Carmenisms

I love the funny little things Carmen does.

For example, we have this smoke detector in our bedroom right by the bathroom door.  If someone takes a hot shower and doesn't close the door, the steam sets off the alarm.  My sister, Marissa, is notorious for setting off the fire alarms once every time she visits and spends the night.  Often times, it's about 30 minutes after Carmen goes down for a nap, and we feel SO BAD we've woken her up.  Sometimes, Mark sets off the alarm in the morning when he gets back from the gym.  The cats might push the door open or he might forget to turn the fan on, so when he opens the door to leave the bathroom, all of the steam escapes and our house starts beeping loudly at 7:15. O_o;

You'd think all of these rude awakenings would cause Carmen to have a fear of smoke detectors and the sound of the fire alarm.  Strangely enough, she doesn't seem to mind it (even though it drives me crazy!)  Lately, when Mark's putting Carmen through her bedtime routine, she'll look up at the ceiling and point to one of the alarms and go, "Beep!"  Mark says, "Oh, are you looking at the alarm up there?" and she goes, "Uh-huh.  Beep!"

It's a beep!  So cute!  Not a, "ZOMG THAT THING IS SO NOISY IT WAKES ME UP IN THE MIDDLE OF NAPS AND SCARES THE CRAP OUT OF ME!"  Phew.  One potential psychological bullet dodged!!

Carmen developed a rash on her stomach a few weeks ago.  The doctors couldn't figure out what it was, but they prescribed me this antibiotic ointment that seemed to help clear it up.  Carmen was terrified at the doctor's office because she KNEW she only goes to the doctor's to get shots (why else go to the doctor when your kid is perfectly healthy all the time?) ... and it was hard to convince her that we WEREN'T going to hurt her that time.  Poor girl.  But one thing she loves about the pediatrician's office is their aquarium.  She loves to watch the fishies, and the SADDEST part about going to the doctor is not getting the shots - it's the having to say goodbye to the fishies.  ("FEESHIES! FEEEEEESSSHHIIIESSSS!!!")

Back to the rash.  Carmen's been really good about letting me put the medicine on her.  She calls it "Memmin."  I put it on her in the morning when I change her diaper and in the evening when I put her pajamas on.  It goes a little bit onto her back, too, so when I need her to stand up, she stands up and turns around for me.  It's so sweet how helpful and obedient she is! <3  She then likes to take the little tube and pretend she's putting the medicine on herself.  "Memmine." she says.  "Ouchies."


Remember how she calls fingernail polish "candy"?  Turns out it's definitely her word for fingernail polish, not just the fact that the shiny colors makes your nails look like Jolly Ranchers.  I put clear sparkle polish on my nails the other day for the heck of it, and no less than 2 seconds after I finished, Carmen grabbed my hands, touched the sparkles, and cheered, "Candy!!  Hannals!"  (She's learned the word for "fingernails" and it sounds a lot like "hang nails".)


Some of her favorite things to do these days are to color (either with real crayons on paper or with this free "Doodle Kids" iPod app) and ... well ... play pretend.  It doesn't matter if it's with her play kitchen, a play phone, a real phone, an iPod, a baby, her little doll stroller, her big (umbrella) stroller, or someone's shoes ....... she's really creative!  It's fun hearing her sit and chat away about how excited she is about her kitchen, or taking her baby for a walk, or wrapping her baby in a blanket ... and it doesn't matter whether the baby is a doll or a stuffed animal.  I'm sure I could convince her a crayon was a baby if I wrapped it in a toilet paper blanket for her.  IT'S AWESOME.

Speaking of toilet paper ... she does this funny thing where she rips up toilet paper or tissues into little pieces and wipes her nose with them.  It's winter - kids get runny noses.  The other day, we were at Mark's work and she was stuffing the tissue pieces up her nose.  I heard her inhale through her nose and gasp a little bit.  "Oh!  Stuck!" she gasped.  I laughed and said, "Yup, you've got that stuck up your nose!  You probably don't want to put stuff up there!" and helped her pull the tissues out.  She looked at me and said, "Yes!  Stuck!!"

It will be less funny when they're frozen peas.