Freyja's Child

Absolute cuteness.

The range of songs and rhymes this child has memorized is completely amazing.

Just off the top of my head, she knows the Alphabet Song, She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain, Hey Diddle Diddle, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, I've Been Working on the Railroad, Happy Birthday, Jingle Bells, Rock-A-Bye Baby, Hickory Dickory Dock, To Market -To Market, Pat-a-Cake, Polly Put the Kettle On, Humpty Dumpty, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, Little Boy Blue, Jack and Jill, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Old McDonald, I'm a Little Teapot, Three Little Kittens, The Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, If You're Happy and You Know It, Here We Go Round the Muberry Bush, Pop Goes the Weasel...

And the she can actually carry a tune. It's cute.

I know this is the result of singing to Freyja since she was born...and reading to her daily. Now that she knows so many of the songs that she just listened to for so long, we sing together. Sometimes Freyja busts out her little play piano, shakers, or horn.

Singing, in turn, helps her to learn language, and along with experimenting with instruments, it develops her sense of rhythm.

The newest song we sing together is My Favorite Things...the Rodgers and Hammerstein song from The Sound of Music. I picked up a beautifully illustrated paperback with the lyrics scattered throughout the pages and the sheet music in the back at a thrift store for 25 cents, and its been worth every penny. She doesn't know all the words yet, but I hear her singing little parts here and there while she's playing or dancing around...

On the 15th, Freyja and I drove to spend two weeks with Cyrus!

Up until this point, Freyja and I have travelled on four domestic flights and an international flight, and taken a couple of successful car trips which were less than 3 hours each direction...but I have to admit that I was completely freaking out over a solo 10 1/2 hour drive with a 2 year old. I thought this could be too long...that I'd have a disaster on my hands, and I'd be all alone...but she was great! She hung out in her carseat, snuggled in a blanket, reading books, singing, and playing with toys until her bedtime, and then she slept through the night while I drove...and drove. My daughter is such a great little traveller. I'm so lucky...

We did a lot of fun things during our stay, including a trip to the Harvest Farm and Pumpkin Patch! They had all sorts of great stuff! Freyja had a good time on the hayrack ride and picking our own pumpkins, being pulled around in a wagon, visiting the petting zoo, going down the giant slide suspended from the barn with her mama, playing with the old-fashioned water pumps, crawling around in the sandbox, and watching someone launch pumpkins from a cannon!

Here are some highlights:

The Freyja-sized pumpkin Cyrus picked out, just for her.

"It's a big pumpkin, Mommy!"

This photo is hilarious!

Petting the bunnies...

Playing in the sandbox..

Eating some warm fall goodies: A bratwurst (and they didn't have sauerkraut, can you believe that?), a cabbage roll, a pumpkin muffin, and hot apple cider...

This was the first year since Freyja's birth that I decided we should carve pumpkins. I thought she might be old enough, at least in some small way, to have fun and watch while we did it. She was so excited by the whole thing that she was running all over the room, trying to crawl up on the table, jamming raw pumpkin into her mouth, spilling pumpkin shavings all over the place, and grabbing at all the knives and spoons we had out to scoop and carve the pumpkins. After we cleared all the sharp objects out of reach, it was pretty hilarious to see her so hyper over it all!

I didn't think she would put her hand into the pumpkin, but Cyrus has this way of convincing Freyja that things are "cool" so she'll try them, and after she'd decided that this whole thing was fun and exciting stuff, she jammed her hand right in and started pulling out the pumpkin guts...

...although I think he meant for those pumpkin guts to go in the trash can, rather than in his hand! She looks so proud of herself...like "Aaaaah! It's so gross!"

And here are our finished pumpkins:

Lights on!

Lights off!

We drove back home to Illinois just in time for trick-or-treating on the 30th. There are many different places here for children to celebrate Halloween, but we like the event sponsored by the city of Normal in it's uptown outside business area the best. All the merchants wear costumes and give out candy, the pizza place and the mexican restaurant provide free food, and the kids all parade around in their costumes in the cool fall weather and have fun.

This year Freyja went as Minnie Mouse. She just happened to have this red and black polka dot skirt in her closet, and I made her ears and her candy bag. The pearls actually belonged to my grandmother! I bet she would laugh if she knew they were used as part of a Halloween costume...

Normally I take Freyja out into the neighborhood on the 31st for door-to-door trick-or-treating, but this year I decided to take her to a Halloween event at the mall instead. Never again! Too many overstimulated children in one small, hot, loud, enclosed space. I prefer the fresh air and more room for running around...plus, I think it's fun to see the decorations on everyone's house!

These photos are from both nights of festivities...