====================================================================== ========================== ======================== ======================== PEBBLES PRESS ======================= ========================== ======================== ====================================================================== ``The Straight Poop on Heather'' 25 June 1996 Vol. 3, No. 1 Editor-in-chief: Heather Contributing Editors: John & Marie Fashion Editor: Aunt Susan ************************************************** ************************************************** *** EXTRA! EXTRA! *** *** READ ALL ABOUT IT! *** *** HEATHER TO HAVE SIBLING! *** ************************************************** ************************************************** -- WELCOME TWINKIE Yep, that's right, we've gone and done it again. We're expecting another baby at the end of the year. (Due to exceptionally poor planning on our part, the due date is December 30. Rick Marsh, who was a New Year's Eve baby, assures me that it's "not too bad.") So far, Heather is *very* excited about the prospect of a baby brother (or baby sister). We'll see what happens when she figures out the true consequences of a new addition. We welcome suggestions for a revised newsletter title to reflect the multiplicity of genius children soon to be members of the desJardins- Park clan. The current working title for the one under construction is "Twinkie." In preparation, we've been talking about the baby, giving her lots of opportunities to see other babies, reading books about siblings, and we finally managed to move her into her big-girl bed. Pretty soon we'll take down the crib, so by the time we set it up again for the baby, hopefully she'll have forgotten that it was hers. Despite being very excited about the big-girl bed (a futon on the floor, with Pooh sheets and comforter she picked out, and bookshelves running along the length of the bed so she can store her stuffed animals and toys), it took a lot of coaxing to get her to actually sleep in it. What finally worked was a bribe, of course -- now we have "special story time" after she goes to bed. Every night we read half a chapter or so from Winnie the Pooh. I don't think she follows the story very well, but she seems to really like it (and often wants to sleep with the book). My parents always read to us after we got in bed, so this is a family tradition I always planned to carry on. -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEATHER! Heather had her 2nd birthday on April 2nd! I had, of course, hoped to get out a timely Birthday Issue, but you know how it is with a 2-year-old... Anyway, Heather just loves this whole birthday concept. All of the kids in her class at day care are around the same age, and many of them have had birthdays over the last few months, so she really has the concept of a birthday party down. Cake, hats, candles, presents the birthday song -- she knew just what to expect, and was VERY excited about the whole thing. For her party, we had a picnic at a playground we like to go to. Pretty much everybody was late, but that was fine, since we had a whole playground to kill time at. Then when the rest of the kids and parents showed up, the older kids dragged Heather off to play with them, so the grownups got to sit on the blankets in the shade and talk. Later, we opened presents, dressed Heather up in her Korean outfit (STILL too big), sang Happy Birthday, blew out candles (with some help from the wind), and ate cake. We finally left around 4, a couple of hours after Heather's usual nap time, and she was INSISTING she didn't want to sleep -- but was sound asleep within a few minutes. -- HEALTH NEWS Speaking of sleep, Heather seems to think she's so grownup that she can skip naps now. Yeah, right. We tell her "Heather, you'll be too crabby if you skip a nap." "No, I won't," she says. "I'm a happy camper!" How can you argue with that? Heather's continued to be healthy and happy (well, healthy anyway :-). She did have an eye infection recently that cleared up, then came back; so we took her to the doctor's office, and found out she had a mild ear infection. We treated that and the eye infection seems to have gone away. -- LETTERS, WE GET LETTERS Bea Fanning writes: > p.s. Do I get a special prize for being the hundredth person added to the > HEATHERNEWS? (I counted...:-) Of course you do! You get a free lifetime subscription! Well, sure, *everybody* gets a free subscription. But yours is a LIFETIME subscription. That means that no matter how tired of reading this silly publication you get, you keep getting it forever... and ever... and ever... Ann Almgren says that the Pebbles Press is > better reading than most books! Wow, thanks. Hey, now, there's an idea. I can sell the book rights to Random House (or maybe serialize it in Parenting magazine -- what do you think, Sharon!) and retire right now! -- BABY TALK Heather really uses sophisticated language now. Not to sound like an overly proud parent, but I think she talks at about the level of a typical 3-year-old. We'll have these long conversations now: "Mommy, come sit over *here* in *this* chair. I'm making you some apple pie." (bustling around her kitchen) "That looks delicious, Heather, what else will you make?" "Umm... I'll make some ice cream! Here, Mommy, have some fruit. (putting plastic fruit on my plate) It's too crowded! Here's another plate. Use this one, Mommy." "Can I have the banana?" "NO! You CAN'T! That's MY banana, Mommy!" But the funny thing is that she still has a tiny little high-pitched voice, so it sounds so CUTE when she says real things. It would be impossible to list even a representative sampling of the way she talks. You really have to see it for yourself. Some particularly outstanding moments: -*-*-*- H (on the changing table): What happened to the pad? It's not here now! Mom: It's in the laundry. After I wash it, I'll put it back. H (thinking...): Okay, it will be back soon. -*-*-*- H: Daniel, help me put my shoes on! Daniel (teacher at day care): I'm busy right now, Heather. Why don't you ask Alex [another toddler] to help? H: No! She's too little! Alex: I help! I not too little! -*-*-*- H (very melodramatically, after dropping a toy accidentally): Oh, NO! Why did I do THAT! -*-*-*- H (the day before her daddy comes back from his trip): I'm a little sad. Mom: Why are you sad? H: Cause my daddy went away for a week. He went in the van [airport shuttle] to Washington D.C. But he'll be back soon. We'll go to the airport tomorrow, and I'll say [with exaggerated arm wave] "HI-I-I, Daddy-o!" then my own daddy will hold me, and then he's not going away any more. -*-*-*- Next time, we're planning to have Heather write the Press herself. I think she'll be about ready by then. -- TRIPS 'N' VISITORS Whew, too many to keep track of. I went to Maryland over Memorial Day weekend and took Heather with me. We visited my family, then I had a few days of meetings, then we flew back to California. It was a real whirlwind trip, but lots of fun. We got to see the whole desJardins family -- we stayed with Grandma, Uncle David came down from Princeton, we visited Steven and helped him clean up his condo (especially Heather; she was LOTS of help), and we saw Aunt Susan for lunch on her way back home after a vacation in Shenandoah. Grandpa was in Japan, but we had just seen him for dinner on one of his drive-by visits to the Bay Area. John's in Washington right now at a conference, so Heather's been missing him a lot. Luckily, we got to see Aunt Barbara, which helped to make up for missing him. She flew in Friday night, and stayed over the weekend to go to a wedding. We all spent Saturday night in the Mark Hopkins (ritzy SF hotel), and had lots of fun bopping around SF Saturday and Sunday. Barbara left last night, John's due back tonight, and tomorrow Penny and Ross come to visit for a few days. Heather's VERY excited about Ross's visit. She says she'll share her toys with him, the highest possible accolade. After they leave, we'll have a few days of quiet, then Uncle David comes to visit over the July 4th weekend. Busy, busy, busy... -- ALL THE POOP THAT'S S*IT TO PRINT This column has really lost its pizzazz since the good old days of Technicolor poops. Well, never fear, baby Twinkie will surely contribute his/her fair share when she/he arrives! Pretty much all there is to do now in this area is daydream about potty training. The other day I asked Heather, "Will you start going peepee and poop in the potty soon?" and she said "ummmm... not yet." -- ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT Ah, temper tantrums. Really, they're no worse or more frequent than when she was 18 months old. We go through weeks with no or very few tantrums, then have a period where it seems she does nothing but whine and throw tantrums on the slightest provocation. I got fed up of having her underfoot while she was tantruming about nothing in particular, and designated a Tantrum Chair that she sits in until she's ready to be done screaming. One thing I'll say for her is that so far, at least, she follows the rules -- after telling her once that she had to stay in the tantrum chair until she was ready for us to take her out, she's never actually tried to climb out. We'll check on her every 5 minutes or so while she's having a tantrum, and ask if she's ready to come out. Usually she just redoubles her howling, and we say "okay, see you in a bit" and go about with our activities. Eventually she sobs "I want to come out" and we take her out and hold her for a while. Her latest cruel parental manipulation is that she'll scream for whichever parent wasn't around when the tantrum started. If she asks me to play with her and I say "in just a minute, as soon as I finish washing the dishes," and she starts howling, and doesn't settle down with a bit more talking and distraction, she's off to the tantrum chair. She then starts yelling "daddy daddy daddy daddy! I want my daddy!" If I go out and ask her if she's ready to get out, she screams even louder and yells "nonononoiwantdaddy!!" -- FASHION She's growing out of all of her 18-month clothes and her size-6 shoes. We actually had to go BUY her some summer pajamas because her aunts and grandma had not properly outfitted her. And we're in danger of running out of pants that fit, though she has plenty of shirts. It's really shocking; you just can't count on shoppers to do their jobs these days. -- STAY TUNED ...for another exciting year of Heatherness!