because i need a reason to smile

The one thing I like about Macs--photobooth! Taken over a year ago, but still they make me laugh.

LB no longer impressed:

meant to be

Tomek and I were in the local grocery store parking lot, wheeling the buggy towards the door, when we saw a young woman coming towards us holding two round watermelons against her chest.

I glanced at Tomek, and tried unsuccessfully not to smile as I whispered "nice--". I cut myself short because the woman was close enough that she might have been able to overhear. And I'm a prude at odd times.

He grinned back and said, "I was just going to say the same thing".

10 minutes in my life

Tom comes out of the bedroom from changing LG's diaper and tells me that LB now says "powder" (as in baby powder... can you see where this is going?), but she says it like "pallow". I've heard her say that, but still my mind lingers on the cuteness of every word she mispronounces... and then my mind switches over--where is she?

On our bed, vigorously shaking "pallow" all over our unmade bed. That is to say she got it on the sheets and the comforter, and probably on the clean laundry.

I don't yell, or say NO or BAD... instead I quietly tell her that powder goes on bum-bums, not beds. Very seriously she looks back at me, only to say "Ya. Pallow. Bed." I repeat the part about powder only going on bum-bums, and she replies: "Ya. Pallow. Bum Bum."

Dang skippy.

Tom says he'll clean it up and I, much relieved, head off to have some microwaved rice for dinner, and try to unwind for 10 seconds while catching up on Dooce. 6 of those seconds go by before LB is clamoring to be UP because Tom apparently got out the "ya-foo" to clean up the "pallow". And so my 10 seconds of peace now includes a toddler in my lap who now wants to share my rice, even though she didn't want HER rice and chicken 5 minutes ago.

We go back to the kitchen where I get my second course: cheese. She's seen Tom with his juice and asks for some. I make her some diluted juice and grab some cheese. She sees this and hands me the cup saying "no" and reaching for the cheese. So I give her my piece of cheese.

Sigh.

Now she's sharing yo-yo with Tom, he's spoon-feeding it to her... and she's insisting not only that the yo-yo be in a bowl ("yo-yo. bowl") before she would have any of it, but also that bowl has to be on the high chair ("yo-yo. down") in front of her. So of course Tom asked her if she wanted the yo-yo brought to her suite... along with her boots.

Gosh darn it

So I was playing Mario Bros on our state-of-the-art Super Nintendo and Luigi died, yet again. LG was sleeping on the couch beside me and LB was sitting on the floor avidly watching the antics of the tiny superhero.

Wrapped up in leaping over little critters and collecting coins, frustrated at having died yet AGAIN, I let out an expletive.

And from in front of me, LB chimed in, "Sit!"

Is she trying to tell me something?

LB received a Dora bowling set from her Gran this past Christmas. It has 6 pins and 2 balls, all foam. Each pin has a different character from the show (which we don't watch) on it. I've tried to teach her how to bowl, but no luck yet as she prefers to either throw the ball overhand or run the pins down with her body.

She's made up her own game, which entails each of us taking a pin and holding it like a bat and then using the pin to whack the ball around the apartment. 99% of the time we play, we use the same pins. She uses either the red Diego pin or the green Boots (a cute little monkey) pin. And she invariably hands me the one with this fellow on it:

Caught

There's only one way to be caught by your kids, isn't there? And I thought it would never happen to us. After all, how hard is it to make sure a door is securely closed and/or locked? But caught we were, just moments after I glanced at the door and the thought flashed through my mind that the little sticky-outy bit has a habit of not catching completely even when it looks like the door is totally shut.. and the door looked totally shut so even if the ringing of my phone moments ago did wake LB up, she wouldn't be able to get into the room while Tomek and I were, uh, engaged.

Wrong.

Well, I was right about one thing. The ringing phone DID wake her up. Normally I hear her come out of her room because she bangs the door open. Didn't hear that this time. Didn't hear our door open either. I only found out LB was up and had caught us when I pulled back from some post-o kissing and Tomek looked to his left, off the side of the bed, and started laughing. I looked over too, and LB was standing there with a what the hell? look on her face. I started laughing, rolled off Tomek and casually covered him in a blanket, while saying hi to LB and asking her if she had a good nap. I wasn't worried about her seeing me naked because we bathe together and during the day she frequently visits me when I go potty. But we've stopped letting her see Tomek completely naked because she was getting a little too curious for comfort--as in, she almost grabbed him a couple of times in the bath.

I suppose it just looked like we were hugging... depending on how long she was standing there. Tomek has a memory of hearing his parents and then asking his dad what he was doing to his mom. (The answer was "giving her a massage".) Even then, I think he was 5, he didn't really believe his dad. I have no such memories.

And I guess I can count us lucky that we were making love the regular way and not orally. I mean, I probably would have reacted in the same manner, laughed and been casual with her. But it would forever remain a VERY awkward memory for me. This memory is just going to make me cringe a little, not a lot.

LB's favourite book

A couple of days ago LB and I had a conversation. It went something like this:

LB: All tall.
Me: We are all tall.
LB: All small.
Me: We are all small.
LB: All ball.
Me: We all play ball.
LB: All wall.
Me: Up on a wall.

Ok, so she should have said "Ball wall" there, but I think you get the picture of just how many times we have read

I wouldn't give up being a parent for anything

I doubt either of these things would have happened if I wasn't a parent.

Last night, I made a car out of cheerios, complete with 4 wheels, 2 axles and a steering wheel. Yes, I'm good. Yes, I was desperate for something to do to keep LB busy.

This morning I was getting dressed and was sitting on the bed sans shirt. LB was standing in front of me, watching, as usual. She touched my bare belly and said baby. :) I told her yes, there's a baby in there, and then she stroked my belly and said cacy (tsa-tsi, in Polish, means nice, or gentle... which is what she says when she strokes anyone's hair or any of her stuffed animals). And as I sat there in awe of my clever LB, she pointed to my (also expanding) left one and repeated baby. I guess in her mind, with all my growing bumps, I'm having triplets.

You know you're a mom when...

... in an attempt to fix your daughter's doll's pacifier, you waste no time in crazy-gluing said pacifier to your right thumb.

Who's next?