her back to her room and explained that I wasn’t leaving, that I was in the next room, but that I wanted her to sleep in her room because that’s the best way to sleep and that babies grow big and strong when they sleep so she needs to get a lot of it. And of course, I gave her lots of hugs and kisses and told her how much I loved her.

Amazingly, she said, “OK.” She sprawled onto the floor (for some reason she prefers the floor over her comfortable plush bed!) and I haven’t heard a peep yet!

I won’t hold my breath that this will last more than three or four hours, but baby steps. We’re getting closer to Chiara understanding why sleep is important, at least I hope so. And perhaps that will lead to her embracing it. I can only hope!

Now for the embarrassing confession: Luke and I have been so busy the last few months that we don’t have any new photos of Chiara! So, this one is 6 months old.

OK, following the TMI post below, is this post, which is likely too saccharine for public consumption. So stop reading if you don’t like schmaltz.

Yesterday while eating breakfast, Chiara looked over at me and said, “Oma, you are beautiful.”

On Super Duper Tuesday, I took Chiara into the booth with me to turn the levers and vote for the Democratic nominee for president.

She not only loved the task of turning the levers, but all the adults in the polling place were paying loads of attention to her, and then on the way back home, we passed campaigners passing out flyers and they all cooed and oohed over her when i explained that we had already voted; Chiara for the first time.

On Thursday, then, it wasn’t a huge surprise that on the subway ride back from music class, Chiara said to me out of the blue, ” Oma, I want to go vote.”

“Oh,” I said, “we voted on Tuesday already, but we’re going to vote again in November. Then we’re going to vote for president. Who do you want to vote for for president?”

Chiara looked at me for a split second and then said, “Grandma Mimi.”

ok, this falls in the TMI category and also the don’t-read-further-unless-you-have-a-strong-constitution. But nonetheless i have to state for the record that our little chiara pooped in the potty today all by herself.

i was on the couch reading the sunday times and luke was working at his desk when chiara came running out of the bathroom (she had just received gifts of bath toys and was trying them out in the bathroon sink), grabbed luke’s hand and said, “Apa, I made a poopy. Come see.”

so luke followed her and declared it the largest poopy ever and pronounced himself the proudest apa. it was all very funny, of course, until he made me get up from the couch and witness it myself.

I attest. It was very large. It was in the potty. We gave Chiara a hug and then I realized that i didn’t see any evidence that she wiped her bottom. So, we are on a learning curve. But the end of the diaper is near! Yay!

Today i tried to teach the Munchkin some manners as she obviously thinks it’s funny to open her mouth wide when it’s full with food; sometimes she even sticks out her tongue (hmmm, Auntie Isabella!)

We were having dinner tonight with Auntie Monica and Chiara was so full of joy and energy that she kept running around while we were eating instead of sitting in her chair. But finally, we got her to calm down and then she did her trick with the food in her mouth and laughed. That’s when she asked me a question and I told her that it wasn’t polite to speak when her mouth was full.

She replied, her mouth still full of food, “When my mouth is empty, then I can talk?”

Taken Thanksgiving Day 2007

Yesterday, one of the first things Chiara asked for in the morning was her “fishies.” Luke sets his internet browser on Flickr and slideshows random photos with the keyword “fish.” We see gorgeous photos of fish in the ocean, octopus, jellyfish (my personal favorite), but also outliers like kids making fish faces, sushi, and moody wide-angle shots of fishermen. Chiara is absolutely in love with this slideshow and watches it for some time every single day.

However, on this morning, after a few moments of these beautiful photos, she turns to Luke and says, “I want to see penguins, actually.”

Like many people, I try to keep my plastic bag use to a minimum. A month or so ago, I began to carry used plastic bags in my purse so I could refuse new bags when I went shopping. That worked, although it was awkward to whip out a Whole Foods plastic bag when I was at a small, independent natural foods store, but I thought in the long run, it still was the right thing to do.

This weekend I brought a handful of canvas and polypropylene bags to Whole Foods and at the checkout line I asked whether I could pack everything in my own bags and still have it delivered to my apartment. After a short consultation with a manager, my cashier said yes!

That was awesome. i had bought so many groceries that I did still end up using 2 plastic bags, but it still was great to cut down so much. Next time I’ll bring even more bags. i have so many canvas bags from various conferences. This seems like the perfect use for them and justifies my inability to throw them away, too.