The Countdown Is On

Dear Cold November,

Your Daddy, your big sister and I can't wait to meet you. We loved seeing your fat little cheeks at the Fetal Assessment yesterday. I don't mean to rush you, but Mama is ready when you are. Whenever you're ready, buddy, use those pointy little elbows and knees and bust yourself on out of there. (And if you're not ready until February 9th, that's okay, too. Dr. Robinson will come in and get you through the emergency exit.)

Love,

Mama

PS - The pictures are me, you and your big sister Tally. You've been cooking in Mama's belly for 37 weeks at this point, and right after these pictures Mama was sent to bedrest until your big arrival.

PPS - I'm not sure what's cookin' in your sister's belly, but we match. I wonder if you're going to be brown like your sister? Will you love boppli? Will you prefer your fur brothers to Mama & Daddy? Only time will tell, I suppose.....

Boppli

Any day now we are going to have to stage an intervention for our darling Talia. I know, I know, you're probably all thinking "What's her addiction? Booze? Pills? Meth?" but the sad truth is we're looking for a 12-step program to help our bottomless pit with her addiction to broccoli.

We've always known she's been a fan of broccoli, since the very first time I steamed it into a soggy mess and cut it up into teeny-tiny bite size pieces for her. Her daycare provider has often told me she has to wait until Talia has eaten the meat & rice off her plate before she's allowed a "dessert" of broccoli, otherwise she'll want a broccoli-only lunch. Last weekend Tally learned how to say broccoli. Well, sort of. She now squeals "Boppli! Boppli!" while furiously signing "please."

I am more than happy to give her what she wants when she asks for fruit or veggies. We like broccoli, too, and usually have it at least once a week anyway, so this is no big deal. But this week our broccoli consumption has gotten out of control. We've had broccoli 3 times for supper, and Talia has taken care of all the leftovers for snacks and dessert on the days that boppli hasn't made an appearance on our supper table. She's asked for it for breakfast almost everyday this week, and for lunch at daycare (although the daycare provider had no idea what she wanted, lol.) She talks about it to her stuffed animals; Grammie can't get a word in edgewise on the phone because her granddaughter keeps rambling on and on about her favourite food.

Breakfast this morning was particularly hard on her:

Talia: signing please repeatedly (after polishing off a big bowl of Cheerios & milk and a dish of applesauce)
Mama: Tally Raine, what else would you like?
Talia: Boppli! Boppli! BOPPLI!!!!!!
Mama: Sorry, honey, we don't have any broccoli. What else would you like?
Talia: (whimpering, signing slowing down) boppleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?
Mama: Pick something else, sweets.
Talia: (sad, but goes back to her standard breakfast top-up) bana? bana?
Mama: You bet! One banana, coming up!! (goes to counter, discovers we are out of bananas) Rats.

That's when Talia decided to have a tantrum for breakfast. Poor bunny. If you would like to participate in our intervention, please prepare a short statement about how Talia's addiction to broccoli is affecting your life.