She Blogs!

If my digital camera wasn't broken, I might never have thought to upload what is certainly the best picture of me and the kids yet taken. Thanks, Pilats!

Noah had his second birthday "party" last weekend. By "party" I mean "excuse for us to spend $75 at Say Cheese." Nathan came! Noah's Birthday Hat did not come to fruition, but he did receive much loot, including a book about a mouse who has difficulty with boundaries and a Tricycle. Also a dump truck that grinds out ear-bleedingly loud derivative songs about how awesome trash is. (Thanks, Ma.) And a cool building set!

I can't believe how big this guy is. He has hundreds of words, some of which strangers can't understand (well, if you can't understand that cobibot means "computer," I don't know what to tell you). He follows (well, understands) sometimes complicated instructions. He provides the color commentary for the extreme sport that is parenting:

"Maia wying." Maia is whining, but it sounds like crying.
"Daddy doppa abogadot." Daddy dropped the avocado on the floor. Mommy cleaned it up.
"I nee ceyal. I nee anodder ceyal." Maia taught me that I don't have to accept your first cereal offer.
"Oh gott." Mommy still says this when no one else is around.

weekup, maimai

My schweetum is getting huge. (That's him serving as Maia's alarm clock, by the way. He's sitting on her head.) He uses sentences:

"Diegot!" Please turn on "Go, Diego, Go!"
"Ammon onna thibault." Perhaps you are confused. The TiVo remote is right here, on the coffee table.
"Eeyago ammon." Accept this remote as a gift. Turn the TV on. Now.

He's been accepted into preschool. He sleeps almost all night, in his own bed. He hasn't nursed since early February. He still name checks the boobies but he's pretty accepting being cut off from the milk bar. When he sees a Starbucks, he asks for a cookie. He knows stuff.

Don't tell anyone, but a baby he is not.

At the same time, though, he's gotten clingier, and also much more affectionate. I get gratuitous hugs and kisses all day, which is pretty awesome.

Meanwhile, our pre-tween, normally the sunniest person in our household -- the rest of us tend to range from subdued to melancholic to choleric -- is becoming a little, um, surly. For her, anyway. She expects a full explanation before following orders. She moves like cold molasses, no matter how late in the morning it is. She's not, well, as credulous as she used to be.

She also can't. stop. reading. This is part of why she's so slow. It's hard to complain about her staggering literacy. She disappears in the bathroom for endless hours. She reads in bed instead of getting up in the morning. She reads on the couch instead of eating breakfast. She reads the cereal box.

I would imagine our parents are feeling a sort of schadenfreude right now.

Duboce Playground
Maia can make a friend in about five minutes. She and this unnamed child (Maia doesn't know her name) sold pretend ice cream, built a fort, hit the swings, and did a bunch of other stuff I didn't see while I was chasing Noah through the foliage. The little girl was so upset when she had to leave Maia for home that she had a tantrum. I sympathize -- Maia is pretty fun. She's sweet and imaginative and athletic and enthusiastic and brilliant and about a million other excellent things.

The sky was blue, the air was cold, and the N Judahs kept cruising by the playground, to Noah's delight. We were supposed to proceed to the aquarium, but the kids didn't want to leave, so I decided to just wing it. It was nice to be outside after a week of rain and bouncing off the walls and ceiling. I'm trying to be Spontaneous Mom instead of Type A Freak Mom. Spontaneous Mom seems to have more fun.

He's not that into you
Noah is not your boyfriend. He's always blowing you off to watch Go, Diego, Go! with the guys (as shown at left. Look at how annoyed he is that you showed up anyway.) When you try to kiss him, he says "no kit." When you bring up the topic of commitment, he says "go bye."

He does have most of the vocabulary necessary to be in a fraternity:

Pi-tAH = "Let's order a pizza."
a-MOH? = "Where's the remote?" (also: Obadeuw = "Over there.")
Neem = "What's your name, baby?"
Gub-UH = "I need a drink."
Pani = "Panties."

If he keeps referring to breasts as "Noni," he's going to have a very lonely adolescence.

Noel Coward

I think Noah is in love with Maia's straw hat because he wants to tilt it at a rakish angle and play a witty little ditty on Gatsby's baby grand in the smoky drawing room full of glittery people. He's not rhyming as well as Cole Porter, but that's only because of the two martinis on the piano (one with olive, one without). Watch out, ladies.