Happy Halloween!!!

Elizabeth has become a huge fan of trick-or-treating. Probably has something to do with her complete addiction to candy and chocolate. And she hit the trifecta today. Party at Luchy's in the morning. Trick or treat at Daddy's work in the afternoon (which she's been asking about for over a week). And hitting the neighborhood at night.

Here's our little cowgirl with Mommy who decided to stick it at home and dish out the goods to the kids.


And our little cowgirl again getting ready to hit the block with Elvis.

This was one tired little girl after today. Especially walking our block.

But she learned a new trick at Daddy's office. Daddy's building has 6 floors. After the 1st two, there were only a handful of offices giving out candy. So we went to the 6th floor and worked our way down. The woman in the first office we visited went ga-ga over E's costume (the pony was a pretty big hit). E said "Trick or Treat" took her piece of candy and said "Thank You."

Then the woman says, "Would your horsey like one too?"

E's face absolutely light up. And a light bulb lit up over her head. And I'm not talking figuratively here. A friggin light bulb appeared and lit up over her little head!

"YES!!!"

We go to the next office. And the routine changes:

"Trick or Treat!"
"Oh what a cute little cowgirl. Are you a sheriff? Here you go."
"Thank you." (* pause *) "Can I have one for my horsey?"
"Oh, why sure!"
(* grin *) "Thank you!"

And that's how my little Sweetpea got double the candy at Daddy's office. I'm going to let her negotiate all of my deals from now on.

- Rich

Whassup??!! Genius!

Remember this?



Of course you do. And if you knew Rich (and Ryan) 8 years ago, you know they spent MONTHS screaming whaaaasssssuuupp??!! at each other. Heck, they'd probably still do it today if not separated half a world away. Though it has been supplanted with 'chowda!' which is a story for another day (perhaps during NaBloPoMo when we need old stories to post).

Anyway, yesterday I saw something so genius, that despite my private promise to myself not to get too political on this blog, I had to post.



Frigging GENIUS.* If you know me, you know I value the clever almost over ideology (almost!). And this is clever. SAME actors. Closely hews to original script. Hits ALL the hot buttons - foreclosures, Iraq, stock market, health insurance, global climate change and response to disasters - and CHANGE. Appropriately for each character. And did I mention same actors? Brilliant.

In other political news, you may remember that E early on learned to identify Barack Obama, helped a bit by Gee and me. With a little encouragement from Rich, she got John McCain down, too. Last week, while watching the news, she looked up at the TV and said hey, that's Sarah Palin! She did it again this week. First, we definitely watch too much TV. But believe me, no one in this house has been encouraging her to id Palin. She caught on entirely on her own.

On the one hand, as the mother of a girl in 2008, this is sort of the dream, right? The equality dream? Where it is perfectly normal in her worldview to see women and men and people of color doing perfectly normal things like running for the highest offices in the land. What's normal on TV for her is vastly different than it was for me 30+ years ago, and, yeah, that's a good thing. On the other hand......well, it'll all be over soon.

Joe Biden appears to have made no impression whatsoever.

*Edited to add: Aha. Of course just a little digging turns up the history of this viral video. In another coincidence, Rich, Ryan and I went to see Drumline when it came out. Ryan and me to indulge our inner band geek, of course, and Rich to laugh at us. This guy is a genius.

38

All our birthdays are lined up right in a row, 4 weeks after each other. First Gee in July, then me in August, Sweetpea in September, and Sunday Rich hit the big 38. If all goes as planned, in 4 weeks the new little guy will follow nicely.

However, one of my friends just had her baby 2 weeks early. When I was pregnant with E, a neighbor had an emergency c-section 1 month early, which galvanized us to finish painting the room, buy diapers, get a carseat, etc - just be prepared. We're not so prepared this time around, except that we are since we have so many hand me downs. A box of diapers and a little decluttering and we'd be fine. Still, it's wasn't much comfort to hear the doctor yesterday say I was measuring big. However, I measured big with E all the way through, and she was a week late. 60% of second babies come after the due date.

Anyway! This is supposed to be a birthday post! Happy 38th birthday Rich! If this is the smooth, unblemished, untouched by troubles face of three, I guess 38 shows just a wee bit more living?

Careful What You Do & Say

I've heard the saying that kid's brains are like little sponges, seeking out and absorbing the tiniest increments of knowledge that they can find. I've always been impressed by E's ability to grasp things that we say in her first 3 years of her life. But her ability to use things in context and to remember people/places/things/phrases/concepts and reuse them just amazes me. It used to be that I could track or at least narrow down from where/whom she picked up stuff. Not anymore. I was surprised to hear her create different lyrics to songs but maintain the proper rhythm and rhyme. Could be Mommy, or Daddy, or the #!%@ Backyardigans. In the "not so cute" side of 3, I'm not entirely sure where she learned how to yell "Get out of here!" or "Don't touch me!". Or half the gibberish and screams she makes. Probably some little boy corrupting my darling little girl. I clearly have my work cut out for me.

Then there's what she gets from dear, old (1 yr older to be precise) Dad. Consider this an update on the latest voices I've added to my repertoire. Next post though will not involve voices. Promise.

Grover's my boy. Apparently, I do Grover pretty well. So well, that Sweetpea won't take a bath without talking to Grover. Or get dressed without Grover. Or eat breakfast without Grover. You get the idea. And if Grover is singing a song on the CD that's playing, she has to ask Grover questions. As long as Daddy doesn't sing with Grover. That doesn't make sense.

What's a guy supposed to do when his little girl asks "Can I talk to Grover, pretty please???" I think we all know the answer to that. Besides, Grover is one of my favorite Muppets. I like doing Grover, and Kermit, and, yeah I think I do him pretty well. But, I was a little skeezed out by finding the following site when searching the Web for a decent image to use in this here blog:

Grover's MySpace Page

These social networking sites are clearly out of control.

Maybe I should start a separate blog for Awww Voices, akin to our other site Awww Clutter (shameless plug). I could post the latest voices that I've done. Nah.

The next voice though is a real curiosity. I don't know why, but when giving Sweetpea a bath last week, this song just popped into my head. And I started singing it. With a really bad female, British accent. But that doesn't stop E from asking for it every night now:






Yep. Daddy does Mary Poppins.

More specifically, Daddy sings one verse of "A Spoonful of Sugar" with what will hereafter be referred to as the "worst Julie Andrews impersonation ever." Still, E loves it and asks for the song by name. It took her awhile to be able to say Mary Poppins ("What's your name again?"), but she seems to have the hang of it now. And she doesn't seem to mind that I don't sound very proper, British, or female. Don't you just love kids? We'll see how she feels after seeing the movie in a couple years. Those chimney sweeps are too freaky for a 3-yr old. Though, I probably do a much better cockney Dick van Dyke.

And, thankfully, it does not appear that Mary Poppins has a MySpace page. I don't have the courage to check Facebook though.

Oh, and to Thrift Store Mama, all I can say is, "You had your chance to make your requests!"

- Rich

Wordless Wednesday

Secretly related?

Another catch-up post. A week or so before E's birthday, so mid-ish September, we had our friends Avery and Kim over for dinner. Now, A and K live in the same city as we do. And we haven't seen them in, oh, 3 years. Yes. Terrible. Life is too busy sometimes. It was so nice to see them and catch up. And Sweetpea was quite captivated and charmed by our friends. I think the feeling was mutual.

But seriously, when you're pregnant you spend some time thinking about what your child might look like. R and I, with our dark hair (shutup, I gotta cover the gray somehow) and hazel eyes, never, ever in our wildest dreams predicted a blond curly head of hair with blue eyes. The fair skin was a given, though. Yeah, it's just true Sweetpea looks far more like Avery.




- Susan

Boston

Catching up on older news -

The end of September (two weeks ago!) we flew to Boston for a mini-break, because I had a job interview (job based in DC, representing an organization based in Boston). We had some unused vouchers from a trip we had to cancel, so R and E came along for the fun.

First, let's touch on E's bladder control. These are the posts she'll hate us for in the years to come. We had an early morning flight Sunday, so I got her up and dressed and we drove to the airport with her half asleep. Tried to get her to use the potty at the airport, only to be reminded that automatic toilets in large, echoing bathrooms freak her the heck out - too loud! Fly to NY, again suggested/pressed potty, no luck - over the course of the hour-long layover. Tried potty in plane. No way. Potty in Boston airport - not happening. After shuttle bus to the T, waiting on platform, E announces she had to go. Yikes! But she stayed strong for the next thirty minutes until we got to the hotel. Wow. This is not good - overnight til noon! - but at least we made it.

So we walked around Boston and she kept saying, when are we going to Boston? And we'd say, we're here! We're in Boston! And she'd look around, frown, and say, no, this is my city.

It wasn't until we hit the Make Way for Ducklings statues on the second day that she believed we were someplace else.

Three

Thanks to a friend, we've not been posting because we both want to post something meaningful and special and celebratory and consequential to mark E's third birthday. Since we did a bad job on the baby book, and only started the blog now, and have missed all those monthly milestone-y posts, we've put ourselves on the hook for an impossibly tall order. We need to just post.

Last year before her birthday, I suggested we each (or jointly) write her a letter outlining the top ten things about her. I wanted to put as one of them how when she really, really meant no, she said NOT! instead. NOT! was the super-emphatic version of no in her mind. For a host of reasons, no letter or blog last year. This year it's "not yet!" which she says constantly. Time for dinner - not yet! Time for bath - not yet!

So now we're at three, and just two months away from her losing her only child status. We've had a fun ride so far, and given how attached she is to her babies, I predict it's only going to get more fun.

The face of three