And The Next American Idol Is ...

... either me or Elsa, I'm pretty sure. Because she is really into singing lately. She requests songs from me almost constantly. "Mommy sing Itsy Bitsy Spider!" "Mommy sing Twinkle Star!" "Mommy sing Froggy Song!" ("Froggy Song" is actually "Pollywog in a Bog" from the Barenaked Ladies kids' CD "Snacktime," which definitely gets two thumbs up from Elsa, in case you were wondering.) Unfortunately, she sometimes asks me to sing while we're out shopping or elsewhere in public, and I hate to subject innocent bystanders to my singing. And she always wants me to sing each song 3 or 4 times in row, which gets a little boring. But other than that, I'm happy to comply with her requests.

And recently, she has actually started to sing as well, which is just about the cutest thing in the whole entire world. And she can even (almost) carry a tune! One day I heard her strumming her toy ukelele from Hawaii and singing "The Hello Song" from our music class (she just sang "Hello to Elsa, glad to see you, hello to Elsa, glad to see you" over and over.) And today for the first time, she sang the entire alphabet song without any help from me. Usually she gets hung up around Q and needs some help there, but she has managed the whole thing entirely by herself a few times.

In other developments, Elsa now knows all the basic colors and shapes, and can usually count up to 12 (although she occasionally confuses 11 with 7). We've hit a questioning phase—lately she asks "What's that?" approximately every 20 seconds. She also sometimes points at random strangers while out in public and screams, "Who's that?" (to my frequent embarrassment). Fortunately we haven't had any "Why?" questions yet, although I'm sure that's just a matter of time. Physically, I still hold her hand going up and down stairs, but she seems pretty comfortable with stairs now and can do small sets of steps by herself.

One of our favorite regular activities this summer has been taking my bike (with bike trailer for Elsa) to the playground at Donges Bay Elementary. Elsa has conquered most of their play equipment, including going down the tallest slide by herself. She desperately wants to climb on the monkey bars, rope ladders, etc., but I steer her away from most of those items. We tried one of the ladders once, and she ended up with a nasty bruise on her shin, so that was the end of that. One thing she's surprisingly good at: The playground's little balance beam (it's only a few inches above the ground). Holding just one of my hands, she automatically put one little foot in front of the other and hardly wobbled at all! (But no, Ellen, that doesn't mean she's going to be a gymnast!)

Also, I think we've finally started to get control of the amount Elsa eats. : ) As many of you know, Elsa was eating huge quantities of food for a while, practically adult-sized portions. Since most parents struggle to get their toddler to eat, doctors and conventional wisdom say to feed your kid as much as she'll eat, at all times. But I think, in Elsa's case, she really was eating more like an adult—she was eating because it was fun and because it tasted good, not because she actually needed all that food. As a result, I now cut her off after she eats a reasonable toddler-sized meal. When she asks for more food, I just say, "How about if you go color/play oustide/watch Dora instead?" She then forgets all about wanting more food, and doesn't act any hungrier than usual later, so I think it's definitely the right strategy for her. I also start every lunch and dinner with a large helping of vegetables, to fill her up a bit before the main course. But recently, when I took her to Noodles & Company for dinner, I decided to experiment—I let her eat as much of her adult-size penne-and-marinara meal as she wanted. She ate all but 5 pieces of penne! Seriously! I couldn't believe it—I mean, some adults can't eat an entire entree from Noodles. And I think she would have eaten those last 5 pieces too, but she had really slowed down at that point, and I didn't want her to end up with a stomachache. Yes, that's my girl—she's got an appetite on her. : )