Softball Night!

I have a few more Serena anecdotes that I need to catch up on! :)

Today when I was changing Bret, Serena was watching closely from her customary place (my lap). By the way, have you ever tried changing an infant's diaper with a toddler on your lap? Not that it has any relevance to this story.... ;) Well, I had just finished wiping Bret's poopy bottom and was reaching for his clean diaper when Serena started pointing urgently at his thigh, "Eh, eh, eh?!" I looked, and sure enough, there was a teeny tiny bit of poopy there! Such a helper, right? ;) It's been 6 weeks now, and she still loves pulling wipes out for me and handing them to me one by one. And she rarely fails to offer to take his dirty diaper and throw it in the trashcan for me!

Serena's bedtime routine is pretty well established. It starts off with Daddy brushing her teeth (which is going much better than it did when Mommy used to do it!). Then, he "puts stuff on her face" (Vaseline, to keep it from getting chapped from her drool, haha!). Then, he hugs her and hands her off to me. While I hold her, she and Daddy exchange kisses, make their "I love you" sign (crossing their arms over their chests) to each other, and then make their "Goodnight, go sleepy" sign (running their open hand down over their faces). At that point, I carry her off to her room where I change her diaper, put on her jammies, and then rock her for a couple minutes before she goes to bed. The other night, she decided to add one more element to her routine. Since one of us is usually holding Bret throughout the routine (we pass him off to each other as we take care of Serena), she decided that she needs to say goodnight to him as well by giving him a big loud wet kiss! On the somewhat rare occasion that he is asleep when we are putting Serena to bed, she points and leans urgently in his direction to get us to let her say goodnight to him. It takes a little work to convince her that he is sleeping right now so she can give him a kiss in the morning!

Rocky has decided that the bouncy seat is a comfortable place to rest when he needs to take a load off his feet! ;) This afternoon, he was in it and when I looked over, Serena was happily bouncing him! Rocky looked up at her and then put his head back down as if to say, "I'll give you all afternoon to quit doing that!"

While I sneak my shower in during one of Bret's naps, Serena likes to play in the bathroom. Sometimes, she empties the hamper, inspecting each article and either tossing it aside or attempting to put it on. When she's done, she's often wearing one or two items; but she somehow decides not to keep them all on at the same time. Another favorite activity is to go through Mommy's shoes. She tries them on and walks around with them for a while, and/or carries them one by one out to the living room and makes a big pile. I have yet to discover the rationale behind that! :P But, her most favorite pastime of all is to plop her little self down in front of Mommy's cabinet and pull out the bottles of hairspray, lotion, mousse, baby shampoo, bubble bath, etc. Most of them she just pulls out and sets aside; but the ones she sees me use on a regular basis, she plays with. The main ones are the lotion, the mousse, and the No-More-Tangles. She takes the lotion and pretends to put some on her hands, then she rubs them together and rubs them all over herself. Next, she takes the mousse and turns it upside-down and puts the nozzle in her hand. Then, she rubs her hands together and rubs them all around in her hair! With the No-More-Tangles, she holds it up to her hair and then she takes her comb and combs her hair. She's quite the little miss! ;)

Last night when we were getting out of the truck to go inside after our trip to the public land, Bret was getting pretty fussy. As I was getting him out, I was trying to comfort him with my words. Serena was watching all this with her adorable big eyes. Then, she said, "Mm" to get my attention. I looked up, and she made the sign for "ninny" (opening and closing her hand) and looked meaningfully down at Bret and back at me! Little sweetie was trying to tell me she thought I should nurse Bret!

For a few weeks now, Serena has greeted Daddy with an enthusiastic "HI-eeeee!!!!!!!!" when he comes home from work. Just recently, she's made it, "Hi Daddy!" :D

Tonight was softball night. Unfortunately, we were the only ones who went to watch the game, but we still had a lot of fun! Serena really likes to watch Daddy at bat and when he's in the dugout. When he's playing short-stop, she has a harder time staying interested, though. When she hears people cheering (there are 3 or 4 games going on simultaneously), she usually joins in, even if it's not for our team or even our game! ;) I had brought her little princess softball for her to play with. She didn't play with it very much, but suddenly towards the end of the game she went looking for it. Once she found it, she brought it over to the fence near home plate and tried to squeeze it through the fence! I think she thought the guys might like using it for their game! :D

Watching the guys in the dugout

Exchanging looks with Daddy

Bedtime for Bret