Family

That's my kid!

Here's some homework The Kid (five and a half) did tonight. The assignment was to write a "pattern story", where there's a repeating phrase that changes slightly each time. This was her response.

Overheard at home

The Kid (3 1/2) and Miz Becky are in the bathroom. Miz Becky is voicing a shark doll.

Kid: "Good morning Sharkey! How are you?"

Shark: "Good morning! I'm a little tired."

Kid: "Why are you tired?"

Shark: "Well, I was up all night. I'm nocturnal you know."

Kid: "NO. Mommy. Sharkey is diurnal."

Miz B: (hysterical laughter)

Shark: "OK, then, I'm sleepy because I just woke up."

Kid: "You should have some coffee."

This morning's dialog

The Kid, playing with play-doh, to Miz B: I'm a baker! what do you want?

Miz B: How about a croissant?

The Kid: (sighs) I don't know how to make croissants. 

D: well, at it's heart, a croissant is a simple laminary dough, made with great flour and great butter. All of the leavening comes from the water in the butter turning to steam. All you do is roll it out, fold it over several times, let it rest, and repeat a few times...

The Kid: (rolls her eyes like she's thirteen)

D: Or, um, you could roll the play-doh between your hands and bend the ends in like this.

The Kid: (nods seriously) 

The Kid makes some calls

And now, a message from The Kid

Can't argue with that.

Conversations with the Kid

At lunch today:

The Kid: "I saw giraffe on ceiling!"

DAE: "That's surprising, considering how small their wings are."

The Kid: "Yeah! Oh my goodness!"

The Kid is two, by the way

And I'm already embarrassing her. Today on the drive home from school:

Kid: "I had blueberry snack."

DAE: "Was it yummy?"

Kid: "Yeah. Got blueberry on my blanket."

DAE: "Uh oh."

Kid: "Yeah."

DAE: (bluesy) "Got blueberries on my blanket...
but it still will keep me warm.
Yeah, I got blueberries on my blanket...
but it still will keep me warm.
I tried to protect it, but my blanket came to harm."

Kid: "That silly, daddy. Stop singing."

Baby math

Or, "Dave plays with his wacom tablet".

Happy St. Valentine's Day

... to my two best girls.

Cousin crawling

Squeaky Z is very interested in her cousin's technique.

The first week with The Kid

My first week as a stay at home dad passed relatively easily for two reasons: First, Miz Becky was only planning to work half days anyway, and second, she was sick Tuesday and Wednesday, so I was only alone with the kid half of Thursday and Friday.

I think overall it's going to be easier for me to be home with the kid than it was for Miz Becky. Partially that's because she (the kid, that is, not Miz Becky) is getting progressively more aware and interactive and less binary, sleeping/screaming. Partially it's also because as the dad I don't have the instinctive mommy responses and I don't take it as personally.

One thing that's definitely more difficult is feeding. Whereas Miz Becky only really needs to know the two-to-five-minute warning signs of hunger, I really need to figure out what the twenty minute warning signs are. That's about how long it takes me to get some milk out of the fridge, put it in a bottle, and warm it to the temperature that Herself has come to expect it.

We have a project we'd like your help with. We have five frames we're planning to fill with photos of strong, smart, inspiring women role models for the kid's room, and we're looking for suggestions to add to the list. NOTE that this is not a vote; the final five will be based on our autocratic and capricious choices. However, if you know of someone who should be on the list for consideration, we'd love to hear about her.

Here's the list so far:

Amelia Earhart
Ann Richards
Aretha Franklin
Aung San Suu Kyi
Bessie Smith
Elizabeth Cotton
Georgia O'Keefe
Grace Hopper
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Harriett Tubman
Julia Child
Katherine Hepburn
Margaret Bourke-White
Marie Curie
Martha Graham
Maya Angelou
Meryl Streep
Mother Theresa
Queen Liliu'okalani
Rachel Carson
Rosa Parks
Sojourner Truth
Tina Turner
Ursula K. LeGuin
Vim Wright
Virginia Woolf
Zora Neale Hurston

The cats are nonplussed

Mostly they seem to be wondering where the loud noises are coming from...

She's already learned to keep an eye on mommy and daddy ...

... because Mommy and Daddy are not to be trusted.

One of the best things about the birth, for me, was that we maintained our sense of humor all the way through. We're very silly people, constantly doing schtick or playing little improv games (most of which are undoubtedly entirely unfunny to other people). You may or may not have noticed.

Through the whole birth process, from our birth plan (which caused our OB/GYN to laugh so hard she had to take a moment to compose herself), to the trip to the hospital (Doula: 'OK, turn right here.' DAE: 'Bear right!' Miz Becky: [paws up to the right, little roar]), to little jokes right up to the real pushing, we kept making each other smile.

At first the nurses and doctor were a little nonplussed by this, but eventually they enjoyed it, I think. At least, they were relaxed and silly during the post-birth cleanup and whatnot.

It probably won't surprise any of you that in my top five list of things I'm looking forward to in parenthood is "having another person to do schtick with." And if my own father says he wasn't thinking the same thing before I was born... he's lyin'.