gothamwingard: February 2013 Report (with videos!)

Coco is still growing fast (I guess I’ll be saying that for about, um, the next 18 years or so . . ..) and her second birthday is just around the corner.

Her favorite games change as she gets a bit older and a bit bigger, and she definitely likes physical play. She loves spending time at the park and she goes just about every day. Just ask her if she wants to go to the park and she’ll say “yes” and go get her coat. At the playground she charges around between the swings and the slides mostly. She’s always been pretty fearless at the playground. Last week Ken took her to the playground at Delores Park which has a really big slide – or at least a slide that should seem really, really big to a two-year-old. She was undaunted and raced up the stairs and down that slide again and again and again and apparently again many times. (Check out the video below.) Our challenge at the park these days is limiting her time on the swing so that other kids can have a turn and reminding her that the slide is not just for her and that she has to take her turn. “Coco’s turn!” is a phrase she knows well.

Indoors she likes playing “choo-choo” around the breakfast room table with Mari. She follows Mari around the table and Mari says, “choochoochoochoo whoo! whoo!” She likes dancing to her Barbie “Swan Lake” video. She doesn’t like dancing alone; she’ll point to a spot on the floor and say “dance” pretty emphatically. She likes Dora the Explorer (of course) and seems to follow along when she watches an episode. She also discovered the art of getting dizzy, spinning around in her room until she gets dizzy enough to fall down. She thinks it’s pretty funny. She likes “chase with daddy” almost every night before dinner. Daddy sits on the floor in the middle of her room, she hands Daddy the stuffed friend of choice for the day, and then she runs in circles around Daddy while Daddy makes her stuffed friend chase her. Sometimes we we go through two or three friends before we’re done.

She is becoming very helpful around the house. (I hope that lasts awhile!) She will help set the table for dinner, carrying her little plate, the napkins and the silverware to the dining room table.

Her words are getting really quite good. She can recite words back almost immediately and pretty clearly. We think she grasps the concept of “two” at this point, or at least is very close to getting it. A few weeks ago we made our first visit to a pre-school. We visited a Spanish immersion school in Noe Valley. We hope they liked us and we might get a spot if one comes open. Although we’re not sure yet, we might like to have Coco in pre-school for two days a week starting this summer.

(In the video with the bubbles at the park, listen for the other dad's comment to his little boy about "doubling up." Pretty funny.)

This is not what it looks like.
It is NOT a toddler in a Cougar oufit watching the Super Bowl
sucking on a lime after taking a tequila shot.
It's only four out of those five things.