The beginning of the end?

So last week our girl turned two. Rumored to be "terrible," you know.

She has been doing a bit of ... testing lately. Things like:

• Thinking that diaper changes are optional. Combining that thought with protests and flailing when said diaper change time is announced.
• Deciding, that even though she varies between one and two naps a day, that she doesn't NEED naps anymore. No matter how many times Mommy notices signs of tiredness, changes her diaper, reads her a couple of stories, and puts her in her crib, THERE WILL BE NO NAPPING! So sayeth the girl. (Granted, not everyday, but it's been a bit of a problem lately.)
• Figuring out that hugging Mommy is a sign of affection; whacking your head into hers is not.
• Switching from a girl who LOVES to eat in general, and who is happily acquainted with such not-usually-toddler-fare items as black olives, Camembert cheese, pesto, and olive tapenade to a girl would ONLY like black olives, Camembert, pesto, and tapenade. Oh, and french fries. Guess she's still a kid and not a restaurant critic after all. (In fact, she's snacking on some frozen peas at the moment while I'm writing this, and said, just now, "More bwack owives, peese." Should I be worried she's reading my mind?)
• Throwing something with which she's frustrated, and before it even hits the ground, shaking her little head and saying solemnly, "Don't frow srings."

Today has been one of those no-nap-however-many-times-Mommy-puts-her-down days. And Mr. Kluges has been sourced out to Limerick to work on a big project this week, and is staying overnight up there tonight and Thursday night to cut down on driving. So now that it's after 5pm, I've got the joyful task of trying to keep an exhausted girl UP through supper and a bath so that she doesn't fall asleep too early and wake up after an hour. Of course, this is after spending a fair amount of the day trying to convince her to sleep.

Oh well, there's always this...

And it's mine, all mine!

Slainte, you know.

Mmmm.... Camembert!

Oh, I wanted to let y'all know it wasn't a fluke or one time chance thing. Our girl does know, recognize, and love camembert cheese. If you're a regular blog reader, you know she developed a taste for it in June when we were in Paris (Ah, Paris! *sigh*) and called it by name there. (Well, we considered "Camma! Camma!" combined with a definitely reaching toward it as close enough to count.)

Yesterday I was shopping at a bigger grocery store than our local one and found the same brand we'd gotten in France (President), so I picked it up. Once we got home and I was putting away the groceries, we decided to test her to see if she remembered.

Mr. Kluges: Pumpkin, what's this? (Holding up the round wooden box-thing of cheese.)
Pumpkin: Cheese.
Me: What kind of cheese, hon?
Pumpkin: Camma. Want! Please.

Pumpkin and her food, a love story

Since Pumpkin started eating solid foods, and got to the point where we weren't stressing out about introducing too many new foods too soon, we've been exposing Pumpkin to a wide variety of edibles. And she loves so many we never would have expected. I know I've told you all before about how she L-O-V-E-S Camembert cheese, black olives, olive tapenade, goat cheese, and, as of today, black licorice. Mr. Kluges even gave her Clonakilty black pudding yesterday that she ate right up. (Stick with me, AKJ... I know those aren't on your list of favorite foods!) Outside, she'll munch away on Daddy's chives, or sage, or a nasturtium flower. Now she does and has turned up her nose at things, sometimes for a while, sometimes apparently for long term, but it's remarkable how broad the spectrum is of foods she enjoys.

So, now we've started to let her "help" us cook. Harder to do when dealing with hot stuff on the stove, but she loves stirring, pouring, and watching Mommy measure when I'm baking. I figure she's entertained, I get some baking done, we all get something yummy to eat, and she is learning about cooking. (And maybe once she's like 4 or so, I can get her to make the banana bread all by herself. Yeah!)

And this weekend she got to help Daddy with this:

Diggin' taters.

Yup, this spring we had some potatoes go sprouting, so Mr. Kluges cut them up and planted them at the edge of the grass/compost heap. We ignored them the whole summer, but when I was mowing this weekend I saw that frost (or the potato blight!) had come through and the plants were dead. So, Mr. Kluges and Pumpkin dug those taters and much fun was had by all!

There's a proper little Irish girl helpin' her daddy dig potatoes!