Out of the mouths of babes.

This morning Bun was sitting practicing writing the alphabet, singing the song to help herself. She said, "Hey Mom, what's a 'ameno'?" Huh? I ask her to ask again, and oh, of course... LMNOP = L-Ameno-P to her. Reminded me of how I thought it was "Lemon-O-P" when I was her same age.

Boys and Girls are Different

I just killed a spider. I know... I don't like to kill them, but we get bitey ones and if you invade my home, well, you may not live to tell the tale.

Anyway, Carter was DELIGHTED by my smacking the poor arachnid. Giggled with glee, tried to hit its smushed body and squealed when I flicked it away.

Bunny would have just run and hid from the spider.

Squibble Squabbles

Bunny: No Carter, that's mine!
Carter: Cadah! (point at chest)
Bunny: No! (grabs toy, pushes brother away)
Carter: Wan dat! Mo!

So forth until one or both are running to me screaming about the injustices of life.

I hit the trifecta!

Carter is teething, growing AND has a cold. Yippee! The kids have swollen glands, and I do, too. Tomorrow we may get to go get cultures. Another YIPPEE! (Bah.)

They are in relatively good spirits today, so I am not worried really. Mostly I just want to avoid a re-do of last night; Carter woke at 3:30 and stayed up until 5:30.

Me so tired.

Inconceivable!

It's simply impossible that I am going to pick up the Kindergarten registration packet for my baby girl today. She was just learning to walk a day or so ago for goodness sakes.

Future plans

More thinking about the future for Bunny.

She loves ancient Egypt and last night we watched a rerun of the Nova episode about how Rameses I was in a tacky museum in Niagara Falls without anyone realizing it for about 100 years.

Bunny plans to be an egyptologist now. But she only wants to examine the mummies OUTSIDE the 'cargophagus' because when they are inside them it makes her 'feel all squiggly like spiders'. The mummy itself doesn't skeeve her out--the mummy IN a coffin does. I told her I am sure she could work around that. And that we would go to a museum and see real mummies sometime.

Boy do I not like being around mummies. The humanity of them gets me and has since I was 9. Though I far prefer mummies to those godawful 'art' exhibits that involve laquered corpses or thinly cut cross sections of people. *shudder*

More future plans

Bunny has been thinking about the future. She's going to come home every night for dinner even when she's a mommy because she can't use the stove and it's dangerous.

Also, we're both going to be lifeguards together. So we can hang out, but also so if a large man needs saving I can help her.

I don't know where she gets this stuff. :)

It's a matter of perspective

Bunny, Carter and I walk to her school most days unless I have to run an errand with the car, and I usually push them in the BOB. Recently we were walking and Bunny told me she knew how to get to school and would tell me the directions.

Now, it's literally three turns to school, including our street. So I said, sure, tell me what to do.

First she tells me to turn right at the end of our street, which is right. Then she says you turn at the 'star house'. What?? Star house?

I'll be damned. While it is not a place you actually turn, she is right, I always cross the street to be going against traffic on the adjacent street, and the house by where I cross has a blue star on it. I'd never noticed!

Note to self

Do NOT allow Carter to put his finger in your mouth. Unless you like boogers.

He disagrees.

The tree is up, and everytime Carter touches it, he gets a nice "Not for Carter!" from whoever is on the scene. He's really so good about listening, too... but he's starting to disagree. The last two times I said, "Not for Carter," he turned, grinned at me and signed 'more'. He still obeys, but he *really* wants to touch the lights that're blinking at his level.

It's pretty cute.

Is this not?

The sweetest photo? Not that I'm biased.

Dada's a Boob

Apparently Carter has decided my boobs are called "dada". He points authoritatively at them and says that, so it must be.

A Life's Work

I'm nearly done reading A Life's Work, by Rachel Cusk. If I were to begin underlining passages I poifind that speak to me, the whole dang book would be underlined. Which as I recall, negates the whole point highlighting, or underlining.

Must write more on this when I have digested it further. At the moment I'll leave it at this: well worth reading by every mother. And probably not able to be understood by anyone who is not a mother.

Mercury, I have seen you.

Today I got to see Mercury passing the sun. Very cool. In a geeky, astronomy club way. They were lined up at the park when we got there to have a playdate with one of Bun's schoolmates, and I knew what they were up to, but we were late, so we hustled over to the 'big kid' playground. About 2 hrs later I stopped with the kids and we looked at one of those slit viewers. Yup, little black speck to the right edge of a large lit orb. There were a whole slew of telescopes set up, and we also peered through a couple to see it in 'technicolor'. I can't recall exactly why, but the coolest one was red, and it was something about seeing only the hydrogen burning because of a filter. Bunny loved it, and it was the first thing she reported to Daddy upon his arrival home.

We also went to the Mommy and Me day at a mall, which was 'meh'. Bunny got a balloon flower by one of those freaky balloon artists (who you know also like to dress up as clowns [ick]). She also decorated a paper crown. I guess it was better than sitting at home, but not as good as some other things. I'd initially thought about going to The Jungle or Discovery Museum, but with the sky clearing, I wanted to make sure we kept our date with Anna at the park, and those two places take more time, if you're going to 'do it right'.

In other news, Bunny has named her toes. I'm trying very hard to not learn their names.

Civic Duty? Check.

Another election day, and this time I went to the polls. Usually I vote via absentee ballot, because I like to take my time and read the voter info guide while I vote... walk away from it and think about things, etc. But this year I figured, heck, it's on the street adjacent to me, why not just walk there and vote? I strapped Carter on my back and we enjoyed a nice stroll. I did have to rock and sway while I voted to keep Mr Sillymon from squawking too much, but hey, who said democracy was perfect?

Mostly I wanted to vote for Ahnuld and against a few propositions. I was surprised I didn't get to vote for mayor. I guess we 'county' San Jose residents don't get that. WHatever. As long as our esteemed Gonzales is out. Though it is nice to have a mayor who's so well known, it's not so great that it's for corruption, bribery, conspiracy and falsifying records. ;)

Carter at 12 Months

Carter's on the MOVE. I have to chase him constantly. Today I was putting some things into the stroller for a project at Bun's school, and he walked 20 yards down a path, making his way to the back parking lot apparently. He will follow a path anywhere. He also climbs a lot. Right as I type, he's trying to climb onto his work bench he got for his birthday. He really wants to climb to the top of the big kid slide and becomes angry when I don't let him. Yet, he does not like swings very much. I've only recently gotten him to tolerate 2-3 mins in the bucket swings, and I can't swing too fast or he'll become scared. He loves being pushed in the Little Tikes car (coupe or whatever it's called). He loves sorting things, and taking toys out of and putting back into containers.

Verbally, he's not as far along. He is constantly making noises of all kinds, but so far he only says mama, dada, dat (cat), chz (cheese), mimi (milk), niss (nurse), Cahtah (Carter). He's a little confused about who I am. Sometimes he very authoritatively points to me and says "dada!". Hmmm. I am learning a few baby signs and we're integrating those in and trying to nail down that you shake your head only for 'no', not for everything. ;) He likes to make weird noises, too. Trills and clicks with his tongue that make my mouth feel tickly when I try to mimic it (which I guess is why he does it? feels neat?).

He has 7 teeth and is threatening to teeth some more. His 12 mo checkup is next week, a little late to space for his 2nd dose of the flu vaccine.

Personality-wise, he's a neat little guy. Very easy going in general, though he can become angry if I remove him from something he wants to do (like put something in the toilet). Then he'll arch his back, screech, go limp noodle, and if possible, throw himself back and maybe hit his head on something behind him in the process. Poor guy; I just tell him *he* did that and to calm down.

He's very affectionate and loves Bunny, despite her torment. He seems to have a sense of humor for the ridiculous. He loves being chased and tries to entice us to chase him down the hall, and if we do not follow, he will peek around the corner to try and egg us on.

He still gets lots of 'sling' time in Daddy's pouch sling and also will snuggle with Daddy a lot. Me? I'm good for some snuggles, but please make the boob accessible, thanksmuch. In some ways I look forward to weaning so that we can snuggle *for real*.

Happy Birthday... a day early.

Yesterday we had a little halloween party for some playgroup friends and also had Carter's birthday cake cutting. I wanted to do something fancier, but we ended up going out with the DiMicelis to Campbell shops trick or treating and, well, I'm happy we enjoyed ourselves. The cake was yummy, even if it was not something fancy. :)

Carter got into it. :)

Rememberies of a Geisha

Bunny loved the pretty kimonos in Memoirs of a Geisha so much that she decided she wanted to be a 'real Geisha' for Halloween. Mama did her best with the makeup, but discovered that watching a movie and expertly applying makeup are different, haha. But anyway, the point was made.

If at first you don't succeed.

Frog and frog again. It took me four tries to get this 'skull' skull cap to something like what I'd envisioned when I decided I wanted to make it. Couldn't find a pattern, so I graphed the skull from a SnB pattern for sweater--and had to use a different scale alltogether. I learned that you can't get the same straight sides working in rounds that you can on a flat piece, even on the tube part just because the stitches end up staggered, not in a grid. So, I did a straight piece for the skull section, joined it and completed with decreasing rounds. All in all I am happy considering I was making it up as I went along. Paul wants one in his size. :)

Running Commentary

Having a child who's learning to speak means one must--if one desires their child actually learn speech, cadence, etc--have a constant running commentary on one's extremely dull goings on.

I don't simply pour a sippy of milk. No, that would be too efficient. I must explain the sippy comes out of the cupboard empty, but that we go to the fridge and get the big bottle of milk, then put some into the sippy--then put the big bottle back!

It's all well and good, but there are times when you wonder if it's getting in while a nearly 12 month old stares at you. You wonder, "Is he processing this? Is he just thirsty and waiting for me to hand him the damn sippy? Or is he thinking his mama's a bit loony?"

There have been (rare) times that I have caught myself talking to myself, I am so used to the 'color commentary' of my day to day existence. I was in Trader Joe's and asked no one in particular, "What kind of juice should we got today?" I blushed when I realized why someone was looking at me funny. Maybe they thought I had a mouse in my pocket, and that's who 'we' was, haha.

Then there are the times when it pays off. Yesterday was a working day at the co-op preschool, and Heidi watched Carter for me (saint that she is). When I picked him up, she told me he really like a Pooh toy and they played with it for a while, Heidi asking where the nose, eyes, etc were and Carter pointed them out! I guess all that telling him what things are and what I am doing sinks in after all.

Carry on. Carry on, crazy woman who asks invisible people questions in the store.