Meanwhile...

Where do kids get this stuff?

At his request, I was telling Boom a story this morning. I think it had something to do with construction machines. But then he broke into the story:

"Meanwhile, some dinosaurs were there and a dragon, and the dinosaurs were mean, and they chomped the dragon..." etc., etc., and then Boom started flying around the house (presumably as a pterodactyl).

I'm copasetic with the dinosaurs and the dragons. But when did he learn to say "meanwhile"?

It happened last night during storytime, too.

Maybe he will do well in high school English class, where I seem to remember they put stress on using transitions in writing.

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Dry Underwear

Today was the day. Tomorrow might be a step back, but today was a step forward.

Just in time for California! And school after that!

Caring

A few posts ago I referenced our Wonderful Caregiver. This is a story about how wonderful she is.

Three times a week I knock off work and hustle on my bike up the hill as fast as I can to be home by 5pm (or very close to it). I greet the kids, and then proceed to find out how the day went, who ate what, find out who napped, and anything else of interest that might have transpired during the day. There is something of language barrier between us, but we can usually communicate the essentials. Another thing that comes through clearly is how dearly our Wonderful Caregiver holds our children...or so I thought.

From time to time, we call her husband to talk about significant changes: payment, vacations, changes in the weekly schedule, etc., the kinds of things about which we want to be absolutely clear. Recently we were talking to him and figured out a minor change -- I'm at home Tuesdays now instead of Mondays, to accommodate the needs of another family that our Wonderful Caregiver works for -- and we came to the end of the discussion. But then her husband told us this:

"Every day I pick her up at the train station, and every day she says a silent prayer before we go. I ask her what she is praying for. She says 'I do not pray for the few hundred dollars I got paid today. I do not pray for a million dollars tomorrow. I just pray for those children to be happy.'"

Wings to Fly

We are prepping for our big trip out to California. Two and a half weeks filled with family and friends! We are excited.

This will be the longest vacation we have taken in quite some time, and our first vacation as a family of four. With four different climates to pack for, times four people, plus two giant car seats, plus one bulky breast pump, plus overhead like bibs and sippy cups, it would be great if out station wagon had wings to fly. But alas, we will schlepp all this stuff through two airports and pray for the children to be tranquil.

The flight leaves the east coast at 7pm, suspiciously close to bed time. I hope the kids can already hear the steady drone of the jet engines, vibrating them to sleep.

Foxtrot, Swing, Cha-cha...those are steps

Ma Chere reported from the front room -- just out of my eyesight -- that the little girl took her first step yesterday.

I queried further. It turns out that the little girl stood up on her own with nothing to grab onto -- which she's been doing for at least a month -- then she moved one foot forward. Then she fell down, twisting, to land on her butt.

I don't think that counts as baby's first steps. For one thing, it wasn't steps, it was only a step. For another, it didn't alternate feet.

It was more like baby's first lurch. Except she's been lurching for months.

It's just a lurch.

But suffice it to say that she's closing in on walking. But she'll have to pick up the pace if she wants to fulfill her mother's prediction and take her first steps before her first birthday. Less than a month to go!