blue, blue, blue

The feature of Babs that stops people in their tracks are her intense blue eyes. People will remark on them anywhere. (It helps that our town is primarily latino, thus the blue is less common.) Part of the reason they stand out is her intense, slightly distrustful, stare of most people she doesn't know.

Today in church, a 10-year old boy was surprised by her eyes. "Does she wear colored contacts to get her eyes so blue?" Umm, no.

it's me

While I was working on some primary visual aids today, Kiddo drew some pictures. First she drew herself, then me, then our collection of worms. Knowing her as I do, it was clear which large blob (with ears, arms, feet, eyes, bellybuttons, and clothes for the first time) was me, but I asked her to explain to me how I knew it was me.

"Because you're next to me," she replied. Implied was "who else would be there?" She stuck with this answer every time I asked. I decided it was a good answer, and I'm grateful that's her world view.

bathroom time

Kiddo put herself in the bathroom yesterday while I was feeding Babs and doing some pre-dinner dishes. I just let her read, and take her time, like always. After a while I heard her declare something to me, with some insistence, so I dried off my hands and went to see what was so important.

She was sitting on the porcelain part of the big toilet (she still uses a toddler one), proudly announcing that she was using two potties today. Having recently cleaned the toilet, I was only marginally grossed out, thought in my head, "whatever," exclaimed some sort of neutral comment, and let her be. Since I would like to be done with the small potty, I encourage interaction with the big one. I offered to put her toddler seat on it, she informed me she would "just hold on with my hands." Great.

I went back to dishes and Babs who desperately wanted out of her booster chair. A few moments later I decided to check on Kiddo. She was reclining in the toilet, bottom well in the toilet water (unused, she has a small potty after all).

"ARGH!" I yell. "We do not dip our bottom in the water."

"Oh!" she yells in surprise, obviously not expecting to be caught in the act. I lift her up and start cleaning her off.

"My bottom is wet!" she announces. "Of course it is!" I reply angrily, "You stuck your bottom in the water!" I inform her that the moment her hands are washed, she will be standing in the corner.

At this point Babs has discovered that the bathroom door is open. This excites her, and she heads full speed in. I block her as much as I can and still clean up the other one.

"Oh Babs!" lamented Kiddo as Babs climbed up on the stool in the bathroom to splash in the sink water. "I dipped my bottom and have to stand in the corner! We don't dip our bottoms!"

As I dry Kiddo's hands, and send her off, Babs sees her opportunity and makes a break for the plunger. She got there first.

packing ... again

I finally opened a box to start filling it, in preparation for our move in six weeks, to a currently undisclosed location (it's so secret, we don't even know).

This is how my packing is going:
All subsequent boxes (all three of them) have been equally fascinating. I apparently should have started packing as soon as we arrived. Or just not unpacked. Perhaps we'll use that plan next time.

our little biped

While skyping with Grandma two Sundays ago, Babs decided to try to walk more than one step. She made two. For the next week, she would continue to walk two or three steps to get to me, but that was about all.

This week, she decided it was time to walk for real. (Seeing her friend Mac, who is already an accomplished walker (for a 12 month old) seems to inspire her.) She has been practicing, and is getting relatively proficient, if by proficient you mean can take six consecutive steps.

The reason I declare her a walker is how she responds to falling down. Up until Tuesday, once she fell she would start to crawl. Now when she falls, she gets back on her feet, and walks again. She knows she is a walker, now if only she can get her body to cooperate.

all mine!

Babs is a climber. She climbs on anything short enough to get on. This is the "princess chair" she's claimed. No matter what she's doing, if she sees Kiddo in it, she will stop her activity, make unhappy noises the whole way over, then stand next to the chair, and try to push Kiddo out.

This is similar to what she does if she catches me holding Kiddo. She will come next to us, then slowly edge Kiddo off, until Babs arms are around my neck, head on my shoulder, and Kiddo somewhere else. She's a little possessive, this tiny one. (She also attempts to push my husband off, if his head is on my shoulder.)

The bright side is that Kiddo is more or less oblivious to what Babs is doing. I'm very grateful for that.

day out success

Last year we tried to have an excursion on Memorial Day. With a five week old, and an extraordinarily hot day, it was a bust.

Not to be discouraged, we tried again this year. I decided my family needed to see the Statue of Liberty. It was lots of fun. (It helps that the boat is only about 20 minutes away.) Of course the boat ride was a big success. And running around on the cool grass was also exciting.

The low moment was the random Indian couple who decided that their vacation pictures would not be complete without some cameos of my children, so tried to convince Kiddo to join them, and when that didn't work, took Babs out of my husband's arms so she could be in the shot. Really? Really. Why didn't I think to take a picture? Perhaps because I was too concerned about this weird couple who wanted my children in their photo album. We didn't protest too much because 1) it was just too weird, and we weren't thinking straight, and 2) we could easily outrun them, so it wasn't like the kids were going far. It made the couple very happy.

Here we all are. Thanks other random people for taking just our picture.

Mmm, carrots.


We did it!