Lots of Rain!

It's been raining non-stop for the past few days. It is dark and bleak! We have been inside except for occasional trips to Target and Petco. Last night's Target trip involved buying Paprika a bunch of puzzles, including one that she had to have: a Tinkerbell puzzle that was 100 pieces and for ages 7 and up. Guess who put that puzzle together? Me, of course! Paprika was excited to get a few new 24 and 48 piece puzzles, and she put those together herself. We now own every single 24 and 48 piece puzzle that Target sells (that's a lot of puzzles).

To top it off, Mr. Mustard is of course working very long hours (13 or 14 hour night shift) in addition to being up in Santa Barbara to help his mom through surgery, so we haven't seen him hardly at all. And, Paprika's sleeping is just nusto. Last night she fell asleep at midnight, woke up at 2am, and wouldn't go back to bed til 6am. Exhausting!

Paprika is very cute, though, and that makes up for it! I am ready for the weather to get better, for Paprika to start sleeping better, and for Mr. Mustard to work more normal hours. I think of the three, my best chance is that one will come true: the weather will get better - it's Los Angeles, it always does!

Just Paprika Stuff

Paprika is very aware that I am pregnant. She loves to stick her stomach out as far as she can, lean her shoulders back, and pretend to look like mommy. She also is forever saying, "there's babies in mommy's tummy." Of course, I am forever correcting her saying, "there's a baby in mommy's tummy, one baby."

I still don't think that she understands that a baby might be coming home since...if you ask her where her sisters are, she points to an angel ornament we have hanging on our window. I don't know how she made the connection between the angel ornament and her sisters, since I have never pointed it out to her. But, she makes connections nonetheless. So, who knows what she's thinking!

Paprika is in a puzzle-loving phase. She is very into 24 and 48 piece puzzles- you know, regular type puzzles. I have tried to get her to do "toddler puzzles" but they are not challenging to her at all. So, we are skipping that phase and going straight to the big puzzles- I have to admit, not being a puzzle builder myself, I am learning a thing or two, too! ;-)

Paprika has also memorized every children's book in our house. We have a lot of books (a few hundred?). I find myself listening to her for hours every night as she "reads" me these books. I think she is actually reading some of them...not just speaking from memorization. I need to get her some new books and test out my theory.

Paprika is excellent at stalling on bedtime. Turns out, I am, too. Because Mr. Mustard is working nights, I put Paprika to bed and it's amazing how long we can spend on bathtime, storytime, and snuggle time. I think it's both of our favorite times of the evening. It's also when Paprika does her "let me read you one more book" routine. ;-)

So, that's what's going on with Paprika at 2 years, 5 months old. She is growing up so fast, and whew, I am trying to enjoy every minute of it.

Children's Museum Day!

Today we spent the day at the Children's Museum and dropped by Petco on the way home (Paprika's favorite place these days).



Mr. Mustard is up in Santa Barbara taking care of his mom while she gets ready for surgery tomorrow. Please wish her well and keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Today Was Filled With...

Lots of Smiling and Laughing:






A Little Resting:



And Lots of Running:

Beautiful Saturday

We spent the day at the Botanical Gardens, and all Paprika wanted to do was kiss and hug all the statues of lions (there are quite a few scattered throughout the park). She also wanted to put her hand in all of their mouths and touch their "sharp teeth"- Paprika has a small fascination with "sharp teeth"!
















After we got home, our favorite babysitter came over for a few hours so Mr. Mustard and I could have a date night! We had a lot of fun- and as we were leaving the restaurant, the hostess snapped this photo of us: